Front Mission 3: Remake Review - Screenshot 1 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

Every time I pick up the Front Mission series, I am rooting for it. Mechs (wanzers, in this case) are always cool and I always love a good tactical RPG. However, Front Mission 3: Remake doesn’t just manage to put me off with its deeply frustrating combat mechanics; it feels like a haphazard and even insultingly bad remake once you start digging a little deeper below the surface.

Just like in the previous two remakes for Switch, Front Mission 3: Remake is a grid-based tactical RPG where players control a squad of mechs designed for war. These wanzers move around the battlefield and engage with enemies in melee or ranged combat. Each unit has multiple health bars for different parts. Knock out the legs and their movement speed will slow to a crawl. Knock out an arm and the weapon it holds will be disabled. In this outing, wanzers also have a Pilot health bar, which can affect morale and even see characters forcibly ejected from their mech.

Front Mission 3: Remake Review - Screenshot 2 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

Characters each have a host of special abilities that can be learned by using certain weapons or equipment in your wanzer. Using melee weapons often, for example, can unlock an ability to stun opponents. The problem becomes that triggering those abilities is usually random, especially earlier in the game. The Link abilities, which activate when certain characters are near each other, are more reliable but still have an element of chance to them.

There's great potential for strategic engagement with enemies, except for the fact that you can’t effectively target specific body parts. As much as I enjoy the setting and the plot of the Front Mission games, this is a glaring and frustrating design flaw. In a mission where I’m being pursued by enemies, not being able to target their legs and slow them down feels like a huge oversight.

What this leads to is sending your troops into battle and just hoping that you either get lucky and target the advantageous health bar or, more likely, relying on the RNG gods that a character’s special abilities will trigger. It feels like too much of the strategy has been taken out of your hands for my liking. I should not feel like my epic mech battle is reduced to a slap fight as I cannot target the body of an enemy to simply end the mission.

Front Mission 3: Remake Review - Screenshot 3 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

I also need to address the elephant in the room here – the apparent use of generative AI in Front Mission 3: Remake for some 2D art and sprites. I can’t comment on whether AI was definitely used, but I will say that there are some pieces that are so baffling that the use of AI feels like the only logical explanation for their existence.

These are generally buried in the Network feature of the game, where you can pursue in-universe webpages and articles that help flesh out the world of Front Mission. For example, an image of a politician whose hands are contorted in an unnatural way so he looks like a magician in a rap battle raises questions that can likely only be answered by the use of AI.

While the Network hides the most baffling examples of the new art in Front Mission 3: Remake, there are also issues with most character portraits. The main characters have had their sprites from the original PlayStation release updated, but this seems to have included polishing the pixelation out. The result is faces which are too smooth and have lost any detail at all. One of the main characters has lost her nose in the new version of the game, for example. They just don’t look good here and, whether it is because of the GenAI that was seemingly used for the Network images or simply an overzealous attempt to modernise the graphics, it is disappointing.

Front Mission 3: Remake Review - Screenshot 4 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

The sound is another issue, but not for the same reason. The score has been updated for the Switch remake and it sounds fantastic. However, the other sound effects don’t seem to have been given the same treatment. The modern arrangements, highlighted by lacklustre stomping and shooting sounds, felt like a perfect representation of Front Mission 3: Remake as a whole; great potential is undermined by a lack of effort, resulting in a half-baked offering for fans.

I find myself frustrated by the game because, despite all these flaws, I enjoyed the story more than the previous two games. Kazuki Takemura is a wanzer test pilot who, along with his friend Ryogo Kusama, becomes embroiled in a global conspiracy in a Cold War-esque world where any small incident could push the world towards war. There are palpable stakes here and a branching narrative that lends itself to multiple playthroughs if the combat system is to your liking.

Sure, I roll my eyes every time I get sent on a stealth mission in a 30-foot-tall mech that audibly stomps through streets, but it is consistent with the logic of the setting, so I can forgive it. My only complaint about the plot is that the branching point for the story is incredibly early on and doesn’t give you any indication that it will be such an important decision. This is a small issue, though, and didn’t impact my enjoyment of the game in a meaningful way.

Front Mission 3: Remake Review - Screenshot 5 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

There is also the wanzer customisation, which helps elevate FM3:R from the realm of terrible remakes that we’ve seen. You can swap out almost every part of a mech, from the targeting computer to the weapons to the paint job. This is a great system that allows you to really dive into the specs of your units; by the end, you’ll feel like a real gearhead. Combining that with being able to stack certain learned abilities on a character before you send them into the field can make them into real powerhouses. The bulk of the strategy here takes place before you even get on the battlefield.

I maintain that not being able to target a specific health bar on an enemy is an oversight in a tactical RPG. However, the plot of Front Mission 3: Remake is strong enough that, if that were my only complaint, I wouldn’t warn you against picking it up. Unfortunately, this remake is marred by artwork so bad that GenAI seems to be the only logical culprit and sound design that feels half finished, which completely soured any goodwill the story or customisation features instilled in me.

Conclusion

The branching narrative of Front Mission 3: Remake is the strongest of the series for me and kept me engaged with it long after I had grown frustrated with the combat system. The new music is solid, but also highlights some of the older sound effects that haven't been updated. And, to top it all off, the new artwork for the Switch port is bafflingly bad and gives strong AI-generated vibes, making this feel like a rushed, half-finished remake of a beloved tactical RPG.