- Well, this troper got the impression that the entire thing was the fulfillment of that legend, and the game not so subtly hints at it. For instance, Razgriz was a demon (Hated by Yuktobania, later by their own people) Cut down by a hallowed Sabre (The pilot who "killed" them had the call-sign Swordsman, and he was a very decorated and respected, thus hallowed, ace), And returned as a great hero (who literally saved a nation from a terrifying weapon). The events of the game match the legend so well that it can only BE fulfillment. So...This WMG is a bit redundant.
- No, the WMG is that the legend is literally true, as in, there is actually something supernatural going on. The symbolism is obvious and noted above to begin with.
- To me, the last section of Journey Home, I take the comment about the demons taking over the pilot's bodies to be accurate, because the fight turns into a slaughter, they become hyper competent.
- "Did the demons take them over?" Chilling. While never actually confirmed as fact it's highly implied Wardog is actually Razgriz.
- “When history witness a great change, Razgriz reveals itself.”
- “First, as a dark demon. As a demon, it uses its powers to rain death upon the land, and then it dies”.
- “However, after a period of slumber, Razgriz returns. This time, as a great hero”.
- Zero: the raid on Avalon.
- AC 2: destroying an SLBM to save St Ark, then destroying Fortress Intolerance to prevent a new World War involving Yuktobania.
- AC 4: Megalith, taken over by warmongers remaining in Erusea.
- AC 5: Essentially everything from Mission 20 onwards. As the game that introduced the concept of Razgriz, this is not surprising.
- AC 6: Destroying the Aigaion and leading the Emmerians to victory in the war to take back Gracemeria, eventually ending the conflict with the destruction of the Chandelier.
- AC 7: Destroying the ADF-11’s with Mihaly’s flight data before they could use that data to mass produce drones to keep the war going forever, a la Sky Crawlers.
Ace Combat Zero: In 1995 "Cipher" appears on the battle fields for the first time, Ustio sends the pilot into area B 7 R, and new records are set for combat efficiency and aces shot down. Entire Squadrons of elite pilots are shot down by "Cipher" operating virtually alone. The final operations of the war, the fight against A world with no Boundaries was virtually carried out by Cipher and a wing mate alone. Of note is the final operation, Operation Point Blank was the final battle between the Osean-Ustian allied forces, and the terrorist group known as the World With No Boundaries. This led to the climactic battle between the original Galm Team members "Cipher" and "Pixy". During the engagement, Cipher both piloted a plane into the dam itself for a strike, and won a duel with a experimental fighter so advanced it carried a Chemical Laser. No information about this pilot is known for sure, and "Pixie" never revealed even the gender of this pilot. Following the war "Cipher" disappears completely, leaving a combat record which many felt was inaccurate and inflated. Pilot Age:16
Ace Combat 5 The Unsung War: 2005 an Osean Air Defense Force (OADF) trainee named Blaze is stated to be on a training flight when most of its pilots are downed. Oddly the records for this "Trainee" show a combat efficiency higher then that of most Aces in the OADF. In the battles to come, Blaze out preforms any other pilot in all aspects of combat. It is the skilled strikes of Blaze which disable and destroy the two carers Scinfaxi and Hrimfaxi. As the war continued to drag on, a single Osean fighter unit the "War Dog Squadron", better known by the Yuktobanians as the "Demons of Razgriz"; had become the Osean military center of moral. This is the Squadron Blaze fly s in of course. The War Dog squadron were found to be spies and attempted to escape. They had escaped from Sand Island in Training aircraft, but were pursued by the Osean 8492nd Tactical Fighter Squadron. Though contact was lost, Marcus Snow of the 3rd Osean Fleet engaged and shot them down. They all failed to eject.
Though they lost their pillar of morale, the Osean military continued their fighting. During the fighting, rumors of an unknown Aircraft unit attacking targets in Belka began to circulate. Rumors began to circulate and speculations began. These rumors came into light when ships of the third Osean Fleet attempted to head to Yuktobania with someone claiming to be the Yuktobanian Prime Minister. When the 3rd Osean fleet was attacked four unknown Black Aircraft single handedly sunk an entire Yuktobanian fleet, along with an Osean fleet also attempting to sink them.The President of Osea had re-appeared in the capital of Oured and began ordering all Osean units to stand down immediately. He called upon the Yuktobanian Prime Minister and they met in downtown Oured for a special broadcast. During this broadcast, they unveiled the existence of another country being responsible for the war; engineering it from the start. This country was Belka. Both the Osean President and the Yuktobanian Prime Minister called upon their forces to halt their fighting against one another and silence the catalysts of the war.
