Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War

""This is the Round Table. Dead men's words hold no meaning.""

In this, the seventh game in the Ace Combat series (released in 2006), a journalist from the Osean Federation, in the world of Strangereal, named Brett Thompson films a documentary on the history of the Belkan War, which was alluded to in the previous game. In 1995, the Belkan Federation began an invasion of the autonomous Republic of Ustio, hoping to reclaim the resource-rich territory that had once been theirs. 90% of Ustio's air force was destroyed in the opening days of the war and as they were overrun, Belka turned its attention towards the Osean Federation, the Union of Yuktobanian Republics and their allies. Unamused, the allied nations sided with Ustio and delivered a smackdown of national proportions and everyone lived happily ever after, right? Well...

In its final days, Ustio took desperate measures and recruited a number of mercenary pilots in a last ditch effort to fend off the encroaching Belkans. One of these pilots is the true interest of Thompson, a legendary ace known as the Demon Lord of the Round Table. In his time, he was known by the callsign, Cipher, and was number one of the Galm Squadron alongside Larry "Pixy" Foulke, aka Solo Wing. As Cipher, you play through the most famous battles of the Belkan War and deal with its bloody and tragic aftermath.

In terms of the Ace Combat series, The Belkan War differs mainly in its presentation of the story. It takes the form of a retrospective using live action actors to play the parts and invests a significant amount of effort in demonstrating the extent to which the Demon Lord affected the lives of everyone who fought him.

The events that take place in this game are not to be confused with the other Belkan War that brought about the downfall of an ancient empire, though the similarities are strong and Shout Outs to this game abound.

