Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4196571-20160617034108

So I think most people can agree that the PS2 trilogy was far superior to any of the PS3 games by a longshot. But what, in your opinion, made the PS2 trilogy (Shattered Skies, The Unsung War, and the Belkan War) so much better than the PS3 trilogy? In my opinion, it was the following aspects:

- There was a massive emphasis on the campaign. Ace Combat is notable for it's excellent storytelling capabilities, and the trilogy was a work of art in the way of storytelling. Assault Horizon had a mediocre storyline that was basically a rehash of something that Call of Duty would release. And Ace Combat Infinity barely had a campaign at all, hid it behind a paid-DLC wall essentially, and constructed it out of bits and pieces of the PS2 trilogy (thereby acknowledging that those games were better).

- The soundtrack was magnificent, original, and carried emotional weight. And the final missions always had epic masterpieces to carry you through the climax and the final showdown. "Agnus Dei", "The Unsung War", and "Zero" were all unique from each other (despite "Zero"'s lyrics being rehashed from "The Unsung War") and carried the player emotionally both during and after the climactic end of each game.

- The gameplay was innovative and unique with each subsequent game. Assault Horizon attempted to accomplish this with the Dogfight system, but that was a total failure and just made the game feel fake to play. Ace Combat Infinity introduced virtually nothing new to the game. The Unsung War introduced flight lead mechanics, which were further developed in The Belkan War, which also featured the Ace Style gauge (which TRIPLED gameplay potential), the "Mission X" secret mission (which reappeared in both portable titles), and the Assault Records (which further increased playability).

- There was no DLC, and chunks of the game weren't hidden behind pay walls. You bought the game and you got the whole damn thing. ACAH had a good number of aircraft and expansions that you had to buy separately from what was already a $40 game which seriously lacked content, with its short campaign and mediocre multiplayer. Ace Combat Infinity has no DLC but instead has microtransactions, and without dumping tons of money into these microtransactions you won't even place reasonably in tournaments and you will have to spend an exorbitant amount of time grinding if you want to get to the end tree planes.

With all of that said, what do you think can be done by Project Aces to make Ace Combat 7 as magnificent as the games in the PS2 trilogy? Is there anything you want to see kept from the PS3 games (besides enhanced graphics)?  