"Ace Air Combat" Series Part I: From Arcade to Console: "Ace Air Combat" Elders Recall the Source of Series Success
The second part of the "Ace Air Battle" series: the perfect combination of flight and performance: the leap and evolution of the "Ace Air Battle" series
The third part of the "Ace Air Battle" series: Go hand in hand, attack in an all-round way: The peak era of the "Ace Air Battle" series
The development of the "Ace Air Combat" series in the past 10 years has been quite bumpy: the hugely changed "Assault Horizon" has a mixed reputation; "Infinity" has been a success as a free online game, but it cannot meet the needs of single-player players; the orthodox sequel "Ace Air Battle 7" has been repeatedly postponed, and the series has been in a crisis of life and death. Using the last year before its release, the studio reworked Ace Combat 7, finally bringing the series to life.
<h3>Face it</h3>
Bandai and Namco have officially merged as early as 2006, and Namco's corporate culture has inevitably been influenced by Bandai, becoming more quick to make a profit. A superior from Bandai once asked: "Why can the 'Dragon Ball' series of games sell so much, but the 'Ace Air Battle' series can't do it." "Project Aces is under increasing pressure, and the team has made various attempts to pursue higher sales, but the results are not satisfactory.
The 2010 PSP game Ace Combat X2 is the first work in the series to use a realistic background, but it still contains exaggerated elements such as air fortresses, and the plot is also very absurd, and the style is not different. The game's weapons and body are rich, but the levels and plot are full of traces of rushing, which affects the overall evaluation. At this time, Kato Nobuki has completely retired to the production of producers, fading out of the development line, and the newcomers who succeeded him did not perform well.
Air Fortress of Ace Battle X2
Released on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2011, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is the most controversial in the series. Some players believe that the new system has expanded the user base, while others angrily accuse the game of betraying the series.
Project Aces director Hiroyuki Ichiyanagi analyzed the sales of Ace Battle 6, as an Xbox 360 exclusive work, the Japanese version of 250,000 sales is still outstanding, the US version of 530,000 and the European version of 200,000 is disappointing. In order to return the series to the 2 million sales club, Hiroyuki Ichiyanagi hopes that the team will make changes in both game content and development thinking. Assault Horizon thus uses a realistic background and adds a dogfight system.
Kazunari Kono, who had retreated behind the scenes, chose to return as the director of "Assault Horizon", but he was absent from many early decision-making processes and returned to work after the team finalized the general direction.
Whereas the previous team used to officially start work after the engine had been improved, Assault Horizon introduced a "visual pre-development" process. Using the engine of Ace Combat 6, Kosuke Itami produced several pre-rendered videos to showcase new special effects and systems for the team to understand the game's concepts.
Pre-rendered concept video
Ace Combat 6 took an average of 75 days to produce a map, and to speed things up, the team developed more satellite map analysis tools for Assault Horizon. The city of this game is derived from reality, and the level contains a large number of low-flying pictures between skyscrapers, which puts new demands on the detail of the scene.
The team devised a new set of tools, taking the city of Tokyo as an example, with a total of 50 eye-catching landmarks in the map, these special buildings need to be handmade, and the remaining 30,000 ordinary buildings are automatically divided into categories such as apartments, warehouses and factories by programs, and the models are automatically populated. In order to avoid the same looking, multiple textures and model heights are used for the same type of building. After software optimization, the amount of data for ordinary buildings has been reduced from 30,000 to 150, which not only improves work efficiency, but also reduces the screen load.
Sugano Masashi introduced a large number of physical destruction effects for this game, and enemy aircraft will gradually become fragmented during battle, and the specific effect is determined by changes in body lift and center of gravity. However, on the whole, the special effects of this game are not real, and the enemy aircraft can continue to fly even if they are beaten into a sieve, and even spill oil on the cockpit cover of the protagonist, causing some players to be uncomfortable.
In addition to conventional fighters and attack aircraft, the game can also fly helicopters and bombers. In addition, campaign mode provides dedicated fixed-track firing levels for helicopter gunners and gunboat gunners. The fixed track levels of the Call of Duty series are just tonifies, the process is short and concise, and the level of Assault Horizon is slow-paced, reducing the thrill.
