@@lucignolo8333 same, it holds a special place in my heart. And low key introduced me to anime. It’s crazy the little details you pick up after re watching this the first several times. One of my favorite details about this whole story is how the kid doesn’t resent the yellow squadron leader or the enemy for them being responsible for shooting down a plane that landed on the cape where he lived. Indifferent
@@CorruptInfinityOfficial cheers bro, our dreams of becoming a pilot may never come true but it doesn’t mean our life is bad. Now people in the army are happy getting paid doing nothing, but if a big war starts…..once you go to the front there’s no coming back
I like to imagine that as they were transferred to San Salvacion, Yellow 13 paid a visit to the house that one of his kills crashed into so he could pay his respects to the civilians who had died there and found singed sheets of music in the remains, and that was why he was playing a song familiar to the boy.
When I was a little kid, civil war broke in my home country. Our town was obliterated and I lost family members... Until the very day war reached us... I just thought it was something that was happening in some far away place. Even when my dad was training us on how to use gas masks... We used to run around laughing while wearing them thinking they were cool. My uncle, my father's twin brother, decided to join the fight, bit since my dad was married and had kids he decided to flee. My uncle died defending our hometown... but we never recovered his body. When I first booted this game many years ago the opening literally had me frozen in place. I never felt a game as deeply as this. It 100% captivated me. The music, the stoic style storytelling... The sentiment that felt extremely relatable. I know for many this is just another great game. But for me it was cathartic. Every now and then I replay the game or watch the scenes. La Catedral was the first piece I ever learned in its entirety on guitar. So yeah... This game has a special place in my heart :)
He speaks at 15:42 of this video which is at the end of mission 12 so yeah we heard his voice. Shame we don't hear him in the final fight at mission 17 as I would have loved to hear his thoughts on the battle.
I find it refreshing how Yellow 13 isn't some arrogant flyboy who's so brainwashed by his nation's propaganda, that he blindly believes the opposing nation are monsters, and as such, takes pride in every air-to-air kill.
I like to think that right before that final missile hit Yellow 13, he closed his eyes and smiled. Not a solemn smile, but a broad one filled with pride. He wanted to find his better in the air, and he got his wish.
Yellow 13... During Siege of Farbanti, I had the last surviving Yellow in my crosshairs, missile locked and all... and then my thumb wouldn't press Circle and kill him. I wasted some good 5 minutes, hesitating, acquiring and losing locks, until I was finally able to force myself into shooting Thirteen down. That's why I love this game. He's the enemy, but I simply couldn't bring myself to kill him like the others. He was special, he was different. Unlike others who called Mobius One a demon or a monster, he'd always praise the ISAF ace. And that retribuition just made this game.
+LegendRazgriz I think it's even better when you realize Mobius One could be the exact opposite. After all, he's a rookie. Impressionable, and it's likely he lost most of his squadmates and possibly even his home to the first few sweeps from Erusia, including the the "Invincible Fleet" mission where Yellow Squadron comes in and suddenly destroys the rest of your squadron. Imagine it: Mobius One, being a living ball of hatred and rage throughout the entire war, while his opponent was cool, calm and collected and praising his greatest enemy. And then it's only years later that M1 could ever let go of his rage.
This is why Ace Combat is just amazing. It's more than a bunch of silly flight simulators set in random fictional wars. It's a series which explores the humanity of war.
you ever play the 2 following games? the 2nd references the first war heavily then at the end something happens which they talk all about and is a plot point in the third game :)
I never really appreciated this game when I was younger the way it deserved. I've been playing games for the past 13 years or so (since I was about 4) and of the hundreds of games I've played, I've come to realize that I've never found a game that managed to humanize the enemy like they did. Yellow thirteen had so much depth to him put into so little time looking back now I even see him, the nemesis-type character as actually the main character of the game and the player is more of a supporting role in his story This game is truly a masterpiece in my opinion and anyone can disagree with me but I'm not changing my mind anytime soon
That's the thing with now a day games the antagonist is always evil or have broken morals while yellow 13 was your everyday guy fighting for his country. He wasn't an antagonist he was just hero who was ultimately on the enemy side
Yellow 13 was one of the few enemy Ace's in Ace Combat that fully had my admiration. It was helped by his main role in the cut scenes. I just couldn't hate him, as a matter of fact, I came to love Yellow 13.
@@grayghost0513 His cause was totally fair. Erusea was blackmailed by Usean countries, they took prophit of Erusea's vulnerability to gain power over them. Erusea did wrong things, but they had no choice because their national sovereignty was at stake.
"It no longer mattered to me whether that was Thirteen or Fours grave, Their memories blurred together as one and left the realm of reality like a dream" Got me in tears.....what a great story, one of my top 5 games of all time.
Ali AceCombat Fan well not all anime is like that. Its not fair to judge all of anime based on the bad ones that you see. By that logic all cartoons are bad
Mobius 1 is the true hero, and Yellow 13, to his credit, accepted his role of the villain of the story in the end. He got what he wanted in the end, to die in the skies he loved to soar.
The irony of the pilot who killed the narrator's parents inviting him to play a song together, the same song his now-dead father used to play. Without knowing it, he was paying them a tribute. Poignantly poetic. One of my favorite stories of any video game.
