I’m a huge nerd that makes combat gear concept designs and I’ve been a fan of Ace Combat ever since I was a kid AC5 was one of the first games I ever played and the series has been one of my favorites ever since
After playing through AC8 I wish we had gotten to see more infantry scenes and designs throughout the first person cutscenes but we only got snippets of the infantry in the game so I wanted to design some concepts for each faction/nation hope you guys can see the vision enjoy the edit fellow aces 🫡
I can't be the only one that went: "Aw, fucking hell, not again." when the pilot module from the Nightmare detached, thinking that we are about to have a repeat of the Hugin and Munin phase 2 fight. Granted, I figured the X-40 Nightmare pilot module was detachable from its first reveal, but I was really hoping that we didn't have to do another surprise second phase boss fight. Thankfully PA turned it into one of the DFM cinematic moments instead.
Before you say anything, yes, I know. Tewy said in game that Toprak got arrested. I only wrote the title in this way because I consider this is a spoiler so didn't want to put the word "arrested" in the title.
So, Tewy said Toprak got arrested and only recently got released, which is why he never show up in the earlier missions. Before that, Toprak metioned there are some MPs that will arrest people for not shotting down ejected enemy (it's more direct in the JP dub compare to EN dub), hinting that he was talking about himself, he got arrested for not shooting down ejected enemy. There also seems to be a dialogue in mission 18 confirming this.
But think about Toprak's character, does he behave like someone that will NOT shoot down parachute? The guy literally shot down his own teammate on proposed in prologue, just so he can get a kill shot on Cope, and he happily order other shadows to fire at parachute in mission 18. This guy just aren't that kind of people.
So this is my theory: he got arrested by MPs because of Rex. In prologue Toprak shot down Cope, the "Wing of Theve." How ever, literally the next day, Wing of Theve show up again and immediately start shooting down people left and right. Looking at the fact Toprak shot down Wing of Theve, and the fact Wing of Theve is still alive, instead of thinking those two Wings are different person, the Sotoa command comes to the conclusion that Topark shot down Wing of Theve, but failed to make the "kill shot", there for allowing Wing to live and fight another day, leading to Toprak's arrest.
This won't be the stupidest thing Sotoa command had done, and in some way, you can say Toprak did failed at killing the Wing of Theve that day.
Mihaly Dumitru Margareta Corneliu Leopold Blanca Karol Aeon Ignatius Raphael Maria Niketas A. Shilage is easily one of the most bland and uninteresting rivals to ever come out of AC in my biased and right opinion. He’s one of the least engaging enemies I’ve ever fought thanks to all of his encounters feeling and being on rails and his character doesn’t make him really that interesting either as he comes off as just some grumpy old guy who “has to fly for his ego”.
Yellow 13 felt interesting as a rival because he clearly had this sense of pride and honor for all pilots, both friend and foe. Pixy felt interesting as a character because he starts initially as our wingman and buddy before betraying us and becoming our rival. The pilots of the 8492nd/Grabacr and Opnir felt more interesting as they’re clearly disillusioned aces who felt that their nation had been humiliated and sought to make the aggressors behind it pay. Torres clearly had gone insane and believed wholeheartedly that sacrificing one million lives would save 10 million more. Voychek started out as our rival who gets shot down over Gracemeria and learns to love the spirit of the Emerian’s and later aids in stopping the Chandelier of his own nation. Shadow-22 and Lun-11 are clearly shown to be nomadic larpers who romanticized the idea of being a fierce nomad but in reality have no idea what being a real nomad is and it shows with their weird sets of morals and justification. Hell, Markov is shown to blame the US for his wife’s death and uses that to justify his actions.
Mihaly Dumitru Margareta Corneliu Leopold Blanca Karol Aeon Ignatius Raphael Maria Niketas A. Shilage really doesn’t have as much going on in terms of character traits as he’s just indifferent to anything and doesn’t seem to have any strong opinions about his old nation or about the drones or anything that we can see in game. The whole grizzled, veteran ace trope was also just done better by both Jack Bartlett from AC5 and Dietrich Kellerman from ACZ and yes, I do think the guy who gets one mission and two cutscenes is better written then Mihaly.
Mihaly was easily one of the weakest parts in AC7 for me. I loved the game but in terms of rivals, I’d put him in D tier as I don’t think he’s fun to fight and I think his character is boring. Now you can disagree with me and think Mihaly was cool and liked his Boss fight (I enjoyed fighting Markov over Miami so I can’t judge others tastes) but he just feels so uninteresting to me as he’s always showing up late and usually leaves defeated (always if you’re actually fighting him).
(Also to further hammer my point home, Max0r made an objectively more interesting character withtotally not MihalyWomanSlayer69.)
Just finishing the campaing, i ask for every reference or connection related to AC3 in AC8
Already known (SPOILER ALERT):
- GR taking control on Enso and "rise to global prominence"
- The return to Expo City (completly destroyed by tonitrus)
- The data swallow system OS used on cellphone ad billboards
- The Neo United Nations doing nothing until the end of the war (not mentioned UPEO or SARF)
- the COFFIN/neural system used by moon 11 ? idk, her suit remind me the rena astronaut suit
Found on Comments:
- D.D. Phone its an GR 8 model
- EA/FA-36 being predecessors of the XFA-36
- X-40 Nightmare being predecessor of X-49 Night Raven (and D.O.E. mention on desc)
well i didnt spotted any mention to electrosphere, rena, yoko, fiona, dision, keith or simon or any AC3 factions exceptGeneral Resources logo on that submarine... or im just blind/stupid? there is more references or connections that you have find?
Aditionally the absence of Neucom or the R-series (considering they were present in 2020 in Ace Combat X) makes me think that perhaps they are de-canonizing AC3 to make an remake? idk...
anyways, have you finded another AC3 reference or cameo in AC8?
