Ace Combat Joint Assault

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

I just unlocked a 6th paint scheme for my Typhoon.

Graham

Wow I didn't know some had 6th paint schemes. What does that Typhoon look like? I only have 3 for it so far. The 5th Tomcat looks BAD ASS.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Ugh...I got PISSED trying to beat the last mission on hard. I had the LAGM with the F-16C, so taking out the ships was easy, but the $%^&*$%^ing VARCOLAC Squadron? Man $%^&* those guys! ALL OF THEM! Especially Sulejmani! Phase 2 of the mission is taking out the SOB's from Varcolac Sqn. Each of these $%^holes flies an ugly plane that has stability reminiscent of the S-32 in AC5. It's RIDICULOUS, and they also have QAAM's.

Anyways, you take out 3, you can't hit Sulejmani unless the other 3 are taken out 1st, this douchebag has a machinegun mounted to the spine of his aircraft a la YF-19. DICK. Anyways he goes on for a speech, let him finish, then keep firing at him. When his radar blip turns red(low energy), he says another speech, then proceeds to pull Cobra's each time you turn with him, and vault off a QAAM head on. Go at him with guns. If you fire a missle at him after his 2nd speech, he does barrel rolls so he doesn't get hit.

The way to get him is to continue using the gun. Unfortunately, my best planes are my Super Tomcat, Typhoon, and Strike Eagle, along with the Flanker, due to the way I tuned them. My fastest are the Flanker and Strike Eagle with the Typoon and Flanker being close in stability. You need a plane with lots of stability for this mission. A way to trick Sulejmani at this point, is to fire a missle and since he will dodge it, fire your guns after you launch your missle. He may inadvertently barrel roll into the path of your bullets.

Anyways on hard mode, this SOB was a cheap mot%^&*(er so I after a few hours, I gave up and just beat the mission on easy(you can choose difficulty per mission). Maybe if I have one of the super planes or YF-23 it will be easier to take him out but funds in-game accumulate at a slow/low rate.

Still a very enjoyable game, feels more like Ace Combat than 6 did. It's definitely a big improvement over ACX. Just wish Sulejmani and crew weren't so damn cheap.

[Graham]

I still haven't beaten Sulejmani on normal difficulty yet on phase 2 of mission 21A. Been using the Typhoon. I've tried dozens of times.

I can take down the other 3 members of Varcolac squadron easily, within a couple of minutes, using QAAMs, but Sulejmani is a real bastard to kill.

Graham

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

I still haven't beaten Sulejmani on normal difficulty yet on phase 2 of mission 21A. Been using the Typhoon. I've tried dozens of times.

I can take down the other 3 members of Varcolac squadron easily, within a couple of minutes, using QAAMs, but Sulejmani is a real bastard to kill.

Graham

I think I used the Typhoon to kill his a55 the 1st time on normal. I think I had to use the trick I mentioned above:

• After his 1st speech, keep hitting him until his radar blip turns to red, and he starts another speech
  
• After he says "Now Antares, give me everything you got!", ONLY use your missles to trick him into barrel rolling into your path of bullets. I think the gun is the only way you can kill him off after his last speech.
  

I just know that once you get his damage down so that his radar blip turns red, he will start barrel rolling whenever you fire a missle at him, this is either slightly before, or directly after his last speech. The unfortunate thing is that what the fight at that point almost always turns into a vertical rolling scissors with him volleying QAAM's head on at close range. A plane with extremely high stability is best at this point, and one that can accelerate fast as hell too. On hard mode...with my Strike Eagle tuned extremely fast with very high stability, Sulejmani is still a PITA to kill. I might save up for the Falken and buy the laser to just snipe his a55. Being that planes cost a ton, it's going to be a while before I can do this....

For the missle trick, if he is to my right, once I lock on, I fire missles, and simultaneously start firing guns and holding the gun button down. He usually barrel rolls left into the path of my bullets, If he is to my left, I fire and he usually barrel rolls to the right. It's best to somewhat position him off-point so that you can trick him into barrel rolling right in front of you.

In this respect, this is a MUCH harder last part than the one mission in Ace Combat 2 where you have to down a cruise missle using guns only. Phase 3 of 21A is EXTREMELY easy, you only have time for 1 pass, so make sure you don't get confused by the buildings.

I found the music to be quite epic at times. Definitely reminds me of Ace Combat 5 with some influence from Ace Combat 2. It seems like a goodbye from the series on PSP on a good note. The music is definitely better than that of Ace Combat 6.

David, you may or may not like the 5th F-14D scheme in the game. It's a red tail Super Tomcat. Red randome, red horizontal and vertical stabs, I think black trim on the tips of the vert stabs, and red trim around the cockpit except for overdoing the anti-glare part(it almost looks like they decided to color in the area where NASA implemented canards on the spin test F-14A). Flaps are white. It's basically like a combo of the red tail 1995 Grim Reapers F-14B with the factory deco of the 70's Tomcats.

