Comment "Flyby2025!" to be entered into the steam key giveaway! Winners will be announced on my discord which can be accessed via: discord.gg/XFQPftSxNm Ace Combat 5, while often seen as the best in the series, was overly ambitious and extremely flawed in many ways. Let's take a look at it! ============================= SUPPORT ME ON PATREON! patreon.com/fightertales My partner Hellion's Website and Patreon: www.ratsnest.me/ patreon.com/lavendersoldier Discord: discord.gg/XFQPftSxNm =========================== Music Used: Karl Casey Music karlcasey.bandcamp.com/ Chronicler, Fighter Tales Soundtrack -chroniclermusic.bandcamp.com/album/on-the-brink-fighter-tales-soundtrack-volume-1 Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War soundtrack
@@fightertales Ace Combat games consistently have some of the best music around. To be honest, aside from the flight mechanics, the music of Ace Combat makes me wish that we could get a Star Wars Rogue Squadron-esqe game made by Project Aces...
In defense of not having Harling's transport IFF on, didn't he already suspect the treachery in the military, and was trying to end the war before he got coup'd?
@@fightertales I always thought that between the iff and the interceptors it was a ploy from the shadow government to get rid of Harling and use the propaganda of the presidents death to further drive the war
The wingmen's abilities in this game depend almost entirely on the plane's rating AND the special weapons. Give them A-10s or F-22s, they obliterate ground and air targets, respectively. Heck, if they fly planes with fire & forget weapons in general, they'll do a decent job of killing stuff. Give them dumb bombs, RCLs, or SAAMs, on the other hand, and they're next to useless.
ACZ did more for its anti-war narrative in a single mission (Hoffnung) than AC5 did with most of a game's worth of over-the-top handwringing and whinging. That's honestly the single biggest takeaway, 5's story just comes across as trying too damn hard for its own good. Dialing back some of Nagase and Chopper's more exaggerated whining (Grimm's somehow mostly alright), and making a few plot points more solid (Having Harling publicly announced as dead after Mother Goose 1's shootdown would give Osea _massive_ reason to escalate things rather than him just vanishing) would dramatically improve the story without much effort.
Yeah, a lot of anti-war stories no longer appeal to me. I don't like war, but wars only need one side to want them to start. That's a big part of why I like Gundam 0079- it's pretty anti-war, but it acknowledges that sometimes a war has to be fought. And if you're not a fan of Unicorn, Zeon's aggression is unnecessary and unfounded.
This is why I can't stand Harutoshi Fukui. The man seems to have made Zeon apologism his entire narrative identity. "Zeon did nothing wrong" was already annoying when it was being said in jest but trying to canonize it feels downright insulting
As someone with much nostalgia for 5, reflecting on the points of this video I can't help but agree on the story. AC5 kinda cheapens its superweapon boss by having the player sink the Scinfaxi as soon as they do. Makes sinking the Hrimfaxi feel almost like a rehash, and the story in general throws a lot of ideas at the wall which don't quite piece together well. Overly ambitious is quite an apt description. AC4 proves the merits of "Less is more" with its story, with the storyteller's narrative providing a quiet and thoughtful contrast to the simple yet engaging story of Mobius 1. 4 paced itself a lot better, ramping up as you progress before reaching an epic climax in Farbanti, only to surprise you with a "fly through the tunnel!" mission to cap it all off.
I still remember the moderate disappointment of the fact that my wingmen are unable to use the Tactical Laser System mounted on the unlockable ADF-01 (which was already goddamn expensive to buy four of to begin with), even though they could even use other weapons just fine - even the ECM pods. "It's just a single button, pilots - it's not that hard."
Lowkey, my headcanon is that Kei Nagase, both tbh, comes from some sort of martial dynasty with large influence in Strangereal politics and military. Explains why you see “Nagase” everywhere. It could also explain Reiko Nagase too.
Did you meant, "Step Back and Observe" moment? Jokes aside, I do understand the amount of in game content we almost never seen, the inconsistency between the in game cutscenes to the dialogues, the lack of subtlety, the lack of branching options other then selectable missions, the arbitrary weapon limitations to aircrafts, and the missing ADA-01B Adler. But the devs managed to slot that much story and world in a 3.8GB worth of disk is still an achievement I relive every year.
Honestly, I feel like if AC05 wanted to delve into an anti war message, it should've at least delved into the ethics of violence at least somewhat, especially when you consider that political maneuvering is at least SOMEWHAT involved in the game's story directly.
I think 5 has a great story, and 7 has the epilogue to their story playing in the background. 1) Harling, not wanting the erusians to weaponize the space elevator like the arkbird was weaponized, ordered the gargoyle squadron to destroy the tower, that's why he was there in the first place. 2) the catapult from 4 is the same one from Tyler Island that we see as Mobius 1 and it's being weaponized AGAIN. 3) Nagase shows up at the end of the game once the war is over and thanks trigger for squashing the AI drones. Poetically, she left a peaceful osea and returned to a peaceful osea. As if the arkbird was some sort of harbinger of peace or something. 4) it's mentioned that Yuktobania supplied the refugees at the space elevator and backed up the reconstruction of osea. 5) honorable mention for the "some of the gray men survived" part of the story. Except he wanted to create sort of a "team America world police" but with drones which was an objectively terrible Idea but he was too high on his own supply to see that until the drones turned on him.
Also, chopper is a reference to bill Murray's character in stripes. Especially in the English one, the voice actor goes REALLY HARD on trying to do a Bill Murray impression the whole time.
I disagree about your first point. I think Gargoyle was given orders by someone else, as he would not have that authority as a former president at that time, whereas Harling was trying to prevent the destruction of the elevator. Why, you ask? In the last mission, Nagase and her team returns from space using the elevator. He was trying to protect the woman who saved his life.
I totally agree with your critique of the role of Belka in the narrative. It basically absolves both Osea and Yuktobania of any responsibility for the war they waged against each other, because surprise, it was actually a silent double-coup by Belka. So ultimately neither government is actually culpable and the entire war gets more or less swept under the rug, along with any thorny moral questions one might raise about it, once the Belkans are defeated. With this in mind, what's the actual "anti-war" message of AC5? Don't let another country secretly take over your government and use your army to wage war? If the two nations actually waging the war have no culpability, that means they also didn't have any agency. Even if we ignore the dissonance with the gameplay incentives to wage as much war as possible, the anti-war aspect of the story is severely undermined by scapegoating Belka as the secret mastermind. ...On the other hand, perhaps "don't let fascists take over your government" is a more relevant lesson today than it was a decade ago.
I think Assault Horizon is the real step back as far as Ace Combat goes, with its half an hour missions and the weird chase mechanic. And I enjoyed it still, specially the paint job tool, but yeah it's better to separate it from the other ACs.
AH was, for better or worse, the CoD of Ace Combat. I definitely enjoy it for what it is, but it would be like Activision making a gritty RTS like company of heros using modern warfare assets.
Ace Combat 5 was my first PS2 title as a kid. Back then growing up in a navy town it felt like they did their homework. The worldbuilding, aesthetics of the OMDF, their outdated looking software for 2010, and the jargain felt like PA toured JASDF and US Naval bases in Japan and talked to pilots. The letdown really comes down to the writing. As a kid I didnt really notice it, but having grown up it really shows. I still love this game to death though. You did a great job with this review!
If you have a PC to play AC7 on Steam, you can easily emulate all the other games. Playing the PS2 games in release order (04, 5, Zero) is an easy recommend.
@@kazekamiha buying used won't support the devs either so I guess you can further support them buy gifting AC7 to friends and family for each past game you're about to emulate.
@@kazekamiha apparently they lost the source code so I won't hold my breath if I were you. Ace Combat 6 on the other hand, god I wish they'll somehow port it to PC; it's technically and mechanically more advanced than any AC game to date and it has frigin online co-op!
