Front Mission Alternative is a Humongous Mecha Strategy RPG Real-Time Strategy video game published and developed by Square Enix (back when Squaresoft was around) for the PlayStation console, released on December 18, 1997. This was developed at the same time as Front Mission 2. The game was only made available in Asia. FMA was made to recoup costs from developing Front Mission 2.
FMA is (in terms of canon) the earliest in the video game series to start from the African Conflict in 2034. It is a time when the wanzers were seriously being considered as the next military weapon while conflicts take place throughout Africa, known then as the wanderwagen or WAW. At the same time, it is during the AC where supernations were being formed. It was also at the time when these supernations intervened. For instance, the European Community (EC) and the Oceania Cooperative Union (OCU) assisted in the formation of the Organization of African Consolidation (OAC). But unity in the OAC didn't last long; disputes began to forment from within the Union of Northern African States (UNAS), the South African United States (SAUS), the Community of Central African States (CA), the East African Communities (EA), and the West African States Community Union (WA).
The game is based on the perspective of the Independent Mobile Assault Company (IMAC), a joint military unit consisting of soldiers from the OCU and the SAUS led by Lt. Earl Mc Coy. The IMAC was deployed in peacekeeping operations (PKOs) to assist SAUS forces quell revolts and take on guerrillas and anti-government contractors alike. Players assume the role of Bruce Blakewood, who's an OCU soldier assigned to serve in IMAC. Ide Sangohr is a SAUS soldier assigned to work with IMAC.
IMAC forces begin to learn that the EC has deployed its troops to support UNAS through the Cerberus Garde, its elite anti-terrorist unit led by Gustav Zelman. Bu IMAC intelligence suggests that they're there to help UNAS forces prolong the war. From there, it leads to all sorts of conspiracies, including why civil conflicts have erupted in Africa.
Front Mission Alternative provides examples of:
- Elites Are More Glamorous: The Cerberus Garde serves as the EC's anti-terrorist unit, deployed to Africa to assist the UNAS.
- Multinational Team: The IMAC is made of members from various OAC states and the OCU.
- Private Military Contractors: The Sinsemilla were hired to intervene in the conflicts in Africa.
- Pyrrhic Victory: In the real ending of Alternative, the IMAC halted the Cerberus Garde's final attempt to prolong the war by killing the OAC regional state leaders at a peace treaty signing. Also, with help from outside sources, the IMAC disclosed tons of evidence of the EC's machinations in the African Conflict to the OAC. In light of these revelations, the OAC demanded that the EC withdraw all of its influences from Africa. While it was then truly independent, the OAC's fortunes didn't get any better. References in 5 reveal that the OAC is still plagued with civil conflicts, terrorism and economic recession all these decades later. One soldier even muses that they were better off back when the EC was aiding them.
- Squad Nickname: There's the IMAC (Independent Mobile Assault Company), Bamia, Sinsemilla, and the Cerberus Garde.
- Super Prototype: Mary-Jane Delschaft (Alternative) piloted the Belladonna Atropa, an experimental WAW armed with an assault rifle and capable of some flight through its verniers. Those verniers can also be used for extremely fast ground-based movement, which Mary-Jane uses with devastating effect when you fight her for the last time in the true ending.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: With Dal Furphy when he jumps in front of Liebert Dwyer's machine gun fire to shield Earl McCoy.
- Time Skip: In Alternative, roughly four months pass whenever one of the story's chapters complete.
- World Tour: You'll travel to Algeria, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Morocco, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zambia.