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Who is the best Ace Combat protagonist? This poll is closed. |
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| Cipher |
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79 | 32.24% |
| Phoenix |
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9 | 3.67% |
| Mobius 1 |
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84 | 34.29% |
| William Bishop--lol get out |
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24 | 9.80% |
| SHOOT VISARI |
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49 | 20.00% |
| Total: | 245 votes | ||
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Yeah, out of the ones I've played so far I think I'd vote for X's protagonist. So, I got Ace Combat 4 shortly before the LP started, and decided to write down my first impressions in case anyone would be interested. I started Ace Combat with Legacy on the 3DS, then moved on to play all the way through X and picked up Infinity around the same time. Then I grabbed Assault Horizon (jeez, that was a mistake, but it was only $2.50, and at least it contributed some truly rockin' music to Infinity) and now 04. So far, it feels a lot like X does-- similar missile lock-on ranges and so forth, but of course it plays a bit better with more controls and such. I like the idea of being able to go back and land at an airbase or carrier and actually resupply mid-mission, which isn't something I've seen in any other Ace Combat game so far (disclaimer: I didn't watch the LP for Zero, since I wanted to play it myself first, but it and 5 are on the way, and I haven't made it to the end of the 3 LP yet but while it did have refueling it didn't have mid-mission refuelling that I saw). Aside from a few questionable UI designs (like the hangar where you choose your planes being so bright it blocks out the menu), this game is a good contender for the best Ace Combat game I've played so far. (Since writing this, I've beaten the game and gotten halfway into 5, but I'll post what I wrote about the ending when that comes.)
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Aug 20, 2016 19:56
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 05:10 |
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Kibayasu posted:So do we start the blood feud about whether AC4 or AC5 is better now or later? I'd give that fight to AC4, easily. I'm about halfway through AC5's Campaign Mode and not having a good time at all; without mentioning too many specifics, I loved the sense of freedom that AC4 gave you and AC5 seems built from the ground up to be much more restrictive. My #1 cause of death in the game so far is ramming into the ground/a building/an enemy plane because I'm trying to kill stuff with my guns to save on missiles.
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Aug 21, 2016 06:01
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ACES CURE PLANES posted:It's a launch PS2 game. And yet, it has the option for 16:9 ratio under Screen Options. I just booted up my own copy to make sure I wasn't just thinking about AC5.
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Aug 22, 2016 01:08
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Well, I just finished AC5. Amazing ending. I actually really turned my opinion around on it in the second half of the game-- I still don't think it's as good as 4 but it's definitely my second favourite. Zero was supposed to be on its way but it looks like it'll take a while, so I'm thinking about checking out the Sky Crawlers Wii game that Project Aces made. Would it be alright if I post my impressions on it in here, when I do? There's no Ace Combat general thread or anything like that, right? I couldn't find one when I looked.
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Aug 23, 2016 05:58
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Just got done playing the first two missions of Sky Crawlers. I know I've watched the anime this game is based on, but I don't remember anything about it... that said, I don't really feel like rewatching it for better context. The control scheme emulates the HOTAS (Hands on Throttle and Stick) configuration, with the Nunchuck held in the right hand as the stick. It's very sensitive, I had a hard time keeping the enemy in my sights, but I immediately switched to the Expert scheme so I could roll, so it might be less sensitive on the easier ones. By the time I finished the second mission, I was starting to get more comfortable with it. The Wii Remote serves as the throttle, pulling back on it makes you accelerate and the B Button is the brake, and the D-Pad has the controls for yaw and switching targets. You have the same Tactical Maneuver system for getting behind the enemy as in Legacy, with 3 levels that charge when you're near the enemy. You also have access to 8 'Manual Maneuvers' that can be triggered at will through the Nunchuck's control stick, including left and right barrel rolls and both the Immelmann and Split-S. The only real complaint I have is that you can't increase the size of your radar and you can't look at a larger map without pausing the game, and none of the optional control schemes can change this, unless I'm missing something. As