@@robbieaulia6462More than likely they did. After all, the events of AC7 take place in Strangereal's 2019, while ACX takes place in Strangereal's 2020. The more technological themes also seem to serve the purpose of tying into Electrosphere.
Also slowing down the clock and running menus in basically a low power mode makes complete sense on a handheld. Like yeah it’s jarring, but you don’t really *need* high frame rates in menus.
Thing is ACX is infact the sequel to AC7 as it takes place 1 year AFTER AC7, meaning AC8 can now have the Fenrir as a playable plane.... imagine that microwave missiles!
Without spoilers, I feel like AC X might need a few retcons to fit in the AC timeline after the events of AC 7. Maybe moving the events of X later or earlier in the timeline or slightly changing the cause of the war.
@@SuperMetalmanic666y not? Plane automation was foreshadowed in AC7 AC2 has 5 ZOE boss fights (and AC2 is almost 20 years before AC7) Falken being in AC2 means COFFIN tech may already be a thing (which many of the planes in ACX use (yes, even the FENRIR has a COFFIN) ACX has the predecessor to AC3's Delphinus (it's either the forneus or the orthrus..I forgot) Maybe not the immediately next year... Move things 2-3 years in the future and you're set. AC3 literally looks like it is 2100 or something rather than 2040
@@RedDrake110 Spoilers for those who haven't played 7 yet....... The biggest problem with continuity with X for me is that in 7, all the world satellites are destroyed which isn't resolved in 7. X only being a year later doesn't feel like a world where satellites, communication, and the Internet are gone. Plus I feel the destruction of the satellites was PA way of showing why the electrosphere replaced the regular Internet. X on its own without 7 fits pretty well into the timeline, 7 just complicates things.
I also loved the way the paced the encounters with the Gleipnir. The way they make it this overwhelming boss that you initially can't even scratch, to something you slowly hunt down through the course of the story, to having an epic final battle with it with a very satisfying victory. Definitely a step up from previous AC bosses that went down in one mission. Fun fact: Once again project aces is sticking to a theme with this entry, this time, invoking some Norse mythology. In legend, Gleipnir is the binding that holds the mighty wolf Fenrir. Appropriately enough, once you destroy the Gleipnir in the game, is also when the Fenrir fighters start showing up.
My most favourite part about X is the semi futuristic themes and aesthetic. You have contemporary military technology like Humvees, Apaches, T-72s, M-60s, and basically most fighters, and then you have the settings like Griswall with its Gaiuss Tower and Atmos Ring, Nevera Jammer, and Archelon, then you have the OST with a very electronic and cyberpunk-esque sound to it, and finally the original aircraft such as Cariburn, Fregata, Forneus, and superweapons such as Fenrir and Gleipnir.
Yeah. Probably because timeline-wise, X is the closest one to Ace Combat 3. Maybe they intended X to be the bridge between previous Ace Combat games and the futuristic Ace Combat 3
In my opinion, this game is underrated af, as many who've played it will tell you. And admittedly, this was my first AC game. But, given that Namco, for one, included the Southern Cross' emblem, even in the newer game, AC7 (in the multiplayer mode, at least), tells me that they at least still care about it. Who knows, maybe they'll remake it. Or at the very least, include Aurelia in a future game.
ACX was the first AC game i played and it's what brought me to aviation - I'm a pilot now i guess just because this game, so it means a lot to me. I still have my old PSP with this game and i recently unlocked all the liveries for all the planes and I'll honestly say that these choppy menus and overall not so good looking graphics on PC arent really noticible on the small PSP display, it was made for that anyway. That low quality radios feel a bit more realistic, if you've heard a true conversation on a plane radio you'll know. But i understand your arguments. This game has a special place in my heart and i have a lot of nostalgia feelings every time i see this game.
8:55 Good God you didn't had to face "Alect Squadron" on "Ace" difficulty, if on normal those guy are hard on Ace these guys really turn into nightmares
One thing that makes this game stand out is because the events are happening in Strangereal's equivalent of South America, so I can imagine it wouldn't feel the same, having Aurelia to rely on a lower military budget, making it a harder game. Also, it must be considered the GBA is different, selling a hundred thousand unities isn't that bad, especially because the development costs were likely to be smaller, so I can imagine the devs managed to achieve modest results at least
But in the game it’s established that Aurelia is pretty rich due to natural resources like Oil Fields while also meddling with advanced weapons like the Meson Cannon for their capital, meanwhile Leasath is rather poor and just came out of a civil war
I've heard people this is by far the HARDEST Ace Combat game ever and I agree. There are so many factors in this such as controls, enemy AI, missile tracking, etc. This game had me pulling up my hairs on my first playthrough. But every point in this game makes it so fun to enjoy and makes it replayable to me plus including the different mission variants. Glad you enjoyed ACX Chole, can't wait to see your reviews on AC6 Fires of Ru- I mean Liberation and MGS2 Sons of Liberty. And if you decide to do a stream of ACX one day, prepare to rage in Mission 7C (the path if the Hamlet unit captures Santa Elva). Because us aces despise that mission alone.
@@battedbook5811 I don't remember them being that dangerous (except for the special ones like that snowy mountain). I had a harder time dodging SAMs in AC3 than any other AC game.
@@redtsar did you play on Ace diff? Because many agree this is the hardest AC game in Ace especially; the AI is actually competent, your STD Missile tracking is a bit garbage (relatively), the game uses the semi-realistic flight physics from AC04, and some missions can be outright brutal.
This game introduced the Apalis, one of my favorite original craft, and the Alect Squadron ost, which doesn't get the credit I think it deserves as just a banger tune to dogfight to. It also had really cool gameplay elements though it's one of the few games I had to set down due to difficulty in the series though it could just be a result of my craft selection.
For those who want to play this game in emulator, there is a HD pack for the texture that does not change any of the art style, i recommend using it for play at large resolutions.
