This doujin arcade flight simulator comes from a long-lived series made by Rectangle, and is the first of the series brought to the west by the publisher Sekai Project.
This game uses the latest version of SphereEngine, SphereEngine4th, which is Rectangle's in-house SDK for creating flight-sim games, with previous versions being used for games like The Witch Of Triplecanopy (which still hasn't released on Steam, but is available on DLSite).
This game includes full controller support, but for a more Ace Combat-like experience you will have to change some buttons around on an Xbox controller. Fair warning.
The story takes place in Venus, years after an immigration initiative and in the aftermath of an economic bubble's burst, where the the Sentinels of Terra, a UN organization, is trying to keep things from spiraling out of control, and the Venus Mining Initiative has gotten their hands on a monopoly because they were one of the few companies to survive the economic failure. The Sentinels and VMI are on the brink a hot war, and this is where things kick off.
In the thick of it there is the Southline Airlines company, a family-operated Raider business of which Ellea, code Sonic-Venus, operates as the family's Raider Driver in search of her father who up and left some time ago. Raiders are next-generation fighters that are more compact but still pack a punch. They aren't usually equipped with stealth tech since most factions are still keeping an eye out for larger traditional fighters and aren't well equipped to tag Raiders at range until the fighting starts, and those who pilot Raiders are called Drivers due to the comparative simplicity of the hardware.
The visual novel format of the story is well-timed and keeps the flow of the game moving as you move to picking weapons and Raiders to buy before the next fight ensues.
Sound: The sound quality is quite good, and would have rivaled Ace Combat 4 and 5 back in the day. Chatter over the radio sounds noticeably improved, which is appropriate for the timeframe this game takes place in, and the background chatter, when it's present, adds that Ace Combat flair to the atmosphere.
Music: The music is varied and well-crafted, suitably selling the part of the story you're in right now. From introducing the Southline family to the final showdown, the music will immerse you nicely.
Gameplay: The gameplay is distinctly similar to Ace Combat, especially earlier iterations since AC4 and so on were the latest releases at the time, but the main difference is a Project Wingman-like pylon equip system and the fact that you're piloting small, agile and still well-armed aircraft. The way missiles work is also different, forcing you to jink last minute instead of just turning as hard as you can like in Ace Combat. Landing is also present, and becomes a plot point a few times in the story.
Pros: A great Ace Combat inspired title that sits next to its contemporaries in terms of quality.
Cons: Shaders are wack on RS4th, so expect performance drops, even on an RTX card. If you do suffer performance tanking, I suggest you turn them off because the game still looks good without, OR, you can use Reshade which does a better job overall.
If Rectangle decides to, I'd like to see the earlier Raiders Sphere titles here on Steam, even if they don't translate it.
