Ace Combat: Difference between revisions
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[[File:ace-combat-wallpaper2_832.jpg|frame|<small>That kind of pilot, they call a Demon Lord. That kind of plane, they call a [[God Mode Sue]].</small> ]]
{{quote|''Focus. Control. Conviction. Resolve. A true ace lacks none of these attributes. Nothing can deter you from the task at hand except your own fears. This is your sky.''}}
'''''Ace Combat''''' is a series of arcade-style combat flight games, involving [[Simulation Game|flight simulation]] levels of graphical detail but without all the fiddly realistic controls; the play style is something between [[Shoot
'''The series currently{{when}} spans ten consoles and fifteen games:'''
* Playstation:
** ''Ace Combat'' (''[[Air Combat]]'' in North America) - A country is invaded by a terrorist group and, to minimize losses, an elite mercenary squadron has been hired to end the war.
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* PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows:
** ''[[Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown]]'' - Returning
Also worth mentioning is ''[[The Sky Crawlers]]: Innocent Aces'' for the [[Nintendo Wii]], a [[Licensed Game]] of the ''Sky Crawlers'' anime. Though it has no direct ties with the '''Ace Combat''' universe, it was created by the same team and features the same arcade-simulation air combat feel; as a result, many fans see it as a [[Spiritual Licensee]].▼
▲Also worth mentioning is ''[[The Sky Crawlers]]: Innocent Aces'' for the [[Nintendo Wii]], a [[Licensed Game]] of the ''Sky Crawlers'' anime. Though it has no direct ties with the '''Ace Combat''' universe, it was created by the same team and features the same arcade-simulation air combat feel; as a result, many fans see it as a [[Spiritual Licensee]]. Equally worth mentioning is ''[[Project Wingman]]'', a [[Spiritual Successor]] that began development during the post-''Assault Horizon'' drought and is clearly made by fans.
In 2011, the Strangereal series, specifically the third installment ''Electrosphere'', seems to have been [[retcon]]ned into the ''[http://acecombat.wikia.com/wiki/United_Galaxy_Space_Force United Galaxy Space Force]'' series, also tentatively known as [[The Verse|Namcoverse]]. Said series seems to unite many of the futuristic games previously released by Namco, where the Strangereal games are the chronologically earliest installments. However, since there is still no official information available in English, details on this are very sketchy.
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# ''[[Ace Combat Advance]]'' (2005)
# ''[[Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War]]'' (2006)
# ''[[Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception]]'' (2006)
# ''[[Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation]]'' (2007)
# ''[[Ace Combat Xi: Skies of Incursion]]'' (2009)
# ''[[Ace Combat: Joint Assault]]'' (2010)
# ''[[Ace Combat: Assault Horizon]]'' (2011)
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# ''[[Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation]]'': Anean Continental War (2015–16)
# ''[[Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown]]''(2019)
# ''[[Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception]]'' and ''[[Ace Combat Xi: Skies of Incursion]]'': Leasath-Aurelia War (2020)
# ''[[Ace Combat Advance]]'': General Resource Conflict (2032)
# ''[[Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere]]'': Usean Corporate War (2040)
{{franchisetropes}}
* [[Ace Pilot]]: Entire series is based on this trope and [[Improbable Piloting Skills]], wingmen and allied aircraft excepted. Supposedly {{spoiler|Mobius One}} may be considered ''the'' trope namer for ''4'', ''5'', ''Zero'', ''6'' (and maybe ''X''), especially if you take ''Ace Combat 5'''s Arcade Mode ("Operation Katina") as canon, where {{spoiler|Mobius One (with the help of [[Mission Control|AWACS SkyEye]]) defeated a ''de facto'' resurgent Erusean military and at the final battle six X-02 Wyverns using only a [[Cool Plane|F-22 Raptor]]}} a year after the events of ''Ace Combat 04'', where he was the lead element in every major ISAF operation of the Usean Continental War of 2003-2005.
* [[Adventure-Friendly World]]: Strangereal was created solely as [[Anthropic Principle|a setting which permitted]] repeated full-theater international conflicts for [[Ace Pilot]]s to participate in, which have been non-existent in [[Real Life]] since the development of nuclear weapons - see [[Broken Aesop]].
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** The actual models of the missiles are all different and accurately based on a real missile at least similar to the missile's role; for example on the F-14 the XLAA resembles the AIM-54 Phoenix, whereas the Typhoon uses Meteor BVRAAMs.