I vastly prefer this story to the others in the series (except maybe Zero, it's a REALLY close second). I like how subdued it is and I like that its both from the perspective of a civilian during the war and the main "antagonist" of the story. Mobius gets his time to shine during the missions, but the fact that the story in the cutscenes is more about the impact he's having on the average people and his opponents is great. It's also an effective way of having us care about Yellow Squadron without having them talk to us directly. Which, by the way, this is the only one of the modern AC games where the main villain squadron never once talks to your character directly. You never have Yellow 13 go off in a monologue about how he will defeat you or the nature of man. He just talks to his men and that's it. I actually like that better. It makes me feel like he's taking you seriously by not distracting himself with pointless syndrome monologuing. I can understand that many people prefer the more character oriented stories of later games, but for one, I would argue this story is very character focused, just not on your character or his allies. And for second, the detached view of the story adds further melancholy to everything. What I can't get are those who call the story "boring" or "dull." That I feel has to be coming from a lack of understanding.
even tho its just pictures, this storytelling is grand. the use of the soundboard to drown out the narrator with the sounds of war at moments, gives me the chills every time. if you have ever been in a high pressure situation where its so loud you cant even think.. this effect really hits home for me idk why.
This game has censorship in the American version. Minute 7:49 The kid was holding a gun, and showed also a knife, He had the intention of using it against 13 10:10 The girl was holding a shotgun 19:00 The boy was aiming 13 with his gun. In case you didn' t know, you also can search info about it and confirm by yourself.
Andrew Rogers The unedited version is nonsensical. Why would the the story teller boy who is just a kid go out of his way to steal a gun to kill yellow 13 with. Yellow 13 did nothing to deserve this other than being an ace pilot of the occupying countries air force. It makes no sense for a kid that young to be that angry and want to murder someone without reasonable cause.
My absolute favorite title from the PS2 lineup. Somedays I debate on purchasing a working console and getting the game from my parents house so that I can play it one more time.
Such an amazing game. One of my favorites on the PS2. The story is just incredible. Excellent commentary on the horrors of warfare. My favorite part is when the narrator is confronted by 13 and says "get out of our town you fascist pig!" Very heartbreaking.
Most of the Ace Combat campaigns are overly whimsical and often pushing on cringe (golden king, pacifist princess, etc.), but this story always stuck with me because of how coldly grounded it was. No sugarcoating, no ridiculous fantasy nonsense, no crazy events that pull you out of the story, just the reality of war for someone living through it. The writers deserve a lot of credit for keeping this one storyline from this one linear game burned into my head for 20 years.
I remember shooting down the Yellow squadron for the first time. I was in an F-14 and had already shot away all my missiles and had to shoot them all down with my gun. This brought back so many memories, thanks for the upload.
My first Ace Combat is 7 (still playing it), but the nods to past games' lore and the stories other people tell about their experiences with them, plus the music, made me run and look for 4, 5 and Zero. After looking for them, I finally found a single package containing the PS2 entries. Currently playing 4.
"War was just a thing happening in a far away land we would see in television" that is so accurate and spot on in 2022. This game predicted the mood of the first 30 years of the 21st century. Together with metal gear solid this game is one of the most accurate predictions of war in 21st century
Heard someone explaining public perception of war in a nutshell: "Oh no, it's horrible what's happening in (insert country) why we couldn't be in peace? " "Yeah, that's awful.... Anyway want to go for lunch? " "Sure" We're so desensitized of war, happening in a far away land, that we don't care about it anymore.
@@worlds3061 we only start caring when bombs start falling on our homes and our reality is "shattered". We live in a bubble, sometimes i sit at the restaurant and look at people, enjoying their meals, talking, having fun. Completely clueless that the life and world they live in is an illusion, a very delicate illusion that could break at any moment taking us back to the violent reality that most people have lived in throughout the last 100.000 years. And most of us are not prepared for it.
I remember I was 5 when I beat this game. When I realized when I shot down Yellow 4 in Stonehenge, I was absolutely devastated and filled with guilt. Never had a game do something like that to me. Amazing storytelling
@@FrankJaeger803 oh it doesn't mean anything lol. Those were just the numbers that RUclips gave me when they changed how the RUclips usernames look. And I just haven't bothered to change it
@@aquila519 you gotta do something really cool on 5/19 or be the 519th at something lol You and I both played this at a young age. Gotta ask, did you end up doing something aviation related as an adult? I did haha
@@FrankJaeger803 5/19 is close enough to my birthday lol. So I suppose I gotta do something. And nah, I never did anything with aviation but it's still something I consider doing to this day. Me and my dad still have a tradition of going to airshows hosted by the US Air Force every year so even tho I don't work in aviation, I'm very invested in it and it's a hobby of mine. What did u end up doing?
@aquila519 please let me know what the thing is whenever you find a 519 to match lol That sounds great!! I really enjoy airshows too. Didja ever get to see an F-22 in yours? They're hard to beat. I ended up studying drones and working as a drone pilot. Got my drone license in 2020 and got a bachelor's degree in unmanned aircraft systems in 2022. These days I'm less of a pilot but I still do on occasion. I'm more of an inststructor now. I teach classes and build curriculum. It's a lot of fun, at my job I get to go a lot of places to teach all sorts of people. If anyone asks how I got my start I always tell em AC4 lol
This. this is the reason as a child and still now, i strive to be in the airforce. i remember this game so vividly, the heroism but also the inhumanity of the war.. it made you feel as if you were the hero, all of the ground units, in awe of your shimmering wings. the enemy airman, all filled with hate.... except for 13..
