Everything here is on a greater scale than in Tactics you're in charge of around a half-dozen units and are dealing with over twice that many foes on a huge tactical map in almost every encounter. You and your opponent take turns ordering your respective troops around the field in a manner not unlike Square's more familiar Final Fantasy Tactics. Most of your time with Front Mission Second will be spent engaged in dozens of different large-scale battles where your team of Wanzer pilots fend off scores of powerful enemies to succeed. Meanwhile, booming sound effects do justice to the Wanzers' terrifying weapon systems. Its audio is equally top-of-the-line, with a stirring, dramatic soundtrack highlighting every moment of action and suspense, even during the game's cleverly concealed load times. Front Mission Second's Wanzers look superior to even the best-looking mecha games out there, such as From Software's Armored Core. They move gracefully but with tremendous momentum, dwarfing cars and trees and rivaling the skyscrapers that sprinkle the detailed 3D background scenery.
Here, the Wanzers look like the 50-ton steel monstrosities they're meant to be. Suddenly, once shots are fired, the action switches to an extreme close-up of the Wanzers duking it out in real time. The turn-based battles play out on isometric polygonal battlefields that look great but become uncomfortably cluttered when many little bitmapped units pack in close. The same technology that lent Final Fantasy VII its stunning 3D battle graphics is back in Front Mission Second. This political problem makes for a king of a strategy game: Front Mission Second (officially titled Front Mission Second), the PlayStation sequel to an excellent but little-seen 1995 Super Famicom title, offers the unprecedented quality across the board that fans have paradoxically come to expect from Square. You're caught in the middle of this volatile 22nd century war, a mercenary in command of a handful of mighty walking war machines called Wanzers, and you stand to sway the revolution in one direction or the other. The tiny region on the Asian border of Australia, tired of being oppressed under the Oceana Community Union, rebels against its ruling government with intent for independence. All is not right in the People's Republic of Alordesh.