Ace (Type-0)

a character from a game

Ace is a playable character in Final Fantasy Type-0, and one of the main characters of the same game. He is a student of the legendary Class Zero in the Rubrum Peristylium Suzaku.

Appearance and Personality
Ace is a youth with short, light blond hair and light blue eyes. Like the other male members of Class Zero, he wears a uniform that consists of a black jacket, white pants, a medium-sized red cape and a brown pack. In his summer outfit, he wears a white shirt, black pants, gloves, and necktie, and retains his cape and brown pouch.

Ace is described as having a cool look. Despite his youthful age, he has a mature speech and attitude. He is considered to be a calm person, but can reveal himself at times to be reckless and act out of anger. He doesn't think twice when defending his friends from trouble, as seen when he interfered to support Nine as the latter confronted their instructor Kurasame. He is attributed the number 01 in Class Zero.

Story
Ace is a young boy who is a member of Class Zero, a group of students from the Peristylium Suzaku, the Magic Academy of the nation of Rubrum, that fight the invasion of Rubrum by the Milites Empire. As part of the resistance operation "Operation Apostle", he and his comrades seek to become the Agito, a messiah prophesied in ancient mythology to appear at the time of Finis, an apocalyptic calamity.

During Milites's attack on Rubrum's capital, Ace comes to Izana's aid when he is attacked by Milites soldiers. Though Ace kills off the surrounding soldiers, Ace's healing magic was not enough to save Izana as he is forced to help Queen and Nine fight off another platoon of Milites soldiers. By the time they defeated them, Izana has died and Ace sheds a tear before taking his leave. It was due to the events that Izana's younger brother Machina bears a grudge on Ace who has put his remorse for Izana's death aside to continue fighting.

In the 2011 TGS trailer, Ace is seen readying himself to fight with a monster Celestia summons, but Deuce interferes and defends him.

In Battle
Ace wields Cards in battle, and has a very quick ranged battle style where he throws them at his enemies. Ace is a fragile character, with low HP, but manages to overcome it with excellent evade tricks.

His basic attack, Card, summons the effects of the cards he draws with his special attack, Deck Open, or throws a handful of Cards that home into his enemy. By tilting the analog stick up or down, he can use to different variants of his basic attack. The first is a melee attack that involves Ace creating a circle of cards around him, while the second is a chargeable attack that summons up to 5 cards above Ace that fire at the enemy one by one when released.

Special Abilities
Ace's special abilities have different effects and different ways to use. It doesn't have to be for direct attacks only, it can be for healing or inflicting Negative Status like his special ability Deck Open. Other abilities that had been confirmed up until now are Attack Deck, Illusion and Trap Card.

Deck Open, one of his special abilities, draws one card which, as mentioned above, changes the effects of Ace's basic attack. Up to four cards can be summoned before one use of Card, and there are four different types of cards, each granting a different ability. The final effect is decided by the most present type of card, and is strengthened by the quantity of cards drawn. The final effect can be one of the following:


 * Shadow Step - Ace draws a majority of white cards. Feint, direct attack. Can Stop foes.
 * Burst - Ace draws a majority of red cards. Quick, powerful and direct attack.
 * HP Charge - Ace draws a majority of blue cards. Recovers Ace's HP.
 * MP Charge - Ace draws a majority of yellow cards. Recovers Ace's MP.

There are also different degrees, such as MP Charge, MP Hi-Charge, and MP Mega-Charge. After getting three or four cards of the same type, he can perform an attack that deals damage to all the enemies nearby in the same area or heal all the party members, depending on the card type.

Later, he can learn a second special attack, known as Attack Deck, which is almost identical to Deck Open, but has a higher chance of drawing Red cards that deal damage to foes. Other special attacks with the same use type are Support Deck, Life Deck, Spirit Deck. He was seen using another skill called "Laser Cannon" which fires laser at enemies after a short delay.

Ace also can perform Trinity Attack Straight Flash in conjunction with two other playable members of Class Zero.

Development
In early 2006 renders, from when Final Fantasy Type-0 was first announced as Final Fantasy Agito XIII, Ace was shown to have a younger looking face than his final design. His hair was longer and white, and his eyes were a deep blue.

Later, in 2008, when the game was re-announced for the PSP platform, Ace's face became more mature, and his hair much shorter and has a silver-blond color. Finally, when the game was re-announced as Final Fantasy Type-0, Ace was shown to have a more youthful appearance, and his hair similar to his second design but more layered. His eyes are a lighter shade of blue. His uniform design didn't change other than an overall darker color palette.

Ace's name was first revealed in the first Final Fantasy Type-0 TGS trailer in 2010. Before that, he was known as Card-kun.

Etymology
The "Ace" is one of the trumps of a traditional set of playing cards. Additionally, the name "Ace" is a Latin name and means "Unity" or "One".

Trivia

 * Ace and Hope Estheim from Final Fantasy XIII share their Japanese voice actor.
 * Ace, after summoning his weapon, is the only character whose dodging changes to teleportation.
 * In the demo, the underside of the card Ace holds is blank. It is unknown if this is intentional or a graphical error.
 * Developers has have stated that Ace is meant to be a rather beginner friendly character.