Front Mission series

Group Description

Front Mission series revolves around warfare in a near to distant future. The setting is a fictionalized Earth, typically divided into several supranational unions that wage war on each other. Political conflicts intertwined with the characters' personal ambitions constitute the main plot-related content in these games.

All main (numbered) Front Mission titles are tactical role-playing games. They share many common elements, such as the usage of AP (action points) during player's and enemy turns, "links" (units aiding each other in battle), arena competitions, battle simulators, etc. The non-numbered games in the series usually belong to other genres: for example, Front Mission: Gun Hazard (1996) is an action RPG with platforming elements. Despite having self-contained stories, the games share many stylistic and even gameplay-related elements, despite the genre differences.

Armed conflicts depicted in the series are fought with a new type of weapon, the so-called Wanzers. Originally developed by German arms manufacturers in the mid 21st century, Wanzers are widely used as walking tanks in the Front Mission universe. The name is derived from the German name "Wanderung-Panzer", or short Wanzer. Most of the games in the series allow the player to build up a squad of Wanzer pilots and their vehicles, and customize the Wanzers using a variety of parts and weapons.