Rambling about Ace Combat again
I've been meaning to blog more for a while now, I just can't make writing a habit for whatever reason. Which is a shame cause I'm sure writing would make me feel better these days.
Because it's been a little rough lately, honestly, with personal matters weighing on my mind. I'm not interested in dwelling into that, but I decided I'm finally sitting down to write in an attempt to relax a bit. So, for the positive stuff, I've done lots of gaming. I meant to follow up last post with thoughts on Ace Combat 5 and Zero, but I just didn't come around to writing that until now.
In short, 5 is the corniest game ever made, which I could maybe accept and even really enjoy in another context, but I hate military aesthetics and have zero interest in (most) war movies, so it was painful to try and get into. Characters are constantly spewing platitudes about peace and there's a plot so stupid that I wish I was laughing with the game, but it unfortunately did nothing for me. Having a game with a more involved, expanded cast was a novel idea for this series, but that also means you have to wait everyone finish talking before actually starting every mission, and if you happen to die you have to wait again, and since I have a tendency to crash into the sea a lot, some missions became a slog.
So the game is sadly not for me, but I can't even say it's bad. I mean, it's Ace Combat. It becomes shounen anime at the end while you have to destroy a satelyte that's falling on Earth and shooting lasers at you, at the same time having to avoid your anime rivals while the greatest song ever plays. It's so good. That's the kind of stupid stuff I can get into. I wish the game had more of that sprinkled out rather than characters constantly saying some bullshit and a dumb Metal Gear Solid political conflict but without anything actually interesting going on.
Again, I'd probably be more into it if the game's JRPG party wasn't a military flight squadron. I'm afraid it's impossible to turn that part of my brain off. If I'm getting into something like this game, where every character is from the army — and it's a tricky balance cause we're talking about a game about piloting fighter jets —, I need something more grounded, I guess, or cynical, critical about the war, something like that. The corny Hollywood tone doesn't do it any favors. Just also happens I'm not that into Godzilla Minus One for similar reasons. Still, Ace Combat 5 was a novel experiment, and I'm glad this series is always trying new things.
Now, Ace Combat Zero, that's a videogame. Maybe the best one so far in this series. Extremely tight game, it does things with FMV cutscenes that are magical, it gives you multiple options to how to approach each mission… I'm not claiming it's biting political commentary or anything, but it's not as corny as its predecessor, thus works much better for me. Ace Combat is an arcade-style series, so while I'm very glad it's so ambitious and takes its story seriously, I realized I prefer the less bloated ones. Just 18 missions and a conflict that happens mostly in the background, and when there are cutscenes, they have an interesting framing device going on. I'm sure this series will keep going like that from here on out, absolutely.
Obviously this is all personaly preference. I found out I have low tolerance for AC5's kind of story and tone (and aesthetics?), which in turn made me go into a brief crisis about my relationship to a series that relies so much on real ass fighter jets and credits and thanks the JSDF and real life weapons manufacturers every time you start the game. I don't like that! It's definitely something very personal that's worth examining, and I'm glad I ended up having that reflection.
I was going to write a regular "what I'm up to" post at first but I figured I'll leave it at just AC this time, since apparently I had more to say than I expected. I started rambling as a way to relax from a very stressful morning of work, so I'm sure this isn't that cohesive or coherent or anything, but it was fun to put it out there.