Front Mission 3 may be a title worth introducing the franchise to American audiences, but criticized its graphics for being a notch lower than Front Mission 2. IGN lauded the game's battle mechanics as rare in other Square installments since Final Fantasy Tactics, but cited the graphics transitions between overhead play and individual battles as spotty. Front Mission 4 holds a 75% on both GameRankings and Metacritic. North American reaction to the game was consistent across the board, receiving mixed to generally good reviews. It was praised for its deep gameplay, customizable wanzers, and high production values. On the disapproving side many felt the plot advanced at a sluggish pace, the AI was subpar, and the menu system was cumbersome at times. GameSpot gave generally positive feedback for Front Mission Online, describing how the game was successfully transforming the strategy game series into an action and combat based experience. In RPG Fan's Games of 2006 feature, they enumerated the reasons that Front Mission 5: Scars of the War was the Import RPG of the Year make note of the game's improvements and excellent execution in design and functionality. The game was also voted the runner-up Strategy RPG of the Year by RPG Fan in their "Games of 2006" awards. While the developers acknowledge the good reception of the cinematic focus of the game, they noted that later entries in the series would not necessarily follow the same direction. Greg Miller of IGN scored Front Mission Evolved a 6.0/10, calling it "uninspired" and that it would only appeal to "hardcore mech-heads". He commented that the missions were mainly "frustrating filler", and while the customization of the wanzer was enjoyable, it was often negated by missions "shoehorning you into annoying loadouts". Calling its story "less than stellar", he stated that "it doesn't feel like a full fledged game". IGN called Left Alive a “failure on every level”, with poor controls and game balances issues cited along with technical glitches. Destructoid praises the game's soundtrack and art direction, but highlighted the low resolution graphical textures that gave the game a “drab” look. They also noted “laughable” enemy physics, where killed enemies bodies would jump in the air however they died. They further describes voice acting as “varied”, from decent, to sounding like the actors “gave up” after one take. Kotaku loved the idea of urban warfare, including searching for improvised weapons to take