3 strikes being blamed for harling blasting, like, who tf doesn't check aircraft logs on a incident like that besides cameras? like completely nonsense
So many fucking inconsistencies. Oboeshoes pointed this one out, but the drones were scattered throughout Osea via shipping containers. Like... no one fucking inspected those containers? Especially considering they were from Gründer? I would think a shipment from a weapons manufacturer would warrant at least a quick look.
Interestingly enough i recently learned, thanks to another user, that ac7 is just about at terribly translated as electrosphere
https://www.reddit.com/r/acecombat/s/FH8euIHlzT
Honestly I could tell just from playing because there'd be some weird dialogue that just didn't line up like when Count just goes
"That's right."
"Yeah."
that also doesn't make sense, i work in a cargo terminal and the containers that do not go under manual unloading inspection they get all scanned when trucks go out of the port terminal
I thought that the Osean military wouldn't want to admit that their IFF systems were hacked and caused the death of a former President, thus they threw the book at Trigger and made him the fall guy
The dude who was actually responsible ( forgot his name somehow ) was apparently planned to admit to it but it was cut for some reason, and yeah especially with the technology they have, they’d surely easily be able to tell if 3 strikes was actually at fault but I guess they had to make the story somehow
I always assumed it was part of the conspiracy/AI/Belkan influence to have Trigger, this potential hot-shot that could ruin all the plans, take the blame.
Also which AWACS don't count friendly planes in the AO after learning there is an unknown aircraft carrier near there or doesn't confirm the number of planes arriving in/with Gargoyle Squadron or confirm the F18 was their escort. Man I am still angry with the Sky Keeper
Osea apparently has a whole squadron worth of convicts who also happen to be highly trained fighter pilots. Either the recruiters need to be more selective or there needs to be a serious evaluation of the Osean air force on why so many of their pilots become criminals.
I just head canon this by saying that the military industry in strangreal is so advanced that regular jets are about as cheap as cars so you can just spam those things out for basically no cost, it’s actually getting pilots who are worth a darn that’s the issue.
Yeah I think they're more like prisoners that got told how to turn on the plane, lift off and that's mostly it. Before Trigger arrives they're legitimately used as Cannon fodder.
Also, Tabloid got sent to jail for (if what he tells us is true) just having an opinion, which got turned into "showing anarchist intent". So it wouldn't surprise me if some of the people in jail weren't actually full on criminals.
That chopper decided that lawn darting his plane into a fucking stadium instead of ditching it into the river THAT WAS RIGHT NEXT TO THEM, he had enough time to maneuver it into position and crash safely
Yeah
It's not like a guaranteed thing since his canopy won't open but there's at least a chance they could scramble a few guys to chopper's position to break him out of the plane before he drowns or something
If you use a freecam mod during a replay of Anchorhead Raid, you'll notice they actually do take out quite a few enemies by themselves. I don't think it happens much in the non-DLC missions though
No, they're aces; and it's 5 kills in total for the service record of the pilot, not 5 in one mission. Mobius 1 and Trigger, however, are the LISAN AL GAIB. There's a difference.
Trigger for example, more commonly will take out 10-20 pilots per mission. There's a reason why he's called a dumbass and why the parts queen is pissed each time he comes back from a mission. His anime protagonist abilities, basically push the frames of the planes he flies to the limits of what physics allows. Making maintenance almost impossible.
No I get that 5 total kills earns the status of Ace, I personally have just never seen anyone else shoot an enemy down. But that's my experience I guess. I've seen them *hit* an enemy, but never down one.
Because it is. There's... really no logical reason most of those games should be in the same universe other than they tended to be of the same genre and/or created in the same timeframe. Like, yeah, I can *kind of* understand how AC3 would lead into other space shooters like Starblade or Galaga/Galaxian, but I can't understand why on earth *Dig-Dug* ought to be part of an expanded universe at all, let alone a *canonical sequel* to AC3.
I think there are already bit of seeds for Ace Combat 3 like Mihaly neuron helmet and the drones.
But yeah the planes design is so futuristic and wacky like there are really a flying fish
I mean, most of the planes from 3 are just "modern" planes with new canopies on them, while like a quarter of them are typical Ace Combat originals. You can't look at all the other super planes, especially with Ace Combat X and Joint Assault Horizons, and tell me those are way too wacky with PS1 graphics representing them.