I understand the story flaws, but I can't help but love wardog squadron. Their silly chatter makes the game makes the game feels warmer compared to quietness in ac4
Might want to replay 04 since it's hardly a quite game with AWACS SkyEye (my beloved) constantly giving you mission relevant information. Sadly after 04 the AWACS' role has been way way diminished, no more target bearings report, and warnings are now commed by your wingmen instead.
I'm curious how you played this? I don't remember most of the issues with the gameplay you mentioned. But, it HAS been about a decade since I played it last. Wondering if they had a re-release that messed something up. I do remember when it came out. I forgot how much I paid for the deluxe version with the joystick and throttle. I remember getting a preorder for it months before it came out. I went to Babbages to pick it up, and one of the Grand Theft Auto games released the same day and there was a line out the door because they GTA hadn't been delivered yet. No one would let me in because they didn't want me to get cut in line before they got GTA. After a few minutes of no one listening to me I yelled to the clerk asking how long I was going to wait, they said another hour or so. I said screw it, got out of line, walked up to the counter and everyone in line flipped out complaining they were there for GTA first. I just sat my receipt on the counter, the cashier looked at it, turned around, and grabbed the giant box with planes one it and handed it over. Suddenly all the GTA fans shut up. Still hate GTA because of those guys. But always loved AC5, and it's probably the only game I truly want a remaster of. Spent WAY too many hours on it, collected all the aircraft, everything. Still in my top three games of all time. Zero, on the other hand... Sorry about the wall of text.
If you can, do NOT replay it. I also played and loved the game years ago, but then I replay it (multiple times just to make sure I wasn't delusional) and my perception of it has went down significantly; all the gameplay issues he mentioned is true.
Ace Combat 4 was my first. Ace Combat 5 was... ok. Better than assault horizon... But Ace Combat 0 is still my favorite. The writing was much better, Pixie is a vastly superior wingman than anyone else in that HE SHUTS THE F*CK UP! And... the soundtrack... OMG, the soundtrack. Probably SSSS Tier music in Ace Combat 0, easily the best.
The quieter they go, the more proffessional you know they are. That's how things go in AC for me, and likely why it's always the mute who's the Ace among Aces.
I wish Ace Combat 7 was more like 5 in terms of missions. Ace Combat 7 was way too gimmicky with each mission having that certain weird gimmick that made it unique. Which was fun but not every mission needed a weird modifier. I wish more were just straight kill missions. Not to mention a lot of the missions in AC 7 have time limits that are way too short.
Falcon, loved the AC5 vid :) AC4 got me pulled into the franchise and I loved it. However, AC5 is the one that made me fall in love with Strangereal. While it’s not the deepest AU world or anything, I just love the alternate Earth idea. With different but recognizable nations and throwing in a mix of the sci-fi but not ‘completely’ out there tech. Like lasers, railguns, space vehicles and so forth. Additionally, I’ve always been a sucker for the ‘trick two countries into war’ plot. It’s why I enjoy Tomorrow Never Dies, The Sum of All Fears (novel and film), Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, and By Dawn’s Early Light (rare case where the film adaption is better than the novel). When you lay out the AC5 plot…yeah there’s more than a few issues. One thing that I think is more implied than outright said is, Harling’s disappearance is able to be covered up thanks to the Vice President’s involvement in the plot, and I presume other Osean officials as well. Since there was a ‘pro-War’ faction in Yuktobania, not surprising there’s on in Osean. And with Osean being somewhat inspired by the USA, typically VPs will reflect traits or positions/experience to counterbalance the president. Harling being Peace/Space Development, while his VP is the Defense Hawk. I do agree overall the idea that the Strangereal version of POTUS can just disappear for months on end and it doesn’t come up, is quite silly, I can SOMEWHAT wave it away due to the complicity of Oseans under Belkan influence. And yeah the gameplay stuff can be annoying, especially playing the campaign and being stuck with the F-5 for so long (especially during the St. Hewlett stuff). Though, this was the one where I really wanted to get all the aircraft. So that aspect of it, wasn’t a downside for me personally. I felt a bit sense of accomplishment when I got the Falken :) And as others have said in the comments, as have you, the soundtrack for this one rocks. I love listening to it as I’m doing stuff during my days off. While its flawed, I enjoy the story of this one more than AC6. While 6 had the better gameplay, I could not give a damn about the story in that one. It was sort of weird, like they fixed the gameplay but the story suffered compared to 5 and Zero. I look forward to when you cover both of those in the future :)
I never knew the thing with Pops and Ginette looking at wreckage was supposed to be an X-02. I just assumed it was done generic wreckage from a battle, or something captured by the Osean Army, which by that point was pushing deep into Yuktobanian territory.
I think part of the reason we’ll never see any port or remaster for 04 is because they may have lost the source code for the game. Nothing is concrete, but they wouldn’t be able to replicate the complex flight model 04 without it. A shame, it was very interesting. Though I wouldn’t call 5’s a downgrade per se, it’s much more arcadey, much quicker, and much easier to master due to its simplicity. It can be a nice change of pace at times.
pixy is much much better wingman compared to all of your squadron member in ac5 combined, as he actually help you during mission and a lot more memorable character, people still memeing and quoting him to this day.
Unsung War was my very first aerial combat game, ever. I got it along with two other games as Christmas gifts with my PS2 in 2004. The nostalgia bug from this game still hits me hard to this day. I have the final soundtrack piece, The Unsung War, as a constant song on playlists. I have mocked up probably like 4 different carrier models at this point to be the Kesteral. And just today, I bought one of the limited edition Hasegawa 1/72 'Razgriz' F14As (of note, after spending a day at a pottery shop for a friend's B-day painting a cartoonish ceramic F15 as Galm 2 from Zero). I got Shattered Skies and Zero at the same time in late 2006, so I had similar experiences to you of seeing the better gameplay (and, yea, writing....) of 4 & 0 but the nostalgia for 5 keeps it near the top of the list. In late 2010, I did a four-month-long play where I did each mission on the day it canonically happened in the game and even got fussed at for ditching out on family New Year's Eve to have SOLG panels hit me in the face repeatedly. During break time each year, I still do a 'holy trinity' playthrough of 4,5, and Zero just to get my yearly cheesy dog fight arcade high. One funny note, I also noticed the near uselessness of wingmates as well and started tracking their kills across different yearly play-throughs and noticed that the numbers did change from playthrough to playthrough, but the "best" wingmen ALWAYS (for me) followed Wardog numbering order with Edge always having the most, Chopper always had the 2nd, Archer 3rd, and Snow 4th. Though, despite only being in the final 1/4th of the game as a squadron member, Snow frequently would come close to getting more than Archer. The other thing I noticed is I think the game artificially gives your wingman kills in career stats because in a few play-throughs, Edge would have over 100 kills... No offense random Yuk pilots and aerial not-Nazis, but I'm not leaving you all alive long enough for Edge to kill 100 of you.
Don't matter how cheesey the Ace combat series is, it's still holds a good place in my heart, For everything with aircrafts started with UN Squadron (Area 88) to the SNES, maybe you one day take look on that
I don't care much for ace combat as I've only played 7, but I'll never get over how someone thought it would be a good idea to have two completely different places be called Osea and Usea.