With the combined Osean and Yuktobanian forces, along with the "Ghosts of Razgriz", in fact the War dog Squadron who where also the Unknown Aircraft. They attacked a facility in North Osea to stop the catalysts once and for all. As the facility fell, the SOLG, a large orbital cannon was used against them. Despite this, the catalysts were defeated. The SOLG was programmed to fall onto the Osean capital city of Oured. The "Ghosts of Razgriz" engaged the falling SOLG, along with eight aircraft from Belka and destroyed the SOLG before it hit Oured. The war finally came to a close and peace had returned to the countries of Osea and Yuktobania. The pilots known as the "Ghosts of Razgriz" disappeared after the war ended; they were never seen again. One thing to remember is that in addition to being the top scoring pilot, by far, in the best unit in the war, Blaze and only 3 squadron mates struck targets and devastated them, with Blaze far and away the best among them.Pilot Age:26
Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies: 2010 ISAF records fail to record where "Mobius-1" came from, or why this pilot was accorded first line priority for equipment. More over, this total unknown was trusted to operate without so much as a wingman. In each major operation of the war where Air Combat was expected Mobius 1 flew into battle alone, and accomplished as much, if not more, then the squadrons assigned the mission. The Decisive battles of the war, Stone Henge, Directus, The final operation against Megalith all featured prominent work by Mobius-1. By the midpoint of the war the record stood as a point of Morale warfare against ISAF's enemies "Theres a ribbon fighter above us, its the grim reaper!" Then after the war Mobius 1 vanishes into obscurity, all mail being handled by ISAF command itself. Until Operation Katina, when the ISAF intelligence branch lets out its "entire squadron" figure, and sends Mobius-1 in alone to crush the uprising. Once again, no information about who Mobius-1 actually is was ever released. Pilot Age:31
Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception: In 2020 A Large Leasath Bomber Group was launched in order to destroy one of the last Aurelian Air Bases. Aurelian Ace Gryphus One, also known as the "Southern Cross", whose records begin about a week before the first operation mentioned in this record. Was scrambled with an entire Aurelian Fighter Squadron and intercepted the bombers. After the Leasath Aircraft were shot down, the Gleipnir appeared on the battlefield and wiped out most of the Aurelian Aircraft. Gryphus One, who had destroyed the majority of the Bombers, avoided what should have been a totally unexpected attack, and attack form, with ease. The fact it was a massive mobile version of a Stone Henge Array cannon is significant On the next encounter with Gleipnir, Gryphus One engaged the Gleipnir every time it decloaked and managed to destroy its SWBM Launch Ports and heavily damage its Digital Optical Stealth system. Gryphus One alone drove off the preeminent super weapon of the time. Upon the next engagement over a repair base, Gryphus One attacked Gleipnir and managed to destroy all of its conventional defensive weaponry. As Gryphus 1 began to attack the Gleipnir's engines, the Gleipnir Captain implored his crew to use the Gleipnir's Shock Cannon (built facing straight-down and made for ground attacks) against the Southern Cross. The Shock Cannon was fired multiple times in desperation, but Gryphus One soon destroyed the Gleipnir's Shock Cannon and shot down the large aircraft, A single aircraft had driven off, then destroyed a super weapon. When Gryphus One and the Aurelian Forces reached the area of Archelon Fortress, they were attacked by the Alect Squadron, in an aircraft known as the 'Fenrir' equipped with Microwave Weaponry and Digital Optical Stealth. Gryphus One was attacked by the entire Alect Squadron at once and in an show of exemplary skill, destroyed the Alect Fenrirs. Diego Navarro then activated a reproduced version of the Shock Cannon seen on the Gleipnir and attacked the Aurelian Forces. Gryphus One destroyed the Shock Cannon, flew into the Archelon Fortress, destroying the Fenrir prototypes. Records concerning Gryphus One after the wars end note a curious set of facts. While the nations highest award for valor was handed out, it was to a call sign and not to a named individual, and the records state a date of retirement, but never an enlistment date. Gryphus One flew the most advanced aircraft of the day, equipped with a prototype COFFIN system. Pilot Age:41
- Possible AI status/probable use of advanced Computer support or Neural InterfacingAce Combat 3: Electrosphere: In 2040 Neucom's opening offensive on General Resource was the start of war between the two Conglomerates. As the UPEO scrambled to stop their attacks, General Resource had began to work along side them. Of these many units the UPEO's SARF (Special Armed Forces) unit was dispatched. The SARF was comprised of the Ace pilots: Rena-Hirose, Erich Jaeger and Fiona Chris Fitzgerald, whose sister is the NEU Ace Cynthia Bridgitte Fitzgerald and were supported by an A.I. known as Nemo. The SARF took on the task of multiple UPEO Operations through out the conflict. Nemo has no date of enlistment either, though a date of activation is listed, stated as a Transfer of system to current plane implying it was in a plane previously. Nemo was treated as a person in all respects, but the fact is the Nemo was a autonomous AI craft. To muddy the waters further, the other SARF pilots treated Nemo with the utmost respect, even before the first combat.When the R-808 returned from orbit with information on General Resource's newest weapon, known as the Orbital Satellite Laser (OSL). The R-808 was ambushed by waiting GRDF Forces, but the attack was repelled quickly. After analyzing the R-808's information, it was discovered that the OS Ls were nearly prepared to fire upon Neucom targets across the USEA. The NEU launched the R-352 Sepia space fighter, the only one of its kind at the time, into space on a daring intercept mission The Sepia managed to destroy the OSL before they became active and returned to base safely. This flight was the first combat space flight in the planet's history. Nemo became the first pilot to fight a combat in space.The Universal Peace Enforcement Organization had dispatched their SARF, during the middle of these recent events, when an emergency situation had arisen. Neucom's Nano-Technology Research Facility in Chopinburg suddenly had its Building/Construction Nano-Bytes experience a large problem and suddenly began to multiply. The SARF was attacked by the Nano-Bytes, but quickly neutralized them with Anti-Nano-Byte Weaponry.As the UPEO did it's best to stop the General Resource aggressions following these events, a report of a large UI-4052 Airship filled with Chemical Weaponry sent by an unknown terrorist group, was sighted over Axel Bay. The SARF had quickly taken care of the situation by destroying multiple large Smoke Stacks and a bridge, in the UI-4052's flight path, allowing it to make a water landing. But the origin of this attack was not yet confirmed. However, there was no time for UPEO HQ to fully investigate the situationNeucom Inc. attempted to gather it's forces at Mega float in an attempt to launch a large scale strike. The GRDF quickly launched operation 'Hit and Run' and destroyed the Neucom Forces, with only two aircraft, one of which was piloted by Nemo. Immediately afterwards, a General Resource attack was launched on Neucom's Port Edwards Facilities. The UPEO scrambled it's pilots to stop the large Air Battle which broke out over Port Edwards. The UPEO managed to stop the battle, but the city was badly damaged. Fighter Kills by Nemo in this battle echoed the great dogfights over B 7 R, Directus, and the fight with Alect squadron.Finally, the Ouroboros, a Revolutionary group, arose from the shadows and claimed responsibility for engineering