Included in the Japan-exclusive Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Special Edition was ACES at War: A HISTORY, a booklet featuring setting materials, concept art, and development interviews that focused primarily on Ace Combat 04, 5, and Zero. The interviews, titled “Talk Dogfight,” featured 3 rounds where each one focused on some specific topics. The first focused on aircraft design with Art Director Masato Kanno, Shoji Kawamori of Macross fame, and an F-15 pilot in the JASDF. The second was about graphics and achieving visual beauty with Art Director Kosuke Itomi, an up-and-coming filmmaker named Hibiki Yoshizaki, and another JASDF Eagle Driver. The final round featured Kazutoki Kono and Sunao Katabuchi, the two men responsible for a large majority of the stories on Strangereal. All of them feature neat and largely unknown behind-the-scenes details of developing Ace Combat, artistic techniques used by these professionals, philosophical discussions, fighter pilot stories, and more. Once only available in Japanese, these interviews have been translated to English by yours truly.
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