History VideoGame / AceCombat7SkiesUnknown

* BossRemix: The boss theme of the DLC mission "Anchorhead Raid", "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuq3tsmBS88 Mimic]]", has three variations to it depending on the flow of the battle: one for both Rage and Scream together, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-FNItAOhag one for after Rage has been shot down]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHqNdxsfRs4 one for after Scream has been shot down]]. Both variant tracks double as musical storytelling. [[spoiler:In the Scream version, the drums become incoherent, intentionally slipping notes and disregarding the timing of the rest of the instruments, reflecting Scream's psychotic breakdown after watching her brother die. In the Rage version, the main guitar very quickly overpowers the rest of the instruments in the song, playing increasingly aggressively and frenetically reflecting Rage's all-encompassing, well, rage towards Trigger and Count for killing his sister. Ultimately both characters and both versions of the song, which had functioned quite well up to that point despite themselves, devolve into angry incoherence after their sibling dies.]]

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The ADF-11F RAVEN can deploy smaller unmanned drones from its underbelly. It may sound like a ridiculous concept, but [[https://www.kratosdefense.com/systems-and-platforms/unmanned-systems/aerial/tactical-uavs#UTAP22 such UAVs actually exists]], with the UTAP-22 being tested in the very year that the game was released in. ''Manned'' prototypes were developed during World War II as well.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: In the opening cutscene, Avril claims an Osean fighter and the Erusean drone it was chasing "must have been doing thirty G's at least". Even an extremely fit and well-trained individual wearing a G-suit would succumb to G-LOC and black out by 15 G's. Of course, given that the aircraft aren't actually shown doing particularly impressive maneuvers, Avril may have been engaging in some hyperbole.

** During the mission "Fleet Destruction", if you sink the Erusean aircraft carrier ''Njörðr'', her crew mentions the catapults becoming inoperable, despite ''Njörðr'' being a ''Kuznetsov''-class carrier, which is a STOBAR design with no catapults in the first place.

** After Neucom in ''Ace Combat X'', General Resource Limited returns, playing an important part in the DLC missions; [[spoiler: Erusea purchased the ''Alicorn'' from Yuktobania via GR Trading, then had it towed across the ocean by General Resource Marine Transportation, and Mimic Squadron was part of General Resource Guardian Mercenaries.]]

* BerserkButton: Calling Scream an "idiot" causes her to threaten whoever it was who called her an idiot with death, even her own brother or [[spoiler:the general who hired her]]. If you shoot down her brother before you shoot her down, it's the first thing she tearfully mentions when he's killed, [[SkewedPriorities even though there's bigger fish to fry like the fact her brother's now dead and the ace pilot she's trying to kill now has the upper hand.]]

* TakeThat: In Mission 10, Count comments in disbelief at the sight of a (incomplete) border wall separating Osean ally Bulgurdarest from the rest of Erusea, heavily implied to be hastily constructed in the wake of nationalist rhetoric that lead to the Lighthouse War. The developers couldn't resist a light jab at the [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates United States]]' own political situation in 2019.

* TakeThat: In Mission 10, Count comments in disbelief at the sight of a border wall. The developers couldn't resist a light jab at the [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates United States]]' own political situation in 2019.

* TakeThat: In Mission 10, Count comments in disbelief at the sight of a border wall. The developers couldn't resist a light jab at the [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates United States]]' own [[{{Trumplica}} political situation in 2019.]]

*** It has close to, if not the, highest straight-line speed in the game but it handles only marginally better than a beached whale, making it a royal pain in any close range, high maneuverability dog fight. Don't even think about dogfighting in the clouds, as the lasers that replace the machine gun are useless in clouds.

** The entire behavior of Erusea's drone army [[spoiler: and Z.O.E. by extension]] is this for [[spoiler: Nemo.]]

* TalkingToTheDead: During Anchorhead Raid's finale, shooting Scream down before Rage makes him snap. As the battle drags on, he begins talking to his now-dead sister like she's still flying, assuring her that she'll be okay. If he manages to shoot you down, he even crows "I got him, Scream!"

* TakeThat: In Mission 10, Count comments in disbelief at the sight of a border wall. The developers couldn't resist a light jab at the [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates United States]]' own political situation in 2019.

