Ed Oscuro
05-08-2005, 03:12 AM
(Cross-posting this from the CV Dungeon Forums!)
So one day I was walking down some alleyway in the Ginza, behind the body-mod shops, and nearly kicked this guy's ribs out when I walked into him. This bum, he croaks, "HEY KID, you gotta dime?" I said "no, but do you have a copy of a game to trade? I have a dollar." Then he tried to stab me...wait...that's not what I wanted to talk about.
Oh, yes, Front Mission: Gun Hazard. This game's got everything: Stereotyped characters from every nation on earth, little kids piloting mechs...yes...the game's mostly about things like that.
So, ever played Cybernator? I've read they were behind much of the game's development. Well, in my view this game's a good multiple of the greatness that is Cybernator: Better, more refined/detailed graphics, and a huge, world-emcompassing storyline (with backstory to boot). You'll be confused by the opening cinema, but after a solid two days playing I finally can say that I have some inkling as to what that was all about.
Square's involvement has gone further than simply sprucing up the visuals; you've got Uematsu-brand music, and the usual Final Fantasy mushy/pathos-y happenings.
The control system is awesome: Press up or down and you can aim your gun up and down in increments; it's fixed so you don't have to hold it. This allows you to think more about dodging and jumping. Said dodges and jumps are provided courtesy of modules that plug into your mech; you have a booster unit (vernier), a dash unit, and even a shield you can bring out with a shoulder button.
Everything can be upgraded or swapped out, from your mech down to any of its parts. These all have multiple properties that can be increased simply by using them, taking damage, or healing damage. Increasing the charge a weapon can hold is as simple as using it in battle; it will automatically be upgraded a few notches without your having to do a thing and the limits aren't very high (especially with the Spark Shot). You've got allies to follow you into battle; you can supply with preconfigured mechs. If there's anything wrong here, it's that you're switching out secondary equipment long before you can get full use out of it (with the exception of your main weapon - I've run both of my main ones to 120%).
Play-wise, there are very few roadblocks indeed. Early on you get to move freely between three wholly seperate conflicts, moving from the tough to the easy ones and back as you please. The game's maps are nice looking isometric view affairs, and you take your carrier from battlefield to battlefield (there's also a nice Mode 7'd world map tilted back slightly; it zooms in when you move to a different country). There's tons of dialog, and the tendency of 90s RPGs to throw you back at characters with repetitive dialogs has been curbed - just some greetings that certain characters usually use, but in the shop or at the mercenary H.Q. that's not an issue. There's a few gigantic RPG-style mazes to traverse, but these merely add a dramatic element, chosen wisely to advance the plot.
The dialog is one thing, but the graphics are another. I've gone through less than 50% of the game - or, at most, slightly more - and I've already seen far more than I have in nearly every other SNES game out there. Amazing; the game only takes up 3 Megabytes (24 MBits, for the traditional measure), but you've got tons of huge bosses, all fully animated and unique. The game isn't "bosses every two steps," but you've got a large number of unique incidental bosses, all accompanied by their own sayings and unique portraits. The selection of enemies is far greater - in Africa, you might be confronted by technicals, kamikaze robots, and satellite-attack beacons along with a few different types of more standard enemy mech, all in one map/stage. Play fields? I've read there are over 100 different play fields (stages), and most borrow elements from others. Well and done, but the graphics set for each one is awesome, and varied enough that they simply feel alike in theme - a city in the former Soviet Bloc looks entirely different from those of your player's home town. Many take pretty good damage effects, as well; you can mark many walls with your pistol and so may enemies (blowing up a gun emplacement will always leave a satisfyingly large crater, too). Even something as simple as finding a new weapon will have an effect on the game even if it's not used; at your equipment screen the background shows all the currently owned weapons as tiles. At the mech screen you'll see the background is a head-on, screen-height (well, nearly...416 pixels from my saves, compared to the 418 I get normally) portrait of your currently selected mech in its hangar. There is, simply speaking, tons of items to look at.
There's really not a damned thing with the game that I think is wrong. Everything, from the way allies warp back to an opening in the side of the screen if they'd been caught in a tight opening, to the huge variety of enemy units, to the storyline (which is actually damned good, Square or not), and the special weapons - well, there's actually a few special weapons that I think could've been slightly improved (i.e. an upwards shooting vulcan cannon? Seriously now; and the most powerful weapon in the game - the napalm gun - is very slow and hard to use), but I've yet to become angry at the game, as everything else fills in the gaps. The music is excellent, though I found myself accurately predicting which track would play as I entered certain areas. This hasn't annoyed me yet, though, as I'm either busy with my objectives, or enjoying said music.
The game is indeed a treat for completists, and your search for money and hard to locate items will prompt you to get out of your mech and go toe-to-toe against enemy soldiers - even other mechs (given the right handgun and judicious use of your jetpack, they'll be no match for you). Your pilot's sprite is dwarfed appropriately considering the size of your locations (indeed, even your mech looks small much of the time).
The best thing, though - you've got the advantages of an RPG (i.e. lading yourself down with healing items), but without the baggage and restrictive nature (i.e. you can go mostly anywhere at pretty much any time once you've been sent there once, thanks to the carrier, allowing backtracks for power levelling or shop visits); finally, turn-based battles have been replaced by fast, intense platforming/shooting gameplay.
