in my previous ace combat 2 review I briefly discussed control theory in the mechanical sense. every input to a system is manipulated and corrected upon to attempt to achieve a desired output, whether it's PID as mentioned in the previous post or LQR or some other more obscure variation. theoretically we can extrapolate these controllers and the actuators they drive to chains of controllers in sequence, all spitballing commands back and forth endlessly. my advisor once told me fighter jets are inherently unstable systems desperately wrangled to usability by their data synthesis routines. this "sensor fusion" complicates the matter; we control our fighter craft indirectly through another controller, obfuscating the point at which the command originates.
in a similar way, we interface with our craft through fingers gripped around the control column; a kind of cross-talk between physical device and flesh providing the controller of your mind and the controller of your plane with the illusion of direct communication. the yoke of a plane used to be directly tied to the craft's actuators, yet as time has gone on the scope of these vehicles has increased to the point where such direct leverage isn't feasible. now the control surface exposed inside the cockpit transmits signals via fly-by-wire to that central computer, which screens inputs and fuses together these signals with its own conceptions and assumptions; reinterpreting and redefining our input along the way. it provides only simulation and never true control; we always sit at its periphery, merely influencing lest our behavior yields catatrosphic results. so too does our body age, the actuators of our extremities atrophying and failing more and more to meaningfully turn our brain's desperate commands into action. organs slowing down in best cases or growing erratically in worst cases, the information and nutrients delivered in our blood finding it harder to squeeze through veins from atherosclerosis, and neurons dying, erasing our memories along with them. our consciousness begs for control the older we grow as it simultaneously loses the ability to assert its will.
where does the body end and the mind begin? at what interface in our aircraft does the body melt into the enclosure of the craft, where we begin perceiving the motions of the plane as motions of the self, inextricably linked? at what point can we transcend the limits of our being, sloughing off our skin into more powerful bodies? rena, trapped inside the prison of her body, restricted from ever tasting the kiss of sunlight, yearns for the embrace of her true self, the Night Raven. cynthia, with rationale never fully revealed to the player, seeks too to enjoin with the culmination of the human race within the electrosphere, removing the clunky interfaces of bodies to bodies in search of ethereal, unattainable connection. their stories are unquestionably entwined and offer repercussions on those around them, pulling everyone into the web of their desires. and through it all each one, whether as plain-spoken as keith or erich or idealistic as the former two, exist solely within the bounds of their aircraft. it is, after all, their only way with interfacing with world as conveyed through the game and its engine; the only place these characters can exert control and expression outside of prescribed and pre-recorded cutscenes. each interaction with these characters exists only through video streams in the electrosphere until the moment of takeoff, where finally they can interface with the world as it exists, within the bounds of these two discs.
thus it follows that abyssal dision, the christ of ouroboros, is the villain of this entry. having already unwillingly yielded himself to the pull of the electrosphere, he grapples with the truth that within the digital world the need for control dissipates. the only way to wield power remains externally in the physical dominion. thus he exerts his own will, now at one with his craft, having achieved everything rena and cynthia could ever dream of, clawing desperately for the ability to feel and live and want and fuck. and then you, nemo, the silent overseer of this, provide the antithesis to dision. the player, given the illusion of flesh within the bounds of an in-game aircraft, become the controller of life and death. the reaper. through your (admittedly binary) choices you shape the world in your image, with each path leading you to cutting off the evolutionary dead-end that is dision. once you're already committed to forgoing the physical limits of your body there simply is no going back!
control structures grow and propagate beyond the individual controller beings who make up this planet, elongating tendrils into the social structures of our kind. small communities expand into empires, into feudal fiefdoms of divinely-ordained control patterns, and eventually into mass financialization under capitalism. top-down hierarchies of CEOs and boards overseeing department leads down to individual managers and teams, whether silent and steady or as manically tempermental as the current gutting of twitter. in ac3 these expand into powers of their own - general resource and neucom - stateless, directionless entities going through the motions of imminent warfare without rhyme or reason. between them exists the UPEO, a supposedly neutral international body, financially affirming both sides while simultaneously being crushed between them, all while supporting a gormless mass of euro-asian countries barely referenced throughout the text. much like in real life, who provides the control asserted by the united nations? do our (in the US) implicitly anti-UN charter military actions somehow legitimize said institution by monopolizing violence on its behalf? this is what the mouthpieces on our side of the pond would have you believe, regardless of the tepid or non-existent objections from the first world or the aggrieved lashings of what remains of the second world. economic control through sanctions, institutional control through the UN Security Council and its prized rotating member seats, physical control through wage slavery, and mental control through the torrent of social media.
