Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies

I feel like Ace combat 5, 0, 6, and 7 is just not good. It feels like they were trying to go for more of an anime drama with the writing. The Voice actors don’t feel like actual pilots; especially in 5, the Yuke/Belkan pilots feel like cartoon villains who literally scream “I will chase you to the ends of the earth!”
Ace combat 04’s radio chatter feels grounded AF. The pilots tone and demeanor match that of what you would here in the real world. The Eruseans sound cold, hardened, and professional, which makes their panicking all more rewarding when you start to turn the tide. The ISAF pilots feel more like rookies who are doing there best with the situation, but ultimately grow into there roles as hardened veterans.

Also, in later games, the enemy pilots seem to have generic American accents, where as the Eruseans in 04 have a mix of American, German, Eastern European, and Irish (also Brooklyn… although those lines were cut because… Jesus they were bad…)

Why did they decided to go with more of a cartoony take in the later games?

Perfect Game, as defined by GoredonTheDestroyer: A video game that perfectly encapsulates and represents the tone of its overarching series, the genre in which it resides, or the time period in which it released. The first game most people will think of when asked about its genre.

Examples: Gran Turismo (Racing, 1997), Doom (FPS, 1993), CoD 4 (Military Shooter, 2007), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (Extreme Sports, 2000), Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (Combat Flight Simulator, 2001), etc.

Now, when I describe AC04 as a perfect game, do I mean it is perfect in every way? Of course not. There's no such thing as a perfect game, in that it is flawless, but there is - at least to me - the idea of a perfect game in that it is a perfect example. The game people first think of when they think of a series, or console, or genre. To me, AC04: Shattered Skies, is that perfect representation, the perfect example of not just the Ace Combat series, but the overarching combat flight simulator genre, and it all begins with twelve simple words:

I was just a child, when the stars fell from the skies.

Something I've thought about a lot, ever since my first playthrough of AC04, all those years ago, was how... Personal, the game feels, even though its events never happened and it's all a work of fiction. AC04 is, at its core, a very sad game, covering the death of a young man's innocence during a war he had no involvement in, finding solace in, ironically enough, the man who killed his family. This idea of a child being orphaned and falling in, intentionally or not, with their family's killer is a common trope - It certainly wasn't invented by Project Aces for their aerial combat game - but the way AC04 handles it is... Unique, amongst media, both interactive and otherwise, for what the narrator doesn't want to do - he doesn't want revenge. He resents Yellow Thirteen, but he doesn't want to kill him. He, ultimately, is just trying to survive. Even when he has the opportunity to get revenge, the narrator relents - Perhaps out of childhood innocence, or an understanding that revenge is not the best option. Even in the unedited Japanese release, where the narrator steals a knife and pistol, he doesn't pull the trigger. He shouts at Thirteen to, "Get out of our town, you fascist pig!" and those words clearly hurt Thirteen, if not physically.

The game's plot is relayed to us, the player only by the narrator's unwavering, stoic tone, a stoicism that indicates he is still dealing with the trauma of what he went through, what we saw, and what we didn't see. Officially, his is considered a side story, but because of how the game's story proceeds from his perspective, with Mobius 1's filling in the blanks, one can't help but identify more with the narrator because of it. What helps the player form this connection, this bond, with the narrator is how carefully and well-written his entire plot and narrative are - The narrator being the sole character with a speaking part in each cutscene affirms that these are, as he states, memories of days past. To extrapolate from there, I wouldn't be surprised if he wished he had been there when the plane Yellow Thirteen shot down crashed into his family's home, feeling a form of survivor's guilt considering that he is, by the cessation of hostilities in 2005, possibly the only surviving member of his family.

