MULTI Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown

Dr.Para schrieb:

kazutoki kono (u.a. ac5 director) hat übrigens per twitter geschrieben, dass der trailer komplett in-engine ist. nix mit cgi oder pre-rendering.

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Zu "Ace Combat 7" sind ein paar weitere Informationen eingetroffen. Unter anderem wurde erklärt, dass die Veröffentlichung des Titels noch etwas Geduld abverlangt. Erst zu 20 Prozent sei die Entwicklung abgeschlossen.

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Haven't seen it posted anywhere here, so would like to post the confirmation from Famitsu that Kobayashi is the main composer for AC7.

Also, Scenario script is being written by Sunao Katabuchi, who ICYDK also wrote the scripts for AC4 cutscenes & the entire AC5. Art director is Masato Kanno who have been always handling art for AC since AC4, and he designed the FAS giant plane.

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First of all, please tell us about the concept.

The concept is to identify what would be the important point in a numbered title, and make it a better "Numbered Ace Combat". I'm thinking we want to finish a game that users who have been supporting us are wishing for. By the way, for the First PV, it's not pre-rendered. The movements of humans and planes, and flow of clouds etc, they're all portrayed from the actual (in-game) engine.

In this game we aim to pursue three axes, and one of them is the Representation of Sky which begins from drawing solid clouds. Up until now, the usual method to represent clouds was to place them like drawing a picture of clouds on a board. In this game, we create three-dimensional clouds, where if you fly towards a certain cloud, that cloud actually exists in that location, and we constructed it as "Map Composition with 2 layers of Land and Sky".

The other axis is to pursue the fun of "Playacting a Plane". These are things like special weapons and special maneuvers.

When speaking of Maneuvers, do you mean techniques like Cobra and Kulbit will become possible?

Yes. What I'm discussing with the Director right now is, a direction that is not like Finisher Attacks that anyone can easily do with pressing one button, but rather skilled people making full use of the controls and make it real.

And the third axis is, "Improving strategic aspects against enemies". The Campaign Mode will pursue those three things.

We're looking forward to that! By the way, Assault Horizon and Infinity took place in the real world, but what about this game?

It will take place in the fictional world of the numbered titles (read: Strangereal). However, more than 10 years have passed since the PlayStation 2 era, so we want to make it enjoyable too to newcomers who have never touched the past series before.

The Orbital Elevator has an impact, hasn't it?

It's like the Symbol of this game. It doesn't exist yet (in the real world), but there's a Japanese construction company who's actually planning for it (reference), and we've actually talked with them for making this game.

So you're planning to make it a symbol that wouldn't look so weird if it existed in reality. The place for bungee-jumping in the PV doesn't seem like it's the top level, but how high would it be?

The human in the PV is wearing a suit similar to a spacesuit, and at that height she wouldn't be able to endure without it. By the way, it's not really "height of a building", but the height distance from surface to the farthest part reaches 100 thousand kilometers.

Without a doubt, that's the biggest building of the series. For the part near the surface, do you think we could pass through it, like the Tokyo Tower...!?

It's being designed based on the nature of the Flight Shooting game genre.

We also wonder about the large aircraft, so how does this thing exist?

It's a fictional aircraft called "FAS" by the development team, and it patrols around the Orbital Elevator while protecting it. It launches UAVs. These designs are handled by Kanno-kun (Masato Kanno).

I see. The design reminded me of Arkbird which appeared in AC5 indeed. We're changing topic here, about the compatibility with PlayStation VR, I'm expecting to be able to look around the cockpit to the detailed parts.

By making it compatible with PlayStation VR, we want many people to feel the want to play it intuitively, and it fits really well with the game's contents of freely flying in the sky, and it's catchy. It has a lot of advantages so we immediately decided to implement it. However, there are also many technological problems, so from hereafter we're on the steps to focus on developing [VR].

I'm expecting it. Finally, since it's confirmed to be released domestically, please leave a message for the fans in Japan.

We are proud that "Ace Combat" is a Japanese-made IP that's well-known in the world. Please wait and look forward to it!

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It's been a while since I last did translations, so please let me know of any mistakes you may find. Some sentences are not literally translated so as to make them more readable. Personal notes are in brackets and in italics (like this).

You may notice that a lot of the details are already seen in the Famitsu interview, but there are a couple of new points here too.

Bahamut (a large Chinese language anime, comics, games online community based in Taiwan) received Bandai Namco Entertainment Taiwan's invitation to their HQ Mirai-Kenkyusho (literally "future research lab"), and got to interview Kazutoki Kono, producer of Ace Combat 7 which was announced for PS4 two weeks ago (at the time of the interview), for development status and latest info.

Ace Combat 7 was announced on 6th December in PSX 2015, and it is the latest main title in the series since the release of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation back in November 2007 eight years ago. Using Epic Games' latest Unreal Engine 4 for development, as well as trueSKY's technology for realistic skyline, the game will expand the series' high speed and free flying play style, and is planned to support the PlayStation VR.