** Also, ''Electrosphere'' gives the airplanes slightly different names as part of the game's futuristic feel, such as the Eurofighter 2000E Typhoon II and the XFA-36A (McDonnell Douglas X-36).
* [[Aliens Never Invented the Wheel]]: The Strangereal has technology that generally meets or exceeds that of the real world of equivalent year, but lags far behind in nukes and nuke delivery. This is central to the world's function since MAD makes fights between modern fighter jets far less frequent.
* [[All There in the Manual]]: A number of details, such as the full history of the Ulysses asteroid, aren't covered in-game.
* [[Alternate Universe]] / [[Constructed World]]: Strangereal.
* [[And Now for Someone Completely Different]]: The only player character to definitely return in a later game is Mobius One (player character of ''04,''
* [[Armies Are Evil]]: Subverted in most games after ''2.'' Especially considering when you see cutscenes of pilots and soldiers from the opposing army doing what they were trained to do without any complaints.
* [[Armored Coffins]]: All the planes in ''3'' are piloted via a so-called COFFIN system, which is a kind of neural interface that allows you to steer them with your brain but has no ejection seats whatsoever.
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* [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]]: Enemies usually can maneuver better and lock-on much faster than you can even when using the same plane as you, and some bosses' superfighters have capabilities you'll never get.
** You know this trope is in full effect in AC5 when enemy planes can ''fly through the goddamn ground'' to evade you. When it's the last target on a timed mission with 10 seconds left, controllers will be thrown through television sets.
* [[Console Wars]]: After being a [[PlayStation]] and [[PlayStation 2]] exclusive for its entire run, when the series made the leap to the
* [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]]: Both used and averted. Your character does become a [[One-Man Army]] with many kills to his name, but any time an ace squadron shows up you will face a much tougher fight since they'll attack together.
* [[Cool Plane]]: Nearly every single fictional aircraft in any Ace Combat game is either the best plane in the game, one of the best planes in the game, behaves very uniquely or simply extremely good-looking.
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* [[Enemy-Detecting Radar]]
* [[Escort Mission]]: There's a few here and there. They can be a pain to get through sometimes though.
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]:
** Yellow 13 from ''Shattered Skies'' isn't all that evil, to be honest, but he does still show disapproval when some of his countrymen set up an AA gun on a hospital.
** In ''Skies Unknown'', despite Erusea being the aggressor in the war with Osea, the idea of [[Rogue Agent]] Captain Torres running around with nuclear weapons is unacceptable enough to the former that even though they could easily gain victory if they would just get out of the way and let him nuke Osea's capital to force a surrender, they instead choose to leak the plans of his super-sub to Osea so that he can be stopped before a million civilians get killed.
* [[Expansion Pack World]]
* [[Fatal Family Photo]]: Inverted with Jaeger in ''7''. Despite regularly talking about telling his son about what happened during the war, he makes it through the whole game even though [[Anyone Can Die]] is in effect.
* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: What happens to {{spoiler|Mihaly}} in ''7'' as a result of the final boss fight with him. {{spoiler|He survives the destruction of his plane, but the injuries sustained leave him unable to fly again - a horrible way to go for an [[Ace Pilot]].}}
* [[Fighter Launching Sequence]]: A few times, naturally. Sometimes you have to actually play through the takeoff sequence yourself, to boot.
* [[Featureless Protagonist]]: It's very rare to find out anything about the character's name, appearance, or even ''gender''. A few of the games have played with this, notably ''Electrosphere'', where it turns out the PC is an {{spoiler|[[Tomato in the Mirror|AI, designed to test if one pilot could turn the tide of a war.]]}}
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* [[Fragile Speedster]]: The X-29 has consistently tended to fit this archetype, though its missiles aren't weaker than usual. So is it's "cousins" the F-5E and F-20A in their respective games.
* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]: Hi, Tactical Laser System! Although it acts rather like a [[Laser Blade]] rather than a traditional laser gun.
* [[Friend or Foe?]]: Failures to distinguish ally from enemy play a major part in ''Skies Unknown'' -
** An early mission ends with Trigger apparently killing a major political figure. Later, it is revealed that {{spoiler|the killing was actually done by an enemy unit with spoofed IFF.}}
** {{spoiler|Full Band}} is killed after he is marked as an enemy, leading to Count shooting him down. Whether it was done intentionally with malice aforethought, intentionally for a good reason, or accidentally is left ambiguous.
** Late in the game, events lead to widespread IFF failures. Chaos follows, both in the story and reflected in gameplay by the need to properly identify targets' affiliations.