While I do agree that AC5 was overly ambitious and had a bunch of problems (especially gameplay ones), I think that there's a way to solve some of the inconsistent story beats while keeping the story intact as a whole. This is probably gonna be unpopular, but I think that making Nagase dig in as a staunch anti-war character, instead of having her switch personality and become the "plane-waifu" that we see in the game's third act of the story would be a lot better not only for her character, but for the whole narrative. Let me explain. Basically AC5's story is divided into 3 main story beats. Part 1 is chaos and confusion as the Yuktobanians attack Osea unprovoked, Part 2 is the offensive war that begins with the invasion of the Yuke mainland, and Part 3 is the Razgriz stuff at the end. Essentially, there's a huge paradigm shift that goes from "What is happening? Why are we being bombed?" to "I hate this war". There's no in-between. As you said yourself Falcon, militaries usually tend to select people who aren't super anti-war, and even then, in a conflict that was sparked by assaults on civilian infrastructure and surprise attacks, you'd imagine the Oseans would be a little bit pissed against the invaders. You say that Nagase goes on and on about peace and how war is bad, but in truth, aside from the few top brass we see in the cutscenes, EVERYONE is immediately disillusioned by the conflict, from day 1. Having an intermediate story beat, where the Osean military goes all jingoistic and "let's invade them back!", would be great not only as a way to tell a story with Nagase's character but it would elevate the entirety of AC5, showing us how easily can people be influenced by the media, and also tying nicely into the conspiracy story that gets unfolded in part 3 of AC5's campaign. I mean, to get two much better written anti-war games, it's basically the entire plot of BOTH AC0 and MGS2 in a nutshell. What if Osea's military gets corrupted while everyone's getting hyped up to go to war? It would solve most of AC5's inconsistencies. Even better, what if we had division and discourse in Wardog squadron? What if Chopper and Archer were, especially in the beginning, pro-war? This would not only put the player in a difficult position of choosing who to support (thus giving some meaning to the stupid Y/N choices), it would also parallel nicely with Chopper's death. Imagine him regretting the stuff he said while his plane's in flames, and finally agreeing with Nagase as his last moment. Would almost make me forget why he didn't just ditch in the river (seriously, they could have had him unable to punch out for any number of reasons, and they went with the stadium?!). Imo it's a shame that Nagase's character turns into waifu Mk.2 at the end of AC5. Knowing her background, esp. with AC7 in mind (her becoming an astronaut kinda recontextualizes her involvement in AC5), a more serious character with better dialogue would have turned her into her own thing, instead of being AC2's copy. I wonder what your opinions on this are, fellow AC fans (and Falcon, if you're reading this, also thanks for the wonderful video and the streams as well).
Flyby2025! Post Ukraine War I can see your point and I kinda look at that anti-war/anti-nuke message that AC5 and the *entire Metal Gear series* with a little contempt. Also Was that a wild Tomcat171 I spotted?!
Calling chopper's death bad writing, I think it is good writing. We are talking about characters that are representing humans, Nagase made a mistake and she absolutely feels like she is the one that killed him. In this game, there are multiple times we see militaries failing, (mostly due to Grey Men's sabotage), and because Chopper dies so early in the story, it is to make room for character progression. Characters doing mistakes, is good writing. Also, how to convince a whole military of something? easy, cash.
I played Ace Combat for the first time in 2022 and yeah when I played AC5 there were things I wish it did and things I wish it didn't but in the end I had fun either way. I wish I was vorn back in the 2000s so I could experience being that kid on the carpet playing the PS2 but I'm not even legal drinking age yet so I grew up in the 2010s. oh yeah and FlyBy2025!
I played 4 and 6, which won me over hard, then later discovered the fantastic pacing and fun that was Zero's story. It was the perfect balance of music, corny action, and endearment. So 5 always felt, probably unfairly so, as a forgotten title for me. Also that classic Osean retardation was basically the full premise for for Ace 7. God that was such a stupid plot line. I feel like the DLC for PW captured the vibes AC7's prisoner ark was trying to do the whole game way better (Underdog, no respect, etc).
It’s 100% nostalgia but this is the Ace Combat game I have the most attachment to. If I could do anything, I’d rewrite the story, fix a few of the mechanics and release the Unsung War as a retcon. It’s clear that they originally intended for this to be a game about Navy (OMDF) pilots but they got cold feet or something at the last second. Maybe the JASDF being involved influenced that change. Either way, blown opportunity and a narrative handicap the already convoluted story didn’t need.
Husband agrees that the main flaw in ace combat 5 was that they tried to do too much which took away from how good generally the story was. But 5 did open the door for Zero.
21:13 Sean Murray never fails to cook with that Black Ops rooftops music! 🔥🔥🔥 Also I completely lost my sh*t when you featured the infamous IFF DB-3 footage from this video and still never fails to make me laugh 😂😂😂 ua-cam.com/video/ArzyVUtZmp4/v-deo.htmlfeature=shared
i just played the last mission a couple hours ago on ACE, i figured out a way to kill all the 8492 in the SOLG mission in less than 1 minute of dogfight
It's not the worst Ace Combat. Even if not thinking it's really good, that thing called Assault Horizon. My favourite is AC04, but AC05 comes very close to it, even if it's different. But oh well, Up to that point no Ace Combat was really like the ones before, so that was to be expected. Air Combat was pure arcade. Ace Combat 2 started the trend for more dressing, while being an awesome arcade. AC3 JP well, that was an arcade air combat with roleplay incorporated and anime cutscenes (Western AC3 was that game were you were confused why you switched sides and why the fuck those future planes are so fucking ugly) , AC04 was a very personal war related story , and AC05 was an arcade epic tale. REgarding AC05, well it managed to make an illusion of your squadron mates mattering, instead of the usual lone wolf, too.
I always like to play this game around Christmas for some reason (so recently given this posting) just for the atmosphere/presentation tbh also might just be me but ACE5 wingman work best when set to "Disperse"
Imo, AC6 is among the best in the series and my personal fav, though I did enjoy AC5 when I played it to completion a while ago, and it's story is interesting
AC6 was the best game in the series besides AC04 for the scale and complexity of the battlespace. AC5/Z suffered from kiddypool syndrome because PA had to exchange size of the mission space for graphics in which the PS2 didn't chug.
So, I am writing this as someone whose favourite AC is 5. I would like to take each point you made and address them one by one: 1. Flight model - 100% agree, AC5 begun a strange trend of making the flight model more arcade-y. Even with a bad controller, I feel it. 2. Special Weapons and Aircraft - I like what they did whit that, but I understand it is a subjective matter. Each plane having only one SP weapon made me try out different ones and unlocking them was fun for me. Weapons not matching aircraft type is a strange design choice. 3. Return line - Should have been for the first part of the game, but it not being there after Wardog becoming Razgriz made narrative sense and makes it feel more "us against the world" which is fitting for 5. 4. Wingman Commands - 100% agree with you - great idea, but technology wasn't there. 5. Target count and scoring - also agree with you. 6. Mission Selection - worst design decision in game. 7. Yes/No Dialogue - I guess they wanted both a silent protagonist and a way for player to make choices, but I have no idea why they have it mid-missions. As for the story, it is what keep AC5 as my first place. I see all the holes and flaws, but I much prefer where they were trying here to stories of 4 and Zero. I would even say that each the the theme of every entry of PS2 trilogy reflects a style of Zero: AC4-You are a Soldier with no agenda, blindly following order; AC5-You are a Knight, upholding honour and fighting for the weak; Zero-You are a Mercenary, killing is how you make money and there is nothing more to it. The problem of meta narrative (anti-war game that is fun because of war) is valid, but I would say is acknowledged through Nagase's character - she is a pacifist, but not a naive, coward kind that thinks the world will be good on its own - she wants to fight for that world, knowing it makes her a hypocrite. When it comes to the next AC, I would love for us to fly for Yuktobania with someone other than Belka as a bad guy, but knowing Kono, it will be that same song and dance. I still have a Handful of Hope though.
Eh, if you ask me... If Nagase wanted to go into the military for any reason (maybe future career opportunities)... She probably wouldn't be much fit for a fighter pilot. If anything she'd be more of a transport pilot... :Tc
@@spenjak18 We have no reason stated in the lore (as far as I know) so your guess is as good as mine. As for Nagase, there is a reason her "first" appearance is as a Civilian pilot.
Unlike 5 however, most of 7's missions (there are stinkers, just like any AC game) are actually fun to play. Plus return lines exist so there's no limit to how much you can have fun in the mission.
I always presumed the stupid of Harding nearly getting shot down by his own side, and other Osean dumbness, has to do with both Harding's pacifism and the.... later story revelations. (Not giving spoilers.)
