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Post by Sarge on Mar 1, 2020 18:49:53 GMT -5
Ugh, I had to give up on trying to kill the second mech in the last trial (mission 12). They give you a pitifully overmatched mech to take out some heavy duty bad boys. The best times you'll have is if you can somehow get them running from you and keep peppering them from behind. Even then, it's hard to take two of them down that way. I decided to just accept the single rank up and move on.
That should put me at 3/4 done. Four more missions to go! Hopefully the next few won't be so bad. I've picked up on some other interesting little tradeoffs regarding weapons, too. You've got ER Lasers and Pulse Lasers. ER Lasers have more range, same damage, and slightly more heat production, and weigh a bit less. Pulse, of course, generates less heat, but also weigh more... enough to make it more worthwhile to use ER Lasers and just beef up more on heat sinks.
Also, I tried PPCs finally, and I think I like 'em. If you can score a few hits from range (a lot of mechs at distance come at you straight-line), you can really soften them up. Plus, they have a high chance of critical hits, so very useful indeed.
EDIT: Two missions to go. One took me a whole load of time to get down, and I had to learn to use my Star Mates. Commanding them to take on stragglers while I engaged other enemies coming at the airbase helped a lot. I came close a few times, but also had some missions end almost immediately, as apparently a missile salvo or two is all it takes to destroy the tower. I hate defense missions. And the last mission, I didn't change my loadout, got to the last mech (a lowly Kitfox), and he managed to take out my last weapon just as I disabled him. Wheeeeeeee. Oh well, came back in and wrecked them this time.
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Post by Xeogred on Mar 1, 2020 22:28:03 GMT -5
Put two hours into Front Mission 3 today. I am playing the Alisa campaign, which is apparently both faster paced and harder than Emma's (-> which seems to be the one most people play). I'm up for the challenge and whenever I look up "Emma vs Alisa" I also often see people say they think Alisa's campaign is the more serious traditional FM story, while Emma has more filler. Can't find the numbers again but I think Emma's campaign has like a dozen more missions. They both still sound like 30 hours each though. I don't plan on playing both, at least right now. Maybe I'll get back to Emma's another time. Alisa is a Missiler so I already love the choice I made. I guess Emma is melee. So far it's excellent. In the last battle I did, I lost the main character's "Body" unit though, which eliminates the mecha entirely. Yet the battle continued and I didn't suffer any consequences, having to pay for the repairs. Yet? The game is still kind of gating me through tutorials, the network shop is open now, so maybe I'll have to pay for the damage eventually. Like in Front Mission DS.
It's 1999-2000 Square Soft and the presentation is definitely impressive. The faux internet "Network" is pretty fun to navigate and read into. The menu backgrounds are super sexy. OST is excellent. And the graphics are better than I predicted, but I wasn't too surprised when I saw it was a late PSX Square Soft title. There's a lot of in game cutscenes and zoomed in parts which is cool, since that's kind of a rarity in some grid based SRPG's.
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Post by Ex on Mar 2, 2020 0:43:08 GMT -5
XeogredNice to see you playing more Front Mission. I personally have only finished Emma's campaign. I have always meant to go back and do Alisa's. I've got FM3 installed on one of my PSPs at least. I liked FM3 a lot, but it really is very easy compared to FM4 and FM5. That said, I like how in FM3 you can cause enemy pilots to eject, and then kill the ejected enemy pilot. IIRC you can then eject yourself, and then steal that now empty wanzer. I think if you do that, you can obtain that wanzer as a mission spoil. Or it might be if you just kill the ejected pilot, their empty wanzer goes to your spoils. I don't remember exactly, as it's been a long time since I beat FM3. Unfortunately FM4 and FM5 got rid of the whole ejected pilot stuff, but they have their own unique functionalities. Looking forward to your final verdict of FM3. - Well tonight in Chromehounds I finished the Defender RT scenario. Which was a series of defensive missions, where you either defended your base, or escorted units. I hate escort missions, so of course I did not enjoy doing those. It always sucks when the units you are escorting get killed, because they blunder along not taking cover, while you desperately try to act as a shield for them. But anyway, got it done. The next scenario is the Scout RT. Can't say I'm a fan of the Scout RT missions at all. Mainly because in some missions you have to draw enemies into ambushes - meaning YOU are the bait. And of course your HOUND unit is a fast but weak butterfly that can be shredded in no time. But I still managed to finish half the Scout RT missions before calling it a night. Yeah the Defender RT and Scout RT scenarios are not my thing at all. However, the fifth scenario is Heavy Unit RT, and the sixth is Commander RT. Now those sound more my style. I still haven't been able to find out what the HOUND acronym stands for. Looked in the manual. Looked in the in-game data files. Looked around the internet. WHO KNOWS
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Post by Xeogred on Mar 2, 2020 8:37:20 GMT -5
Ex : The only problem with the ejection thing is that Ryogo's done it on his own a few times in one battle, which was also giving up his turn. I'm guessing the characters maybe panic from the damage they take or something, no clue. That's cool to know I can steal other units though, since I've seen some enemies eject. "Surrendering" is also new to me compared to the DS original. I guess enemies will enter some kind of surrendering state sometimes, but then every turn it'll say "Checking Morale", so maybe they can snap back out of it. But attacking an enemy in this state will make them truly surrender and then you get that unit. I got two so far from one battle. You always say FM3 is easy yet I hear Alisa's campaign is harder, so it'll be interesting to see how that goes.
