YMMV / Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War

• Aluminium Christmas Trees:
  • Some players thought that the Su-32 having a toilet and a kitchen in it was a joke. Well...
  • Submarine aircraft carriers have actually been developed as far back as WW2, though none have seen widespread service or been as powerful, or as massive in scale, as the Scinfaxi and Hrímfaxi.
  • The Yukes dispatched Apaches to rescue soldiers. No space for them on abroad, you say?.
• Annoying Video Game Helper: Some of the allies in the game have a habit of asking you trivial questions at the absolute worst times, especially Chopper. This comes to a head in Mission 7, where Edge will ask you a question, then Chopper, then Archer, on top of another question or two if you don't have them set to the orders the game thinks you should have them at, all the while the player is desperately trying (and likely failing) to concentrate on flying and fighting. Worse yet, in Mission 10, answering Chopper's seemingly irrelevant "Face of the Coin" question chooses your next two missions without stating as much or giving any clue as to which two missions those are. One path gets you the alright ones, the other gets you the Four Horsemen.
• Anvilicious: The game has an anti-war message that can get a bit preachy at times. Most of your allies and enemies alike refuse to consider peace or deescalation, and the ones that don't belabor the point that War Is Hell.
• Awesome Music: See its entry on the main series page.
• Best Level Ever
  • While it veers into That One Level on higher difficulties or if you're in an air-to-ground plane, 8492 can qualify as this if you're in a fighter or a decent multirole. It's the closest the game ever gets to a Comona-style furball. To say nothing of the mission's plot elements.
  • The last/second to last mission of the game, Aces, qualifies as well. You recieve aid from several squadrons from BOTH global superpowers, having finally set aside their differences to begin a joint assault on the control facility for the SOLG. You then follow true Ace Combat tradition and fly INSIDE the control facility, which is by far larger and more perilous than anything the USEAN Rebels OR the Eruseans managed to build in the previous entries
  • Regardless of the path chosen, the final level of the Arcade Mode is this. You, as Mobius 1, destroy the last of the Erusean remnant including an aircraft carrier, and then take down up to six X-02 Wyverns. Being Mobius 1, you do all this with your only support being an AWACS.
• Cargo Ship: Nagase x the Arkbird. She even outright says during the mission "White Bird (Part II)" that she was in love with it, both because of its sleek aesthetics and its symbolism of international peace. You can almost hear her heart breaking because it's this mission where she has to help shoot it down to prevent a nuclear attack on a Yuktobanian city.
• Demonic Spiders: Yuktobanian (and Belkan) MiG-31 and Tornado fighters and A-10 attackers take three missile hits to take down, instead of the usual two. This makes them annoying especially in missions where there are large concentrations of enemies and the player's missiles need to be conserved.
• Even Better Sequel: To 04, being about twice as long as any other game thus far, and also adding the new squadron control mechanics and a more character-driven narrative, this game often ends up as many fans' favorite. On the flip side, the same two attributes mentioned above are why a few fans at the time dislike it.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The Raptor or any fighter with XMAAs or XLAAs in the final mission becomes a literal example where the first fight can be finished in about ten seconds. It's supposed to last much longer, but get it right and the in game speech cannot keep up with you winning so easily.
  • SAAMs are nearly as good of seekers as QAAMs were in Shattered Skies, have great range, and the enemy AI is rarely aggressive enough to force you to let your target out of your sights. Their range and maneuverability absolutely trivializes the canyon battle with Ofnir.
  • Even better if you take the FALKEN and its TLS to the final mission — one sweep of it through the enemy aces, a few minutes of uninterrupted monologue, and then cutting the goddamned SOLG in half with another sweep.
  • Oddly enough the UGB, and only for the last mission on the assault on SOLG specifically. A single direct hit on SOLG can take out half or more of the designated targets and makes what should be a challenging mission a breeze. The developers of the game likely didn't anticipate this because the UGB is an air-to-ground weapon only and the SOLG can only be locked on with air-to-air weapons (though being an unguided weapon, that doesn't exactly stop the UGB from being able to hit it).
  • The mission "Demons of Razgriz" can be difficult on higher levels as the Hrimfaxi anti-air is quite effective. However, the mission can easily be beaten by any aircraft with LASM, as you can hit the Hrimfaxi without risking damage. The only reason the pilot wouldn't end the mission in a few minutes is that winning too quickly means you won't get enough points for the S rank.
  • The F/A-18 family in Ace Combat 5 is considered to be one of the best plane families for a One-Plane/One family run in Ace Combat 5 because it has great Special Weapons (One of which is the XMAA), great manouverability, and it can be used in Carrier plane only missions.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • 8492 ^Explanation The game's narrative takes a heavy-handed approach to Osea high command constantly denying the existence of the Grabacr squadron (using the alias of 8492nd squadron). Ergo, if something has the number 8492 in it, it doesn't exist.
