Ace (Type-0)

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. 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.

Ace is attributed as number 01 in Class Zero and had been chosen to be the leader for Operation Apostle.

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, black gloves, and necktie, and retains his cape and brown pouch. In his formal outfit, he wears a red jacket, white gloves, black pants, a medium-sized white cape and a black pack.

Ace is described as having a cool look. Izana described him when he saw him for the first time to have a silky blond hair, and a pretty face that could almost be mistaken for a girl's, but his eyes were strangely sharp. His expression was stiff, and he exudes an air of coldness and spoke with a severe voice.

Despite his youthful age, he has a mature speech and attitude. He is considered as 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 with Cater to support Nine as the latter confronted their instructor Kurasame.

Ace is rather reserved toward people outside of Class Zero. As how it was shown when Izana first met him, he asked Ace if he liked Chocobos and Ace's reaction was "is there anything weird about that?" In the novel, he is described as putting up his guard immediately. Before that he was stroking chocobos kindly. Ace can be seen a lot in chocobo's stable, he once commented about how much he admires the strong bird.

On the verge of death, when Class Zero members starts to break down one after another, Ace showed to be having a solid characteristic and was able to calm his comrades by singing "Zero".

Early Life
Ace was born on the 10th day of the month of Earth "July", Year 825.


 * In the year 833, at the age of 8 years old, under the jurisdiction of the magic department, he was taken into the custody of the institution and nurtured to become a future candidate.
 * At this time, he studied the ways of using a weapon and magic.
 * Ace was raised alongside those who form the senior members of Class Zero. Much like his classmates, Ace saw Arecia Al-Rashia as a mother and thus is more loyal to her than the Rubrum government.


 * In the year 842, Participated in the liberation of Suzaku mission.
 * Admitted into Class Zero as a candidate.


 * In year 842, Month of Fire "January". In order to prepare for admission to the Peristylium as a candidate, Ace and the others visited the Peristylium twice, and during these times, Ace has never failed to drop by the chocobo stables.
 * A long time ago, there was a time when Ace saved a chocobo chick.
 * Later, the chocobo chick caught a disease and died early, and while Ace did not remember anything about it, he continued to have a special affection for chocobos.
 * With those feelings, Ace visited the chocobo stables, where a Suzaku soldier called Izana was.
 * Ace, who has heard from Arecia that the time when they would be called out to participate in an actual combat would soon be upon them, had an exchange of promise with Izana that they would fight together.

Diary of the past

 * A part of Ace's diary said" There was a time, when I was told to move and arrived at a large laboratory. It seemed to be an external division of the magic department.
 * There were many children around my age over there.
 * Everyone was calling Mother "Mother".
 * It seemed like we were to undergo training to become candidates.
 * However, Mother told us not to change how we have been doing things.
 * It was just that, from now on, us the twelve of us would be doing them together.
 * We are one of the twelve, she said.
 * As usual, I do not understand what Mother is saying,
 * but I do know that there are no lies to her words.
 * That is why from now on, the twelve of us will become candidates".

Final Fantasy Type-0
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 is not enough to save Izana and he is forced to help Queen and Nine fight off another platoon of Milites soldiers. By the time they are defeated, Izana had died and Ace sheds a tear before taking his leave.

With Seven and Jack, Ace comes to the aid of Machina and Rem Tokimiya when they are overwhelmed by Qun'mi and defeats her to end the invasion on Rubrum. Soon after, Machina and Rem become the newest members of Class Zero to aid in defending Rubrum. At one point, Ace finds Machina at the chocobo stables where the latter feels a sense of nostalgia when remarking that if he had a chocobo, he'd name it Chichiri. This leads Ace to learn from the Commandant that Machina is Izana's brother, yet decides not to speak of it.

When Class Zero were informed that their new instructor will be Kurasame rather than Arecia. Nine was the first member to voice his opinion about refusing to replace Arecia with Kurasame, when Kurasame slapped Nine. Ace then interfered with Cater to support Nine, but Kurasame was able to stop their attacks.