Enemy aircraft can also continue to fly if they are beaten into a sieve
Helicopter gunner level
However, the introduction of helicopters and bombers did change the gameplay of the game. In battle mode, low-flying helicopters are good at dodging radar detection, and bombers, under the protection of friendly forces, can fully exert firepower and severely damage ground targets.
The F-35B fighter became a maneuverable model for the first time in this game, and the game did not fully restore its vertical take-off and landing features, only retaining the special ability to hover in the air.
The dogfight system can be described as the biggest point of controversy in "Assault Horizon", the previous "Air Killer: Flawless Ace" first introduced this system, but there is no enemy that must be defeated by the dogfight system, this game crosses this bottom line, so that the combat mechanism card is also full of fixed flight tracks.
As early as before the release of the game, many netizens said that "the dog fighting system is betraying the player", and Kono Ichisato believed that "this is indeed a betrayal, but I hope it is a well-intentioned betrayal that can make the series better".
It turns out that the stereotyped routine of the dogfight system reduces the playability of the campaign, Kono had hoped to make a patch to remove the dogfight system, but the battle of this game is completely designed around the dogfight system, and the workload of the patch is close to developing a new campaign, and Kono has to give up.
Use the fixed tracks of the dogfight system to fly between tall buildings
Talking about why he chose a realistic background, Kono said that the previous "Ace Air Battle 0" and "Ace Air Battle 6" sold around 1 million, and most players did not understand the Rangereal worldview, and it was only by turning into a realistic background that more people could be attracted.
Kono approached Jim De Phyllis, the best-selling American military fiction author, as a screenwriter. Jim took the job out of love for the Ace Combat series, but the script he wrote could only be considered an outline, and many details in the game were personally finalized by the Japanese team.
For example, the nightmare of the protagonist's skydive after being shot down stems from the real experience of Masato Kanno. Kanno suffered a breakdown in his umbrella bag during a skydive and recovered a life with a spare umbrella. Thinking about this experience now, Sugano still has palpitations.
The game's character design is handed over to the original American art company Massive Black, the original human design is full of personality, but it does not meet the requirements at all, the protagonist's long beard can not even be tucked into the pilot's helmet, and the modified human design has become a bunch of public faces. The motion capture shots of American actors can only be regarded as decent, and they are forgotten when they are seen. According to tradition, the protagonists of the series are faceless, non-talking characters, and the protagonist of this game, William Bishop, breaks this tradition, but the mediocre shape and boring lines do not leave much impression on the player.
Volkswagen face protagonist William Bishop
Jim wrote a more realistic script, and in the end, the boss's car was only a T-50 (at that time, the machine did not get the official number of the Su-57), and the special weapon was only a cloudburst missile, but this does not mean that all the scenes in the game are real. The protagonist shuttles between dense high-rise buildings, and the enemy aircraft can continue to fly even if they are beaten into a sieve... The scenes designed by these Japanese teams are even more exaggerated than the works before the series. But Jim believes that "Hollywood often plays like this", and he accepts all kinds of exaggerated scenes.
The cross-border collaboration of Assault Horizon is fraught with setbacks, and the only bright spot may be the audio part that Keiki Kobayashi is in charge of. Middle Eastern and Russian-style folk music sets off the atmosphere of the level, and although the game has mixed reviews, the soundtrack has won the full house. Kobayashi also personally recorded the sound effects of guns and helicopters, making the weapons of this game more powerful.
In terms of DLC, in order to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the birth of "Chrono Fortress", this is the F-14 including two sets of classic liveries. Unfortunately, because the copyright of "Timeless Fortress" was in dispute in Europe and the United States, these two sets of liveries were only pushed in Japanese clothes.
Masaharu Kawamori, the architect of Chrono Fortress, presented the original asF-X to the game, which is also the most controversial airframe in the series. Kawason wanted to build a twin-engine vertical take-off and landing fighter, and the left and right side-by-side twins would affect stability, so he used a parallel double release bureau similar to the British Lightning fighter, with a third intake channel installed in the back position, but this position could not guarantee efficiency when flying at a large angle of attack.
