Why are these games set in a fictional world?

[blkholsun]

I have never played an Ace Combat game but I've been aware of them, and with the hype the new one is getting, I thought maybe this would be a good time to check it out. Then I read about the game and learn that the series, despite using real-world planes, is set in a weird sort of parallel universe or something and has a JRPG-style "plot" that is highly character-driven. And my question is: WHY? My second question is: has anybody ever modded the previous games to remove the "fictional universe" element and plant them on good old Earth involving actual countries, and what are the odds of that happening with 7?

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Talisman の投稿を引用：

Hobo Misanthropus の投稿を引用：

I personally never liked Simulators. Games like Elite Dangerous are as Simulator as I like to indulge in, and even it skews a bit towards arcade.

The idea of having to radio command 30 times for clearance to engage a target 900KM away with a standoff missile, then spend 4 hours flying around a no-fly demarcation because the Pentagon couldn't secure permission from the UAE to fly through Dubai Airspace just does not appeal to me.

Then you should be fine here, as Ace Combat is not a simulator.

I know, I've been playing Ace Combat since the 90's lol.

[HimeAria]

blkholsun の投稿を引用：

My second question is: has anybody ever modded the previous games to remove the "fictional universe" element and plant them on good old Earth involving actual countries, and what are the odds of that happening with 7?

Ok. So, in essence, you want a developer to make an ENTIRELY SEPERATE GAME. But for some reason you want the "Ace Combat 7" name legally slapped onto that game, so you want them to do it as a mod instead of an actual, seperate game. And like.....why? You're clearly not even an Ace Combat fan at all whatsoever to begin with, so why make such an insane request?

Are you so much of an ego maniac that you seriously expect literally every game in existence to cater to YOUR tastes? Just ignore this game and go buy one that actually suits you like a SANE person.

[blkholsun]

Magical Foxgirl Aria の投稿を引用：

blkholsun の投稿を引用：

My second question is: has anybody ever modded the previous games to remove the "fictional universe" element and plant them on good old Earth involving actual countries, and what are the odds of that happening with 7?

Ok. So, in essence, you want a developer to make an ENTIRELY SEPERATE GAME. But for some reason you want the "Ace Combat 7" name legally slapped onto that game, so you want them to do it as a mod instead of an actual, seperate game. And like.....why? You're clearly not even an Ace Combat fan at all whatsoever to begin with, so why make such an insane request?

Are you so much of an ego maniac that you seriously expect literally every game in existence to cater to YOUR tastes? Just ignore this game and go buy one that actually suits you like a SANE person.

Considering that I said I'd never played an Ace Combat game before... YEAH, you got me figured out! I'm NOT a Ace Combat fan. And now that I see it's clearly something that I'm not going to be interested it (I was under the impression that it was at least somewhat of a more realistic simulator), I AM going to play something else that suits me, like a sane person. Calm down, loony toon. I don't "expect" anybody to mod anything, I was just wondering if anybody ever had. People mod games all the time, for reasons big and small. Not a crazy question.

[JtDarth]

blkholsun の投稿を引用：

Magical Foxgirl Aria の投稿を引用：

Ok. So, in essence, you want a developer to make an ENTIRELY SEPERATE GAME. But for some reason you want the "Ace Combat 7" name legally slapped onto that game, so you want them to do it as a mod instead of an actual, seperate game. And like.....why? You're clearly not even an Ace Combat fan at all whatsoever to begin with, so why make such an insane request?

Are you so much of an ego maniac that you seriously expect literally every game in existence to cater to YOUR tastes? Just ignore this game and go buy one that actually suits you like a SANE person.

Considering that I said I'd never played an Ace Combat game before... YEAH, you got me figured out! I'm NOT a Ace Combat fan. And now that I see it's clearly something that I'm not going to be interested it (I was under the impression that it was at least somewhat of a more realistic simulator), I AM going to play something else that suits me, like a sane person. Calm down, loony toon. I don't "expect" anybody to mod anything, I was just wondering if anybody ever had. People mod games all the time, for reasons big and small. Not a crazy question.

