YMMV / Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Invoked both in storyline and in gameplay. Why did you shoot Pixy down? Because you had to, or because you wanted to?
    • To elaborate: despite the Ace Style system in place, the game refuses to put any words into your character. You can see Cipher as either an honest knight through and through, a professional mercenary who became genuinely tired of the morbidity on all sides by the end, an upright soldier whose screws came loose after Pixy shot him and/or PJ, a military man who does his duty no matter what, a trigger-happy ace who is forced to confront reality, or a ruthless warrior who is willing to kill defenseless personnel and shoot his friend for nothing but money, or anything in between. Then there's the question of why he disappears after the Belkan War.
  • Pixy is from Belka. How much nationalism was involved when he defected to A World With No Boundaries? Then again, it's never explained why Larry Foulke left his home country for a mercenary life. Lore piece that came with Hasegawa's 1/72 "F-15C Eagle Ace Combat GALM 2" plastic model kit elaborates on his early life: he was born in South Belka that Osea invaded in the past, leaving him a war orphan before he went on soldiering... which only raise even more questions regarding his motive.
  • The seven nuclear bombs: Belka's defiant last dance to defend the last patch of their homeland against Allies' ugly land-grab, or Ax-Crazy indiscriminate genocide? The whole of Strangereal and most players seem to agree with the latter view.
  • A World with No Boundaries group itself is one large question mark. While some of its members truly believe in its ideology, supplementary materials reveal the group was partly funded by a nationalist faction of the Belkan government. Whether the group was merely a front for Belka to gain revenge on the Allied Forces for their defeat, or is was simply being opportunistic and taking help where they can get to realize their (already questionable) goal is still a topic of debate within the fandom.
  • Whatever your all-seeing AWACS thought about all this. He's always present throughout the whole story, but lacks solid characterization similar to Cipher himself, leaving him open to interpretation.
• Awesome Music: As to be expected, though special note goes to "Zero." It is widely considered to be the pinnacle of Keiki Kobayashi's immense body of work and, fittingly, underscores the exhilarating and emotionally-charged final mission (a Boss-Only Level where you Air Joust your old wingman to prevent him from taking out the world leaders via nuclear bombardment), itself one of the most emblematic events in the annals of Ace Combat history.
• Base-Breaking Character: PJ, mainly for being a poor replacement for Pixy as Galm 2. Some bemoan his ineptitude as your wingman in these missions, whereas others find it refreshing that he's not an Ace Pilot like Cipher or Pixy, but an idealist up in the skies fighting for his beliefs in spite of his relative lack of skill and talent. As such, while many were shaking their fists at Pixy for gunning PJ down at the very end of the game, there are several players who instead said good riddance. Due to the game's story encouraging Alternative Character Interpretation from all angles, this response could've very well been intended by the developers.
• Best Level Ever: Mission 10: Mayhem is essentially Zero's version of Comona, a massive, purely air-to-air skirmish with you nearly single handedly wiping out the Belkan resistance, including one of three Belkan ace squadrons. In certain versions, it also features cameos from Jack Bartlett and Wolfgang Buchner.
• Broken Aesop: Given the series' reputation of exemplifying this trope, Zero confronts it to the closest extent likely possible in the series. It is ironic that Ace Combat 5 is considered the more melodramatic of the two, once you consider the politics of Zero. An extreme right-wing party comes to power amidst economic chaos and invades its neighbours? Check. The Allies joining together despite their own culpability in the crisis? Check. The combatants rapidly resorting to morally questionable and downright horrific tactics to ensure victory? Check. And a treatise on the meaning of national boundaries and radical ideologies in the aftermath of armed conflict? Check, with a dose of flamenco music. (Given that this is Strangereal's equivalent to World War II, it works.)
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Some of the "mooks" have a habit of flying just so close to your plane that you'll have to drastically slow down just to avoid overshooting (flying past), or will fly a tight loop to keep throwing off your own attempts to generate angles for missile shots or gunfire. Particularly annoying when it's in a skirmish, as decelerating to keep them in your line of fire will leave you vulnerable to other enemies' attacks, and deadly when (not if) the enemy aces do it to you.