This game was the most memorable one from my childhood. The story and music is burned into my memory. I come to this video to relive those good memories. I wish I still had my PS2.
I got this game when I was 7. It started me on my aviation trail. Today, I'm a licensed drone pilot with a bachelor's degree and a full time job to match. I have the privilege to teach other people about how incredible flying is, and how many ways they can be used. Whenever I'm asked how I got my start, I always credit Ace Combat 4. I still have my disc and ps2. I replay Operation Autumn Thunder on 9/18, which happens to be the day I got my drone job. I still use an mp3 player, and have this album ready. I often listen to it when on flights.
Thank you for uploading this, I plan on transcribing the introduction. I really enjoyed planing Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies, it was a big part of my childhood. I would replay the game several times. The ending always made me tear up. The whole story pretty much consisted of him writing this letter to Mobius 1, the pilot that shot down the Yellow that killed his family. Now the author has a his own family after the war is over.
I had this game but i was little, i didn't really know what i was doing and my english skill was nonexistent, sold my ps2 with this game and never finished it, but i managed to undertand the first scene when the kid loses his parents, it was quite sad, wish i had finished this game but i probably would not have appreciated the story because of how young i was.
Well it's really unpopular and underrated sure, but people with good eyes for a masterpiece might've picked it up out of sheer curiosity. ps: nobody knows Ace Combat at my place either
I read so many comments about people engaging in their country's air force or carrer as aircraft engineer because of this game... Project Ace should be really proud of this.
I got into this game as part of a hunt for an arcade game at Chuck E Cheeses believe it or not. I watched my dad play that cheap big-box arcade game in an F-15 Active shooting down low polygon bombers and thought "hey I want to play that game" so I went looking for any game that came close to it. I stumbled on Ace Combat 4 at a local Hollywood Video and rented it. What came next was one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. Nothing ever came close except for later entries into this franchise. I can vividly remember the joy filled afternoons plowing through missions as my mom watched Dr Phil and Oprah Winfrey in the other room at 4 PM. What was even cooler is that as I played through this game, the dates in certain operations coincided with actual dates in real life as the game took place in 04-05 but was released two years prior to those dates thereby adding an additional immersion factor. Some of my best childhood memories were made playing this game. I remember one Halloween night in October was spent flying through the mountains of Los Canos as trick-or-treaters came to the door. I remember other nights replaying my favorite missions while watching Hot Wheels Acceleracers on the tube TV. Anyone remember that really nice HD Sony Tube TV? The ones that go for almost $1k? Yeah I had one of those and was able to experience the full glory of Ace Combat 4 on that thing back in the day. Man, early 2000s were a good time.
This is one of the best videogame stories ever told. It's so simple and subtle. I'm glad there are people out there that remember this game, though not as many as I would hope.
This game has a very special place in my heart. The narration, the story, me at 11 yrs old in Brooklyn in the early 2000’s staying up late playin this. Ahhh. What the f is life.
Played when I was a child. Now I'm older and I realize that the scenes describe (too) precisely what really happens during a war (daily life in war time, relationship between civilian/invader/military, sabotage, resistance etc...). It's terrifying
I can’t believe I really just watched this whole thing this morning. This was one of my all time favorite games I played as a young kid and the game that no doubt sparked my interest in aviation and made me become a pilot after high school
This game, i love the concept, you are doing missions on a plane fighting a war, and between missions you see this story of civilians suffering the war to make you feel attached, to make you think about all the war, destruction and responsability
Used to play this game when I was a child, only finished it when I was about 15. Ten years later still the best plot and storytelling I ever saw in a videogame
War sucks... At least now... Yellow 13 & 4 can be together again as the war is finally over for them.... They can now show love for each other in peace up in the blue heavens where they belong once again.
Amidst the blue skies, a link from past to future. The sheltering wings of the protector... The flames of hatred scorch the skies... igniting Gaia's funeral pyre.
Ace Combat can tell a totally ridiculous story about a war caused by a space cannon and make it into the most poignant and authentic story ever put into a videogame.
what happened to the opening stonehedge cutscene. The one that starts off with "four years after the planetfall of the Ulysses 1994XF04 asteroids" its been over a decade and i still have that line memorized from hearing it so much
I...I was on the verge of tears after playing through this game. This game hits harder than the stories of the other ace combat games. During the siege of Farbanti. I hesitated a good few minutes about bringing 13 down
Damn, I think I got this game with my PS2 for Christmas wayy back then. I was too young to pay much attention to the story other than the opening cinematic. But I remember the narration and art style. Also how badass Yellow squadron was, took me several trys on the first encounter lol. Mobius 1, fox 2!
Amazing game, played it coz it was just something my cousin had laying around so borrowed from him, it was an absolute masterpiece loved the game alot, I remember the fight with the yellow squadron being more difficult then it looked in the video but maybe it's coz I was young. One of the best storytelling of any gaming generation
Every video game story that I've played has never come close to hitting this kind of storytelling to me. Sure you can brag about your Mass Effects, Spec Ops : The Line, or.. Undertale. But it won't be as close. And this game has brought me to the point of where I want to fly someday, in the bright blue skies of this very Earth.
