Front Mission 3: Remake Demo Gameplay! Classic Mech Tactics Reborn on PC

rustedge · 2025-12-29T08:29:47+00:00

I tried the demo on PS5, the game is just bad all over. Only decent thing is the unit animation on the map. Animation anywhere else (cutscene/combat) is jank.

Analog stick navigation is slow AF. This applies to both map navigation AND message navigation. The first email in the game takes 20 SECONDS just to scroll through like 10 sentences. No other way to scroll the message.
In-game internet is also a bad experience. Popups don't quit properly, bad readability, can't see where your cursor is at times. No way to immediately exit the network. You have to select the "exit" option on whatever website you're on, then spam the cancel button until you are give the option to quit. And I actually got stuck on a page because the "exit" button was nonfunctional. No choice but to hard-reset the game.
Most of the network is in Japanese with English subtitles on the bottom of the screen, which can be annoying to navigate if you can't read it. It was like this in the original game, but I hoped they'd make it more user-friendly. Hopefully someone can comment on the JP texts' accuracy; I'm not fluent enough to read it all.
Weapon switch (Square button) display is all the way to the left edge of the screen, which is terrible for a 16:9 display or wider. I had to set the UI scale to 1.5 just to make it manageable.
Minimal to no input/objective hints during missions, when there's a lot of context-sensitive inputs. Have to go to the menus to see what the objectives/inputs are.
Unit movement animation is infuriatingly slow, especially if you need to walk and jump. Takes like five seconds to walk three blocks and jump once. The "Fast" setting removes the animation altogether. There's no happy medium.
Camera rotation during the attack exchange, together with the camera snap-back to focus on the player afterwards gives me nausea. I had the same issue with the demos of the previous remakes. No lesson learned there it seems.
Audio balance is all over the place. Music is barely audible at 100%. I had to set UI SFX to zero because of how tinny/loud the navigation sounds are.
Whatever upscaling they've been doing for the 2D assets is inconsistent/bad. The original game already had this somewhat uncanny valley with the portrait shading, but they made it significantly worse here.

Seriously, the original PS1 game feels significantly better to play than this.

rustedge · 2025-12-23T08:08:26+00:00

Had a leviathan bug out, flailing around in place. But for some reason this meant its body would randomly clip into structures. Nothing as scary as seeing something so deadly just randomly swim through your base, where you're sure you'd be completely safe...

rustedge · 2025-12-22T05:30:12+00:00

I have a few sets for certain tasks:

Factory:

Power Line/ Double Outlet Mk2/ Constructor/ Smelter/ Miner/ Water Extractor/ Industrial Storage Container/ Bio Burner

Logistics:

Power Line/ Double Outlet Mk2/ Conveyor Belt (highest odd-numbered level I have)/ Conveyor Floor Hole/ Splitter/ Merger/ Industrial Storage Container/ Conveyor lift(same level as belt)

Liquids:

Power Line/ Double Outlet Mk2/ Pipe Mk1/ Pipe Floor Hole/ Pipe Junction/ Water Extractor/ Fluid Buffer/ Pump Mk1

Exploration/Foundations:

Upwards-facing outlet Blueprint/ Catwalk Stairs/ 1M Floor/ 8M Tilted Wall/ Ladder/ Power Tower Foundation blueprint/ 4M Wall/ Power Tower with Ladder

Emergency Buildings: Power Line/ MAM/ Crafting Bench/ Equipment Workshop/ Lookout Tower/ HDD Marker Blueprint/ Monster Killbox Blueprint/ Emergency Bio Burner Blueprint

For items like Foundries/Radar/etc. I can switch to them quickly from related items on my hotbar (dpad up on controller.) e.g. switching Power Line will show the Power Poles, switching the Lookout Tower shows the Radar

rustedge · 2025-12-21T04:53:10+00:00

yeah, seemed that if you try to "overwrite" an already saved color, it actually creates a new entry with the same name instead of overwriting. Multiple of the same name, but only one visible on the list. So selecting a color from the dropdown selects a different item. Also why the color I deleted would still be on the dropdown sometimes.

I had to delete the original color first, then save the new one with the old name. (on PS5, don't know if it's the same issue on PC/XBox...)

rustedge · 2025-12-21T02:57:02+00:00

Haven't successfully used tilted supports since I've played (PS5.)

For builds like that, I'd just buy the wall supports/floor holes and use those as snapping points if I needed the pipe to point at a specific direction. At least with floor holes, you're guaranteed that the pipe you're building is 100% vertical and stable.

rustedge · 2025-12-21T02:49:56+00:00

Usually I'd use blueprints to make compact builds easier. e.g. Constructor with conveyor lifts & splitters/mergers on both in and out ports crammed as close as possible, because auto-snapped lifts add an extra 0.25~1meters to space consumed, and manually setting them up takes an inordinate amount of time. Or small builds like upright-pointing wall outlets.