@@NaufalHS i would normally post a link but youtube is a bitch. There's a Reddit post asking about Ace Combat in PSP and one of them comments linked it there. Have fun
@@eis6570 Oh ok I may will be looking for it if I could found and of course UA-cam is b*tch. Plus even they stupidly censored swearing in any way and there's already YT Kids so that children don't have to get lost in UA-cam ever again, but still why Google?
This was the game i started out with as a kid, and it made me absolutely fall in love with not only this series, but aviation in general. Imo the storyline for this game is as good as could be within the technical constraints of the PSP
i personally think acx turned out as good as it is becouse namco had no expectations for this game and just let the peopple do whatever they want. you can see the love and passion rising from the pile of jenk. the shoestring budjet that could.
This is such a slept on Ace Combat, due to it only being on PSP. I would say it's a part of the 'trilogy' even though its a fourth game lol. I truly loved it
Honestly, I am impressed they tweaked the AC 04 engine to run so effectively on the PSP. Never owned one myself, but when the selling point was 'literally an older playstation but handheld' having 'essentially AC 04' is pretty much a direct hit on the objective.
Could the capped frame rate in the menus be some kind of efficiency thing to save battery? Less important to push 30 fps in menu in order to squeeze a few more minutes per charge?
I honestly love the low quality voices in this game. It's part of it's charm. One feature i wished AC7 had from this game, is the ability to change your plane from the pause menu.
This is speculation, but while unlikely, it's possible they found letting the map screens run uncapped had an effect on battery life, and it's important to remember that the PSP 1000 (and even the 2000's) screen isn't particularly great, with some units exhibiting very _very_ poor ghosting. It's possible that with a lower framerate the ghosting may have made those screens look slightly more forgiveable, so capping it at an incredibly low framerate could have saved (an incredibly tiny amount) some battery for little _effective_ visual change. The 2000 itself wouldn't launch until mid-to-late 2007 depending on region, so the game would have been designed for the 1000, which had some pretty mediocre battery life which is why the 2000 would double the available RAM only to allow the system to cache info from the UMD drive. Tiny improvements might have added up against the UMD drive access demand, which is definitely why they would have compressed the ever loving hell out of the voices - not an issue with space on the UMD, but more an issue of needing the UMD drive spun up to read it into RAM - the game is at just over 100MB short of exceeding a single layers' worth of space on a UMD where the per-unit cost would have actually increased. I'm not sure if PPSSPP emulates actual UMD access or if it targets more of a system level drive-emulator approach like how the PSN digital releases act, as simulating the actual read times of a PSP-1000 wouldn't be used by many if any users - if it can it would be possible to check what it's doing to verify my theory.
The theme for Gleipnir is haunting and I love it. Still reckon to this day, it's one of the best boss music in video games. Very reminiscent of Jupiter and Beyond from the 2001: A Space Odyssey soundtrack. Past the haunting vocals of the intro, the rest of the looping track has a rolling urgency which is really engaging playing through those missions. Chefs kiss.
This game is definitely one of the hardest, good luck if you want to try to S-Rank the missions on Ace difficulty, it's gonna take a lot of retries due to the highly unpredictable enemy shooting (and boy do the enemy missiles track you good in this game). Thank god we don't have to suffer with the PSP stick anymore lol.
When i was younger the only console i had was the PSP.. and i loved planes so this was an obvious choice. I replayed this game far to many times for me to even remember the exact number. I have completed this game on ACE setting twice in believe and trust me.. you really really need to work for those kills. A missile touches you and you most probably are dead. 2 at the max. Last few missions are treacherous but that gave a feeling of massive accomplishment when you actually finished it. For me ace combat X is the best game ever the franchise has ever made ( a lot of bias but its ok). I highly recommend that anyone reading this, gives it a go because its as good as any other ps2 title
As a long time AC fan I found X to be a surprise sleeper hit for the PSP. It had all the quintessential stuff from older AC games like the superweapons, the building reputation, the fun dogfights. It's all in all a true Ace Combat game and I love how even 7 was partially built around it as the other comments have mentioned.
Tysm for making this video. I actually was planning on playing this game after finishing playing the PS2 era. And at the same time I also was searching for a PSP game for me to waste a few time while I'm outside. I always notice this game and heard very few people talk about this game. I'm too lazy just to search this game gameplay. But you video somehow inside my notifications and also in my recommendation page. So I click it This video doesn't feel that long and deep and also doesn't feel that short and rush. It's perfect. So perfect this type of video I really want to see more on PSP/PS Vita sides.. like those gameplay footage are not enough to convince me, I need more information like is the gameplay hard to understand and the story is any good. And this video explains everything so perfect. Such a shame they actually don't really make a direct sequel to this game for the next Ace combat PSP game. Like they really try to push hard those Assault horizon stuff in ace combat. I mean I don't mind playing ace combat game that set on real world but I would rather fly in Strangerealworld and see some countries I never seen inside this series so far. Anyway sorry for my bad english/grammar
Imo the mission briefings are like that to give it the feeling of an Ace Combat mission briefing, it just felt right and natural to me personally, fit with its music as well Not once did I think it was odd
I think the death of your home squadron was a notification from the game saying "You're on your own." As the previous games chronologically like 5, Zero, and I think 6 have a squadron mechanic
ahhh, my very first ace combat…im so pissed its soundtrack isn’t on Spotify, I thought most of it was this sorta techno and while I still love the rest of series’ soundtrack I still miss it so much…
Great video, finally some justice for this game, it is one of my favorites, i had played a lot in high school, taking advantage of every recess or free hour of class to pass a mission or two, the amount of content and replayability that have is huge, it took me 30 hours of play to complete at 100% last year, so i cant wait to see you tackle the game in stream, there are some surprises that i dont gonna spoil. Most important thing of all, in this game, you play as a pilot for aurelia, the equivalent in real life for that country is Argentina, my country, so that makes ACX the better game of all Ace Combat 😂
This game was my childhood and I love it, recently went back to play it and still loved every part of it. I’m so happy this game is being talked about more
Ace Combat: Joint Assault (aka AC X²) was my first game in the series (played it on the PS Vita). But I have since gone back and played Ace Combat X, and it's so good. It's a really good encapsulation of what the main games strive to be. With Strangereal and the story telling. The real life setting detracts from Joint Assault, even if I still love that game because it was my first AC game Edit: Also, I'm glad it's not just me. I found ACX to be more difficult than I was expecting. Not super hard or anything, but more difficult than other AC games on the same difficulty
Afaik the menu button sound for ACX might have somewhat partially reminded me of Bandai Namco's MotoGP game that they also make for the PSP. And I feel like ACX was a little hard comparing to some PS2 Ace Combat games (and just AC04 that I am yet to try out). And I had been playing ACJA a lot due to pretty good aircraft handling tbh although the story of JA is not what it seems to amusing me. And if you know, even we got an IL-2 Sturmovik PSP game in case you haven't heard of, activace. And btw that fellow Ace Combat-like PSP game were part of the IL-2 Sturmovik series and it's a version of IL-2 Sturmovik Birds of Prey also released for PC, PS3 and X360. And I found out that this Russian game company called 1C were the makers of the IL-2 Sturmovik games and you should give a try for PSP and PC IL-2 Sturmovik Birds of Prey sometime (also PC ver is called Wings of Prey) and even recommend you to check out IL-2 Cliffs of Dover too on PC...
