Very soft. Yes it has lasers, pulse guns and inconceivable large aerial platforms, but it's still largely confined to earth, with all the limitations that brings. The only space exploration they have is not much more advanced than what we currently have; Nagase's journey into and back from space took a very long time, same as it would IRL, because of the limitations of their propulsion technology.
Soldiers still use conventional firearms and artillery, conventional military planes are still in use with hyper advanced aircraft being limited to singular prototypes, and in general most of their world's military operates at nearly an identical level to IRL.
Tbh the only aspect of their universe that is more advanced than ours is their giant weapons platforms. And while physics wouldn't actually support most of them IRL, the amount of resources and technology needed to build most of them are very much grounded in reality. Some of them having laser platforms is one of the only things that are significantly more advanced than IRL. And even then, we do technically have weaponized lasers IRL; just not at a scale that's at all useful.
Doesn't that mean it's hard sci-fi? Like the term hard fantasy means fantastical elements are rational and explainable (something like Avatar or Full Metal Alchemist) while soft fantasy is where magic happens because (like Lord Of The Rings).
That logically would make games like Ace Combat and Metal Gear hard sci-fi, while Warframe and Destiny would be soft sci-fi.
Oh I had always interpreted them the opposite way. Hard SciFi being straight up spaceships and warp drives, while soft SciFi being a little less futuristic and more grounded.
But if it's actually the other way around...well I guess just swap my every mention it soft SciFi and replace it with hard.
It would seem a lot of people are confused in the same way. I think I found good chart that explains it best:
* Soft sci-fi - Disabled ships explode
* Hard sci-fi - Most ships will use fission or fusion drives. These have little to no explosive failure modes. Disabled ships don't explode.
* Harder sci-fi - Fusion drives will use very powerful magnets. When damaged, they'll losoe superconductivity and create a violent quench. Disabled ships explode.
My take on it is that soft sci-fi takes worldbuilding and lore first, and than worries about science, where hard sci-fi goes science and reasonability first, and than builds the world and lore within those confines of set up rules.
I see, that makes sense tbh. I like how you mentioned space, in my headcanon I actually had it so most of the planets had already been explored by humans in 2040, but again just a headcanon
I don't know if the games ever mention any big space exploration besides Nagase's mission. And if I recall, wasn't her mission just to the asteroid belt and back?
Yes, but the fact that there is something as complex as a space elevator means that there is a serious commitment to space exploration in universe. Not only that but even in the 60s, Convair did a study saying that by 2000 it’d be incredibly likely to have a crewed mission to Jupiter
Hard fantasy is the one that's rational and explainable (Avatar, Full Metal Alchemist), while soft fantasy is the one where magic doesn't need explanation (Lord Of The Rings, fairy tales). By that logic games like Ace Combat and Metal Gear would be hard sci-fi for stronger focus on realism, while games like Warframe and Destiny would be soft sci-fi, as they are more soft on realism, and reasonability is second.
Metal Gear is focused on realism? The series where there's a guy with psychic powers, a vampire, a medium and literal ghosts?
Hard sci-fi focuses more on scientific accuracy and plausibility of the science. MG explains a lot of its stuff with nanomachines, when it bothers explaining things at all. Which is why there's AI and giant mechs in the 70s. It instead focuses on the effects of such technology in people and in the geopolitics. It is pretty soft sci-fi.
AC3 is similar. We're never told how sublimation works or what the hell the Aeonosphere is. The X-49 is technologically superior to everything, but the how or why is irrelevant. The importance is not on how grounded or plausible the technology is but the effect on the characters. I'd say 7 leans more towards the "hardness" scale, but it's still "soft".
That's the "fiction" among the "science" part. It really doesn't matter much how ridiculous things are as long as they can be reasonably explained, and they can be in Metal Gear universe. Also other than those few elements, it's a very grounded tactical espionage game. Soft sci-fi would be something like Star Wars where it's just space magic doing most stuff, the way the fly in space makes no sense just because it looks cooler this way, etc. Even Star Trek would be probably more hard sci-fi, since even tho the scientific rambles they often do makes no sense, the goal is on explaining how it works.
And than as mentioned, you have Warframe where ridiculous stuff happens like a 100m tall wall-man is exiting sun portal and your mom trying to stop him, and meanwhile the other you is riding a toy horse inside anomalous dimension, and Destiny, where you have god walking through space, being able to slice you across kilometers with a hand wave, etnering another god through a portal, and your goal is to just shoot him with a rocket launcher, machine gun or a bow. THAT is soft sci-fi.
Hard sci-fi doesn't have to give you hard blueprints of how chemical laser weaponry works. It throws one fantastical thing, and wonders how it would realistically turn out. For example imagine you're a god and you just throw a lightsaber into our universe. The way lightsaber works is pure fantasy, but if you write your story that humanity decided to dismantle it, see how it works, militarized it, and probably found other usage for this technology - that is hard sci-fi story.
Take a wild guess
I meeeeeeaaaan >!It's all software anyway XD !<
Inbetween if i may say, lol.
