Here we go again! Two weeks ago, Namco Bandai teased the Ace Combat crowd with an imaged emblazoned with the Project Aces logo. Now, we have a very up-close shot of what appears to be dialogue from this new game, posted on Namco’s own Ace Combat fanpage. While it’s partially shown, we can assume that the first word is “sky.” So, “sky fell, the”. What could this be alluding to?

Many fans think it’s an HD remake of Ace Combat 04. In the beginning of Ace Combat 04, the narrator begins by saying, “I was just a child when the stars fell from the skies,” referencing the Ulysses meteor that set in motion many of the events in the Ace Combat series. Seeing the narrator’s line and “sky fell, the”, this could mean one of two things. One possibility is that the lines were rewritten for the narrator, confirming that this is indeed a remake of Ace Combat 04. The other possibility is that this could be an entirely new game and story, with a character once again directly referencing the meteor (instead of a war that was caused by it).

My hope? That this is a new story, this time taking place even closer to the Ulysses event, possibly right before impact. There could be something like a countdown to impact, similar to how the The Warriors game counted down to the meeting of the gangs for half the game. Then after impact, it shows the effect it has on the continent most of the fragments land on. The stories told in the Ace Combat series (unless told in Zero, since I have yet to play that one) talk about meteors in passing, as something that happened back then. All we ever see is the effect of it, i.e. refugees or anti-meteor defense systems.

Regardless, it looks even more likely that this next Ace Combat game (if it is one) is going back to Strangereal.

[via Ace Combat Facebook page]