"Erm... 'war is bad' is kinda cliche... and uhhh if they like peace... why are they fighting??? 🤓"

Yeah whatever poindexter, if the beginning of mission 27 didn't at least make you smile, then your joyless, jaded ass better stick to Drakengard and keep that mouth shut. Out here we EMBRACE the cheesiness.

With that being said, the scripted nature of the game leads to missions that feel just a little too long, and in the event that you die, replaying them can feel like pulling teeth.

A cinemática dos aviões nunca foi tão boa quanto agora, os efeitos especiais e a velocidade do jogo adicionam uma adrenalina que agrega, e as missões são as mais variadas de todos os jogos da série que joguei até agora - seria uma pena se todas essas missões estivessem ligadas à condições de falha arcanas que só se entende de fato acontecem, repetindo de 10-15 minutos de esforço em vão porque você cruzou uma barreira invisível que não estava no combinado ou porque é sua primeira vez tentando a missão e você achou que tinha escolhido bem o avião pra missão, mas não sabia que depois de terminar o objetivo principal você devia ficar 10 minutos voando e ignorando todos inimigos para não gastar munição, já que depois desses 10 minutos vem um objetivo novo surpresa e ai de você se você tiver usado seus mísseis quando o jogo indicou que era pra você ter usado. Cheguei a mencionar que, em todas essas repetições frustrantes de missão em que o contrato jogador/jogo nunca está claro você é reforçado a escutar o diálogo absolutamente horrendo (em voz e texto) do jogo, e que se você termina um objetivo mais rápido do que o diálogo enlatado o jogo revive os alvos do objetivo pra conseguir concluir o roteiro? Citei como este Ace Combat usa de uma história conveniente para emplastar com a graça de uma anta uma mensagem antiguerra tosca através de uma narrativa e diálogos de anime shonen insosso?

Ace Combat 5 tenta por uma experiência mais cinematográfica, porém mantendo os trilhos arcade do jogo. A enorme gama de missões com diversas mecânicas/condições variadas que resultam em falha imediata e repetição enorme caso você saia minimamente dos trilhos representa as amarras de um jogo que não foi feito para isso. Até que teria como contar esse animezinho idiota de avião E manter um sistema que te permita S-rankear missões variadas, mas não se esforçaram muito em dinamizar a experiência. O romance da aviação aqui é um teatro de ensino médio: apenas siga o roteiro e fique animado para o próximo; não engaje com o conteúdo até que eu diga que pode; espere em pé em cima do X até sua vez de falar. É uma brincadeira como pensaram que seria uma boa ideia juntar o tanto de tempo morto e enrolação que o jogo força pela visão “cinematográfica” à condições de falha e paredes invisíveis que não estavam no combinado até o momento em que o jogo decide que estão. E pelo o que? Me fez querer desistir da série diversas vezes.

Ace Combat 5 com alguns ajustes seria o melhor da série - adoraria um jogo com essa variedade de missões em uma estrutura que realmente as permitisse, e gostei como ele é o único que te força a usar a metralhadora do avião. Infelizmente, pra mim foi apenas uma série de desavenças que não consegui superar: para cada missão empolgante, eu encontrava alguma bobagem idiota que acabava com a brincadeira - e em todos os momentos forçado a literalmente esperar e escutar esse diálogo terrível e uma narrativa babona.

God DAMN, now THIS is what I expect when people say "Ace Combat". Story and gameplay that weaves in and out of each other like planes in flight, an epic musical score, and rock-solid gameplay mechanics. Coming off AC04, I'd tell you that game lacked an identity. Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War is an unforgettable trip.

The story in this game is framed from two different perspectives: The events you play through with your squadron, and a journalist living on the base with your squadron. Swapping between the actual events (the missions) and an outsider's perspective (the cutscenes) really makes this an engaging narrative throughout. It also helps that your wingmates have pretty good chemistry, and some pretty amusing banter at times. Not only that, but there are many occasions where you can use the dpad mid-mission to respond yes/no to their comments over the radio, getting unique responses. The story has quite a few interesting twists and turns, and the game is really good at making the mission objectives feel meaningful and help drive the story forward.

Every single mission is excellent. They all manage to bring something unique to the table. One mission you're leading a passenger aircraft through an anti-air radar minefield, in another you'll be defending a civilian airport under seige, and there's even more stuff that I don't even want to spoil. The campaign is also fairly lengthy, about 30 or so missions to work through. Each mission lasts just the right amount of time too, never overstaying its welcome. I do wish the game had checkpoints in a few places, but not necessarily so I could have another go at the hard part of the missions. No, I longed for checkpoints in missions with 30-45 second long intros before you actually reached your objective, and in turn, the fun gameplay. Though it would've been nice to have a checkpoint in the penultimate mission. That tunnel sequence, god damn. There's also an arcade mode that scratches my itch for when I don't want to get wrapped up in career mode, and just wanna fly. Funnily enough, it's actually a continuation of AC04's story, where you play as that game's ace pilot, flying solo through fast-paced sets of objectives.

