Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere Is Shockingly Ambitious... 

I really like in an interview that Project Aces had around the release of 7: Skies Unknown, they were asked if they would remake 3, their response was basically 'listen bro, it will take more effort than remaking the PS2 trilogy put together'

AC3 plane physics are to this day unmatched in the whole franchise. Best AC ever.

Ace Combat 3 aka what if Hideo Kojima broke into the writers room in a cardboard box for exactly 30 seconds before being escorted out by security

Speaking of mission variety, its unfortunate you didn't get to the space mission, where you actually pilots a unique aircraft never to be seen in any other mission to shoot down satellites. Its made me fall in love with ac3 as a whole and represent the game's creativity for its time. you'll even get a unique atmospheric re-entry sequence rather than landing as a icing on the cake.

Electrosphere is insane. Even the PS2 games never reached the story heights of Electrosphere (with love to 5 and Zero). Disionbros rise up. Get excited for AC4, the Holy Trinity is coming up.

It's like if Ghost In the Shell was a flight game

Easily one of the best games in the series, I hope it gets a remake someday

The HUD element that shows your pitch is called a pitch ladder

Every second that passes we are one second closer to the Ace Combat Zero review. < Here comes the snow... >

I recall there was an interview with the team where they were asked about a AC3 remaster that contained all of the content from the original game and they actually said it would be more work to do Ace Combat 3 than it would be to do 4,5, and 0 combined. An actual incredible amount of content in the game and we didn't even get to see it all in the west.

Actually the aircraft in AC3 feel a lot smoother to control and feel more natural than AC2 it feels like you’re flying an actual jet with weight and momentum

6:10 This is a thing that exists on real life. Its called AOA and i love that, when you realise that the aircraft is drifting on the skies with that wind effect that shows the real direction that your aircraft is going is really sick in this game. Idk if real pilots etc determines it as good or bad. If i miss understood something, correct me if you want.

The Stratosphere mission in AC3 is flown using a specially modified A12/SR-71, known as the RF-12A2 in-game, that was supposed to be based on the YF-12 interceptor variant that first flew in 1963 but was retired in 1968. You were essentially dog fighting in a high-altitude interceptor, but its because that level forces to you to make a choice. Complete your mission objectives as ordered, or assist your wingman in their time of need. Try out the Neucom route, next chance you can, you go into outer space, the only game in the series so far that lets you play in outer space. These two levels are also in the international version as well. The mission is called "Zero Gravity". Overall, an excellent and informative video. AC3 was my first Ace Combat, so it has a special place for me, even if it as only the "International" version. ^_^

AC3 despite its age is still the most forward thinking game in the series to date in regards to aesthetics. It has similar plot beats to Ghost in the Shell (1995). I find myself going back to AC3 time and time again.

While never playing this game it is one of my favorites due to how unique it is. Especially one for the PS1 era games. I don’t think developers at that time put THAT much work into their games yet they did here!

AC3 is my favorite of the franchise. I am a sucker for Sci-fi/Cyberpunk stuff. Ghost in the shell is one of my top 5 anime of all time. And then, one of my favorite franchises has a game that pretty much mixes all of this together, and has anime cutscenes made by Production IG, the EXACT SAME STUDIO who made the GitS movie and Anime series. I love everything about this game. The atmostphere, the designs, and especially the technno/moody OST. I kinda love how subtle the horror of this game can be, with songs like "Kernel" and "Morceaux" literally making me feel chills down my spine.

Incredible game. I sort of wish the rest of the series had those vibes. really glad to see you're enjoying this series!

It's a masterpiece, I played them all and finally was able to play 3 man I can't believe it came out on PS1! My new favorite in the series

I remember playing AC3 with the JP release first when I was a kid, couldn't understand anything but when I finally hit the disc 2 and that "mission" starts with the "virus" - man, even if I didn't know what she was saying that time but I knew she was in pain.

