YMMV / Project Wingman

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Crimson 1:
    • Did he truly believe that he was doing the right thing, and that joining the Federation would be good for Cascadia? Or was he deluding himself by refusing to acknowledge his and the Federation’s wrongdoings, and simply trying to shift the blame onto Monarch/Hitman 1?
    • What was the meaning of his final words for Monarch to remember him? Was it a warning to Monarch that he will continue to haunt him for the rest of his days? Or did Crimson, in a moment of lucidity, realize that he had gone too far in his obsession with Monarch by leveling Presidia, and wants Monarch to remember him as the proud ace he was before he descended into madness?
    • Was him saying the his commanders now viewed him as their solution just him being delusional, or did the Peacekeeper commanders actually send him? If they did, did they actually want him to level Presidia in spite of the peace treaty, meaning they were acting against orders, or did he go rogue and act against their orders? After all, it isn't like a squadron commander can just walk up and take an experimental fighter jet armed with weapons of mass destruction.
    • The release of Frontline 59 implies that Crimson goes into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge due to Cascadia's aggression on Federation territories.
    • Cut dialogue in Frontline 59 shows that Crimson 1 served together with Faust in the Oceania War, and they committed their fair share of atrocities during that conflict, suggesting that the Crimson 1 of today is already no stranger to committing war crimes.
  • Was Kaiser’s motivation for wanting to fight the Federation simply to earn a place in the history books, or was it for a much more personal vendetta?
• Awesome Music:
  • "Peacekeeper I", Crimson Squadron's oppressive and harrowing theme, combines electronics with a mix of Ominous Pipe Organ, bells and melancholic cellos, creating an air superiority that goes hand in hand with said squadron's general arrogance. It is also a Dark Reprise of the game's main motif, highlighting Hitman's desperate struggle to either engage them against all odds, or flee from the operation zone before they overtake you.
  • "Eminent Domain" features the game's secondary leitmotif emerging from a sea of percussions. Considering you're fighting to meet up with the eponymous ship amidst a thunderstorm, it's certainly fitting.
  • "Showdown" features a bombastic orchestra backed by fast-paced setpieces from the glockenspiel, synths and electric guitar, turning it into an epic piece for the Bering Strait furball that wouldn't be out of place in a mecha anime. The devs noticed it too; on Mercenary difficulty, an anime-style logo inspired by Macross will appear on the screen.
  • "Midnight Light", an unexpectedly chill and catchy track to accompany the night raid against the Federation sea platforms.
  • "Valkyrie's Call" weighs down the game's secondary leitmotif and adds electric guitar riffs to the mix, turning it into an all-business piece worthy of Sicario's raid on the Federation's base on Sawaiiki.
  • “Consequence of Power” starts with an almost foreboding sense of dread in its opening notes before intensifying as the Federation launches Cordium-tipped missiles at the city of Prospero. Perfectly capturing the scale of the catastrophe that is about to unfold, and how powerless Hitman Team are to stop it.
  • "Peacekeeper II" features a more frantic violin play than "Peacekeeper I" as Crimson Squadron engages you one last time over Prospero's ruins, determined to settle things with you right there and then. Unlike the first theme, this one's cello play is longer and more tragic, highlighting the height of emotions displayed by both sides of the conflict over the fallout of who is to blame for Cascadia's devastation.
  • "Presidia", the background music for the penultimate mission, is Project Wingman's equivalent of Ace Combat 6's "LIBERATION OF GRACEMARIA", with various orchestral and electronic bouts battling it out before they all give way to the game's complete leitmotif at 3:07, signifying the definite end of the Federation's grasp on Cascadia as you liberate its capital city and soul.
  • "Kings", an intense and dramatic orchestral track that perfectly fits the final battle between Monarch and Crimson 1 above the burning ruins of Presidia. May 2022 saw a Live Orchestra version of "Kings" being released officially, and it replaces all the virtual instruments in the original piece with a real orchestra, injecting greater depth and impact.
  • "Coronation.". After finally defeating Crimson 1, Monarch is "crowned" king of the skies by his fallen opponent as he flies above the burning, cordium-saturated wasteland that was once Presidia while this sad, somber piece plays. Thousands of lives taken or broken in the blink of an eye, just to poison the victory of Monarch. Then, as the last notes drop, the final screen appears: "Cascadia is in ruins... The war has been won. The deal will be honored.". Everybody in Sicario gets what they were promised and can start again, but at what cost?