As you mentioned that ACX has changing missions, at least in the playthrough you showed us, you did not fight Aces during the Fenrir battle. You killed Alect Squadron, which means those guys using the Fenrir fighters, are rookie pilots forced into the fight, or nuggets as the ace combat community calls them.
As many people here, X was first and sadly thus far only game I played. And it was absolute blast with insane variability and good subversions of series-long cliches!
Ace Combat X was my first and favourite Ace Combat game so far, I loved the make your own adventure game style with changing missions depending on your choices and actually giving some meaning to the decisions you take, to this day I hope they will one day remaster the game or atleast port it to another system like they did with AC5, it’s a very fun game and I always return to play it on an Emulator
I would like to suggest that when you eventually finish ac7, go ahead and try project: wingman. It's great and most ace combat fans treat it like its part of the series even if it really isn't.
As someone who S-cleared all Ace Combat games even the Ace of Aces dlc for AC6 I must say ACX has the most challenging enemy AI in the series. It's indeed very difficult yet still not the hardest AC game but that's only because you are not under a constant missile spam and you don't fight with the scripted aces wearing the plot armour.
You’re totally correct: ACX AI’s are HARD on Ace. BUT at least in my opinion, 04’s Ai top X for one reason. I would have agreed initially until I booted up AC04 again a month ago. I actually got locked into two-circle or one-circle fights with opponents, who would even start to beat me at times. For once, I felt… *fear* Unlike AC7, in which the enemies usually Syrian lead turn in front of you, and eat two missiles in response. And it makes sense that the X AI’s have that danger to them, considering its similarities to 04
Oh, 2020 in strangereal timeline is still further than AC7 which happens in 2019, that's crazy. I'm still hoping for AceX3 set further in the future so we can get the ACE3 feel again.
Non-critical game elements on screen that are fine with being mostly idle often cap at lower framerates to conserve battery. It's a method developers have been using for handhelds, especially for the PSP.
When you mentioned the difficult i am struggling to see how my 11 yr old self managed to finish this game on normal. I know i had lots of rage moments but it definitely felt doable.
Don't forget the Scy Crawlers game on the Wii. I would say it belongs here. Maybe not the AC series in general but as a spin off of sorts. You should at least have a look :) Great videos btw, thank you for doing what you are doing -b
I remember playing this entry, but I barely remember anything about the stories. Also I remember how much a PITA the last mission was especially with the controls on the psp, despite that I somehow unlocked fenrir through multiple replays.
This high resolution cannot come from the actual PSP. That complaint on menu UI being 'lower framerate' seems to come from the fact that it's intended for much lower resolution.
ACX is something closest to the Holy Trinity on PS2 in terms of quality, with AC04-ish storytelling, AC5-ish flying physics, and more replayability than ACZ I feel kinda same to the weak sidestory yet the main plot is interesting enough to miss small flaws Also ACX comes with some of coolest fictional jets which are NOT overpowered final boss hyperjets and we can obtain in the FIRST playthrough, I love that At least the best AC game in handheld platforms and I absolutely recommend everyone play this
Yeah, I feel like the music in this game was meant to give you the feel that X was the closest to the 3rd game just because the music was so 90’s techno, but also with a touch of modernization mixed in. I never got to play X, though
I didn't aware enemy in AC:X was considered most hard since this is my first entry, but I gotta agree enemies in this is quite agresive if you face them head on and death waa guaranteed on Ace while they not really that evasive in my opinion but they didn't take much time to try take you down and spam their missiles unlike most other games AC:AH only one who do this as far I know
AceX is Not only a Shockingly Great Handheld Ace Combat game But probably one of the Best of Accessibility and features ! Being able to Change Plane/weapon In Pause Menu ! Also Saving Replay Viewer Files ! All Down to GREAT Flight Physics of ace04 or even 3 but also with Visuals and Assets of 5 !
Even though I never played these games, I've really been loving your reviews. I've watched a few retrospectives on things before. I really love the design and lore.
Bro... I love this game for the horror soundtrack of the gleipnir, and being the only game other than AC3 with variable storyline.. F me... First time i hear it, i almost doodoo'd myself scared
I played this on psp when i was ten i loved it when i wined some hard mision i felt like if i was awesome pilot and now i got flashbacks when you talked about Gleipnir Fenhir and mision with powerlines i didnt knowed i remember these things these batles i i lost my friends but i survived i am now home with my beutiful wife just my imagination. I háve urge to play this but dont have the UMD is there some way to conect my pc with PSP and play it on pc ?
