If you are new to the Ace Combat series because you just heard about Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
this video will be perfect for you.
Because we will be answering some of the most commonly asked questions concerning Ace Combat 7's
gameplay, story, lore and more.
But first you may be asking yourself, who the hell are these two?
My name is Ace Combat Fan and I’ve been playing Ace Combat since the early 2000s.
I’ve been on YouTube for about 7 years mostly covering the Ace Combat games and talking
about the Ace Combat lore!
And I am Tomcat171.
I have been playing the Ace Combat games for 20 years and
I started YouTube seriously with Ace Combat 6 in 2007 and I've sort of
dabbled inside and outside of Let’s Plays in between.
And since both of us have been following the Ace Combat 7 news since its announcement we’re
in a perfect position to provide insight on this niche series and its newest installment.
And with the introductions out of the way, let’s kick off with the first question which would be...
Just what is Ace Combat?
Ace Combat is a series of arcade flight shooter games
[it’s not a simulator]
created by Namco, now Bandai Namco, that began in 1992 as an arcade cabinet under the name “Air Combat”.
In 1995 Air Combat was released to consoles but in Japan the game was titled “Ace Combat”
which ended up becoming the name of the series from thereon.
As of now Ace Combat is the oldest living franchise of the flight shooter genre with
23 years having passed since it was released on the original PlayStation.
Is Ace Combat 7 the seventh game of the series?
As a matter of fact, no.
The Ace Combat series can be split into three main sections: main titles,
handheld titles and spin-offs.
Ace Combat 7 will be the 16th game of the Ace Combat series altogether but it will only be the 8th main title.
The previous seven being Ace Combats 1 through 6 and Zero as well.
These main titles provide the best Ace Combat experience by far,
and have exclusively remained on Sony consoles up until
2007 when Ace Combat 6 visited the Xbox 360, making
it the black sheep of the family -
and also somewhat the cheesiest.
Dance with an angel, Mom.
Lieutenant,
I've got a little piece of advice for ya.
"Go dance with the angels"!
Garuda 2, that is too dangerous!
I know it's dangerous.
But it's time for me to dance with the angels.
The first three Ace Combats were released on PlayStation, with Ace Combats 04, 5 and
Zero seeing a release on the PlayStation 2.
The latter 3 are commonly known in the Ace Combat community as the ‘Holy Trinity’;
all three titles, in some way, contain elements that make a great Ace Combat game.
With that said there are many other Ace Combat games that were released on several other
platforms, but because they aren't main titles we will not be talking about them in this video.
I’m new to the series, which game should I be looking to play before trying Ace Combat 7?
You can get away with playing any one of the previous Ace Combat games to get a better bearing of the gameplay
because the mechanics are roughly the same.
However, ACF and myself would recommend that you play one of the Holy Trinity titles - if not all of them -
because they best encompass what makes a good Ace Combat game.
However if you can't afford to dig up an old PS2 or a backwards compatible PS3,
then we would recommend Project Wingman.
Project Wingman is an indie title for PC and actually uses the same engine as Ace Combat 7, the Unreal 4 engine.
It's not currently available for release but we've left the download link
in the description in case you are interested.
So if Ace Combat 7 is the 8th main game, does that mean I have to play all the seven
previous games to understand the story?
This is the beauty of Ace Combat - you do not have to play any previous games to understand
the story because all characters are new, and the same goes to the locations and the
conflicts or wars.
Now of course there will be some references to other previous games, but the story in
Ace Combat 7 will stand on its own without having to rely on knowledge of the lore material -
make playing it enjoyable for new players.
Now let’s suppose I do want to learn more about the lore directly related to Ace Combat 7,
where should I start?
The quickest and most efficient way of learning the the Ace Combat lore is by checking out
Acepedia - the Ace Combat wiki - and you can do so by clicking the link in the description.
But if you are looking for a real and hands-on and authentic Ace Combat experience, we’d recommend that
you play Ace Combats 04 and 5 - or both!
This is because the antagonist nation from 04 and the protagonist nation from 5, the Kingdom of Erusea and
the Osean Federation respectively, will be reprising similar roles in Ace Combat 7.
This will also give you a good insight into references regarding
the Stonehenge anti-asteroid railgun network, the Basset space center and its Mass Driver facility,
and also the aircraft carrier Kestrel.
If you want a brief introduction to the story of the Holy Trinity - Ace Combats 04, 5 and
Zero - you can also watch this other video that explains the story of the three games
[with memes].
So when and where does Ace Combat 7 take place?
The numbered Ace Combat games, including Zero, X and 7, take place on an alternate version
of Earth known in the community as “Strangereal”.
It’s far more interesting than our Earth, because instead of holding the Olympics every
4 years or so, it has a large-scale war occurring somewhere.
Strangereal is technologically more advanced, too, riddled with all sorts of far-out war
machines such as flying aircraft carriers and fortresses, railguns as big as skyscrapers,
submarines the size of cruise ships and nuclear-armed spacecraft.
As for Ace Combat 7, the game takes place in the year 2019, chronologically sitting
between Ace Combat 6 and Ace Combat X.
Why are veteran fans so excited over Ace Combat 7?
What sets it apart from the previous games, and why should newcomers be interested?
The first and foremost reason why Ace Combat veterans are excited about this is that finally
the story of ‘Strangereal’ is finally getting a new chapter.
It has been 11 years since Ace Combat 6 came out and we have seen nothing but two handheld
spin-offs, a free-to-play game, and a full console title that tried
bridging the gap between current and new players by mixing Call of Duty-esque action and traditional gameplay
and hybridizing it with a somewhat controversial ‘dogfight mode’ mechanic.
This time the new gameplay mechanic of Ace Combat 7 is centered around weather system.
During missions the weather can change to both help and hinder the player, this can
come in the form of severe gale-force winds to knock their plane off balance, thick cloud
cover that can be used to hide from enemies but at the same time render radar obsolete,
and even lightning strikes that can mess with the heads-up display.
These kinds of challenges present a healthy risk vs reward balance.
Do you stubbornly chase that one elusive enemy through a cloudy, tight-walled canyon and
risk kissing the rocks, or play it safe and pounce on them once they’re in clear air?
Is Ace Combat realistic?
Well.. duh!
With the aforementioned flying aircraft carriers, 100 missiles stuck to your aircraft
and doing 180s at Mach 2 without blacking out or killing the pilot,
Ace Combat is more realistic than real life!
So this concludes part 1 of the most frequently asked questions about Ace Combat 7.
We hope this video was helpful to new players and stay tuned for part 2.
Part 2 will be uploaded on my channel but on the meantime to subscribe to both ACF and myself for
more Ace Combat videos.
Also be sure to like and share this video if it was helpful…
And please leave your questions in the comments so we can answer them in the next video!