  • The ending credits features two pieces that loop with each other: "End Credits", a solemn summation of the game's leitmotif that combines electronics with orchestra; the track becomes more meaningful when you complete the final mission on Mercenary difficulty, after which you are treated to additional dialogue during the credits roll confirming the fates of your mercenary team. Then comes "Landing", a Lonely Piano Piece rendition of the main theme that's bound to bring tears to your eyes after all the whammy that happened in the final stages of the game.
  • The fourth mission of Frontline 59 features "Redline", a jazzy tune that perfectly scores a daring flight through an underground highway tunnel.
  • The final mission of Frontline 59 brings us "Descendants", an epic piece with a One-Woman Wail and a guitar solo by Vincent Moretto, accompanying fight against CDS Roosevelt and General Faust.
• Best Level Ever:
  • Mission 11 "Cold War" is the game’s air-to-air furball mission and it does not disappoint, as you engage dozens upon dozens of Federation fighters while rallying the beleaguered Cascadians to victory. All set to a surprisingly upbeat track and culminating with your first rematch against Crimson Squadron where you send the elite of the Federation Air Force running. By the end of it, Monarch has become The Dreaded in the eyes of the Federation's military forces, and a hero of the rebellion. This mission becomes even better if you turn on "Double Time" modifier; there's so many aircraft on screen that the framerate can actually drop. If you survive, you will have shot down 100+ enemy aircraft.
  • Mission 13 "Valkyrie's Call" takes a page from Skies Unknown's "Anchorhead Raid", sending you on a rampage against a massive moored fleet of naval and aerial warships. By the end of it all, you'll likely be racking up one of the highest payouts in a single mission.
  • Mission 19 "Red Sea". The big naval fleet battle. To prevent the Cascadians from taking back the captial, the Federation tries to put up a blockade to prevent you from entering. You show the Federation fleet why people don't mess with you by blowing their entire fleet to smithereens. The pumping music and fighting with Captain Woodward and Kaiser's return, the mission provides lots of naval targets, plenty of fighters, a few airships, and a lot of action that makes it really feel like an epic fleet battle.
  • Mission 20 "Presidia" marks your triumphant return to the Cascadian capital since the messy retreat all the way back in Mission 5, only this time you are here to retake the city from the Federation in a frantic mix of air, naval and ground skirmishes that test your aptitude on all fronts. Despite being a very long battle, it's generally considered to be one of the best missions next to "Cold War" and the final mission, "Kings".
• Broken Base: The final mission. On one hand, it's a very finely crafted grudge match with a badass soundtrack that makes taking down Crimson 1 once and for all very cathartic. On the other, the Sudden Downer Ending leaves a bad taste in the viewers' mouths, seeing how Crimson 1's nuking of Presidia practically denies you the feeling of satisfaction that was building up throughout the game in trying to free Cascadia and thus leaves you with nothing but anger.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Enemy F/S-15 reinforcements, usually showing up to bolster large fleets as non-prority targets. They're very nimble, to the point that it's possible to get stuck in a turnfight against one for a while. They also take three normal missiles to go down as common for Prototype-class planes.
  • Heavy Air Cruisers are among the most dangerous foes you'll face, as they boast an even deadlier assortment of weapons than regular cruisers through their twin ADV-SAM and ADV-RAILGUN, both of which feature an increased rate of fire compared to the normal weapon variant. It's common practice to take them out first, as they'll otherwise litter the sky with railgun trails if left unattended. Staying too long around them is also ill-advised since they pack multiple CIWS to shred your aircraft in a hurry. Fortunately, a single ASM can take down even the largest airships, bosses included, in one shot at extreme range, making them significantly less of a hassle.
  • The Botched Requisition modifier potentially turns every airborne enemy into one, as they're all given access to an annoying CIWS that rarely misses you, the BML-U taken straight from pivotal bosses, or Cordium-fueled railguns that can potentially snipe you if you aren't moving fast enough. While your allies are also affected by the modifier, the threat presented by such randomness is what makes the modifier a double-edged sword.
