History Headscratchers / AceCombat

* ''AceCombat'' 1-6 takes place in an alternate universe? So why is it that in this alternate universe, there are the ''exact same'' aircraft manufacturers here as there are in our universe? Obviously, the out-of-universe answer is that for legal reasons, the developers needed to put in a little bit of ProductPlacement for the companies that made them, but from an in-universe perspective, its very weird.

* Does anyone else find some moral dissonance in a lot of the anti-war spiel in many of the AceCombat games? The bad guys, random sympathetic point-of-view pilots aside, are always for the most part evil and do evil things, and are almost never the defenders. The Estovakians want to gas every man, woman, and child in Gracemeria, and we're supposed to feel ''sorry'' for them?

[[http://acecombatskies.com/topic/34084-ace-combat-infinity-discussion/?p=837627 Based on this forum post]], [[WordOfGod Kono himself]] stated that the localization for Ace Combat 3 was toned down because Project Aces at the time was small, and that localization was difficult. Mind you, [[Franchise/MetalGear Metal Gear Solid]] was released before Ace Combat 3 and, in addition to keeping the story and voice work for international regions, paved the way for compelling voice work and stories in video games. Why couldn't Project Aces hire whoever was responsible for localizing Metal Gear Solid and have them localize Ace Combat 3? Did they not have the budget, ExecutiveMeddling, or maybe TheyJustDidntCare?

*** Then the next question: Why is he suddenly making all the decisions of where to go?

** Some people also believe that Mobius One and Gryphus One were trainees when they did their first missions, and were sent out of desperation. Mobius One went FromNobodyToNightmare because he was a freshly minted nugget at the start. The same could go with Gryphus One.

** In addition to the above: welcome to war. It may not be intentional given Ace Combat's preference for old-school military drama (with the usual batshit Japanese flavor we've come to expect from the series and Japanese media in general) but war is a whole helluvalot of GreyAndGreyMorality. In GenerationKill, there's a very powerful scene where a group of Recon Marines are watching a very tiny village because it's possible a mortar crew used it as cover hours before while launching an attack. The Marines, prone on the ground, see nothing but a woman and several children playing outside, and radio back as such. A few minutes later, the hamlet is promptly and ''spectacularly'' bombed off the face of the earth, women and children included; other forces believed they spotted the actual mortar fire coming from that location, and still others believed that it was a mis-call because of an outdoor oven puffing out smoke. And no one was unaware that there were civilians right in the center, but the air strike was called anyway; and then Sergeant Colbert, though obviously ''very'' bothered by the entire thing, actually says out loud, "We don't have the full perspective...I'm not the one who told the enemy to use the civilian population for cover." Essentially, the point is, pretty bad shit happens in armed conflict, but it's not necessarily an excuse to view an entire people as the enemy beyond their military.

** In the second AC5 mission, Bartlett gets shot down. He is on a two seater aircraft, and it's ''clearly seen'' that there is somebody on the rear seat of his F-4G. This somebody doesn't eject. Sure, the airplane is not shown for about a second when Bartlett ejects, but we see only one chute. And, besides, it's never mentioned if the guy was either rescued or dead. A similar thing happens when [[spoiler: Chopper gets his plane critically damaged. If he is in a two seater, his RIO/WSO doesn't say a single word. However, canonically the Wardog Squadron had F-5 (single seaters), but still...]]. This Troper's opinion is that all those "heads" maybe are of human-shaped ballast. In a JAG episode, a similar thing was shown used on a radio controlled aircraft, so why not?

*** At a guess, the ODF was a fairly healthy military patterned along US-style lines before the Belkan War (they perform well enough against the competent Belkans). But the use of nuclear weapons and the atrocities committed by advancing Allied forces during the war shocked Osea into pacifism - compare with the effects of UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne on TheLostGeneration. By the time of the Circum-Pacific War (2010), the younger generation (everyone under 30 or so) is mostly pacifist. As a result, junior members of the military (like the Wardog pilots) tend to rebel against military discipline.

* It's an issue that can just as well apply to Mobius One, I'm noticing. Anyway, my guess is that Gryphus One stayed at Aubrey for the early stages of the war because that's where he was stationed, and they had no reason to be sent out to fight until Leasath bombers were knocking on their door. After that, someone probably noticed the abnormally high number of kills personally attributed to him and had him brought into a combined force (given that nearly the entire flight got wiped out by the Gleipnir's attack) for their first counter-strike just to see if that wasn't a fluke, and when it proved not to be they had him leading everything else they could get him on for. It'd go along well with the series' usual aversion to DudeWheresMyRespect.

You'd think a pilot with that kind of skill would already turned the tide before Aurelia got reduced to one operating base... Even in Ace Combat Zero there is a reasoning that the Allied Force were losing so the mercenaries were hired.

*** It left its mark, though. Consider that Operation Battle Axe happened ''right after Excalibur fell''. Cipher went from being called the "Man who pulled out Tauberg's Sword" to the "Demon Lord of the Round Table" in that fight. [[KingArthur What did Arthur have to do first way before he could become known as the King of the Round Table?]]