I cant believe this is after ac7 lighthouse war in the timeline. I havebhe game, emulator, and textire pack installed. In fact i played up to the 3rd mission. So thanks for reminding me to beat this.
@@ruskiwaffle1991 emulated? Like ppsspp? If you guys have problem on some mission becuase the screen goes black Then no worry all you need to do is Go to setting>System>I/O thiming method(set to)>Host (bugs,less lags) The screen goes black because there will be a cutscene just try it Though i don't try it on other platform other than android I think this method will work just fine
tbh I don't like any AC game after the 3rd one. Even 7th game that basically in core the same as PS2 trilogy or 6. Most of the time because mission structure feels boring, overstretched, full of cliches from the movies, you don't have much freedom in terms what you can do. You just flying here and there in those scripted scenarios.
once you have gotten to real simulators type of game, these arcadey craps no longer matter. the same way with after i tried playing UFC games, i realize i no longer have desires to play all those arcadey fighting games. after you taste the closest thing to real, its hard to get down to a lesser real.
He literally said the story was mostly through the missions. What he was saying was that the story cutscenes aren’t that important. And besides, Chole is mostly a gameplay person Tman.
Do Airforce Delta and Airforce Delta Strike, as well as HAWX! They're definitely Ace Combat analogues and I think it would be super worth giving them a play to compare and contrast them with the AC games.
From what I know, audio files can be huge, so from my opinion, I think they highly compressed the audio to fit a UMD disk. The game is on a 1GB UMD Drive if I'm correct (I'm basically on a ISO of the game, not the CSO or an actual UMD extract of the game). I think if the game had uncompressed or low audio compression instead, it might easily go up to 2GB in size. While there are games that big like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, those games were released for larger UMD disks in the first place. I mean if they didn't care about publishing the game with a dual layer or larger disk, then they might have released with basically uncompressed audio.
I think one thing to mention about the peculiar framerate and asset qualities - the psp's a portable console with a battery and a spinning disk. dropping the framerate down where they could, or having lower quality streaming audio might mean longer battery life (less disk access etc.) the speaker was also quite tinny, so while it sounds harsh on headphones, the audio might have been mastered more for the smaller speaker playing aloud than with hifi equipment. the ps2 also had roughly 100mhz more beef than the psp, and a custom architecture over the ARM processor, so that might have been another consideration for the lower locked framerate.
So it seems that we had another case of portable game being something more than just "let's downscale PS2 game" as it was with some other titles. Back then silly me was silly and I took most games as one and the same "Yeah, they probably never cared enough" which kinda pisses current me off. But well, it is what it is. I skipped many good PSP games. Oh yeah, part about PSP controls... Well, it's very mild statement. That analog nob was so bad, many games were literally barely playable because of it.
Vote for the next review series here: strawpoll.com/BDyNE3e14ZR
I notice you have Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six on the poll...
Trust me, the progression of those two game series is going to be incredibly depressing.
@notcole You're a troll
Ace Combat X is the best fighter jet game ever
I think the menus being choppy and the radio being so crusty kinda fits with _certain AC7 spoilers._
They even say that the Aurelian satellites are back online in the final mission!
Omg. If you put it that way, it makes sense
Did they make a tiny graphical detail in a less popular entry into one of the biggest plot point in their biggest entry?
@@robbieaulia6462More than likely they did.
After all, the events of AC7 take place in Strangereal's 2019, while ACX takes place in Strangereal's 2020.
The more technological themes also seem to serve the purpose of tying into Electrosphere.
Also slowing down the clock and running menus in basically a low power mode makes complete sense on a handheld. Like yeah it’s jarring, but you don’t really *need* high frame rates in menus.
Thing is ACX is infact the sequel to AC7 as it takes place 1 year AFTER AC7, meaning AC8 can now have the Fenrir as a playable plane.... imagine that microwave missiles!
There is actually a really good mod with LSWM you can download, The only thing I don't like about it is that it flies like Mach 5
More like AC7 is a prequel to X, but ya know, that works too I guess
Without spoilers, I feel like AC X might need a few retcons to fit in the AC timeline after the events of AC 7. Maybe moving the events of X later or earlier in the timeline or slightly changing the cause of the war.
@@SuperMetalmanic666y not?
Plane automation was foreshadowed in AC7
AC2 has 5 ZOE boss fights (and AC2 is almost 20 years before AC7)
Falken being in AC2 means COFFIN tech may already be a thing (which many of the planes in ACX use (yes, even the FENRIR has a COFFIN)
ACX has the predecessor to AC3's Delphinus (it's either the forneus or the orthrus..I forgot)
Maybe not the immediately next year... Move things 2-3 years in the future and you're set.
AC3 literally looks like it is 2100 or something rather than 2040
@@RedDrake110 Spoilers for those who haven't played 7 yet.......
The biggest problem with continuity with X for me is that in 7, all the world satellites are destroyed which isn't resolved in 7. X only being a year later doesn't feel like a world where satellites, communication, and the Internet are gone. Plus I feel the destruction of the satellites was PA way of showing why the electrosphere replaced the regular Internet. X on its own without 7 fits pretty well into the timeline, 7 just complicates things.
I also loved the way the paced the encounters with the Gleipnir. The way they make it this overwhelming boss that you initially can't even scratch, to something you slowly hunt down through the course of the story, to having an epic final battle with it with a very satisfying victory. Definitely a step up from previous AC bosses that went down in one mission.
Fun fact: Once again project aces is sticking to a theme with this entry, this time, invoking some Norse mythology. In legend, Gleipnir is the binding that holds the mighty wolf Fenrir. Appropriately enough, once you destroy the Gleipnir in the game, is also when the Fenrir fighters start showing up.