• Discredited Meme: The early months of 2021 were plagued with constant oversexualization towards Prez and insistence over flying two-seaters just to hear her, tainting the "Waifu Systems Operator" meme in the process and turning away several fans who don't lean towards that kind of obsession. This also made the voice actors fairly uncomfortable with the idea of interacting with the fans even in the official Project Wingman Discord server. It took nearly an entire year afterwards for the fandom to tone down on the horniness. The irony of a last-minute addition in development giving rise to one of the most annoying parts of the Project Wingman fandom is not lost on the production team.
  • Even in 2023, an incident in which a Discord user bragged about using AI to generate the Unibomber Manifesto in Prez's voice caused the actress no small amount of discomfort on both counts.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Prez is easily the most popular character in the game, for the simple reason that she’s Monarch’s WSO.
  • Captain Woodward is also very popular, due to a mixture of him being a Coast Guard captain who boarded and hijacked an experimental Federation battleship, him being the only one of the three named Cascadian officers you work with to have absolutely no problems with you being a mercenary, and his boisterous personality.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Because the game was made by a small team on a small budget, they couldn’t get the rights to make real-life aircraft in the game. Thankfully, because they made only a small number of adjustments to get around the copyrights, it's real easy to tell which aircraft is based off of which real-life aircraft. For this reason, players have taken to calling the planes names like ‘Not-Phantom’, ‘Not-Frogfoot’, ‘Not-Harrier’, etc.
  • Monarch/Hitman 1 has been called the Demon Lord of the Bering Strait after playing Mission 11.
• Fanon: While there is no official art of her released, most fanart of Prez depicts her of having Youthful Freckles.
  • Further on the point of Prez, it's all but ubiquitous in fanfic for Monarch to be an F/D-14 pilot as it's the last two-seater in the game's progression, i.e. the best plane you can fly and still have Prez in the back.
• Friendly Fandoms: Fans of Project Wingman are also fans of Ace Combat. Considering the game was made by fans of Ace Combat during the long gap between Ace Combat: Assault Horizon and Skies Unknown (even though it ended up releasing later than Skies Unknown due to being a small indie studio), the bond between the two fandoms is extremely strong, to the point where many actually consider Monarch an honorary AC protagonist.
• Fridge Brilliance: Monarch's code-name refers to the concept of kings in ancient/medieval times, where they not only served as a political leader but a Frontline General.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The PW-MK1 used by Crimson 1, unlocked and available to buy after beating the campaign. Not only is it easily the most agile and speedy plane in the game, but it comes with a special weapons loadout that can trivialize even Mercenary difficulty; its burst missiles lock on to targets and fire micro missiles with the potential of taking down dozens of targets in one burst. The other is a Railgun capable of a One-Hit Kill against anything short of a boss aircraft. Finally, its secondary gun is the HGP, which offers a staggeringly large hitbox and allows players to fire as fast as their hair-trigger permits.
  • If you don't want to wait until you finish the campaign, the ACG-01 Chimera unlocks around the halfway point at Mission 13 and is much more affordable. It's fast, it's agile, and it comes with 12 hardpoints that can mount a huge variety of fire-and-forget weapons for just about any purpose. Load up on ASM, fill the remaining ten hardpoints with either MLAG, MLAA or a combination thereof (one SP slot occupies six hardpoints, the other four, so it's nicely balanced), and walk right over everything the Federation throws at you. This setup in particular is so powerful and versatile that there's no reason to ever change it. It also looks awesome, to boot.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • The aircraft carrier sailing alongside the Eminent Domain in Mission 19 has a tendency to steer into the latter, leading to a funny moment of both models superimposing each other, dubbed by the fandom as the "battlecarrier" or "battlestar Eminent Domain".
  • If you restart Mission 20 while pursued by the missiles from Crimson 1's indiscriminate nuking of Presidia, the missiles will keep chasing you through other missions, takeoff sequences, the menus, and even the ending credits. And the effects stack, meaning you can perform the glitch multiple times to the point you will eventually be chased by not just a few missiles, but several dozens of them, on top of your frame rate dipping due to the increasing amount of entities on the map. Fortunately, you can cancel the glitch simply by clearing a mission or launching Conquest Mode.