* Budget is probably the issue. ''Ace Combat 3''[='=]s cutscenes were animated by Creator/ProductionIG, which cost a hell of a lot of money. Having to license them for foreign releases ''and'' dub it all in multiple languages probably would have killed Project Aces outright. As I recall, it's also the reason the cutscenes in ''[=AC04=]'' are all basically still images with narration by one character - they didn't have the money to even approach the level of quality of ''3''[='=]s cutscenes.

** There's also the case of the briefing officer namedropping an "Operation Bloom" while the screen right in front of you is telling you it's actually "Operation B''r''oom", so, they probably didn't. Every game since then that's called back to this one has called it "Garm", though, so someone else must have ''eventually'' noticed.

** The Kestrel was the only surviving carrier of the Third Fleet, not of the entire Osean Navy. In Sea of Chaos, you do actually come across another Osean carrier. My guess - after the Third Fleet got raped, it was sent to the northern seas to defend there until they could be replenished. When the war escalated, the rest of the navy was sent in support and little to no supplies were given to the Third. By the time Wardog joins the Kestrel, the carrier only has Snow left, most likely because they were still doing CAP and probably engaged Yuke attack groups trying to hit the north (pure speculation, but it fits) which whittled down their combat strength. That or they got transferred to other units on the frontline, but Anderson managed to hold on to Snow.

[[http://acecombatskies.com/topic/34084-ace-combat-infinity-discussion/?p=837627 Based on this forum post]], [[WordOfGod Kono himself]] stated that the localization for Ace Combat 3 was toned down because Project Aces at the time was small, and that localization was difficult. Mind you, [[Franchise/MetalGear Metal Gear Solid]] was released before Ace Combat 3 and, in addition to keeping the story and voice work for international regions, paved the way for compelling voice work and stories in video games. Why couldn't Project Aces hire whoever was responsible for localizing Metal Gear Solid and have them localize Ace Combat 3? Did they not have the budget, ExecutiveMeddling, or maybe TheyJustDidntCare?

* It's likely that the characters figured out a way to strap him into the seat, and keep him seated. Kirk is clearly very calm around planes, and is well mannered, so it's likely he had flown in one of the jets atleast once before.

*** At a guess, the ODF was a fairly healthy military patterned along US-style lines before the Belkan War (they perform well enough against the competent Belkans). But the use of nuclear weapons and the atrocities committed by advancing Allied forces during the war shocked Osea into pacifism - compare with the effects of WorldWarOne on TheLostGeneration. By the time of the Circum-Pacific War (2010), the younger generation (everyone under 30 or so) is mostly pacifist. As a result, junior members of the military (like the Wardog pilots) tend to rebel against military discipline.

Why do people keep calling the destruction of Excalibur "pulling the sword from the stone"? As a teammate's IncrediblyLamePun once or twice, sure. But what justification is there for everybody on both sides calling the destruction of a WaveMotionGun "[[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic pulling the sword from the stone]]" '' in a completely sincere voice''?

* Actually, the real life manufacturers aren't even mentioned in the dialog. They are required by law to place real life markings of the real manufacturers on the models as part of the legal agreements. The alternative, is to create a large list of aircraft that -look- close to the real thing, but obviously aren't. This troper is actually in the process of writing a story set in an alternate universe and has run into the same issues, but, I elected to go for 'similar, but different' since I don't have anywhere near the money to pay Lockheed Martin, or Boeing to use their aircraft as is. And considering that the companies in question aren't short on cash for legal purposes... [[CurbStompBattle taking them to court will not end well for -any- game company.]]

In Ace Combat 5, when [[spoiler: you flee your own airbase in training jets, Chopper's dog is in the backseat of someone's fighter. Genette is said to be in the back of Pop's aircraft, but you hear Kirk (the dog) barking over the radio at one point. Then you all eject and your aircraft are shot down by Swordsman to fake your deaths. You do see Kirk later, so it's not like they left him to die, but...how did he get out? Doggy ejector seat?]]

** If you add an 'n' to LKnight" in Japanese, you get"Demon Lord" in japanese -- "Kishi (騎士)" = "Knight", "Kishin (鬼神)" = "Demon Lord"

** Zero has lyrics?

** I imagine it's another one of those things out of Japanese culture that sounds appropriate over there, but not to Western ears.

** Because the kid was basically using it as a euphemism for "go fuck yourself" right in the face of an Estovakian propaganda agent on the radio, and it just sort of caught on.
** GO TO HEAVEN!! That insult still makes no sense.
*** It's probably closer in spirit to something like "You can go die, for all I care!"

* ''AceCombat'' 1-6 takes place in an alternate universe? So why is it that in this alternate universe, there are the ''exact same'' aircraft manufacturers here as there are in our universe? Obviously, the out-of-universe answer is that for legal reasons, the developers needed to put in a little bit of ProductPlacement for the companies that made them, but from an in-universe perspective, its very weird.

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