YMMV / Front Mission

• Anti-Climax Boss: In both scenarios, the final boss is a letdown.
  • The O.C.U. scenario has Driscoll - in his wanzer Mir Orlen. He has no ranged attacks, and is immobile. His second form is exactly the same as the other two times you beat his ass, while you're controlling a unit of virtual demigods at this point. It wasn´t so bad in the original SNES version, in which he can attack up to a range of 4 squares and up to 3 times in a turn.
  • In the U.C.S. scenario, the central antagonist is a Non-Action Guy, so you have to fight Gail and two Elite Mooks in "Type 11DS Ravens" wanzers. This is more challenging than the OCU route, but it's still easy due to only having three enemies (against you party of 6+) who lack long-range attacks.
• Complete Monster: Driscoll, real name Mikhail Ilyich Rezanov, is a USN captain who in reality is working for the Republic of Zaftra, in the hopes of making it the most powerful government on Earth. Forcing Koichi Sakata, the President of Sakata Industries, to work for him under threats of death, Driscoll has the company develop and produce the most powerful wanzers called "B-Type" and "S-Type Devices" by kidnapping the most experienced soldiers from both USN and OCU armies and removing their brains to use as computers. When an OCU reconnaissance unit, led by Royd Clive, was sent to investigate a USN munitions factory in the Larcus District, which in reality was a B-Device research facility, Driscoll destroyed it, to hide any trace of inhumane experiments, which started a bloody war between USN and OCU. Capturing Royd Clive's fiancée Karen during this incident, Driscoll removed her brain and used it for his own Mecha "Raven", taunting Royd about this when they fought several years later.
• Difficulty Spike: The first three missions of the notoriously unforgiving UCS Scenario in 1st are barely manageable on your first playthrough but it soon becomes downright impossible when you reach the fourth mission where you have to stop two rampaging Type 90X prototype Wanzers. Even though the prototypes are in critical condition, your weapons will (at best) inflict scratch damage on them while they can destroy your best available, albeit largely inferior, Pheasant wanzers with only a few devastating punches. To further complicate matters, you will automatically fail the mission if the prototypes reach the exit and escape which forces you to risk your units to rush into a blocking position in order to prevent that. The only way to have a sure chance at completing this mission without dying is to grind a hundred battles at the Arena which, in turn, makes the rest of the scenario disappointingly easy as you will now be overleveled.
• Genius Bonus: Remember Paul in 1st? The hippie, with the mech named "Rainbow"? Yes, you snorted and laughed at a weapon of war being named after pretty colors. Because you're not too familiar with The Bible. When the Flood is over, God sets His bow in the sky as a promise never to point it at humankind again. That's right. The rainbow is God's own personal planet-killing Wave-Motion Gun.
• Moral Event Horizon: Driscoll crosses this when he reveals what he did to Karen in 1st.
• Polished Port: A lot of effort was put in to making Front Mission 1st which is a re-release port of the original SNES game with additional content for the Playstation. Not only is the game an exceptional improvement overall but all of the graphics of the new content were made to the traditional isometric standard for nostalgia and consistency.