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Ace Combat: Difference between revisions
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=== The series as a whole provides examples of following tropes: ===
* [[Adventure
* [[Aerial Canyon Chase]]: Pretty much every ''Ace Combat'' game requires the player to do this for some reason. Sometimes there are enemy planes or helicopters skulking in the canyons or other narrow passageways or tunnels, just waiting to achieve missile lock.
* [[AFGNCAAP]]: 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.]]}}
** This trend was finally broken by ''Assault Horizon'', which had multiple playable characters with visible faces and speaking roles.
* [[AKA
** 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).
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* [[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.
* [[Arrow Cam]]: Holding down the missile button will cause this to happen.
* [[Artificial Brilliance]]: Ace pilots, when compared to the standard mooks. Yellow Squadron will use the [
* [[Awesome Yet Practical]]: The Wyvern and FALKEN have been computer-modeled as flyable in X-Plane with modern early 21st century technology, while things like the weapons-grade [[Frickin' Laser Beams]] have military prototypes already in progress.
* [[Back From the Brink]]: Each game typically starts with the air base from which you launch as the allied forces' last remaining base in the area, which you must defend from enemy bombers escorted by starting-game fighters, giving the player a quick "tutorial" in air-to-air combat with easy targets. Subverted in ''Ace Combat 5'', where most of your flight was killed by an unknown reconnaissance flight during the game's intro during peacetime. ''Ace Combat 6'' subverts it again in that the "back from the brink" bomber intercept is the second mission (appropriately entitled "On the Brink"), the first mission being an aerial defense of the capital at the start of the war only to be ordered to abandon it. And it's averted completely in ''Ace Combat/Air Combat'', where you simply enter the contested state and immediately attack recon planes and bombers on their way to attack another target.
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* [[Bland-Name Product]]: ''Joint Assault'' has ''BNN''.
* [[Broken Aesop]]: The games like to talk about how terrible nuclear weapons are...Despite that the Strangereal setting needed to be made in the first place because nuclear arms have ''prevented'' the kind of all-out wars between major military powers that the plotlines are built around. So nukes are bad, as we are told by a world that collapses into gigantic, pointless wars every couple of years.
* [[Calling Your Attacks]]: From ''04'' and beyond, characters use the [
** Justified: real-life pilots actually do that, along with the maneuvers they perform. After all, nobody wants to be a friendly fire statistic.
* [[Canon Welding]]: The above-mentioned "United Galaxy Space Force" is an attempt to merge a number of their series with futuristic installments into a single continuity with ''Electrosphere'' as its first installment chronologically.
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* [[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.
** Subverted with the BM-335 fictional antiquated bomber.
** Also plenty of the nonfictional ones. It's no coincidence that ''Ace/Air Combat'' (at least in the US), ''04'', ''X'' and ''Joint Assault'' feature the [
** ''Ace Combat X'' features a high number of fictional planes; some of which aren't that great compared to the higher-end real planes, though the best planes in the game (the Wyvern, Falken, and Fenrir) are fictional. However, all the made up planes except the Fenrir have the ability to be upgraded with new parts, altering their performance.
* [[Cosmetic Award]]: Medals and paint schemes, especially ones acquired by downing enemy aces.
* [[Crew of One]]: In all the games, whenever the player flies an aircraft that in the real world would require a crew of 2 or more to operate effectively, the empty seats are automatically filled in the aircraft's third-person models and the plane is able to execute all functions flawlessly.
* [[Cue the Sun]]
* [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]]: Several annoying minor changes in the control settings across titles.
** There's also severe differences between how to evade all the different superweapons, as well. Stonehenge in ''04'' requires you to be below 2000 feet, burst missiles from ''5'' require you to be above 5000 feet, and Excalibur from ''Zero'' is essentially a test of how fast you can react to things.
** Chandelier from ''6'' required you to fly as straight and level as you possibly can, since you had to fly down its barrel.
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* [[The Determinator]]: The player-character is often this; surviving countless attempts by the combined armed forces of entire nations to kill him with barely a scratch.
* [[Dodge By Braking]]: The Pugachev's Cobra and its variants are maneuvers both you and some enemy aces can pull off. Just make sure that they're not flying at the same altitude as you are, or they'll opt for a very humiliating machine-gun-kill. The Yellows are fond of doing this. On the other side, if they try to Cobra and you are going slowly enough to not overshoot, it's a big invitation to light 'em up.
* [[
* [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing]]: The series insists, firmly and often, that [[War Is Hell]]. However, you play as an [[Ace Pilot]], arguably the most glamorous combat role of all time, and frequent radio chatter indicates that your arrival on the battlefield singlehandedly restores friendly morale and causes enemies to panic. Also, as an [[AFGNCAAP]], you are spared the pathos-inducing family deaths that plague so many other characters. [[War Is Hell]]...for everyone else.
* [[The Dreaded]]: You. Yes, you!