the conflict between General Resource and Neucom Inc. It was also found that the UPEO Supreme Commander, Gilbet Park, was a part of the Ouroboros and had used the UPEO's SARF Team to attack falsely marked targets to continue the aggressions between GR and Neucom. The SARF broke away from the UPEO after this and moved to destroy the Ouroboros and Commander Park. Statements given later by the pilots contain mention of Nemo speaking up in outrage, but the pilots refuse to actually elaborate on this.After multiple engagements over Port Edwards, Expo City and Mega Float the Ouroboros were finally cornered at Mega Float. During the final battle Mega Float was destroyed by the Ouroboros, though at the cost of their entire Air and Naval Fleets, and their UI-4053 flying HQ. As their UI-4053 Sphynra fell into the waters near Mega float, two aircraft did escape and flew into the Geo front The AI Nemo had engaged one of these aircraft, the X-49 Night Raven, within the Geo front After two battles it was finally destroyed, though the Geo Front was lost. The second aircraft, the UI-4054 Aurora, was engaged near the Mega float destruction site and piloted by the defected GRDF-Ace Abyssal Dision.Nemo engages Abyssal Dision and after a large one-on-one air battle. The Aurora is damaged and it is found that Abyssal is a sublimated being(AI made via download of a human mind) and activates a program which brings himself and Nemo into the Electrosphere. The final battle is carried out in the Electrosphere, a feat, which was thought to be physically impossible to achieve. The battle ended with the destruction of the UI-4054 and the deletion of Abyssal Dision.In late 2045, near the end of the conflict Eight of Neucom's new XR-900 Geopelia, modeled after the X-49; lifted off from a Neucom Air Base and begin to attack Port Edwards. The General Resource Defense Force scrambled their best AI Ace Pilot, Nemo, to combat them. An extended engagement broke out and eventually resulted in the GRDF fighter to be hacked into by the XR-900s. The AI was connected to the controls of the XR-900 which had hacked into its aircraft and used the fighter to destroy the remaining Geopelia. Following this remarkable achievement, Nemo disappears with a combat record which is matched only by the legends of old, and the first combat in space.Pilot Age:61 AI Status.Given the time between operations, it is not impossible for "Cipher", Blaze, "Mobius-1" Gryphus One and Nemo to be, in fact, the same pilot. assuming that "Cipher" was 16 in 1995, the minimum age required for Mercenary pilots to be hired at the time, this would make "Blaze 26, Mobius 31 and Gryphus One 41 years old. Thus Cipherâ, Blaze, Mobius-1 Gryphus One and Nemo are the same being. Nemo is supposedly an AI, but naturally how such a revolution in AI was achieved is shrouded in mystery, Given that the only other AI was made via Download of a human mind into a advanced computer system, it is not unreasonable to propose that the UPEO pulled out the most deadly and experienced fighter pilot in history and Downloaded their mind into the AI Nemo.
- Wow. Just wow.
- Umm... slight chronology problem. First of all, 16 really is a little young for a competent fighter pilot, especially one who's hired by a mercenary. Even the most talented pilot takes a year or two of training to reach their peak. However, this is trivial, because we can just tack a few years onto all the other ages: a 43 year old fighter ace is at least plausible, especially if they have such a vast amount of combat experience.
- No, 16 is completely impractical. A more realistic approach would be to make his age 20 in the Belkan War, given his apparent skill at the time; he must have had SOME experience by then, IMO. In our world, in order to work for a PMC you need to have prior military experience. Granted, it might be different in Strangereal, of course. And it's not entirely unfeasible for combat pilots to continue service into their fifties; it happened in the Soviet Air Force for example. And given Mobius 1's impossibly phenomenal skill at his best years, it's not too much of a stretch to say that he manages to still stay at least a damn good pilot into his fifties. But at the very least, you'd think he'd try to settle down after the Circum-Pacific War when he gets that hot piece of ass Nagase. Maybe he's a fighter-pilot equivalent to James Bond, ey?
- Well, it didn't work for Shin Kazama, did it? Also, skill knows no age limit, (of course you need to have basic motor skills down pat first) but physical tolerance certainly does!
- Second of all, the events of Ace Combat 5 (Blaze) take place about five years after the events of Ace Combat 4 (Mobius One). That doesn't really matter, because we can just reverse the ages.
- Although that still raises a question. Cypher could disappear without anyone knowing where he'd gone after the war. So could Blaze. Cypher was a lone mercenary, not a member of a national military. Blaze was officially dead at the end of the war, even though he actually survived. But Mobius One might have more trouble doing that, because he was apparently not a mercenary. Also, one wonders why Blaze would have been stuck in a trainee squadron if he had a massive combat record as Mobius One and Cypher.
- There's one huge flaw in the reasoning, at least for 04. The assault on Megalith is carried out by Moebius Squadron, each member of which was suggested to be nearly as dangerous as Moebius 1.
- There's actually a fic that describes exactly that. Mobius 1, weary from all the fame and his rank as a two-star (Major General), crosses the ocean to join the Osean Air Defense Force as a nugget himself, hiding his true identity but having a harder time hiding his skill. (Oddly enough, Pops is somehow the only Osean protagonist to have watched a Usean documentary about Mobius One...) Eh... although the fic is more notable for telling the story of "if Ace Combat 04 and 5 adhered to fuel limits and had no Hyperspace Arsenal."
- Maybe Blaze isn't actually a semi-pacifist like the rest of the Razgriz. Maybe he's a homicidal maniac who happens to have found a way to murder thousands of people legally while gaining access to more and more powerful weapons to rain death upon pretty much everyone. After racking up a massive combat record as M1, the Osean military, not currently at war, stick him behind a desk. He gets really bored with not killing people, so he fakes his death and becomes a mercenary. Then he racks up an even more impressive combat record as Cypher. Business declines after that war, so he retires into obscurity. But It doesn't take long before his murderous urges get the better of him, so he joins back up with the Osean Military under a fake name, and can't believe his luck when a war breaks out almost immediately. He goes on to kill hundreds of people in that war, and this time he stays in the military after it ends. Unfortunately, no major wars break out for quite some time, so Blaze gets older and older, slowly losing his piloting skills. Just when it seems that he'll never again be the terror of the skies that keeps his enemies awake at night, the Military approaches him with an offer: Have his mind uploaded into a computer made for flying combat aircraft, thus giving him super-human piloting skills and the chance to once more rain death from above. Blaze jumps at the chance, and goes on to become the AI in AC3, allowing him to kill more people than he ever dreamed of before.
- AC Zero takes place before AC 04, so you'd have to switch Cypher and Mobius 1 up there.
- Umm... slight chronology problem. First of all, 16 really is a little young for a competent fighter pilot, especially one who's hired by a mercenary. Even the most talented pilot takes a year or two of training to reach their peak. However, this is trivial, because we can just tack a few years onto all the other ages: a 43 year old fighter ace is at least plausible, especially if they have such a vast amount of combat experience.