* [[Friendly Fireproof]]: Go ahead, drop that cluster bomb ten feet from friendly ground forces. They won't feel a thing. Or try to send a couple rounds through your wingman's cockpit if he's being annoying.
* [[From Nobody to Nightmare]]: Every last one of the player characters.
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* [[High-Speed Missile Dodge]]: Without countermeasures it's the only defense against enemy missiles. Yes, despite what some people claim, [[Aluminum Christmas Trees|this is a basic tactic taught and used in Real Life]]. It just [[Reality Is Unrealistic|doesn't look the same]] as it does in (most) fiction because fictional missiles usually lack proximity fuses.
* [[Homing Projectile]]: Missiles, both friendly and not.
* [[Honorable Enemy Ace]]: "[[Only Known by Their Nickname|Yellow 13]]" of ''[[Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies]]'' of whom narration notes "His heart felt compassion towards the weaker enemies he downed" pilots a Su-37 (uncommon, but not exclusive to Yellow Squadron in this universe) with yellow trim and is able to survive multiple sorties with player character Mobius 1 (who would himself be an example were the story shown from the other side). Near the end {{spoiler|after catching a child engaged in sabotage against his side, he allows the child to escape rather than kill the child or take action that would result in such an execution}}.
* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]: The ''least'' number of missiles any plane in the series carries is around 50, frequently you'll have many more, and ''then'' you have special weapons on top of that - don't be surprised if you use third-person view and see ordnance 'magically' re-materialize on your plane's wings! Oh, and ditto for the gun both due to a lot of—or on some difficulty levels infinite—ammunition and a slower rate of fire than in real life where you have cannons with ''[[More Dakka|hundred round bursts]]''.
* [[Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels]]: The highest difficulty level is [[Harder Than Hard|Ace]].
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* [[New Game+]]: You can start a SP New Game to restart the campaign with your attained money, unlocked planes and paint jobs (and in ''Zero'' with your Ace Style Gauge where you left it in the previous campaign), or do Free Mission(s) to bump up your ranking and/or time, shoot down named aces, and in ''5'', ''Zero'' and ''X'' gain money. (Note that in ''Zero'' your Ace Style Gauge is only affected by the campaign, so feel free to be merciless in Free Mission.) Free Mission also has a Free Flight option (except in ''X'') where you can fly around all by yourself with no time limit or objectives.
* [[No Name Given]]: In addition to the player characters, several enemy aces like Yellow 13 and most of the AWACS spokesmen go only by callsign.
* [[Nose Art]]: A staple of the series, from about ''[[Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere]]'' onwards. Shooting down certain enemy [[Ace Pilot]]s allows you to [[You Kill It, You Bought It|slap their paint jobs onto your planes of the same model]]. Other special paint jobs were unlocked by completing certain plot missions. ''[[Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation]]'' also introduced downloadable custom paint jobs.
* [[Nuclear Weapons Taboo]]: Subverted with the implicitly stated {{spoiler|and sometimes detonated}} nuclear arsenal from various games. What's interesting about this is that while nukes exist, nuclear ''proliferation'' doesn't seem to.
* [[Occupiers Out of Our Country!]]: Happens in just about every game.
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* [[Reality Ensues]]: The gamebreaker-ness of the QAAMs can be interpreted as what happens when you put a nigh-undefeatable real-world heater in a world where the standard missiles are overfed tabbies that can be shaken off without needing countermeasures.
* [[Recurring Boss]]: In ''4, 5, 6, X'' and ''Joint Assault''.
* [[Red Baron]]: Typically, as your skills become more and more recognized, you or your squadron get a nickname, referring to a plot point or squadron logo. For instance, Gryphus One from ''Ace Combat X'' becomes known as "nemesis" by the obviously uncreative enemies, and "the southern cross" by allies, since the constellation is painted on your aircraft, there's the "Ribbon" in ''04'', and the Razgriz squadron (alternately the Demons or Ghosts thereof). But yeah, the best is the "Demon Lord of the Round Table" in ''Zero'', hard to top that.
** Possibly rivaling that, one enemy in the sixteenth mission refers to Mobius One as "the Grim Reaper." This doesn't happen too often, though.
** And one of the minor allied pilots from Ace Combat 6 (IE one of the ones you can't unlock a profile about, but is still identified in subtitles) is literally the Red Baron.
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* [[So Last Season]]: [[Zig-Zagging Trope|Zigzagged]] with starting planes. See the article for the rundown.
