Square Enix might have seen the first Front Mission game on Nintendo DS perform slightly lower than expected, but clearly the Japanese sales of 80,000-plus units for what was basically a Super Nintendo / PSone port were sufficient enough to warrant a new Front Mission being given the green-light. Now the follow-up has been re-confirmed for Japan.

Going under the full title of ‘Front Mission 2089: Border of Madness’ is another entry into the semi-popular mecha strategy role-playing series, this time stemming from a mobile phone game of the same name. The scenario takes place one year before Front Mission 1 (The Second Huffman Conflict), with players getting to explore the events leading up to the Larcus Incident from the very first game, meaning that owners of the DS remake / port of Front Mission 1st should feel right at home with this effort. The game’s Producer, Koichiro Sakamoto has previously been quoted as saying:

“The mobile phone version was a success, however looking at survey results from the fans, most have commented that they do not play games on their cell phones. This game has strong links with the main story of the series and we wanted to allow more people to play this game, so we decided on releasing it on the DS.”

The Nintendo DS edition will also have significant improvements over the mobile edition, with cut-scene events being included, albeit in still animation format, whilst storyline amendments have been made to improve the scenario. As Front Mission Series Producer Toshiro Tsuchida states,

“We have rewritten the script of the game. With the mobile phone version we could only release three chapters in a month, so it was difficult to keep the pacing. But now with the DS, we can tell the story in a more linear fashion. It’s not a complete overhaul where the ending will be different, but you will see some parts of the stories which are quite different from the original mobile phone version.”

Finally, the graphical side has been upped considerably over the mobile version and those found in the DS edition of Front Mission 1st, whilst obviously touch-screen functionality is now in as well, so that gamers can easily customise their mechs more efficiently than before.

Expect even more details as the game’s 29th May Japanese release date draws ever closer.