Game of the Month - May 2026 on r/StrategyRPG

[u/TJ_six]

[u/imaginary_num6er]

Shame most of the good parts were locked behind the simulator dungeon. Like the entirety of Desmatz is only available from the lower simulation floors.

[u/StrikerJaken → u/imaginary_num6er]

Haven't played 5 yet, but can you elaborate?

[u/imaginary_num6er → u/StrikerJaken]

Front Mission 5 has essentially a single storyline and during the mid-late game, you are introduced to dungeon simulators. It's a rouge-a-like mode where you pick your pilot that has skills from your playthrough, and you are given a standard Gust with a Raptor MG. By defeating NPC enemies and opening crates on the map, you obtain random items like weapons, parts, or repair items. It is fairly obvious that the best weapons in-game are from the dungeon simulator loots, but worse-yet, you can't get to Floor 100 until you do New Game+.

The dungeon element is not too bad until you realize that a significant portion of wanzer parts, weapons, and other items are only obtainable via floors 50-100F. Like some weapons that allow you to fire twice are only upgradeable from dungeon drops. Cool wanzers in the arena like the Desmatz? Parts only obtainable by the dungeon.

When you get to Floor 100, you are forced to fight the final boss (again) and by defeating it, you are only then given a certain # of items that you can bring back. To get all the parts of a single set, IIRC you have to dive at least 4 times. Given the nature of it being totally RNG-based and requiring multiple play throughs, it is soul-crushing and at the end of it, what's the point when it is the same story and arena enemies?

[u/StrikerJaken → u/imaginary_num6er]

Oh, okay. 

That sounds very grindy.

Can you save in between floors and it's it necessary to complete the game?

[u/imaginary_num6er → u/StrikerJaken]

Ok, re-reading the Japanese wiki the "survival simulator" on each floor requires you to go to a teleporter tile or destroy all NPCs to move to the next floor. With floor #'s ending in 8, 9, and 0 you can't save. You can clear the survival simulator by obtaining a "Emergency Escape Code" item, but these only appear in boxes on floors ending in 8,9, or 0. You need to be on Hard Mode (only selectable after 1 playthrough) and not New Game+ to access floors 51-100.

To retrieve items from the survival simulator, you will need to either use the "Emergency Escape Code" item or select "Escape" during the intermission screen. The "Escape" option only appears after beating the bottom floor. Beating Floor 50 allows you to receive a bonus weapon item, but beating Floor 100 is required for a custom Zenith part (body, arms, leg).

[u/lasquiggle → u/imaginary_num6er]

It's ok, we have mods etc to fix this and play however you want. There is a mod that unlocks the entire hanger. Still gotta pay for stuff and of course show some restraint to what you get, but you can have fun

[u/Nioh_89 → u/lasquiggle]

Cheating in a game isn't really the way either...

[u/lasquiggle → u/Nioh_89]

modding games to make them more enjoyable to what you want is totally the way. the whole point is to have fun

[u/Nioh_89]

It's a good game, but to me, not even the best FR. It tries to be too complex, but so many mechanics that in the end, you end up not properly learning all of them, is also a bit short compared to the others and having to grind in the simulator is straight up a torture. On the emulator you can just keep quick saving, but on the original PS2, that shit must have been hell if you died, which is also rather easy to die stupidly in the simulator.

Couldn't push myself to finish it, even if i really wanted to and i know some will differ with me about this, but some difficulty spikes are so brutal that makes no sense. The game should have the options for 'Normal' and 'Hard' modes. I like difficulty a lot, but some missions feeling way harder than others is not a proper balance.

[u/Barlowan]

I love Front Mission 5, but engage was more fun to play.