Front Mission 3

Front Mission 3 is a mech tactics game. Mech refers to the fact the game is all about giant military robots that are piloted by emotionally unbalanced cliches. And the tactics part means the game plays sort of like Wizard's Chess from Harry Potter. Kind of.

Kind of like this.

Front Mish Tres starts by introducing us to giant robot test pilot Stanuel Besticle (my name for him, not the game's). Stanuel is delivering some robots to a military base when there is an explosion. It's not really clear what caused it. Everyone seems OK though, and that's the end of that... until Stan gets an email from his sister. Turns out she was just transferred to the military base that day! Stanuel is understandably concerned for his sister's safety and decides to join an enemy spy in invading the depths of his own country's military base in the off chance that he runs into her.

Let's pause for a moment and think about what Kantian ethics has to say about this. Kantian ethics is all about asking yourself what would happen if everyone made the same choice in a given situation and extrapolating from there. In this case everyone is concerned for a loved one in the military. They heard a bad thing happened!  Now they could wait a single anxious day waiting for more news. They could try and get ahold of their loved one, which Stan does at first. But consider if everyone chooses to attack the military base their beloved is stationed at... you know, just to make sure they are alright. If everyone overreacted the way Stanuel does in Front Mission 3 than society would crumble within a year. 

"How could anyone mistake us for invaders in these massive weapons of war!?"

The plot of Front M3ss3on has some other problems as well. Stan's best friend is a party animal horndog from an 80's slacker movie. His entire character is so detached from the serious setting that the guy comes off as pretty deranged. The guy tags along for the whole 'attack our military base' thing because the enemy spy who arranged it is hot. That's not a good reason, guy! Also Best Friend has a bunch of banter with Stan but it doesn't come off as two guys lightheartedly ragging on one another- it sounds more like a couple in the midst of an acrimonious divorce. 

Front Mission 3, you need to hire a better writer.