Wow. So both Front Mission and Parasite Eve are based of novels? That's new for me.
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Why has Square never bothered with Front Mission outside Japan?
- Thread starter sfortunato
- Start date
OP
OP
That confused me... So, what are that writer problem that he required to translate the books of FM?
The series is one of the most personal ever made in the history in gaming, even more so than Metal Gear. In this case it was Toshiro's Tsuchida baby. He envisioned it as a 5-part series and managed to conclude it magnificently.
It's a shame the fan project to translate 2 was dropped, but I can understand why, the series has never been popular in the West even between the SRPG crowd.
It's a shame the fan project to translate 2 was dropped, but I can understand why, the series has never been popular in the West even between the SRPG crowd.
Wow, didn't know that!
What happened with Evolved? Is that what you called Evolution?
I believe it's just S-E not wanting to renew rights for 3rd Birthday yeah (that and wanting to be separated from the other games, both as a reboot and in terms of marketing).
Yeah, my brain derped on that title, because no one talks about it. It's as dead to the fanbase as Stargate Infinity is to the Stargate fans.
It didn't do too well, so that probably exacerbated existing problems and/or caused the current situation.
Every product of Front Mission is to my knowledge set on the same universe, they all contribute to the same continuity and strives to achieve a bigger picture of the world of Front Mission. The whole IP was focused on being transmedia by telling stories through books, manga, movies, radio dramas, etc. I believe he wanted the full treatment of the franchise overseas.
I'm currently playing Front Mission 3 on my Vita and while the game is pretty good, it didn't click with me yet. Same thing happened back when the PS1 version released, I played for a couple hours and then forgot about the game. Lent it to a few friends who all have beaten the game. I was the only one who didn't. I don't know why it doesn't click... Maybe it's because the game only gives you 4 characters on a map?
Where did you hear all this? These are some pretty big claims.
OP
OP
Toshiro Tsuchida created Front Mission and Arc the Lad. When he officially joined Squaresoft, the Arc the Lad games fell apart because Sony couldn't find a good team to continue it. When he left Square Enix after FFXIII, the Front Mission series no longer had a producer to champion it for long either. No real mystery to it.
OP
OP
I think it was a gaming podcast that came out around the time Left Alive was revealed. I want to say it was Super Best Friendcast - one of the hosts is very into Front Mission and explained the situation more or less in those terms, but I'm not 100% sure I remembered everything correctly.
It might be this episode of the podcast at some point (since there aren't any time stamps):
http://traffic.libsyn.com/superbestfriendcast/SBFC216.mp3?dest-id=156363
Yes, he does mobile games now at GREE. He is also involved in the upcoming Arc the Lad mobile project by Forwardworks. Sorry if it isn't good news for you. :(
OP
OP
It's not good because probably those games won't be localized.
Wow, I haven't thought about Front Mission since I played it on the PSOne back in the day but I remember really really enjoying it. Might have to dust everything off and give it another spin when I get some time. Upsetting to hear that the creator's newer work probably won't ever localize for English speaking countries now.
I live in the false hope that because Romancing SaGa 2 got re-released Square would do the same for FM2 and FM5 to coincide with the upcoming Left Alive (which is a spin off game, when it comes down to it).
Still bugs me when people argue that "Square tried" when they only released FM3 in Europe and never bothered with FM1 and FM4 outside NA and Asia...
It's okay, these are the same people who live in the fantasy land where they think the likes of Chrono would sell so much more than FM when it would bomb just as badly in reality.
Still bugs me when people argue that "Square tried" when they only released FM3 in Europe and never bothered with FM1 and FM4 outside NA and Asia...
It's okay, these are the same people who live in the fantasy land where they think the likes of Chrono would sell so much more than FM when it would bomb just as badly in reality.
OP
OP
I listened to it and it doesn't seem talk about that specifically.
Wow, didn't know about this. So there's no Parasite Eve probably because of licensing issues.
I played FM on DS, thought it was ok, and wasn't expecting much when I started 2. It was incredible. I've played all of them now, but 2 is by far my favorite.
I think there was a fan translation, but from the what i saw, it seemed a bit off.
I think there was a fan translation, but from the what i saw, it seemed a bit off.
I want to play FM5 the most but I know the payoff will be there when I'll get there working my way up
I generally hate SRPGs so I skipped the entire series just to play 5 as it was the newest lol. I'm sure it'll be worth the wait for you though.
