Machine guns will spread their damage at random over various parts, while rifles concentrate all their damage into a single bullet that can miss. Weapons also have different ranges and firing patterns. Losing both arms means a Wanzer can’t even attack. Getting one’s legs taken out can reduce movement speed, and a destroyed Body part is an instant kill. A Wanzer’s parts can be damaged in battle.

The main factors at play are the weapons you’ve equipped and the stats of your Wanzer’s many parts. You’ll take turns with the enemy moving to points on the map, and engaging in small cutscene-like battles where your Wanzer and the enemy’s trade blows. Moreso than any other Front Mission title, the original Front Mission, and by extension, Front Mission 1st: Remake, has aged the least gracefully since the mid-1990s. What’s at issue is that the game’s design itself is showing its age. The DS edition was the first official English-language release, and is the version from which Remake takes its cues. The game originally came out on the SNES in Japan, then received an updated rerelease no less than three times before 2022: On the Wonderswan Color, the PlayStation, and most recently the Nintendo DS. If you’ve never played Front Mission before, Front Mission 1st: Remake will serve as a perfectly decent introduction to the venerable tactical series. That means that while Forever Entertainment has brought the game to modern platforms using contemporary presentation, it’s kept many things the same under the hood, for better and occasionally for worse. In the wake of truly dramatic re-imaginings of old classics, Front Mission 1st: Remake is closer to what folks might call a “remaster” these days. For a game that’s been remade and remastered as often as Front Mission, it’s fitting that Forever Entertainment’s Front Mission 1st: Remake got me thinking about what, exactly, “remake” even means in terms of games.

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