According to Kono, Ace Combat 7 shoulders the 20th Anniversary of Ace Combat series, and is different from the previous spin-off titles, as it will succeed Ace Combat 6 as the next numbered sequel. As a numbered title, the game system will inherit the series' core elements, as well as implementing the new "interactive cloud" factor. Ace Combat 7 emphasises on different kinds of clouds, and these clouds aren't just scenic objects, but will actually "interact" with aircraft; entering into different kinds of cloud layers will affect an aircraft's control. Apart from cloud layers, real-time weather will also affect the battlefield, bringing more unpredictable factors to the game.

On the other hand, dogfighting in previous titles often end up with planes flying in circles "trying to catch each other's tail", and Kono hopes that with the cloud layers and changing weather mentioned above as well as "changes to missile's homing capabilities" (this has not been elaborated in the interview), dogfighting experience will be experienced afresh. Also, players can customise to a certain extent to set out their own personalised aircraft.

Kono also reveals that Ace Combat 7 is still at project's early stages, and development is currently at 20% progress. The game uses the PS4 platform as the basis for development, and it will also support PS VR gameplay. The development team is also exploring how to bring out PS VR's potential in order to give new gameplay experience to players.

As for online gaming, Kono also said that no details are available for the specifications, but he can confirm that the game will incorporate 4 vs 4 team deathmatch. At present the main idea is to form a team to confront something, such as large-scale battle between countries, or random encounters etc.

What planes will the game include? And what is the standard for including them? Kono replies that the playable planes that will appear in the game are essentially national representative aircraft that will meet the market's demand. Of course, the team will also need licensing rights in order to include the desired aircraft in the game. At the moment F-22, F/A-18, FAS, and Su-30 are confirmed to be in the game.

Speaking of fighters, Kono said his personal favourite in the series is the Soviet Su-37 Terminator. He also really likes its predecessor, the Su-27 Flanker.

The interviewer asks whether there will be chances to have the Taiwanese IDF included, and Kono replied in a surprised tone that he didn't know Taiwan has an indigenous fighter. He said he would look at such feasibility, and if it is to be included it won't be available as an exclusive content to just one particular country, but as an aircraft playable for all players in the world.

On the topic of Taiwan, Kono also states that he will conduct a internal discussion on the game's Chinese localisation, as he and his team know that PS4 is performing well in the Taiwan market, and together with Ace Combat 7 as a PS4 exclusive title, he would contemplate such option.

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Nimble schrieb:

Krass. Hoffentlich hat es neben dem Single Player noch einen guten Multiplayer. Das Ace Combat Free2Play auf der PS3 war damals mein Suchtspiel.

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Ace Combat 7 is bringing the franchise back to the fictional world nicknamed Strangereal, that was featured in previous numbered titles of the series, and was abandoned for the real world in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. During a chat with Producer Kazutoki Kono, DualShockers learned that the new game will definitely be more similar to Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War and Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies for PS2 than to the latest title.

I would definitely say that it has a similar tone to 4 and 5, because the person who is working on the script is Katabuchi-san, who wrote the script for 4 and 5. Of course, there are going to be different perspectives that we’ll explore in the cutscenes, so we have got backstories of the different parties at play in this fictional world. And we also take a look at the theme of war in general, kind of taking a step back and examining what that means.
Kono-san also mentioned that a lot of story information will still be conveyed via radio chatter, exchanging information that helps progress the narrative, and that fans of Ace Combat 4 and 5 are probably going to love the new one.

“I’m pretty sure that you’ll love this one too, if you liked 4 and 5”
Kono-san also clarified that the protagonist is going to be more in line with the faceless ones in Ace Combat 4 and 5, as opposed to William Bishop in Assault Horizon. He will be basically a neutral canvas in which the player can imagine himself.

We also learn that the cutscenes in Ace Combat 7 will show the events of the war from different points of view. While there is one truth, events will appear differently depending on how the onlooker believes they took place. They will show different perspectives depending on different people’s values.

Kono-san then explained the reason why the team decided to go back to the world of Strangereal, instead of sticking to the real world.

“Unlike Assault Horizon, as far as numbered titles go, it’s been ten years since the last one has been released, Ace Combat 6. I wanted to keep in mind the fictional world that has been established through the previous numbered games, that the fans fell in love with, because it is a sort of flagship representative version of all that Ace Combat should be.

At the same time, what the fictional world allows us to do, is to have – you might have seen it in the trailer – this orbital elevator, as well as cutting-edge weapons that wouldn’t really exist in the space of reality.

So it is a very “accommodating” world, so to speak. But it allows us to do it wit a sort of sense of reality, it’s not completely out there to the point that it doesn’t seem at all realistic. It’s a balance with fiction with experimental weapons and massive airship carriers.”
He also mentioned that when he approached Sunao Katabuchi for the game, he actually didn’t think he would have time, as he was working on a movie. Initially, he just asked if Katabuchi-san could recommend someone for the job. When the writer responded that he wanted to work on Ace Combat 7 as well, he gave Kono-san the confidence bring back Strangereal while doing it justice.

In case you missed it, the game’s story and characters were showcased at PlayStation Experience in a really lovely trailer. We also have plenty of new screenshots, and some details on PS4 pro support.

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