Volk - Left Alive (2019)
Designed By: Takayuki Yanase
The Volk! A neat wanzer from Left Alive, the Volk is a design I really enjoy. I know a lot of thoughts on the game were mixed but with it being in the future of the Front Mission universe, the Volk feels like a suitable followup to prior wanzers. I really love the plates on the collar that can flip forward, and also how like, the shoulders themselves feature shield binders that have a hardpoint on them! Prior FM designs usually went with shoulders either having shields, or having weapons, but usually not both, so this sleek machine feeling overequipped makes it feel a bit more like a next-gen wanzer to me as well. Speaking on functions, the side skirt armor folding down for doing wheeled movement (Sadly I don't have art of this function, but I've seen in in-game), is another thing this has going for it.
Basically, it has all the modularity with weapons going on in theory, given the hardpoints and such, but also unlike other wanzers, which usually are simplified so their parts can be mixed and matched, this machine feels like a machine meant to solely exist on its own, and ultimately that's what I really like about it. While I like a lot of designs in Front Mission, Wanzers can suffer a bit sometimes from a thing that I feel can be common in customizable robot games: the individual parts not having enough identity to really stand on their own because they have to fit within the parameters of the game's customization functions. The Volk gets to bypass this by never having to worry about that lol, but in a way, that makes it feel suitable as a futuristic design within its setting.