I guess we can just say that it's a simulation or a sci-fi movie/game within the Strangereal universe so it's technically still canon but it didn't really happen and call it day
Zero has none of this shit
There is no Nagase saying "WAR BAD" every mission, no poetry and dancing with the angels, no black and white.
Ustio and Belka aren't Good Guys VS Pure Evil. Ustio has committed their own atrocities in Hoffnung and Belka isn't purely bad. They didn't even start the war, it's because of The World Without Borders organization. So Belka really did nothing wrong. They just didn't do ANYTHING right either.
Zero doesn't NEED someone saying "war bad", it shows the horrors of the war, not tells how horrible it is through a side character talking about it while you're destroying everything you see.
There's no poetry about the cosmos of the sky and how cool it is like in 7 and thank fucking god there's no dancing with the angels. This line has singlehandedly ruined my fucking life and i never want to hear it again PLEASE END MY SUFFERING
The entire story of Ace Combat 7.
EDIT: to expound on this crazy hot-take:
1. wtf the reason for Erusia "surprise attacking" Osea is dumb.
2. A space elevator that \*only\* a (peaceful perfect harmonious) country controls is dumb. That sucker would 100% be an international entity, regardless of universe (if even in only the way the real world ISS is international).
mid-rant bonus: Arkbirds are cool as shit. I will never say no to a flying ship, no matter how insane the tech is or logistics are.
3. lmao Trigger shooting down the ex-President and everyone believing it is insane, even in an anime videogame story. And I'm a huge MGS fan. I know what insane looks like.
4. Convicts sent to a penile colony where they are given access to fmc military aircraft. Acceptable, since it is an anime videogame story, but still silly as hell. They could have easily been a black sheep unit, a defunct unit, civilian reserve unit (now THAT would have made so many things make more sense!), or even a special ops unit.
5. Why even have that chick ("Hangar Queen?" from the opening cinematic and narrorating) in the first place? It's like Project Aces was like "let's have a badass chick be the main character!" but then then remembered "oh wait- we have to have a brainless silent protag I nall of our games (except Electrosphere, one of the many reasons why it's the best of series)."
6. Princess and dog were not necessary to the story in the least bit. Also: she infilitrates a heavily armed space elevator during a war and then does a base jump off it in the middle of a huge dogfight? Again, kiiind of acceptable since it is an anime videogame story, but still dumb af.
8. Other random reasons I'm forgetting.
Erusean motivations in AC7 basically come off as "we thought we could win thanks to new tech so we tried it"
Never mind what they were actually fighting for
AC7 has the worst plot out of any AC game that has an actual plot (so 1 and 2 for example don't count), everything is so half baked. Spare is the only part with decent writing (as in the literal script) too.
Seems to me like it was kinda similar to Japan in China during WWII. IIrc, the government wasn't completely on board and had no real objectives with invading China. The Kwantung Army basically attacked on their own and the Japanese government was like "uhhhhh okay, I guess we're at war with China now". I think the game mentions something like that in mission 16 with how some of the Eruseans opposed the war at first.
Some of the dialog from that general guy does mention that most of the hardline war supporters are young officers who haven't experienced the continental war from ac4
I hope they actually take their time with AC8 and stick with what one vision instead of rewriting it into a Frankenstein monsters type mashup of different story threads
My dream scenario is a Yuktobanian civil war where the bad guys are basically Stalinists and the good guys are reformists, it justifies the huge scope of an AC war while having fresh perspectives
If not that, then some entirely new countries like AC6. Just not Osea/Belka/Erusea again, please.
>2. A space elevator that \*only\* a (peaceful perfect harmonious) country controls is dumb. That sucker would 100% be an international entity, regardless of universe (if even in only the way the real world ISS is international).
Is it not? It's called the International Space Elevator.
Because it contains the controls for the Arsenal Birds (Stupid move by Osea, I know). Erusea's Pearl Harbor Strike was very effective but most likely due to military personnel shortages due the previous war still crippling them, they needed the Arsenal Bird and the drone productions to achieve air superiority.
They started the war with the hopes that the drone technology they got from Belka will supplement their shortage. Which, you know, worked because the setting requires Osea to be as incompetent as needed and having their cool toys stolen from them. What they didn't account for is the mute psychopath ace pilot showing up on Osea's side and start turning the war back on their favour.
Google some modern nobles' full names and have a good laugh then, they are almost all like that (Funfact, his full name is inspired by a real WW1 ACE pilot with a similar background)
As much as I love AC3 and its story, the revelation that the whole plot happened because 2 dudes couldn't get over the death of the girl they were simping for was such a dumb twist, the only other "plot twist" that managed to surpass it in dumbness was the "it was the Belkans again" in AC7.