Kawason believes that the F-35B's huge lift fan has left a dead weight, so the ASF-X's fan is small in size and the stability of the body is questionable. The ASF-X's wings are 3-segment variable design, the fuselage is built with 4 large bomb bays, but there is not enough space for fuel, and its internal fuel range is only 720 kilometers, which is much lower than the F-35B's 1700 kilometers.
Two classic liveries from Chrono Fortress
ASF-X with 3 air intakes
Ace Combat 6's CFA-44 appeared in the form of DLC in this game, but it raised the balance of the battle mode. The airframe capabilities of "Ace Air Combat 6" are divided into 4 levels, but this game only has 2 levels, resulting in the valuing body such as JAS-39C and the CFA-44 fire monsters are divided into one category, which is quite funny.
Released in early 2013, the Steam edition of Assault Horizon offers smooth graphics with an unlimited frame rate, while the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions have only 30 frames. The launch of the Steam version was planned by Bandai Namco's overseas division, and the porting work was also outsourced to overseas companies and had nothing to do with the Japanese team, so the game was not released on Steam.
Strike Horizon has cumulative sales of 1.8 million across 3 platforms, which is higher than the single-platform Ace Combat 6, but still below Bandai Namco's expectations. Kono admits that the game has attracted fewer new players than expected, and even though the game has made so many changes, players who have no interest in the series will still not change their views, but will offend some old users. Kono repeatedly stressed before the game's release that "Assault Horizon is just a sequel, not an orthodox sequel", but this is still not enough. He admitted that he should completely erase the words "Ace Air Battle" from the title and develop an original novel.
Overall, though, Kono thinks that Assault Horizon is not a complete failure, but only mixed reviews, and he did see some players who liked the game, mainly online users. Although the dogfight system in the versus mode is also a collection of routines, its variables exceed the campaign mode.
The dogfight system in multiplayer mode has more variables
While many have accused Bandai Namco's management of being quick to succeed, Kono believes there is nothing wrong with the goal of "pursuing higher sales", the game's development costs are rising, and The cost of Assault Horizon is higher than that of Ace Combat 6. The real mistake was that the team ignored the needs of the players, Kono was actually not optimistic about the concept of "Assault Horizon" from the beginning, but the team finally developed such a work under the atmosphere of "rushing to the doctor", which deviated from the expectations of the players.
From a personal point of view, the development process of this game can be described as a gain and a loss for Kono. Producer Hiroyuki Ichiyanagi resigned due to illness in the middle of the development, leaving Kono without an old comrade who had struggled together for 10 years. On the other hand, the emergence of several new people on the team gave Kono a glimpse of potential.
Shimomoto is a hardcore player in the series, starting with the arcade version of Air Combat, who has played every installment of the series. After joining Bandai Namco, Shimomoto was assigned directly to Project Aces as the planner of Assault Horizon. Coincidentally, Shimomoto and Kono were born on the same day, and in the eyes of the latter, this energetic newcomer is like his young self. Kono regards Shimomoto as a key cultivation object, and constantly teaches him development experience, hoping that he can become a new generation of successors.
Young Lower Metaphysics
<h3>Pull oneself together</h3>
At the end of 2011, Project Aces launched a 3DS game "Assault Horizon Legacy" in Europe and the United States, which is a replica of "Ace Air Battle 2", which has little connection with "Assault Horizon" on the console, but the wrong title misleads many players and buries the quality of the game. The title of the Japanese version, released in early 2012, became "Ace Air Combat 3D", which can be described as concise.
The 3DS version of the dogfight system is similar to Air Killer, which is a non-mandatory design, and there are no enemies that must be defeated with the dogfight system. Kono tried to adopt a similar design in later works, but the player's antipathy to the dogfight system was so loud that he eventually decided to abandon the system altogether.
Forgotten Ace Combat 3D
After the development of the DLC of "Assault Horizon", Bandai Namco proposed the development direction of "trying to launch a free online game for the core brand". Project Aces is not averse to this direction, as early as the "Ace Combat 6" period, they conceived the idea of an online game version, which can be said to be prepared.
