Front Mission 1st: Remake is the second remake based on a SNES game that Square Enix released in 2022. The first was a bigger deal, Live A Live, because that game never came to the West initially after its 1994 debut in Japan. This game didn’t either after it was released in 1995.
However, the West would get to play it in 2007 with a DS remake. This was after it got two other ports in Japan. With all of these re-releases, one has to wonder what this version did to improve the game. Unfortunately, past some graphical upgrades, not much was changed for Front Mission 1st: Remake. Perhaps the reviews could get bumped up if Square Enix added these ideas to the game in a future patch.
8 Add Skips And Fast-Forwards
There is kind of a way to skip though story sections, but it isn’t perfect. Holding down B on the Nintendo controller will bypass some, but not all dialogue. A way to skip cutscenes to get right into the action would be appreciated. A fast-forward button would be a helpful alternative to breezing past dialogue.
This feature could also help speed up battles, which has been a standard feature in most of Square Enix’s tactical RPGs from 2022 like Triangle Strategy.
7 Retool The Menus
Players are going to spend as much time in the menus as they are on the battlefield. That’s because Front Mission 1st: Remake is very much like a mech-based simulation game because the amount of customization options for units is staggering. Getting through these equipment menus can be a chore though.
Players can’t even use the shoulder buttons to quickly skip through characters, as is usually the standard in RPGs. That feature would be appreciated in a patch, but an overhaul to the menus to make them more streamlined would be even better.
6 Add Voices
To reiterate, it’s hard not to compare this game to another Square Enix remake from 2022, Live A Live. That game was originally launched in 1994 on the SNES in Japan only. It took this long for the West to get it and Square Enix went all out as they redid the graphics and added voices among other things.
Front Mission 1st: Remake did get a graphical overall from its 1995 SNES original version, but it didn’t get voices. There’s a lot of dialogue too and perhaps players wouldn’t want to skip as much of the story if they could listen to it. Adding in voices would help make the narrative more engaging.
5 Save Tweaks
Tactical RPGs like this deserve more than four save files. This would be true if the game contained one campaign, but it doesn’t. There are two campaigns to choose from and both use the same four files, which makes this a bigger issue. Saving during battle also uses the same slots, which brings up two ideas for patches.
First, battle saves should be kept separately. Second, each campaign should have its own section of files to make it less confusing.
4 Move After Actions
Most strategy RPGs allow players to move and attack on their turns. This is true for Front Mission 1st: Remake, but there is a catch that puts it behind other games. If players attack while standing still, that will end their turn.
Players can’t attack an enemy and then move after that which is a common trait in most tactical RPGs too. It seems like an easy fix to allow units to both attack and move no matter which action comes first. This can open players up to more creative strategies on the battlefield.
3 Make It Easier To Grind For Money And Experience
Characters level up in the Bert field, but their mechs do not. Their units can get upgraded through equipment purchases which makes sense. Leveling a pilot up can unlock skills, or increase stats that can help them attack more effectively on the battlefield.
It’s a decent system for an RPG with mechs, but it’s a bit hard to upgrade sometimes. There is an arena players can grind at for money or experience, but only individual pilots can participate. This makes the grind for both currencies hard, so a way to fight full mock battles like in most strategy RPGs would be more useful.
2 Item Upgrades
There are two problems with items that the developers could fix with a patch in Front Mission 1st: Remake. One, standard healing items can only be used on the unit using them. An ally cannot heal someone else, for example, which goes against the code of most RPGs. Two, items will not be restocked after battle automatically.
That is understandably not a standard of RPGs, but another recent Square Enix remake via Tactics Ogre: Reborn does have this mechanic. Allowing units to heal others and a way for players to restock items automatically would be two amazing things to get in the next patch.
1 Sell All Items
There’s another quick tweak the developers could do to make shops better besides the automatic restocking. Players have to individually select items they want to sell in each category of the menu. Arm parts and leg parts, for example, must be calculated separately. This would be fine if there was an option to sell all items in any given menu but there isn’t.
If that small thing could get patched into Front Mission 1st: Remake, it would help the aforementioned stress of the cumbersome menus. Overall, this game is missing some standard quality-of-life mechanics that make it feel like stuck in 1995 despite it being a remake.
Front Mission 1st: Remake was released on November 30, 2022, and is available on Nintendo Switch.