with ac3 there is the ability to choose sides, yet each wingman plaintively intones that there are no victors, and no allegiances. the compulsion of action is compulsion enough to drive one to fight for either side regardless of intrinsic motivation. even pledging fealty to ouroborous in a grasp at true revolutionary action devolves into killing one's idols. keith and fiona both serve and gain nothing, which shows complicity but at the same time a sort of tender sadness. it is an acceptance of no alternative, verbally impugning their controlling entity while being completely unable to actually affect change outside of its purview. this is unfortunate but honest to how we live; I see legions of my peers and students I've taught profess broadly leftist rhetoric and a desire to use their skills for good that end up desperately looking at chances to contribute to the public good while working for lockheed or raytheon or bloomberg or jane street or etc. etc. etc. the only "stable" alternative is to pursue a didactic profession as I have, and even then there's the perils of navigating away from amorphous sums of defense contracting research grants all while treading water as an adjunct or visiting lecturer for years. when I see erich desperately flailing in his position playing mercenary under the guise of peacekeeping, I see those I work with or used to work with, trapped in a superstructure without the perceived means to escape it.
within this framework, ac3 manages to weave actual threads of plot momentum through its missions, unlike the prior two ac entries which primarily barreled the player forward to military victory. rather than the driving top gun-style thrill of earlier games, ac3 prefers a more measured, dreary approach to its environments, scenario design, and sound. rushing through rain to exterminate another set of indecipherable targets as part of a bombing run is simply work, not a heroic endeavor. icy synth envelopes and jittery, fragmented percussion dominate the soundscape of these affairs. the tense canyon runs of prior games is transformed here into a foggy ravine where a river runs through, reflecting the entities above it not unlike the opening hour of panzer dragoon saga, which released a year before. here you trail a ghostly reconnaissance ship with rena to either a hidden laboratory shadowed by the cliffs or a dead end, both of which yield different follow-up missions (one where you earn rena's trust and assist her in locating her beloved night raven and one where you prevent a ship containing a biological weapon from colliding with towers in an industrial district). these small touches lend narrative cohesion to the experience, with ebbs and flows more suitable for a longer-form game.
unfortunately this also leads to the game's only notable problems: its repetition in mission layouts between routes and odd difficulty spikes. the first issue is inevitable given the structure, and easily ignorable if you space out each route a bit thanks to the different viewpoints you experience for each sortie and the variety of different specific objectives on each map (even if they just amount to hit X ground targets... but that's totally expected for psx ace combat). each route ending also features completely novel setpieces such as the XR-900 fleet hijacked at the end of general resource's campaign or the claustrophobic geofront invasion in the neucom ending. of these perhaps the only mission type repeated too often for its own good is the sphyrna battle, which occurs around five or six times and loses its luster quickly.
the difficulty spikes are more egregious, although there were only two main ones I personally struggled with: broken wings at the end of the UPEO route and self awareness at the end of ouroborous II. the former is simply a giant lopsided dogfight that will effectively wall the player if they don't understand the nature of the game's unique handling. the latter requires the player to assault a series of ground targets while the night raven is in pursuit. night raven often limits itself in fights (there are multiple fights against it where it will do little but evade you) but here it feels it necessary to blast you with a laser beam that has no warning beyond a small, untelegraphed sound effect. very frustrating mission that capped off my experience with the game rather poorly, but I can justify it by at least noting I was able to beat it through careful examination of its behavior (it struggles to accurately shoot when you are ascending, so moving in hill-like patterns will allow you to avoid its blasts up into high altitude and then careen back to earth faster than it can chase you as you swoop into to destroy a target).