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* [[Glass Cannon]]: The F-5E and MiG-21 in the [[PS 2]] games, and the A-4 in ''2'' is this, though since you usually get these in the beginning of the game, the player doesn't need to worry about biting the bullet. The Mobius F-22 and Yellow Su-33 in ''AC6'', (as Downloadable content) is also this, but it pays off when you have wicked manuverability. On Ace mode all your planes are a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]] against missiles so the question is how much Cannon and [[Fragile Speedster|Speedster]]/[[Lightning Bruiser|Lightning]] you're packing.
* [[Good Looking Privates]]: Most characters we actually get to see, Col. Perrault from ''5'' being the biggest exception.
* [[Good Weapon, Evil Weapon|Good Plane Evil Plane]]: It has been noted that in almost every game, the protagonist squadron and sometimes his allies usually fly Western Fighter Aircraft (usually American) while the antagonist ace squadron(s) usually use high-tier Russian fighters (often a variant of the [[Cool Plane|Su-27 Flanker]]). This is however subverted multiple times.
** Scarface One from ''2'' prefers to fly the Su-35 Super Flanker (which is statistically the best normal plane in the game, surpassing even the F-22) while four of the five Z.O.E. aces use American jets.
** In ''04'', ISAF would deploy a mix of Western- and Russian-made fighters during missions that are considered pivotal story-wise: a flight of [[Mi G]]-29s fly top cover for you and a few other F/A-18s during the assault on the Stonehenge whereas the Siege of Farbanti has you accompanied by a mix of F-15s and Su-35s at its beginning.
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** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in 5; see below.
* [[High Altitude Battle]]: [[Captain Obvious|Obviously.]]
* [[High
* [[Homing Projectile]]: Missiles, both friendly and not.
* [[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' rematerialize 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]]''.
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* [[Mission Control]]: An Airborne Warning And Control System (AWACS) aircraft constantly supervises you, providing mission and story updates as well as things like reminding you that you've locked on to an enemy or vice versa, that you or the enemy has launched a missile at the other, or you're in gun range, as well as whether a missile hit or missed. Amazingly, it's not actually as irritating as it sounds. To the developers' credit, his information is usually useful and the guy comes off as friendly and genuinely concerned about the pilots.
* [[Mook Chivalry]]: Generally averted; enemy squadrons have no qualms against taking your lonely self on all at once. It gets justified later in each game, where you're infamous enough among them that they can't possibly expect to take you out one-on-one.
* [[Mooks]]: Although wide and varied, and still capable of damaging you significantly, it's present in all games where you take on whole squadrons of fighters. Especially early on in the American version of ''Electrosphere'', all of Neucom's fighters are the same plane. [[Averted]] of course by the ace squadrons; even when your plane is superior (in their first appearances on non-[[New Game
* [[Musical Spoiler]]: You can tell that something is about to happen if the music suddenly goes quiet or changes.
* [[My Nayme Is]]: The usual Japanese L/R translation issues are found throughout the series.
* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: In an unusual twist, it's the player, who, depending on the game, may be the Grim Reaper, the Demons/Ghosts of Razgriz, or the Demon Lord of the Round Table, among others. The enemy forces usually start to cower at the mention of your name.
* [[Necessary Drawback]]: QAAMs have short range to balance high accuracy, long-range missiles tend to be inaccurate unless launched at the right angle, and SAAMs balance accuracy at long range by making you a sitting duck while the missile is flying. The air-to-ground weapons and parts have similar issues.
* [[New Game
* [[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]]'' onwards. Shooting down certain enemy [[Ace Pilot|Ace Pilots]] 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]]'' 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.
* [[Oh Crap]]: Enemies have this reaction when your characters show up in later parts of the games. Your allies have this reaction when they get targetted by the local superweapon. The two words are explicitly dropped in ''X: Skies of Deception'' when your allies see that {{spoiler|there's another Fenrir in Archelon Fortress trying to escape to Leasath and they can't do anything about it themselves.}}
* [[Once a Season|Once A Game]]: Ever since ''Ace Combat 5'', it has apparently become a tradition to kill or almost kill off one of the player's wingmen. Since ''Zero'', ''6'' and ''Assault Horizon'' always has the player flying with only one wingman, well...
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** [[Colourful Theme Naming]]: Both Belka and Erusea's Air Forces use colors in their squadron names.
** [[Named After Somebody Famous]]: All [http://acecombat.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_aces_in_Ace_Combat_04 Erusean aces] are named after famous astronomers.
** [[Religious and Mythological Theme Naming]]: [http://acecombat.wikia.com/wiki/Ace_Combat_Zero:_The_Belkan_War# Cultural_references Lots of it] in ''ACZ''. Also, [
** And even [[Chess Motifs]]! The callsigns of all named aces in the penultimate mission of ''Ace Combat Zero'' are the names of chess pieces in German and Russian.
* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]:
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