- Alternatively, Nemo is the Strangereal twin to EDI from Stealth.
- thatGuyOverThere inputs: Here's a thought; Galm-1[Cypher]->Scarface-1->Mobius-1; Wardog/Razgriz-1 [Blaze]->Garuda-1[Talisman]->Gryphus-1[S.Cross]; Mobius-1 + Gryphus-1 = NEMO
- In Real Life, most fighter pilots start to lose their edge some time in their thirties, and get promoted to squadron and wing command slots. We know that Cipher, the viewpoint character of Ace Combat Zero, was at the top of his game in 1995 during the Belkan War. Being a mercenary with great combat experience, it's easy to imagine him being hired to train fighter pilots by an aggressive military power like Erusea. Yellow Thirteen is a bit older than the rest of his squadron members, dedicated to training as many aces as possible, and somewhat warweary. All this fits in well with the idea that he has extensive combat experience well before his current role as of 2005. He also has the kind of massive kill record that most Ace Combat pilots are utterly incapable of winning. Perhaps Yellow 13 is Cypher, perhaps a little older and with the edge of his skills blunted slightly? That would help to explain why he's so feared by ISAF command.
- I've always wondered that myself. And imagine this: If Yellow 13 is Cypher, then maybe Mobius 1 is in fact Pixy. After all, Pixy DOES fight in the ISAF-Erusea war during that period, and during the interview scenes (I think the ending; I know it's present in one of the trailers), there's a short clip of a pigeon sitting on a flight helmet. Maybe that's Pixy's flight helmet, and he came to the front line during his down time to "think about the battlefield" like he does, no? He carries the AK to protect himself and all that. Would make an interesting tie-in plot, at least.
- Jossed by the game Cipher first appears in. The records of enemy aces you can shoot down CLEARLY lists Yellow 13 as a former Belkan pilot.
- "Detailed information about this pilot is unavailable" isn't "clearly". Considering an enemy ace with his paint scheme also shows up at the end of 5, I like to think it's more of an Easter Egg.
- Loses some credibility considering Yellow 13 boasted that he never lost a wingman in combat while Cypher lost PJ in Zero.
- Consider that it could very well the the other way around. Pixy always seemed the more merc-like of the duo, and despite the fact that he shot down PJ he still technically never lost a wingman. PJ was not his wingman. With that, Cipher became the ace with a heart, Mobius, and ruthless Pixy became an ace trainer for Erusia.
- Though there's a bit of an issue with that too: Pixy's interview is two months after Yellow 13 got shot down. Then again, 13 actually surviving that last battle would explain how Yellow 4's handkerchief wasn't just burning ash when those kids found it.
- Turns out that's not the case. Apparently, Aces at War: A History states that Pixy was fighting for ISAF in that war.
- I've always wondered that myself. And imagine this: If Yellow 13 is Cypher, then maybe Mobius 1 is in fact Pixy. After all, Pixy DOES fight in the ISAF-Erusea war during that period, and during the interview scenes (I think the ending; I know it's present in one of the trailers), there's a short clip of a pigeon sitting on a flight helmet. Maybe that's Pixy's flight helmet, and he came to the front line during his down time to "think about the battlefield" like he does, no? He carries the AK to protect himself and all that. Would make an interesting tie-in plot, at least.
- Very unlikely since Ace Combat 7 shows that Mihaly was 13's mentor.
- Strangereal's past century resembled Crimson Skies in look and feel, though obviously not actual politics; Zeppelins/Airships were common place, especially during Strangereal's World Wars I and II. Belkan technology themed on huge flying things like Hresvelgr and Aigaion are natural evolutions of this.
- Well, by the time of AC3, the Ouroboros is using Airships in their terrorist acts, so...
Now, Mobius 1 is described in Ace Combat 04 as being an "elite veteran," but Usea hasn't fought an actual war in ages, which is why they were so unprepared for the Erusean invasion. So, if Mobius 1 is a relatively new pilot for the Usean ISAF, how can he be an "elite veteran"? Keep in mind that the documentary about the Demon Lord doesn't hit the airwaves until 2005, one year after the events of Ace Combat 04, so if the Useans hired Cipher as a mercenary, all they'd know is that he was a qualified ace from back during the Belkan War: they wouldn't necessarily know he's the Demon Lord, as those records were classified. Further still, Pixy is IN Usea during the events of Ace Combat 04 when he's interviewed, and has apparently been looking for Cipher. As to why Cipher comes out of retirement, it could easily be explained as having run out of money, which is why he starts with such a crappy plane, compared to the cutting-edge ones he flew during the Belkan War.
There's more clues, too: for example, the standard paint scheme of Cipher's F-15 Eagle. Based on game art, the F-15 is Cipher's signature plane; in Ace Combat 04, Mobius 1's F-15 has a color scheme almost identical to that of Cipher's. Further, the loading-screen texts for Ace Combat Zero make frequent references to the nature of infinity, and the one for the final mission is an explicit reference to the concept of the Mobius strip; Mobius 1's emblem is a stylized infinity symbol designed to look like a Mobius strip. Further still, there's the callsign "Cipher," meaning "zero." In cryptography, a cipher is a code that takes the place of any decimal or number: a cipher is both everything and nothing, it's "infinite."
- Adding to this, there's the imagery of the flying white birds (don't know what specific bird) used in Ace Combat 04. During the final cutscene in Ace Combat Zero, as Cipher's plane lands, white feathers can be seen trailing his plane.
- Minor note: Usea has fought a war fairly recently, during the Usean Rebellion of 1998 (from the game Ace Combat 2). That doesn't mean that Mobius One couldn't really be Cipher, but it does mean that Mobius One could be a native-born Usean pilot with combat experience.
- Maybe Mobius One was mentored by the original Usean One Man Air Force, Scarface One. Or maybe he is also Scarface One, although this would lead to the question of why he was re-designated, or why they couldn't let him keep the XFA-27 from the endgame of 2.
- Loss of the XFA-27 is simple: Lack of spare parts. It doesn't actually re-appear until Ace Combat X.
- The timeline and events of 4 and Zero could explain why Mobius-1 always flies solo: he did not want to risk suffering betrayal (like with Pixy) or loss (like with PJ).