I don’t care what Fighter’s tales talks shit about the the Unsung War , it is still my favorite game of the old trilogy (that’s right I love all three games but Zero is my personal goat tbh)
Gotta disagree with this one, AC 4 had its moments, some features absent in 5 such as multiple special weapons and the return line should have been included., but AC5's variety of aircraft, the story, and the mission structure all blows AC4's out of the water. The boss fights, missions you got recon missions, carrier plane exclusive missions, That gas attack mission, the SEAD mission, the trying to escape missions, the mission variety in AC5 is unparalleled. Not to mention mission 17 where your wingman died, that was also hell of an emotional moment.
All that variety and they somehow forgot the most important kind of mission, the *massive furball* a2a mission. AC04 and Zero are superior (exaggeration) simply because they let you fill your Top Gun badass ace pilot fantasies with Comona and Mayhem alone, if you don't get pumped up after hearing ** then idk what will. I don't dislike 5's variety, but they can be quite overboard and feel ultra gimmicky.
@@shira_yone Did you take consideration of the mission 17 and 18+, those were pure air to air missions, not to mention the final mission against SOLG and 2 ace squadrons, it had its fair share of pure air to air combat, First flight should also be considered, in a unique setting, scrambling against enemy aircraft, mission 10 also sees you shooting down aircraft but with a twist as there are enemy jammers.
@@Hao-fp9mt pure a2a ≠ massive furball The atmosphere and vibe are also completely different; dunking on hostiles left and right like a grim reaper/demon lord is not the same as getting angry/sad that your wingman decided to land on a stadium instead of the large river nearby and (potentially) survive, nor is it the same as getting ambushed by a small group of jackasses, nor is it the same as meeting the same small group of jackasses again but there's a falling satellite behind them. Even Project Wingman got the memo and have Cold War, one of the best massive furball mission in AC-like games to date.
@@shira_yone AC5 is a lot more story focused, I guess people just have different preferences, I like the more story oriented gameplay when it comes to AC5, since you're a squadron leader and no longer just working solo anyways. For me those pure air to air missions tend to drag on a little long. The perfect length is probably mission 3 from AC0.
@@Hao-fp9mt yeah, I prefer it when I can play the game more in it's gameplay and have the radio (story) voiced over it, and when I missed something I usually pick it up in subsequent playthrough (encouraged and rewarded in ACZ too) and falling deeper in love with the narrative that way; rather than just sitting around waiting for the guys to stop talking before I can start doing stuff, which is especially egregious on replays since you already know the story. I love ACZ since the more you play, the more fun it gets and the more lore you discover (through radio or from reading Assault Records); it's the other way around with AC5 where the more you play, the more you start to notice the game's flaws. I love the rival squadron and massive furball missions since that's the perfect time to pull off the fancy dogfight maneuvers you see in the movies or cold war era dogfighting strategy documentaries.
You're real for this one. AC4 and AC0 was actually well written. AC5 felt like animu trash and even at the time when I was 10 it felt like it. 4 and 0 felt like warfighters fighting a war. 0 was more anime but it still felt valid. 5 felt like they took everyones favorite anime VA and told them to run wild. Didn't have the words for it at the time but it just feels less genuine.
Flyby2025! I loved that there were SO MANY PLANES. I hate that I only get ONE “special” weapon per plane AND BOMBS on a bloody FIGHTER. It triggers my “special” -tisms.
I'm writing this comment after having seen the whole video, It's either you are purposely pretending to ignore the blatant shadow government conspiracy plot of the game or you're just so biased against the game that you're ignoring it. They engineered the radar situation to kill harling, or do you think it's a magic coincidence that the 8492 squad that's just a bunch of Belkans pretending to be osean just happened to show up after you save Harling? No, the gray men are purposely pulling strings trying to cause the downfall of osea. This comes from a common reading of the history of the Vietnam war where the politicians literally told pilots to not shoot at SAM sites and then to close into visual range before firing a missile at an aircraft that could outmaneuver it while the Americans jet had no gun and was a flying brick...
I am unfortunately first timer here (i only played AC7, emulated zero and Project wingman) but this story of AC5 really made insanity of zero and PW look like competent stories (except part where they gave super planes to mentally unstable/radical pilots) and somehow its on par bad as AC7s.
You'll make the AC5 fans angry with this one lul. (Flyby2025!) Personally I loved the game as a wee child and only bothered to do one playthrough of it, played that way the game is enjoyable. Years later (after I finished AC7) I went through a small journey of trying out various AC games, tried the PS1 games for the first time and AC2 is a surprise favorite, my love of AC04 and Zero has deepen and reinforced, but not with 5; it truly is the worst AC game to replay and will ruin your perception of it (especially if you care about gamefeel).
AC5 is a good one but story wise it falls short of 4. IMO is a good game but will never fill the shoes of 4. I felt more connected to 4 more than any other in the series games. Zero was just weird story wise. To me it felt like a cash grab.
@@shira_yone Yeah, the game with 53 missions, 5 endings, and the best physics of all games is overrated. AC3 is the best game overall, by far, best missions, best story, multiple endings, multiple different paths to the same ending, I can keep going, but this is enough for it to be the best.
@windyman56 It is a visual novel mostly, and makes the story much easier to catch since no story elements are being displayed during the missions (with a few exceptions) much better way to expose the player to the whole story. AC3 is the best game of the franchise.
Comment "Flyby2025!" to be entered into the steam key giveaway! Winners will be announced on my discord which can be accessed via: discord.gg/XFQPftSxNm
Ace Combat 5, while often seen as the best in the series, was overly ambitious and extremely flawed in many ways. Let's take a look at it!
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Chronicler, Fighter Tales Soundtrack
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Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War soundtrack
Counterpoint: "First Flight" was played at the Tokyo Olympics during the marching in of the athletes during the opening ceremony
@@himwo. I have no issue with the game's soundtrack
@@fightertales Ace Combat games consistently have some of the best music around.
To be honest, aside from the flight mechanics, the music of Ace Combat makes me wish that we could get a Star Wars Rogue Squadron-esqe game made by Project Aces...
@@26th_PrimarchSW rogue squadron by Project ACES but all the spacecraft flies like the Idolm@ster A-10 in AC6
@shira_yone played AC 6 but never messed with the Idolm@ster stuff.
@@26th_Primarch try look up the "AC6 idolmaster A-10", it's quite comical
Ace Combat 6 is underrated, I will die on this hill
@@YJRail the gameplay is great
it's great, but it's trapped as x360 exclusive making it bit hard to access
It's my favorite overall, game is a masterpiece
@@PopeMetallicus the sheer scale of the combat is so mesmerizing
I wouldn't know since Ace made it Xbox exclusive for some stupid reason.
The Belkans are in your walls
In defense of not having Harling's transport IFF on, didn't he already suspect the treachery in the military, and was trying to end the war before he got coup'd?
Idk man it's asking to get shot down
Oh yeah. Kinda forgot that detail
@@fightertales I always thought that between the iff and the interceptors it was a ploy from the shadow government to get rid of Harling and use the propaganda of the presidents death to further drive the war
Keiki Kobayshi is literally the John Williams of Japan.
-Rap- Composition battle when?
I swear to god, with how much Blaze’s wingmen complain about having to do their job you’d think they wouldn’t’ve joined the military
The wingmen's abilities in this game depend almost entirely on the plane's rating AND the special weapons. Give them A-10s or F-22s, they obliterate ground and air targets, respectively. Heck, if they fly planes with fire & forget weapons in general, they'll do a decent job of killing stuff. Give them dumb bombs, RCLs, or SAAMs, on the other hand, and they're next to useless.
ACZ did more for its anti-war narrative in a single mission (Hoffnung) than AC5 did with most of a game's worth of over-the-top handwringing and whinging. That's honestly the single biggest takeaway, 5's story just comes across as trying too damn hard for its own good. Dialing back some of Nagase and Chopper's more exaggerated whining (Grimm's somehow mostly alright), and making a few plot points more solid (Having Harling publicly announced as dead after Mother Goose 1's shootdown would give Osea _massive_ reason to escalate things rather than him just vanishing) would dramatically improve the story without much effort.
Holy crap, that's actually really good.
