Namcoverse: All Hail The United Galaxy Space Force!

Well, time for my occassional post here, this time we will be tackling the UGSFverse, aka the Namcoverse. Been interested in this universe for a long time, finally gonna start to explore it. Here's a chart I made for it.

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Unweildy, I know, but let's break it down as per usual. I'm gonna begin with Ace Combat.

Ace Combat is mentioned in the UGSF timeline [1], specifically Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere as being the earliest title in the timeline, altho given the canonicity of other Ace Combat games thats not true with earlier Ace Combat games set in the same timeline as Ace Combat 3 and subsequently UGSF

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From the Ace Combat Wiki [2]

In Ace Combat 2 the character Kei Nagase is a selectable pilot, explicitly stated to be the younger sister of Reiko Nagase from Ridge Racer. She also appears in Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War.  Emblems for Neucom and ISAF from Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere appear in Ridge Racer V and Ridge Racer 6.

The Smash Court Pro Tournament series is mentioned on the UGSF blog as being part of the UGSF timeline. It's placement is often disputed by fans but this is word of god, so hard to argue. [3]

CFA-44 Nosferatu, the fictional fighter jet from the Ace Combat series appears in the campaign of Tekken 6. Other planes from Ace Combat appear in Tekken 7. 

Yoshimitsu and Heihachi appear in the Soul Calibur series, however thats a different universe, but its pictured in the chart with dotted line, which indicates a multiverse connection. Same is the case for Namco x Capcom, a crossover game on the PS2 which explicitly mentions that the crossovers are of multiversal nature. 

According to the UGSF series website, aside from the aforementioned series the following series are part of the same continuity. This was a retcon done in 2011 by Bandai Namco in order to form a coherrent narritive with their various series.

• Galaxian and its sequels
• Bosconian and its sequels
• Star Luster
• StarBlade and its sequels
• Cyber Commando and its sequel, Cyber Sled
• Star Ixiom
• Mr. Driller
• Dig Dug
• Baraduke
• Star Trigon
• Burning Force
• Bounty Hounds
• Mizuiro Blood
• New Space Order (Cancelled arcade game but still considered canon according to the UGSF website)
• Thunder Ceptor
• Shin-Gun Destroy!

Xevious according to the official UGSF twitter account is not part of the core UGSF timeline but exists in a pararell world to the main one. [4] 

In addition, according to one of the scenario writers of New Space Order, the game is set in the future of both Tales of Eternia and Mirai Ninja [5] this is also mentioned in the only official material for this game New Space Order: -Link of Life- also Nebulasray was meant to be connected via a boss fight [6]

 Kagekiyo from Genpei Toma Den appears in Tales of Eternia, stated as being a veteran of the war. In addition Valkyrie from Namco's Valkyrie series meets the main character and battles him. I've decided given the semi-godly nature of Valkyrie as a servant of Odin and her appearance in multiple other games, including Tales of Phantasia, which is not directly connected to Tales of Eternia that this is a multiversal link.

There's also Denonbu, which is Bandai Namco's EDM anime music video project it began in 2020. In the lore of the various music videos and accompanying novels NEUCOM created the DJ equipment that the girls are using under its subsidiary NEUCOM Entertainment. 

Tell me this anime EDM Club Remix compilation doesn't scream "set in the same world as Galaga" ?

So if we ignore the multiverse, the number of franchises in this universe is 25. It's amazing how to this day Bandai Namco acknowledges the UGSF thing, the official twitter is still active and they even sell UGSF shirts in Japan. The Namcoverse is a fascinating one.

Sources

1. https://ugsf-series.com/en/
2. https://acecombat.fandom.com/wiki/Strangereal/Timeline
3. https://ugsf-series.com/blog/?p=160 (translated)
4. https://twitter.com/ugsf_series/status/1332253075176767488?s=20
5. https://twitter.com/Tagotch/status/109938944807940096
6. https://twitter.com/Tagotch/status/1128884095432269824