Man what is HAPPENING 😭😭
It would be a stretch to say that it abandons the arcade feel entirely, but I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking this is the first "real" home console game in the Ace Combat series. The striking aesthetic cued me in immediately to how much more thoroughly crafted of an experience it would be compared to the first two games. The Y2K-esque UI asks you to create a "new account" in lieu of a save file, the animated conversations take place in an eerie cyberspace, and the cheesy Top Gun ripoff rock tracks are replaced by thumping techno music.
More impressively though, AC3 manages to perfectly walk the line between making the combat more refined than ever while also giving it a much more grounded feel. The new compass implemented into the HUD is an excellent touch and the extended range on all of the weapons is appreciated. At the same time, the fighters all have more weight to them than ever, with turns feeling much slower and wider and much less pinpoint precision when it comes to small adjustments. It makes each jet feel like the heavy machine of death that it is without ever compromising on how good it feels to soar the skies.
It's absolutely fitting then that the first "real" story in the series is one that comments on the nature of the wars being fought. AC3 doesn't center itself around the ideologies or effects of war so much as it does the people who wage them, nameless faceless corpos with only a politically feeble stand-in for the UN in the form of UPEO. AC3 truly excels when it leans into this worldbuilding, news reports and wingman conversations are an excellent way to add a layer of doubt to each mission. It's especially great that every story branch is done through the gameplay as well, forcing the player into a difficult choice with little time to think about it.
The story was also the greatest source of disappointment for me at times however. Ideologies falling to the wayside feels fitting for a vague corporate war, but it felt like the characters attributed to each "branch" needed much more compelling reasons to be sided with. In a way it's fitting that the player would be an outsider to whatever conflicts Rena or Dision have, but it also feels like it expects you to have at least some attachment to what their goals are to be siding with them. My main issue with all of this is exemplified by the true ending, however, so:
AC3 TRUE ENDING SPOILERS AHEAD
The true ending also makes sense in a lot of ways. After all, what is war if not something to be done in complete vain? I'm able to accept a plot that's intentionally a let down, but boiling it down to one man running a simulation for reasons we only are privy to at the very end feels like a hollow way of going about it. I suppose what it wants to tell us is that Nemo was a pawn, but doing that through the normal routes would have felt much more convincing to me. Being told that all of our decision making was by design just doesn't really line up with the actual experience. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I wish it had felt like an evolution of what was presented in the early game rather than an admission that it was pointless.
More impressively though, AC3 manages to perfectly walk the line between making the combat more refined than ever while also giving it a much more grounded feel. The new compass implemented into the HUD is an excellent touch and the extended range on all of the weapons is appreciated. At the same time, the fighters all have more weight to them than ever, with turns feeling much slower and wider and much less pinpoint precision when it comes to small adjustments. It makes each jet feel like the heavy machine of death that it is without ever compromising on how good it feels to soar the skies.
It's absolutely fitting then that the first "real" story in the series is one that comments on the nature of the wars being fought. AC3 doesn't center itself around the ideologies or effects of war so much as it does the people who wage them, nameless faceless corpos with only a politically feeble stand-in for the UN in the form of UPEO. AC3 truly excels when it leans into this worldbuilding, news reports and wingman conversations are an excellent way to add a layer of doubt to each mission. It's especially great that every story branch is done through the gameplay as well, forcing the player into a difficult choice with little time to think about it.
The story was also the greatest source of disappointment for me at times however. Ideologies falling to the wayside feels fitting for a vague corporate war, but it felt like the characters attributed to each "branch" needed much more compelling reasons to be sided with. In a way it's fitting that the player would be an outsider to whatever conflicts Rena or Dision have, but it also feels like it expects you to have at least some attachment to what their goals are to be siding with them. My main issue with all of this is exemplified by the true ending, however, so:
AC3 TRUE ENDING SPOILERS AHEAD
The true ending also makes sense in a lot of ways. After all, what is war if not something to be done in complete vain? I'm able to accept a plot that's intentionally a let down, but boiling it down to one man running a simulation for reasons we only are privy to at the very end feels like a hollow way of going about it. I suppose what it wants to tell us is that Nemo was a pawn, but doing that through the normal routes would have felt much more convincing to me. Being told that all of our decision making was by design just doesn't really line up with the actual experience. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I wish it had felt like an evolution of what was presented in the early game rather than an admission that it was pointless.
" Alright we're in charge of localizing this, what's the story like again? "
" The world in the near future reached such a stage of late unregulated liberalism that 2 companies have more power than every other nation combined, and they declare war against one another because they would rather destroy half the world than not have a total market monopoly. "
" Hmmm how about we change that so that capitalism is good actually and there's a shadow government manipulating those companies who are innocenet and don't know any better (also their leader is named Aurora, thats important), and when you beat them... you achieve eternal world peace? "
" Sure. "
" The world in the near future reached such a stage of late unregulated liberalism that 2 companies have more power than every other nation combined, and they declare war against one another because they would rather destroy half the world than not have a total market monopoly. "
" Hmmm how about we change that so that capitalism is good actually and there's a shadow government manipulating those companies who are innocenet and don't know any better (also their leader is named Aurora, thats important), and when you beat them... you achieve eternal world peace? "
" Sure. "
I have completed Japanese release with a fan translation.
エースコンバット3 エレクトロスフィア
1999 • Namco
JP 4907892010642
エースコンバット3 エレクトロスフィア
1999 • Namco
JP 4907892010642
Joguei a versão japonesa com patch feito por fãs, excelente jogo com uma boa historia e suas bifurcações, os diferentes finais e personagens bem escritos tornam esse jogo uma experiencia única, de fato amei esse titulo, recomendo bastante.