Front Mission Evolved was the last game in the franchise to be released by Square Enix, and that was over nine years ago. In an interview with 4Gamer (as translated by Siliconera), Left Alive director and Armored Core veteran Toshifumi Nabeshima discussed how the upcoming spinoff game will be derived from the Front Mission series.

When Left Alive was initially announced in 2017, it wasn’t immediately clear that it was actually set in the Front Mission universe. The main reason for this is because there was no ‘Front Mission‘ in the title, unlike other games in the series. Nabeshima explained on why this decision was made:

“We did consider it a lot, but as it would make players think it was a simulation game like the other games in the series, we ended up not using it. It was rough sailing deciding the title of the game, as I’m not very good at it.

Overseas staff proposed ‘Alive’, and from that, we decided the title, Left Alive. You’re not just living, something else is letting you live. The nuance that you’ve been abandoned while still alive fits the game perfectly.”

Nabeshima also said that he envisioned Front Mission as “game themed around war rather than one themed around robots”. To him, what makes Left Alive “Front Mission-like” is “the depiction of how the protagonist of the game sees war unfold”. That’s a great way of describing the franchise to gamers who think it’s only about robots.

Veteran fans may not like the third-person action-heavy approach that the franchise has been taking instead of its classic turn-based tactical RPG gameplay. Nabeshima believes that it would be more in line with the game’s “survival” theme to make players control humans instead of commanding a battalion of Wanzers (the franchise’s iconic mechs) like they did in older games:

“Because having your own Wanzer doesn’t really lend any room for the theme of survival. We did consider making it a simulation game, but I’ve always made action games, and wanted to play to my strengths.

And the result of this is the survival action game Left Alive, where we see humans struggling in the war.”

Left Alive is slated to release for the PS4 and PC on 5 March 2019. Head on over here for more details on pricing and additional content for the PS4 version of the game. In the meantime, check out 14 minutes worth of Left Alive gameplay footage in the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw3srn5gggY&w=560&h=315]