Yeah, a lot of anti-war stories no longer appeal to me. I don't like war, but wars only need one side to want them to start. That's a big part of why I like Gundam 0079- it's pretty anti-war, but it acknowledges that sometimes a war has to be fought. And if you're not a fan of Unicorn, Zeon's aggression is unnecessary and unfounded.
This is why I can't stand Harutoshi Fukui. The man seems to have made Zeon apologism his entire narrative identity. "Zeon did nothing wrong" was already annoying when it was being said in jest but trying to canonize it feels downright insulting
Destroy all spacenoids
As someone with much nostalgia for 5, reflecting on the points of this video I can't help but agree on the story. AC5 kinda cheapens its superweapon boss by having the player sink the Scinfaxi as soon as they do. Makes sinking the Hrimfaxi feel almost like a rehash, and the story in general throws a lot of ideas at the wall which don't quite piece together well. Overly ambitious is quite an apt description.
AC4 proves the merits of "Less is more" with its story, with the storyteller's narrative providing a quiet and thoughtful contrast to the simple yet engaging story of Mobius 1. 4 paced itself a lot better, ramping up as you progress before reaching an epic climax in Farbanti, only to surprise you with a "fly through the tunnel!" mission to cap it all off.
I still remember the moderate disappointment of the fact that my wingmen are unable to use the Tactical Laser System mounted on the unlockable ADF-01 (which was already goddamn expensive to buy four of to begin with), even though they could even use other weapons just fine - even the ECM pods.
"It's just a single button, pilots - it's not that hard."
Lowkey, my headcanon is that Kei Nagase, both tbh, comes from some sort of martial dynasty with large influence in Strangereal politics and military. Explains why you see “Nagase” everywhere.
It could also explain Reiko Nagase too.
6:43 *WE MUST GO EVEN FASTER!*
@@RushZ3r great video
@@fightertales Just like this one mate!
Did you meant, "Step Back and Observe" moment?
Jokes aside, I do understand the amount of in game content we almost never seen, the inconsistency between the in game cutscenes to the dialogues, the lack of subtlety, the lack of branching options other then selectable missions, the arbitrary weapon limitations to aircrafts, and the missing ADA-01B Adler. But the devs managed to slot that much story and world in a 3.8GB worth of disk is still an achievement I relive every year.
Flyby2025! And shoutout to the Republic of Emmeria for having the most competent military in all of Strangereal!
They make the Golden King smile.
Honestly, I feel like if AC05 wanted to delve into an anti war message, it should've at least delved into the ethics of violence at least somewhat, especially when you consider that political maneuvering is at least SOMEWHAT involved in the game's story directly.
Just like Gundam does for giant robots/Mecha, Ace Combat's real lesson is "war is bad, but planes are rad."
I think 5 has a great story, and 7 has the epilogue to their story playing in the background.
1) Harling, not wanting the erusians to weaponize the space elevator like the arkbird was weaponized, ordered the gargoyle squadron to destroy the tower, that's why he was there in the first place.
2) the catapult from 4 is the same one from Tyler Island that we see as Mobius 1 and it's being weaponized AGAIN.
3) Nagase shows up at the end of the game once the war is over and thanks trigger for squashing the AI drones. Poetically, she left a peaceful osea and returned to a peaceful osea. As if the arkbird was some sort of harbinger of peace or something.
4) it's mentioned that Yuktobania supplied the refugees at the space elevator and backed up the reconstruction of osea.
5) honorable mention for the "some of the gray men survived" part of the story. Except he wanted to create sort of a "team America world police" but with drones which was an objectively terrible Idea but he was too high on his own supply to see that until the drones turned on him.
Also, chopper is a reference to bill Murray's character in stripes. Especially in the English one, the voice actor goes REALLY HARD on trying to do a Bill Murray impression the whole time.
I disagree about your first point. I think Gargoyle was given orders by someone else, as he would not have that authority as a former president at that time, whereas Harling was trying to prevent the destruction of the elevator.
Why, you ask?
In the last mission, Nagase and her team returns from space using the elevator. He was trying to protect the woman who saved his life.
I totally agree with your critique of the role of Belka in the narrative. It basically absolves both Osea and Yuktobania of any responsibility for the war they waged against each other, because surprise, it was actually a silent double-coup by Belka. So ultimately neither government is actually culpable and the entire war gets more or less swept under the rug, along with any thorny moral questions one might raise about it, once the Belkans are defeated.
With this in mind, what's the actual "anti-war" message of AC5? Don't let another country secretly take over your government and use your army to wage war? If the two nations actually waging the war have no culpability, that means they also didn't have any agency. Even if we ignore the dissonance with the gameplay incentives to wage as much war as possible, the anti-war aspect of the story is severely undermined by scapegoating Belka as the secret mastermind.
...On the other hand, perhaps "don't let fascists take over your government" is a more relevant lesson today than it was a decade ago.
I think Assault Horizon is the real step back as far as Ace Combat goes, with its half an hour missions and the weird chase mechanic. And I enjoyed it still, specially the paint job tool, but yeah it's better to separate it from the other ACs.
I think you commented on the wrong review I did lmao
@fightertales Nope.
„We don’t talk about the readhead step child that Horizon is in this household.“
AH was, for better or worse, the CoD of Ace Combat. I definitely enjoy it for what it is, but it would be like Activision making a gritty RTS like company of heros using modern warfare assets.
Ace Combat 5 was my first PS2 title as a kid. Back then growing up in a navy town it felt like they did their homework. The worldbuilding, aesthetics of the OMDF, their outdated looking software for 2010, and the jargain felt like PA toured JASDF and US Naval bases in Japan and talked to pilots. The letdown really comes down to the writing. As a kid I didnt really notice it, but having grown up it really shows. I still love this game to death though. You did a great job with this review!
I've only played AC7, so can't overly comment on the series... but it'd be great if they rereleased all of them on Steam.
If you have a PC to play AC7 on Steam, you can easily emulate all the other games. Playing the PS2 games in release order (04, 5, Zero) is an easy recommend.
@@shira_yone I'd still like to buy them; support the creator and all.
Worse comes to worse, maybe I'll find them used.
@@kazekamiha buying used won't support the devs either so I guess you can further support them buy gifting AC7 to friends and family for each past game you're about to emulate.
@@shira_yone True. Hence why I think an Ace Combat Collection would be dope.
Doesn't even need to be remastered.
@@kazekamiha apparently they lost the source code so I won't hold my breath if I were you.
Ace Combat 6 on the other hand, god I wish they'll somehow port it to PC; it's technically and mechanically more advanced than any AC game to date and it has frigin online co-op!
I understand the story flaws, but I can't help but love wardog squadron. Their silly chatter makes the game makes the game feels warmer compared to quietness in ac4
Might want to replay 04 since it's hardly a quite game with AWACS SkyEye (my beloved) constantly giving you mission relevant information. Sadly after 04 the AWACS' role has been way way diminished, no more target bearings report, and warnings are now commed by your wingmen instead.
@shira_yone yea I miss the target bearings its pretty useful
I'm curious how you played this? I don't remember most of the issues with the gameplay you mentioned. But, it HAS been about a decade since I played it last. Wondering if they had a re-release that messed something up.
I do remember when it came out. I forgot how much I paid for the deluxe version with the joystick and throttle. I remember getting a preorder for it months before it came out. I went to Babbages to pick it up, and one of the Grand Theft Auto games released the same day and there was a line out the door because they GTA hadn't been delivered yet. No one would let me in because they didn't want me to get cut in line before they got GTA. After a few minutes of no one listening to me I yelled to the clerk asking how long I was going to wait, they said another hour or so. I said screw it, got out of line, walked up to the counter and everyone in line flipped out complaining they were there for GTA first. I just sat my receipt on the counter, the cashier looked at it, turned around, and grabbed the giant box with planes one it and handed it over. Suddenly all the GTA fans shut up. Still hate GTA because of those guys.
But always loved AC5, and it's probably the only game I truly want a remaster of. Spent WAY too many hours on it, collected all the aircraft, everything. Still in my top three games of all time. Zero, on the other hand...