I follow all of AC from PS1, and AC4 is one of the best. The story line, graphic, background music and the actual fighter jet fighting simulation game bring the most entertaining PS game can offer. Its the reason I still keep the PS2 console and AC4 game in my possession.
I quite enjoy how the story technically ends upon the defeat of Yellow Squadron above Farbanti. The war is over, Erusea lost. But Megalith still must be dealt with. I like to think that is part of the reason there's no briefing music then. This isn't about the war, this is about making sure Erusea stays down.
you can tell pretty easily that this game was made with heart, the story is perfectly narrated, one of my favourite game ever
I’m 30 yrs old now and i still come back to this once in a while….playing this as a kid really burnt these images in my memory forever
@@lucignolo8333 same, it holds a special place in my heart. And low key introduced me to anime. It’s crazy the little details you pick up after re watching this the first several times. One of my favorite details about this whole story is how the kid doesn’t resent the yellow squadron leader or the enemy for them being responsible for shooting down a plane that landed on the cape where he lived. Indifferent
@@CorruptInfinityOfficial cheers bro, our dreams of becoming a pilot may never come true but it doesn’t mean our life is bad.
Now people in the army are happy getting paid doing nothing, but if a big war starts…..once you go to the front there’s no coming back
AC4-5-Zero has the unrivaling stories on each of them. Cannot decide which one is the best, as they're equally great.
@@lucignolo8333 this games once u finish them it leaves u thinking about it for quite a while thats when u think man this games was really good
I like to imagine that as they were transferred to San Salvacion, Yellow 13 paid a visit to the house that one of his kills crashed into so he could pay his respects to the civilians who had died there and found singed sheets of music in the remains, and that was why he was playing a song familiar to the boy.
Sokolniki wow... thats... amazing
That’s not even out of character for Yellow 13, in fact.
Bro this should be Canon.
I'm not crying... My eyes are raining
Damn...
The narrators matter of fact apathetic tone makes this story feel all the more real.
There's just no way you can really describe the horrors of war.
His tone describes it perfectly, of how easily it can break you, to the point of even growing to love the man who unintentionally killed your parents.
When I was a little kid, civil war broke in my home country. Our town was obliterated and I lost family members...
Until the very day war reached us... I just thought it was something that was happening in some far away place. Even when my dad was training us on how to use gas masks... We used to run around laughing while wearing them thinking they were cool.
My uncle, my father's twin brother, decided to join the fight, bit since my dad was married and had kids he decided to flee. My uncle died defending our hometown... but we never recovered his body.
When I first booted this game many years ago the opening literally had me frozen in place. I never felt a game as deeply as this. It 100% captivated me.
The music, the stoic style storytelling... The sentiment that felt extremely relatable.
I know for many this is just another great game. But for me it was cathartic. Every now and then I replay the game or watch the scenes.
La Catedral was the first piece I ever learned in its entirety on guitar. So yeah... This game has a special place in my heart :)
Damn dude. What a story
Did you grow up in the former Yugoslavia?
@@freerbx793that's what I'm assuming.
I’m still trying to learn this guitar piece on acoustic. It’s so pretty
The best AC in terms of storytelling.
megalith
I prefer ace combat zero
Me too
"you still alive,buddy?"
megalith nope is Assault horizon hahahahaha Im kidding.
Not even close. Ace Combat 3.
Yellow 13 pulls off being one of the most sympathetic characters in video games without even knowing his true thoughts or even his *VOICE.*
He speaks at 15:42 of this video which is at the end of mission 12 so yeah we heard his voice. Shame we don't hear him in the final fight at mission 17 as I would have loved to hear his thoughts on the battle.
@@darkhalf9134 If you hit a Yellow during Shattered Skies, it's Yellow 13. He remarks on it.
"Eject Yellow 4" is him
@@darkhalf9134 I think you do hear Thirteen during the final battle when he orders his squadron not to engage Mobius 1 alone.
I find it refreshing how Yellow 13 isn't some arrogant flyboy who's so brainwashed by his nation's propaganda, that he blindly believes the opposing nation are monsters, and as such, takes pride in every air-to-air kill.
I love Yellow 13, probably my favorite enemy pilot of any Ace Combat game.
Solo Wing Pixy is my favorite.
Hehe same bro
He was based on a real pilot - Hans Joachim Marseille
He was based on a real pilot - Hans Joachim Marseille
"He was a man who prided himself not on his kill record, but on his record of never losing a squadron member".
I like to think that right before that final missile hit Yellow 13, he closed his eyes and smiled. Not a solemn smile, but a broad one filled with pride. He wanted to find his better in the air, and he got his wish.
This is an awesome comment ❤️
Yellow 13... During Siege of Farbanti, I had the last surviving Yellow in my crosshairs, missile locked and all... and then my thumb wouldn't press Circle and kill him. I wasted some good 5 minutes, hesitating, acquiring and losing locks, until I was finally able to force myself into shooting Thirteen down. That's why I love this game. He's the enemy, but I simply couldn't bring myself to kill him like the others. He was special, he was different. Unlike others who called Mobius One a demon or a monster, he'd always praise the ISAF ace. And that retribuition just made this game.
