Towns and cities act as intermission points where the player can organize and set up their units for the upcoming mission.

Where the game differs significantly from its predecessors lies mainly through a new combat feature – the ability to attack the pilots themselves.

Players can now browse through the pseudo-Internet, send and receive e-mail messages, tinker with online files and wallpapers, or use the new Battle Simulator feature.

Through this, the player can augment a wanzer's armor coating (known as "Def-C"), the accuracy of its weapons, increase its jumping power to scale buildings, or equip it with rollers to dash on flat surfaces quickly.

Set in October 2112, the story of Front Mission 3 takes place in Southeast Asia, revolving around the cold war between the Oceania Cooperative Union (OCU) and the People's Republic of Da Han Zhong (DHZ).

Central Parliament allows the United States of the New Continent (USN) to send in peacekeeping forces to resolve these conflicts.

Eventually, the supranational union is pushed to the breaking point in 2112 when a mysterious explosion occurs at a Japanese Defense Force (JDF) base in Japan.

There are two plots of Front Mission 3, and both revolve around Japanese wanzer test pilots Kazuki Takemura and Ryogo Kusama.

Realizing that his sister Alisa was recently transferred to the base, Kazuki and Ryogo eventually find themselves back inside the complex.

Wondering why they are being chased, Emma or Liu tells the two that the JDF stole a top-secret USN weapon called MIDAS from a base in Alaska, and that the explosion came from a failed attempt to reproduce it.

With MIDAS apparently gone for good, the group moves to the DHZ where they become involved in the government's battle against the USN-aided Hua Lian Rebels.

Their leader, Lukav Minaev, also reveals that Emir and Alisa were also both created by the project, and that two scientists who adopted them as family helped them escape before they were killed.

The Imaginary Numbers flee to Japan where they support a coup d'état hatched by Masao Sasaki, the ultra-nationalist JDF Chief of Staff who ordered the Alaska raid.

They manage to defeat the coup forces, clear their names and pursue the Imaginary Numbers back to Ocean City, a floating island located off Okinawa.

Although they finally defeat the Imaginary Numbers and safely detonate the original MIDAS out at sea, the game's ending will either be resolved or left ambiguous depending on the scenario chosen.

[7] Front Mission 3 was the first game produced in-house by Square, who had bought out and incorporated original developer G-Craft.

[10] As with other entries in the Front Mission series, the team consciously drew their inspirations from sources other than traditional mecha anime and manga.

[12] The game's musical score, Front Mission 3 Original Soundtrack, was composed and arranged by Koji Hayama, Hayato Matsuo, and SHIGEKI.

[17] Yukiyoshi Ike Sato of GameSpot noted that the Japanese version may be a title worth introducing the franchise to American audiences, but criticized its graphics for being a notch lower than Front Mission 2.

[23] Derek Williams of AllGame gave it four stars out of five and said, "Front Mission 3's deep, strategic gameplay makes up for most any of the flaws.

"[30] Edge praised the missions for their varied objectives and special events, but criticized the game's limited tactical possibilities, giving it six out of ten and stating that "there's none of the learning progression of wargames that gradually release more sophisticated units and abilities, so it's simply a matter of grasping the basics and applying them over and over.

"[24] GamePro summed up the review by saying, "Even if you're not a fan of the genre, Front Mission 3 is sure to attract RPG and strategy enthusiasts alike.