Any chance for Square-Enix to remaster Front Mission 1-5 games?

Final Fantasy VII Remake took center stage at Square-Enix's press conference in E3 2019. Final Fantasy VIII Remaster also announced and might be released later of this year. Some Romancing Saga remaster games also announced as well. Perhaps the most surprising of them all is the remake of Seiken Densetsu 3 which the original SNES version never saw western release. With the success of its predecessor Secret of Mana Remake last year, I should see that coming.

Though I wasn't surprised that none of the Front Mission games ever got similar treatment but I was disappointed that FM games were forgotten by SE. The last game to be associated with FM series, at least that's how SE wants us to think itself as, is Left Alive and it was a crap with average 37 scores in metacritic for PS4 version alone(the PC version got 40 but that didn't say much). Waste of major talents(character and mech designers), graphics that don't meet today's standards, clunky controls, stupid AI, bullet-sponge enemies and even the best part of the game, mech-on-mech battles are few and far in between. It also heavily scripted and you just piloting it from point A to B. You have zero freedom piloting the mechs. SE apparently never learn previous game Evolved which released in 2010. Like Left Alive it was trashed by consumers and critics as well although not as bad as LA. It turns out SE isn't the only one who tried to make a turn-based strategy games into more action-oriented and failed. Sega tried their luck with Valkyria Revolution, a Dynasty Warriors-esque game that takes place in Valkyria Chronicles, while have decent sales thanks to good marketing campaign but it was a critical failure and finally went back to its TBS roots with its fourth installment. When Microprose closed its doors in 2003, X-COM games saw its first-person shooter and flight simulator spinoffs and all of them were forgotten until Civilization series developer Firaxis revived it as XCOM: Enemy Unknown in 2012 which back to its TBS roots like 1990s games.

Back to real topic why I asked for remaster and not brand-new entry to the franchise such as Front Mission 6 or remake of the most popular entry like third game instead? A "proper" turn-based sequel would likely ends up as a crappy and shallow free-to-play smartphone game because that's the only platform relevant to TBS game, at least seen from SE's perspective. Its server will be shutdown less than a year after its launch. As for remake, I'm afraid it would stray away from its original game like FF VII Remake which abandoned its turn-based gameplay for real-time hack-and-slash one in order to cater newer generations of gamers who most of them never played 1997 original. Expect Front Mission 3 Remake turns into a crappy Mechwarrior clone like Evolved and Left Alive if SE applied similar logic to it.

I know that SE will never make any more FM games, be it sequel, remake or remaster due to lack of demand and its market no longer exist but so far FM series is the only franchise I still like about SE even though I already gave up on Final Fantasy games years ago.

Sounds highly unlikely Square-Enix will put their efforts into remastering FM 1-5. I don't even think Front Mission was ever that popular here in the UK. Sure, I have definitely heard of it, but a lot of people I know have never heard of it.

That being said, it's all about demand and revenue. Looking at the state of Front Mission and the latest release of Left Alive, a remaster will never happen.

Maybe you could set up a petition or something. That could be a start of something to get the ball rolling.

@omegamaster: I think the combination of Square-Enix's lack of interest towards turn-based games in recent years and lack of interest in general public killed Front Mission games, at least the original TBS ones. Yes, SE can make more FM games but expect them to be a poor clones of Mechwarrior or Armored Core.

I also know that FM games don't do well in UK and other European countries and there's a good explanation for it. When Front Mission 3 released in Europe in early 2000s, PS1 market already in decline. Front Mission 4 did not enter European market because it failed in North America. Well, "failed" is not an accurate word to describe it because it sold more than FM3 but due to large print runs, SE ends up losing more money than they can make. In other words SE overestimated the game's popularity in the west especially in North America. Following the FM4's massive flop in NA, SE did not bring FM5 to the west until some very dedicated fans released a translation patch for it many years later. First FM game was remade in 2009 for Nintendo DS but with very minimal marketing campaign and being in the late of Nintendo DS lifespan, it was ignored by most gamers at best.

Just like you said a petition is the only way to gain SE attention but unfortunately I don't think it will work as FM series are nowhere as popular as Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts games.

I don't know about remasters, but I don't see why they couldn't release the originals with translations in a collection or something. I would definitely be interested in one.