+LegendRazgriz
I think it's even better when you realize Mobius One could be the exact opposite.
After all, he's a rookie. Impressionable, and it's likely he lost most of his squadmates and possibly even his home to the first few sweeps from Erusia, including the the "Invincible Fleet" mission where Yellow Squadron comes in and suddenly destroys the rest of your squadron.
Imagine it: Mobius One, being a living ball of hatred and rage throughout the entire war, while his opponent was cool, calm and collected and praising his greatest enemy.
And then it's only years later that M1 could ever let go of his rage.
You guys are amazing 🙏
This is why Ace Combat is just amazing. It's more than a bunch of silly flight simulators set in random fictional wars. It's a series which explores the humanity of war.
I spent no second of hesitation when I got him in my crosshairs.
Really? I shot his ass down as soon as I could 😂
Should've used Mobius 1's F22A Raptor. It was the most iconic part of him.
F4 and F22
you ever play the 2 following games? the 2nd references the first war heavily then at the end something happens which they talk all about and is a plot point in the third game :)
I never really appreciated this game when I was younger the way it deserved. I've been playing games for the past 13 years or so (since I was about 4) and of the hundreds of games I've played, I've come to realize that I've never found a game that managed to humanize the enemy like they did. Yellow thirteen had so much depth to him put into so little time looking back now I even see him, the nemesis-type character as actually the main character of the game and the player is more of a supporting role in his story
This game is truly a masterpiece in my opinion and anyone can disagree with me but I'm not changing my mind anytime soon
SniffableAxe944 for 13 years since you were 4? Some accidental references there buddy
Yeah, this is one of the standout games that made me feel bad for participating in a conflict.
That's the thing with now a day games the antagonist is always evil or have broken morals while yellow 13 was your everyday guy fighting for his country. He wasn't an antagonist he was just hero who was ultimately on the enemy side
A true masterpiece of PS2 era... and even more
a very underrated storyline in the world of video games in my opinion. and also a great art style.
The word "beautiful" is insufficient for describing this masterpiece
WTF I found my old account lol
@@johnryanobejero1868 hi
Yellow 13 was one of the few enemy Ace's in Ace Combat that fully had my admiration. It was helped by his main role in the cut scenes.
I just couldn't hate him, as a matter of fact, I came to love Yellow 13.
I’m very late to this party but. In form of a enemy it’s not the man who fights one hates it’s the cause he follows.
I wish there wasn't a war. I have the feeling that Mobius 1 and Yellow 13 would have gotten along legendarily.
@@grayghost0513 His cause was totally fair. Erusea was blackmailed by Usean countries, they took prophit of Erusea's vulnerability to gain power over them.
Erusea did wrong things, but they had no choice because their national sovereignty was at stake.
"It no longer mattered to me whether that was Thirteen or Fours grave, Their memories blurred together as one and left the realm of reality like a dream"
Got me in tears.....what a great story, one of my top 5 games of all time.
That was really sad
Is this extremely relaxing to anyone else?
RevolutionInsignia me
Yes
Yeah.
It is.
It's hypnotizing.
Out of all the games I've played Yellow 13 has got to be hands-down the best antagonist I've ever come up against.
Glad you said he was only "Antagonist" not a villain, he's good man on bad side and bad time
wish that ace combat has an anime
Ali AceCombat Fan you know the people who make that anime are also the same people who made this game a reality right?
Ali AceCombat Fan So like hentai? Lol
Area 88 is an anime back in the 80s that Project Aces got a lot of influence from
Austin Garcia 80s anime was the shit
Ali AceCombat Fan well not all anime is like that. Its not fair to judge all of anime based on the bad ones that you see. By that logic all cartoons are bad
This game helped inspire me to pursue a career in the Airforce currently joining AFROTC hopefully i will be permitted to flight school
That's awesome.
Good Luck!
try to get your pilot ratings before joining. They like to see that
Lol a new "Mobius 1" c:
I joined the chilean airforce because of ace combat zero
No regrets
Currently in my second year of flying
Yellow 13
the only Hostile Ace we all didn't felt any hatred or grudge, but more of a Rivalry and envy.
Yellow 13 is a real hero of AC04
You forgot Mobius 1
Mobius 1 is the true hero, and Yellow 13, to his credit, accepted his role of the villain of the story in the end. He got what he wanted in the end, to die in the skies he loved to soar.
It broke my heart having to kill him…
makes you like the yellows
and makes you shoot em down
that was intense
"So that's Stonehenge." I still remember hearing that every time I restarted that mission from dying.
Pffff
The irony of the pilot who killed the narrator's parents inviting him to play a song together, the same song his now-dead father used to play. Without knowing it, he was paying them a tribute.
Poignantly poetic. One of my favorite stories of any video game.
I vastly prefer this story to the others in the series (except maybe Zero, it's a REALLY close second). I like how subdued it is and I like that its both from the perspective of a civilian during the war and the main "antagonist" of the story. Mobius gets his time to shine during the missions, but the fact that the story in the cutscenes is more about the impact he's having on the average people and his opponents is great.
It's also an effective way of having us care about Yellow Squadron without having them talk to us directly. Which, by the way, this is the only one of the modern AC games where the main villain squadron never once talks to your character directly. You never have Yellow 13 go off in a monologue about how he will defeat you or the nature of man. He just talks to his men and that's it. I actually like that better. It makes me feel like he's taking you seriously by not distracting himself with pointless syndrome monologuing.