for the story, the protagonist is yet another ace that's only known by his callsign and emblem, 'Lynx', that's part of Cougar Squadron (all of which have names and personalities, though none stood out to me in the first two missions), and it's not clear to me who the people giving orders are/who you work for yet, though I see the name 'Rostock' in some of the descriptions for available planes. In the first mission, you're taking down enemy radar jammers, and in the second, you're escorting a squad of rookies back to your home base. Between missions, there are anime cutscenes; the first one was narrated by an as-of-yet unidentified girl, talking about a war between two companies-- she says a lot of stuff that sounds like Rena (about her love of flying and so on), so I'm getting a big AC3 vibe here right off the start. Aside from that, it feels pretty much exactly like an Ace Combat game-- more specifically, almost exactly like AH Legacy, control scheme aside. The only plane I've piloted so far is a propeller plane, but I saw a menu for upgrading planes with parts, and there are four slots per plane to choose from for Special Weapons; what I've seen so far is the good old UGB (and yes, it's still abbreviated like that) and the STG: 'Shotgun'. The little 'Mission Accomplished' window still comes up with exactly the same little 'ding' at the end of the mission, targets are still called TGT, and so on and so forth. EDIT: drat it, I completely forgot to mention, since they're only propeller planes you don't get missiles, only machine guns, though I assume I'll be seeing some later in the game even if only as special weapons. Son Ryo fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Aug 23, 2016 |
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Aug 23, 2016 20:39
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I made some more progress in Sky Crawlers. The third mission is fairly straightforward; you and the rookies have to hunt down some cargo planes to prevent a base from being resupplied. I was expecting the usual 'shoot down containers as they drop' mission, but it just turned out to be the planes. The girl who was narrating the opening anime cutscene is one of the newbies; she's definitely a complete space case, even more so than Rena. In the fourth mission, you're attacking a manufacturing plant that the enemy has taken over. One of the original Cougar Squad members ends up getting shot down, along with two of the rookies. I originally thought it was just to establish that one of the other rookies, a silver-haired guy, is emotionless and doesn't think much of people who are 'weak enough to die in war,' but it's revealed in the cutscene after the episode the two rookies who got shot down (along with the other rookies, presumably, but I don't know for sure yet) are 'Kildren', who are described as being 'Unable to die, except in battle' and yet they got shot down in battle and lived, so I don't know what was up with that. Also, I'm seriously starting to wonder what is up with the setting of this game, as it apparently takes place in the middle of Europe but everyone has Japanese names. After that, a whole bunch of new special weapons opened up for the planes I have-- including EPB Explosive Bullets, which explode on proximity and are halfway between machine guns and regular missiles (they'll hit anything in front of you even outside of machine gun range, but they don't home at all), the TPD Torpedo, and a couple of different types of machine gun.
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Aug 24, 2016 06:32
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In the fifth mission of Sky Crawlers, a straightforward dogfight battle above a river, the captain of Cougar Squad gets taken out protecting the space case, and you end up getting promoted to take his place. During this mission, a named plane showed up that I found rather interesting. The basic enemy planes are named the 'Fission', and this named plane was the Fission, Mailbox. Nice reference-- I wonder if it was in the original game, or added by the localization team. Anyway, it was about this time that the plot started to grate on me a little since it didn't really seem to be breaking any new ground, especially compared to how good the plot usually is in Ace Combat. And the music isn't anywhere near as good either; probably made to be similar to the anime's, I don't know if any of the usual Ace Combat composers worked on it. Also, this game has some really, really questionable plane designs, like the Seiei, a plane that has a propeller both in front and behind it. I don't know if it might be based on some real-life experimental design, but it just looks completely ridiculous. The sixth mission has you and your squad outfitted with planes that only have cameras and sent out to take pictures of a secret enemy base. Since the technology seems to be about WWII level, the commander warns against pictures that are blurry and from bad angles. You have to keep the target in your sights for several seconds until a 'shutter chance' bar fills up, and then you can take an acceptable picture. It's really picky about the angle you have to approach the installations from to get pictures, and they're all at