  • The enemy aces in general. They almost always show up at the end of a mission, which if you have been spending it shooting down enemy planes may mean you are running low on ammunition. They will almost always outnumber you (with the exception of the Gelb and Espada Squadrons) and are exceptionally coordinated. As mentioned above, they fly in tight loops and while you are chasing them they often have someone else chasing you at the same time. At the higher difficulties, staying on top of them requires pinpoint accuracy to avoid blowing all of your ammo on nothing but the sky and co-ordination with your wingman to keep them from getting the jump on you. You don't get the latter on the Ace of Aces Bonus Level.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Mercenary Galm One is seen this way by the Mercenary fans. Committing war crimes? Who cares, the paycheck is awesome!
  • Of course, Belka. In particular, the enemy ace squadrons are seen in this regard. It helps that almost all of them are punch-clock villains who are just doing their jobs and following orders, and all of them, even Schwarze Team's leader, who is a war criminal, are Affably Evil and are willing to talk to the narrator about Galm One.
• Epileptic Trees: A recurrent piece of fan speculation concludes that Cipher could be none other than Mobius 1, despite the fact that Mobius 1 was considered a rookie pilot throughout the Usean Continental War with no reputation until the destruction of Stonehenge, making the idea highly unlikely outside of Cipher erasing his identity during the roughly eight-year gap between games. The fact that the default paint scheme for the F-15C in 04 is very similar to the default/canon scheme in Zero has partially fueled this. However, Kazutoki Kono confirmed via Twitter that this is not the case; they are two separate characters.
• Even Better Sequel: To AC5, itself an Even Better Sequel to 04. Zero retains most of the gameplay features and mechanical polish that made Shattered Skies and The Unsung War shine on top of a dark and gripping narrative unafraid to call question to nearly anything and everything. Regardless of which installment fans ultimately deem to be Ace Combat's crown jewel, these three sterling games, collectively known as The Holy Trilogy have combined to overshadow nearly every other title in the series to date, a testament to their quality.
• Fountain of Memes:
  • Let's face it, you can't really talk about Larry "Pixy" Foulke without quoting every single line he says during the story. It gets particularly egregious in the final mission, where his obsession with V2 and borders takes over.
    "This twisted game needs to be reset."
  • The narrator, Brett Thompson, is also highly quotable, especially in the prologue with gems like "there was a reason for my obsession" and "this of course can be found in any history book." that make him sound rather unprofessional, despite going out of his way to hold actual interviews with veterans of the Belkan war.
• He's Just Hiding: By virtue of Never Found the Body and no official confirmation from Namco about the character being KIA, there's a contingent of fans who say this about Pixy's replacement, PJ. Despite the loss of radio contact after Pixy's Morgan wastes them by scoring a direct hit through the Falcon's canopy with the TLS and the grave marker shown during the epilogue, players never see their plane go up in flames when they bail out: there's only a line of smoke as they fall out of the airspace and the glass seen after impact has led some to believe they managed to safely eject. In fact, if flying a Su-47 or another aircraft with a large enough bubble cockpit, you can clearly see their plane stabilize after PJ is hit, as if it was merely disabled. Others also point to the fact that the enemy aces interviewed throughout the story, including Solo Wing himself, were shown to have survived similar or worse circumstances, especially if they were shot out of the sky by the player's own lasers (which Cipher really shouldn't have access to anyway). More details can be found here. The Perfect Guide Book ultimately cuts the debate by confirming PJ's death.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Consider who plays P.J. and Pixy in Ace Combat Zero. Watch Code Geass. Both involve Lowenthal's character killing Bosch's (if for different reasons).
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Yo buddy, (you) still alive?"^ExplanationA recurring line said by Pixy multiple times across the game starting from the end of the third mission. Just about everything he says is quotable to some degree, but this one stands out.
  • In the Japanese fandom, the cinematics in Zero spawned numerous Gag Subs.