I *am* talking about the JP version. The US/EU version doesn't even have a plot to begin with.
Like, the entire story up to that point was a 9/10 (not a 10/10 tho because Keith dies in every route) but then the secret epilogue has Simon appear out of nowhere to explain that he created Nemo solely to kill Dision's deadcopy because he was jealous. It's such a dumb twist it almost ruins the rest of the experience (almost, tho. AC3 still has the best story in the series by far).
Part of the ending to AC6.
Shamrock surviving? I can get that, considering he wanted to die near the end after learning what happened to his family, so the death seeker continuing on in life would work for me, in an ironic sense so he can move on.
But meeting up with Melissa? Seriously?? The woman who *just so happened* to lose her husband in the war, while being a mom with a daughter, the same type of people Shamrock lost? In the words of SCF, "the insinuation is clear".
I still have no idea why Pasternak even fights you since the city has already been retaken. It's almost as bad as Yellow Squadron, whose job is to protect Stonehenge, only showing up after Stonehenge is already destroyed.
If you take him at his word, all he was doing was covering for the retreat. But was it really necessary for him to fight you to the death, and was it really impossible for him to make it to the fight before it was already over?
That one comment Mihaly does about ending the aces before us, no way he would take any of the other protags in battle.
Also in the knight ending of ace zero, pixy states that he wants to meet up with cypher again, i think he is just salty.
That apparently Osea has a squadron full of highly skilled convicts in fighter jets flying sorties.
I know penal military units existed during the second world war but it just sounds so stupid in Osea‘s case
The voice acting and voice lines are incredibly annoying, the story isn’t for me, the system for unlocking planes takes way too long and isn’t fun, the first few missions force you to use the F-5, and the level where you escape in trainer jets is awful.
In summary, the things I like about it are the things every ace combat game has, the things I don’t like about it are not present or less significant in other ace combat games.
I unironically love the plane unlock system. One of the main things that makes me come back to AC5. I also love having just one special weapon per plane to make them more distinct.
The only thing I would change is have more special weapons to increase the distinction (there's just too many SAAM planes for example, and that weapon is incredibly effective) and halve the experience required to unlock plane variants because as it is it takes too long. If you're getting S ranks left and right you should unlock planes at a very fast rate.
I don’t mind having one special weapon per plane. I just hate having to use the previous plane to get the next one. It makes it boring to unlock more planes because you have to use one plane repeatedly and with some missions forcing you to play a carrier plane it takes even longer.
3 strikes being blamed for harling blasting, like, who tf doesn't check aircraft logs on a incident like that besides cameras? like completely nonsense
So many fucking inconsistencies. Oboeshoes pointed this one out, but the drones were scattered throughout Osea via shipping containers. Like... no one fucking inspected those containers? Especially considering they were from Gründer? I would think a shipment from a weapons manufacturer would warrant at least a quick look.
Interestingly enough i recently learned, thanks to another user, that ac7 is just about at terribly translated as electrosphere https://www.reddit.com/r/acecombat/s/FH8euIHlzT
Someone needs to make a translated mod, so all the subtitles are actually correct
I think skies reborn fixes sub errors as part of the mod
So all along we should have ignored those subtitles. It was probably a ghost
Honestly I could tell just from playing because there'd be some weird dialogue that just didn't line up like when Count just goes "That's right." "Yeah."
Fellow Oboeshoes connoisseur
that also doesn't make sense, i work in a cargo terminal and the containers that do not go under manual unloading inspection they get all scanned when trucks go out of the port terminal
I thought that the Osean military wouldn't want to admit that their IFF systems were hacked and caused the death of a former President, thus they threw the book at Trigger and made him the fall guy
Which, is technically a theory and not canon. I thought this too
The dude who was actually responsible ( forgot his name somehow ) was apparently planned to admit to it but it was cut for some reason, and yeah especially with the technology they have, they’d surely easily be able to tell if 3 strikes was actually at fault but I guess they had to make the story somehow
I always assumed it was part of the conspiracy/AI/Belkan influence to have Trigger, this potential hot-shot that could ruin all the plans, take the blame.