Kono admits that free-to-play games are synonymous with "spending money to get stronger" and "cheating money" in the minds of many players, but Bandai Namco's main goal is not to make money from online games, but to cultivate more players, and then launch an orthodox sequel, which can test the popularity of a brand and observe the future potential of a series.
Since its release in 2013, the free online game Ace Air Combat: Infinity has sparked some strange speculations, the fuel grid of this game represents the number of games rather than the range of the airframe, and the player will consume a fixed amount of fuel for each game. Some websites have said that "I flew too far in the middle of the trial, ran out of fuel, and was kicked out of the game", which made Kono cry and laugh.
Infinity began testing in late 2013 and officially opened in early 2014. There were 300,000 players in the test phase, with a satisfaction rate of 85%, and some avid players even played 300 games during the test. The number of tests in Japan reached the expected number, while in Europe and the United States was twice the expected number, which can be described as an initial victory.
Although the game uses a realistic background, the actual content is more similar to the Strangereal worldview, after the asteroid "Ulysses" hit the earth, the world has changed, and countless Classic Scenes and Bodies of Strangeeal have been reproduced in the game.
Array of Stonehenge railguns in Infinity
The game's single-player campaign mode came to an abrupt end in the climax, players want to see more plot, Kono said that single-player campaign can only be regarded as a teaching mode, the story is just an excuse to introduce the elements of Surprise to the real background, and the team's main gameplay is cooperative mode. Kosuke Itami believes that if players are interested in the plot of Infinity, they can consider launching a related set-
Infinity's co-op model introduces a competitive element, with two teams competing for points, with the winning side getting double the pay. For the sake of balance, the series of powerful weapons such as the tactical laser cannon have been weakened this time, but this game also provides new powerful weapons such as cruise missiles.
The main planner of this game, Tamaki, is also a newcomer, he played "Ace Combat 4" on his classmate's PS2, and then successively added the old works of the series. After joining Bandai Namco, he served as a mastermind for Sword Soul 5 and subsequently became the mastermind of Infinity. Yu Ji's favorite series is "Ace Air Battle 4", and many of the contents of "Infinity" are classic reproductions, which makes him long-cherished.
Energetic jade
Although the DLC of "Ace Combat 6" was updated for 8 months, due to the limitations of the engine, the 6th generation DLC only had new livery and no new airframe, and only 8 of the 37 airframes of "Assault Horizon" were DLC. "Infinity" contains 70 airframes, and the number of paintings is even more vast.
The game was updated 16 times in the 2 years after its official operation, and finally accumulated such a huge list of airframes. In response to player feedback, the system of this game is also updated frequently, improving the game experience. Kono believes that after the official operation of "Infinity", the team's update rhythm can truly enter the network era.
Among the many airframes, there are several special models that the team remembers vividly. Falken's ground-to-earth variant, Adler, was finally revived in Infinity, and although the look was slightly different from the ace combat 5 scrap, it was also a dream.
The R-101 and X-49 are the classic original machines of "Ace Air Combat 3", limited to function, and the problem of missile mounting points was not considered when designing these two fuselages, and "Infinity" completed the details. After selecting these two airframes, the flight interface will also change to the appearance of Ace Combat 3, and it is a perfect rounded corner style, without mosaics.
Adler seeing the light of day again
The X-49's rounded flight interface
The goal of Infinity is to expand new users, and the game has been linked to brands such as Godzilla and Digimon, and some are born for old players. Kaoru Shintani's air combat manga "Warzone 88" provided countless inspirations for the series, and Kazutaka Kono left a message on Kaoru Niitani's personal homepage with reverence, expressing his desire to link up, and received a positive response.
In this linkage, the game updated the powerful livery of 5 old airframes, including the F-5E piloted by Kazema, the protagonist of "Warzone 88". Many developers on the team have special feelings for this old body, and the linkage can be described as a natural success, after all, it is the protagonist's car, and it is also natural that the ability is stronger.
Because "Warzone 88" has not launched a new work for more than a decade, linkage livery has given many new players the opportunity to tutor, and Project Aces can be described as a peach in return. Originally, the team also hoped to develop a level based on the land aircraft carrier in the comic, but it was too complicated and abandoned.
