Front Mission 5: Scars of the War

Front Mission 5: Scars of the War is the culmination of Square Enix's tactical series, which, unlike its more popular sibling franchise Final Fantasy, never received an official English localization and thus long remained the domain of Japanese-speaking players, and later of a fan translation team that made the game accessible to foreign players only long after its original release. It was precisely this inaccessibility that made it one of the most sought-after titles for collectors and fans of turn-based mech strategy games.

The game tells the story of a soldier named Ryogo Kusama, who is drawn into a vast conflict spanning many years and continents. The narrative structure combines present-day missions with extensive flashbacks to the main character's past, giving the game an unusually epic, almost war-drama scope compared to the earlier, more intimate entries in the series that focused on smaller regional conflicts. At the center of the gameplay are the so-called wanzers, heavily armored combat machines that the player can assemble down to the smallest detail from dozens of components – from leg type, through arm-mounted weapons, to backup armament and armor for individual body parts, which fundamentally affects tactical possibilities on the battlefield as well as the style in which a mission can be completed.

Battles take place on a square grid and require careful management of position, range, and damage to individual parts of enemy machines, since destroying a specific wanzer limb can decide the outcome of an engagement faster than simply reducing the opponent's overall health. Front Mission 5 is rightly considered by series fans to be one of the most elaborate and demanding entries, combining a deep customization system with a mature, dark story full of human losses and moral dilemmas, and it still draws in new players willing to overcome the language barrier for the quality this entry offers.