Front Mission

Front Mission began in 1995 as a tactical RPG series by Square for the SNES, set in a near future rife with political conflict between factions and multinational corporations. Battles play out as turn-based strategy on a grid, where the player commands squads of humanoid combat machines called wanzers – fully customizable down to their weapons, armor, and part manufacturers, with individual components (arms, legs, torso) taking damage independently, giving the game real tactical depth and forcing players to target specific enemy parts. Compared to the "super robots" of contemporary Japanese pop culture, Front Mission took a more grounded, military view of its machines as tools of politics rather than heroes, and it gave players ample room before each battle to carefully build and upgrade their units' loadouts.

Front Mission 2 (1997) expanded the game world but stayed Japan-only. It was Front Mission 3 (1999) that became the best known entry, the first in the series to see an official release outside Japan, and thanks to its branching story with two distinct storylines it's often regarded as the series' peak. Front Mission 4 (2003) then moved the battles to PlayStation 2 with a fully 3D presentation, while Front Mission 5: Scars of the War (2005) returned to a more elaborate story but stayed Japan-exclusive, reaching fans elsewhere only through an unofficial fan translation. Outside the main line, spin-offs appeared such as the action game Front Mission: Gun Hazard and entries for the WonderSwan. Though the series remained a relatively niche affair next to other tactical RPGs, its legacy still lives on through a remake of the first game released in 2022.