History YMMV / AceCombat

* MorePopularSpinoff: The ''Ace Combat'' series as it's known actually branched off of the ''Air Combat'' arcade games, with the first game being a [[ReformulatedGame reformulation]] with completely original content in an effort to entice [=PlayStation=] owners to buy it. The rest is history, and now only the most well-versed of arcade game fans even remember that the original ''Air Combat'' and ''Air Combat 22'' exist.

* ArcFatigue: The games since ''Electrosphere'' have suffered from the Myth Stall variation. The game set up an interesting story involving [[CorporateWarfare barely-disguised war]] between MegaCorp[=s=] and conspiracies surrounding them, the peacekeeping organization trying to keep them off each other, and another organization that turns out to be more than it seems. Later games had the implicit promise of exploring how Strangereal got to that point... a promise that was all but forgotten after just one game, when ''The Unsung War'' introduced the Belkan War and its aftermath and promptly had absolutely ''everything'' that has happened in the series since, even retroactively through remakes, have something to do with Belka's [[SoreLoser response to their loss]].

* CompleteMonster:
** ''[[VideoGame/AceCombatXSkiesOfDeception Skies of Deception]]'': [[BigBad Diego Gaspar Navarro]] is the [[InsaneAdmiral commanding officer]] of the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Democratic Republic of Leasath]]. [[WarForFunAndProfit Eager to build a new attack aircraft and strengthen the country's military]], Navarro stole the funds donated from Aurelia during a Leasathian civil war. He later persuaded Leasath into believing that Aurelia manipulated and took advantage of them during the civil war. When Leasath declared war on Aurelia, Navarro used all of the Leasathian military forces to annihilate most of the Aurelian forces, and even permitted them to attack civilian locations. After Aurelia gradually regains their independence and takes back their capital city, Navarro flees to a series of islands as Aurelian forces pursue him. He later launches the attack aircraft to destroy the Aurelian pursuers and broadcasts it to the public just to show off the aircraft's power.
** ''[[VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown Skies Unknown]]'': [[ArcVillain Matias Torres]] is the [[InsaneAdmiral Captain]] of the super-submarine ''Alicorn'', going rogue along with his crew during the events of the three {{DLC}} missions in order to seemingly put an end to the Lighthouse War with the nuclear massacre of a million lives, thus terrifying the world into putting down their weapons. That seemingly extreme-but-noble motive is [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist eventually proven false]] when Torres, at the command of an absurdly powerful boat and a fanatically loyal crew, reveals that for all of his posturing, he actually revels in the "elegance" of hitting a difficult target--in this case, the million lives he's about to butcher from 5,000 kilometers--over 3,100 miles--away--and has an almost fetishistic obsession with death. In fact, he'll even violate wartime conventions by [[ISurrenderSuckers feigning surrender]] just to gain time to fire his nukes, and if he's successful, he'll keep laughing maniacally and describe the act as "beautiful". On all accounts, Torres is a narcissistic madman who strives to inflate his ego through mass murder, and won't hesitate to sacrifice his crew for it; the devil incarnate, as one character would put it.

* DisappointingLastLevel: The US and EU release of ''Electrosphere'' suffers from this and EndingFatigue (for what little storyline there is... try wrapping your head around that one). The last 7 or so levels are still the same quality and design as the rest of the game, but each level keeps ending with "ToBeContinued", leading to the next level without a chance to switch planes or even save, and the player begins to wonder when it will finally end.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: A building that looks like The Twin Towers shows up in the Japanese release of ''Electrosphere'' and in Comberth Harbor (where you are leading the attack on Erusea's naval powers) of Ace Combat 04. Even worse, the one in Comberth Harbor was supposed to become engulfed in smoke as you destroyed the ships in the harbor.