"Pixy: Galm 2 to Crow 3, if you get shot down, crash where I can't see you. PJ: Uh, Roger, leave it to me."
 * A Father to His Men: Silber One to his squad.
 * Air Jousting:
 * The Alliance: The Osean-led Alliance against Belka.
 * Always Someone Better: Larry "Solo Wing Pixy" Foulke starts the game more notorious than the player character Cipher, and mentions at the end of the first mission that "he (Cipher) had potential." He goes on to have a friendly relationship with Cipher and refers to him as "Buddy" whenever possible
 * Arc Words: "Yo, Buddy, you still alive?"
 * Badass Army: The Belkan Air Force.
 * Badass Back: Gelb Squadron's Su-37's can fire missiles backwards, as can . Truth in Television: Some of the latest AAMs, like the Python 4/5 or AA-11/R-73, have a 360-degree targetting capability.
 * Badass Boast:"This is our turf and we'll fly how we please!" - Schnee One
 * For a Well-Intentioned Extremist organization, A World With No Boundaries gets a pretty one.
 * Badass Crew: The Galm Team (more-so )
 * Badass Spaniard: Espada frikkin' One and Two. Suerte Squadron? Not so much. On a different level, the hispanic instruments in "Zero" are part of what makes it one of the most badass, if not the most badass, tune in the series.
 * Made even more badass with Espada team being a Battle Couple.
 * Bait and Switch Boss: Happens in the Gauntlet on the highest difficulty.
 * Big Damn Heroes: The player is this to the Osean air force in Mission 10.
 * Big Lipped Alligator Moment: In-Universe, the FALKEN is just given to you when you unlock it. It really has no mention anywhere in the storylines of The Unsung War or Zero. This is Gameplay and Story Segregation, as the Morgan is very clearly an early version of the FALKEN, with standard jet engines, a normal cockpit and a less efficient laser weapon. The FALKEN doesn't exist when Zero takes place, it's just a bonus.
 * The X-02 Wyvern is the same. It's a bonus given to you when you unlock it. It's description still says it's the latest in Erusian technology, even though it wouldn't be developed until the Erusian War many years later.
 * Mostly averted with the Morgan itself, which comes out of nowhere to fight you, but its defenses are addressed when you encounter it.
 * Bilingual Bonus: Knowing some German (and to a lesser degree, Russian and Spanish) helps you recognize references.
 * Book Ends: It is snowing during both the first and last missions of the game.
 * Boss-Only Level: The final mission is just one long fight against the final boss.
 * Boss Remix: "Zero".
 * Boss Rush: The bonus stage 'Gauntlet' allowed the player to face four randomly chosen enemy ace squadrons in a row.
 * Bonus Boss: But only on the Ace difficulty. Eliminate Espada Squadron in under a minute, and you get to fight . Regular missions also often have optional aces you can down, but these aren't really harder than the compulsory ones.
 * Call Back: Among the aces duking it out at the Round Table are Heartbreak One and Huckebein the Raven.
 * Call to Agriculture: Dietrich Kellerman with his farm.
 * Chasing Your Tail: Inverted for the final mission, as noted in the King Arthur trope entry below, you have to attack head on... essentially "a missile-enhanced game of chicken."
 * Cherry Tapping: Beating  with the A-10 Thunderbolt/Warthog (close air support ground attack), F-117A Nighthawk (stealth ground attack) or EA-6B Prowler (electronic warfare, and due to how its ECMP works possibly even more useless in most missions), none of which are meant to be an air superiority fighter... or try a gunkill. On Ace. Then Serial Escalate and smack the Gauntlet, ending with Mobius One and his Raptor using an Ace Nighthawk Gunkill. Or take a ride in a J35J Draken and Hoist That One Badass Spaniard Alberto "Espada One" Lopez By His Own Starting Plane.
 * Cold War: Happens between Osea and Yuktobania prior to Zero and in the period between it and 5.
 * Combat Commentator: Pretty much any radio chatter that doesn't pertain to your mission objectives.
 * Disc One Nuke: The F-5E, one of your three starting planes, is equipped with QAAMs. It's balanced by only carrying four, but still, that's effectively four free air kills.