Sorry about the wall of text.
If you can, do NOT replay it. I also played and loved the game years ago, but then I replay it (multiple times just to make sure I wasn't delusional) and my perception of it has went down significantly; all the gameplay issues he mentioned is true.
Ace Combat 4 was my first. Ace Combat 5 was... ok. Better than assault horizon...
But Ace Combat 0 is still my favorite. The writing was much better, Pixie is a vastly superior wingman than anyone else in that HE SHUTS THE F*CK UP! And... the soundtrack... OMG, the soundtrack. Probably SSSS Tier music in Ace Combat 0, easily the best.
The quieter they go, the more proffessional you know they are. That's how things go in AC for me, and likely why it's always the mute who's the Ace among Aces.
I like the idea of multiple wingmen, it would be nice if they were actually effective and could be used to coordinate in combat
I wish Ace Combat 7 was more like 5 in terms of missions. Ace Combat 7 was way too gimmicky with each mission having that certain weird gimmick that made it unique. Which was fun but not every mission needed a weird modifier. I wish more were just straight kill missions. Not to mention a lot of the missions in AC 7 have time limits that are way too short.
Funny because for me 7's missions are way more fun and solid overall, while 5's are too slow, gimmicky, or unexciting.
Falcon, loved the AC5 vid :)
AC4 got me pulled into the franchise and I loved it. However, AC5 is the one that made me fall in love with Strangereal. While it’s not the deepest AU world or anything, I just love the alternate Earth idea. With different but recognizable nations and throwing in a mix of the sci-fi but not ‘completely’ out there tech. Like lasers, railguns, space vehicles and so forth. Additionally, I’ve always been a sucker for the ‘trick two countries into war’ plot. It’s why I enjoy Tomorrow Never Dies, The Sum of All Fears (novel and film), Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, and By Dawn’s Early Light (rare case where the film adaption is better than the novel). When you lay out the AC5 plot…yeah there’s more than a few issues.
One thing that I think is more implied than outright said is, Harling’s disappearance is able to be covered up thanks to the Vice President’s involvement in the plot, and I presume other Osean officials as well. Since there was a ‘pro-War’ faction in Yuktobania, not surprising there’s on in Osean. And with Osean being somewhat inspired by the USA, typically VPs will reflect traits or positions/experience to counterbalance the president. Harling being Peace/Space Development, while his VP is the Defense Hawk. I do agree overall the idea that the Strangereal version of POTUS can just disappear for months on end and it doesn’t come up, is quite silly, I can SOMEWHAT wave it away due to the complicity of Oseans under Belkan influence.
And yeah the gameplay stuff can be annoying, especially playing the campaign and being stuck with the F-5 for so long (especially during the St. Hewlett stuff). Though, this was the one where I really wanted to get all the aircraft. So that aspect of it, wasn’t a downside for me personally. I felt a bit sense of accomplishment when I got the Falken :) And as others have said in the comments, as have you, the soundtrack for this one rocks. I love listening to it as I’m doing stuff during my days off.
While its flawed, I enjoy the story of this one more than AC6. While 6 had the better gameplay, I could not give a damn about the story in that one. It was sort of weird, like they fixed the gameplay but the story suffered compared to 5 and Zero. I look forward to when you cover both of those in the future :)
AC04 is the goat, AC0 made us hate borders, and AC5 is both long and has a cool cover
(Also F-14B(U) is coming to dcs hell yeah)
I’m not mature and AC5 is perfect, and I am not bias via childhood nostalgia in any way.
I never knew the thing with Pops and Ginette looking at wreckage was supposed to be an X-02. I just assumed it was done generic wreckage from a battle, or something captured by the Osean Army, which by that point was pushing deep into Yuktobanian territory.
I think part of the reason we’ll never see any port or remaster for 04 is because they may have lost the source code for the game. Nothing is concrete, but they wouldn’t be able to replicate the complex flight model 04 without it. A shame, it was very interesting. Though I wouldn’t call 5’s a downgrade per se, it’s much more arcadey, much quicker, and much easier to master due to its simplicity. It can be a nice change of pace at times.
definitely need the combat return line mechanic and squadron control back in next games
A step back into the future.
pixy is much much better wingman compared to all of your squadron member in ac5 combined, as he actually help you during mission and a lot more memorable character, people still memeing and quoting him to this day.
Unsung War was my very first aerial combat game, ever. I got it along with two other games as Christmas gifts with my PS2 in 2004. The nostalgia bug from this game still hits me hard to this day. I have the final soundtrack piece, The Unsung War, as a constant song on playlists. I have mocked up probably like 4 different carrier models at this point to be the Kesteral. And just today, I bought one of the limited edition Hasegawa 1/72 'Razgriz' F14As (of note, after spending a day at a pottery shop for a friend's B-day painting a cartoonish ceramic F15 as Galm 2 from Zero). I got Shattered Skies and Zero at the same time in late 2006, so I had similar experiences to you of seeing the better gameplay (and, yea, writing....) of 4 & 0 but the nostalgia for 5 keeps it near the top of the list. In late 2010, I did a four-month-long play where I did each mission on the day it canonically happened in the game and even got fussed at for ditching out on family New Year's Eve to have SOLG panels hit me in the face repeatedly. During break time each year, I still do a 'holy trinity' playthrough of 4,5, and Zero just to get my yearly cheesy dog fight arcade high.
One funny note, I also noticed the near uselessness of wingmates as well and started tracking their kills across different yearly play-throughs and noticed that the numbers did change from playthrough to playthrough, but the "best" wingmen ALWAYS (for me) followed Wardog numbering order with Edge always having the most, Chopper always had the 2nd, Archer 3rd, and Snow 4th. Though, despite only being in the final 1/4th of the game as a squadron member, Snow frequently would come close to getting more than Archer. The other thing I noticed is I think the game artificially gives your wingman kills in career stats because in a few play-throughs, Edge would have over 100 kills... No offense random Yuk pilots and aerial not-Nazis, but I'm not leaving you all alive long enough for Edge to kill 100 of you.
Don't matter how cheesey the Ace combat series is, it's still holds a good place in my heart, For everything with aircrafts started with UN Squadron (Area 88) to the SNES, maybe you one day take look on that
22:23 bro almost 9/11ed the CN tower
Would it be possible for you to do a video on the Indian Air Force or maybe write your own ace combat story?
28:05 I felt that in my soul
If they would ever re-release the holy trinity we could probably double the original sales numbers as long as it also releases on Steam
I don't care much for ace combat as I've only played 7, but I'll never get over how someone thought it would be a good idea to have two completely different places be called Osea and Usea.
While I do agree that AC5 was overly ambitious and had a bunch of problems (especially gameplay ones), I think that there's a way to solve some of the inconsistent story beats while keeping the story intact as a whole. This is probably gonna be unpopular, but I think that making Nagase dig in as a staunch anti-war character, instead of having her switch personality and become the "plane-waifu" that we see in the game's third act of the story would be a lot better not only for her character, but for the whole narrative.
Let me explain.
Basically AC5's story is divided into 3 main story beats. Part 1 is chaos and confusion as the Yuktobanians attack Osea unprovoked, Part 2 is the offensive war that begins with the invasion of the Yuke mainland, and Part 3 is the Razgriz stuff at the end. Essentially, there's a huge paradigm shift that goes from "What is happening? Why are we being bombed?" to "I hate this war". There's no in-between. As you said yourself Falcon, militaries usually tend to select people who aren't super anti-war, and even then, in a conflict that was sparked by assaults on civilian infrastructure and surprise attacks, you'd imagine the Oseans would be a little bit pissed against the invaders. You say that Nagase goes on and on about peace and how war is bad, but in truth, aside from the few top brass we see in the cutscenes, EVERYONE is immediately disillusioned by the conflict, from day 1.