I also skip every story sequence in basically every game so whether or not I got the most out of the plot was irrelevant to me
Maybe this'll be one of the mid-tier series SE brings back since they said they think the Switch would be an ideal place to bring back mid-tier series.
Good thinking.
The World Ends with You is coming back, so why not Front Mission ?
I mean, it is coming back, but as an AAA third person shooter which looks like it really wants to be MGSV with mechs.
I know next to nothing about Front Mission despite loving all things mech. Wish there was an easy way to go back and play the series. The stuff with the writer sounds crazy.
By coming back I had something else in mind, like a compilation for instance.
Left Alive seems interesting though and I'll most likely play it.
Love this franchise too. I beat 3 once on PS1 as a kid (Emma story?) and grabbed it again on PSN, YEARS AGO as my first psn title but never went back to it lol. Have it on my vita too, might make it my next vita title. Only got maybe half way through 4, but the story itself and some of the decisions in the combat made it not hook. Only played about 3 hours of 5 and boy that was great. It's definitely on my "to play list" Also made it a good way through the first on DS before retiring my DS sadly.
It's a great series that definitely deserves a chance if your into the aesthetics or genre.
It's a great series that definitely deserves a chance if your into the aesthetics or genre.
I think it will depend on how Left Alive is coming along and how well received it is when marketing goes full force for it. If S-E had no plans at all to take advantage of the Front Mission brand, this wouldn't be a sequel in the same world. Since it is, hopefully they'll look into legacy titles as well. It might sound totally logical to say putting a small team together to make new SRPG entries in the series for other platforms like mobile and Switch is a no brainer, but then........ we still don't have a new FFT game.... :/
I feel like last gen was full of bad and failed attempts at re-inventing long running Japanese franchises. Most of them handled by western developers, including Front Mission Evolved, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and Ridge Racer Unbounded. For the first time, western developers started to overtake the Japanese in terms of popularity on consoles. I think there was a lot of pressure on Japanese companies to adapt, leading to a lot of bad decisions being made.
Are you saying this based on visuals or they really expressed that ? I'm kinda impressed that they would gamble like that, even if it's just tangentially related to FM.
Yeah, I hope LA will be a quality game that sells well ! A new FFT would be very sweet too, I'm with you on that :)
Square even re-released Front Mission 2 in 2005 with quality of life improvements. I was shocked to see the Square-Enix logo on a PS1 game. They definitely should translate them overseas.
I love the series, I'm working my way through 2 now and it's shocking that the main character is a Bengali. You also spend a huge time in the game with a team that is only comprised women and talks about something that aren't men. And the plot is actually far above the first game. Front Mission 2 did things that games didn't even touch with a 10-foot pole for years.
And look at that aesthetic ! Come on, bring it back Square !
Damn, that character art is amazing.
The narrative elements sound really progressive even these days. I've heard the name for a long time, but didn't really know much about it. I'm going to have to try to grab Front Mission 1.
I loved the ones we got in the US, wish we had gotten more of them localized. Super fun games.
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Square even re-released Front Mission 2 in 2005 with quality of life improvements. I was shocked to see the Square-Enix logo on a PS1 game. They definitely should translate them overseas.
I love the series, I'm working my way through 2 now and it's shocking that the main character is a Bengali. You also spend a huge time in the game with a team that is only comprised women and talks about something that aren't men. And the plot is actually far above the first game. Front Mission 2 did things that games didn't even touch with a 10-foot pole for years.
And look at that aesthetic ! Come on, bring it back Square !
Soooo good.
I suppose HD remasters are out of the picture?
Some people are saying it failed because of the SRPG elements, and honestly it is hard to think of many successful SRPG's in the west. There is Fire Emblem I guess, but nothing else touches FE's numbers and SE probably budgets about the same amount for their franchises or more than Nintendo. Without waifu's, Front Mission could never reach Fire Emblem numbers, and wouldn't survive on Disgaea type sales numbers.
Bleh. Hopefully Left Alive has a sensible plot and can be a good spiritual successor.
Some people are saying it failed because of the SRPG elements, and honestly it is hard to think of many successful SRPG's in the west. There is Fire Emblem I guess, but nothing else touches FE's numbers and SE probably budgets about the same amount for their franchises or more than Nintendo. Without waifu's, Front Mission could never reach Fire Emblem numbers, and wouldn't survive on Disgaea type sales numbers.
Bleh. Hopefully Left Alive has a sensible plot and can be a good spiritual successor.
Just want to shout out Front Mission Alternative, which was a neat little spin-off on PS1. One of my first imported games at the time.