Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies Was A Massive Step Forward...

So after Ace Combat 3 was released, the franchise was actually left in a really weird spot. The game sold well and was received well in Japan, but the international release in other nations reviewed pretty poorly across the board, with reviewers and fans alike being disappointed in the game’s lack of mission variety and proper storyline. So when the team at Namco got to work on the sequel, they set out to make a game that would be enjoyed by both domestic and international audiences alike. So, how does Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies improve upon previous entries, and how does it hold up today? Well, let’s talk about it.

Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (released as Ace Combat: Distant Thunder in Europe) is a 2001 combat flight simulation video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2. It is the fourth entry in the Ace Combat series and the first in the series to be released for the PlayStation 2. The game's plot, set in a fictional alternate universe where Earth has been ravaged by asteroid impacts, follows the player character "Mobius 1", a fighter pilot in a multinational military coalition who spearheads the liberation of the fictional continent of Usea from the expansionist country of Erusea.

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[livingreverie]

ah yes funny Comona game and the start to the period I liked to call "Who let Kobayashi cook so hard and please tell them to make him keep Going"

[nong]

This entry is so well-loved by both the fans and devs that the player character, Mobius 1, would go on to cameo in every mainline entry in the series going forward, to the point where he essentially becomes the series' mascot.

[Ikcatcher]

This game was the beginning of Ace Combat becoming something more than just an arcade flight game. It became an experience

[legomania]

Ace Combat 4 does have alternate paint jobs, they unlock after your first play through. The Aces from 2 return, shooting them down unlocks their color scheme to be able to be purchased. The Aces show up in your next playthrough one the same file.

I don’t think you’re going to like five as much do to… certain gameplay changes. Still a damn fine game though… just not as fun after your first playthrough. The arcade mode is fun tho.

[DirewolfPS]

The entire Ace Combat 4 soundtrack is seared into my brain. I love it.

[axsprime]

"You're not gonna believe this, Jean-Louis! All of them have ribbon insignias!"

Man I love Ace Combat 4. I picked it up from a bargain bin for 5 dollars and it was the best purchases I made that month. Been hooked ever since.

[GoredonTheDestroyer]

AC04 was the game that introduced me to, among other things, the F-14A Tomcat. To this day, not only is the Tomcat one of my favorite combat jets, it is the plane that I associate the most with the series - Not the Raptor, not Yellow 13's Su-37, the humble F-14. It's also a game that I, to this day, play in remembrance. The person who introduced me to Ace Combat when I was a kid, that being my older cousin Robert, passed away in December 2014 - two days before my own birthday - after years of suffering from Addison's Disease. Every new playthrough I start, I mentally dedicate to his memory. AC04 is, to me at least, an evergreen game - No matter how many times I play it, I always feel the same way, the same emotions of sadness, hope, and optimism, that peace would prosper in the shadow of Ulysses. It works incredibly well as a standalone, while also fitting into a neat little niche across the overarching Ace Combat timeline, that isolation of being the transition between the real and unreal, telling a simple story about a young man's memoirs, is what helps make it my absolute favorite video game of all time.

[historian]

The story is less about the man thanking Mobius One. It is about him writing about his own feelings regarding the people who became like a second family to him, Yellow Squadron. He wanted to know what the personality of the man who essentially killed his second family was like.

[dennisvogel]

In Europe the subtitle of this game was "Distant thunder" - and the first cutscene about yellow 13 and the boy losing his family for me is still a masterpiece. The voice hearing a sound "like distant thunder" and then the quite together with the still image of the burning plane crashing into his home gives me goosebumps everytime. It is a simple story but very effective together with the very fun gameplay and the for the time almost revolutionary visuals burned this game into my mind.

[Gatherway]

Shattered Skies isn't as refined or fleshed-out in terms of gameplay and narrative as the later games, but it's still full of iconic moments and really the point where I think Ace Combat truly came into its own as a series. Like you said, its just a damn good game, and I like it a lot.
Looking forward to hearing your takes on the rest!

[Tuikkal]

The highlight for me is the briefing after the Stonehenge mission when the music amps up, telling you the tide of the war has finally turned. It gets you fired up.

[Fuzon-S]

Such an helluva fun game that has aged pretty well.

A little fun fact: Shattered Skies was the best selling game of the franchise at around 2.5 mil. sales, and the only game that has managed to surpass it was Ace Combat 7 at 5 million sales as of today.

[vpower]

I just finished AC7 and it is an awesome game, but man... AC4 hits different, everything in that game is amazing. Mobius 1 > Trigger

[peytonburrell]

Yes! even after Infinity and 7, four remains my favorite, cant beat old reliable, I'll concede that the U.I isn't the best though, even 11-year old me thought so back in the day.

Comona is still one of my top five tracks in gaming.

[slayer]

Ah my first Ace Combat game. And the first to establish the world of Strangereal (not conically of course but I’ll touch on that later) This is the game that sets up the premise of what Ace Combat will be. You will have a blast going through the trilogy.

[mrandrossguy]

4:30 LMAO
To be fair it’s THE FIRST in the series to have an Actual Modeled Cockpit WITH Internals and Still TO THIS DAY does Better with especially Night or low light Maps with showing the Cockpit Instruments Lit Up from 3rd person !!

[Mobius]

Regarding sound design, it’s not only better than previous games, but tops all games since: comparing this to Ace Combat 7, for example, is night and day.

The explosions sound more real, they have weight to them, the super weapon Stonehenge firing on you is always fear inducing, and the jet engines? They actually sound like jets unlike the weed eaters we get in 7. Part of this is because they went out to record the noises from a real jet aircraft (F-4 Phantom) and it shows in the game’s quality. 04 is the best

[Mobius]

I booted up the game a couple weeks ago, and played it with an open mind to make sure my hype for it wasn’t based on nostalgia. And again, it blew me away. No wonder it’s my favorite of all the Ace Combat games

[ShadwReaper]

AC4 does still feature inertia like AC3 had, it's just not as extreme in its implementation. I know this because I slammed into a cliffside after waiting too long to pitch up to avoid it.

[MxMaxyImpress]

This game definitely changed AC franchise to new start with radio com is important and the soundtrack with that epicness and rock, also the first time Strangereal finnaly shown in Ace Combat universe