I’ve been playing Front Mission(1st, DS) cause oh man Front Mission. From Valkyria Chronicles to Shining Force Gaiden to X-Com EU & 2 to Fallout 1’s combat to Fire Emblem Awakening & Fates, I have finally realised that I have SRPG brainworms. I also have mech brainworms still so like, picking off a Missileer’s shooting arm with a rocket from six gridspaces away is basically better than sex y’know.

What I like abt Front Mission is that the pilot stats/skills plus the mech customisation (you can swap chassis, individual arms, the legs, a CPU for stat augmentation, weapons in each hand and on each shoulder, and power backpacks) means you can do a fuckload of different builds and strats. I really enjoy Meihua’s bit, I trained her on missiles by accident a lot so I have her harass enemy attackers with SRMs and shit and then charge in and do stun-punch combos, never gets old. Landing the mech punch that knocks out a foe’s cockpit is the height of satisfaction.

The AI is also a little smarter than in say, the new Fire Emblems, like they can focus-fire and pick off weak units, or cut off an over-extended squad. They’re also fun because if they have a supply truck and you destroy their weapons, they’ll retreat to the supply truck to repair, which means you can force them to retreat and rout em basically. Terrain and height advantage matter greatly, and sometimes it’s better to withdraw and bait the enemy into your attacks instead.

Front Bussin was a SNES game originally so it was probably butting up against data limits, the story’s not up to much (who gives a fuck about Royd’s dumbass ladyfriend) and the game is mostly just menus outside of combat, kind of like a Wizardry or something. The Arena just exists so you can train skills and not run out of money. For a sequel, I’d want a job-board where you can take merc contracts on the side, or side-story skirmishes, or something, maybe even an overworld with random encounters for certain factions of mech pilots. Front Mission is really solid, top 10 for me, but there’s so many great ways to improve upon it. Add tank or infantry units to fight, like Mechwarrior? Rifles that can shoot for two or three squares? Towns as walkable RPG-like spaces? More and better dynamic salvage from enemy mechs? Disabling kills (i.e. destroyed arms, cockpit-only) letting you grab entire mechs? Bonus points for disabling kills? Tons of stuff.

Front Mission 2’s PS1 translation is only half-done, so I’m excited that Switch dorks are done beta-testing the Front Mission 2 Remake for us and it’s coming to PC now. The FM 1st remake is getting some improvements backported which is cool too, and I hope the translation gets tightened up when the PC FM2 launches.

Otherwise I am gonna play Tactics Orge on Playstation once I’m done FM.

I’m really gonna finish fallout 4 this time

Problem before was I was absolutely in love with survival, while the game was in love with instant crash to desktop with no error information of any kind, mostly right before arriving back home.

Im just playing non survival now and constantly saving so I lose like 15 minutes a night instead of half the fucking play session.

Also:

• Thronefall
• Helldivers
• Siege with the mates
• Enshrouded with the missus
• Starcraft 2 with meself

I’m crushing the challenge modes on Peggle Deluxe and Peggle Nights. Also trying to match two watermelons in Suica Game. Puzzle games FTW

I’m a huge Ogre Saga fan so naturally Unicorn Overlord shot up to the top of my list… except for some reason I ended up restarting Triangle Strategy instead, after dropping it two years ago out of sheer disgust. I have such a love-hate relationship with that game, the gameplay is so good but the writing is fucking godawful. The worst part is some of the individual character writing actually is quite solid (the two old vets, the first recruitable brown lady, maybe a few others every now and then) but the main plot is essentially a wannabe GoT (show not books) with anime characteristics/a truly infantile understanding of politics and warfare, and the rampant Orientalism is absolutely gross. I’m just fast forwarding through cutscenes now (and there are SO fucking many) but it’s still annoying enough that I might drop it again lol. Such a shame about the gameplay though if I do, it’s genuinely among my favorites in the genre.

This weekend though I’m planning to do a quick run through Eiyuden Chronicle Rising in preparation for the main game’s release. Very excited about that!

Also been doing a playthrough of Story of Seasons 1 since it has my fave art in the HM/SoS franchise, but it’s very off and on.

Playing stardew, balatro, dragons dogma 2, and hell divers.

Stardew I think about the most, hell divers and balatro scratch itches. Lately I’ve been craving playing factorio or satisfactory but I want to get more through stardew first.

I’m really looking forward to Hades 2 currently, and will likely drop everything to play the early access to completion when I can. Otherwise monster hunter wilds is due next year and it’s the big thing I’m waiting for. Hopefully we get some news this summer.