in particular in comparison to ac2 this game requires a much more nuanced understanding of aircraft control. rolling the plane was the first difference that was apparent to me; where ac2 allows smooth and responsive rolling, ac3 includes an inertial element to the rotation that will cause more than a slight adjustment to apply significant torque, potentially overshooting your target angle. differences in aircraft are also more apparent, made particularly noticable for narrative reasons when demonstrating neucom's technological might in the high-power low-mobility remora craft in the mission power for life or when conducting a mission in the vacuum of space in, potentially the game's most well-known mission, zero gravity. planes overall turn wider, will gain much more noticable momentum when flying downward (hence the self awareness strategy), and stall more realistically, causing the engine to lose its energy transfer and create a wobbly descent rather than the abrupt free-fall in ac2. learning how to perform basic immelman turns and split Ss became imperative to remaining nimble in dogfights, and this eventually extended to true mobility in 3D space, where combinations of these "vertical" adjustments with lateral movements became bread-and-butter. ac2 never comes close to requiring this, and although the vast majority of missions in ac3 rarely approach anything more difficult than its predecessors, the late-game trials it assesses you with are satisfying.
this is on top of numerous quality of life changes and upgrades, such as enemy draw distance at nearly 8000 meters away instead of barely 3000, gorgeous cloud cover replacing flat skies, selectable weapons, and instant mission retries with no monetary penalty. of these the most notable is that updated HUD designed by mr. driller mainstay minoru sashida. ergonomically curved with tasteful sections dedicated to the radar and plane status, the altitude and speed readings are significantly more visible. the best addition of all is the orientation ring, which provides not only an immediate compass display but also an invaluable visual on how the plane is oriented: the cardinal directions rotate to reflect your perspective relative to the Z axis, and the overall ring detaches itself from surrounding the vehicle the further you alter the pitch. it's so intuitive and natural to the experience that it makes flying in the first-person mode seemingly a must.
with that it comes full circle: a further sense of realistic control enhancing the feeling of instability and obfuscated input. I have to imagine that the reason ac3 is the only ac to retain this flight model is for this reason... it directly impacts the ambiance of the game by reducing its grandiose trappings. death-defying maneuvers are the exception and not the rule. yet simultaneously it creates a sense of communion with your craft; rather than bending it to your will you must cooperate with it and its controller. from the brain to the fingers to the playstation controller to the engine to the flight modeling, each cooperating through different abstraction layers to provide the sensation of real control. not (entirely) compromised to simply entertain while still maintaining the player's sense of agency. all of this with the goal that via immersion you'll fuse in and become one. in effect, sublimation.
in a similar way, we interface with our craft through fingers gripped around the control column; a kind of cross-talk between physical device and flesh providing the controller of your mind and the controller of your plane with the illusion of direct communication. the yoke of a plane used to be directly tied to the craft's actuators, yet as time has gone on the scope of these vehicles has increased to the point where such direct leverage isn't feasible. now the control surface exposed inside the cockpit transmits signals via fly-by-wire to that central computer, which screens inputs and fuses together these signals with its own conceptions and assumptions; reinterpreting and redefining our input along the way. it provides only simulation and never true control; we always sit at its periphery, merely influencing lest our behavior yields catatrosphic results. so too does our body age, the actuators of our extremities atrophying and failing more and more to meaningfully turn our brain's desperate commands into action. organs slowing down in best cases or growing erratically in worst cases, the information and nutrients delivered in our blood finding it harder to squeeze through veins from atherosclerosis, and neurons dying, erasing our memories along with them. our consciousness begs for control the older we grow as it simultaneously loses the ability to assert its will.
where does the body end and the mind begin? at what interface in our aircraft does the body melt into the enclosure of the craft, where we begin perceiving the motions of the plane as motions of the self, inextricably linked? at what point can we transcend the limits of our being, sloughing off our skin into more powerful bodies? rena, trapped inside the prison of her body, restricted from ever tasting the kiss of sunlight, yearns for the embrace of her true self, the Night Raven. cynthia, with rationale never fully revealed to the player, seeks too to enjoin with the culmination of the human race within the electrosphere, removing the clunky interfaces of bodies to bodies in search of ethereal, unattainable connection. their stories are unquestionably entwined and offer repercussions on those around them, pulling everyone into the web of their desires. and through it all each one, whether as plain-spoken as keith or erich or idealistic as the former two, exist solely within the bounds of their aircraft. it is, after all, their only way with interfacing with world as conveyed through the game and its engine; the only place these characters can exert control and expression outside of prescribed and pre-recorded cutscenes. each interaction with these characters exists only through video streams in the electrosphere until the moment of takeoff, where finally they can interface with the world as it exists, within the bounds of these two discs.