Having an intermediate story beat, where the Osean military goes all jingoistic and "let's invade them back!", would be great not only as a way to tell a story with Nagase's character but it would elevate the entirety of AC5, showing us how easily can people be influenced by the media, and also tying nicely into the conspiracy story that gets unfolded in part 3 of AC5's campaign. I mean, to get two much better written anti-war games, it's basically the entire plot of BOTH AC0 and MGS2 in a nutshell. What if Osea's military gets corrupted while everyone's getting hyped up to go to war? It would solve most of AC5's inconsistencies.
Even better, what if we had division and discourse in Wardog squadron? What if Chopper and Archer were, especially in the beginning, pro-war? This would not only put the player in a difficult position of choosing who to support (thus giving some meaning to the stupid Y/N choices), it would also parallel nicely with Chopper's death. Imagine him regretting the stuff he said while his plane's in flames, and finally agreeing with Nagase as his last moment. Would almost make me forget why he didn't just ditch in the river (seriously, they could have had him unable to punch out for any number of reasons, and they went with the stadium?!).
Imo it's a shame that Nagase's character turns into waifu Mk.2 at the end of AC5. Knowing her background, esp. with AC7 in mind (her becoming an astronaut kinda recontextualizes her involvement in AC5), a more serious character with better dialogue would have turned her into her own thing, instead of being AC2's copy.
I wonder what your opinions on this are, fellow AC fans (and Falcon, if you're reading this, also thanks for the wonderful video and the streams as well).
Flyby2025! Post Ukraine War I can see your point and I kinda look at that anti-war/anti-nuke message that AC5 and the *entire Metal Gear series* with a little contempt.
Also Was that a wild Tomcat171 I spotted?!
@@SonOfAB_tch2ndClass yeah, Tomcat171 now known as MobiusJon joined me in my AC5 stream at times
HE POSTED RAHHHHH
Pretty hot take as far as Ace Combat games go... But yeah. I'll admit, the story made me go "...Are we playing a Gundam game?"
Have you played Ace Combat 6? Also, could you review it?
Calling chopper's death bad writing, I think it is good writing. We are talking about characters that are representing humans, Nagase made a mistake and she absolutely feels like she is the one that killed him. In this game, there are multiple times we see militaries failing, (mostly due to Grey Men's sabotage), and because Chopper dies so early in the story, it is to make room for character progression. Characters doing mistakes, is good writing.
Also, how to convince a whole military of something? easy, cash.
I played Ace Combat for the first time in 2022 and yeah when I played AC5 there were things I wish it did and things I wish it didn't but in the end I had fun either way. I wish I was vorn back in the 2000s so I could experience being that kid on the carpet playing the PS2 but I'm not even legal drinking age yet so I grew up in the 2010s. oh yeah and FlyBy2025!
I played 4 and 6, which won me over hard, then later discovered the fantastic pacing and fun that was Zero's story. It was the perfect balance of music, corny action, and endearment. So 5 always felt, probably unfairly so, as a forgotten title for me.
Also that classic Osean retardation was basically the full premise for for Ace 7. God that was such a stupid plot line. I feel like the DLC for PW captured the vibes AC7's prisoner ark was trying to do the whole game way better (Underdog, no respect, etc).
It’s 100% nostalgia but this is the Ace Combat game I have the most attachment to. If I could do anything, I’d rewrite the story, fix a few of the mechanics and release the Unsung War as a retcon. It’s clear that they originally intended for this to be a game about Navy (OMDF) pilots but they got cold feet or something at the last second. Maybe the JASDF being involved influenced that change. Either way, blown opportunity and a narrative handicap the already convoluted story didn’t need.
Falcon is really annoyed now for AC5 wait till Assault Horizon
@@nuclearTANK already reviewed it big dog
Flyby2025 and I wish this game was just a bit more polished cause it could definitely be one of the best
Husband agrees that the main flaw in ace combat 5 was that they tried to do too much which took away from how good generally the story was. But 5 did open the door for Zero.
Hey, what’s that needle building?
21:13
Sean Murray never fails to cook with that Black Ops rooftops music! 🔥🔥🔥
Also I completely lost my sh*t when you featured the infamous IFF DB-3 footage from this video and still never fails to make me laugh 😂😂😂 ua-cam.com/video/ArzyVUtZmp4/v-deo.htmlfeature=shared
i just played the last mission a couple hours ago on ACE, i figured out a way to kill all the 8492 in the SOLG mission in less than 1 minute of dogfight
It's not the worst Ace Combat. Even if not thinking it's really good, that thing called Assault Horizon. My favourite is AC04, but AC05 comes very close to it, even if it's different. But oh well, Up to that point no Ace Combat was really like the ones before, so that was to be expected. Air Combat was pure arcade. Ace Combat 2 started the trend for more dressing, while being an awesome arcade. AC3 JP well, that was an arcade air combat with roleplay incorporated and anime cutscenes (Western AC3 was that game were you were confused why you switched sides and why the fuck those future planes are so fucking ugly) , AC04 was a very personal war related story , and AC05 was an arcade epic tale. REgarding AC05, well it managed to make an illusion of your squadron mates mattering, instead of the usual lone wolf, too.
I always like to play this game around Christmas for some reason (so recently given this posting)
just for the atmosphere/presentation tbh
also might just be me but ACE5 wingman work best when set to "Disperse"
Falcon when you're done with the Ace Combat PS2 Trilogy are you going to do a video on Project wingman and Frontline 59.
Imo, AC6 is among the best in the series and my personal fav, though I did enjoy AC5 when I played it to completion a while ago, and it's story is interesting
13:38 Should have pulled a Gallipoli and had the ocean shaded red.
AC6 was the best game in the series besides AC04 for the scale and complexity of the battlespace. AC5/Z suffered from kiddypool syndrome because PA had to exchange size of the mission space for graphics in which the PS2 didn't chug.
Bit off topic but with there unique inventory over the past 40 years the polish air force could probably fit into ace combat comfortably 😅
I’d be curious to get your analysis on ace combat 6 as that’s one of the less popular titles.
Flyby2025!, also yeah in some ways but the soundtrack is one of the best
I won't disagree that the soundtrack is top notch.
25:28: NO! Naval F-14 AVIATORS.
So, I am writing this as someone whose favourite AC is 5. I would like to take each point you made and address them one by one:
1. Flight model - 100% agree, AC5 begun a strange trend of making the flight model more arcade-y. Even with a bad controller, I feel it.
2. Special Weapons and Aircraft - I like what they did whit that, but I understand it is a subjective matter. Each plane having only one SP weapon made me try out different ones and unlocking them was fun for me. Weapons not matching aircraft type is a strange design choice.
3. Return line - Should have been for the first part of the game, but it not being there after Wardog becoming Razgriz made narrative sense and makes it feel more "us against the world" which is fitting for 5.
4. Wingman Commands - 100% agree with you - great idea, but technology wasn't there.
5. Target count and scoring - also agree with you.
6. Mission Selection - worst design decision in game.
7. Yes/No Dialogue - I guess they wanted both a silent protagonist and a way for player to make choices, but I have no idea why they have it mid-missions.
As for the story, it is what keep AC5 as my first place. I see all the holes and flaws, but I much prefer where they were trying here to stories of 4 and Zero. I would even say that each the the theme of every entry of PS2 trilogy reflects a style of Zero: AC4-You are a Soldier with no agenda, blindly following order; AC5-You are a Knight, upholding honour and fighting for the weak; Zero-You are a Mercenary, killing is how you make money and there is nothing more to it. The problem of meta narrative (anti-war game that is fun because of war) is valid, but I would say is acknowledged through Nagase's character - she is a pacifist, but not a naive, coward kind that thinks the world will be good on its own - she wants to fight for that world, knowing it makes her a hypocrite.
When it comes to the next AC, I would love for us to fly for Yuktobania with someone other than Belka as a bad guy, but knowing Kono, it will be that same song and dance. I still have a Handful of Hope though.