How I miss that
My most favourite part about X is the semi futuristic themes and aesthetic. You have contemporary military technology like Humvees, Apaches, T-72s, M-60s, and basically most fighters, and then you have the settings like Griswall with its Gaiuss Tower and Atmos Ring, Nevera Jammer, and Archelon, then you have the OST with a very electronic and cyberpunk-esque sound to it, and finally the original aircraft such as Cariburn, Fregata, Forneus, and superweapons such as Fenrir and Gleipnir.
Even the tanks shown in cutscenes look like T-72s and M60s
Yeah. Probably because timeline-wise, X is the closest one to Ace Combat 3.
Maybe they intended X to be the bridge between previous Ace Combat games and the futuristic Ace Combat 3
@@origirindra1590The tagline of the game is literally ’Dawn of a new age’ or something like that
In my opinion, this game is underrated af, as many who've played it will tell you. And admittedly, this was my first AC game. But, given that Namco, for one, included the Southern Cross' emblem, even in the newer game, AC7 (in the multiplayer mode, at least), tells me that they at least still care about it. Who knows, maybe they'll remake it. Or at the very least, include Aurelia in a future game.
ACX was the first AC game i played and it's what brought me to aviation - I'm a pilot now i guess just because this game, so it means a lot to me. I still have my old PSP with this game and i recently unlocked all the liveries for all the planes and I'll honestly say that these choppy menus and overall not so good looking graphics on PC arent really noticible on the small PSP display, it was made for that anyway. That low quality radios feel a bit more realistic, if you've heard a true conversation on a plane radio you'll know. But i understand your arguments. This game has a special place in my heart and i have a lot of nostalgia feelings every time i see this game.
Excellent and underrated points
8:55 Good God you didn't had to face "Alect Squadron" on "Ace" difficulty, if on normal those guy are hard on Ace these guys really turn into nightmares
But unfortunately they had exploited weakness
One thing that makes this game stand out is because the events are happening in Strangereal's equivalent of South America, so I can imagine it wouldn't feel the same, having Aurelia to rely on a lower military budget, making it a harder game.
Also, it must be considered the GBA is different, selling a hundred thousand unities isn't that bad, especially because the development costs were likely to be smaller, so I can imagine the devs managed to achieve modest results at least
But in the game it’s established that Aurelia is pretty rich due to natural resources like Oil Fields while also meddling with advanced weapons like the Meson Cannon for their capital, meanwhile Leasath is rather poor and just came out of a civil war
I've heard people this is by far the HARDEST Ace Combat game ever and I agree. There are so many factors in this such as controls, enemy AI, missile tracking, etc. This game had me pulling up my hairs on my first playthrough.
But every point in this game makes it so fun to enjoy and makes it replayable to me plus including the different mission variants.
Glad you enjoyed ACX Chole, can't wait to see your reviews on AC6 Fires of Ru- I mean Liberation and MGS2 Sons of Liberty.
And if you decide to do a stream of ACX one day, prepare to rage in Mission 7C (the path if the Hamlet unit captures Santa Elva). Because us aces despise that mission alone.
Yeah it was much harder using native hardware. It gets easier when you play it with the Vita thanks to the second stick (I use it to yaw).
SAMs in ACX feel a lot more dangerous than in the other games. As do helicopters, but they might as well be just flying SAMs.
@@battedbook5811 I don't remember them being that dangerous (except for the special ones like that snowy mountain). I had a harder time dodging SAMs in AC3 than any other AC game.
Really? I thought it was easy lmao
@@redtsar did you play on Ace diff? Because many agree this is the hardest AC game in Ace especially; the AI is actually competent, your STD Missile tracking is a bit garbage (relatively), the game uses the semi-realistic flight physics from AC04, and some missions can be outright brutal.
I thought that AC7 was the first to actually be able to upgrade planes. Was not aware that this appeared in the PSP games as well
Also in the 3DS one
This game introduced the Apalis, one of my favorite original craft, and the Alect Squadron ost, which doesn't get the credit I think it deserves as just a banger tune to dogfight to. It also had really cool gameplay elements though it's one of the few games I had to set down due to difficulty in the series though it could just be a result of my craft selection.
For those who want to play this game in emulator, there is a HD pack for the texture that does not change any of the art style, i recommend using it for play at large resolutions.
Wish there was a link to get it and make ACX a little more beautiful if anyone else has...
@@NaufalHS i would normally post a link but youtube is a bitch.
There's a Reddit post asking about Ace Combat in PSP and one of them comments linked it there.
Have fun
@@eis6570 Oh ok I may will be looking for it if I could found and of course UA-cam is b*tch. Plus even they stupidly censored swearing in any way and there's already YT Kids so that children don't have to get lost in UA-cam ever again, but still why Google?
This was the game i started out with as a kid, and it made me absolutely fall in love with not only this series, but aviation in general. Imo the storyline for this game is as good as could be within the technical constraints of the PSP
I can relate to you.... The XFA-24A is my favorite aircraft so far
i personally think acx turned out as good as it is becouse namco had no expectations for this game and just let the peopple do whatever they want. you can see the love and passion rising from the pile of jenk. the shoestring budjet that could.
This is such a slept on Ace Combat, due to it only being on PSP. I would say it's a part of the 'trilogy' even though its a fourth game lol. I truly loved it
Honestly, I am impressed they tweaked the AC 04 engine to run so effectively on the PSP. Never owned one myself, but when the selling point was 'literally an older playstation but handheld' having 'essentially AC 04' is pretty much a direct hit on the objective.
That wobbly UI animation is probably due to not seeing the game on the intended screen resolution, rather than frame rate.
I actually like the crunchy explosion sounds. It's almost like a meta way of expressing how unpleasant a real explosion is through bad audio quality.
SoD is one of the best AC. It’s sad it didn’t receive as much love as other installments.