thus it follows that abyssal dision, the christ of ouroboros, is the villain of this entry. having already unwillingly yielded himself to the pull of the electrosphere, he grapples with the truth that within the digital world the need for control dissipates. the only way to wield power remains externally in the physical dominion. thus he exerts his own will, now at one with his craft, having achieved everything rena and cynthia could ever dream of, clawing desperately for the ability to feel and live and want and fuck. and then you, nemo, the silent overseer of this, provide the antithesis to dision. the player, given the illusion of flesh within the bounds of an in-game aircraft, become the controller of life and death. the reaper. through your (admittedly binary) choices you shape the world in your image, with each path leading you to cutting off the evolutionary dead-end that is dision. once you're already committed to forgoing the physical limits of your body there simply is no going back!
control structures grow and propagate beyond the individual controller beings who make up this planet, elongating tendrils into the social structures of our kind. small communities expand into empires, into feudal fiefdoms of divinely-ordained control patterns, and eventually into mass financialization under capitalism. top-down hierarchies of CEOs and boards overseeing department leads down to individual managers and teams, whether silent and steady or as manically tempermental as the current gutting of twitter. in ac3 these expand into powers of their own - general resource and neucom - stateless, directionless entities going through the motions of imminent warfare without rhyme or reason. between them exists the UPEO, a supposedly neutral international body, financially affirming both sides while simultaneously being crushed between them, all while supporting a gormless mass of euro-asian countries barely referenced throughout the text. much like in real life, who provides the control asserted by the united nations? do our (in the US) implicitly anti-UN charter military actions somehow legitimize said institution by monopolizing violence on its behalf? this is what the mouthpieces on our side of the pond would have you believe, regardless of the tepid or non-existent objections from the first world or the aggrieved lashings of what remains of the second world. economic control through sanctions, institutional control through the UN Security Council and its prized rotating member seats, physical control through wage slavery, and mental control through the torrent of social media.
with ac3 there is the ability to choose sides, yet each wingman plaintively intones that there are no victors, and no allegiances. the compulsion of action is compulsion enough to drive one to fight for either side regardless of intrinsic motivation. even pledging fealty to ouroborous in a grasp at true revolutionary action devolves into killing one's idols. keith and fiona both serve and gain nothing, which shows complicity but at the same time a sort of tender sadness. it is an acceptance of no alternative, verbally impugning their controlling entity while being completely unable to actually affect change outside of its purview. this is unfortunate but honest to how we live; I see legions of my peers and students I've taught profess broadly leftist rhetoric and a desire to use their skills for good that end up desperately looking at chances to contribute to the public good while working for lockheed or raytheon or bloomberg or jane street or etc. etc. etc. the only "stable" alternative is to pursue a didactic profession as I have, and even then there's the perils of navigating away from amorphous sums of defense contracting research grants all while treading water as an adjunct or visiting lecturer for years. when I see erich desperately flailing in his position playing mercenary under the guise of peacekeeping, I see those I work with or used to work with, trapped in a superstructure without the perceived means to escape it.
within this framework, ac3 manages to weave actual threads of plot momentum through its missions, unlike the prior two ac entries which primarily barreled the player forward to military victory. rather than the driving top gun-style thrill of earlier games, ac3 prefers a more measured, dreary approach to its environments, scenario design, and sound. rushing through rain to exterminate another set of indecipherable targets as part of a bombing run is simply work, not a heroic endeavor. icy synth envelopes and jittery, fragmented percussion dominate the soundscape of these affairs. the tense canyon runs of prior games is transformed here into a foggy ravine where a river runs through, reflecting the entities above it not unlike the opening hour of panzer dragoon saga, which released a year before. here you trail a ghostly reconnaissance ship with rena to either a hidden laboratory shadowed by the cliffs or a dead end, both of which yield different follow-up missions (one where you earn rena's trust and assist her in locating her beloved night raven and one where you prevent a ship containing a biological weapon from colliding with towers in an industrial district). these small touches lend narrative cohesion to the experience, with ebbs and flows more suitable for a longer-form game.
