James' Reviews: Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (PS2)

This is the one, the game that got quite a few of us Ace Combat fans into the series. Needless to say I am one of those that was introduced to the series by this game. It is Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (or Distant Thunder for those of you who live in Europe) released for the PlayStation 2 on September 13, 2001 in Japan and November 1 the same year in North America and those in Europe had to wait until February of 2002. This was also the first game made by Project Aces. And I love pretty much every aspect of this game: the music, the story, and so on. So here it is, my review of Ace Combat 04 for the PS2.

Story:
In the Japanese release of Ace Combat 3 we got a glimpse of what the team over at Namco could do with storytelling. Project Aces, the new team that would head the making of future games, made the story one of the best parts of the game. Also I am leaving NO STONE unturned in telling the story, so if you haven't played the game don't read this part, just skip it and go play the game, MASSIVE SPOILERS.

In December of 1994 a group of scientists discovers a large asteroid heading right for the planet. The asteroid, called 1994XF04 Ulysses, is measured to be about 1 mile wide. In response to this new the several nations scramble for solutions. One continent’s, Usea, nations designed the Stonehenge Turret Network (STN), a group of 8 120cm railguns to destroy the asteroid built in the nation of San Salvacion. On July 3, 1999 Ulysses passed the Roche Limit and broke into thousands of pieces. While not anticipated the nations reacted quickly. Stonehenge engaged the larger fragments and preformed well under the circumstances. Still, it was not enough and the asteroid still left its mark, killing over half a million within the first few weeks and causing the equivalent of 18 months of the GDP of all of the Usean continent. One of the fragments hit the Erusean capital Farbanti.

Then in August of 2003 Erusea began operations in San Salvacion, including taking over Stonehenge. Erusea uses Stonehenge as an Anti-Aircraft weapon, and becomes capable to have air superiority over almost all of the Usean continent. ISAF (Independent State Allied Forces) is pushed back to North Point, outside of Stonehenge’s range. This is were the story starts.
The game starts on September 19, 2004. After Erusean agents destroyed the ISAF early warning radars a group of Tu-95 Bear bombers make their way to destroy the ISAF air force base Allenfort. In response a rookie pilot, Mobius 1, is sent with other ISAF fighter squadrons and the AWACS Sky Eye. Mobius 1 destroys all the bombers before they could reach their targets. Mobius 1’s first sortie is, coincidently, Sky Eye’s birthday. ISAF decides that the bombers at Rigley Air Force Base, a former ISAF facility, are too big of a threat and send aircraft in to destroy them. After taking care of the bombers ISAF sends the pilots to take out the Mount Shezna Erusean Radar Station. Next Mobius 1 had a hand in taking out retreating cargo planes and a key refinery area and having to retreat from Erusea’s top squadron, the 156th Fighter Wing or the Yellow Squadron. One of the key turning points in the war comes on November 23, 2004 when the ISAF forces launch a strike on the Erusean’s “Invincible” Aegir fleet in Comberth Harbor. Mobius 1 and the other pilots successfully destroyed several Aegir ships, crippling the fleet. Their next operation had them flying into the range of Stonehenge, after destroying the solar power generators Stonehenge fires on the attacking ISAF planes, they escape by flying through a ravine, but several ISAF planes are shot down. On the next mission the ISAF fighters engage in a large aerial furball to protect the launch of a recon satellite. Mobius 1 gets a hit on one of the Yellow’s and the battle is a victory for ISAF. Mobius 1’s next missions have him assisting in a D-Day styled beach landing, destroying facilities along the Tango Line while being fired on by Stonehenge, and protecting two airliners from Erusean fighters. By this time ISAF high command was finding out that Mobius 1 was capable of winning the war for them, this became even more evident when Mobius 1 destroys Stonehenge and shoots down a Yellow. Mobius 1 then goes solo, taking out jammer balloons to give a U-2 spyplane the ability to navigate and then protecting it from fighter attack and destroying multiple cruise missiles heading for allied troops landing in the north and then a burst missile. On July 10, 2005 Mobius 1 assists in the liberation of San Salvacion; first by destroying targets on the ground and in the air, and then destroying six Tu-160 Blackjacks that were intent on wiping out the city.
Speaking of San Salvacion, the other side of this story is about a boy known only as the Storyteller boy. Leaving for school one day he witnesses a dogfight above his home. The ISAF fighter was shot down and crashed on the home he had just left, killing his parents. As the Erusean fighter comes closer to examine his kill, the boy gets a good look at a number on the tail, a yellow 13. After the death of his parents he moved in with his uncle, who was a taxi driver, who is later effected by rationing after the Erusean’s occupied the city. The boy has a crush on the daughter of the local barkeep. One night a group of Erusean pilots came to the bar, among them is the pilot Yellow 13 (whom the Barkeep’s Daughter has a crush on, we can guess this because it says she shot the female pilot Yellow 4 jealous glances). Yellow 13, with a guitar, motions for the boy to join him with his harmonica and the boy finds out the song he is playing is the same one his father played at the end of each day. Later the boy’s uncle goes missing and he ends up staying at the bar. He comes to see Yellow 13 as a father figure.
This brings me to something, I love how Yellow 13 is portrayed. He has respect for his enemies and seeks an opponent that will give him a challenge. This is much like how the Red Baron was during World War 1, he was a respectable pilot and a very good one. Yellow 13 also could care less about how many planes he shot down, he takes pride in the fact that he had never lost a squadron mate. And also the beautiful song that is played with the boy just adds to why I love this game.
Anyway the boy ends up joining the resistance after stumbling upon the barkeep with several other resistance members, the barkeep’s daughter took pity upon him and saved him from interrogation. After the resistance bombed the Yellow squadrons runway, Yellow 4’s plane is heavily damaged but she goes to defend Stonehenge anyway. And then, after Yellow 4 is shot down, Yellow 13 admires pilot who shot her down for his honor unlike the “despicable bastards” of the Resistance. As ISAF drew closer blackouts became mandatory. One night, the Barkeep’s daughter is caught trying to plant laser transmitters for detonating explosives, Yellow 13 stops in front of her, then the boy promptly confronts him and Yellow 13 is pained by what he says, then lets the two go. Later on Yellow 13 is disgusted by the Erusean Army putting Anti-Aircraft guns on hospitals. After the liberation of San Salvacion, the Storyteller boy and the Barkeep’s daughter follow the retreating Eruseans. Yellow 13 continues to fly, even though he complains about poor fuel quality screwing up his preformance
Now back to the other story side.
After taking out the last line of defense in the Whiskey Corridor, ISAF launched the final assault on the Erusean capital. It is September 19, 2005 when the war officially ends, after Mobius 1 single-handedly takes out the Yellow squadron.
After the battle between Mobius 1 and Yellow 13 a handkerchief flutters down from where 13 was, this was Yellow 4’s, the two kids bury it in the ground and reflected that Yellow 13 died happy.
But this isn’t the end. A group of Erusean’s refused to accept the surrender and take over the facility called Megalith. Protected by the remains of the Yellow squadron, the weapon requires a lone pilot to fly in and destroy the generators keeping the ground troops from being able to advance. The newly formed 118th Tactical Fighter Wing Mobius squadron, made up of the other squadrons that fly with you throughout the game, take out the remaining Yellows and allow Mobius 1 to destroy Megalith. With one final attack on the large missile, Mobius 1 flies through the top and Megalith explodes. After this we get possibly the greatest quote I have ever heard from Sky Eye and Bravo 1:
AWACS SkyEye: "Target destroyed! There he is! We have Mobius 1 on radar!"
"Bravo 1 here, that plane that flew in, is it alright?"
SkyEye: "Yes, he's fine! I got a visual on him right now!"
Bravo 1:"So, did we win the war?"
SkyEye: "I don't know. History determines the winner. But there's one thing I can say for certain. Heroes really do exist. We've just seen one, and now he's coming home."
At the end your in for a surprise. The boys tale, told throughout the game in it’s cutscenes, is actually a letter he is writing to Mobius 1.
This is one of my favorite stories, and the end surprised me to no end. This game’s story is possibly one of the best there is.