I'm playing it rn loving it
Could the capped frame rate in the menus be some kind of efficiency thing to save battery? Less important to push 30 fps in menu in order to squeeze a few more minutes per charge?
You finally caught up to me in my Ace Combat Marathon! Though, I am 100%ing the games as I go along so I expected this.
Well you might have some time to get ahead again since the guy I ordered my AC6 copy from hasn't shipped it yet 😅
@@notcoleI don’t even have AC6 yet
I honestly love the low quality voices in this game. It's part of it's charm.
One feature i wished AC7 had from this game, is the ability to change your plane from the pause menu.
I love the OST of this game... And the battles....
The Gleipnir ans the Fenrir are the best enemies I faced
This is speculation, but while unlikely, it's possible they found letting the map screens run uncapped had an effect on battery life, and it's important to remember that the PSP 1000 (and even the 2000's) screen isn't particularly great, with some units exhibiting very _very_ poor ghosting. It's possible that with a lower framerate the ghosting may have made those screens look slightly more forgiveable, so capping it at an incredibly low framerate could have saved (an incredibly tiny amount) some battery for little _effective_ visual change. The 2000 itself wouldn't launch until mid-to-late 2007 depending on region, so the game would have been designed for the 1000, which had some pretty mediocre battery life which is why the 2000 would double the available RAM only to allow the system to cache info from the UMD drive. Tiny improvements might have added up against the UMD drive access demand, which is definitely why they would have compressed the ever loving hell out of the voices - not an issue with space on the UMD, but more an issue of needing the UMD drive spun up to read it into RAM - the game is at just over 100MB short of exceeding a single layers' worth of space on a UMD where the per-unit cost would have actually increased.
I'm not sure if PPSSPP emulates actual UMD access or if it targets more of a system level drive-emulator approach like how the PSN digital releases act, as simulating the actual read times of a PSP-1000 wouldn't be used by many if any users - if it can it would be possible to check what it's doing to verify my theory.
The theme for Gleipnir is haunting and I love it. Still reckon to this day, it's one of the best boss music in video games. Very reminiscent of Jupiter and Beyond from the 2001: A Space Odyssey soundtrack. Past the haunting vocals of the intro, the rest of the looping track has a rolling urgency which is really engaging playing through those missions. Chefs kiss.
My favorite line is in the debriefing after the second mission, "Their base , and all the supplies in it, now belong to us" Aybbtu reference maybe?
This game is definitely one of the hardest, good luck if you want to try to S-Rank the missions on Ace difficulty, it's gonna take a lot of retries due to the highly unpredictable enemy shooting (and boy do the enemy missiles track you good in this game). Thank god we don't have to suffer with the PSP stick anymore lol.
I personally appreciate it being actually difficult on Ace, unlike 7, which is child’s play on any difficulty
When i was younger the only console i had was the PSP.. and i loved planes so this was an obvious choice. I replayed this game far to many times for me to even remember the exact number. I have completed this game on ACE setting twice in believe and trust me.. you really really need to work for those kills. A missile touches you and you most probably are dead. 2 at the max. Last few missions are treacherous but that gave a feeling of massive accomplishment when you actually finished it. For me ace combat X is the best game ever the franchise has ever made ( a lot of bias but its ok). I highly recommend that anyone reading this, gives it a go because its as good as any other ps2 title
I spent an unreasonable large amount of time on this game.
As a long time AC fan I found X to be a surprise sleeper hit for the PSP. It had all the quintessential stuff from older AC games like the superweapons, the building reputation, the fun dogfights. It's all in all a true Ace Combat game and I love how even 7 was partially built around it as the other comments have mentioned.
2:30 I'm betting it's due to extending battery life on real PSP.
That's probably it! Kicking myself for not thinking of that 😂
I still keep playing this today.
i really want an acx remake. so much potential if it wasnt limited to psp
Tysm for making this video. I actually was planning on playing this game after finishing playing the PS2 era. And at the same time I also was searching for a PSP game for me to waste a few time while I'm outside. I always notice this game and heard very few people talk about this game. I'm too lazy just to search this game gameplay. But you video somehow inside my notifications and also in my recommendation page. So I click it
This video doesn't feel that long and deep and also doesn't feel that short and rush. It's perfect. So perfect this type of video I really want to see more on PSP/PS Vita sides.. like those gameplay footage are not enough to convince me, I need more information like is the gameplay hard to understand and the story is any good. And this video explains everything so perfect. Such a shame they actually don't really make a direct sequel to this game for the next Ace combat PSP game. Like they really try to push hard those Assault horizon stuff in ace combat. I mean I don't mind playing ace combat game that set on real world but I would rather fly in Strangerealworld and see some countries I never seen inside this series so far. Anyway sorry for my bad english/grammar
Holy shit I didn't notice my comments was this long lol. Sorry for the yapping
Imo the mission briefings are like that to give it the feeling of an Ace Combat mission briefing, it just felt right and natural to me personally, fit with its music as well
Not once did I think it was odd
I think the death of your home squadron was a notification from the game saying "You're on your own." As the previous games chronologically like 5, Zero, and I think 6 have a squadron mechanic
ahhh, my very first ace combat…im so pissed its soundtrack isn’t on Spotify, I thought most of it was this sorta techno and while I still love the rest of series’ soundtrack I still miss it so much…
Great video, finally some justice for this game, it is one of my favorites, i had played a lot in high school, taking advantage of every recess or free hour of class to pass a mission or two, the amount of content and replayability that have is huge, it took me 30 hours of play to complete at 100% last year, so i cant wait to see you tackle the game in stream, there are some surprises that i dont gonna spoil. Most important thing of all, in this game, you play as a pilot for aurelia, the equivalent in real life for that country is Argentina, my country, so that makes ACX the better game of all Ace Combat 😂
Viva Aurelia carajo!!! 💙🤍
This game was my childhood and I love it, recently went back to play it and still loved every part of it. I’m so happy this game is being talked about more
Ace Combat: Joint Assault (aka AC X²) was my first game in the series (played it on the PS Vita). But I have since gone back and played Ace Combat X, and it's so good. It's a really good encapsulation of what the main games strive to be. With Strangereal and the story telling. The real life setting detracts from Joint Assault, even if I still love that game because it was my first AC game
Edit: Also, I'm glad it's not just me. I found ACX to be more difficult than I was expecting. Not super hard or anything, but more difficult than other AC games on the same difficulty
14:31 Gennete?! Never thought I’d see him again. I wish they did more with the side plot.
