Another Century's Episode 3: The Final (アナザーセンチュリーズエピソード 3 THE FINAL Anazā Senchurīzu Episōdo Surī The Final), abbreviated as A.C.E.3, is a mecha action video game produced by Banpresto and developed by From Software. It is the sequel to the popular 2006 game Another Century's Episode 2, and the third game in the Another Century's Episode series. It was released for the PlayStation 2 on September 6, 2007.
Although it has a "The Final" subtitle, it is not the final game entry of A.C.E. series, as after the announcement of Another Century's Episode R in PlayStation 3 platform in April 2010. "The Final" possibly means conclusion of A.C.E.1 to A.C.E.3's stories which connects each others.
A.C.E.3 is set three years after the events of A.C.E.2, between the final battle between the UCE and the Zentradi in A.C.E.2 (the antagonists of Macross), known as The First Defensive War. It also mentions that the UCE forces has been reformed into the Earth Federation forces. The game's overall plot deals with the sudden appearance of a second, war-torn Earth from which new and more deadly enemies emerge. At the same time, enemies who survived the First Defensive War begin reappearing on the original Earth, further complicating matters. The game is primarily divided between two sides with "Earth Side A" (the Earth in A.C.E.2), dealing with the stories for Endless Waltz, Char's Counterattack, Macross, Macross Plus, Dragonar, Wings of Rean and Prince of Darkness, while "Earth Side B" (the new, ruined Earth) involves the plots of Gundam X, Eureka Seven, Shin Getter Robo, and Overman King Gainer. The stories behind the remaining series (Gundam, Turn A Gundam, Gundam SEED, G Gundam, Dunbine, and Brain Powered) are not included (with the latter three's storyline get concluded in A.C.E.2), existing mainly to support the other series. Also, the storylines of Dragonar and Macross are given original treatments, as their main plots have been concluded in A.C.E.2; Endless Waltz only involves with a very brief appearance in certain route (while showing power eliminating hundreds of unit at an instant, through it cannot be seen).
The events of A.C.E.3 are mainly connected by a device called the Baldora Drive, which was originally planned as a teleportation device for outer space travel in Earth A and the invasion of the space colonies in Earth B. However, both sides abandoned the use of the Baldora Drive 18 years ago, but recently got back into service when they had the technology to repair it. Through this device, a wormhole is created in the space between the two Earths, which allows the protagonists to travel between them. However, as the wormhole expands due to the effect of the Baldora Charge (which is used to power the device) obtained from various sources of energy, it would eventually make the size of a wormhole large enough to make the two earths collide with one another, due to gravitational attraction, from which its final outcome will be the destruction of mankind. In order to stop this, heroes from both sides must ally together and find a way to stop the device, before the wormhole fully expands.
The primary battleships in A.C.E.3 are the Gekko from Eureka Seven and the Nadesico B from The Prince of Darkness, with the latter eventually being replaced by the Nadesico C as per the movie's plot. Tower, the main ship from Getter Robo, is also given lots of appearance in the game. The main ship of the Londo Bell (as well as the launching ship in A.C.E.), the Ra Cailum and its captain, Bright Noa, also appears in the game, but due to the death of Hirotaka Suzuoki (the voice actor for Bright) in 2006, most of his scenes in the game are simply cut out (and his voice mainly re-uses the recorded ones in A.C.E.).
Source: Wikipedia, "Another Century's Episode 3", available under the CC-BY-SA License.