** A minor example is in the SP Missions, which take place prior to the second Battle of Farbanti. Count's personality is closer to [[CharacterDevelopment his]] [[TookALevelInKindness appearances]] after the earthshaking mission that is Farbanti, [[spoiler: despite the fact that Wiseman is still alive during the hunt for the ''Alicorn,'']] and he's constantly designated as Strider 2, even in "Ten Million Relief Plan", where Cyclops is also deployed.

** Flying close to an Arsenal Bird not only gets CIWS lighting you up, but also opens you to missile spam that ''will'' force you to peel away.

** In the third SP Mission 'Ten Million Relief Plan', [[spoiler:[[EveryoneHasStandards even Erusea is horrified of what Captain Torres and his crew planned to do]], so they sent the specifications of the ''Alicorn'' super submarine to Osea to allow the LRSSG to take the fight to Torres before the madman can accomplish his goals of ending the war swiftly and violently with his nuclear shells.]]

* FantasticRacism: Since the [[VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar Circum-Pacific War]], Belkans have become stereotyped as warmongering conspirators who frequently instigate conflicts with their technology. [[spoiler: Following Erusea’s descent into civil war from the ablation cascade, Erusean conservative forces on Tyler Island indiscriminately massacre the Belkan engineers and their families who lived and worked near the island’s mass driver, blaming them for leading their country to ruin. During Mission 18, the retreating Osean forces on the aforementioned island end up discovering the mass grave where the killings took place.]]

** Brigadier General Clemens's superior officer is the [[NamesTheSame same-named]] Lieutenant General Shepherd as the one found in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2''.

** Princess Rosa Cosette D'Elise is the ruler of Erusea, rallying the troops and starting an offensive war against (what she perceives to be) Osean intentions of dominion; she's seen and heard mostly through propaganda transmissions. After Farbanti is captured, the remains of her government try to spirit her away, but her transport is shot down and she's left marooned on Tyler Island, where Avril's group find her and take her in. Confronted by the bloodthirsty KillEmAll attitude of the Erusean Radicals, Cossette joins forces with Avril in helping to end the war, and even takes a personal hand in combat by destroying the mechanisms within the ISEV that power the DeflectorShields of the second Arsenal Bird, allowing Trigger to land the finishing blow.

** AWACS Long Caster mentions that he'll take the squadron out to eat at an "Italian bistro" in town, despite the fact that the country of Italy doesn't exist in Strangereal. (Pizza ''does'' exist, though, and it was a good addition by the localization team.)

** The game's description of the [=MiG-29A=] specifically explains how its nickname is of ''Russian'' origin. Another error.

** AWACS Long Caster mentions that he'll take the squadron out to eat at an "Italian bistro" in town, despite the fact that the country of Italy doesn't exist in Strangereal. (Pizza ''does'' exist, though.)

** The game's description of the [=MiG-29A=] specifically explains how its nickname is of ''Russian'' origin.

** The Arsenal Birds take more than a few design cues from the [[VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar Arkbird]]. Stark white paint, sweeping upwards wings, a large number of small control surfaces that evoke the image of feathers, bird-like frontal area, a similar (if not identical) resupply strategy and resulting aft-ventral configuration; the craft is essentially a successor to the legendary spaceplane. (Given that both craft were developed by the Osean Federation, this only makes sense.) They also boast a similar armament to the Arkbird and the musical cues that accompany their presence on screen sounds like a more menacing version of "White Bird" at times. Their shape evoke also a more streamlined version of the [[VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation P-1112 Aigaion]] and it's ancestor, the [[VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar XB-0 Hresvelgr]].

* DeathOfAThousandCuts: AA guns and CIWS try to inflict this upon you, and it's very likely that you'll take one or two hits from them over the course of a mission. However, there are very few cases in which they're likely to actually get the "thousand cuts" they need.

** The ADF-11F Raven uses Pulse Lasers instead of a traditional gun cannon. They're quite powerful as they should be, but you only have one gun compared to two gun pods on other planes; the lasers still can't penetrate through clouds; and the effective range of the lasers is literally half of how far externally mounted Pulse Lasers can shoot.