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Post by Ex on Mar 2, 2020 9:57:12 GMT -5
You always say FM3 is easy Well it's not just me saying that. The general consensus of series fans is that FM3 is the simplest/easiest entry in the entire franchise. (That doesn't mean FM3 isn't good mind!) From the HG101 articles about the FM series: "Front Mission 3 is a regression of its predecessors' (FM1/FM2) strategic depth and opts for simplicity. Missions have been greatly reduced in scale; battlefields are much smaller, players can only use four units max, and enemy numbers hover around eight at most. Front Mission 3 is arguably the most player-friendly entry in the series. There are not a lot of things to keep track of, and the difficulty is noticeably lower than the previous entries."However FM4's complexity was considerably increased: "As the radical cutbacks in Front Mission 3 were not well received, the fourth entry was designed with Front Mission 2 in mind. A number of elements from said installment (FM2) were brought back, such as the concept of flanking. The job system returns, with each pilot having a role in which they perform best at. The major addition to this entry is the Links system. Essentially an updated version of the Honor system, Links allows units to link up with each other to provide offensive and defensive support. While particular skills from Front Missions 2 and 3 allowed for this, FM4 is the first game that makes this option into a normal feature. Setting Links can be a problem as the player has to specify who is Linked to whom, and what actions they will take. Lastly, the scale of missions has been restored to Front Mission 1st levels."So you'll find that FM4 is far more complex than FM3, with more difficult enemy AI. Also very large battles consisting of a lot more enemy units than FM3 battles had. Plus FM4 enemy wanzers can Link against you! As for FM5, its complexity increases even more over FM4, with yet stronger enemy AI. However in FM5 you can screw up enemy Links by taking out the Link commander, so that helps. Granted, they can do the same thing to you. All that said, when I say FM3 is the easiest entry in the series, that's still relative. FM in general is a more complex and difficult SRPG series than many other SRPGs out there. So we have to keep these things in perspective.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 2, 2020 11:11:14 GMT -5
I still need to finish Front Mission 4 one day. Maybe I should consider that this month. Anyway, if I'm going to finish MW2, I better do it tonight. I'm going to be out of town until Thursday evening. I'm going to bring a work laptop, though, so I will probably be posting at least some in the evenings.
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Post by Ex on Mar 2, 2020 11:17:50 GMT -5
I still need to finish Front Mission 4 one day. I hope you do. I strongly enjoyed FM4 personally. It was a great distraction while I recovered from a surgery back in 2014. (Also the outstanding FM5 is better served by having finished FM4 first.) Hopefully that trip goes smoothly. If you feel like bringing a DS, you could play this at night: www.romhacking.net/translations/5025/That is the next mech game I plan to check out, after finishing Chromehounds.
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Post by Xeogred on Mar 2, 2020 11:52:36 GMT -5
Well damn, don't unsell me on FM3 now! The biggest red flag there is reading that I've already done some battles with the MAX amount of units playable, a measly FOUR? If there's one thing I prefer with SRPG's, it's being able to control ~10 units. This is one reason why I personally liked Tactics Ogre way more than FFT. So this is already a weird downgrade and big change coming out of the original FM on DS that I played last year.
Oh well, still seems really fun and everything else about it will carry it for me. Having knowledge of the first game also makes it feel like I already have a huge jumpstart at the beginning here, pretty much knowing exactly what I'm doing and looking for examining the enemies and stuff. So I guess this will be an easy breeze and maybe I'll get through it quicker than most.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 2, 2020 12:19:24 GMT -5
Interestingly, I also remember that as good as Front Mission 3 looks, they reduced the graphical fidelity some from FM2 because the load times in that game were atrocious. Ex: Don't know what system (if any) I'll end up taking. I always plan on doing something on the road, but it rarely actually happens. But most times, I feel like I gotta be prepared! I have cut down drastically on my entertainment options, though, knowing that I won't get to most of it. I'm sure I'll bring the tablet, though, in case I decide to watch some more TNG. Still chipping away, about 2/3 through Season 5.
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Post by Ex on Mar 2, 2020 12:33:36 GMT -5
The biggest red flag there is reading that I've already done some battles with the MAX amount of units playable, a measly FOUR? Yep that's the situation. FM4 and FM5 go back to having high unit count battles. Also sometimes against boss mechs that are incredibly large. Long story short, FM2's publisher considered it too hardcore for its own good based on market/critical response. So FM3 was designed to be more newbie friendly. That's why the complexity was lowered, and the AI more forgiving. It's also why FM3 was the first FM to be officially brought to the west, because Square assumed FM2 was too much for USA gamers. (As for FM1, it was a late gen SFC release and SNES was all but dead in USA in 1995). You've beaten Tactics Ogre. You won't have a problem with FM3. as good as Front Mission 3 looks, they reduced the graphical fidelity some from FM2 because the load times in that game were atrocious. Yes that is what happened. Also another reason the unit count was reduced on screen. Edit: SargeWhen I go on the road, I typically bring one book and one handheld. Covers both bases. Somethings I bring a solo analog game instead of a book.
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