17:42 imagine saying AC3 has the least memorable OST T.T Those songs are legendary ! 18:50 not just the PS1 trilogy, i've talked with dozen of other AC fan and AC3 is the favorite of the entire franchise for many people xD It is super good ! :D

Great review. It's super interesting hearing your perspectives as someone who is new to the series. Also I'm unsure if you mentioned it, but if you complete all 5 paths you get a secret ending that ties everything together and is a real 'oh shit' moment. I know the music here is very different in this compared to 1 and 2, however I think this is my favourite soundtrack in the franchise. I feel like the music in 1 and 2 were very Top Gun-esque, which I think compliments the game style a lot more as it feels more 80s action film like. The soundtrack in 3 really compliments the style it's going for, more Ghost in the Shell like (I think the cutscenes were made by the same studio). It adds a lot more mystique to the overall feel as the story branches in ways I never thought it would. Or maybe it's just me who absolutely loves that sound. This era of Namco games with their team of composers were absolutely on fire. Ridge Racer being another soundtrack I love. If you listen to some of the tracks from Ridge Racer Type 4 they sound INCREDIBLY similar to some of the tracks in AC3. Wouldn't be surprised if it's the same guy who made both. Also you're coming up to the PS2s holy trinity. If you enioyed these you're in for a treat, where the universe really gets fleshed out and pretty much created the extremely passionate fanbase that you hear about today.

13:36 Actually you can experience this mission from the other faction. If you join Neucom and you will be one of those tiny R-311 and being dropped from the transporter at high altitude to attack the base that you take off with this tailor-made airframe.

ah, the thing about HUD is in the story, all aircraft comes with this COFFIN cockpit installed, it made the pilot and the aircraft "conected" like the aircraft are extension to the pilot body, but i agree that it is disorienting :')

I see Ace Combat, I watch, I thumbs up, I algorithm.

So, if you are "conservative" and think that progreessing flight controls to realism rather than arca

Ace Combat 3 is Armored Core with planes. I said it

@6:00 you can change air craft controls to expert mode in the options to fully solve that problem.

You really should've seen the other endings, there's a LOT you've missed that makes this game special, especially compared to other games in the series.

this is the first ace combat i played. i was so young back then I did not even know english and I had gotten the Japanese version of the game. I was so clueless that I thought that flying outside of the map was the objective in the first mission. i do not even know how did I manage to finish the game and get the same ending as you. even so. i became a fan and I have played every game since. Many years later I found out about the project nemo(fan made full English translation) and that after getting all the endings you get the last cutscene and find out the truth about the player character and the world you have been playing in. Still the best story of all the series IMO.

I still want Bamco to do a remake of 3 since it got delt a bad hand overseas.

Strange… I’ve never had such control problems. Good video though. I think you should’ve used a different thumbnail though. The jet featured isn’t even in the game… Edit: yay you fixed it

AC3 is really a game that needs a remake and, given the directions the overall series lore is going, this has a good chance of happening in the future

Played ACE combat 3 when I was a mid school boy. Love the menu design very much. The "flat design" was 20 years earlier than when it became popular with Windows 9 period.

As always, great video 😊 I just wanted to say that I was watching this video "passively" while doing something else, and I didn't know anything about Ace Combat 3, so I was surprised when you said that this is a Ps1 game, it's technically impressive

This was my first ace Combat I ever played with this game feels top way ahead of its time and strangers obviously with branching path and getting all endings and what an experience, especially dogfight those fantasy aircraft with unique electric soundtrack

The UI could be explained by the game lore itself, 'cause the pilots connect to the plane itself instead of flying the traditional way. It's like they turn into the plane itself, so they can't see the aircraft they are flying, that's why the UI is like that so they can have a better orientation.

i fuckin love ac3

The take on the soundtrack is not a good one. The soundtrack is genius, it reflects perfectly the cyberpunk-ish futuristic dystopian setting, along with the electrosphere/sublimation plot.

