Front Mission 3: Remake Appears To Replace 2D Art Assets With Generative AI

Forever Entertainment moment.

it is heartening to see this push back against AI. Everyone thought they were just gonna be able to use it and get away with it, because, you know, it's the future and all that. So lazy and no regard for the identity of the game

Game companies are raising prices while replacing real work and workers with AI. They obviously think gamers will let them get away with that. It remains to be seen if they do.

What? AI being used as a lazy way to cut corners and save pennies by not hiring artists?? Woah I’m so shocked!!

No care or love for the game. Just let the AI hallucinate some rubbish and sell to the oblivious.

Considering it's Forever Entertainment, this is likely a very cost-efficient way to improve the quality of their releases. Never been a fan, but at the same time they're my fellow Polish folk, so I can't disregard them outright.

As a career illustrator this saddens me.

Ok this I can understand people being upset about. Feel like the two recent spats around GenAI are evidence of how to use it and how not to use it.

Yikes!
The horror of AI image. 😱

This is horrendous. Absolutely shameless... Leave the art to the humans, come on man. I wasn't going to buy this but now I'm going to not buy it even harder.

Yeah screw that.

AI upscaling isn't necessarily a bad thing, if used as a tool /if you have someone touch things up that turn out off.

This is next level sh***y

Soldier holding a camera/gun and awkward teenage magician with microphone for sleeve honestly had me laughing... but this is unforgivably bad.

Hard pass on anything that uses AI, at least to this scale.

Just re-release the original game at this point, warts and all, if you're going to take the easy way out.

And feel free to recycle all of the pre-existing assets as you like (it's not as if there's a shortage of material out there!), but resorting to this level of scummery? Hell no.

As if the eShop didn't have enough problems without the influx of AI-generated slop that we've been seeing over the last couple of years.

What's crazier is that I've noticed a bunch of official music videos from Turkey that are completely AI-generated (and every bit as freakish as you'd imagine). It's absolutely pathetic. Everybody involved (including the "artists") ought to be ashamed of themselves.

@Dom_31 : Perhaps I'd give a pass for inconsequential things like distant objects that cannot be interacted with and will never be observed by the player up-close, but this is just shameless.

This reminds me to be super skeptical of ALL of the upcoming releases from Forever. More than I already was of their work. The new House of the Dead 2 remake is going to be loaded with genAI slop. Mark my words.

Could've been a Square Enix mandate? Maybe?

Art as created by the artless, technologically speaking. Honestly, just pay for a skilled person to sign off on these things, games cost enough these days.

...I really really hope they don't ever make a Chrono Trigger remake now. If square enix is willing to replace original assets with AI generated assets.

This is horrible and, dare I say, grotesque. An insult to artists and gamers.

@EarthboundBenjy Square Enix didn't develop or publish this. They simply licensed out the Front Mission IP to Forever Enterainment, who have used it to churn out three pretty awful remakes developed by different studios.

I really hope Nintendo finds a way to dissolve whatever agreement they have with Forever. While DKCR is a pretty perfect game and hard to mess up if all you have to do is make things less jaggy, they still managed to ***** it up by messing up the multiplayer. Luckily no one I know enjoys the difficulty of Retro's DKC besides me, so it didn't affect my enjoyment of the game. But I don't want them to have another chance to screw up another great Nintendo game or IP.

Forever Entertainment is trash.

awful, leave the original

Damn, the lowest bidder strikes again.

I really feel ashamed, since developer of this game is from Poland, where I live. Really hope no one will want to buy such a lazy-ass remake, for sure I won't

If there's one thing that makes me not want to buy a game it's this lazy effort from Square Enix and Forever Entertainment.

I was really looking forward to this one. FM3 is one of my all-time favorites. I put a ton of hours into the original just hunting down parts and making my Wanzer team perfect.

Even though its "just the art assests", this is an absolute butchering.

Dang. Glad I still have the original PS1 disc. I’d rather dig my PS1/2/3 out of storage and fire up the orginal now.

I will be removing the game from my wish list then.

and so a save buy becomes a skip...

Oh and btw if you like this stuff, the MGS collection is also full of messed up Gen AI upscaling... ets even worse actually. All the posters in the MGS games are a complete mess, like no one checked the art before they added it to the game.

Of all the games to get treated like this... why, WHY did it have to be one of my favorite games...

Sadly, having to pass on this... It looks awful.

If an artist uses AI to be more efficient in their work, I have no issue with that.

But... in this case, it was just crap quality AI. That sucks.

@Dom_31
Yeah upscaling has been around for a while and while it can look somewhat off at times (a few games look like they could use a second pass by hand) its at the very least infinitely preferable to.....this.

seriously they changed the entire feel of a lot of this, the environments look off and have lost a lot of the soul the originals had, that JDF poster is a complete mess and what the every loving hell happened to that guy with the mic.