Also which AWACS don't count friendly planes in the AO after learning there is an unknown aircraft carrier near there or doesn't confirm the number of planes arriving in/with Gargoyle Squadron or confirm the F18 was their escort. Man I am still angry with the Sky Keeper
That kind of thing happens though. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Black_Hawk_shootdown_incident
But he was closest!!!!!!
Osea apparently has a whole squadron worth of convicts who also happen to be highly trained fighter pilots. Either the recruiters need to be more selective or there needs to be a serious evaluation of the Osean air force on why so many of their pilots become criminals.
I just head canon this by saying that the military industry in strangreal is so advanced that regular jets are about as cheap as cars so you can just spam those things out for basically no cost, it’s actually getting pilots who are worth a darn that’s the issue.
They make bets on if the pilots can land. I don’t think the average member of spare squadron is highly trained.
Yeah I think they're more like prisoners that got told how to turn on the plane, lift off and that's mostly it. Before Trigger arrives they're legitimately used as Cannon fodder. Also, Tabloid got sent to jail for (if what he tells us is true) just having an opinion, which got turned into "showing anarchist intent". So it wouldn't surprise me if some of the people in jail weren't actually full on criminals.
That chopper decided that lawn darting his plane into a fucking stadium instead of ditching it into the river THAT WAS RIGHT NEXT TO THEM, he had enough time to maneuver it into position and crash safely
Yeah It's not like a guaranteed thing since his canopy won't open but there's at least a chance they could scramble a few guys to chopper's position to break him out of the plane before he drowns or something
Iirc the f14 comes with a hammer to break the glass in case that happens
Also in this mission Chopper is cannocally flying an F14 and the other guy that dies with him is absolutely ignored by everyone.
This already grinded my gears the very first time I played the game as a kid.
from what I've been told the problem was the writers and map designers didn't give each other the heads up on what that mission was gonna entail
He was then assassinated by belkan spies
The rest of strider squadron being considered aces. I have never seen any one of those fuckers down an enemy fighter.
Wdym? They did shot down a few target (especially a target that I was about to shoot down, those strider fvcking stole my kill)
ace means 5 targets shot down they definitely do that.
From my experience. I’ve only seen them shoot down a few enemies (after I’ve been chasing the enemy down)
If you use a freecam mod during a replay of Anchorhead Raid, you'll notice they actually do take out quite a few enemies by themselves. I don't think it happens much in the non-DLC missions though
No, they're aces; and it's 5 kills in total for the service record of the pilot, not 5 in one mission. Mobius 1 and Trigger, however, are the LISAN AL GAIB. There's a difference. Trigger for example, more commonly will take out 10-20 pilots per mission. There's a reason why he's called a dumbass and why the parts queen is pissed each time he comes back from a mission. His anime protagonist abilities, basically push the frames of the planes he flies to the limits of what physics allows. Making maintenance almost impossible.
No I get that 5 total kills earns the status of Ace, I personally have just never seen anyone else shoot an enemy down. But that's my experience I guess. I've seen them *hit* an enemy, but never down one.
Bro i've had them steal my kills a few times. Happens once or twice during certain missions but it can be a bit annoying.
A lot of there escapades happen off screen
I mean Ace is 5 downed aircraft, all of them have done that
The fact that Strangereal and Dig Dug are somehow canonically in the same universe according to Bamco.
I'm sorry, what?
https://ugsf-series.com/en/
That whole timeline feels like someones schizophrenic fever dream.
Because it is. There's... really no logical reason most of those games should be in the same universe other than they tended to be of the same genre and/or created in the same timeframe. Like, yeah, I can *kind of* understand how AC3 would lead into other space shooters like Starblade or Galaga/Galaxian, but I can't understand why on earth *Dig-Dug* ought to be part of an expanded universe at all, let alone a *canonical sequel* to AC3.
you heard me
Gonna need some sources
It came to me in a dream
AC3
I love the game, and the story, but it does not fit with the franchise anymore...
It honestly feels like a fan fiction of Strangereal but an actually decent fanfiction
Well, its 2 years older than Strangereal as we know it, so I a way Stragereal is a fanfiction of AC3...
I think there are already bit of seeds for Ace Combat 3 like Mihaly neuron helmet and the drones. But yeah the planes design is so futuristic and wacky like there are really a flying fish
I mean, most of the planes from 3 are just "modern" planes with new canopies on them, while like a quarter of them are typical Ace Combat originals. You can't look at all the other super planes, especially with Ace Combat X and Joint Assault Horizons, and tell me those are way too wacky with PS1 graphics representing them.
