The Operatic Geopolitics of Ace Combat's Holy Trinity (04, 5, Zero)

This was the natural next step after playing Electrosphere. Spoilers for all three games, obviously. Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies - ★★★☆☆ People were talking about these games when I was still in high school. Somebody I used to talk to on AIM convinced me to pick up a used copy of Ace Combat 04 from Gamestop back in like, 2008, which I proceeded to play about 3-5 hours of before moving on to Persona 4. As I played Ace Combat 7 in 2020-ish and learned more about the franchise, friends who were more familiar with the series would talk about 04 in the same tones as one might speak about... well, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. Like Nocturne, its "soft franchise reboot on the PS2" compatriot, Ace Combat 04 possesses a sort of mythic lacunosity (or, more sardonically, a bubble-like quality). There's not really much to them, but they're cleverly presented such that if you step back, squint a little, and get into the right headspace, a grander tapestry is evoked. They both have a silent,…