* HilariousInHindsight: Consider who plays [[Creator/JohnnyYongBosch P.J.]] and [[Creator/YuriLowenthal Pixy]] in ''Ace Combat Zero''. Watch ''Anime/CodeGeass''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MNYruNnBzc Just watch]].
* MemeticMutation: {{Gag Sub}}s (unfortunately in Japanese) of the ''Zero'' trailer.
** Amongst other examples is the one combining VideoGame/TheIdolmaster and ''Ace Combat Zero''.
** "[[http://i.imgur.com/UNxWOVD.png Please understand.]]", usually accompanied by an image of Kazutoki Kono 'wryly smiling', became a minor meme in player's community after the series producer apologized for no-show of upcoming ''[[VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown Ace Combat 7]]'' content at E3 2016.
** “Those Belkans are at it again.” In reference to the endless wars and conflicts that have plagued Strangereal for two decades now, all because of the country of Belka
** “Belka did nothing wrong” a counterpoint to the above
** "Belkan Engineering/Belkan Witchcraft", due to the in-universe fame of Belkans being exceptional engineers and scientists (particularly those who worked in Gründer Industries) who managed to create many cutting-edge war machines and superweapons like nobody's business. This has been used as a joke in the fandom to refer to any weird display of physics-breaking maneuvers or GoodBadBugs in the games (which eventually includes non-AC flight games as well), citing that it's the Belkan engineering/witchcraft at work.
** The Ace Combat lore has recently become subject to this, due to its extreme complexity and depth compared to what most anybody would expect from an aircraft battle game.
* PlayerPunch: The games love reminding you that the enemy aces were people with friends and families before you killed them, particularly the death in ''[=AC4=]'' of [[spoiler:Yellow 4, who goes down in one shot because her plane was badly maintained]].
** While the punch in ''4'' comes more directly, the hardest goes to ''Zero,'' no contest: While each game usually features one hidden ace in each mission plus a few boss aces, ''Zero'' contains [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters 169 named enemy aces]], and each and every one leaves you with their unlocked biography after you shoot them down. While a good many of them are merely shot down rather than killed in action, seeing names, ages, and life stories attached to each and every MM/DD/1995 - OPERATION X: KILLED IN ACTION is ''devastating,'' especially given that hardly a single one of them could be framed as a villain in any way other than that they took off from a different air field that day. Well, aside from Schwarze squadron, the escapee killers.
** In ''Zero'', Mission 12 is bad enough as it is. If you played ''5'' though and paid attention to dates, you saw it coming. What you ''don't'' see coming is when [[spoiler:the wingman you had been flying with for every mission up to this point, Solo Wing Pixy, takes a shot at you and then deserts]]. That's one of the most personal betrayals in the entire series.
** ''Assault Horizon Legacy'' brings Edgar Grint, leader of the Albireo squadron known as the "Bird's Eye". [[spoiler:He takes up the challenge of facing Phoenix after hearing just how unbeatable he was, having taken the Lancer, Beast and Cocoon squadrons down. He puts up a massive challenge and when he goes down with his plane, his act is that of a GracefulLoser.]] The actual punch comes when you look at the profile you just unlocked: before he joined the Rebels, his original plan was to [[{{Retirony}} retire from the army, and he promised his wife he'd move to a village away from any air bases once the conflict was over]]. You can feel bad for him now.
** In ''Skies Unknown'', Mission 4 will hit veterans of the franchise hard when [[spoiler:former President Harling dies when his transport explodes... by a missile fired by ''you''.]]
*** Also, in the previous mission, [[spoiler:you know how Yellow 13 felt when he lost Yellow 4? Now it happens to ''you'', as Mihaly ambushes and shoots down [[KillTheCutie Brownie]], a young lady pilot who was flying back to base after her plane was damaged in the battle. It doesn't help that Brownie gradually undergoes an emotional breakdown as she realizes she's going to die, and is practically ''begging'' for someone to help her just before Mihaly shoots her down without mercy, and there's nothing you can do to stop it from happening.]]