I can understand that many people prefer the more character oriented stories of later games, but for one, I would argue this story is very character focused, just not on your character or his allies. And for second, the detached view of the story adds further melancholy to everything.
What I can't get are those who call the story "boring" or "dull." That I feel has to be coming from a lack of understanding.
even tho its just pictures, this storytelling is grand. the use of the soundboard to drown out the narrator with the sounds of war at moments, gives me the chills every time. if you have ever been in a high pressure situation where its so loud you cant even think.. this effect really hits home for me idk why.
This game has censorship in the American version.
Minute 7:49 The kid was holding a gun, and showed also a knife, He had the intention of using it against 13
10:10 The girl was holding a shotgun
19:00 The boy was aiming 13 with his gun.
In case you didn' t know, you also can search info about it and confirm by yourself.
+Arasoia Arimia huh, guess I should have gone with the europe one then
The censored version is better anyways!
+Iffy350 How so?
+Duck360Gaming2 i don't think a couple of changed cutscenes is worth buying a different version
Andrew Rogers
The unedited version is nonsensical. Why would the the story teller boy who is just a kid go out of his way to steal a gun to kill yellow 13 with. Yellow 13 did nothing to deserve this other than being an ace pilot of the occupying countries air force. It makes no sense for a kid that young to be that angry and want to murder someone without reasonable cause.
My absolute favorite title from the PS2 lineup. Somedays I debate on purchasing a working console and getting the game from my parents house so that I can play it one more time.
Go for it dude
Suddenly that one more time turns into 72+ hours logged lol
Do it before disc rot sets in and ruins your copy of the game, dude.
Such an amazing game. One of my favorites on the PS2. The story is just incredible. Excellent commentary on the horrors of warfare.
My favorite part is when the narrator is confronted by 13 and says "get out of our town you fascist pig!"
Very heartbreaking.
I just realized yellow 13 was inspired by Char Aznable from gundam and yellow 4 is lalah sune. The way they’re designed, and their relationship
This makes sense, I'm glad that he never went fully Char though, he definitely is a better person than his inspiration.
Most of the Ace Combat campaigns are overly whimsical and often pushing on cringe (golden king, pacifist princess, etc.), but this story always stuck with me because of how coldly grounded it was. No sugarcoating, no ridiculous fantasy nonsense, no crazy events that pull you out of the story, just the reality of war for someone living through it. The writers deserve a lot of credit for keeping this one storyline from this one linear game burned into my head for 20 years.
I remember shooting down the Yellow squadron for the first time. I was in an F-14 and had already shot away all my missiles and had to shoot them all down with my gun. This brought back so many memories, thanks for the upload.
My first Ace Combat is 7 (still playing it), but the nods to past games' lore and the stories other people tell about their experiences with them, plus the music, made me run and look for 4, 5 and Zero.
After looking for them, I finally found a single package containing the PS2 entries. Currently playing 4.
After 20 years, this story keep making me cry. Best story in absolute
The level design and storytelling of this game was what kept me invested in the franchise, too bad ac7 couldn't keep up nearly as well.
Philip Michaud yeah I'm hoping AC8 is a really great game. Apparently AC7 nearly got cancelled TWICE and they had to start over completely once!
@@IntrusiveThot420 it's a miracle it even got out, let's hope Namco won't screw PA when they make AC8
[GD] Asri3L yeah, I bet the good sales of ac7 will work
I hope Project Wingman would convince Bandai Namco if possible
AC7 at least got more people into the franchise
Bought this game used when I was around 14, the game was fun, but this story never left my memory.
"War was just a thing happening in a far away land we would see in television" that is so accurate and spot on in 2022. This game predicted the mood of the first 30 years of the 21st century. Together with metal gear solid this game is one of the most accurate predictions of war in 21st century
Heard someone explaining public perception of war in a nutshell:
"Oh no, it's horrible what's happening in (insert country) why we couldn't be in peace? "
"Yeah, that's awful.... Anyway want to go for lunch? "
"Sure"
We're so desensitized of war, happening in a far away land, that we don't care about it anymore.
@@worlds3061 we only start caring when bombs start falling on our homes and our reality is "shattered". We live in a bubble, sometimes i sit at the restaurant and look at people, enjoying their meals, talking, having fun. Completely clueless that the life and world they live in is an illusion, a very delicate illusion that could break at any moment taking us back to the violent reality that most people have lived in throughout the last 100.000 years. And most of us are not prepared for it.
I remember I was 5 when I beat this game. When I realized when I shot down Yellow 4 in Stonehenge, I was absolutely devastated and filled with guilt. Never had a game do something like that to me. Amazing storytelling
Hey, you're an Aquila too!
If you don't mind me asking, what's the relevance of 519?
In mine, 803 is for August 3rd. That's when I met my best friend.
@@FrankJaeger803 oh it doesn't mean anything lol. Those were just the numbers that RUclips gave me when they changed how the RUclips usernames look. And I just haven't bothered to change it
@@aquila519 you gotta do something really cool on 5/19 or be the 519th at something lol
You and I both played this at a young age. Gotta ask, did you end up doing something aviation related as an adult? I did haha
@@FrankJaeger803 5/19 is close enough to my birthday lol. So I suppose I gotta do something. And nah, I never did anything with aviation but it's still something I consider doing to this day. Me and my dad still have a tradition of going to airshows hosted by the US Air Force every year so even tho I don't work in aviation, I'm very invested in it and it's a hobby of mine. What did u end up doing?
