Developer: Namco Bandai
Platform: PlayStation 2 (But you guessed that from the box art, right?)
Release Date: October 25, 2004
Genre: Arcade/Combat Flight Simulator
Recording Status - Up to mission 18 has been recorded.
Hi there! I'm SpacemanDan. You may remember me from such let's play threads as Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and...I have no other threads. >_> Okay, I have those kinda mega LP threads, but that's not really the point.
Well, today I bring you Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, the 5th (duh) instalment in the Ace Combat series. (You don't say!) A very solid addition to the Ace Combat series, The Unsung War brings us right back into the cockpit of all kinds of awesome planes to do crazy intense dog-fighting.
...I may be hyping this. Just a little.
To those unfamiliar, the Ace Combat series is a series of games revolving around jet-fighting combat with a wide array of planes and special weapons. They're pretty fast-paced, action-packed and arcade-y in play. It's pretty simple.
Some of you may know this, but I'm a big fan of the Ace Combat series, having my starts with Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. I, much later, happened upon this gem and had a blast playing through it. As such, I want to share it with you all.
Let's get started, shall we?
Characters
I'll be updating this as I post videos. I'm only really focusing on major characters, though I may write up smaller profiles for the minor characters. And by major, I mean those part of the main squadron.
Name: Blaze
Callsign: Blaze
Age: ?
Gender: Male
Squadron: Wardog
Rank: Captain
Bio: This is the silent protagonist of this Ace Combat venture! I imagine that Blaze is supposed to be you, the player, so there really isn't much to say on Blaze.
Name: Kei Nagase
Callsign: Edge
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Squadron: Wardog
Rank: Captain
Bio: A strong but quiet pilot of the Wardog squadron. She holds respect for those in charge and will do what she can to protect them. After Bartlett went down, she vowed that she would never lose another flight lead as long as she was flying their six.
Name: Alvin Davenport
Callsign: Chopper
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Squadron: Wardog
Rank: Lieutenant
Bio: A relaxed pilot of the Wardog Squadron who enjoys rock and roll music. He has no problem bad-mouthing his superiors over the radio and chattering on needlessly.
Name: Jack Bartlett
Callsign: Heartbreak One
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Squadron: Wardog
Rank: Captain
Bio: A bit of a rebel pilot and former leader of the Wardog squadron. He likes to do things his way to follow his gut, despite his higher-ups giving him orders dictating otherwise. As the captain of the Wardog squadron, he kept his 'nuggets' close and did what he could to protect them. As of mission 2, he went missing in action.
Name: Hans Grimm
Callsign: Archer
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Squadron: Wardog
Rank: Airman First Class
Bio: A young, but capable pilot who joined Wardog during an air raid on Sand Island despite not even being out of replacement pilot training. A nervous pilot who has a positive outlook on things. While he starts off with rough skills, he learns quickly and is able to adapt to many different situations with a high sense of awareness.
Story
I'll be updating this one as we progress through the game.
-Snip-
Gameplay
I gave a quick idea of what the game is like. You can take flight in a variety of planes, equipped with more than realistically possible number of missiles as well as a machine gun. Along side this, you have the choice of various special weapons that, while very useful, are very limited in number.
Each mission has their own objectives, but for the most part it's about blasting various targets on the map. Some will have specific targets where others will have you destroying everything you can within a frame of time. Other missions include the ever popular escort missions, careful navigational missions and even photography.
What sets this one apart from its predecessors is the wingmen system. Once you become the flight lead of Wardog, you have the ability to command your wingmen. You've got a few options here.
Disperse - Your wingmen will go their own way, spreading out your squad to take out wider ranges of targets.
Cover - Your wingmen will stick close and cover you are you take care of the mission.
Attack - Your wingman will go all out and attack what is in front of you.
Sp. Weapons - Whether or not they're allowed to use special wepaons.
Obviously some missions call for different things, so it's about assessing the situation and figuring out what you need. And this game isn't like Shattered Skies where you can easily take everything down yourself. The enemies are plentiful, meaning you will need to have your wingmen help out. At least for the earlier potions.
You're also able to purchase various types of planes as you play through the game, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. You'll unlock 'families' of planes. I believe as you use the lower ones, you'll work your way to unlocking the higher ranked ones. The nice thing here is that you not only pick your plane, but the planes for your wingmen as well, allowing you cater to the mission criteria.
There are also 6 difficulty modes.
Very Easy
Easy
Normal
Hard
Expert
Ace
The higher you go, the more damage you take from enemy missiles and weapons. At the highest two, a single missile hit can cost you the mission, whereas the lowest difficulties allow the player to take many hits before going down.
Under typical circumstances, you unlock the next difficulty by beating the one under it. (Starting at Hard.) However, when I played through Hard, I unlocked both Expert and Ace, so I guess it's different in this one. It may be because it's much longer than the other games though.
There is also an extra mode known as Arcade Mode, which is a much simpler stage-based game focused on scoring high and destroying as much as you can in a certain frame of time. This one stars Mobius 1, the star of Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies. The mode is also a direct continuation of the aforementioned game. I plan on covering it after I'm done with the main game.
Videos
I plan for each video to be one mission long. I do intend to cover any alternate versions of a mission.
Playlist
[1] Shorebirds
[2] Open War
[3] Narrow Margin
[4] First Flight
[5] Rendezvous
[6] White Bird (Part I)
[7] Front Line)
[8] Handful of Hope
[9] Lit Fuse
[10] Blind Spot
[11] Chain Reaction (11A)
Powder Keg (12A)
BONUS - Let's Play Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies
I did an LP of this awhile back and figure I may as well plug it in this thread.
Videos
Note that I divided the cutscenes away from the gameplay itself. Anything with '.5' at the end indicates that it is a cutscene.
Playlist
[0.5]- Intro
[1] - Sitting Duck
[1.5] - Cutscene
[2] - Imminent Threat
[2.5] - Cutscene
[3] - The Northern Eye
[4] - Blockade
[5] - Lifeline
[5.5] - Cutscene
[6] - Invincible Fleet
[7] - Deep Strike
[7.5] - Cutscene
[8] - Shattered Skies
[8.5] - Cutscene
[9] - Operation Bunker Shot
[10] - Tango Line
[11] - Escort
[11.5] - Cutscene
[12] - Stonehenge Offensive
[12.5] - Cutscene
[13] - Safe Return
[14] - Breaking Arrows
[14.5] - Cutscene
[15] - Emancipation
[15.5] - Cutscene
[16] - Whiskey Corridor
[17] - Siege of Farbanti
[17.5] - Cutscene
[Finale] - Megalith
[Bonus] - Bonus Modes
[Bonus] - Megalith Revisited