 * Downer Ending: Some of the pilots that you (have to) shoot down do not have happy endings, or at least must have taken quite the hit to the ego in their postwar lives: Anthony "Lucan" Palmer works for an insurance company, Dominic "Vulture" Zubov is a fugitive war criminal, Franz Breitner (Indigo 4) was killed after the Belkan War in a crossfire with guerillas while visiting a village on behalf of a children's charity, and Marcela "Macarena" Vasquez's beloved flight lead Alberto Lopez does not long survive being shot down by Galm 1: in the Mercenary story path he's killed when his J35J Draken fighter is destroyed, in Soldier he eventually passed away from his injuries suffered that day, and in Knight he eventually returned to the sky only to die there. Possibly the most visible would be former Belkan Air Force poster boy turned history professor Detlef "Red Swallow" Fleisher who wouldn't even look directly at the camera, still unable to swallow his pride and accept his defeat by mercenaries.
 * Named enemy pilots whose defeat is not required include: Hariman Reinhardt, who had to retire due to vision problems; Dietmar Wolf was dubiously tried as a war criminal (though the charges were dismissed); Yuri Dashkov's own wingman testified against him after their capture; and there's Daniel Bierofka the car salesman...
 * On the other hand, the narrator later says that "They always had a slight smile on their faces" whenever they talked about the Demon Lord. Perhaps the point of the interviews is to say that the only glory in war is to live long enough to see its end. In fact, the final line in the trailer of Zero is "There is only one rule in war: Survive".
 * Dude, Where's My Respect?: Beautifully averted. Zero is the king of all AC heroes in the respect department: some of the cutscenes between missions are full-motion video interviews with ace pilots about you, the Demon Lord of the Round Table, ten years later.
 * The Empire: Belka.
 * Episode Zero: The Beginning
 * Evil Is Easy: Not so much. You get better planes, yes, but you have to defeat ace squadrons flying them against you first, and you have to take time to destroy yellow targets to stay evil. It definitely pays better, though. That's not to say the ace squadrons specific to that path are much more difficult than the others, but they do tend to outnumber you more severely than other squads.
 * Face Heel Turn: . Even though he's obviously reconciled with the player character by the time of his video interview,.
 * Fatal Family Photo: Though was never considered the sharpest tool in the shed, his sense of Genre Blindness reaches a head when the last words out of his mouth are "I'm gonna ask her to marry me when I get back, I even bought flowers!" Boom.
 * Featureless Protagonist: The game's framing device is an attempt to figure out anything about the player character beyond their actions in the sky.
 * For Massive Damage: " only weak point is in the front air intake. You'll have to attack it head on."
 * Gameplay Ally Immortality: Averted with the mission-critical carrier OFS Kestrel, and only if you choose Operation Costner for your fourth mission.
 * Genre Blindness: A particularly cruel example with PJ: "Now the war is finally over. I got a girlfriend back at the base. I'm gonna propose to her when I get back. I even bought flowers." Three seconds later,
 * Gratuitous German: Subverted, all of the Belkan Air Force ace pilots are named with German words such as Schnee (Snow), Rot (Red) and Schwann (Swan), sometimes however, they do get the translations wrong (Grun for example is supposed to have an umlaut over the U)
 * Grey and Gray Morality: Ace Combat Zero has this in spades, though it is possible by attaining Supreme Knight to make Cipher almost totally "white".
 * Gosh Dang It to Heck: P.J's last words  "DANG IT!" Notable for being the only time P.J. loses his cool; he also sounds genuinely furious, not like he's toning down his language.
 * Hufflepuff House: Ustio and Sapin are this to Osea and Yuktobania despite the fact that the player character is from one of these Third-Party Countries.
 * 100% Completion: Gives you a few cosmetic bonuses.
 * Insult Backfire: An amusing conversation between Pixy and PJ:

"Bomber pilot: Turn it to ashes! (pause) That's not enough! DROP MORE BOMBS!!"
 * Even funnier if you're playing Knight: PJ cheerfully agrees with Pixy's "order."
 * Interface Screw: The briefing interface is screwed with by the Hresvelgr bombing the base. And then there's mission twelve where not only does the screen shake, everything goes all fuzzy and stays that way until the mission ends.
 * It's Raining Men: Mission 5 is mostly about this.
 * It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: The opening of Zero: "It was a cold and snowy day..."
 * Karma Meter: Knight/Soldier/Mercenary. Mercenary is as much evil as the game gets, as pilots see you as a despicable bastard who's only concerned with money. Soldiers are more neutral, as you're only following orders and doing whatever it takes to turn the tide of battle, and knight is not-quite-Good but at least honorable in battle.
 * Kick the Dog: One mission has you assisting Allied bombers destroying a Belkan munitions facility, but they make it known right from the start that they're prioritizing destruction over accuracy.
 * The bombers' radio chatter is borderline Axe Crazy as well:

": "You and I are both sides of the same coin.""
 * It's not just a munitions facility - it's an entire city. And the Allied forces aren't the only ones kicking the dog - Belkan forces are committing arson to many buildings - some of them privately owned - on their way out.
 * King Arthur: Ace Combat Zero is so positively rich with Arthurian motifs. Notable ones included names like the "Hydrian Line" as a defended area and "The Round Table" as a nickname for a famous battlefield. Also present are the Excalibur laser tower (complete with a comment from a soldier after its destruction that "the sword has been pulled from the stone") and fighter pilots with names like Joshua "Lucan" Bristow and Anthony "Bedivere" Palmer. Furthermore, members of A World With No Boundaries begin to refer to as their "King" and note that he has departed for "Avalon", actually a code name for a weapons lab hidden under an artificial lake, and at the end of the game the last boss fights you in a plane called the ADFX-02 "Morgan" and the mastermind behind A World With No Boundaries delivers his final speech from prison where he is serving his life sentence for war crimes, much like Merlin locked in his stone tower (appropriate for the leader of a squadron named "Wizard").
 * Don't forget that the only way for you to finish off said last boss is . When combined with the epic, EPIC musical score playing, it was also the game's Crowning Moment of Awesome.
 * Lampshade Hanging: In the final mission, just before the last phase of the fight,, who has become disillusioned with the nature of war, remarks that "this twisted game needs to be reset!" For bonus points, it's then followed up with the Title Drop mentioned further down in the article. While it's unlikely the character knows he's in a game, it's still a great moment, especially if you've been playing the game as a Mercenary Ace, reminding you of just how much of a bastard you've been for blowing up defenseless targets just for extra cash.
 * The Last DJ: Schnee One is an enemy version of this. He was known behind the scenes as "The Eternal 2nd Lieutenant."
 * Law of Chromatic Superiority: Used with Pixy's colour scheme.
 * Louis Cypher: Cipher... sort of.
 * Motor Mouth: Subverted on your first mission with PJ. He gets a bit chatty at the start, rambling about how he likes to play polo and such, but then catches himself with a sheepish "Maybe we should get going now..." and focuses on the mission.
 * My Country, Right or Wrong: Despite attempting to invade half a dozen countries at once to expand its borders and avoid an economic crisis, Belka had corps of extremely loyal pilots proud of their own nation. In an interesting game concept, there are cutscenes of interviews of the Belkan pilots the player fought, depicting them as obviously likable men ten years after the war. Mainly since Belka The pilots explicitly state that they hold no animosity towards their enemies, during and after the war. It was just war, and it was just what they were trained to do. In fact, many of them revere Cipher, the player character, in a decidedly odd twist, one character even states that Cipher is comparable to the old orders of Belkan Knights, an honor that he doesn't even give himself.
 * My Nayme Is: It's the case with Galm, which is supposed to be Garm. Likewise, the briefing text for one of the missions in Zero refers to "Operation Broom", whereas the spoken briefing clearly calls it "Operation Bloom".
 * NGO Superpower: In  they are a mishmash of disgruntled former soldiers, but all have some mix of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Airborne Aircraft Carriers/supermassive bombers and entire units of conventional forces.
 * Not So Different:

"Base commander: Your mission is to pursue the craft and... (radar screen flickers and a warning message appears) Wait... unidentified aircraft are approaching the base! Quick, there's no time! Get into the air immediately!! (radar screen goes completely black)"
 * Nothing Is Scarier: Zero masterfully uses a Type 2 situation in the  mission.
 * Number of the Beast: Galm Team is the Ustio 6th Air Division, 66th Squadron. Demon Lord indeed.
 * Oh Crap: Happens in the mission briefing for the Hresvelgr mission:

""Head Operations has recognized you as an indispensable component in this war.""
 * Old Save Bonus: You can unlock the X-02 Wyvern and ADF-01 FALKEN superfighters more easily if you have save data from Shattered Skies and/or Unsung War, respectively. Players with save data from both games need only complete Mission 1 to unlock both superfighters for purchase.
 * Ominous Latin Chanting: "Zero".
 * One Man Airforce:


 * One World Order: Joshua Bristow and want to see this happen.
 * Peace Conference: According to the Narrator in Zero, was a peace conference held in Lumen, a city on the border between Belka and Osea, to end the Belkan War.
 * Pixel Hunt: A few ace squadrons have at least one of their pilots flying electronic-warfare planes to hide their radar presence.
 * Private Military Contractors: Ustio hires mercenaries to bolster its forces, and Cipher is one of them.
 * Remixed Level: Zero reuses a few locations from 5.
 * The Republic: Ustio.
 * Schizo-Tech: Zero takes place in 1995 and features squadrons of both the Su-47 and F-35C, years before the only Real Life prototypes for each were ever flown. You can also own a fully operational and in fact has-more-options-than-a-later-version ADF-01 FALKEN at a time when its series' immediate predecessor is the most amazing plane in the world and a treasure trove of otherwise one-of-a-kind technology.
 * In the FALKEN's case, its inclusion, along with the inclusion of the Wyvern, is most likely non-canon. Since this is an alternate world, the inclusion of the Su-47 and such fits in with this world's more advanced technology
 * Scenery Gorn: The Hresvelgr mission opens with your airbase being bombed to flaming ruins by what is basically a flying aircraft carrier/battleship. And you see it happen in first person, from the cockpit of your plane still on the ground.
 * Sequel Difficulty Spike: Zero in relation to the other PlayStation 2 games in the series. Even on "Very Easy", you're likely to be shot down once or twice.
 * Sequential Boss: Morgan.
 * Shout-Out: Solo Wing Pixy is a shout out to a real life situation where an accident caused an F-15 to continue flying after losing it's ENTIRE RIGHT WING. This is actually not a fluke, the way the F-15 is designed, it can stay in the air if it loses one wing and half of the other one, albeit precariously.
 * The default F-14, as in Unsung War, is done up in white with black tails and yellow ribbons. Many may think this is a Shout-Out to Macross, but with the exception of the skull and crossbones it is in fact a replica of the real life VF-84, the famous squadron Roy's Veritech fighter honored and Wardog reused fifteen years after VF-84's retirement.
 * Sphere of Destruction: . Random little beamlets of light even shoot out as well. The Multi-Purpose Burst Missile the Morgan fires also results in a spherical blast.
 * Super Toughness:  Morgan can take at least six missile hits. Almost every other enemy plane goes down after two.
 * Surprisingly-Sudden Death: How makes his return.
 * Taking the Bullet:
 * Theme Music Power-Up: Zero likes doing this. Cue the Spanish Guitar and prepare to wet your pants.
 * Title Drop: "We'll start over from 'zero' with this V2..." (complete with quotations in the subtitles).
 * Pixy even emphasizes "zero" a bit.
 * True Final Boss:  in the Gauntlet.
 * Truth in Television: Though the times and planes are different, Belkan enemy pilots seem to show some signs of the code of Chivalry, In real life early World War One pilots displayed such acts.
 * Also Solo Wing Pixy keeping his plane in the air after losing a wing.
 * Vestigial Empire: Belka.
 * Video Game Caring Potential: Among all the carnage in mission 11, you have the option of sparing an enemy C-130 carrying wounded soldiers. This and other missions also occasionally feature friendly ground forces who ask for your help in defeating a squad of enemy A-10s.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: Taking the Mercenary Ace path revolves around intentionally gunning down retreating planes, destroying civilian/unarmed ground targets, and refusing to spare enemy pilots whose weapons have been taken out of commission. On the plus side, you get more money; on the downside, you face harder enemy ace squadrons.
 * Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Aforementioned facing of harder enemy ace squadrons.
 * A better example: If you're going for Supreme Mercenary, you would try to destroy all "yellow" targets (meaning that it's either civilian or otherwise unimportant military infrastructure). There is one lone yellow dot in the map, let's destroy it--wait, WHERE DID ALL THESE ENEMIES COME FROM?
 * For added bonus points, as the enemy ambushes you, they even scream "Those damn mercenaries, haven't you earned enough?!"
 * This doesn't always work exactly that way, however. Take for example the second fight over the Round Table, each squad has their own advantage over you: the Mercenary squad has 8 planes, which is nearly twice as many as the other possible bosses, but the Knight-path squad's leader is much better trained than his wingmen (who are already pretty good, unless you take said leader out first), and the Soldier squad can fire at you from much farther than you can at them.
 * Walking the Earth: It is established in the fluff that Patrick Beckett (PJ) took off in a motorcycle across the Osean Continent, similar to Che Guevara.
 * Weak but Skilled: Espada squadron. Espada One flies a freaking J35J Draken, one of the starting planes, you probably have something much better, and he can still kick your ass. On the other side of the coin, you versus the superfighters. Then we get to the Cherry Tapping...
 * From the same game, Silber One, who uses an F-4E Phantom II and is much more skilled than everyone else in his squadron, despite them using F-16C's.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Both Belkan radio chatter and the interviewees' comments show disdain towards Cipher should he go the Mercenary route and destroy neutralized enemy vehicles or "innocent" buildings. Inverted however with Pixy and the ace pilots, who try to rationalize some of these.
 * Though even he has his limits - he's appalled by the Allies' indiscriminate bombing of Hoffnung.
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist: Patrick James Beckett or "PJ", much to the annoyance of Pixy.
 * Worf Had the Flu: Gelb 2 mentions that his squad would often be sent from one mission to another without even any basic maintenance on their planes. Combined with being one of only two ace squadrons that don't outnumber you, that fight is a bit easier than the other Ace encounters.