* ThatOneBoss:
** Varies depending on the game. In general though it's one thing to realize that ''at least'' the solitary bosses in ''Zero'' and ''6'' are each flying a "superfighter" which is a GameBreaker once you acquire it yourself, but [[WeakButSkilled enemy ace pilots fly planes roughly equal to or inferior to yours better than you can]].
** The 8492 squadron after Fortress in ''5''. If you do decide to take them on then be prepared for undoubtedly the hardest part of the game, period.
** The Arkbird. It launches UAV drones that constantly spam missiles and you have to destroy targets on the large ship that are underneath it. Except one of the targets is located on the front of the plane where its fuselage gives it a great deal of cover. Oh, and you're under a strict time limit, you have to basically destroy most of the Arkbird before it leaves the map (and it starts close to half way across).
** Ofnir from the same game, primarily since you're forced to stay in the canyon, while they can go as high as they want. If you think to use the hyper-accurate [=SAAMs=], the Ofnir planes take more than one to shoot down unlike most other aces.
** [[VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation Ilya Pasternak]]. While he thankfully doesn't use the Nosferatu's ADMM all that much, dozens of super-agile UAVs will spawn with him, and both he and them can avoid missiles simply by accelerating. He's vulnerable only when he slows down to provide ESM for his drones, but within 5 or so seconds after that he'll jam your radar and fly so fast as to instantly vanish from the screen.
** Sulejmani from ''Joint Assault''. For most of the battle he has a rear mounted machine gun that can shot down missiles, forcing you to use the machine gun and once it's destroyed, you're still better off using the gun because he moves in ways in physics-defying ways that it's hard to focus and most of your missiles would miss anyway. All the while you're trying to avoid his missiles, which sometimes are being launched at point blank range.
** The [[spoiler:second]] battle with Markov in ''Assault Horizon''. Details are already on [[YMMV/AceCombatAssaultHorizon the relevant YMMV page.]]
* ThatOneLevel:
** Any level in the later parts of any of the games that required the player to fly into enclosed areas or shot them down if they flew above/below a certain height were usually reviled by players and often reviewers.
** Let's not forget the U2 level from ''04''. An utter crapshoot with a time limit.
*** The one where you have to escort two cargo planes at different altitudes was worse. For some reason, the pilot of the plane that hasn't been damaged won't climb down a few thousand feet, forcing you into a vertical climb when you have to defend that plane after defending the other one.
** "Four Horsemen" from ''5'': timing your attacks can be a bit tricky since Edge is counting down to target destruction, not firing, and missiles require time to fly. Also, this may be the only time in the series when it's important to fly at a specific speed (600 knots, give or take a bit). The [=PS2=] has analog controls so you can control the throttle, but players might not notice that feature.
** You think "Four Horsemen" is bad? Play Ace Combat X2's "Grand Flight". Let's see, you're flying an airliner in a canyon loaded to the teeth with defenses, and you have no escort whatsoever or any means of fighting back. If you make it through ''that'', then you have to survive an ambush. This one mission alone is worse than every other example in the Ace Combat series ''combined''. Although the matter can became much trivial in co-op if you come in with full set of teammates and let them clear a path ahead of you.
** Forget "Grand Flight", there's a mission in Ace Combat X that is even worse: '''''TIME LIMIT'''''. The mission in question is similar to Ace Combat 5's "Reprisal" in the sense you must stop the use of chemical weapons with a neutralizing agent. However, there's a nasty twist in this mission: go too fast or turn too hard, and the G-forces will explode the agent. You basically have to watch yourself with the speed and angles while being hounded by enemy fighters, which is considered to be the most frustrating mission in the game if not the entire series.

* UnderusedGameMechanic: The series is rife with examples of mechanics that are the centerpiece of a single installment and are then completely abandoned by later ones:
** ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'' had complex StoryBranching based on the player's gameplay inputs, such as following a certain plane or shooting down a specific target. In the few later games featuring branching plots, such choices are almost always explicit menus.
** ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' had an intricate wingman interaction system and a TechTree that unlocked more advanced versions of the starter planes. While both mechanics were slightly refined in ''ACZ'' and ''[[VideoGame/AceCombatXSkiesOfDeception ACX]]'', respectively, they have since been completely dropped, though ''Ace Combat 7'' did introduce an airplane tree similar to the Tech Tree.
** ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'' revolved around a KarmaMeter named "Ace Style", which dynamically determined the enemies you'd face and their dialogue depending on your conduct at the battlefield. It has never been used again. This game also introduced the idea of missions consisting of multiple operations. It was similar to the Operations System of ''Ace Combat 6'' (See below), except you chose which operation you wanted to do in a menu prior to the mission, then did just that operation, with the implication that certain operations happen before others, and you are merely choosing which strike team you wanted to be part of. This too did not return in future installments.
** ''VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation'' had the Operations System, where almost every mission consisted of several simultaneous sub-operations and you won if [[FractionalWinningCondition the majority of them were completed]]. It also let you build up a meter that calls in a massive spam of allied fire on whatever you have targeted. No later game reused the same system.
** ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizonLegacy'' had a meter build up whenever an enemy was chasing behind you that allowed you to instantly loop your plane behind them with the press of a button. The feature did not return for ''Infinity'' or ''7''.
* WinBackTheCrowd: After the infamy that was ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon'', the return to Strangereal for a full-fledged title in ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'' certainly has been winning hearts back.