For future videos of games with branching story paths, I think it would be worthwhile for you to at least look up what you are missing when you are done recording and moving onto the editing phase so you can talk about it. It kind of happened in your For Answer video but its a bigger deal here. As someone else mentioned (possibly others as well), there actually IS a space mission in Electrosphere and its completely unique as no other Ace Combat has done that since, and its worth experiencing just for that uniqueness. Also, regarding story stuff, if you complete all 5 routes (on separate saves) you get one final, very VERY important cutscene that I think would have made you re-examine the whole game (Seriously, everything. Even little things like the background 3D tunnel in the menu), and as a viewer and long-time Ace Combat fan, I'm kinda bummed that I didn't get to hear your thoughts on that. tl;dr if you are pressed for time in a game with branching paths, please consider watching gameplay or reading up on the stuff you're not playing firsthand before editing the video and recording your thoughts. Also, when you get to AC6, you're gonna be in for a bit of a headache if you don't have an Xbox. Emulating it is NOT a good time, and someone actually had to make a custom build of Xenia to fix a graphical issue emulating it, but audio in cutscenes does not play last I checked.

A bit surprised you didn't mention that the cutscenes were done by Production I.G., the dudes behind Ghost in the Shell's anime.

I personally enjoyed the music in this one, my second favorite OST after 7

The music was beatiful and it is what I remembered over the years... The graphics with the adoption of the gouraud shading was fantastic and unique for the time on PS One, it was based on the 3D engine developed by Namco in Ridge Racer Type 4

No new missions? You literally go to space to destroy satellites and then have to re-enter earth's atmosphere as a landing segment. Least memorable soundtrack? Sheesh what a pleb. Ace Combat 3's soundtrack is borderline experimental. It's one of the most unique soundtracks i have ever heard in any media.

I recently (re)played both the Japanese and Western versions of this game in tandem, and while the latter might have been gutted in amount of content and story, it also came with some QoL improvements over the Japanese version that most people seem to ignore, some of which were also caused by the content reduction itself: - The controls and hitboxes were improved making the aircraft turn more fluently and missiles hit more consistently - The game having less stages and being on a single disk removed the possibility of having to swap it when playing the Mission Simulator - The Save File only took one space in the Memory Card instead of two Yes, the Japanese version is the "full experience", but the Western version has more comfort to it.

If the time was right time, AC3 would have received more appreciation. In 1999, unlike today, anime things didn't have large places, even in Japan. Sorry if my english is incorrect.

I loved 2. But 3 overloaded my then 9 year old brain back in the 2000's. The Aesthetic, Music and story hooked me. I get such a culture shock whenever later era AC fans get Hyped up about anything Belkan or Pixy or when a flamenco guitar plays. I'm just here going : I've seen the future of Strangereal. It's on a whole other level.

So it's not Ace Combat technically, but made by Ace Combat fans, so thoughts on playing Project Wingman after all the Ace Combat games?

As a Latino teenager back in 2000's, I was so fortunate in my country only japanese version was available. You can imagine how mind blowing and addicted to ac3 I was back then

I kinda like that first person hud... It give today VR hud vibes

l love those details. l have even noticed whenever a mission starts, you see effects you wouldn’t see on a human. It says the level(difficulty you're playing on) and the mission's name like its a simulation of something (wink wink). Nemo(and his name) sees something that no one else would be able to see(at mission start, HUD everything) and then you get the "Decide" voice line, which in retrospect, puts many details into one. Perfect game! In Ace combat 3. Why the "decide" is my favorite line? Because it reminds me of our lives and the way the Ai voice says it. Monotone but also with clear expression. You just got to do it. And just like in the game, you don't have the option not to decide, there is one but it leads back to the A decision since someone else does it for you. But all other times, you must decide if you want to move the story forward and the decisions can appear mid-mission, end mission, whatever the game has made. In the end, we must decide when presented a crossroad or a decision. It always need to be reminded, it is a truth. Did you know that in Greek Language "Truth" is "Αλήθεια" but that word has the "a" in it, in which it means the opposed of that. The actual word is "Λήθη",which means "erasing from memory, not remembering anymore".If you take opposite of that(Αληθεια) it means remembering it always, keeping in it your mind. How rich Greek is eh? Multiple meanings and literal. We must always have truth inside of us especially God and our actions and our situations

I wonder if someone at Namco ever pitched and Idea to make an Anime of The Ace Combat series?