- Although there is the (admittedly non-canon) Optional Boss if you beat the Gauntlet fast enough in Zero. So you can't say we've never seen Cipher and Mobius One in the same place— they were shooting each other. Unless that was meant to be a hint.
- I'd just like to note that there's more than one jet with the same paint scheme in 04 and Zero, like the F-4 (Mobius 1's starting plane) and the F-15 S/MTD (developed from the F-15C).
Unfortunately, for all intents and purposes, this Twitter post
from Kono had finally shot down the theory that Cipher and Mobius 1 are the same person.
Alternatively, the Belkans in the Ace Combat universe are a defeated faction from the Nanoha Belka who chose to cut and run rather than be wiped out, and brought their technology with them. Mingling with the locals, their techno-magery contributed to the high ammo counts and various other technological advancements like the TLS. As they spread across the nations and time went by, though, their violent tendencies returned, leading to the international conflicts of Ace Combat.
- Well, damnit, Jossed.
- Jossed. Blaze, Phoenix, Bishop, and Trigger make physical appearances as humans.
, scroll down to 043. Axel Reichert retired from service in the Belkan Air Force after the war and now works for a small nation as a mercenary who suppresses Coup D'Etat movements. Hmm, I wonder who our hero from Ace Combat 2 who suppressed the Usean rebellion could be?- Extra support for this can come from their planes of choice being Russian: Axel flies a MiG-31 Foxhound, and Scarface One flies an Su-35 Super Flanker. And for that matter, Scarface One having previously been in the Belkan Air Force would explain how he's able to pretty much singlehandedly end the Usean rebellion.
- Even Mobius 1 can be there. Mobius's starting aircraft is a blue F-4. One of the named aces in Zero has an identical plane, and info says "no detailed information about this pilot is avaible". It must be either this, or Namco screwing with our minds.
Look what happens to these wingmen, for a moment. In AC04, the happily gabbing Mobius Squadron is whittled down to a single silent member, and the air forces at large continue to take heavy casualties in every significant engagement. In AC 5, Chopper, known for his penchant for chatter, is the only wingman to die in combat. Nagase, a close second to Chopper thanks to her unbridled love of soapboxes, suffers a heroic BSOD and narrowly escapes both death and capture. Grimm feels content to mention his family no more than three times, and, although he never suffers any plot-based injury, he is generally regarded as the weakest link of the squadron. In AC0, PJ remains tightlipped about his significant other despite constant prodding by his colleagues, and manages to keep up with the era's greatest ace pilot. The moment he explicates his affection, he is brutally slaughtered. And in AC6, Shamrock constantly motivates himself through his hardships with talk of his adorable wife and daughter- who both end up dead, a state of affairs he will have to deal with from a wheelchair. You might be forgiven for thinking this is all coincidental, rather than a pattern.
But to recognize a pattern is to prepare oneself to avoid it, and the greatest pilots in the series must have realized this trend on some level. It's not particularly clear whether their preternatural skills helped them intuit and enforce a code of silence for their own safety, or if the reverse is true- that knowing to shut up and keep your face low would transfigure them into invulnerable heroes! But what is clear is this: Mobius 1, Blaze, Cipher and Talisman, were never shot down, never made a face-heel turn, were incomparable even within their own elite units, and led their units to determining the outcomes of four different wars- that we know of. They knew that drama and fate were real, living, and vindictive forces in the world of Strangereal, and they rode that superstition to the edge of space, and back to earth, safely.
They probably weren't doing it for themselves, either; no one alive that wanted that level of skill or renown for its own sake could ever keep their jaw shut long enough to attain it! I think it's safe to say that they had seen what became of the prolix: they become ashes. And so do their loved ones. These four aces may well have their own individual motivations for ending up in the cockpit- duty, money, prior military commitment- but at the end of the day, I'm sure they just wanted to make it home alive! And to an intact home with a living family! In fact, the very history of Strangereal would seem to confirm this: how the hell did the entire planet manage to develop such a fantastic over-reliance on air and space power and maintain such supernaturally-skilled air corps unless, after a solid century of worldwide warfare, the heroic silent aces simply began to out-breed the Choppers and Shamrocks of their respective wars? Especially if this morbid ritual has been going on since Belka first revolutionized air combat in the early 1900's?
Strangereal is an odd place. Technologies we can barely produce on any scale or in any number are all but commonplace by 2010, in a world where a nation's armies might flee in terror of the retribution of the ghosts of four demons. It is not at all difficult for me to believe that, for the soldiers and citizens of such a world, maybe a little genre savviness could be a mightier weapon than any railgun or sky fortress, a weapon made all the mightier for the world's apparent blindness to it, much to the detriment of its citizens... and to players weary of Nagase's constant moralizing.
- ... Wow.
- I smell an awesome Deconstruction Fic from that vein.
- It gets easier if you notice the pattern to the names currently known. "Joint Assault" is definitely a word one could use in a military setting. "Assault Horizon" makes less sense, but still works considering it's Ace Combat. Whatever the third one will be will probably be nonsensical.
- Nope, next game is just called Ace Combat Infinity.
- Kind of Jossed. Word of God says that the move to real world was to make the series more accessible to newcomers, since the Strangereal timeline has started getting rather convoluted.
- Maybe possible, as the new announced game, Ace Combat Infinity, incorporates many materials from Strangereal, Ace Combat 04 and 6 in particular.
- Kind of Confirmed due to the presence of the new Ace Combat Infinity.
- Cypher is Mobius 1 and subsequently the base for Nemo's AI, his identity was kept a secret after the war due to the cover up after the war, he was enlisted into the ISAF with a new identity and callsign, which would explain why no one seems to notice the freaking Red Baron is flying with them until he takes on a whole army by himself. Which would make it painfully ironic if Pixy was Yellow 13.
- Jossed. Mobius 1 was a regular Usean dude who joined ISAF after an Erusean bombing killed his family.
- What? No he isn't. The guy whose family got killed was the narrator kid, and it wasn't a bombing, it was just some downed fighter nailing their house. Nothing is known about Mobius 1's past other than that Mobius 1 is a male and that there's a good chance he was a Federation of Central Usea naval pilot before ISAF (his first appearance is him taking off from a carrier that Acepedia says is operated by the FCU).