Kazema real F-5E livery
Of course, as a free online game, the game rhythm of "Infinity" is very different from the previous game, which makes it difficult for many traditional console players to adapt. The collection elements of this game are full of randomness, but players cannot rely on a large amount of lessons to quicken up, so the design is naturally to ensure the popularity of the game. Casual players can play a few games casually, and collectors can easily fall into a "lesson and liver" situation.
In Kono's view, free-to-play games not only lower the threshold for new players, but also increase the likelihood that they will give up halfway. This game needs a feature for players to stay, this feature is a variety of body and livery, so that the game becomes a place to bring together new and old players, everyone can find their own love machine.
In terms of music, Keiki Kobayashi did not serve as a composer this time, but managed the tracks in the game as a music director. Kobayashi knows that the classic soundtrack of the series has left countless memories for players, and his job is to make the music sound at the right moment and evoke the memories of the player. For example, over the Avalon Dam, if one player chooses the livery of the "Round Table Ghost" and the other side chooses the livery of the "Blade Goblin", the soundtrack will become "Zero", recreating the peak showdown of Ace Battle 0.
F-15C livery of the "Round Table Ghost"
The final number of players in Infinity was 3 million, exceeding the expected target, and the game was last updated in early 2016, discontinued in early 2018, and operated for up to 4 years. In Bandai Namco's console free online game, this record is second only to the 5-year operation time of Mobile Suit Gundam: Combat Operations.
This game inherits a lot of "Assault Horizon" material, but also produced more new content, its development cost exceeds "Ace Air Battle 4", fortunately, the support of players to ensure the profitability of this game, the series can continue.
<h3>Chop the wind and rain</h3>
Back in 2011, when Storm Horizon was being developed, some pilots told the team that "the game's weather conditions are oversimplified." In their view, no matter how skilled the pilot, he did not dare to fly easily between the high-rise buildings, and if a crosswind was blown, the fuselage could easily be photographed into the building by the air current.
In addition, the pilots also mentioned that the visibility in the clouds is very low, and the flight safety is completely dependent on electronic equipment such as radar, which makes them nervous. In thunderstorms, they try to avoid lightning strikes, and these conversations give the team new inspiration.
As early as the PS2 era, Kono had conceived the idea of "hiding the body in the clouds", which could not be realized due to function. The PS3 and Xbox 360 series have made little progress in this regard, and while the clouds look more delicate, they are essentially a translucent mist with no real volume.
In mid-2012, the team drew the first set-up of Ace Combat 7, establishing a weather-centric concept. Itami kosuke hung a bunch of floating white cubes in the Storm Horizon scene to simulate the cloud occlusion effect, but this box can only be regarded as a concept experiment, not a real cloud.
The first set-up of Ace Combat 7 in 2012
Using volumetric clouds, the artists could create realistic and thick clouds, but the team lacked the technical experience in this area, and the performance of the PS3 and Xbox 360 was not enough. Bandai Namco then proposed a free online game plan, and the team could only develop Infinity, putting Ace Combat 7 on hold for the time being.
In 2014, after the official operation of "Infinity", Masato Kanno led the art team to start looking for suitable image plug-ins, and finally found Truesky, who specialized in handling the weather. The development of Ace Combat 7 has gradually thawed since 2015.
Kazunari Kono deliberately left the mysterious code of "PSX7" in an update of Infinity, so that many players understood the hints. At the PSX conference in late 2015, Ace Combat 7 unveiled its first trailer.
In this trailer, veteran players see the shadow of Ace Combat 3, and Kono admits that the goal of the 7th generation plot from the beginning is to connect with the 3rd generation. In 1999, when the 3rd generation was released, most players knew very little about the concepts of drones, directed energy weapons, military AI, etc., and now with the advancement of technology, all this has gradually become a reality, and the announcement of the 7th generation is largely to justify the name of the 3rd generation.
Kono said that the completion of the game at the time of the announcement was only 20%, and although the screen of the trailer was rendered on the PS4, it could only be regarded as a graphical demonstration and could not be actually operated, and the plot outline was only written at the time.
