The international space elevator,
also known as the ISEV,
is the single largest structure ever built in Strangereal.
It is going to be the main focus of the story
in Ace Combat 7 as admitted by
Ace Combat producer Kazutoki Kono.
Yet, we know so little about it...
There are several questions we could ask
about the space elevator including:
Who built it?
What was it for?
When and where it was built?
And who would have the duty to protect it?
In the Ace Combat 7 - Announcement Trailer
back in 2015, we see the ISEV
in the middle of a large body of water
where we can only presume it's the ocean.
In the whole announcement trailer,
there is no hint that could give away ISEV's location
except the two planes featured in this short clip
which we can tell that one is Osean,
and the other one is Erusean.
As I mentioned in my first trailer analysis,
we can assume that with that information
that the space elevator will be
somewhere in between those two countries
in an area like this.
However, this area is still very large and
we can't get a really accurate idea of
where the elevator is located.
This is when we can analyze the second trailer.
In the second version of the trailer,
you can see a city that is very close to the elevator.
So what I did is
I compared the position of the elevator
in relationship to the city and the sun.
We can confirm then
that the elevator is on the west side of the city
because it's sunset.
We know that in sunset,
the sun always sets on the west side
so because the elevator is
in between the sun and the city.
We can confirm that
the elevator is indeed on the west side.
Now before someone tells me I'm wrong,
just keep in mind that it is indeed the sunset.
In the sunrise,
that tone of color, that orange-ish tone,
does not happen, so it is sunset indeed.
Now before we get any further,
I noticed something different on the elevator
by comparing the two trailers.
In the first trailer, the elevator is standing by itself
and its surrounding structures just include some ports.
In the second version of the trailer, however,
I noticed that there are some bridges that connect
the elevator to the unknown city.
With this in mind, I thought about a couple of options.
First, I thought there was more than one elevator.
Then, I thought the developers might just have changed
the location of the elevator
as the game development progressed
and I also thought about the elevator
having actually two locations,
and I'll explain that in a second.
I have already ruled out the existence
of the two elevators in the game because
if having one is already a hard task
to build and maintain,
imagine two of them.
Plus, it wouldn't go very well in the story of the game.
As for the change of the location
during the development of the game,
that would make more sense
from a scenery point of view.
I think it would be nicer to have a city located
close to the elevator and logistically in the game,
it would make more sense
to either build an elevator that's close to a major city
or have the city built
close to the construction site of the elevator
in order to ease off the construction of the elevator.
My other thought about the elevator
being in two places at the same time
comes from a similar concept from
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon.
As I've heard on the internet,
the very first mission of Ace Combat 7
will apparently take place near the elevator.
So I believe that it could be an introductory mission
that does not fit into the game's chronological order
just like Assault Horizon.
This would be like the very first mission in Miami,
where it was actually a dream
from the game's protagonist, William Bishop,
so the surrounding of the elevator in this
first introductory mission wouldn't really matter
As for the location of the elevator itself,
from what I've seen the comments on the internet
point out three main locations:
Oured,
Farbanti,
and Expo City.
The three of them actually make sense.
Oured, because it's Osea's capital,
it's on the shore,
and it has a large body of water close to it.
And because it's inside Osea's territory,
it would be easy for the Oseans to build it
given they have a very developed space technology.
As an example,
look at the Arkbird,
the Mass Driver,
and also the SOLG.
Farbanti too would make sense
because it's Erusea's capital
and even how the scene is portrayed
in the second trailer of Ace Combat 7.
It does remind me of the mission:
Siege of Farbanti in Ace Combat 4.
But I'm talking about both the physical and environment
type of setting which includes the shoreline of the city
and also the sunset.
Erusea too has an advanced technology
as we can see it being developed
in the second trailer of the game.
So as a technological power,
it would make sense for them too
to build the space elevator.
The third option would be Expo City
and although it doesn't belong to neither
Osea or Erusea,
there are some interesting coincidences
between the bridges in Expo City
and in the unknown city that shows up in the trailer.
They are basically the same.
But as I already said before,
the elevator is located west of the shore
and this would be impossible for Expo City
as you can look at the map.
On more recent news,
Ace Combat producer Kazutoki Kono
has said in an interview with DualShockers
that the location of the space elevator
would be on an island southwest
of the Usean Continent.
And by looking at the map of Strangereal,
this gives us some interesting locations...
These locations include:
Twinkle Island
where we start off in Ace Combat 2
and where we finish in Ace Combat 4.
Since that's where Megalith is located,
Another option would be
Tyler Island
which is right by the equator and then
Skully Islands
which are more to the south of the continent
where you face off the Cocoon Squadron
in Ace Combat 3D.
Now when Kazutoki mentioned an island,
I can't tell for sure if he meant that the elevator itself
is on an island or the elevator
together with the city is close to its
is located on an island so I think as for now,
it's too soon to ignore those other islands
closer to the continent.
When it comes to the unknown city,
I think we shouldn't be jumping into the conclusion
that the elevator is built close to an
already known major city that was featured
in the previous games.
The elevator's construction could have started
either far or close to a major city where
but regardless what matters is by the time
the construction was finished,
the location around it had developed
and I say this because the city could have
started out as a logistical support site
to the construction of the elevator.
Adding to the discussion, at this moment,
I am inclined to believe that the space elevator
is actually located in the western section of
Tyler Island.
Because from the research I've done online,
the best place to build a space elevator
will be at the equator.
Now, I'm not saying it has to be built there
but the construction in other latitudes
being north or south would be harder
and this project is so big,
I think you could as well use all the help you can.
Another point supporting this idea
is that as far as my knowledge goes,
Tyler Island hasn't been featured in any other games
so that would give Project Aces
a new location to explore and create.
This video might have gone a little bit too long,
but I think we're getting to some pretty interesting and
complex discussions about Ace Combat 7.
And I find it funny that the game
hasn't even been released.
Oh well.
I think this is the power of Ace Combat and
the community that the game has.
I'll finish off this video now
but I want to hear from you guys.
Where do you think the space elevator
would be located?
And do you have any clue that I missed
that could help us find the location of the elevator?
If you do, please post it in the comments
because I love to hear and don't worry
because I'll keep the videos about
Ace Combat 7 coming
so we can fuel more the hype
so I hope you enjoyed this video
and I hope to see you in the next one.
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