  • "Muh clay"^ExplanationBelka's spends most of the story gradually losing territory following Ustio's liberation, so they frantically fight a losing war against the much larger Osean forces to reclaim their rightful territory along with the precious natural resources within, or rather clay as the fandom puts it.
  • BELKA STRONK^ExplanationThe notion that if something originates from Belka, it's magnitudes better than its counterparts. This is due to the story constantly demonstrating that Belka's military is a force to be reckoned with, what with their Germanic Efficiency mindset, multiple superweapons, legendary ace squadrons, and their continued influence in chronologically later installments.
  • Belka did nothing wrong.^ExplanationSimilarly, some fans like to give Belka the Draco in Leather Pants treatment, glossing over the fact that they got themselves into a multi-front war and their sole military advantage was systematically wiped out by one pilot. And that was just their tactical failings, let alone their moral ones.
  • Pixy hates borders.^ExplanationIn the game proper, Pixy eventually becomes a disillusioned soldier who believes that erasing national boundaries is the key to preventing all wars. Fans, however, like to flanderize him into a character who is obsessed with ridding the world of anything with the word "border" in it (from image borders to the real-world Borders store chain), sometimes to the point of making it his Berserk Button.
  • "But that will never happen."^ExplanationThe end of Pixy's interview has him musing how the world wouldn't change for the better unless people trust each other and that trust is vital in a peaceful world, shortly before dropping the sentence in question in a harsh reality check. Nowadays, it's more or less used for every wish from the Ace Combat fandom that's unlikely to be fulfilled by Project Aces.
  • Was it worth it? How many points did you get?^ExplanationAn Incorrect Summary of Ace Combat Zero by Max0r uses this line during the bombing of Hoffnung in an accusatory manner much like the famous "How many people did you kill today?" and "Do you feel like a hero yet?" quotes from Spec Ops: The Line. Often invoked in discussions about war crimes in the series, particularly the seven nuclear bombs and the Hoffnung bombing in this game.
  • People drop quotes from the narration of the game's prologue.
• Player Punch: Mission 12 is bad enough as it is. If you played 5 though and paid attention to dates, you saw it coming. What you don't see coming is when the wingman you had been flying with for every mission up to this point, Solo Wing Pixy, takes a shot at you and then deserts. That's one of the most personal betrayals in the entire series.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: Zero in relation to the other PS2 games in the series. Even on "Very Easy", you're likely to be shot down once or twice. Among other things, the enemy AI is much more aggressive than in prior games, which has the side effect of making SAAMs much harder to use effectively than in Ace Combat 5 (where they were incredibly effective) without actually altering their functionality, and is no longer as vulnerable to certain A.I. Breaker techniques that worked in prior titles.
• Signature Scene: The final battle between Cipher and Pixy is considered by many fans to be the Signature Scene of not just this game, but the entire Ace Combat franchise in general.
• Superlative Dubbing: The games are known for having a case of this, but this especially applies in Zero. Yuri Lowenthal's casting of Pixy is so good that people, even the Japanese fans, consider him to be the voice for Pixy.
• That One Attack: The Burst Missiles used by Pixy's ADFX-02 Morgan during the final mission creates a large area of effect blast that deals continuous damage capable of destroying your plane in one go, often forcing you to break off your pursuit in order to avoid it. What makes it worse is, due to the PS2's graphics, it's invisible to you when you're actually inside of its range. Fortunately, it loads slower than regular missiles and stops being used after you land six hits.
• Underused Game Mechanic: The game revolves around a Karma Meter named "Ace Style", which dynamically determines the enemies you face and their dialogue depending on your conduct on the battlefield, which has never been used again. This game also introduced the idea of missions consisting of multiple operations, where you choose one operation to take part in and the version of the mission you get consists entirely of that operation, with the implication that the other operations happen at or around the same time. Ace Combat 6 uses a similar Operations system where every operation is taking place at the same time, but after that the system has never been used again in favor of simply having missions with distinct groups of enemies where you can pick which one to focus on.