The 2015 trailer is only a graphic demo
The official version of the script was finalized in 2016, and Kazunari Kono knew that his old friend Katabuchi was a busy person, and he hoped on the phone that Katabuchi would find a screenwriter familiar with military themes to replace him, but Katabuchi could not find anyone else and could only write the script himself.
Ace Battle 7 is set in a war between Osea and Erusea, two military powers on two continents that have not intersected before, and this time the war links the plot of the series together.
The Correctional Unit at Base 444 was originally a group of enemies in the script, and later the protagonist Trigger became a member of the Correctional Unit. Kono believes that Mobius 1 is the star standing in the spotlight, Blaze is the hero hidden behind the scenes, and Trigger is a hapless protagonist who enters the punishment unit in a confused state and can only wear the guilt.
Each protagonist of the series needs an iconic pattern, kono saw some netizens like to cover the unwanted pattern with three white spray paints when making the model, this rather stylized transformation gave him inspiration to conceive the logo of The Trigger "Three Lines".
Trigger painted on the tail wing "three lines"
Mihay, who is the opponent, is the character conceived by Katabuchi. Kono likes to use contrast to create a plot, and Katabuchi believes that Mihayi is the best contrast. He is the oldest jet fighter pilot, providing actual combat data for the latest drones.
Mihay's story is a reference to a number of European historical figures, including the last King of Romania, Mihay I, and the Grand Duke of Andong of Austria, both of whom had the talent of pilots and had joined the army. Miha's Shilage Castle is a mix of Hungarian and Slovak features.
The weather-beaten old man Mihai
On the surface, Mihay is Trigger's rival, but he knows that the old man cannot create a new generation, and he admires Trigger's ability to hope that the young man will be able to hold up a new sky.
The 4th generation adopts the narrative angle of the opponent, and the 5th generation plot focuses on the protagonist side, and Itami Kensuke believes that the 7th generation can integrate the perspectives of both sides. Trigger, as the protagonist, can't speak, Mihay is silent, and the narrator of the plot is the ground crew around them: Avril Lavigne, the mechanic, and Schroeder, the drone expert.
Lavigne and Schroeder
Itami originally planned to use an anime style similar to That of Generation 3, but Kono said he wanted a CG video similar to That of Generation 5. In the end, Itomi chose the combination of "real scene + CG character". In fact, when developing Generation 0, Itami considered this combination, because Generation 0 is a documentary style, and the live-action characters are more convincing, so they gave up.
Princess Cosette of Erusea is a character Kono conceived of back in 2012, and he wants not a RPG-style princess like Dragon Quest, but a modern royal. However, no one expected that the most famous character of this game is not the princess, but the princess's pet dog.
Many people think that the golden retriever is motionless in the CG, just a photo, so they give it the nickname of "JPG dog". The team also asked Itami, "What file format did that dog use?" Itomi replied angrily, "Of course not JPG, saying anything stupid." This response caused a laugh in the office.
Princess's Golden Retriever
Itami said that the dog was the pet of a developer within the team, and he asked the golden retriever to sit down and not move during the video, and the dog really did not move. If you look closely at the video, you can see that the dog's abdomen is slightly undulating due to breathing, proving that Itami did not fool people with a photo.
The CG of this game is outsourced to ILCA Studios, and the project director is Takuya Iwasaki, who was the director of Ace Combat 3, and this tortuous history has a rather interesting story. At that time, there was a "Kobe Gang" within Namco, which refers to alumni who graduated from Kobe University of Arts and Technology, including Takuya Iwasaki, Taro Yokoo, and Kazutaka Kono.
Iwasaki's favorite subject was not a fighter, but a flying dragon, so he and Yokoo left Namco to develop The Cavalry on the Back of the Dragon. In the game's E finale, Wyvern travels to Tokyo's Shinjuku ward and encounters F-15 fighter jets, the pilot code-named Scarface, the protagonist squadron of Ace Combat 2. In the mission mode Shinjuku level, defeating the F-15 squadron allows the protagonist to swap the Wyvern for a Su-47 fighter, which are easter eggs deliberately planted by Yokoo.
Although some people have long left Namco, the "Kobe Gang" still maintains a friendship relationship and has promoted many cooperations. For example, Kono wanted 2B, the protagonist of "Neil: Automatic Humanoid", to make a cameo appearance in "Sword Soul 6", and Yokoo finally agreed to this request.