ACX is a good game just for the branching mission system alone.
If you wanted, you could easily beat the game in just 10 missions
Afaik the menu button sound for ACX might have somewhat partially reminded me of Bandai Namco's MotoGP game that they also make for the PSP. And I feel like ACX was a little hard comparing to some PS2 Ace Combat games (and just AC04 that I am yet to try out). And I had been playing ACJA a lot due to pretty good aircraft handling tbh although the story of JA is not what it seems to amusing me.
And if you know, even we got an IL-2 Sturmovik PSP game in case you haven't heard of, activace. And btw that fellow Ace Combat-like PSP game were part of the IL-2 Sturmovik series and it's a version of IL-2 Sturmovik Birds of Prey also released for PC, PS3 and X360. And I found out that this Russian game company called 1C were the makers of the IL-2 Sturmovik games and you should give a try for PSP and PC IL-2 Sturmovik Birds of Prey sometime (also PC ver is called Wings of Prey) and even recommend you to check out IL-2 Cliffs of Dover too on PC...
*Sorry, your name was actually Chloe... 😅
Or Chole...
As you mentioned that ACX has changing missions, at least in the playthrough you showed us, you did not fight Aces during the Fenrir battle.
You killed Alect Squadron, which means those guys using the Fenrir fighters, are rookie pilots forced into the fight, or nuggets as the ace combat community calls them.
As many people here, X was first and sadly thus far only game I played. And it was absolute blast with insane variability and good subversions of series-long cliches!
Didnt knew about those dynamic gameplay moves , sounds fun
Ace Combat X was my first and favourite Ace Combat game so far, I loved the make your own adventure game style with changing missions depending on your choices and actually giving some meaning to the decisions you take, to this day I hope they will one day remaster the game or atleast port it to another system like they did with AC5, it’s a very fun game and I always return to play it on an Emulator
I would like to suggest that when you eventually finish ac7, go ahead and try project: wingman. It's great and most ace combat fans treat it like its part of the series even if it really isn't.
All the budget for this game went to the soundtrack...😂
This game can have the easiest gun only challenge in the franchise if you equipped Sniper OS and Extended Gun range
As someone who S-cleared all Ace Combat games even the Ace of Aces dlc for AC6 I must say ACX has the most challenging enemy AI in the series. It's indeed very difficult yet still not the hardest AC game but that's only because you are not under a constant missile spam and you don't fight with the scripted aces wearing the plot armour.
You’re totally correct: ACX AI’s are HARD on Ace. BUT at least in my opinion, 04’s Ai top X for one reason. I would have agreed initially until I booted up AC04 again a month ago. I actually got locked into two-circle or one-circle fights with opponents, who would even start to beat me at times. For once, I felt… *fear*
Unlike AC7, in which the enemies usually Syrian lead turn in front of you, and eat two missiles in response.
And it makes sense that the X AI’s have that danger to them, considering its similarities to 04
Oh, 2020 in strangereal timeline is still further than AC7 which happens in 2019, that's crazy. I'm still hoping for AceX3 set further in the future so we can get the ACE3 feel again.
Ace Combat Advance remake titled Ace Combat X3: Advanced Skies
Non-critical game elements on screen that are fine with being mostly idle often cap at lower framerates to conserve battery. It's a method developers have been using for handhelds, especially for the PSP.
When you mentioned the difficult i am struggling to see how my 11 yr old self managed to finish this game on normal. I know i had lots of rage moments but it definitely felt doable.
Don't forget the Scy Crawlers game on the Wii. I would say it belongs here. Maybe not the AC series in general but as a spin off of sorts. You should at least have a look :) Great videos btw, thank you for doing what you are doing -b
Oh yeah the final duel ost is amazing.
The first AC game i played, this one and AC3 are my all time favs!
I remember playing this entry, but I barely remember anything about the stories. Also I remember how much a PITA the last mission was especially with the controls on the psp, despite that I somehow unlocked fenrir through multiple replays.
Did you emulate the game or play it on a PSP?
This high resolution cannot come from the actual PSP. That complaint on menu UI being 'lower framerate' seems to come from the fact that it's intended for much lower resolution.
ACX is something closest to the Holy Trinity on PS2 in terms of quality, with AC04-ish storytelling, AC5-ish flying physics, and more replayability than ACZ
I feel kinda same to the weak sidestory yet the main plot is interesting enough to miss small flaws
Also ACX comes with some of coolest fictional jets which are NOT overpowered final boss hyperjets and we can obtain in the FIRST playthrough, I love that
At least the best AC game in handheld platforms and I absolutely recommend everyone play this
Based, I'm glad you checked it out, that english voice acting MUST be experienced, lol
I think Crux’s performance was good. Only Crux. Just Crux.
Yeah, I feel like the music in this game was meant to give you the feel that X was the closest to the 3rd game just because the music was so 90’s techno, but also with a touch of modernization mixed in. I never got to play X, though
WAIT IS THAT A NORTHROP GRUMMAN PROWLER DOING AIR TO GROUND 💀
Bro you missed the other PSP ace combat in final mission in San Francisco can’t remember what it was called
Please tell me you’re covering the 3DS remake of AC2
imo X is the sleeper AC, if trinity didn't mean 3, it would be part of it.
Joint assault was a cold shower after that.