* [[Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness]]: With few exceptions, the later a plane is available, the statistically superior it is. On the other hand, missiles and other special weapons don't get better on later planes.
* [[Space Elevator]]: The International Space Elevator "Lighthouse" is the alleged ''casus belli'' for ''7'''s war and plays a large part in the game's events.
* [[Speed Run]]: Taking the fastest plane available through the enclosed-area [[Scrappy Level]]s at maximum power. Like taking "Greased Lightning" from ''2'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3NPNSsj52w in the X-29] or "Aces" from ''5'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssmDlA8AM0s in the MiG-31].
* [[Spinventory]]
* [[The Squad]]: Mostly averted in ''04'' (you almost always have four wingmen flying with you, but none are explicitly named, and in the final mission it's subverted in that {{spoiler|Mobius Squadron is really ''just'' Mobius One plus a squadron's worth of pilots in Raptors with his insignia}}), used in ''5'' ([[The Captain|"Heartbreak One" Bartlett]], [[Player Character|Blaze]], [[Wide-Eyed Idealist|Edge, Chopper]], and [[New Meat|Archer]]), and it's pairs in ''2'' (Scarface 1/"Edge" or "Slash", though only in certain missions... and there are supposed to be other pilots in Scarface), ''Zero'' (Galm 1 "Cipher"/Galm 2 "Pixy" {{spoiler|then PJ}}) and ''6'' (Garuda 1 "Talisman"/Garuda 2 "Shamrock").
* [[Stealth-Based Mission]]: ''2'', ''3'', ''5'', ''X'' and ''
* [[Strictly Formula]]
* [[Super Prototype]]: Most of the superfighters, though some of them are subversions.
* [[Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder]]: In ''7'', the purpose of penal units like Spare Squadron is to act as expendables in probing the Erusean drone network for weaknesses that the proper units can exploit, and several characters die in the process. Trigger and a few others manage to thrive, though, and eventually win a pardon and transfer back to a proper unit.
* [[Surprisingly Improved Sequel]]: In-universe. While the first game had many of the elements that make the series what it is, the graphics are hideous to the point of [[Fake Difficulty]] in the first [[That One Level|canyon mission]] and many features were only present in rudimentary form. It was also just old enough to be incompatible with analog controllers, requiring the player to use the D-pad to control the plane. The second game introduced analog controls, better graphics, and something closer to a real plot. The series didn't really find
* [[Theme Naming]]: The series loves doing this.
** [[Animal Theme Naming]]: The Yellow Squadron's ''official'' designation is "Aquila" (Italian for "Eagle"). Over two dozen of [http://acecombat.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_aces_in_Ace_Combat_Zero Belkan aces] are named after various birds ([[Bilingual Bonus|in German]]), and another dozen, after animals (ditto). Aurelia's air force likewise have bird genera for squadron names.
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** The official planes of the Wardog/Razgriz squadron are F-14 Tomcats.
* [[We Do the Impossible]]: The player's reputation.
* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]:
** In ''7'', Princess Rosa Cossette D'Elise starts a war with Osea out of the belief that the Lighthouse [[Space Elevator]] is a vector for Osean imperialism to encroach on Erusea's sovereignty. {{spoiler|It eventually turns out that she's been manipulated by warmongering radicals who demonised something genuinely intended to be benevolent, and from that point she regrets what she's done and starts trying to end the fighting.}}
** ''7'' also subverts this with Captain Matias Torres, who initially attempts to present himself as a Trumanesque figure trying to kill many in nuclear fire in order to force an end to the war before even more are killed. As the story arc goes on, though, the façade cracks slowly but surely, eventually revealing that the decorated Hero of Comberth Harbor has [[Fallen Hero|Fallen]] and all that's left is a [[Laughing Mad]] [[Large Ham]] obsessed with the twisted beauty of a difficult shot that will result in mass murder.
* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: In ''7'', Trigger's earliest allies like Golem and Mage Squadrons seem to just disappear after he gets transferred to Spare. They are never heard from again, not even in the final climactic battles where everything and the kitchen sink is supposedly getting deployed.
* [[When All You Have Is a Hammer]]: Your offensive options in the first two games consisted entirely of short-ranged missiles and an even-shorter-ranged Vulcan cannon. ''Electrosphere'' allowed you to swap those out for weapons with differing powers and ranges, and every game after that added special weapons such as bombs.
* [[Wing Man]]: Right from the beginning, with the exception of ''Ace Combat 04.'' They were a complete waste of money in the first few games. Quiet wastes of money.
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