the bottom of a series of huge dams. So you have to approach head-on to get a picture and then pull up immediately to avoid slamming into the wall, which isn't easy because they force you into an awful brick of a plane. At the end of the mission, you have to fend off all the planes attacking your allies with this heavy-rear end attacker type plane that won't move at all and (of course) doesn't have any weapons aside from machine guns, because of the cameras. I must have failed at least 6 times here just because I can't move the plane like I want it to. This thing has *no* stability to speak of and it stalls if you attempt anything close to a high-G turn. My only saving grace is that the game does have checkpoints-- again, in the same style that Legacy ended up going with. I eventually cleared it by relying on the Manual Maneuvers (which might have been the point of the stage), which can be done even if you're in a stall. After the mission, your callsign is changed from 'Lynx' to 'Cheetah', because apparently 'Lynx' is too cute a name for a captain to have. I also unlocked the good old RKTL; not quite a missile, but a lot better against planes than anything else I have so far. The seventh mission is a mock battle in a new model plane against an ally, with paint bullets, which gives me the feeling that I'll end up having to fight with just my machine guns again... at least this plane seems a bit more maneuverable. And my feeling comes true, but Orishina, the space case and Cheetah's training partner, goes berserk about not being able to finish the mock battle with Cheetah ("We can at least finish the test afterwards, right?" ... "You'll pay! I'll make you pay!") and shoots down two of the enemy practically before I can react. ("Die! Die! DIE! DIE!!!" "I hate you! And you, and you!")  Nothing really interesting happens after that-- none of the enemies really put up any notable resistance, especially compared to Orishina's performance in the mock battle. The AI in this game seems at least competent, for the most part, which gives me hope for the possibility of some interesting battles against enemy aces later on.
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Aug 24, 2016 18:11
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Mission 8 of Sky Crawlers has you bombing ships and fighting planes at the same time. In this mission, I ended up taking that ridiculous twin-engine propeller plane, since it came with torpedos. When you sortie, one of the rookies suggests having a kill count competition. Ukumori (the rear end in a top hat with the silver hair) complains that any planes that retreat because they're only damaged shouldn't count, only ones where the pilot doesn't survive. I was hoping for any kind of new information about the enemy in this mission, but in the end, the only memorable thing that happened was the kill count competition. In the end, you come in first (of course), Ukumori comes in second, Kaida (one of the few remaining members of the original Cougar Squad, kind of boisterous but not as much as someone we'll see after this game) comes in third and Orishina and the others come in last, with no kills. The other rookies wonder if something's wrong with her and I kind of do too considering how vigorously she went after the enemies in the last mission. In Mission 9, you're defending a downed transport waterplane from boats and planes. I made a big deal here for myself about finding a weapon that would work against both ground targets and planes and went with the Anti-Surface Gun, basically just a machine gun mounted at a lower angle, but in retrospect I should have just used the torpedos, since they worked really well in Mission 8. After you kill a few waves, Orishina starts acting really spaced out and suddenly asks to fight Cheetah again. She's heading for him when a wounded enemy plane heads right for her from behind, but is shot down by Kaida. Then, the mission ends. In the post-mission cutscene, an intelligence officer who's been involved in the briefings a few times approaches Orishina. He says that he can tell she's been obsessed with Cheetah (well, it's not exactly hard to figure out...) and says that Cheetah will never fight her with everything he's got... unless she joins the enemy. And he can make that happen. Orishina just says "That's preposterous!" and runs off, but she looks troubled. In Mission 10, you have to attack the same plants that you photographed a few missions ago. In this mission, I chose Lautern's (the enemy's) heavy plane, the Vice. One of its paint jobs is a really nice-looking all black with the blue Rostock logo on its side. Since the enemy plants engage shields when they see enemies, all four plants have to be bombed at the same time. Cheetah has to fly down a ravine to avoid being spotted, but for some reason his allies can just fly overland to the other three plants no problem. This mission is made a giant pain in the rear end by winds that catch you and slam you into the wall if you don't compensate quickly, which took me by surprise, because I don't think I've seen this gimmick in any other Ace Combat game I've played (and if it is from one, I'm looking forward to it, even though it was used to painful effect here).