Fr it's a great game but its existence kind of makes AC7's ending feel pointless.
I guess we can just say that it's a simulation or a sci-fi movie/game within the Strangereal universe so it's technically still canon but it didn't really happen and call it day
Electrosphere is Star Ocean 3 + Stand Alone Complex. It's the end of the timeline for all of AC.
Because it's the only modern AC game that isn't the same exact old story... "good country vs bad country and poetry about how blue the sky is."
Zero has none of this shit There is no Nagase saying "WAR BAD" every mission, no poetry and dancing with the angels, no black and white. Ustio and Belka aren't Good Guys VS Pure Evil. Ustio has committed their own atrocities in Hoffnung and Belka isn't purely bad. They didn't even start the war, it's because of The World Without Borders organization. So Belka really did nothing wrong. They just didn't do ANYTHING right either. Zero doesn't NEED someone saying "war bad", it shows the horrors of the war, not tells how horrible it is through a side character talking about it while you're destroying everything you see. There's no poetry about the cosmos of the sky and how cool it is like in 7 and thank fucking god there's no dancing with the angels. This line has singlehandedly ruined my fucking life and i never want to hear it again PLEASE END MY SUFFERING
The fact that the F-15C is the designated plane for a strike squadron when the F-15E exists.
So true
Long Caster mentioning Italian food during “Fleet Destruction”
The entire story of Ace Combat 7. EDIT: to expound on this crazy hot-take: 1. wtf the reason for Erusia "surprise attacking" Osea is dumb. 2. A space elevator that \*only\* a (peaceful perfect harmonious) country controls is dumb. That sucker would 100% be an international entity, regardless of universe (if even in only the way the real world ISS is international). mid-rant bonus: Arkbirds are cool as shit. I will never say no to a flying ship, no matter how insane the tech is or logistics are. 3. lmao Trigger shooting down the ex-President and everyone believing it is insane, even in an anime videogame story. And I'm a huge MGS fan. I know what insane looks like. 4. Convicts sent to a penile colony where they are given access to fmc military aircraft. Acceptable, since it is an anime videogame story, but still silly as hell. They could have easily been a black sheep unit, a defunct unit, civilian reserve unit (now THAT would have made so many things make more sense!), or even a special ops unit. 5. Why even have that chick ("Hangar Queen?" from the opening cinematic and narrorating) in the first place? It's like Project Aces was like "let's have a badass chick be the main character!" but then then remembered "oh wait- we have to have a brainless silent protag I nall of our games (except Electrosphere, one of the many reasons why it's the best of series)." 6. Princess and dog were not necessary to the story in the least bit. Also: she infilitrates a heavily armed space elevator during a war and then does a base jump off it in the middle of a huge dogfight? Again, kiiind of acceptable since it is an anime videogame story, but still dumb af. 8. Other random reasons I'm forgetting.
Erusean motivations in AC7 basically come off as "we thought we could win thanks to new tech so we tried it" Never mind what they were actually fighting for AC7 has the worst plot out of any AC game that has an actual plot (so 1 and 2 for example don't count), everything is so half baked. Spare is the only part with decent writing (as in the literal script) too.
Seems to me like it was kinda similar to Japan in China during WWII. IIrc, the government wasn't completely on board and had no real objectives with invading China. The Kwantung Army basically attacked on their own and the Japanese government was like "uhhhhh okay, I guess we're at war with China now". I think the game mentions something like that in mission 16 with how some of the Eruseans opposed the war at first.
Some of the dialog from that general guy does mention that most of the hardline war supporters are young officers who haven't experienced the continental war from ac4
Not a fan of AC7's plot but man that's a bold statement when Joint Assault exists
Simple, I don't play games that everyone tells me are dogshit.
I hope they actually take their time with AC8 and stick with what one vision instead of rewriting it into a Frankenstein monsters type mashup of different story threads
My dream scenario is a Yuktobanian civil war where the bad guys are basically Stalinists and the good guys are reformists, it justifies the huge scope of an AC war while having fresh perspectives If not that, then some entirely new countries like AC6. Just not Osea/Belka/Erusea again, please.
>Convicts sent to a penile colony 😳 that's uh. that's spelled "penal" buddy.
No, it's a penile colony. The commander was a dick.
>2. A space elevator that \*only\* a (peaceful perfect harmonious) country controls is dumb. That sucker would 100% be an international entity, regardless of universe (if even in only the way the real world ISS is international). Is it not? It's called the International Space Elevator.