- Jossed. Mobius 1 was a regular Usean dude who joined ISAF after an Erusean bombing killed his family.
- Alternatively, The Ace is a Time Lord, and each of the pilots is a different regeneration, explaining why no one ever notices it's the same person each time. Don't look at me like that; you knew it was coming.
- Jossed; according to the official timeline, the Usean Rebellion takes place after the asteroid's existence is a known fact, but before it actually hits.
- Throughout the game you play as Blaze, and Edge is simply obsessed with you. He's portrayed as being a male pilot, however what if the person playing is female? Aha, Edge is also obsessed with Bartlett, so she ends up with him instead.
- Except Bartlett already has a woman he's obsessed with in turn — remember his old flame from Yuktobania, who helps him (and Razgriz Squadron foil the Belkan conspiracy)? So the true lesson to be learned here is that in Strangereal, All Love Is Unrequited.
- For something originally intended to shoot at a massive asteroid, Stonehenge seems to have been adapted into an uber-AA gun rather quickly. Unlike Chandelier and Megalith, it was already finished by the time the war it was used in rolled around, and so it ought to have taken immense amounts of time and resources to convert it into a weapon — unless that capability was built into it from the start. The obvious corollary is, of course, that Stonehenge was designed by exiled Belkan scientists, whose compatriots also managed to gain sway over the Erusean government much as would later happen in Osea and Yuktobania five years later.
- Just want to point that Megalith actually was finished before the war started - it was operational by the time Ulysses arrived and shot down most of the asteroid fragments that were headed for Erusea specifically. The bit where they were rushing to get it operational to use it as a superweapon before the war ended was because it was completely abandoned immediately afterwards. And in hindsight, it seems like every anti-Ulysses defense created was ridiculously easy to turn into a superweapon - the aforementioned Megalith and Chandelier, the rebellion from 2 and Assault Horizon Legacy was apparently going to use a laser weapon taken from the Comona Islands (though this one was destroyed by the player, in the mission where you're looking for the XB-10 prototype) and got their hands on the Megalith-esque "Fortress Intolerance", and the Arkbird had another set of lasers designed for destroying the remaining fragments still in geosynchronous orbit. Going by your theory, though, it could be safe to say that this was because the Belkans had a hand in all of them - it's confirmed that some ex-Belkan scientists and/or pilots emigrated as far as the Anean continent (Estovakia's P-1112 Aigaion was made using design details from the XB-0), and given how heavily the Belkan War resembles the real World War II it wouldn't surprise me if everyone was trying to get their hands on as many Belkan scientists as they could after the war.
- Project Aces has announced a new Ace Combat game, it's called Infinity, and by the looks of it, it took place in the real world, but there's an asteroid that impacted somewhere in eastern US. I'll leave you the details, but in the teaser trailer, I've seen something that looks very similar to Stonehenge, as well as the Heavy Command Cruiser Aigaion. There are two possibilities; One, the impact from the asteroid brings the real world into a new age of aerial warfare similar to those in Strangereal setting. Or the impact from the asteroid itself causing some sort of a phenomenon that linked the real world and Strangereal together, hence the name Infinity. The tagline in the teaser also said 'That day when our sky fell, the heavens split to create new skies.' I took the part 'heavens split to create new skies' as the two worlds being connected to each other, and maybe that's why there are mentions of Stonehenge and Aigaion. AND it's called Ace Combat: Infinity! So why not? Let's throw all the best things Ace Combat has to offer into one game!
- Doesn't seem to be the case based off of the beta. Infinity is simply one huge Mythology Gag to the Strangereal universe.
- A popular theory for numerous characters, but exactly how else do you explain her popping up all over the place? A NATO pilot, mercenary, member of the 19th Task Force and writes a blog on Ace Combat in her spare time in the space of just one or two games.
- Hence why they keep using the phrase "Dance with the Angels" ad nauseam. Not quite Church Militant levels, but spiritual compared to the rest of Strangereal. Having the Golden King as a Crystal Dragon Jesus and the way they talk about taking back Gracemeria helps that image too.
- "Go dance with the angels" has nothing spiritual as it's just an in-game meme that evolved into a Catchphrase to express the anti-Estovakian occupation sentiment in Emmeria. The Golden King fits better even if he is more inspired by King Arthur than anything.
- Lost Butterfly has the voice of a child, and Viper's the only character who says he has a family. He requested leave after facing the idea of having to shoot down his daughter. Perhaps he'll also take on the role of the Butterfly in a later campaign mission.
- First is Warwolf and Wardog. Aside from the name, both squadrons have four planes, serve the US/Osea and saved the Russian/Yuktobanian Prime Minister. Not just that, Guts or Warwolf 2 saves Bishop by taking Markov's missile. Remember Edge's lind about how she was not going to lose another flight lead? Bishop himself had participated in a previous war as his nightmare at the beginning reveals. The Circum-Pacific War for Blaze? Second is the rebels. The events of 5 were started by overly hostile elements in both nations' governments taking over, albeit with support from the Gray Men. But as the Gray Men themselves have shown, one defeat did not stop them. The NRF could have been remnants of the warmongering government from 5. Thirdly, the nightmares Bishop has. While this may be a stretch, 5 had some focus on how Wardog were being run into the ground with constant sorties and Wardog themselves show some signs of battle fatigue as the game goes on. While I have no idea why at least Blaze and Nagase would reenlist after that, maybe they didn't feel like they belong outside the battlefield anymore or something, but Bishop's nightmares could be an extension of said battle fatigue and some more.This will also explain why you only hear of Bishop's involvement in Iraq in the nightmare. Next, Trinity, with its large radius and relatively compact size is reminiscent of the MPBM which is a shrunken Burst Missile. Maybe they are related? Next, both games have a green color scheme.
- This is what I think might have happened: It is some time after 2020, after President Harling released the records pertaining to the Razgriz. The Razgriz themselves are back in the OADF, working together with Strangereal's version of NATO (maybe Osea, Yuktobania, Emmeria and ISAF?). But within Yuktobania, the NYF is working towards an armed coup, and with them is Andrei Markov, whom had lost his wife in Osea's attack on Cinigrad all those years ago. Swearing vengeance on not just Osea as a whole, but particularly against Wardog/Razgriz for turning the tide against them. Maybe it was to be called Ace Combat 5: Assault Horizon?