The Cavalry on the Back of the Dragon Shinjuku mission level
Cameo character 2B from Sword Soul 6
Iwasaki developed "Ace Air Battle 3" as a parallel world, without long-term consideration, and now Kono regards the 3rd generation as the main history, not Iwasaki's original intention, and many settings are different. For example, the continent of Usea was called "Eurasian United States Continent" in the 3rd generation, and this setting was not used. Neucom's predecessor, EASA, was known as "Eurasian Space Agency" in 3 generations, and now it is "Erusea Aeronautical And Space Agency".
However, Iwasaki left Namco after the 3rd generation sale, Kono is the current head of the series, and Iwasaki understands the choice of alumni.
Ace Combat 7 includes some older airframes, including the MiG-21 and F-4, two classic models that are still in service in many countries today. These older airframes use traditional hydraulic maneuvering rather than digital fly-by-wire flight control, which Kono sees as a contrast.
The history of another old airframe, the F-104, is hard to see. The F-104, which has just entered service, has shown excellent speed and has been hailed as the "last manned fighter". But soon, the fuselage was exposed to poor maneuverability and reliability, and was notoriously known as "man-operated rockets" and "flying coffins".
Keiki Kobayashi has left Bandai Namco to fly solo by this time, but he is still the main composer of Ace Combat 7. In the opening animation, Lavigne takes off in an unarmed F-104, and an exciting soundtrack begins, a melody that reminds Kobayashi of her childhood.
The take-off moment of the F-104
As a child, Kobayashi was fascinated by the F-104 at the air show. Kobayashi actually never cared about the combat effectiveness of the aircraft, he only cared about which aircraft could fly faster and higher, and it is still the case today. In other words, what he loves is not weapons, but flying machines leading to the deep blue sky.
Tetsuichi Nakanishi composed very little this time, and he focused his main energy on sound effects procedures. This game uses the Wwise plug-in to manage the sound effects, achieving various trigger effects, but the details still need to be adjusted slowly.
For example, the sound travels through the air at a speed of 340 meters per second, and after a target 2000 meters away is knocked down, the player will hear the sound after about 6 seconds, but this delay is counterintuitive, and the player will wonder if the sound effect system is buggy, so the sound delay in the game is only 1.5 seconds at most.
He had previously developed various programs for the series, such as processing sequences that used the host CPU to instantly add noise to radio conversations, and now he needed to port these tools to Wwise. The Doppler sound system has been enhanced in this game, and the detection distance has changed from two directions before and after to four directions, front and back, left and right.
4-direction Doppler sound system
Nakanishi has recorded real engine sound on the ground, this way there are many limitations, the thrust of the fighter can only drive to 50% when recording, if increased to 100%, the aircraft will easily break through the sound barrier, causing a huge impact on the ground, so Nakanishi has been looking for alternatives, he finally found a professional engine sound software Turbine.
Nakanishi was initially skeptical about Turbine's authenticity, carefully comparing the engines he had recorded and confirming that Turbine's library used real materials. However, Turbine also has some problems to solve in terms of programs, and China and the West have helped them to form a joint development relationship.
Engine sound software Turbine
<h3>Phoenix Nirvana</h3>
Originally scheduled for release in 2017, Ace Combat 7 was postponed several times before finally being released in early 2019, during which Kono came under tremendous pressure. Until 2017, the frame rate of the PS4 version often fell below 40 frames, and the VR mode required 60 frames, and in order to improve the optimization, the game could only be postponed.
The original director of the game was Yudai Hamanaka, who was the planner and screenwriter of "Air Killer" and "Ace Air Combat X2", and the director of "Ace Air Combat 3D". Due to the poor development of the game, Kazutaka Kono decided to direct it himself, and Yudai Hamanaka went to Bandai Namco's Singapore branch to take care of communication and coordination.
Some subordinates expressed dissatisfaction with Kono's repeated postponements, and made a small report to his superiors, hoping to transfer Kono from his post, during which in order to avoid the wind, Kono could only hide in the back door of the office, which was very embarrassing. The superiors think that the future of the series may end here, but Kono does not want the brand to be destroyed in his own hands, and he insists on making "Ace Combat 7", and finally wins the trust of the superiors.