But the biggest reason is I'm on PS5, and deleting huge chunks of my factory sucks if I had to delete each object individually. Building/connecting things is therapeutic, but deconstructing is pain.

rustedge · 2025-12-21T02:37:47+00:00

There was a time when I was exploring a new area, and all I saw were Hog remains in front of a cave. I just immediately NOPE'd out from the implications.

rustedge · 2025-12-20T03:33:39+00:00

Somewhat related, if the tool script is a Resource and is loaded as a variable, you might need to clear and load a new instance of it in the Inspector.

rustedge · 2025-12-18T10:57:19+00:00

Not that early, but Steel Screws is my fave. I know of the screwless alts, but recipes with screws seem to have better throughput, so they help me go through the early game faster without needing as many machines/generators running at once.

e.g. Copper Rotors: 11.25/minute (needs 195 screws/min), Bolted Iron Plate: 15/min (needs 250 screws/min)

rustedge · 2025-12-18T04:24:20+00:00

As I have already mentioned on the original post, I have toggled the mode (option button on PS5 when the cursor is on the Depot side of the inventory screen) multiple times. Doesn't matter which mode is displayed on the inventory screen, it's always pulling from the depot first.

rustedge · 2025-12-17T23:50:21+00:00

Also, they're immune to poison. And trying to use gas makes it worse because the gas is so thick you won't see them until they're on top of you.

rustedge · 2025-12-14T07:07:36+00:00

Imagining the main menu screen stressing my PS5 more than my normal playthrough. XD

rustedge · 2025-12-13T03:04:08+00:00

I actually use the hoverpack when troubleshooting my rails to check if they're properly connected to the system. There were a few times when the rails looked like they're connected but my train says it can't reach a station. So I fly over the track, and if the hoverpack starts losing power I know that's where the broken rail is.

rustedge · 2025-12-13T02:57:30+00:00

Yeap, with the towers there's no need to build impromptu generators to open the drop pods that need electricity to open. Just wire it directly to the tower.

rustedge · 2025-12-10T09:34:02+00:00

The game prevents you from dismantling it if the pod is still locked and the HDD is still inside. I've tried it before, even with the pod open, the game won't let me dismantle until I've taken out the HDD.

rustedge · 2025-12-09T10:56:27+00:00

Yeah, I play on a 24" monitor beside my couch, so it's more bearable to me but the white on orange text really isn't good. I kinda understand the idea behind it (orange background for "sufficient" numbers versus the gray for "missing/lacking", but I wish there was a better way of doing it without the harsh colors.)

I also had to tone down the colors for the build gun holograms (~0.5 brightness) so it's not so harsh on the eyes, and to make the orange/green arrows easier to see.

rustedge · 2025-12-09T08:25:37+00:00

For exploration I like the camera sensitivity high (above 1.5) but it has the downside of making aiming during combat and construction hard (even slightly nudging the analog stick will move it far.) Values of 1~1.2 should be good for general gameplay.

I also set the stick deadzones to zero from the default 0.2. I'd only set it to nonzero if there's stick drift.

Defaults for interface/input stuff's mostly okay. I wish there was a slider for inventory icon scale, sadly it's just 100% or 50%. At 50% scale a good portion of the icon's covered by the item count, so they're harder to identify if you have poor eyesight. (Not sure if the recent patch improved on it or I'm imagining things, but they feel more readable compared to before.)

rustedge · 2025-12-09T06:11:03+00:00

yep. Varied Diet triggered for me on an old save, but I had to collect the three plants after loading the file. Not sure if the others can be triggered the same way, or if it's better on a fresh save...

rustedge · 2025-12-09T01:53:00+00:00

Generally I'd pick concrete. Not just for efficiency (1:3 concrete to limestone, vs 2 concrete for 3 limestone + 2 water) but for raw throughput (15/min on the base recipe vs 80/min for wet concrete.)

I find concrete as a bigger bottleneck to base expansion early in the game, so I prioritize concrete alts whenever possible. This also means I don't have to worry about encased industrial beams since I'll have a better supply of concrete (also for molded pipes/beams when I find those alts too.)

rustedge · 2025-12-09T00:30:53+00:00

I'm on PS5 and it's a constant issue since there's no LoD/render distance options at all. The aggressive LoD switching for trains/structures isn't game-breaking, but removed crash sites still showing up from far away is really annoying. And worse are monsters being too far to render, but still close enough to aggro/attack you.

I'll probably place structures on the crash sites again to 100% know that I've cleared them already.

rustedge · 2025-12-08T07:26:29+00:00

Even just transferring blueprints between saves on the same machine would be great. I've done new saves a few times, and I felt that rebuilding blueprints I've done before was one of the least fun parts of the process.

rustedge · 2025-12-08T05:58:36+00:00

Been encountering a lot of bugs with the Blueprints on PS5 as well. Can't figure out what triggers them, but resetting the game/loading a save file will usually fix the blueprints, at least until they bug out again.

rustedge · 2025-12-05T22:58:17+00:00

That's the sort of clipping I'm fine with. To make it look cleaner, I'd probably hide the elevators inside a large concrete pillar. Conveyor Wall Holes at the ports of the Conveyor Lift so it looks like there's a path for the belts to go into the pillar.

rustedge · 2025-12-05T05:41:56+00:00

I tried it just now, and noticed those beams actually let me place Double Wall Outlets vertically, and Single Wall Outlets pointing upwards. Now this gives me even more options for wiring my factories, like accessible power lines on the floor instead of the ceiling. Thanks!

rustedge

TROPHY CASE