  • Similarly, restarting Mission 21 right before you take control of your plane will duplicate all enemies on the map, in case you didn't think the fight was hard enough. Combining this glitch with the Double Time modifier on Mercenary difficulty sadistically pits you against sixteen X-PF and four full-health PW-MK.1. Good luck trying to beat that one!
• Harsher in Hindsight: Mission 14 "Open Season" features a massive wildfire covering the ground, with the Federation deliberately fanning the flames to cover their retreat. 2020 (the year the game released) was a particularly nasty year for wildfires on the United States West Coast, close to where Cascadia would be in real life, with some cities like San Fransisco and Portland plagued with orange, smoky skies like the ones in the game. As a result, players on the West Coast basically watched their own recent history eerily repeat itself. Then it happened again in 2023 (incidentally Frontline-59's release year) when Canada was struck by a massive wildfire in nearly all of its provinces and territories while the smoke reached as far as New York City, severely impacting the air quality to the point that it was difficult to breathe in addition to covering the entire city in a thick orange haze.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In Rimmy - Downunder Gaming's review of this game, in a segment that follows him talking about the raid on the Solona Communications Array, one of the things said during his sarcastic MS3TK-style briefing was "We missed five VTuber debuts", and he put on screen the official art of hololive's newly debuted^note The review was posted just shy of 3 months after said debut English branch, HoloMyth, ending with a quick zoom-in on the right-most member in the art, Gawr Gura. Fast forward 16 months later to mid April of 2022, and Gura would not only be the first Hololive talent to to stream this game, she would also be the first corporate VTuber from the English branch of a big-name corp to do so.
• Love to Hate: Crimson 1. Aside from his insane ramblings, increased obsession with Monarch (especially after his entire squadron got steamrolled one by one) and nuking Presidia to ground out of spite towards the latter, he remains a very memorable antagonist and having an epic boss battle in "Kings" (at least for those who don't view him as a That One Boss). The fact that his voice actor Wayan Vassilopouos went wild with the role and the sizeable amount of fanart really help. To sums it up by a certain brick:
  Bricky: The man is malding so goddamn hard at you [Monarch-01] beating him, that he has gone rogue and he blows up the entire last bastion of the country he's been paid to fight for...
• Low-Tier Letdown: Out of all Prototype-class fighters unlocked in the late game, the SK.37 is rather unpopular due to its complete lacking anti-ground weapons (its in-universe predecessor, the SK.27, at least has bombs), having one fewer hardpoint, and being outperformed by other Prototype fighters in almost every capability, especially the fan-favorite F/S-15, the immediate next plane in line which is even cheaper.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Waifu Systems Operator ^ExplanationPrez’s status as Monarch’s WSO, leading to many players calling their love for her.
  • "It’s Time." ^ExplanationThe developers’ use of the words ‘It’s time’ when the release date was announced, lead to many jokes from Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. This only heightened when people found out in the full release that there was missions closely resembling Stage of Apocalypse and Zero, combined no less.
  • The Federation/Crimson 1 did nothing wrong ^ExplanationYet another meme from Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War comparing the Federation and Crimson 1's actions to Belka, the usual suspects of anything going wrong in Ace Combat and the joking attempt to defend them.
    • The Federation did everything wrong. ^ExplanationOn the other hand, Belka's nuclear response was practically conservative and restrained compared to the Federation. Not counting V2, Belka used their nukes to avoid further invasion and only hit rural areas. Meanwhile, the Federation was using their cordium bombs to force a Cascadian surrender, and targeted major cities.
  • Pretzels ^ExplanationPrez is only ever referred to by the shortform of her tac-name, with her full tac-name, President, only being mentioned in her file. This has lead to some fans joking that it is actually short for Pretzel, and depicting them as being her Trademark Favorite Food
  • Pre 1.04 patch ^Explanation"Kings" used to be That One Level due to the hellish last phase against Crimson 1 where players have no radar to see his area-of-effect attacks, making the last phase of his boss battle a chore even in Easy difficulty. Patch 1.04 nerfed him a bit in every difficulty except Mercenary, where the only crutch the player gets is a warning about the area-of-effect attack zone.