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Aug 25, 2016 20:54
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I'm sure nobody's waiting with bated breath for more Sky Crawlers stuff, but just in case, it's on hold for now because Zero and 6 arrived and I've been working my way through them (actually, already finished Zero-- I kind of screwed myself over because right before the final string of missions I sold all my planes to get the Wyvern and it really, really didn't work for the Avalon Dam mission, but I'd already saved over the file where I still had access to the hangar and I couldn't buy any other airplanes or even special weapons, so I had to get to the end of the game like that). Sky Crawlers updates will probably resume sometime next week.
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Aug 28, 2016 00:03
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I can guarantee you if a plane is crash-intoable, I've probably crashed into it more than once, since I'm completely garbage at controlling my speed... generally, jammer/AWACS planes, some of the larger attackers, and bombers will all be solid, even after you shoot them down (in fact, one time I even shot down a bomber and had the 'Mission Successful' pop up but then slammed into the wreckage and died), but fighters don't usually have collision.
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Aug 29, 2016 19:19
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A combination of unexpectedly much higher difficulty, a very weak story, and having heard a lot of the music and more importantly played a number of the missions in Infinity first made Zero very unenjoyable for me-- having finished 6, I'd rate the games 4 > 6 > 5 > 0. But that's pending a replay of 5 and 0 now that I know what I'm doing and more importantly know what to expect, which might change my opinion.
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Aug 29, 2016 21:45
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frozentreasure posted:Who wants to play an Ace Combat without anime stories or characters? On this note, what do people think about Assault Horizon's story? Its gameplay was terrible of course, but I think it's about as close as we'll get to an Ace Combat 'without anime stories or characters' and I just thought it was incredibly bland and I didn't find myself getting invested in the story at all.
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Aug 30, 2016 15:59
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I don't have PMs, but I'd love to do some commentary at some point if you'd have me.
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Sep 4, 2016 09:27
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Sorry for the long delay, but I'm back with more Sky Crawlers! Mission 11 opens with orders to attack an Ace Combat-style superweapon, the giant cannon Amoebic. We're informed that the Amoebic will be non-operational, which almost guarantees that it'll either be operational or become operational during the mission. Seems to be a fairly standard air-to-ground mission, otherwise. And, yep, the first thing in the mission is a shot from the Amoebic. It resembles a number of weapons we've yet to see in Ace Combat, so I won't go too deeply into its capabilities. The plan is for the original members of Cougar Squadron (The player, Aozasa, Kaida, and Daiba, which I have to wonder if I've gotten confused before...) to go in and attack first, and the newbies show up later as backup. I go in too cocky and get shot down twice almost immediately. After reevaluating my approach I go in a bit more carefully and manage to take out the cannon, but Aozasa and Daiba get story-killed while I do. If we're counting this as a real Ace Combat game, this would make it the first Ace Combat superweapon that I haven't crashed into and died at least once. Yes, even that one. And that one. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but the newscasters seem oddly blase about the fighting, as if it's all for show or something. They sound more like sportscasters than newscasters ("And another Rostock fighter's gone down for the count!"). Anyway, after taking out the cannon, the newbies come in with rocket launchers and basically carpet-bomb the area. The guy giving orders seems like a real dick-- maybe the player will be the one switching sides, instead. Ukumori mocks Aozasa and Daiba for being weak and getting killed, and Kaida goes completely off the reservation and shoots at him (but doesn't down him). The mission then changes to shooting down Kaida, instead. I don't really want to kill him, so I try dodging his attacks and waiting out the dialogue, but it doesn't seem like I have any choice in the matter, so I go ahead and shoot him down. Are we really meant to sympathize with the kids more? Because they all seem pretty awful... An anime cutscene after the mission shows the battle from Aoshina's perspective (The crazy chick obsessed with fighting Cheetah). She seems to be seriously losing it. jealous of Kaida for getting to fight Cheetah-- I'd be surprised if the battle with her doesn't come sooner rather than later. The briefing for Mission 12 is almost literally "There's a base here. Go attack it. That is all." which I hope means some interesting story stuff will be happening. The squadron is warned to avoid idle chit-chat due to the radio waves being weak, but the mission starts out pretty