My most favorite ac ever, first one too. Weird to think that canon wise this one takes a short time after AC7
I didn't aware enemy in AC:X was considered most hard since this is my first entry, but I gotta agree enemies in this is quite agresive if you face them head on and death waa guaranteed on Ace while they not really that evasive in my opinion but they didn't take much time to try take you down and spam their missiles unlike most other games AC:AH only one who do this as far I know
I love this game. IMO 4 is better then this but X has a much better playable aircraft selection
I still play this today trying to grab all S ranks in all difficulties
AceX is Not only a Shockingly Great Handheld Ace Combat game
But probably one of the Best of Accessibility and features !
Being able to Change Plane/weapon In Pause Menu !
Also Saving Replay Viewer Files !
All Down to GREAT Flight Physics of ace04 or even 3 but also with Visuals and Assets of 5 !
Even though I never played these games, I've really been loving your reviews. I've watched a few retrospectives on things before. I really love the design and lore.
the psp was my first console! brings back memories! I loved ace combat! those planes were sooooo soooooooo 🤤. keep up the content, G.
Bro... I love this game for the horror soundtrack of the gleipnir, and being the only game other than AC3 with variable storyline..
F me... First time i hear it, i almost doodoo'd myself scared
Best to play this game on an emulator to avoid the frequent FPS slowdowns.
Your content is really good, you deserve more views
it was interesting playing this and joint assault on the psp
I played this on psp when i was ten i loved it when i wined some hard mision i felt like if i was awesome pilot and now i got flashbacks when you talked about Gleipnir Fenhir and mision with powerlines i didnt knowed i remember these things these batles i i lost my friends but i survived i am now home with my beutiful wife just my imagination. I háve urge to play this but dont have the UMD is there some way to conect my pc with PSP and play it on pc ?
I adore this Ace Combat the most
will you be covering Wii's Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces? Project Aces made that game and is pretty much a ace combat game.
This is better than Joint Assault
I cant believe this is after ac7 lighthouse war in the timeline.
I havebhe game, emulator, and textire pack installed. In fact i played up to the 3rd mission. So thanks for reminding me to beat this.
Great video again, keep going
You're a troll
Ace Combat X is the best fighter jet game ever
Ace combat Joint Assault way more worse
Abnormal movement and bulshit camera
And the enemy planes get larger the farther they are from you.
Yeah and when I emulated it, it just goes black in some missions.
@@ruskiwaffle1991 emulated? Like ppsspp?
If you guys have problem on some mission becuase the screen goes black
Then no worry all you need to do is
Go to setting>System>I/O thiming method(set to)>Host (bugs,less lags)
The screen goes black because there will be a cutscene just try it
Though i don't try it on other platform other than android
I think this method will work just fine
My dude’s gonna love AC7 lol
tbh I don't like any AC game after the 3rd one. Even 7th game that basically in core the same as PS2 trilogy or 6. Most of the time because mission structure feels boring, overstretched, full of cliches from the movies, you don't have much freedom in terms what you can do. You just flying here and there in those scripted scenarios.
once you have gotten to real simulators type of game, these arcadey craps no longer matter. the same way with after i tried playing UFC games, i realize i no longer have desires to play all those arcadey fighting games. after you taste the closest thing to real, its hard to get down to a lesser real.
Brother I love your channel but please stop starting sentences with "and"
Unimportant? My brother in Christ, you're discrediting story through gameplay again.
He literally said the story was mostly through the missions. What he was saying was that the story cutscenes aren’t that important.
And besides, Chole is mostly a gameplay person Tman.
The best handheld flight combat game. Beat it on PSP. Wish they would have ported it to Switch.
Do Airforce Delta and Airforce Delta Strike, as well as HAWX! They're definitely Ace Combat analogues and I think it would be super worth giving them a play to compare and contrast them with the AC games.
This was my first ace combat game. And out of all the ones I've played it's my favourite. There's just something about it
Same here! This was my first AC game and my first game I got for the PSP when I was 12. I'm 25 now, and I still play it on my PSP.
It’s right up there for me, beating out 7 easily and being close to zero and 04
From what I know, audio files can be huge, so from my opinion, I think they highly compressed the audio to fit a UMD disk. The game is on a 1GB UMD Drive if I'm correct (I'm basically on a ISO of the game, not the CSO or an actual UMD extract of the game). I think if the game had uncompressed or low audio compression instead, it might easily go up to 2GB in size. While there are games that big like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, those games were released for larger UMD disks in the first place. I mean if they didn't care about publishing the game with a dual layer or larger disk, then they might have released with basically uncompressed audio.
I think one thing to mention about the peculiar framerate and asset qualities - the psp's a portable console with a battery and a spinning disk. dropping the framerate down where they could, or having lower quality streaming audio might mean longer battery life (less disk access etc.) the speaker was also quite tinny, so while it sounds harsh on headphones, the audio might have been mastered more for the smaller speaker playing aloud than with hifi equipment. the ps2 also had roughly 100mhz more beef than the psp, and a custom architecture over the ARM processor, so that might have been another consideration for the lower locked framerate.
Great review. The Alect Squadron theme absolutely slaps!
For the Fenrirs, it's easier to go guns only on them since the missiles take too long. SAAMs work pretty good on them too, I did it with an F-4E
So it seems that we had another case of portable game being something more than just "let's downscale PS2 game" as it was with some other titles.
Back then silly me was silly and I took most games as one and the same "Yeah, they probably never cared enough" which kinda pisses current me off.
But well, it is what it is. I skipped many good PSP games.
Oh yeah, part about PSP controls... Well, it's very mild statement. That analog nob was so bad, many games were literally barely playable because of it.
Alect Squadron definitely my favorite theme, especially intense dogfight with them especially in Hard or Ace Difficulty
Is just cause going to be considered for a series?
I hadn't thought of it before, but I'll throw it on for next time 🙂