- That would probably be the best way to acknowledge it without having the pre-AH fandom frothing at the mouth. A possible variation would be if the game goes into DFM at another crucial moment much earlier in the game (for example, the chase scene near the Lighthouse seen in the trailer, assuming something similar plays out in the game proper), only for the player to miss (because it's a scripted event), allowing their target to get away and make a mess of things later on. All traces of Close-Range Assault disappear from AC7 after that point—until the very end of the game, that is.
- No, it didn't happen. Dogfight mode was not available. Instead, we get post-stall maneuvers.
Besides, you would think that various world militaries would realize that their planes (or rather, the higher-end ones flown by the aces) should be equipped with defensive countermeasures like radar jammers and flares in addition to more specialized munitions. In fact, it'd make the most sense for flares to be standard for every type of plane and mapped to a click of the left analog stick, like in Assault Horizon, with the plasma-based SICS of X2/Joint Assault as either an upgrade or separate special weapon for specific aircraft.
Project Aces could even make it so that there's a pool of "general" sub-weapons usable by all planes (ex. HCAA, HVAA, 4AAM, 4AGM, LASM, UGB, GPB, RKTL, etc.; Bombers—and Piston Fighters, should they return from Joint Assault, Assault Horizon Legacy, and Infinity—would have their own set of special weapons barring ECM), with more effective and/or notorious weapons (ex. HPAA, QAAM, 6AAM, XMAA, LAGM, LACM, FAEB, SFFS, SOD, etc.) only being made available to better planes and the superplanes having their own signature weapons (like the CFA-44 Nosferatu's ADMM and EML or the aforementioned set for the ADFX-01/ADFX-02). This would undoubtedly foster the use of particular plane setups, but the overhauled system itself would at least give the player greater freedom when it comes to picking aircraft for missions since they wouldn't be burdened by an otherwise effective plane that has a terrible selection of special weapons.
- Jossed. The special weapon system remains the same from previous games. Also, playable bombers and piston fighters do not return in Skies Unknown.
- Jossed. No mention is made of the Emmeria-Estovakia war.
- Course there will, Edge, Kei Nagase. Only question is what type of personality will she have?
- Nagase does appear quickly at the end, having become an astronaut. But she doesn't interact with the player except for thanking him for securing the Lighthouse so her spaceship can dock.
- Perhaps the war would be so much of a toll on Osea and Erusia, that General Resource and Neucom can finally start making their moves and become dominant military forces in their own right.
- Jossed. Erusea started the war over somewhat legitimate concerns about the violation of their sovereignty by Osea. The Lighthouse's construction, backed by Osea, caused Selatapura and the Gunther Peninsula, which the Eruseans claims as their rightful territory, to claim independance. The princess of Erusea added fuel to the fire by adopting an agressive stance towards Osea and using Grunder Industries's drone technology (which can be attributed to yet another attempt at revenge by Belkan nationalists) to fuel the conflict. Things went belly-up when radical Eruseans caused the conflict to derail by murdering Harling, causing a worldwide blackout in communications and (accidentaly) allowing the drones to have another plan in mind. However, Grunder Industries may be the ancestor of, or one of the companies merged into, General Resource, so this would be a good opportunity for Neucom and GR to make their move, as stated above...
- Partially right, actually. While yeah, the Lighthouse War itself had nothing to do with General Resource or Neucom, in the DLC missions, Rage and Scream (the two rabid insane mercenaries who show up out of nowhere and get deleted by Trigger) actually work for General Resource's GR Guardian Mercenaries division.
- We already know Edge is up there, and you can't just break up the True Companions and/or Implied Love Interest like that. At the very least Blaze has to be up there serving as copilot or escort to Pilgrim One.
- Either the story of a Belkan player character (flying for his⁄her country or the IUN) who, while being tangled in yet another war, will finally put an end to the endless scheming of his⁄her compatriots to try to avenge their country for their defeat in a war Belka started itself. Either by dealing with the Grey Men once and for all, or by giving them the means to accomplish their goal of turning Belka into the superpower it once was.
- Or another pilot already under orders from General Resource or Neucom (GR has already a military college active, with Abyssal Dision, himself born after the Belkan War, graduating from it in 2018 ; meanwhile, Neucom planes have been used in the Aurelia-Leasath war) who will either help the IUN (or the UPEO, depending if the corporations already gained power or not) or simply protect it's company, helping it grow and putting the world in the hands of corporations in the process, or simply stopping the first real corporate conflict as a member of the UPEO.
Now before I'm dismissed as just spelling out my fantastic hopes, let's look at the facts: One may think, "well they're more likely to just remake Electrosphere, right? It is getting rather close to when the current line of games catch up to it." And one is not wrong, but...well...the issue with that is that Kazutoki Kono himself said that remaking the entire AC3 game (which, mind you, has 53 missions and a branching storyline with five endings and more mission choices than you can shake a Sidewinder at, at least in the Japanese version, but we're not going there) would be an absolutely massive undertaking, something that would be more difficult than remaking AC4, AC5, and AC0 combined. Mind you, for the sake of not killing any dreams, it could be possible, especially with the release of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown proving that Project Aces has Still Got It even after more than 10 years between direct sequels. But I'm digressing: this isn't about killing dreams, its about discussing the possibility of the next game being in a Pre-Atomic Age Strangereal.
So, back to the matter at hand: Innocent Aces proved that an Ace Combat-style game works even without modern technology. And Project Aces themselves already proved that they can model prop planes in Ace Combat itself fairly decently, though they're borderline Joke Planes considering the tech gap. But what if they weren't outdated? What if there were no missiles to fire and forget, no missile warning alarms going off in your ear, no chemical lasers or drones that dance around you and turn you into so much North Point Cheese? Just you and some radio chatter to keep you company as you unload your machine guns against a hapless opponent, tearing through turns and trying to avoid flak and whatever Wunderwaffe-esque weapons the bad guys have cooked up to get in your way...perhaps not a chronological sequel, but Project Aces has shown that they enjoy skipping the timelines around, so who knows when and where the next game will be?