easy, so the chit-chat ramps up quickly with everyone either enjoying how easy it is or complaining about being sent on such an easy mission. Some of the targets are labelled as 'C.BOX', and I sure as hell can't make out what it's supposed to be from the model-- a cardboard box? It's just a box, but I still blow them all to kingdom come with bombs-- here's hoping nobody was hiding inside. Things finally get somewhat interesting when I come over a mountain to find a lab heavily defended with flak guns and anti-air. The enemy deploys their new plane, the Incident, to defend as well, but it's nothing special. I guess you're not expected to die here since there's no checkpoint, but a badly-timed Maneuver leaves me headed straight at the ground so I have to sit through the easy first part of the mission again. But no more surprises show up after I finish everything off, and nothing else story-related happens, and the mission just kind of ends without much fanfare. Mission 13 has the player without his squadron personally escorting a VIP, an engineer who literally rides in the plane with you. For some reason, you're forced into a plane that's heavily armored, but fairly slow, and it's has its weapons removed again, and predictably the enemy shows up almost immediately. Even the machine gun fires very slowly, so instead of shooting them down I decide to just leg it to the goal for once. There are strong winds again, but not much is around to crash into unless you decide to evade the enemy fighters by hugging the ground, but they're so unskilled (at least on Normal) that it's really not necessary. Midway through, an unnamed 'Enemy Ace' shows up with a very familiar-sounding voice. However, she says stuff like "I haven't seen moves like that since..." and "Those moves... It couldn't be..." which makes me think if it is Aoshina, it's probably some sort of copy or maybe she's been brainwashed. However, it's still easy to make it to the goal, and she doesn't pursue you very far (or very hard). I even take the time to swing by and take out a ship, the only ground target on the map, in case it's an ace or it unlocks something. I do get a part and a couple of new planes after the mission, but who knows if destroying the ship had anything to do with it. There's no cutscene after the mission, and I don't hear anything about Aoshina having defected, so I'm starting to wonder if there's just some random female 'Enemy Ace' flying around who happens to know Cheetah from somewhere... I don't remember fighting any. I'm pretty sure I've only fought one Ace squadron so far, if at all.
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Sep 15, 2016 03:25
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Kibayasu posted:I'm not saying Sky-Eye is a bad AWACS advisor but the best one is obviously in 5 I don't get it, it sounds like you're just talking about the same person twice?? (and I'm not talking about Arcade Mode)
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Oct 24, 2016 01:05
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(and it's not the one you start with)
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ninjahedgehog posted:I'm pretty sure he's talking about Oka Nieba (who owns) as opposed to Thunderhead (who's a prick). Yes, I know. Oka Nieba mentions that his name translates to 'Sky Eye'.
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Oct 24, 2016 01:43
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NobleSixFour posted:Okay, so after talking with Crow a bit, I am proud to announce that me LPing Assault Horizon is officially going to be a thing. I have all the hardware, and most of it is set up, so I hope to start recording footage sometime within the next few days. I was thinking of doing the PC version, but if for whatever reason there was sufficient outcry I could supplement that with the 360 version. Additionally, I know that Crow et al did show off multiplayer and a tiny bit of coop at one point, but if there's interest in a more detailed look at it than that, I'd love to get some names of people who would be into providing the other warm bodies for that. Might as well sign up since I was dumb enough to buy AH even after hearing everyone talk about how bad it was. My Steam name's also the same as my username.
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Nov 2, 2016 23:59
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There's also the possibility that Stonehenge costs a lot in materials or money to operate, and they didn't want to use it for such low gains.
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Nov 8, 2016 03:35
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Incidentally, if anyone's curious about the status of the Sky Crawlers thing of course it was on hold while I was working on AC3 but now I'm looking at preparations to turn it into a full-fledged LP. If that falls through I'll eventually continue it as-is though.
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Dec 24, 2016 22:34
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Psion posted:Ask me about joining a co-op partner's DFM on that mission and the game helpfully flying me into the ground. That happened to me TWICE that session, once in the middle of a DFM and once just after finishing it. What a well-programmed feature...
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Feb 7, 2017 19:13
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