Front Mission Alternative[a] is a real-time tactics video game developed and published by Square, and was released in Japan on December 18, 1997.

Player units set to defensive maneuvers, on the other hand, will use shields to block enemy fire and prefer to fight at close ranges.

Based on how well or poorly the player performs in specific missions, they can unlock new story scenarios to play and new endings to view.

The range system affects battles in that distance is factored into weapon accuracy and a unit's evasive maneuvers.

These include: anti-missile guns, night vision sensors, vernier packs, flare dispensers, radar antennas, and ECM devices.

Alternative expands on this feature significantly: briefings now reveal enemy threats, mission objectives, and topography conditions, using pictures to illustrate these details.

In the early 21st century, nations around the world form regional entities to combat a global recession and other crises.

While many regions thrive under their newly formed supranational unions, the nations of Africa fall deeper into environmental, racial, and ethnic conflicts.

Tensions rise and with diplomatic efforts failing, the nations go to war, leading to the outbreak of the African Conflict.

Piloting a new bipedal weapons platform called the wanderwagen or WAW, the IMAC successfully quells the violence across the continent.

As they travel north to support the Western African Liberation Front, the company starts encountering unknown WAWs and WAW-vehicle hybrids known as "mobile weapons" being used by terrorist forces.

The EC intervenes through the deployment of an elite anti-terrorism unit, but appear to be aiding the UNAS in prolonging the war.

As the IMAC starts fighting their way into UNAS territory, they uncover connections between the terrorist uprisings, civil conflicts, the true cause of the war, and how the EC factors into the situation.