Front Mission 3

The mechanics of Front Mission 3 are a radical departure from Front Mission and Front Mission 2. While it is a tactical role-playing game, there is a stronger emphasis on role-playing elements as opposed to strategic elements in Front Mission 3. The game progresses in a linear manner: watch cut-scene events, complete missions, set up wanzers during intermissions, and sortie for the next mission. The player travels to locations on a world map.

As the player progresses through the plot, new locations are revealed on the world map. Towns and cities act as intermission points where the player can organize and set up their units for the upcoming mission. New to Front Mission 3 is the Double Feature Scenario – this allows the player to experience two different scenarios that exist independently of one another within the game's storyline. In other words, the player can play through two stories; while they may share common events and environments, the stories are largely unique and in essence are fully-fledged games.

Set in October 2112, the story of Front Mission 3 takes place in Southeast Asia, revolving around the cold war between the Oceania Cooperative Union (OCU) and the People's Republic of Da Han Zhong (DHZ). U. in 2102, member-states within the union also formed their own separatist movements. Countries such as Indonesia and Singapore began voicing their anti-OCU sentiments, both through peaceful and non-peaceful means.

In 2106, pro-nationalist forces in the Philippines wage war on the government and their OCU handlers. U. Central Parliament allows the United States of the New Continent (USN) to send in peacekeeping forces to resolve these conflicts. Eventually, the supranational union is pushed to the breaking point in 2112 when a mysterious explosion occurs at a Japanese Defense Force (JDF) base in Japan.

Front Mission 3 was developed by Development Division 6 of Square, led by Toshirou Tsuchida. It was the fifth entry in the series after the two mainline entries and two spin-off titles. Front Mission 3 was the first game produced in-house by Square, who had bought out and incorporated original developer G-Craft. Production lasted two years, with the team using their experience creating Front Mission 2 for the PlayStation to polish and improve on the gameplay experience.

Akihiro Yamada acted as one of the game's artists. During production, several different characters went through multiple drafts, and some characters and concepts needed to be dropped. Kiyotaka Akaza acted as one of the programmers, while Ko Sato designed the battle system. As with other entries in the Front Mission series, the team consciously drew their inspirations from sources other than traditional mecha anime and manga.

The game received favorable reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 32 out of 40.

Yukiyoshi Ike Sato of GameSpot noted that the Japanese version may be a title worth introducing the franchise to American audiences, but criticized its graphics for being a notch lower than Front Mission 2. Sam Bishop of IGN lauded the game's battle mechanics as rare in other Square installments since Final Fantasy Tactics, but cited the graphics transitions between overhead play and individual battles as spotty. Derek Williams of AllGame gave it four stars out of five and said, "Front Mission 3's deep, strategic gameplay makes up for most any of the flaws. Chances are you'll be having so much fun with the strategic combat that you may not even pay attention to the story, or find yourself booting up the combat simulator more often than you advance the plot."