- Strangereal has known more than enough conflicts to make this idea hold water; the earliest conflict involving planes happened in 1905 in Strangereal, but Project Aces is not above adding another conflict here and there for the sake of the game. The only main issue with this would be the reliance on machine guns and unguided rockets in order to fight, which might be somewhat repellent for players used to Ace Combat style fights involving barrels of missiles though other games such as World of Warplanes and War Thunder handle it well. And it would be very funny to see an end-game plane from the era (let's say a Me-262) fly with the same agility than a Su-37, reversing the Ace Combat 3 situation where the Typhoon, reputed for his mobility, has the grace of a brick due to being a starter plane.
- This seems pretty unlikely, since Project Aces has mentioned there is a strong chance of planes like the Chengdu J-20 and BAE Tempest appearing in something down the line. Unless they for some reason meant the J-5 (a Mi G-15 produced in China) and the Hawker Tempest, they wouldn't have mentioned it.
- Jossed for two reasons. First, the official Ace Combat 5 website lists Genette as 32 years old at the time of the Circum-Pacific War. Second, while their voices are similar, Zero is narrated by another journalist (Brett Thompson).
Strangereal's version of Assault Horizon (which came out in 2011 and was set during 2015) probably set during a conflict heavily resembling the Circum-Pacific War between Osea and Yuktobania and suffered from the similarities (albeit likely without properly guessing Belka's involvement) with retroactive backlash. The actual story counterpart of Assault Horizon was probably their version of 5.
Their "Joint Assault" story probably was the counterpart of Zero - lots of crazy even by their standards superweapons, being a mercenary, and an insurance fraud plot? Probably about as "crazy" to them as a nuclear-armed anarchist organization is to us.
- Would that make Assault Horizon Legacy the Strangereal version of Assault Horizon, then? Taking the fictional (to them) "Earth" setting back to Strangereal, but keeping the "arcade" controls?
- If you mean the counterpart of Infinity, perhaps, but it would probably more so involve "Realstrange" (i.e. Our Earth) concepts being ported into Strangereal as opposed to the inverse of Infinity being Strangereal components on an alternate history earth. Perhaps their Infinity, instead of having Ulysses-but-worse, ports over concepts such as superpowers too powerful to fight each other directly and having to sponsor proxy conflicts into which the Oseans and Yuktobanians back a war between rebels and government forces (and keeping in how no conflict is one to one with IRL conflicts, it might well be Yke-backed rebels against Osean-backed states, albeit given obviously made up names.) The actual "Assault Horizon" counterpart would be them just setting a game in a mildly fictionalized Strangereal, perhaps 'reversed' in roles (i.e. Warwolf is Yuke and the NRF counterpart are Oseans) or without a direct counterpart (i.e. set in Belka or Usea.)
- In that case, all the "Realstrange" games are probably based on real (to us, not them) conflicts: The Belkan War is World War II, The Unsung War probably deals with the War on Terror instead of a Russia-US conflict, Fires of Liberation is the Russo-Ukrainian conflict and so on...
There's a few explanations, which themselves draw from history. The first is, to Belka's "Germany", Yuktobania borders a country that would act as the Japan or Italy (or a pragmatic hybrid of the two, culturally leaning towards the Italians but in terms of capacity leaning towards the Japanese), who declared on the Yukes on the condition that the Belkans also did so. Belka, feeling particularly bigheaded at this moment in time, did so, and also pulled in this unnamed other country into the war. Cue a hybrid Pacific War and Eastern Front as the Yukes fight this other country (albeit probably more leaning on a Great Patrotic War counterpart that happened to involve island hopping somehow).
The second is a Zimmerman Telegram counterpart. Belka offered assistance to a country threatened by the Yukes, and the offer was intercepted by the Yukes themselves. Incensed, the Yuke government uses this as justification to declare war on Belka, and one-up the Oseans in the war without actually fighting the Oseans head to head (the Oseans being a military powerhouse to rival the Yukes of course).
- Well, my guess is, and this makes the most sense when you think about it; Yuktobania probably joined in just to get a chance to grab something at the negotiations; more than likely a chance to acquire advanced Belkan technology.
- That would be a hard sell to the Yuktobanian citizenry; it would be in their interest to let Osea expend itself fighting the Belkans. However it's also possible this was also purely to curtail the threat of a rogue nuclear power - since both Osea and Yuktobania had (and as of 7, continue to maintain) a nuclear arsenal. Yuktobania would probably be significantly more concerned if, instead of the liberal democratic Osea, the ultranationalist Belka was the dominant power on that continent. Alternatively, the Yukes were Trotskyites until the nukes, and were more forward about the idea of a World's Revolution.
- One way to pull this off could be to say that the events of the original Ace Combat 3 happened... that is, the simulation happened, but the Nemo we played as wasn't fully deleted, instead finding a way to escape into the real Electrosphere with some of its memory intact, and searching for a way to stop Cohen from unleashing the war it had accidentally helped him start.
Alternatively, given that Kantaris Organization was secretly funded by the Kingdom of Sapin or someone else, Kantaris herself managed to survive VSSE's onslaught, and continues selling weapons to literally every nation from Osea, Usea, Belka, Yuktobania, Emmeria, Estovakia to Sercia, Caruba, Lukano and Zagorias.
- That would mean, Wild Dog and his organization are Belkans (yes, Wild Fang's Animal Motifs also go well with Belkans), and they're just going to assist many conflicts whenever they wish. Wild Dog at one point was involved in Belkan War, so he would be The Ace when it comes to countering VSSE whose their Strangereal location was never disclosed otherwise.
- Since Kantaris doesn't appear again after the first Time Crisis and its Project Titan sequel, Project Aces could use her organization to expand their plots. No later Time Crisis games shed light on them, so Ace Combat could use this opportunity.
- Doubtfully so regarding Sercia, Caruba etc., considering they are fan-made nations, not official. Just saying.
- For example, Cohen might mention that the basis for Nemo was pulled from an unknown aircraft found crashed near Gunther Bay.
- One of your wingmen may bring up the fact that every single war since 1995 has seen an ace of aces (an unofficial title for a country's top ace) appear to lead their side to victory.
- Or Erich could recall a story from the days of the Lighthouse War his father told him when he was a kid.
- Bonus points if the Verusa MegaCorp is an Expy of Gazprom, and the Osean is based on Lockheed Martin.