AC04 is in the sweet spot for length, in that it tells a lot, within a short period of time, with still-image interludes giving a window into the narrator's experiences during the war. Each campaign run only takes three hours at most, not counting cutscenes and load times. There are 18 missions from start to end, and while those missions may not be particularly varied, the majority of them being "Destroy the enemy, get enough points, and keep going lmao" score attack missions, it feels like you're doing something - Be it eliminating the enemy's naval capabilities in Invincible Fleet, reducing the enemy's ability to consolidate their forces, regroup and counter attack in Tango Line, liberating the cities of San Salvacion and Farbanti in Emancipation and Siege of Farbanti, respectively. It feels like you're accomplishing something as the campaign progresses, from Newfield Island to Megalith and everywhere in-between.

Another thing that, to me at least, helps cement AC04's status as a perfect game, is its tone and atmosphere, especially when that is conveyed through music, or lack thereof. Like I said in the beginning, AC04 is a sad game - It opens with the narrator informing us for the first time, of many to come, of 1994XF04 Ulysses, and how Stonehenge was developed to destroy its fragments, the stars that fell from the sky, only for the seven cannons be turned into weapons of war, while the most beautiful rendition of Agustin Barrios Mangore's La Catedral's first motion plays, then lamenting how his parents were caught in the crossfire of an aerial battle, the reason for which was far beyond his understanding as a child. Every scene afterwards, a beautiful still-image painting by the talented artists at Studio 4°C, conveys that same somber, downbeat tone as the narrator describes his life in occupied San Salvacion, and later as he moves, with the Erusean Army and Barkeep's Daughter, west to Farbanti. The game's in-mission soundtrack even carries some of that tone, even as the tracks are filled with drums, guitar solos and, eventually, Latin chorus. Even Comona, the game's most upbeat track, has a tinge of darkness to it, by way of the strings that play during the opening guitar segment. It's a synchronicity between the tone of the game's cutscenes and its gameplay that hasn't quite been replicated, both in Ace Combat, and outside it.

In short, these are my reasons - Rambly and perhaps nonsensical they may be - as to why I think Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies is an example of a perfect game - Not because it is perfect, but because it perfectly describes our beloved franchise.

Despite buying Ace Combat 7 a few years ago, and despite loving arcadey flight games from yesteryear (especially Crimson Skies, TIE Fighter, and Freespace 2), I never actually played an Ace Combat until now.

I'm glad I finally did, because the game is superb.

Why is Ace Combat 4 worth playing in 2024?

One, it's still a great audiovisual experience. Admittedly I mostly played emulated with PCSX2 (with 4x resolution), but the graphics are a smooth 60 FPS and have plenty of nice effects, including pretty clouds and heat distortion. Environments are varied and the jets look sleek. The real star of the show is the sound, though. The soundtrack is spectacular, with a mix of instrumental rock, corporate techno, and atmospheric/ambient stuff, all made in a melodic style that Japanese developers in the early 2000s pulled off so well. The sound effects are great, too; they all contribute to selling the fighter jet fantasy.

Two: the gameplay has held up brilliantly. The core mechanics control very well at 60 FPS and the developers got the fundamentals very right. Positioning and timing carefully to get the most out of your missiles never gets old (the number of times I replayed the "Shattered Skies" mission will attest to that), and bombing ground targets can be a surprisingly nuanced process, especially when you're shooting for S-ranks and combat efficiency becomes paramount. The mission design is also well-paced, varied, and usually rewards replays and planning (e.g. using the right weapons, rearming at the right times, choosing the right order to tackle pieces of the mission, understanding when to stick with an area or enemy and when not to).

Three: the stories are surprisingly good. I say stories because there are really three main ones--the tale of an orphaned boy in occupied territory and the elite fighter pilot Yellow 13, told via nicely-drawn images; the story of your character, Mobius One, and the larger war, communicated mostly through mission briefings; and the many tiny substories you get bits and pieces of from the large volume of fun radio chatter during missions. All three of these story pillars are interesting and flesh out the gameworld of Strangereal, one of the relatively realistic, fictionalized Earth settings I'm so fond of (Front Mission is another notable example).

What did you think of the game? What should I play next in the series? (I'm thinking Ace Combat Zero or 5)? How does AC4 rank in the series?