    • "8492! 8492! Is that all you people have to say? There is no X in our Y with that number!" ^Explanation Osean high command's exasperated answer at Wardog Squadron's insistence that Grabacr squadron does exist.
• Retroactive Recognition: Matthew Mercer's casting as Albert Genette was one of his earliest, if not his first ever major video game role. He even gushed about being cast on Livejournal, well before non-disclosure agreements were an industry standard.
• Signature Scene:
  • Chopper’s death in “The Journey Home” is regarded by many Ace Combat fans as perhaps the biggest Tear Jerker in the entire series.
  • The anti-war Osean and Yuktobanian squadrons joining up with the Razgriz in the intro to “Aces” became one to players due to how much of a Crowning Moment of Awesome and Crowning Moment of Heartwarming it is to see all the player's hard work coming to unite both armies against the Belkans and the Grunder Industries warmongers.
• Signature Song: The Unsung War, to the point where many songs in the later games will take inspiration from this song.
• That One Boss:
  • The 8492 squadron after Fortress in 5. If you do decide to take them on then be prepared for undoubtedly the hardest part of the game, period.
  • The Arkbird. It launches UAV drones that constantly spam missiles and you have to destroy targets on the large ship that are underneath it. Except one of the targets is located on the front of the plane where its fuselage gives it a great deal of cover. Oh, and you're under a strict time limit, you have to basically destroy most of the Arkbird before it leaves the map (and it starts close to half way across).
  • Ofnir Squadron in "Ghosts of Razgriz", primarily since you're forced to stay in the canyon, while they can go as high as they want. If you think to use the hyper-accurate SAAMs, the Ofnir planes take more than one to shoot down unlike most other aces.
• That One Level:
  • Four Horsemen, which requires you to coordinate with your wingmates to take out four radar stations at exactly the same time. You have to fly at just the right speed to be in position for your strike, and you have to account for the time it takes your missiles to travel as well. Also, randomly, Chopper's radar will malfunction or Grimm will fall out of position and you have to break off and line up the attack again, which will probably mess up your timing. And if you get any of this wrong, you have to start the whole mission over again.
  • Final Option. It's an interesting enough mission the first time, but unfortunately you can't skip it on future replays. You're forced to fly an unarmed trainer plane though a decently long level in order to escape a Belkan squadron, and you're following instead of leading for once so there's no real freedom on how you fly. ^Exception  This is generally true, though there are exceptions. The former Ace Combat Youtuber, Tomcat 171, blitzed the level and "led" his squad. He finished the mission so quickly, he flew past Swordsman. Unfortunately, his videos are no longer available.
  • In the "Operation Katina" arcade mode
    • Area 6B seems like a breeze, being just cargo planes and helicopters. However, the maneuvering needed between targets puts you at great risk of eating a C-5B's tailfin.
    • Area 6D puts you in a furball high over Anderson Crater (from AC04's first mission). You start out with a measly 30 seconds to sanitize the area of particularly maneuverable MiG-21s, Typhoons, and friggin' Su-37s that can all be glued to your tail very easily. What's more is that a C-5B spawns halfway through worth a whopping 2250 points, and goes down after 10 missile hits. Unlike shooting cargo planes in every other area, it doesn't restock your missiles. All this tactic does is leave you open to swarms of bad guys, drain ammo, and waste time badly needed to achieve SSS rank. You will be using the gun at point blank for most of that 24-kill quota.
• Wangst: Your wingmen's constant anti-war belaboring can fall under this. While they're not wrong and the characters are likable regardless, the fact of the matter is that they're repeatedly whining about being fighter pilots, a job they chose to sign up for (even if they did so to experience the thrills and beauty of flying a plane, not shooting down hostiles), and do so long before they learn they're pawns in a conflict orchestrated by an unseen third party.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The anti-war stance the game takes has some think it is a commentary on George W. Bush and The War on Terror. While there may be a grain of truth in there, if anything it is closer to the Cold War.
  • Given the Belkan War 15 years prior is akin to WWII, right up to being ended by nuclear weapons, that would make the political climate of this game akin to 1960s Earth, almost immediately before the Vietnam War, yet another conflict that ended up extremely unpopular with both the military and the general populace, not to mention around the same time as the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Underused Game Mechanic: The game includes an intricate wingman interaction system and a Tech Tree wherein you unlock more advanced planes by scoring enough points with earlier related craft, e.g. unlocking the F-14B by killing a certain amount of enemies with the F-14A. While both mechanics were slightly refined in ACZ and ACX, respectively, they have since been completely dropped, though Ace Combat Infinity and Ace Combat 7 did introduce a similar Aircraft Tree.