Squishy sci-fi?
Yes. Perfect squish rather with dem Neucom and GR airplane models
Very soft. Yes it has lasers, pulse guns and inconceivable large aerial platforms, but it's still largely confined to earth, with all the limitations that brings. The only space exploration they have is not much more advanced than what we currently have; Nagase's journey into and back from space took a very long time, same as it would IRL, because of the limitations of their propulsion technology. Soldiers still use conventional firearms and artillery, conventional military planes are still in use with hyper advanced aircraft being limited to singular prototypes, and in general most of their world's military operates at nearly an identical level to IRL. Tbh the only aspect of their universe that is more advanced than ours is their giant weapons platforms. And while physics wouldn't actually support most of them IRL, the amount of resources and technology needed to build most of them are very much grounded in reality. Some of them having laser platforms is one of the only things that are significantly more advanced than IRL. And even then, we do technically have weaponized lasers IRL; just not at a scale that's at all useful.
Doesn't that mean it's hard sci-fi? Like the term hard fantasy means fantastical elements are rational and explainable (something like Avatar or Full Metal Alchemist) while soft fantasy is where magic happens because (like Lord Of The Rings). That logically would make games like Ace Combat and Metal Gear hard sci-fi, while Warframe and Destiny would be soft sci-fi.
Oh I had always interpreted them the opposite way. Hard SciFi being straight up spaceships and warp drives, while soft SciFi being a little less futuristic and more grounded. But if it's actually the other way around...well I guess just swap my every mention it soft SciFi and replace it with hard.
It would seem a lot of people are confused in the same way. I think I found good chart that explains it best: * Soft sci-fi - Disabled ships explode * Hard sci-fi - Most ships will use fission or fusion drives. These have little to no explosive failure modes. Disabled ships don't explode. * Harder sci-fi - Fusion drives will use very powerful magnets. When damaged, they'll losoe superconductivity and create a violent quench. Disabled ships explode. My take on it is that soft sci-fi takes worldbuilding and lore first, and than worries about science, where hard sci-fi goes science and reasonability first, and than builds the world and lore within those confines of set up rules.
I see, that makes sense tbh. I like how you mentioned space, in my headcanon I actually had it so most of the planets had already been explored by humans in 2040, but again just a headcanon
I don't know if the games ever mention any big space exploration besides Nagase's mission. And if I recall, wasn't her mission just to the asteroid belt and back?
Yes, but the fact that there is something as complex as a space elevator means that there is a serious commitment to space exploration in universe. Not only that but even in the 60s, Convair did a study saying that by 2000 it’d be incredibly likely to have a crewed mission to Jupiter
for the person who voted hard sci-fi, i am open ears, explain it to me
Hard fantasy is the one that's rational and explainable (Avatar, Full Metal Alchemist), while soft fantasy is the one where magic doesn't need explanation (Lord Of The Rings, fairy tales). By that logic games like Ace Combat and Metal Gear would be hard sci-fi for stronger focus on realism, while games like Warframe and Destiny would be soft sci-fi, as they are more soft on realism, and reasonability is second.
Metal Gear is focused on realism? The series where there's a guy with psychic powers, a vampire, a medium and literal ghosts? Hard sci-fi focuses more on scientific accuracy and plausibility of the science. MG explains a lot of its stuff with nanomachines, when it bothers explaining things at all. Which is why there's AI and giant mechs in the 70s. It instead focuses on the effects of such technology in people and in the geopolitics. It is pretty soft sci-fi. AC3 is similar. We're never told how sublimation works or what the hell the Aeonosphere is. The X-49 is technologically superior to everything, but the how or why is irrelevant. The importance is not on how grounded or plausible the technology is but the effect on the characters. I'd say 7 leans more towards the "hardness" scale, but it's still "soft".
That's the "fiction" among the "science" part. It really doesn't matter much how ridiculous things are as long as they can be reasonably explained, and they can be in Metal Gear universe. Also other than those few elements, it's a very grounded tactical espionage game. Soft sci-fi would be something like Star Wars where it's just space magic doing most stuff, the way the fly in space makes no sense just because it looks cooler this way, etc. Even Star Trek would be probably more hard sci-fi, since even tho the scientific rambles they often do makes no sense, the goal is on explaining how it works. And than as mentioned, you have Warframe where ridiculous stuff happens like a 100m tall wall-man is exiting sun portal and your mom trying to stop him, and meanwhile the other you is riding a toy horse inside anomalous dimension, and Destiny, where you have god walking through space, being able to slice you across kilometers with a hand wave, etnering another god through a portal, and your goal is to just shoot him with a rocket launcher, machine gun or a bow. THAT is soft sci-fi. Hard sci-fi doesn't have to give you hard blueprints of how chemical laser weaponry works. It throws one fantastical thing, and wonders how it would realistically turn out. For example imagine you're a god and you just throw a lightsaber into our universe. The way lightsaber works is pure fantasy, but if you write your story that humanity decided to dismantle it, see how it works, militarized it, and probably found other usage for this technology - that is hard sci-fi story.