is a 1999 combat flight simulation game by Namco for the PlayStation. The third game in the Ace Combat franchise, it was released in Japan on May 27, 1999, and internationally the following year. Players fly fighter aircraft and must complete a variety of mission objectives, such as destroying squadrons of enemy planes or protecting a base from an invading unit.
Namco directors Takuya Iwasaki and Atsushi Shiozawa designed Electrosphere to be visually distinct from other combat flight simulators, using Ace Combat 2 as a base for the game's ideas and mechanics. The storyline was designed to be a core aspect of the game, and to serve a proper purpose by directly affecting the gameplay. Electrosphere carries a futuristic science fiction-inspired landscape and world compared to the modern-day theme of its predecessors. The game is known for the drastic differences in content in the Japanese and international releases; Namco intended to retain the Japanese version's two-disc campaign and branching storyline, but due to financial constraints the game was cut down for North America and Europe.
Though it had a small marketing campaign and little promotion, Electrosphere shipped over one million copies. The Japanese release received positive reviews and was seen as ambitious in its design. International releases were more mixed, with critics expressing confusion towards the lack of content and bland gameplay. The Japanese release of Electrosphere has since been re-evaluated, with critics praising its ambition, overarching story, and additions to the series' gameplay formula.
Gameplay
Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere is a combat flight simulation video game. Like its predecessors, it is presented in a more arcade-like format in contrast to other flight sim video games. Unlike most other entries in the series, a greater focus on realism was applied to the aircraft's energy conservation, with players having to avoid tight turns and steep inclines lest they burn off airspeed and enter a stall, which were notably difficult to recover from compared to later entries. Players pilot one of 23 aircraft in both releases. On the Japanese release, they may fight across four factions and complete a selection of the game's 52 missions depending on their faction. Only 36 missions are available in the international release, limited to the UPEO side. These missions range from destroying squadrons of hostile planes to protecting bases from enemy attacks. Player performance is graded from an A to D letter scale, which are logged in a chart displayed on the title screen.
Electrosphere adds several new mechanics to the core Ace Combat gameplay. One of these is the ability to fly spacecraft, with one mission taking place above Earth in outer space. Players can watch instant replays of the mission's final moments at the end of each mission, as in Ace Combat 2. The selection of flyable planes is limited by progress and the player's faction. In the Japanese release, missions contain radio chatter from both the player's faction and opposing ones. In the international release, the player only receives radio chatter from their own faction. The radio chatter in the Japanese release features avatar-like images of the characters. The player can rotate their camera 360-degrees around their fighter in order to see what is behind them or get a better view of the level. An automatic search engine which documents relevant information on the game's organizations, locations, characters, and technology, can be accessed between missions. Fully-voiced, animated video messages can be accessed and viewed via a fictional electronic mailbox.
The Japanese release features additional content that is not present in the international releases. The most notable of these are the branching paths: depending on decisions made by the player in certain parts of the game called "Turning Points", the plot will change, leading to one of five possible endings. The story in each of the game's fives branches is made so that they complement each other. Obtaining all five endings opens up the "Mission Simulator", a mode which allows the player to replay any mission with any aircraft and weapon that they have unlocked.
Synopsis Setting Ace Combat 3 is set in the series' fictional universe of Strangereal, where Earth has entirely different nations, geography, and history. Specifically, Ace Combat 3 is set in a partially-noncanonical cyberpunk near future rendition of Strangereal, in which the world's governments have been effectively superseded by multinational megacorporations that wield massive political, economic, and military strength, the two effective "superpowers" being General Resource Limited and Neucom Incorporated ("Neuwork" in the international versions). Both megacorporations, locked into a fierce power struggle in the continent of Usea, eventually declare direct corporate warfare against each other in 2040, prompting the Universal Peace Enforcement Organization (UPEO), an international peacekeeping force with dwindling influence, to respond to stop the Intercorporate War from worsening. A major part of the 2040 rendition of Strangereal is the "Electrosphere", a fictional version of the Internet; in the 2030s, advancements in technology made uploading one's consciousness to the Electrosphere possible, causing a rise in transhumanism as well as Ouroboros, a transhumanist terrorist group based out of the airship Sphyrna that believes humanity can ascend to a new plane of existence by uploading their consciousness to the Electrosphere.
Characters The characters of Ace Combat 3 include peacekeepers, mercenaries, company men, diplomats, scientists, news presenters, and terrorists. The game is played through the perspective of a silent protagonist named Nemo. The main cast is composed of fighter pilots affiliated with either a peacekeeping organization, one of two rivaling private military companies, or a group of revolutionary terrorists. The player, allies, and enemies, may change their allegiance over the course of the game. NPC characters interact with the player via videophone calls, videomail messages, and radio transmissions during gameplay.