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: The series insists, firmly and often, that WarIsHell. However, you play as an AcePilot, arguably the most glamorous combat role of all time, and frequent radio chatter indicates that your arrival on the battlefield singlehandedly restores friendly morale and causes enemies to panic. Also, as a FeaturelessProtagonist, you are spared the pathos-inducing family deaths that plague so many other characters. War is hell... for everyone else.

** With the Anime/{{Macross}}, Manga/Area88 and [[Literature/SentouYouseiYukikazs Yukikaze]] fandoms, naturally, due to the fact all four franchises feature [[CoolPlane cool fighters]] shooting stuff at each other.

* HilariousInHindsight: Consider who plays [[Creator/JohnnyYongBosch P.J.]] and [[Creator/YuriLowenthal Pixy]] in ''Ace Combat Zero''. Watch ''Anime/CodeGeass''.[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MNYruNnBzc Just watch]].
* JumpScare: In the three UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation}} games at least, the explosion of your plane when you crash or get shot down is EXTREMELY loud and can happen any second that you muck up, so it wouldn't be too surprising if it crapped you up at least once, especially since crashing in particular is usually [[OneHitKill deadly]].

** While the punch in ''4'' comes more directly, the hardest goes to ''Zero,'' no contest: While each game usually features one hidden ace in each mission plus a few boss aces, ''Zero'' contains [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters 169 named enemy aces]], and each and every one leaves you with their unlocked biography after you shoot them down. While a good many of them are merely shot down rather than killed in action, seeing names, ages, and life stories attached to each and every YY/ZZ/1995 - OPERATION X: KILLED IN ACTION is ''devastating,'' especially given that hardly a single one of them could be framed as a villain in any way other than that they took off from a different air field that day. Well, aside from Schwarze squadron, the Escapee Killers.

** In ''Zero'', Mission 12 is bad enough as it is. If you played ''5'' though and paid attention to dates, you saw it coming. What you ''don't'' see coming is when [[spoiler: the wingman you had been flying with for every mission up to this point, Solo Wing Pixy, takes a shot at you and then deserts]]. That's one of the most personal betrayals in the entire series.
** In ''Skies Unknown'', Mission 4 will hit veterans of the franchise hard when [[spoiler: former President Harling dies when his transport explodes... by a missile fired by ''you''.]]

* BrokenBase:
** The games' setting of Strangereal has been one of the more controversial aspects of the franchise for many reasons, with many claiming that the setting either scares off or turns off casual gamers while others say that it's the thing that makes the franchise unique, others feel that the setting is too vague and one needs to turn their suspension of disbelief while others feel that one just needs to pay more attention to the exposition given during briefings and gameplay.

** It took all of 10 minutes for the fan community to start tearing itself apart when the teaser for ''Assault Horizon'' was released.

** ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'': [[ArcVillain Matias Torres]] is the [[InsaneAdmiral Captain]] of the super-submarine ''Alicorn'', going rogue along with his crew during the events of the three {{DLC}} missions in order to seemingly put an end to the Lighthouse War with the nuclear massacre of a million lives, thus terrifying the world into putting down their weapons. That seemingly extreme-but-noble motive is [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist eventually proven false]] when Torres, at the command of an absurdly powerful boat and a fanatically loyal crew, reveals that for all of his posturing, he actually revels in the "elegance" of hitting a difficult target--in this case, the million lives he's about to butcher from 5,000 kilometers--over 3,100 miles--away--and has an almost fetishistic obsession with death. In fact, he'll even violate wartime conventions by [[ISurrenderSuckers feigning surrender]] just to gain time to fire his nukes, and if he's successful, he'll keep laughing maniacally and describe the act as "beautiful". On all accounts, Torres is a narcissistic madman who strives to inflate his ego through mass murder, and won't hesitate to sacrifice his crew for it; the devil incarnate, as one character would put it.

* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/AceCombatXSkiesOfDeception Diego Gaspar Navarro]] & [[YMMV/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown Matias Torres]]. See those pages for details.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: While the franchise is fairly popular in Japan, most of the Ace Combat fandom is predominantly Western, especially in the United States, where a lot of Americans that are into flight games love the series. It helps that the series is considered by many fans as a case of SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing, having a lot of great English dubs to the point where even the Japanese like to listen to the English voices, and the fact that almost every Ace Combat protagonist flies the F-22 or the F-15, ''the'' American MemeticBadass of the plane world, and even the protagonists like Scarface One, who originally canonically flew a Su-35 got retconned to flying an F-22, and the one other Ace Combat protagonist that swears by a different plane flies the F-14, which adds even more awesome points for Americans due to it being ''the'' Naval ''Film/TopGun'' plane.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: While the franchise is fairly popular in Japan, most of the Ace Combat fandom is predominantly Western, especially in the United States, where a lot of Americans that are into flight games love the series. It helps that the series is considered by many fans as a case of SuperlativeDubbing, having a lot of great English dubs to the point where even the Japanese like to listen to the English voices, and the fact that almost every Ace Combat protagonist flies the F-22 or the F-15, ''the'' American MemeticBadass of the plane world, and even the protagonists like Scarface One, who originally canonically flew a Su-35 got retconned to flying an F-22, and the one other Ace Combat protagonist that swears by a different plane flies the F-14, which adds even more awesome points for Americans due to it being ''the'' Naval ''Film/TopGun'' plane.

* SuperlativeDubbing: The games are praised for their high-quality English dubs, to the point where even Japanese players like to listen to the English version of the games.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: While the franchise is fairly popular in Japan, most of the Ace Combat fandom is predominantly Western, especially in the United States, where a lot of Americans that are into flight games love the series. It helps that almost every Ace Combat protagonist flies the F-22 or the F-15, ''the'' American MemeticBadass of the plane world, and even the protagonists like Scarface One, who originally canonically flew a Su-35 got retconned to flying an F-22, and the one other Ace Combat protagonist that swears by a different plane flies the F-14, which adds even more awesome points for Americans due to it being ''the'' Naval "Film/TopGun" plane.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Building that looks like The Twin Towers shows up in the Japanese release of ''Electrosphere'' and in Comberth Harbor (where you are leading the attack on Erusea's naval powers) of Ace Combat 4.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: While the franchise is fairly popular in Japan, most of the Ace Combat fandom is predominantly Western, especially in the United States, where a lot of Americans that are into flight games love the series. It helps that almost every Ace Combat protagonist flies the F-22 or the F-15, THE American MemeticBadass of the plane world, and even the protagonists like Scarface One, who originally canonocially flew a Su-35 got retconned to flying an F-22, and the one Ace Combat protagonist that doesn't fly the F-22 or the F-15 flies the f-14, which adds even MORE awesome points for Americans due to it being THE Naval "Film/TopGun" plane.

** The drones (and later UAV's) in ''6'' deserve mention for being ridiculously difficult to get a good missile launch on unless you're in a high maneuverability jet like the Su-33. The UAV's are worse in that they're only there to make the fight with Pasternak seem more hectic.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Americans love Ace Combat. A lot of Americans that are into flight games love Ace Combat. It helps that almost every Ace Combat protagonist flies the F-22 or the F-15, THE American MemeticBadass of the plane world, and even the protagonists like Scarface One, who originally canonocially flew a Su-35 got retconned to flying an F-22, and the one Ace Combat protagonist that doesn't fly the F-22 or the F-15 flies the f-14, which adds even MORE awesome points for Americans due to it being THE Naval "Film/TopGun" plane.

* BrokenBase: It took all of 10 minutes for the fan community to start tearing itself apart when the teaser for ''Assault Horizon'' was released.
** Forget Assault Horizon, do you like the real world setting or Strangereal?