Eh, if you ask me... If Nagase wanted to go into the military for any reason (maybe future career opportunities)... She probably wouldn't be much fit for a fighter pilot. If anything she'd be more of a transport pilot... :Tc
@@spenjak18 We have no reason stated in the lore (as far as I know) so your guess is as good as mine. As for Nagase, there is a reason her "first" appearance is as a Civilian pilot.
@@aleksander_poznanskibut her first appearance is as your wingman in AC2?
It absolutely was! All bombast, no susbstance - kinda the same reason why 7 is not the best.
Pretty much every mission in 7 makes me go, "Ugh I don't like this mission," but there are a couple that are genuinely AWFUL.
Unlike 5 however, most of 7's missions (there are stinkers, just like any AC game) are actually fun to play. Plus return lines exist so there's no limit to how much you can have fun in the mission.
…but I don’t see it as flawed.
Everything's flawed.
Sounds fun. "Flyby2025!"
I always presumed the stupid of Harding nearly getting shot down by his own side, and other Osean dumbness, has to do with both Harding's pacifism and the.... later story revelations. (Not giving spoilers.)
I don’t care what Fighter’s tales talks shit about the the Unsung War , it is still my favorite game of the old trilogy (that’s right I love all three games but Zero is my personal goat tbh)
Gotta disagree with this one, AC 4 had its moments, some features absent in 5 such as multiple special weapons and the return line should have been included., but AC5's variety of aircraft, the story, and the mission structure all blows AC4's out of the water. The boss fights, missions you got recon missions, carrier plane exclusive missions, That gas attack mission, the SEAD mission, the trying to escape missions, the mission variety in AC5 is unparalleled. Not to mention mission 17 where your wingman died, that was also hell of an emotional moment.
All that variety and they somehow forgot the most important kind of mission, the *massive furball* a2a mission.
AC04 and Zero are superior (exaggeration) simply because they let you fill your Top Gun badass ace pilot fantasies with Comona and Mayhem alone, if you don't get pumped up after hearing ** then idk what will.
I don't dislike 5's variety, but they can be quite overboard and feel ultra gimmicky.
@@shira_yone Did you take consideration of the mission 17 and 18+, those were pure air to air missions, not to mention the final mission against SOLG and 2 ace squadrons, it had its fair share of pure air to air combat,
First flight should also be considered, in a unique setting, scrambling against enemy aircraft, mission 10 also sees you shooting down aircraft but with a twist as there are enemy jammers.
@@Hao-fp9mt pure a2a ≠ massive furball
The atmosphere and vibe are also completely different; dunking on hostiles left and right like a grim reaper/demon lord is not the same as getting angry/sad that your wingman decided to land on a stadium instead of the large river nearby and (potentially) survive, nor is it the same as getting ambushed by a small group of jackasses, nor is it the same as meeting the same small group of jackasses again but there's a falling satellite behind them.
Even Project Wingman got the memo and have Cold War, one of the best massive furball mission in AC-like games to date.
@@shira_yone AC5 is a lot more story focused, I guess people just have different preferences, I like the more story oriented gameplay when it comes to AC5, since you're a squadron leader and no longer just working solo anyways. For me those pure air to air missions tend to drag on a little long. The perfect length is probably mission 3 from AC0.
@@Hao-fp9mt yeah, I prefer it when I can play the game more in it's gameplay and have the radio (story) voiced over it, and when I missed something I usually pick it up in subsequent playthrough (encouraged and rewarded in ACZ too) and falling deeper in love with the narrative that way; rather than just sitting around waiting for the guys to stop talking before I can start doing stuff, which is especially egregious on replays since you already know the story.
I love ACZ since the more you play, the more fun it gets and the more lore you discover (through radio or from reading Assault Records); it's the other way around with AC5 where the more you play, the more you start to notice the game's flaws.
I love the rival squadron and massive furball missions since that's the perfect time to pull off the fancy dogfight maneuvers you see in the movies or cold war era dogfighting strategy documentaries.
You're real for this one. AC4 and AC0 was actually well written. AC5 felt like animu trash and even at the time when I was 10 it felt like it. 4 and 0 felt like warfighters fighting a war. 0 was more anime but it still felt valid. 5 felt like they took everyones favorite anime VA and told them to run wild. Didn't have the words for it at the time but it just feels less genuine.
Flyby2025! I loved that there were SO MANY PLANES. I hate that I only get ONE “special” weapon per plane AND BOMBS on a bloody FIGHTER. It triggers my “special” -tisms.
Flyby2025! really sounds like a threat for some reason and i dont know why.
Flyby2025! and also dear god please review ace combat 3
I'd like to someday
I can't wait for you to slap ac6 in it's silly face some day, I love that game as it was my 1st ace combat. I love it but know it's flaws.
I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS AHHHH
Oh most likely by accident Belka is very similar to a different country and different people.
Salute the ace of razgriz!
I'm writing this comment after having seen the whole video, It's either you are purposely pretending to ignore the blatant shadow government conspiracy plot of the game or you're just so biased against the game that you're ignoring it.
They engineered the radar situation to kill harling, or do you think it's a magic coincidence that the 8492 squad that's just a bunch of Belkans pretending to be osean just happened to show up after you save Harling?
No, the gray men are purposely pulling strings trying to cause the downfall of osea. This comes from a common reading of the history of the Vietnam war where the politicians literally told pilots to not shoot at SAM sites and then to close into visual range before firing a missile at an aircraft that could outmaneuver it while the Americans jet had no gun and was a flying brick...
Felt the same way, he barely mentions the Grey Men....
15y/o me couldnt conceive of giving a shit about details like this, its anime not a flight sim
I am unfortunately first timer here (i only played AC7, emulated zero and Project wingman) but this story of AC5 really made insanity of zero and PW look like competent stories (except part where they gave super planes to mentally unstable/radical pilots) and somehow its on par bad as AC7s.
I love 5 but Zero, 4, 2, 3, 7, and 6 are stronger for their own reasons
You'll make the AC5 fans angry with this one lul. (Flyby2025!)
Personally I loved the game as a wee child and only bothered to do one playthrough of it, played that way the game is enjoyable. Years later (after I finished AC7) I went through a small journey of trying out various AC games, tried the PS1 games for the first time and AC2 is a surprise favorite, my love of AC04 and Zero has deepen and reinforced, but not with 5; it truly is the worst AC game to replay and will ruin your perception of it (especially if you care about gamefeel).
time for ace combat zero
This plot is hella dumb even dumber than 7 insane plot. Flyby2025
Nah, nothing beats 7's convoluted mess of a story... except maybe Joint Assault, but even that made more sense.
Worst in the trio? Yeah I can see that. As a whole? Not in a million years.
AC5 is a good one but story wise it falls short of 4. IMO is a good game but will never fill the shoes of 4. I felt more connected to 4 more than any other in the series games. Zero was just weird story wise. To me it felt like a cash grab.
Whole video is heresy.
Flyby2025! Looks cool
Flyby2025!
Love your content fightertales :) been watching for ages, just forgot to subscribe, my bad.
I disagree, 5 is the best from PS2, a monumental step forward from 4, (which is, by itself, 5 steps backwards from 3, and that's being conservative).
AC3 is overrated, and while AC04 is also slightly overrated, it is not 5x worse than 3 that is pure nonsense.
@@shira_yone Yeah, the game with 53 missions, 5 endings, and the best physics of all games is overrated.
AC3 is the best game overall, by far, best missions, best story, multiple endings, multiple different paths to the same ending, I can keep going, but this is enough for it to be the best.
@@MihzvolWuriarterrible metric to go off of. 3 is a glorified playable movie.
@windyman56 It is a visual novel mostly, and makes the story much easier to catch since no story elements are being displayed during the missions (with a few exceptions) much better way to expose the player to the whole story. AC3 is the best game of the franchise.
@@windyman56 Tell me which movie has 5 different endings, then we'll talk properly...
Flyby2025!
Oh, cool! My least favorite game in the series! (To me the "holy trinity" has always been more like the "holy duology")
AC5 is the greatest of all AC games. The music, the story, the jets. All perfect.
Flyby2025, baller
Don't care, AC5 is peak