6:13 yeah and Being introduced myself to this franchise with 04, I’ve Only Ever been saying this and screaming it as this Gameplay has Gone away for some reason ! Also ITS HOW PLANES ACTUAL FLY AND MOVE THROUGH THE AIR “Oh but it’s a Arcade game that doesn’t need it”🤬

Seeing as you didn't cover it means you never got to the space, bug bombing, and Geofront missions. I say the game is already pretty varied coming off from the second game. Plus the fact getting to pilot the boss planes with their firepower still intact.

Can't wait to here this guy talk about Belkans

After 25 years of this game's existence, It is with pride and joy that I announce to be an owner of a genuine physical copy of the Japanese version of Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere. my god, this tiny CD box is a work of art... they don't make them anymore like they used to.

6:14 boom take notes Fans And “New” Developers of franchise

This AC is one of my favorites, mainly because it was the first one I played and my entry into the saga, and something that I find funny and impressive is the fact that it has 5 endings, and they are all canon, each ending is totally different from one from another but still this game makes them canon, I don't want to spoiler anyone, if you want to know why, play it, this is like watch Matrix for the first time

ace combat games need a remastered game. Only the ones one ps1 and ps2 Ace combat squadron leader was my best one snice it had tons of missions 37 of them and 30 plus jets.

and now I find out they even made an italian patch translation. Thank you!

Been enjoying this series so far cant wait to hear your thoughts on zero and 7

Can't wait for your future videos on the series. It's going to get really good from here on.

I recommend you play the upeo campaing, why? There is counter virus mission and since the fighters are mind controlled in the game, if you start to get close to the virus your damage goes up and the screen darkens, pretty interesting mission Ps: in this path all your wingmates survives

I'm curious...Will you cover Ace Combat X? Yeah, it's a side game for the PSP, but it's pretty damn good. On par with the PS2 trilogy, people say. Funnily enough, the game takes place 20 years before Electrosphere, happening in 2020 (of all years.)

Music is so damn good in this game, like in the first mission "Transparent Blue"

You shouldve done other playthroughs so you couldve played the Zero Gravity mission, Bug Hunt, and the Geofront missions.

So about the aircraft control in AC3, they where pushing for a more authentic flight physics system. In reality not all fighters today can roll when at a high AoA, in order to roll when at a high AoA you would need to input some rudder to get the aircraft to roll it's called rudder authority. AC3 imitated this, some will roll when you have pulled the stick full back while others will only roll if the stick is half back.

Rena is effectively the Rei Ayanami of the AC Strangereal universe, and I wouldnt have it any other way

Couldn't watch after you insulted the HUD. The worst? MF, it's one of the best HUDs in the series and perfect for this game because it gives it a futuristic look.

ACE COMBAT III is 9.1/10 game overall. The only downside in AC III is the fewer stages compared to Japanese version and the controls that felt a bit sluggish compared to ACE COMBAT II.

Interesting. So this is what I missed. I appreciate your work.

Heads up on the mission where you fly into low orbit for general rezource you can drop down to save your wingman

There's one game you should check out called Balrd Sky, it's interesting because it Might have taken after ac3 is some ways, such as branching paths exploring different factions and a similar reveal about your playable character. Previous games in the series also came up with devil may cry combat before devil may cry so that's also interesting. And yes, it's a visual novel, but the writer keeps it interesting for...100 hours lol

Of all the older Ace Combat games I want to see remade, I want 3 to be remade. Todays graphics and HD 2D anime character cut scenes. I don't want them to translate the characters into 3D.

Aero Wings/Dancing/Elite games are Masterpieces also …

I heard so much about Ace Combat 3, imagine my disappointment popping the US edition in and not understanding what the big deal was. From what I understand, Namco simply didnt want to allocate the budget to translation and pressing 2 discs for a relatively niche PS1 game in 2000.

If I recall, the team that made this game would go on to form Cavia, the people who made the Original Drakenguard(and by extension Nier) With Drakenguards development name being Dragonsphere, a play on Electrosphere.

Oh yes I've heard about this game after being told by my friend that this game was gutted in the English version, I can definitely see why it got gutted after some extensive research. Man the Japanese version was a lot better than the English version and even though my friend usually plays the English version on occasion even he still turns to me and is like I wish we had the Japanese version. So much stuff that was in the Japanese version that isn't in the English version is what really hurts this one.