You, are very much the loony toon. A simple google search would have answered every question you had. There are many, many, very good reasons to use a different universe for a military game, and tech availability is one of the biggest. Setting things in the real world makes no sense for the way wars are fought in ace combat, with such overemphasis on air combat. Somebody else mentioned it, but it would very much come down to us vs russia vs china for 8 games in a row, because noone else could feasibly have the forces to handle the scale of conflict involved in ace combat.
It's like asking metal gear to conform to reality. It doesn't work for the story and the environment it is set in, so they don't use it. They started with reality, then picked a divergence point, and had things develop a different direction, to the point where there equivalents to the real world countries tend to end up either barely recognizable or showing up in what are effectively flashbacks showing how they diverted.
Ace combat gets to avoid having to do that by simply starting off with a made up world. It means they don't have to waste time establishing why things are different, and can instead focus more on events and gameplay than trying to convey geopolitical info dumps to the player so that they can make sense of things. They don't have to explain why experimental planes are available for first lieutenants, or why planes can carry ridiculous numbers of missiles and gun ammunition. Players knowing it's not 'earth' but is instead 'strangereal' makes them more willing to just roll with things that don't fully make sense. It's a storytelling concept that has existed literally since before written history.
Restricting yourself to the real world also means restricting the available options for handling various topics. It means restricting the feasable options for villains and heroes.

[Saviliana]

There are three of AC titles set in real world(XX, Infinity and ACAH), but two of them suck so much it nearly sank the series. So please don't set it in real world anymore.

[[NcK]MasterShake|CM]

I'm sure there are a multitude of reasons as to why it is set in a fictional or as some prefer to call it 'strangereal' setting.

The first and most obvious reason is because it sells better. If the strangereal setting did not sell better, they would not use it. Period. End of story.

Most subsequent reasons, in one way or another, tie-in to the primary reason. There is much less political baggage to carry around if you use a fictional setting, even if it is a fictional setting that is obviously based upon recent real world history. Trust me when I say you'd rather have the [public] conversation revolving around "BELKA STRONK!" rather than "EBUL NAZIS ORANGE MAN BAD."

In general: People do not tend to gravitate towards methods of escape [ie: movies, music, narcotics, video games] because they want to be reminded of their daily lives or the politics therein. Occasionally it is inescapable. But in general, I think it's best to leave it out of video games and simply stick to rough analogies wherever possible.

[Just_Matt]

Because you can't write a faction like the Belkans using IRL countries: that's called racism.

Also Assault Horizon did that, and that game is ♥♥♥♥. Never go Assault Horizon, kids.

[Just_Matt]

Cydramech の投稿を引用：

There was no 'Strangereal' until AC4, and the reason they decided to have the series take place in a fictional world by AC4 is because they had enough fleshed out from the prior titles.

Strangereal started at 2 actually, and was catapulted into a GiTS-style cyberpunk future in 3. Then 4 to 7 happened, stalling for time 'cause Project Aces are too coward to give us a proper sequel to Electrosphere where half the missions play like Zero Gravity.

[I Am Groot]

Fictional world setting is an convenience to make up a story,war, and things without insulting anyone, any country, any religion, and it is more reasonable to see any faction flying any aircraft.
AC is arcade game, so...fictional world is much better than real world which is much suitable to simulator.
After all, the original story(all titles, except Assault Horizon) is in this fictional world.

[Colonel_30]

Why not? Strangereal is a matured fictional storyline that already gained huge amount of fans, if you heard Ace Combat then you expect it's taking place in Strangereal universe for a coherent sequels. They already tried a spinoff of real-life universe in Assault Horizon and that game is a complete disaster. One of the reason is that real-life based scenario is just not as epic as fictional futuristic Strangereal one.

[[BPL] Razorin Faust]

The "Strangereal" universe is the perfect setting for Ace Combat games.
It allow the creator to pit immense air battle with a plethora of diverses planes, create story with without taking into account real world politics and the subsequent backlash and controversy from anyone. And in this universe with all the backstory present it make sense to have absolutely giant vehicle/weapon that are the stapple of a good AC games.

[Jay And Problems]

Because they tried that already. It was called Assault Horizon and it was terrible.

[Prpich25]

Why is any game, set in any world? Cause they wanted to maybe?

[Cydramech]

The 3rd Runner の投稿を引用：

Cydramech の投稿を引用：

There was no 'Strangereal' until AC4, and the reason they decided to have the series take place in a fictional world by AC4 is because they had enough fleshed out from the prior titles.

Strangereal started at 2 actually, and was catapulted into a GiTS-style cyberpunk future in 3. Then 4 to 7 happened, stalling for time 'cause Project Aces are too coward to give us a proper sequel to Electrosphere where half the missions play like Zero Gravity.

Nope.

https://acecombat.fandom.com/wiki/Strangereal

Strangereal, as it exists today, was created by Namco employees in developing Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies and Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. It has since been retconned to be the setting for the three Ace Combat games before Ace Combat 04, as well as the majority of Ace Combat games released since. The upcoming Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown will be the 13th Strangereal game

[dEMON]

Hawx was not fictinal but there is many stupid thing was in game... But why you need real world, don't you enough real aircrafts? Also fiction gives you oportunity to add somthing what is not real like AI aicraft in electrosphere, flying fortress etc. in previous games