Continuing with the turbonerd adventures after the I posted the other day. These were infinitely easier and faster, mostly because only 21 planes as opposed to 80-something different variants, but also because AC04 uses much fewer variables to differentiate planes. Honestly I was pretty disappointed to see just how similar its planes (and weapons) are, but what can you do.

Next up is ACX. That's a lot of planes... and then there's the parts.

Ace Combat 4 is an arcade-style combat flight simulator developed by Namco. Released in 2001, it was the first Ace Combat game for PS2 and was a reboot of the series that had suffered mediocre reception on the PS1. Ace Combat 04 would begin what would become known to fans of the series as the Holy Trinity.

We play as the unnamed pilot of Mobius 1. Set in an alternate Earth where an asteroid crash in 1999 caused worldwide devastation. In the wake of the crashes, the Federal Republic of Erusea dominates most of the planet. It's up to us and the other members of the Independent State coalition to fight back.

Ace Combat 04 is an arcade-style combat flight sim. Before each mission we will outfit our jet fighter and then be launched into the combat zone. We can switch between various first and 3rd person views to engage in air to air combat with our targets. Combat is usually on a large aerial battlefield where we will be given targets to either shoot down or protect.

The Good

The story.

Honestly, that's pretty much all I should have to say. I cannot stress enough how absolutely brilliant the story is. You wouldn't think in a combat flight simulator of all things we achieved the pinnacle of video game story telling...but here it is. No game before, nor any game since, as far as I'm concerned, has ever gotten it so well, and so right.

The story is told through the eyes of a child living the war and it's absolutely amazing. It has strong Studio Ghibli vibes. Often we the story being told has little/nothing to do with the missions you'll be on and it doesn't matter it's that good.

Beyond that the gameplay experience is solid. Combat is fun, the planes feel a bit heavy but that's fine, you're supposed to feel like the inferior combatant. Your triumphs and accolades feel absolutely earned instead of many games where you're just be default the hero because of course you are. At the time having an adaptive AI that responded to what else was going on in the battlefield in a non-scripted way was a rarity so that's really cool.

Did I mention again that the story is really freaking cool?

The Bad

The worst thing about Ace Combat 04 is how difficult it is to play it. It's never been released for PC or any kind of virtual console. You can nudge, nudge, wink, wink it but even that is more difficult to do than most games due to how the engine worked.

However, this is patient gamers so I'm sure more than a few of you have a PS2 or backwards compatible PS3 yet. In that case the only other real pitfall of the game is that it relies very heavily on you caring about the story. If you don't then the missions are usually a pretty generic "Shoot down a group of 1~4 enemies, 1~4 times for reasons." Rinse repeat 20 times. However, if you don't like the story then you're probably some kind of soulless monster anyways.

The Ugly

It's still a 2001 first generation PS2 game. As such...it's all polygons my friend. The ground is often a flat repeating texture, if that. Your plane is about 50 triangles glued together. It's not exactly a looker but thankfully it won't make your eyes bleed.

As much as I enjoy the story, the character building is actually a little weak. We never really learn much, if anything, about the people involved. There's more of a mystique about everything and everyone. Who are these people? What's their motivation? It's never really explored which for some will come across as really cool, but others it will create a sense of distance from what's going on.

Final Thoughts

I consider this a must play if you happen to own a PS2. If nothing else, do yourself a favor and watch the story on YouTube. It's much more impactful if you're living it yourself and there's are moments later in the game where I found myself going, "Hell yeah it's me. I'm here to save the day!" It's basically a 6 hour interactive movie being told about you and your arch-nemesis through the eyes of a child. It's...blissful.

Thank you for reading!

100 reviews in 100 days (Day 43)

Each game reviewed was played within the last few years to completion. In accordance with sub rules I last played it at least a year after release. I look forward to hearing what your experiences were with this game!

Also, what changes/ tweaks would you make to the narrative?

Made the Mobius squadron emblem in Armored Core 6

Version 1- Full Emblem

Version 2- Only Mobius strip

Currently trying to work on the text underneath the emblem but it isn't turning out so great

Will try to make other Ace Combat emblems