The sky color is "Transparent Blue" 💙

8:22 another Major Feature that is missing in newer games especially Missing in PAUSE MENU so to enjoy Watchinv WHENEVER 🤷‍♂️ But Ace6 really Raised the bar for the Quality and awesomeness of the Replay and Cinematography Angles !

I'm a simple woman, I see an Ace Combat 3 video, I watch it

This game needs a remaster

Only played EN version and it was already a blast in terms of gameplay and graphics. Now i wonder if i should jump back to get better understanding of this in-depth plot 🤔

I played the JP version back when I was a kid, had no idea what the txt said, but gameplay was super cool.

Really glad you got to experience the game properly. It was more work, but absolutely worth it.

We need a remake of AC3, the holy trinity, X & JA and the first 2 AC YESTERDAY

U forgot to mention 'corporate wars' in the list of popular sci-fi themes

13:03 "There weren't any new mission types." I disagree, the space combat mission, and the tunnel vision, both were absolutely new to the series, and still unique to this day. This is definitely the best game of the series, people often shower love for AC4, but I've played it after playing the JP version of the game, and it felt like a total downgrade, but I would totally understand the hype if you only played the international version, which is CRAP. BTW, I didn't know there was a second translation of the game, I only played with Project Nemo version, I will try this one too, thanks for showing it to us.

What if flight sim, but Ghost In The Shell?

I managed to find out all the quest branches and all playable airframes when I was 10. I was shocked. AC3 is not very ace combat from many aspects tbh, but it's my favorite ace combat in the entire franchise.

I played this game in primary I think and somehow I got both versions. Never finished it for some reasons and I might never bothered to change the plane.

I actually first played this game after I got my first PS2. Awesome visuals on the PS2

I've been buying and playing them all since I first tried AC4. Went back and got the PS1 releases and had a blast with 2. When I got to 3 I was so confused because I had no idea what was going on, but it eventually dawned on me what was missing when I went to see everyone's reaction over on Gamefaqs. Then I _had_ to import the original release. Luckily, I found a copy on some now defunct online import shop sometime in 2004. Of course, I needed to follow a guide for the plot, but man--the gravitas of the animation and voice acting still landed. It was so satisfying to play Project Nemo's translation when it came out. The existentialism, the dread. Compounded by the eerie soundtrack. Not many games like it out there. At the end I felt like a metaphorical chapter had closed. But I still wanted more. I don't think any of the other AC games affected me as deeply. Really hope Project Aces can find a way to get a remake greenlit. 9.5 for the Japanese release. 9.8 with the Appendisc. 7 for the NA release. The western version is still a good aerial dogfight game even if it's neutered in most other aspects.

Try finishing all 5 story routes. You'll unlock a secret ending.

I have a pristine japanese copy of this game that runs great on my asian ps3. I finished it but understood 0% of the story and do not remember anything about the game. Will probably replay it while watching an english lets play version, but maybe next time.

Ace Combat 3 is ambitious, but it all honesty I really don’t think it’s as amazing as many people keep claiming it is. They see “over 50+ missions” but then fail to realize they’re mostly copy and pasted missions that last on average 3 minutes. You are essentially just watching a visual novel with how long some cutscenes are compared to actual plane gameplay. And let’s be real, the only reason this game exists is because Japan was experiencing the “Evangelion/Ghost In The Shell Y2K sci-fi aesthetic” phase. As much as people want to hype this game up like it’s the best thing ever, it seriously does not represent the franchise people know and love today. Also just a funny note, the International version of AC3 actually lets you manually see the targets in the briefing screen compared to the Japanese version which I find kinda ironic.

Dude, you played one of the endings, when you play all of the five ones in a single save file you'll get the true ending. Just replay the game again some more times

Awesome review... I take it... you didn't go to space, did you?

Bruh. The Peter Griffin cut-away 😂

I played AC 3 on PS1, international version. Curiously, ennemies were not able to dodge bullets and flew in straight line when shot at with the machine gun. That made the game very easy, particularly the boss fights. This didn't work this on the restored version on emulator. Did anyone experience this too?

Absolute masterpiece this game is unforgetable