Graphics:
The graphics are very good. The water is much better looking than the other Ace Combat games before it, this is obviously because of the PS2’s graphical capabilities. The cutscenes are slideshow style, anime-esque design and also look very good. The planes are highly detailed and the weapons show on the aircraft, unlike in Ace Combat 3, and for aircraft like the F-22 the weapons bays open and close. I think, though not as good as today’s games, the graphics still hold up.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is very similar to the other games. It has the usual flight sim controls. There are six difficulty settings instead of AC3’s three; you have Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert, and Ace. On the easier difficulties, it takes several missiles to shoot you down, but on Expert or Ace it takes one. Expert is available after beating Normal and Ace after Expert. Also in every mission is a Return Line, were you can get repairs (in some difficulties) and be rearmed. This would be missing in Ace Combat 5, but come back in Zero, which I’ll get to later. There are 21 aircraft to use, the super fighter introduced in this game is one of my favorites the X-02 Wyvern. Your default plane is the F-4E Phantom II.

There is a multi-player, I’ve had some fun with it with my little brother, but it is not really what I want in an Ace Combat game.

Music:
Ace Combat 04’s music is great once again. This time the game has a combination of orchestrations, rock, and synthesizers. One thing I forgot to do is add some of my favorite tracks from AC3. This game also introduced composer Keiki Kobayashi, who is now the one of the Namco Sound Team’s leaders and would come back for Ace Combat 5.

I could go on for a while, but I’ll just wait for later on that.

Over all there is a reason why Ace Combat 04 is the most well received. The gameplay, graphics, and story are all wonderful.

Strengths: Gameplay, Graphics, Story, Music
Weaknesses: No interaction with NPC’s, Multiplayer

If you want to get into the series, I suggest you start here. It gets a 9.8 out of 10. It’s not perfect but the game is one of the best on the PlayStation 2.

Next time will be Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War.

Comments

[TAB]

Nice review. Having also been introduced to AC from AC4, it is definitely the second greatest game from my childhood. This was actually the game that got me into aircraft, and I'll never forget it for that.

Now I just have to wait for you to do my favorite game, AC5