Uploaded December 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago

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Striking a balance between realism, and approachability is never easy. But it's something Namco pulled off with the Ace Combat series. Shattered Skies (aka Distant Thunder in PAL regions) took the fast-paced aerial action of earlier games in the series and introduced a richer story to the proceedings - one which wasn't lost in translation (unlike Ace Combat 3's).

Thanks for watching!

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:26 Welcome to Strangereal
02:51 Briefings and Aircraft
05:14 Missions
07:45 Controls
09:17 Weapons and Loadouts
12:02 A Multi-Layered Story
13:26 Presentation & Visuals
14:20 Enemy AI and Your Journey
15:52 The Soundtrack
17:15 Closing Thoughts and Outro

Beyond The Scanlines is a series of explorations of *interesting* games (old and new) for classic home computer and console systems.

● Series Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZAgJhaPWsQJpvpcqCxgDtI420aKxsUnI
● New Episodes Mailing list: eepurl.com/hnpZhX
● Discord: discord.gg/dypVTqYd3p
● Streams: twitch.tv/hellfire64
● Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/beyondthescanlines
● Patreon: patreon.com/robc