What I don't like is that when you arm Sparrows/SAHM's, they are mounted on the Phoenix pallets. WTF? Also, to unlock the weapons per plane, you can only do so by using the plane(yep, say you beat the game and only used the F-5E...the only weapons you would have unlocked would be for the F-5E, nothing else), and the SP weapons are unlocked in order. So the XLAA is the last weapon IIRC for the Tomcat, and I still haven't unlocked it.

Edited September 24, 2010 by Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0

[dizman]

Yeah 21 a and b are rediculous, the varcolacs fly backwards like its nothing. My advice is go online and get someone to help you, 2 pilots make that battle so much easier.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Yeah 21 a and b are rediculous, the varcolacs fly backwards like its nothing. My advice is go online and get someone to help you, 2 pilots make that battle so much easier.

Okay, so I finally found a solution to Sulejmani in the last mission. This, after reading tips online, and trying things out for myself:

• Buy the Forneus
  
• Any parts to upgrade mobility/stability significantly, will aid you, the Forneus turns exceptionally well at low speed and is wicked fast.
  

Alright, so my last fight with Sulejmani on hard mode(3rd playthrough altogether), resulted in a dogfight that lasted most likely under 10 minutes. Taking out his teammates is easy with the Forneus, just hunt them down aggressively and the Forneus is so fast and stable that it is easy to catch up, and stick with them in turns.

After this, Sulejmani does his speech. After his 1st part is done, catch up to him and fire your cannon until your AWACS operator says that his defense system is done or something. After that, you can volley some missles at him, some will hit. After taking more damage, he will then start moving his plane in Cobra/Kulbit'esque bullshi* manuevers. Keep using gun.

After taking more damage, he will then say some speech telling you to show him what you got. He will do head on shots when you get close to him. The key is to:

• Fire a missle whenever he locks onto you(especially head on), he will pull off one of the aforementioned manuevers to dodge, but he will be very slow and close for a few seconds trying to recover..you can then keep firing your cannon at him.
  
• Rinse & repeat

Ultimately he will get to his final speech saying that by shooting you down, he will reclaim his childhood(and honestly after being shot down by these guys on hard mode several times and sitting through the speeches, it gets annoying), at this point, anything goes, BUT I found that it's best to just go after him and fire your cannon. I did this, and whenever he would lock onto me, I would fire a missle, which he would try to dodge, but I would very quickly try to fire my cannon at him.

At that point, he died rather quick. I used the Hawk Eye avionics upgrade, but honestly I'm not sure what difference it made(said something about camera magnification increased...eh...did it mean by holding the triangle button for the tracking camera?). What I did read online, is that the easiest way to kill Sulejmani, is to upgrade the Forneus with the Sniper OS avionics upgrade. Read that Sulejmani is vulnerable to attacks from above in the last stages of the fight with him, and that you can snipe him from afar using XMAA and guns using Sniper OS. I read that it's unlocked by destroying a boat in Mission 12A or 12B, but I think you have to have bought the Forneus prior to doing so. I bought it after and the Sniper OS was not unlocked.

That's one thing I somewhat dislike; you have to keep using each plane to get each of it's respective upgrade parts/weapons. I can see why this was done to increase replayability and to keep the game from becoming too easy, but sometimes it can be frustrating.

Overall I've come to appreciate Joint Assault much more with the playthroughs. It's a more comprehensive and in depth game than ACX, and is a worthy sequel.

Some of the advanced planes are very very expensive. On 4th playthrough now and nowhere near close to affording the F-22(not that I want it though, honestly). I should say that my hangar has a mix of old and some newer aircraft; I didn't want to get all the advanced planes off the bat, I wanted to take my time).

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

I've been playing this game more, and it has yet to get boring. I think I am on my 5th playthrough. Still a good number of planes that remain unlocked. Even then, I cannot afford all of the planes in the hangar. Rather than sell everything and buy the super planes, what I did was buy the planes that I liked, and I got some love for the vintage planes. I finally bought the YF-23 earlier this week. All 5th generation planes are uber expensive in the game, triple digits. It will be a while before I can buy the likes of the F-22, SU-47, and stuff like the XFA-27.

There are a TON of emblems to unlock. Some are modex numbers, emblems from previous Ace Combat games(like Neucom, General Resource, Mobius Squadron, Scarface Squadron, skull and crossbones, Aurelia, et al).

What I love about the game is the upgrade system. It is something that I think ought to be implemented in future games. I hope Assault Horizon has this as it is one of the best innovations made to the series. It was cool in X, far better in Joint Assault.

There is a wing tuning part that can increase the mobility of the YF-23 to a very high extent, and the YF-23 is also compatible with the Sniper OS. high mobility, speed, and Sniper OS make it much less frustrating to take out Sulejmani in normal-Ace difficulties in the last mission.