After Andoria's death drives a furious Celestia to attack Class Zero, knocking Rem and Machina out, Ace attempts to tell Celestia that they have nothing to do with Andoria's death. Celestia didn't listen and has her Bakurairyu attack him. Ace was readying himself to fight with the monster when Deuce interferes and defends him, bravely convincing her to stop her attack and listen before she secretly helps them escape the Militians. However, Ace soon learns that Machina has learned of Izana's death from the Commandant and thus causes a rift between the two as Machina eventually leaves Class Zero.

As Finis begins, turning down the offer to become l'Cie alongside the others, Ace confronts Cid Aulstyne as he becomes the l'Cie Arbitor of Lulusath and nearly kills Class Zero. However, with Machina and Rem helping him and the rest of Class Zero in spirit, they manage to defeat Cid. However, the battle's victory came at a price - although Class Zero's choice of refusing the l'Cie power interrupted the world's cycle and changed its fate, they paid for it with their lives.

When many of them begin to break down from the revelation that they are actually dying, Ace manages to calm them down with a song as they spend their last moments sharing their dreams of what they wanted to do once the fighting ended. Later, when Machina and Rem arrive at the classroom, they find their classmates already dead. In the final scene of the game, Ace's last card disappears and casts a rainbow in the sky. His voice is last heard saying, "We are here".

However, in the alternate ending created by Arecia removing the crystals from Oriense's history, Ace survives the war and is shown studying in the library. A bored Machina tries to convince him to go out for a walk with him but Ace refuses, stating that he wishes to prepare for the next semester. A stubborn Machina refuses to leave the boy alone, and drags him out of the library.

In Battle
Ace wields cards in battle, and has a 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 evasion.

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 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

 * List of Ace's Abilities.

Ace's special abilities have different effects and different ways to use them. Aside from being used for direct attacks, they can also be used for healing or to inflict negative status effects. Other abilities he is shown to have are Laser Cannon, Tri-Laser, Trap Card and Teleport Card.

Ace's Decks
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 drawn 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 of these effects, such as MP Charge, MP Hi-Charge, and MP Mega-Charge. After drawing 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 ability, 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 abilities with a similar effect are Support Deck, Life Deck and Spirit Deck.

Creation and 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 compared to 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 had 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 aside from 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.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Ace appears on four promotional cards for Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. One of the cards is Promotion and the other three cards are fire-element cards.

One of them is from a promotional artwork and the other one presents him in his official render pose and having Rubrum's emblem in the red background. The final one representing him in his summer outfit.

Final Fantasy Brigade
Ace appears in the Final Fantasy Brigade as a legend.

Etymology
"Ace" is one of the values in trumps, the Japanese term for traditional Western playing cards. It means "one" in Old French and was borrowed from earlier dicing games, where it referred to the corresponding value on a six-sided dice.

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 have stated that Ace is meant to be a rather beginner-friendly character.
 * In the alternate ending, when Ace is studying, he is seen wearing glasses.
 * Along with Cater, Eight, Sice, and Jack, Ace was only turning 17 during the game's events.
 * During the ending, Deuce was holding Ace's hand.
 * Ace was taught how to sing the song "Zero" by Arecia. He is one of the few main Final Fantasy characters to sing.
 * According to the Ultimania guide Ace is a good singer, but he only committed one song to memorize: "Zero".
 * According to a poll in the Final Fantasy Type-0 art book, Ace takes the first place as favorite character, while taking third place as favorite playable character.
 * According to Final Fantasy Type-0 novel, Izana was Ace's only friend outside Class Zero.
 * Ace's cards automatically replenish themselves to 53 pieces.
 * When player speaks to Cater at some point in the game, she will talk about how there's a rumor of a red mantled candidate who will appear every once in a while before the liberation mission in the chocobo ranch, meaning Ace.
 * Ace's l'Cie brand is located on his right arm below elbow.
 * According to the Type-0 Novel, Ace wants to build a chocobo ranch upon leaving Class Zero.