@Smithicus
Yeah this is one of those things im really hoping a big stink is made about.(as long as it doesnt involve harassment) even outside of the usual debates surrounding AI just from a preservation perspective this is just bad, i know its not uncommon for a re-release or remaster to end up losing out on a bunch on minor details/visual effects etc or issues when using older PC ports as the base like with FFVII and VIII, but this as mentioned is straight up changing the art.

As much as you see those who like to dismiss criticism on the internet i hope even those kinds of people can see why people would be annoyed at this.

When we all have been laid off because of AI, who will even have the money to buy horrible crap like this anyway? Definite skip for me. Such a shame.

This is such a weird decision, as the original art was iconic and really didn't need these kinds of changes at all, but they went and made it look worse anyway. Definitely disappointing, as I was sort of interested in this!

Seems like another misuse of technology to me. Not a problem with the technology as such. More generally, this reminds me of something I once read about DA:Origins: high-end 2D artistic renditions will always beat middle-of-the-road 3D renderings.

@Ultimapunch To be fair, partially replacing human workers with automation is largely how we have increased productivity for at least the last four decades. AI is just the latest in hyper capital-intensive labor-replacement technology. Back in the 1860s two bearded guys had some rather in-depth thoughts about the inevitable nature of this process

Gross. I was interested in this release before, not so much anymore.

Horrifying. This is the future, and it’ll be everywhere before we know it. We have to boycott anything that even remotely utilises generative AI, the only message they understand is their bottom line being hit.

I don't have problem if the AI is used to upscale the original art and make them 1080p or even 4K resolutions, but not for butchering the art like this. This is like AI slop, there's no way I'll be spending money on this, I rather play the original psone game in emulator.

What a slap in the face to the original artists and devs.

As someone who got interested in Front Mission in games later in life and just wanted a good set of remakes, very disappointing.

I do think the first remake came out decent, though, especially compared to what's on display here. Forever Entertainment would have been better served to let the first dev do all three, I think.

@topher6490 Pretty sure it was Monster Games that messed up the Donkey Kong Country Returns multiplayer when making the 3DS version, and Forever was using that as their template for the HD version. Not that that makes Forever any good, but blame where blame is due.

@LastFootnote Didn’t realise this was the team that did DKCR HD. Never played the game before but I couldn’t stick with the Switch version because the input lag made it feel terrible to play compared to the SNES games.

I really wish the AI fad would die out but I doubt it will. It's an excuse for companies to be lazy and cheap. They don't want to actually pay human beings. Stuff like this is the result of that mindset.

This being lazy work doesn't mean AI is the problem. You don't need AI to produce slop.

A lot of people don't want to hear that, but it's a fact.

@axelhander This is like the one situation where AI actually is the problem.

Ouch, that Japanese Defense Forum background!

The Chinooks & Type 90 MBT have completely morphed into random stuff from decades prior.

I bought the last 2 physical but this one is a real tough sell.

@LastFootnote You are 100% correct. I know there's a lot of comparisons when it came to the visuals on how besides the resolution, the HD version actually had less visual effects than the 3DS version, so I just assumed the multiplayer issue was something also introduced by Forever.

Well, I guess now I kind of fault Nintendo for not catching Monster's mistake and ensuring Forever didn't make the same mistake in the HD version.

Forever entertainment, those same losers who botched DKCR for the Switch? Shocked lol

This is really disgraceful, and annoying to me on a personal level since I paid for physical copies of the previous two games.

If it's just going to be treated like meaningless slop for the trough, please don't bother revisiting these classic games at all.

It doesn’t excuse what’s happening with Front Mission, but I actually love DKC Returns on Switch. Obviously it would be better if that multiplayer issue were fixed and if the missing visual effects were added, but overall it’s now my preferred way to play the game. If there’s input lag, it’s not enough for me to notice.

Speaking of noticeable input lag, sure would be great if Capcom would redo Mega Man Legends Collection.

@JohnnyMind How about you take a moment to think about why it may be a black and white issue for some people instead of taking a nonchalant pot shot?

AI upscaling would've been fine Imo. But this....this is just....no. Nope. Was considerignnit but this is so blatant that I will not support it. Not when there are so many willing talents out there. You can use generetive AI for ideas or examples imo. But then you get an Artist to create a final Artwork....

Thank you for that information. I only have the first game and Im glad to say its gonna be my last

And this is the company that Nintendo trusted DKC Returns HD with? 🤦 Way to completely mess up one of the most beloved PS1 Strategy RPGs with AI cost cutting slop.

@cvrator It's not. It's corporate greed. AI is the means to the same end as it always is with corporate greed.

That's really terrible. I will never support companies that show so little care for the quality of their products.

Also, can we stop trying to make Bluesky happen? It's just trading one biased cesspool for a less-popular biased cesspool. When a truly inclusive and moderate competitor to TwiXter emerges, we can all flock there, but forcing Bluesky when so few of us can properly access the site seems kind of obstinate.