  • O R A N G E ^ExplanationThe game uses a lot of orange hues for weapon effects and various visuals, especially noticeable during the Second Calamity
  • The idea of Prez being the Beleaguered Assistant to the player doing various Self-Imposed Challenge such as doing dangerous stunts or bringing bad loadout to high-stake missions.
  • Why Monarch is called Monarch.^ExplanationAt one point in the game, Kaiser and another mercenary talk about Monarch, with the discussion ending with Kaiser saying that there is a reason they call him that. Said reason is never revealed (though it is implied to be something along the lines of him being king of the skies). This has lead to fans making jokes about why he is called Monarch, with one common one being that he collects butterflies as a hobby, or even depicting him as a a humanoid butterfly.
  • Maple Syrup^ExplanationA Youtuber named "Ace Combat Fan", who backed the game, did a playthrough, and noted how since Cascadia was in Canada, he joked that their most precious resource was maple syrup. Many of his viewers got in on the joke.
  • The Federation’s most powerful superweapon: Bees^ExplanationIn one mission, a couple of rebels are heard over the radio, with one of them them trying to warn the other that he’s about to run over a beehive, which causes the bees to swarm over the poor guy. Many fans joke that the beehive was put there on purpose by the Federation, and that bees are the Federation’s most powerful weapon in the game, more powerful than even their cordium bombs.
  • The Yacht. ^ExplanationIn Mission 13, there happens to be a single civilian yacht that had the misfortune of being in the mission area. The confusion that resulted in those who found it quickly turned into amusement when it was discovered that the boat was targetable, and didn't incur a Non-Standard Game Over. Most players have since decided to blow the poor guy up any chance they get.
  • Crimson 1's delusion-riddled rant is filled with choice quotes that the playerbase has adapted into inside jokes.
    • "You, solely, are responsible for this." ^ExplanationUsually used as playful ribbing whenever someone is the cause of some form of shenanigans.
    • "You're a slave to history." ^ExplanationOften used when someone makes some sort of humorous mistake or repeats some other past mishap. Among other things.
    • "I will bury you so completely, the Earth will turn over a thousand times before your body is dug up." ^ExplanationHumorously used as a threat.
  • "Predictable." ^ExplanationCrimson 1's Bond One-Liner everytime you die in his presence (Missions 6, 11, 18 and 21). Since he and Crimson Squadron are notorious for their difficulty even by the game's boss standards, be prepared to hear the line a lot.
  • "Monarch's Monarch." ^ExplanationWaving off anything unusual the player does as an idiosyncrasy, similar to "Trigger's different" from AC7.
  • Crimson Ball Torture ^ExplanationSomeone paid Galaxy's voice actor, Kyle Quibell to read the "Cock and ball torture" on Wikipedia during a stream. Also refers to Crimson 1's spamming of cluster munitions in "Kings", which explode into spheres of cordium that cause Damage Over Time if the player flies into them.
  • "What the fuck did you just say about me, you little mercenary dog?" ^ExplanationIn a similar note to Kyle Quibell mentioned above, Wayan Vassilopouos provided his voice to recite the Navy Seal Copypasta while "Kings" by Jose Pavli plays in the background. An alternate version with in-game radio filter by one of Sector D2 writers can be found here.
  • General Torres ^ExplanationDue to both being ruthless officials with the intention to commit genocide and borderline war crimes against their enemies, comparisons between General Faust from Frontline-59 and Captain Matias Torres from the DLC missions of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown were inevitable (especially when both laugh maniacally before dying as their cruisers explode at the end of their boss battles).
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • The Federation Peacekeepers crosses this in Mission 15 - "Consequence of Power" by launching cordium missiles en masse towards the city of Prospero to force a Cascadian surrender, which led to the beginning of a second Calamity event across the Ring of Fire.
  • Crimson 1 also crosses the line upon bombing Presidia during a ceasefire in order to draw attention from Monarch. Even after the Federation's troops try their best to admit that they're not responsible for the city's destruction, the damage was already done as other nations will eventually retaliate with extreme prejudice thanks to the former's actions.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • Although it can be difficult to hear over the din of battle, that subtle shotgun-racking sound that says "a weapon has finished reloading" is always welcome, but especially when you're caught in a tight spot and need that damn ASM/Railgun/MLAG/[enter long-cooldown SP here] now.