* CheckpointStarvation: Barring some rare exceptions, most campaign missions tend to be pretty light on checkpoints. You only get an autosave once a mission objective is either completed or changes due to unforeseen events, and a long time can pass before that happens. Annihilation missions (Long Day, Pipeline Destruction, Fleet Destruction, etc) are notorious for this because their first phase is a full 15 minutes of attempting to wreak havoc in an op zone that's absolutely crawling with things shooting at you. Dying at any point in this phase resets you back to the very beginning, and taking even one decent hit automatically voids your S-Rank, forcing you to start over as well.

** [[MoreDakka Machine Gun Maniac]] is awarded for completing the campaign without ever using any weapon other than machine guns (note that the Raven's integrated pulse lasers and the [=MiG=]-21 bis's machine gun pods both count as machine guns for the purposes of the achievement, and that the target designator in Bunker Buster is permitted so long as it's only used on the missile silos).

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The mission "444", is an establishing character moment for the ''entire Spare Squadron''. It starts off with Champ forcing a take off after cutting of Tabloid's plane on the taxiway, and telling the Air Traffic Control to ‘Go to hell’ after they call him out on it. Count tries to assume command of the squadron, but nobody listens to him, High Roller sets up a betting pool on whose going to live and whose going to die, Full Band proceeds to SpeakIllOfTheDead when mentioning how Trigger got transferred over to the Spare Squadron by shooting a missile in between [[spoiler:old Harling’s eyes]], and last but not least, AWACS Bandog sends out a warning to the squadron, ‘This is the penal unit. [[ImpliedDeathThreat I decide when you die]].’ When the mission is over, [[TheNeidermeyer Colonel [=McKinsey=]]] throws everyone into solitary for disobeying ''his'' orders to not fire on the enemy bombers until he gave the go ahead, [[UngratefulBastard despite the fact that he and most of the base personnel would likely have been]] ''[[UngratefulBastard obliterated]]'' [[UngratefulBastard by said bombers had Spare Squadron not intervened]]. It all goes to show how dysfunctional the Spare Squadron is.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The mission "444", is an establishing character moment for the ''entire Spare Squadron''. It starts off with Champ forcing a take off after cutting of Tabloid, and telling the Air Traffic Control to ‘Go to hell’ after they called him out on it. Count tries to assume command of the squadron, but nobody listens to him, High Roller sets up a betting pool on whose going to live and whose going to die, Full Band proceeds to SpeakIllOfTheDead when mentioning how Trigger got transferred over to the Spare Squadron by shooting a missile in between [[spoiler:old Harling’s eyes]], and last but not least, AWACS Bandog sends out a warning to the squadron, ‘This is the penal unit. [[ImpliedDeathThreat I decide when you die]].’ When the mission is over, [[TheNeidermeyer Colonel [=McKinsey=]]] throws everyone into solitary for disobeying ''his'' orders to not fire on the enemy bombers until he gave the go ahead. It all goes to show how dysfunctional the Spare Squadron is.

** Osea is heavily implied to have some of the same real-world political problems of modern-day (as of 2019) America: harsh laws targeting the poor in what's heavily implied to be a scheme for cheap penal labour, an over-budgeted trigger-happy military that inflicts collateral damage wherever it goes, neocolonialist imperialist tendencies dressed up as international aid that wind up screwing over other countries' economies, and an overstuffed prison system. It ''still'' isn't the aggressor in the Lighthouse War, and [[spoiler:it turns out Harling genuinely wanted the Space Elevator as an international effort for all countries, and not for Osea to gain the upper hand in the space race. On top of this, it's stated the Royal Family was goaded and groomed into accepting war for Erusea's own imperialist tendencies by military officers.]]

** Osea is heavily implied to have some of the same real-world political problems of modern-day (as of 2019) America: harsh laws, an over-budgeted trigger-happy military, neocolonialist imperialist tendencies dressed up as international aid that wind up screwing over other countries' economies, and an overstuffed prison system. It ''still'' isn't the aggressor in the Lighthouse War, and [[spoiler:it turns out Harling genuinely wanted the Space Elevator as an international effort for all countries, and not for Osea to gain the upper hand in the space race. On top of this, it's stated the Royal Family was goaded and groomed into accepting war for Erusea's own imperialist tendencies by military officers.]]

* DudeNotFunny: No one, ''not even [[{{Jerkass}} Bandog]]'', is amused at Full Band chortling over [[spoiler:High Roller's]] death. His mocking is met with a frigid silence until Bandog breaks the ice by mocking ''him'':