Japanese version In 2040, UPEO deploys their Special Armed Response Force (SARF), a fighter squadron led by Commander Park that includes Nemo, the player character, and Rena Hirose, a prodigous flying ace, to respond to incursions by Neucom in no-fly zones. Accusing UPEO of supporting General Resource, Neucom launches a preemptive strike on General Resource, initiating the Intercorporate War. To prepare for combat, Nemo undergoes aerial training from General Resource's top ace, Abyssal Dision. Impressed by Nemo's skills during a subsequent mission, Dision asks them to defect to General Resource. If Nemo stays with UPEO, they begin to fight General Resource, who are attacking Neucom. Nemo is later assigned to escort Gabriel William Clarkson, UPEO's Delegate, who is traveling to a conference to mediate a ceasefire, when Commander Park suddenly claims Clarkson is a Neucom spy and orders Nemo to shoot down Clarkson's plane. If Nemo spares the plane, Neucom offers Clarkson protection, and Nemo transfers to Neucom. If Nemo or Rena kills Clarkson, they remain with UPEO.
It is ultimately revealed that the conflict was orchestrated by Ouroboros, led by Dision, who had secretly been "sublimated" into the Electrosphere and made into an AI copy following a cover-up assassination attempt by General Resource aimed at destroying the mind-uploading technology he was testing. Commander Park is also revealed to be a member of Ouroboros who was using SARF to inflame the conflict. If Nemo stays at UPEO, the player, along with wingman Erich Jaeger, eventually break away from UPEO to bring back Rena, an ally who has joined Dision, and to defeat Commander Park, who has allied himself and UPEO with Dision's coup d'état. If Nemo chooses to leave UPEO for General Resource or Neucom instead, different endings will result, in which Nemo either defects to Ouroboros or remains with the corporation and ensures their victory. Regardless of the player's choices, Nemo shoots Dision down in every ending.
After all five endings are completed, scientist Simon Orestes Cohen reveals that Nemo is actually an AI program that Simon has been training to eliminate Dision to avenge the death of his love interest, fellow researcher Yoko Martha Inoue, who was the target of the same cover-up that killed Dision. Despite the non-sublimated Dision having also been a victim, Simon blamed her death on him, potentially due to his romantic affair with her. Satisfied in knowing that Nemo will defeat Dision in any possible scenario, Simon ends the simulation and releases Nemo into the real world.
International version Due to development constraints, the plot in the international versions of Ace Combat 3 was heavily cut down, with characters, backstory, and its multiple endings being completely removed. This version lacked voice acting and the majority of animated cutscenes present in the Japanese release, with the non-gameplay story elements being told through text slideshows between major missions.
Nemo, a human pilot flying for UPEO, deploys to fight off Neuwork's attacks on General Resource. It is eventually revealed that Ouroboros precipitated the conflict, led by a rogue AI developed by Neuwork codenamed "Aurora". Nemo eventually fights and defeats Aurora inside the Electrosphere, bringing the AI threat and the war itself to an end.
Development
Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere began development in 1998 following the critical and commercial success of Air Combat and Ace Combat 2. Directors Takuya Iwasaki and Atsushi and producer Takashi Fukawa led a team of other Namco employees during production, most of whom had worked on Ace Combat 2. The directors wanted the third entry to be far more ambitious than its predecessors in both content and presentation. The team focused primarily on making the storyline a key mechanic, which would change and affect the gameplay based on player progress and decision. Storylines in previous Ace Combat games were seen as unimportant and did not have a direct effect on the gameplay itself; this decision was to help make the story feel like an integral part of the game and to serve an actual purpose. Drama television shows and the game R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998) served as inspiration for this idea. Graphic designer Minoru Sashida, who worked on the arcade game Techno Drive, designed the game's menu interface.
During development, the team worked to make Electrosphere visually distinct from other combat flight simulators and create new technological breakthroughs. This led to the game's futuristic, science fiction setting and world, which was created through combining 1970s city designs and modern-day architecture. The developers used Ace Combat 2 as a basis for the game, leading to Electrosphere borrowing many of its ideas and concepts. Hardware limitations of the PlayStation and the team's limited skills made them skeptical of their vision and world being implemented. Its size forced it to be split across two discs. The console had difficulties rendering maps due to their size, which made the game difficult to program. Programmer Kenji Nakano created a workaround to this problem by rendering far-away objects with far fewer polygons than they were up-close (level-of-detail), which took two months to implement. Cutscene animations were provided by Production I.G, featuring dark shadows and contrasting lines. To give the game the illusion of time passing, a day-to-night cycle was implemented.