@aquila519 please let me know what the thing is whenever you find a 519 to match lol
That sounds great!! I really enjoy airshows too. Didja ever get to see an F-22 in yours? They're hard to beat.
I ended up studying drones and working as a drone pilot. Got my drone license in 2020 and got a bachelor's degree in unmanned aircraft systems in 2022. These days I'm less of a pilot but I still do on occasion. I'm more of an inststructor now. I teach classes and build curriculum. It's a lot of fun, at my job I get to go a lot of places to teach all sorts of people. If anyone asks how I got my start I always tell em AC4 lol
That final mission, where you are now the boss fight for a rookie yellow squadron, is just amazing.
That and how all your mates are now Mobius too was so powerful
This. this is the reason as a child and still now, i strive to be in the airforce. i remember this game so vividly, the heroism but also the inhumanity of the war.. it made you feel as if you were the hero, all of the ground units, in awe of your shimmering wings. the enemy airman, all filled with hate.... except for 13..
Chills when the music cuts out on your last lock on.
This game was the most memorable one from my childhood. The story and music is burned into my memory. I come to this video to relive those good memories. I wish I still had my PS2.
I got this game when I was 7. It started me on my aviation trail. Today, I'm a licensed drone pilot with a bachelor's degree and a full time job to match. I have the privilege to teach other people about how incredible flying is, and how many ways they can be used. Whenever I'm asked how I got my start, I always credit Ace Combat 4. I still have my disc and ps2. I replay Operation Autumn Thunder on 9/18, which happens to be the day I got my drone job.
I still use an mp3 player, and have this album ready. I often listen to it when on flights.
Yellow 13 was a true anti villain, a Knight Ace.
Thank you for uploading this, I plan on transcribing the introduction.
I really enjoyed planing Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies, it was a big part of my childhood. I would replay the game several times. The ending always made me tear up. The whole story pretty much consisted of him writing this letter to Mobius 1, the pilot that shot down the Yellow that killed his family. Now the author has a his own family after the war is over.
I've never even played the game and I already am feeling the feels...
I had this game but i was little, i didn't really know what i was doing and my english skill was nonexistent, sold my ps2 with this game and never finished it, but i managed to undertand the first scene when the kid loses his parents, it was quite sad, wish i had finished this game but i probably would not have appreciated the story because of how young i was.
Alex Duper I'm trying to find this game for the ps2.
I saw once Ace Combat Unsung War but it disapeared quickly.
Probably because it's one of the best in the series, AC5: The Unsung War
DigitalAI21 nah...
nobody knows what Ace combat is over here.
Well it's really unpopular and underrated sure, but people with good eyes for a masterpiece might've picked it up out of sheer curiosity.
ps: nobody knows Ace Combat at my place either
Haven't played this game in years, but this video brought back good memories. I don't think I ever even fully understood the story when I played this.
How they went from this great storytelling to the horrendous dialogue of AC7 I'll never know.
Very artistic....
The end was very emotive...
How did I not realize that yellow 4 and 13 are unlucky numbers. It's kinda ironic since what ends up happening to them
This is probably the ace combat game that made me cry. The narrarator was amazing
Funny how such a monotone voice draws so much emotion.
I read so many comments about people engaging in their country's air force or carrer as aircraft engineer because of this game... Project Ace should be really proud of this.
1:25 Until now, that child's head still bothers me.
DAMN, never noticed until now! The fuck...
Man i've always felt that way lol
It looks really strange
I got into this game as part of a hunt for an arcade game at Chuck E Cheeses believe it or not. I watched my dad play that cheap big-box arcade game in an F-15 Active shooting down low polygon bombers and thought "hey I want to play that game" so I went looking for any game that came close to it. I stumbled on Ace Combat 4 at a local Hollywood Video and rented it. What came next was one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. Nothing ever came close except for later entries into this franchise. I can vividly remember the joy filled afternoons plowing through missions as my mom watched Dr Phil and Oprah Winfrey in the other room at 4 PM. What was even cooler is that as I played through this game, the dates in certain operations coincided with actual dates in real life as the game took place in 04-05 but was released two years prior to those dates thereby adding an additional immersion factor. Some of my best childhood memories were made playing this game. I remember one Halloween night in October was spent flying through the mountains of Los Canos as trick-or-treaters came to the door. I remember other nights replaying my favorite missions while watching Hot Wheels Acceleracers on the tube TV. Anyone remember that really nice HD Sony Tube TV? The ones that go for almost $1k? Yeah I had one of those and was able to experience the full glory of Ace Combat 4 on that thing back in the day. Man, early 2000s were a good time.
Precious memories, how they linger!
I would willing pay for a full remastered of this game.
It is good classic itself
This and Zero.
Thank you for compiling and uploading this. This game meant a lot to mean when I was young.
Hans Joachim-Marseille- the inspiration and true ace. One of the greatest fighter jocks ever.
What a fucking story.
Nospoon53189 right
15:29
Literally how everyone won that mission. Yellow 4 flying straight into your missiles like a friggen idiot.
