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That's pretty cool! Case closed, right?Īnother interesting point are the references to Ace Combat within the Ridge Racer universe. Her birth year of 1977 would put her at 22, two years younger than Reiko. The interesting thing is that many websites (likely all cribbing from Wikipedia) claim that the version of Kei from AC2 was "officially" (see below) identified as Reiko's younger sister. Much like Link, unrelated versions of her with different backstories show up in a number of Ace Combat games. Kei herself is not only one character, however. With all this in mind we come to the 1997 Playstation release Ace Combat 2, and the thought that your wingman would have the same last name as another very prominent Namco character is too much of a coincidence, right?
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In later games she even acts as an opponent driver and official spokesperson for the UFRA (the United Federation of Ridge Racing Association, thank you for asking). So popular was Reiko that there was actual fan outcry when she was briefly replaced by another mascot in the Playstation 2 launch title Ridge Racer V she remains a prominent presence in the franchise, such as it remains in 2018. Bless your speakers by watching it below.
#Ace combat 5 ost arkbird pt ii movie
Though some of it may be a little wonky today, this was truly impressive at the time! Classy, sexy, and able to introduce the players to R4 in a way that didn't feel like a video game cutscene - no one had seen an intro movie like this before.Īll of this was accompanied by a brilliant dance tune with jazzy vocals by Kimara Lovelace, setting the stage for the best soundtrack in any Ridge Racer game (don't me). The point where Reiko became a Big Deal was undoubtedly the introductory cutscene to Ridge Racer Type 4. First appearing as an anonymous Race Queen in Rave Racer but not officially named until Rage Racer (yes, they're both Ridge games), Reiko grew in popularity until she became a sort of mascot to the franchise. Though her in-game presence is limited, for my money Reiko shares the spotlight with Pacman as an iconic Namco character. But first, a few words about Reiko Nagase. This brings us to the Ridge Racer connection, and this is where it gets a little weird. In the words of Kazutoki Kono (head of Project Aces) this creates an "accommodating world" that allows the developer to play with realistic themes and settings while throwing in unrealistic technology (not to mention avoiding the baggage that comes with using real countries). The rest are fictionalized analogues to real world locations. This isn't Earth! Oh wait, there's.Antarctia?Īs you can see, the Strangereal version of Earth shares a couple things with real-ass Earth, namely Antarctica as well as the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. Officially, the setting of Ace Combat is simply called "Earth". It sounds clunky and was only intended for developer use to refer to the game's setting (only one Ace Combat game, the 2011 mobile title Northern Wars, references Strangereal in-game) but the term stuck for fans of the series. Strangereal ("Strange Real", a strange or different version of the real world) is the internal name for the universe in which most Ace Combat games take place. "STRANGEREAL"? NAMCO'S ALTERNATE UNIVERSE
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I want to go over the evidence that suggests that the Ridge Racer and Ace Combat series exist in the same timeline, while also giving a short primer on the two characters that the theory revolves around. In the meantime it's up to independent developers to fill the void these games once occupied, but we're getting off topic. For children of the late 80's/90's, however, it shares a spot with Sega's Daytona USA as an example of an all but lost racing ideal: blue skies, loud music, unrealistic physics and pure arcade driving action. A once respected Elder Statesman in the arcade racing genre, Ridge Racer's star has faded since its introduction in 1994. Namco's other well known Nagase, Reiko, is the face of one of their most famous non-Pacman franchises. Reiko Nagase as she appears in Ridge Racer Type 4 And if you're a Ridge Racer fan, that name sounds very familiar:
Kei Nagase in Ace Combat 5 (left) and Ace Combat 2 (right) If you've played Namco's excellent Ace Combat 5 (or Ace Combat 2.or Ace Combat 4) you've probably seen a character named Kei Nagase: Long time no see! Get ready for some Deepest Ridge Racer Lore. *warning: this is the nerdiest thing I've ever written on this blog*