unfortunately this also leads to the game's only notable problems: its repetition in mission layouts between routes and odd difficulty spikes. the first issue is inevitable given the structure, and easily ignorable if you space out each route a bit thanks to the different viewpoints you experience for each sortie and the variety of different specific objectives on each map (even if they just amount to hit X ground targets... but that's totally expected for psx ace combat). each route ending also features completely novel setpieces such as the XR-900 fleet hijacked at the end of general resource's campaign or the claustrophobic geofront invasion in the neucom ending. of these perhaps the only mission type repeated too often for its own good is the sphyrna battle, which occurs around five or six times and loses its luster quickly.
the difficulty spikes are more egregious, although there were only two main ones I personally struggled with: broken wings at the end of the UPEO route and self awareness at the end of ouroborous II. the former is simply a giant lopsided dogfight that will effectively wall the player if they don't understand the nature of the game's unique handling. the latter requires the player to assault a series of ground targets while the night raven is in pursuit. night raven often limits itself in fights (there are multiple fights against it where it will do little but evade you) but here it feels it necessary to blast you with a laser beam that has no warning beyond a small, untelegraphed sound effect. very frustrating mission that capped off my experience with the game rather poorly, but I can justify it by at least noting I was able to beat it through careful examination of its behavior (it struggles to accurately shoot when you are ascending, so moving in hill-like patterns will allow you to avoid its blasts up into high altitude and then careen back to earth faster than it can chase you as you swoop into to destroy a target).
in particular in comparison to ac2 this game requires a much more nuanced understanding of aircraft control. rolling the plane was the first difference that was apparent to me; where ac2 allows smooth and responsive rolling, ac3 includes an inertial element to the rotation that will cause more than a slight adjustment to apply significant torque, potentially overshooting your target angle. differences in aircraft are also more apparent, made particularly noticable for narrative reasons when demonstrating neucom's technological might in the high-power low-mobility remora craft in the mission power for life or when conducting a mission in the vacuum of space in, potentially the game's most well-known mission, zero gravity. planes overall turn wider, will gain much more noticable momentum when flying downward (hence the self awareness strategy), and stall more realistically, causing the engine to lose its energy transfer and create a wobbly descent rather than the abrupt free-fall in ac2. learning how to perform basic immelman turns and split Ss became imperative to remaining nimble in dogfights, and this eventually extended to true mobility in 3D space, where combinations of these "vertical" adjustments with lateral movements became bread-and-butter. ac2 never comes close to requiring this, and although the vast majority of missions in ac3 rarely approach anything more difficult than its predecessors, the late-game trials it assesses you with are satisfying.
this is on top of numerous quality of life changes and upgrades, such as enemy draw distance at nearly 8000 meters away instead of barely 3000, gorgeous cloud cover replacing flat skies, selectable weapons, and instant mission retries with no monetary penalty. of these the most notable is that updated HUD designed by mr. driller mainstay minoru sashida. ergonomically curved with tasteful sections dedicated to the radar and plane status, the altitude and speed readings are significantly more visible. the best addition of all is the orientation ring, which provides not only an immediate compass display but also an invaluable visual on how the plane is oriented: the cardinal directions rotate to reflect your perspective relative to the Z axis, and the overall ring detaches itself from surrounding the vehicle the further you alter the pitch. it's so intuitive and natural to the experience that it makes flying in the first-person mode seemingly a must.
with that it comes full circle: a further sense of realistic control enhancing the feeling of instability and obfuscated input. I have to imagine that the reason ac3 is the only ac to retain this flight model is for this reason... it directly impacts the ambiance of the game by reducing its grandiose trappings. death-defying maneuvers are the exception and not the rule. yet simultaneously it creates a sense of communion with your craft; rather than bending it to your will you must cooperate with it and its controller. from the brain to the fingers to the playstation controller to the engine to the flight modeling, each cooperating through different abstraction layers to provide the sensation of real control. not (entirely) compromised to simply entertain while still maintaining the player's sense of agency. all of this with the goal that via immersion you'll fuse in and become one. in effect, sublimation.
3 Comments
incredible review
HylianBran
1 year ago