In my version Yellow 4 managed to down an ISAF plane before I Mobius 1 in F-15C used the XMAA at her
She got one extra kill before dying
Miss this damn game...use to play nothing but main missions and never really use to play online....this shit just brings back memories
This is one of the best videogame stories ever told. It's so simple and subtle. I'm glad there are people out there that remember this game, though not as many as I would hope.
This game has a very special place in my heart. The narration, the story, me at 11 yrs old in Brooklyn in the early 2000’s staying up late playin this. Ahhh. What the f is life.
Heard of "The Ghost of Kyiv" and remembered the game.
Played when I was a child. Now I'm older and I realize that the scenes describe (too) precisely what really happens during a war (daily life in war time, relationship between civilian/invader/military, sabotage, resistance etc...). It's terrifying
I can’t believe I really just watched this whole thing this morning. This was one of my all time favorite games I played as a young kid and the game that no doubt sparked my interest in aviation and made me become a pilot after high school
Ahhh I feel the nostalgia coursing through my veins. What a classic game
This game, i love the concept, you are doing missions on a plane fighting a war, and between missions you see this story of civilians suffering the war to make you feel attached, to make you think about all the war, destruction and responsability
This story had my eyes swelling with tears at it's disposal. The nostalgia is way too much.
13 what a student he was
I played this game allll the time when i was a teenager. Now Im 26 learning all the classical acoustic songs on it.
This would make a great movie or TV series.
Watching in 2020 and still remember how this was the best story and emotional game play of all the AC games. And why is this not in cockpit!?
came here after hearing russian invasion.
Me too,
Yeah same. Feels quite similar. The story of Ace Combat 4 was a memorable one.
@@cesardejeronimo8184 Mobius 1, obviously
The whole thing reminded me of kherson. So sad this storyline is so relevant
This was my favorite Ace Combat game.
It’s hard to fight back tears when megalith is playing the music is so beautiful
Just discovered this game because I was looking at Mangoré videos, from people who discovered Mangore thanks to this game
Used to play this game when I was a child, only finished it when I was about 15. Ten years later still the best plot and storytelling I ever saw in a videogame
War sucks... At least now... Yellow 13 & 4 can be together again as the war is finally over for them.... They can now show love for each other in peace up in the blue heavens where they belong once again.
Fuck them both I hope Möbius 1 will kill Yellow 13 again in ace combat 7
Those that start these wars suck even more.
Their own greed and hubris drag others into them, and often lead to tragedy.
this was far ahead of its time
thank you PS2, thank you AC4
you have brought me to AC7 which i just purchased.
Amidst the blue skies, a link from past to future. The sheltering wings of the protector...
The flames of hatred scorch the skies... igniting Gaia's funeral pyre.
I thought of this when images started coming in of the Russian invasion on Ukraine.
This was the best Ace Combat I have ever played. Amazing story.
I played the hell out of this back in 2002. Great times, simpler times.
One of the most emotional games ever made.
Thank you so much for posting this ! bring me back to high school days.
Ace Combat can tell a totally ridiculous story about a war caused by a space cannon and make it into the most poignant and authentic story ever put into a videogame.
Better story than a lot of Anime.
AC4: The Animation needs to be a thing
what happened to the opening stonehedge cutscene. The one that starts off with "four years after the planetfall of the Ulysses 1994XF04 asteroids" its been over a decade and i still have that line memorized from hearing it so much
That's not part of the Erusean side of the story. Which is off, because the uploader got the orders wrong with cutscenes and missions.
I...I was on the verge of tears after playing through this game. This game hits harder than the stories of the other ace combat games. During the siege of Farbanti. I hesitated a good few minutes about bringing 13 down
Damn, I think I got this game with my PS2 for Christmas wayy back then. I was too young to pay much attention to the story other than the opening cinematic. But I remember the narration and art style. Also how badass Yellow squadron was, took me several trys on the first encounter lol. Mobius 1, fox 2!
Thank you just thank you for this
Amazing game, played it coz it was just something my cousin had laying around so borrowed from him, it was an absolute masterpiece loved the game alot, I remember the fight with the yellow squadron being more difficult then it looked in the video but maybe it's coz I was young. One of the best storytelling of any gaming generation
Every video game story that I've played has never come close to hitting this kind of storytelling to me.
Sure you can brag about your Mass Effects, Spec Ops : The Line, or.. Undertale. But it won't be as close.
And this game has brought me to the point of where I want to fly someday, in the bright blue skies of this very Earth.
I follow all of AC from PS1, and AC4 is one of the best. The story line, graphic, background music and the actual fighter jet fighting simulation game bring the most entertaining PS game can offer. Its the reason I still keep the PS2 console and AC4 game in my possession.
By far (AC4) the best outta the ace combat series ever.
I quite enjoy how the story technically ends upon the defeat of Yellow Squadron above Farbanti. The war is over, Erusea lost. But Megalith still must be dealt with. I like to think that is part of the reason there's no briefing music then. This isn't about the war, this is about making sure Erusea stays down.
No game has had so much heart poured into it that I've ever played
the best ace combat in the series. Intelligent deep narrative, storyline, and script.
Briefing: "Remember, we need heroes after the war too"
General Clemens: "I'm not so sure about that"