I use ChatGPT on an almost daily basis. I believe ai IS going to be used more and more as a component in creative project, especially low budget or small team situations. But you can’t just copy whatever output it produced. It’s output isn’t good enough for that. This is the worst way to use it. The smart way; you wouldn’t even know it had been used.

No thanks, bye

@axelhander I'm old enough to remember all the really bad CG art that people tried to peddle in the late 90s and early 2000s. The world was not as globalized back then so it wasn't quite what it is now, but eventually people tired of the novelty and quality won out.

Forever Entertainment chose AI Slop to save cash.
I choose not to buy Forever Entertainment Slop to save case.

It's like poetry. They rhyme.

@StyrofoamCup Well... almost.

This is going to get so much worse before it gets better.

I'm not one to hate on a company... usually. Forever Entertainment, though, is forever disallowed in my home lol

Man, I'd been looking forward to getting this game since it was announced. I love tactical RPGs, and the Switch is set to have three of the true inner-circle classics of the genre: Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Front Mission 3. It looks like I'll have to give this one a pass, though. The animations in the most recent gameplay reveal already looked awful. It's a shame that Forever Entertainment botched this one.

AI in art is fine for sketches, anatomy references, and anything that helps the artist produce their own great work.
But we really shouldn’t be replacing texture artists.
The Tomb Raider remasters were also shameless.

@roboshort What you mean like the stuff they showed on Real Adventures of Johnny Quest and the like? Those were interesting times.

@PinderSchloss They used AI-upres which existed way before GenAI.

This is just wrong on so many levels.

@jojobar That is not GenAI. Upres.

@MSaturn It's been a godsend for me too, and not one word of it makes it to my final work.

Even in cases where the output IS used, there's still a degree of creativity that needs to transform it from slop to something real, like the entries in Runway's AI video competition.

I wonder if its even financially feasible remaking some of this games without taking massive shortcuts. While the first two remakes were flawed, seems like they had pretty bad sales. Forever Entertainment probably had to small a budget given by Square to do a decent job at these, so some of the flames should definitely be fanned towards Square here too.

So much for proper remakes. Like Square or Forever care I guess. Well at least Front Mission 2 was discounted on Switch with no end date/finitely up to the release of Front Mission 3 for a long time.

But yeah otherwise this is a terrible cost saving and lazy use of tech measure.

What a waste of time and money let alone reputation/disrespecting your audience and thinking "they won't notice their nostalgia blinded and will eat this stuff up".

Do these companies REALLY think that? Let alone newcomers that want to get into the games like I did and had my issues with Front Mission 1, but still felt it was a fair remake.

But this, this is disgusting they think they can bother to do this and go 'oh people didn't really want these games as much as we thought', 'they won't notice our corner cutting or we get less sales game per game' when it's a just a matter of 'we want more respectful effort put onto these sorts of projects, not to fool us with garbage'.

Electric nightmares

Wow. Didn't think it would hit a series I cared about so quick. That's unfortunate. But they're right, I shouldn't be spending money on their games.
Also, Johnny Millennium better make a video. Calling that one. Did this affect portraits? Because Front Mission character portraits are what we call "iconic?
What are they doing?

hard pass on that one until they fix it

Wow... I am not a huge ai hater, but this... this is just plain ridiculous.

I was semi excited for this game. Loved the original, though I never got far....

But not buying this.

@Pickettfury You can take shortcuts... I mean, I am no stranger to shortcuts, and I have asked ai to create some textures for me, but there is a difference between asking ai to upscale something and just drop the result into your game, or asking ai to upscale it and then fixing up the mistakes it made.

And I understand there will be plenty of people who will say those are the same thing, both are equally bad, and I understand their sentiment, but I can somewhat understand relying on ai to do the first part for you and then finishing up the rest, but this is just asking ai to do everything and use the half-baked result it gives as a final product.

This is just awful.

@jojobar This is the way

@Ultimapunch dude ofc they will. People bought into digital walled gardens where publishers have complete control over pricing, swallowing the line that digital goods will be cheaper. Hey make sure not to buy games used, also, or layoffs might happen... they will if the game is successful too, but don't pay attention to that. People lose their minds about this or that controversy than go get the thing they were railing against just so they can tweet about it.

Not going to support this. AI upscaling is fine (althought still lazy) but generative AI is not fine at all.

Amateur hour.

@HammerGalladeBro If the mandate was, "spend very little money," then yes, that could be the case.

no problem. i'll stick to front mission 1st (ds) and front mission 3 (ps1) then. unfortunately, front mission 2 (ps1) was never released in the west and doesn't even have a fan trasnlation available... so, we are at the mercy of the front mission 2 remake, but everything else can and should be skipped. it's not like supporting these shoddy remakes would ever bring this franchise back in any meaningful way... at best you might get a third rate mobile quality front mission side game which people would only scoff at. no thanks.