  • Fly close to airships and you can hear that they make a constant rather cool sounding eagle-like screech.
• One-Scene Wonder: The Federation's experimental "Super Taurus" land battleships only appear in a single late-game mission^note unless you're playing on Mercenary difficulty, in which case they show up in earlier missions as well, there are only two of them, they're hardly a threat and aren't even labeled as proper bosses, but they sure leave a lasting impression. Superheavy tanks for which the term "building-sized" feels like a gross understatement tend to do that, even more so in an air combat simulation where enemy tanks are rarely more than a blip on the player's target radar.
• Porting Disaster: While the Unreal Engine 4 powered game has really quick loading times (even when ran in a HDD!) and is extremely well optimized in PC, the Xbox One version has a very unstable framerate and plenty of graphic glitches and bugs that cause the game to get stuck while loading.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The "switch target" button's prioritization routines still need some work. They tend to prioritize closer targets over more distant ones, often making it difficult to lock on to an incoming squadron that's just asking for an MLAA welcome gift, even if that squadron is right in your crosshairs and the closer enemies aren't. The system also barely distinguishes between priority targets and normal ones. Good luck getting a lock on the one remaining ace squadron plane in a furball of 30+ aircraft. That last one is particularly dangerous in Conquest mode where you're usually up against vastly more enemies than at any point in the campaign. Additionally, the longer you play, the worse the prioritization will get, to the point where the lock on won't even work on targets right in front of you until you mash the switch button multiple times or quit and restart the game.
• Scrappy Weapon: Bombs. Unlike Ace Combat, the targeting indicator on even the largest bomb type is absolutely minuscule, translating to a puny blast radius that covers less ground than even rocket launchers. Not only that, but the damage is also terrible, being unable to destroy most ground targets in one pass. Plus, there are no guided bombs at all, making all available bomb types a "nope!" choice for players who aren't good at free aiming while rapidly hurtling towards the ground (and dive-bombing is the only remotely practical way to aim bombs due to how the targeting reticule behaves). Thankfully, as of update 2.0 (which is also available on Steam as a beta branch), the bombs have recieved a substantial buff by not only reworking their behavior but also doubling the blast radius while being more reliable than what they used to be.
• Signature Scene:
  • Mission 11, Showdown, is the big furball fight with a badass and memorable soundtrack to go with, and playing it gets you pumped every time. The game even lampshades it with a special opening on Mercenary!
  • The climax of Mission 15, Consequences of Power, has Monarch and other pilots desperately trying to destroy swarms of cruise missiles armed with Cordium warhead capable of destruction equivalent to nuclear ballistic missiles. As the mission goes on, some warheads may manage to hit the target and players can hear a broadcast from Geological Monitoring Station pleading to cease the combat and start evacuating immediately. As more warheads hit their target, it was noted that the missiles are causing a chain reaction affecting a large portion of the world, which results not only in the destruction of Prospero - in essence, they also triggered the Second Calamity. To drive the point home, the world map in subsequent missions changes, missions 16 through 18 are filled with sceneries full of volcanic remains, and the briefing screens have static effects.
    Galaxy: (During mission 15 debriefing) Calamity. That's what this is. This is what it had to be, right? Right? By God...
• Spiritual Successor: Of Vector Thrust, which was a failed attempt of a Ace Combat-like game, and notoriously infamous for its buggy nature. Curiously enough, Jose Pavli, the music composer of that game, also composed the soundtrack of Project Wingman.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • "King's Court" has some parts that sound an awful lot like the infamous "Coffin Dance" part of "Astronomia" by Vicetone and Tony Igy. The composer has stated it was an accident.
  • The bells and percussions in "The Independance Force" are mostly inspired by "SIEGE ON SILVAT" from Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.
  • The first few seconds of "Kings" sound like a Dark Reprise of "Megalith - Agnus Dei", its counterpart as song of the final mission in Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies.
• Tear Jerker:
  • In Mission 15, “Consequence of Power”, the Peacekeepers execute a regular Federation officer after he refuses to authorize the use of Cordium missiles against the Cascadian forces in Prospero, before forcing a Fed air traffic controller to send the authentication code to authorize the missile strike to Federation command. The ATC’s tone as he reads out the code clearly shows how horrified he is at the orders he has been given to execute.