The real star of the show is once again, your wingmates. They're not just there to look pretty, and they're not all talk either. You choose what aircrafts they go up in, you give them simplistic orders that change their behavior, and you even get prompted for yes/no questions mid-flight. Moreover, your wingmates can and will deal damage to enemies on their own. It's stuff like this that lets you build camaraderie with these virtual pilots. Speaking of picking your wingmates' planes, the shop system is another thing that makes more sense in this title. Now you can buy multiple of the same plane, so more than one can be taken into a given mission. You can even create loadouts, which obviously saves time when sortieing. There's so much aircraft available to buy in this game too. I didn't even have half of them unlocked by the time the credits rolled.

The only reason I can't give this five stars is because checkpoints would've helped a ton with a few missions, but otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing. Honestly, I'm happy to state that this game is going up there as one of my favorite PS2 games, and I've got high hopes to see how they follow it up, as Project Aces goes back in time for Ace Combat Zero. In my eyes, their studio has earned their slogan for this title: "Nothing else comes close."

A real step up from 4, incredibly better in story, gameplay, and setting. Telling a more focused tale of a soon-to-be legendary squad, it's real good stuff and you can feel how great is gonna be right from the off-set. Tons of good missions, moments, and engagements, so much here to love. Gameplay is floatier and quicker than 4, which is a welcome improvement, and this title also introduces the squad mechanic, which is real brilliant stuff, picking all your squads planes and giving them orders mid-missions to suit your need, it adds a whole new layer to each mission. It's a PS2 classic and a strong entry in the series.

A much more character focused game compared to 4, and even Zero in some ways! It’s probably the weakest in terms of overall gameplay, but still a fun time. Plus, I loved the story and characters enough to not mind and was on board the whole way!

If I had any big complaints, it’s probably with the UI. Trying to choose a plane is insanely hard for no reason cause of one needing to be on screen at once and the screen being taken up by so much extra fluff that should’ve had at least room for a list of each plane. And no, the R1 menu does not count.

But I still overall loved this game for its team based focus and I grew closer to my wingmen here compared to every other game, so it’s a certified banger in my books!

Fucking abysmal. I cannot for the life of me figure out what people see in this! So aesthetically limited, completely lacking the poetry and subtext of prior entries. In previous games you'd hear a real fucking crazy piece of music playing while people babbled military-speak at you, between loading screens of half-remembered Jean Genet book statements, and it never really comes together but it's a unique as fuck aesthetic. Truly, nothing like it, I'll spare you whatever stupid little analogies I have about the other aspects.

Then there's AC5. 4 already began on the sort of journey towards American military-specific aestheticism, even in the world of 'Strangereal' as they call it, where-in everything resembles reality but you can't place any of the history of politicking. But 5 feels like a stripped down, straight-up piece of shovelware propaganda, like a straight to DVD sequel made 12 years after the fact to <i>Paul Schrader's Ace Combat</i>. It's even got this awful, and I mean awful, derivative soundtrack dedicated to Hans Zimmer, who was already such a derivative piece of shit he famously didn't compose a lot of the films he's credited with composing. But, one of the highest rated titles on this site in general? I'm befuddled.

you: explaining to me how I am committing endless war crimes and the anti war message of this game is completely toothless

me:
"THOUGHTS ENDLESS IN FLIGHT
DAY TURNS TO NIGHT"

this game definitely has some of the rougher missions than the previous games, no resupply line means that if you run out of missiles ur just kinda boned, and some missions can drag on longer than they should. Despite its large gameplay flaws, AC5 remains one of the most memorable ace combat games solely because of the plot, which is probably the strongest in the series thus far, both for simpletons like me that just want to plane good and the strangereal lore buffs. I'd definitely reccomend playing this game just to see the story alone.

out of the trinity, this game definitely has some of the highest highs but also the lowest lows. as part of trying to flesh out a narrative, there were a bunch of honestly not so fun missions that just ruined the pacing. the story, as in all ac games, was not going to be something amazing so imo, it was really unecessary. the game also dragged on way too long, 25+ missions was just too much, especially when a lot of them weren't that fun and kind of a slog to get through. razgriz sqaudron is probably my 2nd favorite behind mobius 1. their theme song was amazing too