The frame count of the PS4 version before the optimization of this game often fell below 40 frames
Sugano finally found that Truesky's development team could not meet the requirements, decided to personally optimize the plug-in, the initial weather effects took up 60% of the graphics card resources, after optimization, Kanno Masato reduced this number to 30%, greatly improving the frame rate.
In order to save the project, Kazutaka Kono turned to the developers involved in the series in late 2017, Shimomoto gaku returned as a producer of the campaign and multiplayer mode, Masaaki Onitou was still in charge of radio dialogue, and Hisaharu Tako and Tama shizuki were in charge of vr mode, and the addition of these people solved many of the problems of the game.
Kono himself was most concerned about the performance of the plot, and while retaining the outline of the script, many of the art materials and plot dialogue were abandoned in early 2018. With the help of ghost heads, the team used the final year to readjust the battle levels.
The game features two aerial fortresses called "Arsenal Birds", and the plot is the focus of adjustment. Level 3 is the debut of the Arsenal Bird, the original design is that the player constantly attacks, the Arsenal Bird constantly repairs itself, and finally forces the player to retreat, which is a very strange process. Eventually, arsenal birds introduce shield devices that make the player intuitively aware that "this is a strong enemy that cannot be easily defeated" and then retreat.
Arsenal Bird's shield device
In addition, level 3 is also Mihai's first encounter with the protagonist squadron, according to the script, Mihay will shoot down a protagonist's teammate, the player will hear the fearful and helpless voice of the teammate on the radio, but the initial radio dialogue is obscured by the fierce battle sound effects, and the ghost head shifts the dialogue time to the gap between the battles.
Level 12 is a turning point in the war, osea repaired the last Stonehenge railgun used to snipe arsenal birds, but there is only one chance to fire, which is a fantastic duel between superweapons. Osea defense forces encounter various unexpected situations in this level, in order to show the tension of the plot, the game's soundtrack will have several pauses to make room for the lines, and the ghost head has made fine adjustments to this.
The last shot of Stonehenge
In the end, only the adjustment of the 19th level of the finale drama remains, which is also a decisive battle with the second Arsenal Bird. Kono believes that the music in this level is not enough to give players goosebumps, but the soundtrack work is long over. Despite the objections of the rest of the team, Kono called Kobayashi and asked him to "compose the most shocking soundtrack as soon as possible", Kobayashi did not complain, immediately began to compose the music, and completed the recording of the performance and chorus within half a month.
The soundtrack, titled Daredevil, features "Fearlessness" as the theme, expressing the protagonist's fighting spirit. With a magnificent melody, the player rushes to the arsenal bird that covers the sky, but is blocked by the shield, at this time the climactic chorus suddenly sounds, the shield disappears, and the player launches a Jedi counterattack... Kobayashi's unparalleled soundtrack, combined with the ghost's precise control of the lines, finally created the "goosebumps" moment kono longed for.
Arsenal Bird of the Finale Level
At this time, Itami Washisuke was busy editing the trailer, with "Daredevil" as the soundtrack, at the 2018 Cologne Game Show, Itami took out a trailer that was internally hailed as "120% powerful", and confirmed at the end of the video that the game was released in early 2019, and countless players shed tears at this moment.
Kazunari Kono continued to adjust the details until the last moment before the game's release, and he resumed the tradition of "making up the day", personally took a chair, and sat in front of the same monitor as Masato Kanno, carefully adjusting the weather effect of each level. Kono's goal is no longer pure beauty or reality, he believes that the weather effect can directly change the player's mood, even if the plot of a certain level is very heavy, as long as the weather is set to a clear sky, the player's mood will not be too depressed.
When "Ace Combat 7" was released in early 2019, the first month of sales in Asia exceeded 500,000, setting a new record for the series, and sales in Europe and the United States also met expectations, and Kono finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Kono's biggest concern is the campaign mode, but there are also some players who have purchased the game for multiplayer and VR modes. After the game was released, the team was still busy with the development of DLC content, and more exciting content was still waiting for players...
(To be continued)