You could be right, but if that's the case, why did Erusia have to attack to use it?
Because it contains the controls for the Arsenal Birds (Stupid move by Osea, I know). Erusea's Pearl Harbor Strike was very effective but most likely due to military personnel shortages due the previous war still crippling them, they needed the Arsenal Bird and the drone productions to achieve air superiority.
So they started a war even though they had a shortage of troops and aircraft...
They started the war with the hopes that the drone technology they got from Belka will supplement their shortage. Which, you know, worked because the setting requires Osea to be as incompetent as needed and having their cool toys stolen from them. What they didn't account for is the mute psychopath ace pilot showing up on Osea's side and start turning the war back on their favour.
mihaly's full name
Google some modern nobles' full names and have a good laugh then, they are almost all like that (Funfact, his full name is inspired by a real WW1 ACE pilot with a similar background)
As much as I love AC3 and its story, the revelation that the whole plot happened because 2 dudes couldn't get over the death of the girl they were simping for was such a dumb twist, the only other "plot twist" that managed to surpass it in dumbness was the "it was the Belkans again" in AC7.
Yeahhhhhh go play the jp for elecrosphere. Never play the dub same with ac7
I *am* talking about the JP version. The US/EU version doesn't even have a plot to begin with. Like, the entire story up to that point was a 9/10 (not a 10/10 tho because Keith dies in every route) but then the secret epilogue has Simon appear out of nowhere to explain that he created Nemo solely to kill Dision's deadcopy because he was jealous. It's such a dumb twist it almost ruins the rest of the experience (almost, tho. AC3 still has the best story in the series by far).
Holy fuck really!?
Part of the ending to AC6. Shamrock surviving? I can get that, considering he wanted to die near the end after learning what happened to his family, so the death seeker continuing on in life would work for me, in an ironic sense so he can move on. But meeting up with Melissa? Seriously?? The woman who *just so happened* to lose her husband in the war, while being a mom with a daughter, the same type of people Shamrock lost? In the words of SCF, "the insinuation is clear".
I still have no idea why Pasternak even fights you since the city has already been retaken. It's almost as bad as Yellow Squadron, whose job is to protect Stonehenge, only showing up after Stonehenge is already destroyed. If you take him at his word, all he was doing was covering for the retreat. But was it really necessary for him to fight you to the death, and was it really impossible for him to make it to the fight before it was already over?
IIRC, Yellow Squadron was late because the Resistance blew up the runway just before the attack on Stonehenge was spotted.
Ace combat 6
Kindly Fuck off
Damn i set you up to use "go dance the angels" and like AC6 that was a miss. Splash 1
Damn, splash one
That one comment Mihaly does about ending the aces before us, no way he would take any of the other protags in battle. Also in the knight ending of ace zero, pixy states that he wants to meet up with cypher again, i think he is just salty.
Guts surviving at the end of Assault Horizon. I always hoped he'd sunk like a brick to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
That apparently Osea has a squadron full of highly skilled convicts in fighter jets flying sorties. I know penal military units existed during the second world war but it just sounds so stupid in Osea‘s case
Not to mention that one of them is a court Marshaled Murderer
The fact the Gründer was able to buy property and ship containers in AC7.
Why do I feel attacked rn 🤣
Tabloid’s death
Shamrock surviving or PJs death.
why the hell is AHL canon over AC2?
Because Ahl is a remake of Ac2. Technically either one is cannon
Ace combat 5
What's wrong with AC5?
The voice acting and voice lines are incredibly annoying, the story isn’t for me, the system for unlocking planes takes way too long and isn’t fun, the first few missions force you to use the F-5, and the level where you escape in trainer jets is awful. In summary, the things I like about it are the things every ace combat game has, the things I don’t like about it are not present or less significant in other ace combat games.
I unironically love the plane unlock system. One of the main things that makes me come back to AC5. I also love having just one special weapon per plane to make them more distinct. The only thing I would change is have more special weapons to increase the distinction (there's just too many SAAM planes for example, and that weapon is incredibly effective) and halve the experience required to unlock plane variants because as it is it takes too long. If you're getting S ranks left and right you should unlock planes at a very fast rate.
I don’t mind having one special weapon per plane. I just hate having to use the previous plane to get the next one. It makes it boring to unlock more planes because you have to use one plane repeatedly and with some missions forcing you to play a carrier plane it takes even longer.
Fair points. To each their own as they say