What happens next hardly needs saying - Go, and get this game already!
So one day I was walking down some alleyway in the Ginza, behind the body-mod shops, and nearly kicked this guy's ribs out when I walked into him. This bum, he croaks, "HEY KID, you gotta dime?" I said "no, but do you have a copy of a game to trade? I have a dollar." Then he tried to stab me...wait...that's not what I wanted to talk about.
Oh, yes, Front Mission: Gun Hazard. This game's got everything: Stereotyped characters from every nation on earth, little kids piloting mechs...yes...the game's mostly about things like that.
So, ever played Cybernator? I've read they were behind much of the game's development. Well, in my view this game's a good multiple of the greatness that is Cybernator: Better, more refined/detailed graphics, and a huge, world-emcompassing storyline (with backstory to boot). You'll be confused by the opening cinema, but after a solid two days playing I finally can say that I have some inkling as to what that was all about.
Square's involvement has gone further than simply sprucing up the visuals; you've got Uematsu-brand music, and the usual Final Fantasy mushy/pathos-y happenings.
The control system is awesome: Press up or down and you can aim your gun up and down in increments; it's fixed so you don't have to hold it. This allows you to think more about dodging and jumping. Said dodges and jumps are provided courtesy of modules that plug into your mech; you have a booster unit (vernier), a dash unit, and even a shield you can bring out with a shoulder button.
Everything can be upgraded or swapped out, from your mech down to any of its parts. These all have multiple properties that can be increased simply by using them, taking damage, or healing damage. Increasing the charge a weapon can hold is as simple as using it in battle; it will automatically be upgraded a few notches without your having to do a thing and the limits aren't very high (especially with the Spark Shot). You've got allies to follow you into battle; you can supply with preconfigured mechs. If there's anything wrong here, it's that you're switching out secondary equipment long before you can get full use out of it (with the exception of your main weapon - I've run both of my main ones to 120%).
Play-wise, there are very few roadblocks indeed. Early on you get to move freely between three wholly seperate conflicts, moving from the tough to the easy ones and back as you please. The game's maps are nice looking isometric view affairs, and you take your carrier from battlefield to battlefield (there's also a nice Mode 7'd world map tilted back slightly; it zooms in when you move to a different country). There's tons of dialog, and the tendency of 90s RPGs to throw you back at characters with repetitive dialogs has been curbed - just some greetings that certain characters usually use, but in the shop or at the mercenary H.Q. that's not an issue. There's a few gigantic RPG-style mazes to traverse, but these merely add a dramatic element, chosen wisely to advance the plot.
The dialog is one thing, but the graphics are another. I've gone through less than 50% of the game - or, at most, slightly more - and I've already seen far more than I have in nearly every other SNES game out there. Amazing; the game only takes up 3 Megabytes (24 MBits, for the traditional measure), but you've got tons of huge bosses, all fully animated and unique. The game isn't "bosses every two steps," but you've got a large number of unique incidental bosses, all accompanied by their own sayings and unique portraits. The selection of enemies is far greater - in Africa, you might be confronted by technicals, kamikaze robots, and satellite-attack beacons along with a few different types of more standard enemy mech, all in one map/stage. Play fields? I've read there are over 100 different play fields (stages), and most borrow elements from others. Well and done, but the graphics set for each one is awesome, and varied enough that they simply feel alike in theme - a city in the former Soviet Bloc looks entirely different from those of your player's home town. Many take pretty good damage effects, as well; you can mark many walls with your pistol and so may enemies (blowing up a gun emplacement will always leave a satisfyingly large crater, too). Even something as simple as finding a new weapon will have an effect on the game even if it's not used; at your equipment screen the background shows all the currently owned weapons as tiles. At the mech screen you'll see the background is a head-on, screen-height (well, nearly...416 pixels from my saves, compared to the 418 I get normally) portrait of your currently selected mech in its hangar. There is, simply speaking, tons of items to look at.
There's really not a damned thing with the game that I think is wrong. Everything, from the way allies warp back to an opening in the side of the screen if they'd been caught in a tight opening, to the huge variety of enemy units, to the storyline (which is actually damned good, Square or not), and the special weapons - well, there's actually a few special weapons that I think could've been slightly improved (i.e. an upwards shooting vulcan cannon? Seriously now; and the most powerful weapon in the game - the napalm gun - is very slow and hard to use), but I've yet to become angry at the game, as everything else fills in the gaps. The music is excellent, though I found myself accurately predicting which track would play as I entered certain areas. This hasn't annoyed me yet, though, as I'm either busy with my objectives, or enjoying said music.
The game is indeed a treat for completists, and your search for money and hard to locate items will prompt you to get out of your mech and go toe-to-toe against enemy soldiers - even other mechs (given the right handgun and judicious use of your jetpack, they'll be no match for you). Your pilot's sprite is dwarfed appropriately considering the size of your locations (indeed, even your mech looks small much of the time).
The best thing, though - you've got the advantages of an RPG (i.e. lading yourself down with healing items), but without the baggage and restrictive nature (i.e. you can go mostly anywhere at pretty much any time once you've been sent there once, thanks to the carrier, allowing backtracks for power levelling or shop visits); finally, turn-based battles have been replaced by fast, intense platforming/shooting gameplay.
What happens next hardly needs saying - Go, and get this game already!