The biggest casualty of this conversion was Nemo, who now has no plot or real story associated with them.
Mission briefings became so long with the text moving too fast for you to even clearly understand what was going on at all! Oh, and all the trademark radio chatter of the franchise was also removed to fit the game onto a single CD. The problem with this was that the story was nearly entirely removed as well, along with all the anime cutscenes. Instead what we got was a gimped version of the game that had its alternating storylines removed in favor of one single long mission path. This version of the game didn’t have the funding to be properly brought overseas from Japan in its original 2 disk, 50+ mission glory with anime cutscenes to boot.
Now, for clarification on this placement for Nemo, I am basing my opinion on the North American version of Ace Combat 3. That’s all I have to say.” Really, that’s your big rallying call to arms to battle a dude who has been wiping the floor with you over the course of the game?! Man, truly a lost opportunity to turn the character into something more memorable, and by extension make the whole of Assault Horizon just that much better. Oh, and who could ever forget his big memorable speech near the end of the game: “Markov is far beyond good, but we can beat him.
Unfortunately, when it comes to Bishop he will always be that stereotypical soldier found in games of the time. His relationships with his wingman, Guts, and other supporting characters, Janice Rehl and Doug Robinson, are highlights, but they will always be the standout characters of the game in my mind. Sadly, this really isn't the case as the Lieutenant Colonel lacks any sort of charisma to let him truly stand out. Oh Bishop… Where do I even begin with you? Being the main protagonist of Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, you would expect Bishop to be a bit more likable. At least thanks to Guns’ injury and the skull mask he wears, he tends to be a bit more memorable than poor ol’ Spense. After a Trinity explosion, Guns sustains numerous third-degree burns, and later door gunner missions are actually played as a different character. Guns is one of the first playable characters in the game, being controlled during the opening title sequence. Likewise, Guns is a character whose gameplay is on rails, being a door gunner for Nomad 61. Spense is given no time to develop a personality or a reason we should care about him, and only appears in one mission during the entire game. Spense’s gameplay is completely on rails as you use the AC-130’s weapon systems to take out hostile targets. Spense is an operator of the infrared detection system aboard the AC-130 Spooky 01, piloted by Janice Rehl, who we will discuss momentarily. While I applaud that the franchise was trying to reinvent itself during the height of the Call of Duty hysteria by implementing new door gun mechanics and AC-130 gunplay, these two characters didn’t get the justice they deserved. Ace Combat: Assault Horizon had a lot of problems in my mind, and one of which was the number of throwaway characters you had to play as.