    Federation ATC: They’re in the net, Command. Send it. Authentication: Solutions 0-8-1-6.
    Federation Command: Authenticate: Blaze. Read back.
    Federation ATC: Blaze. (voice breaks) May God have mercy...
  • The ending. Crimson 1's rampage has left Presidia in ruins, inflicting massive casualties on both Cascadian and Federation forces, not to mention countless civilian deaths, who all died so pointlessly to Crimson 1's insanity even though the war was already over and a ceasefire had been declared. The only thing that stops it from being a Downer Ending altogether is that the Mercenary ending shows that some of your allies survived and Cascadia will eventually rebuild, but it doesn't change the fact that all this chaos could have been avoided had Crimson 1 not gone off the deep end. And thanks to his actions, another conflict with the Federation is inevitable as Cascadia will likely be seeking retribution for the destruction of Prospero and Presidia.
• That One Achievement: Two, actually, although they're pretty much the same in spirit because both require the player to purchase every single aircraft in either the campaign (Hoarding Problem) or in Conquest mode (Hungry For Power). Prepare for a lot of Money Grinding if you're going after them. Hungry For Power is the worse of the two due to Conquest mode having a whole bunch of additional aircraft in its roster, plus all aircraft are significantly more expensive than their campaign counterparts. Unsurprisingly, both are among the rarest achievements on Steam, with Hungry For Power being the rarest one of all.
• That One Boss: The final fight against Crimson 1's PW-MK1 in the final mission. Not only is it an extremely agile and durable target that tries to drag you into the clouds (disrupting your controls and targeting), but it is loaded with special weapons that counter your tactics: Its swarms of micro missiles will chip away at you if you try and pursue, while its rapid-fire railgun makes trying to gain distance a serious problem. Later into the fight it will start firing groups of cluster bombs which either produce cordium bubbles that deal damage as long as you are in their radius, or explosions of railgun shots, further discouraging pursuit tactics. Even when you think the fight is over, there's one last phase where Crimson 1 goes all-out to kill you. And your HUD is knocked out during this phase. It's little wonder that the 1.04 patch significantly rebalanced this fight, reserving the most dangerous attacks for higher difficulties among other changes.
• That One Level:
  • Mission 4 "Uphill, Every Way" on Mercenary difficulty adds a large number of elite fighters, hostile airships and most importantly, two land battleships to the number of enemies fought. As is standard for the difficulty, the Mook Chivalry that limits to only 3 enemy aircraft that can simultaneously target you is nonexistent, so expect to get swarmed by the assortment of Sk.37, Sk.30 and F/C-15.
  • Mission 5 "Sirens of Defeat" on Mercenary difficulty, not to be outdone by the prior stage, has you contend with seven airships alongside the final wave of enemy fighters. The mission fortunately marks the end of Mercenary difficulty throwing excessively large amounts of additional enemies at you, but it certainly goes out with a bang. And heaven help you if you weren't paying attention and crossed the aggro line that spawns the Federation battlegroup.
  • Mission 6 "Machine of the Mantle" on any difficulty, especially for newer players. Not only you have to contend with enemy aircraft that seem to be more aggressive than the ones in previous missions, but two of the priority targets are inside a small gap that is just barely reachable above ground and the only surefire way is to shoot through the side tunnels above scorching Cordium that gradually damages your plane. And once you're done with all the priority targets, a squadron of very fast and powerful aces are out for your blood, and your only chance is to bail out (though you can force them to retreat if you're good at dogfighting).
  • Mission 7 "Eminent Domain" is bar none the most significant Difficulty Spike on Mercenary difficulty, and it shows; a massive boost in the number of aerial spawns to go along with the increased number of railgun-toting ships only adds to the map's already long travel distances and three distinct phases. This makes for a mission that punishes aircraft with low ammo count and insufficient performance to reliably outfight the various squadrons and fleets, to say nothing of the large group of cruise missiles on the final section (though that particular phase mercifully doesn't need you to actually shoot them down to complete the mission).
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The visuals in this game are absolutely stunning for a small indie studio. Of particular highlight are the geothermal storms in the aftermath of the Cordium bombings.