REAL TERRAIN, NOT A SANDBOX

Terrain

Every place in F-2 MISSIONS is a real place in Japan. The ground is built from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan's elevation data and reproduced at its true dimensions. Runway lengths, valley widths, the rate at which a ridge comes at you — all of it is the real thing, at real size.

Eight air bases and seven mountain regions. Here is what each one is, and what you see when you fly it.

Air Bases 08

Matsushima Air Base in the morning, its two runways crossing in an X with Ishinomaki Bay to the west

Matsushima Air Base

Higashimatsushima, Miyagi

The home base. Where JASDF pilots actually train on the two-seat F-2B, on a coastal field whose two runways cross in an X — reproduced at full size.

Chitose Air Base at night under snow, two lines of runway lights with the lit city beyond

Chitose Air Base

Chitose, Hokkaido

Four runways in one place — two JASDF, two civil. Built on the real Ishikari lowland, in winter, under snow.

Misawa Air Base by day, the city south of the runway with Lake Ogawara and the Pacific shoreline beyond

Misawa Air Base

A 3,048 m runway shared by the JASDF, the US Air Force and scheduled airline traffic. Take off and the Hakkōda mountains are dead ahead.

Hyakuri Air Base at dusk, parallel runways across the flat Kantō plain with the Pacific glinting at the horizon

Hyakuri Air Base

Omitama, Ibaraki

JASDF Hyakuri Air Base, the F-2 base guarding the airspace around Tokyo. Two parallel 2,700 m runways, shared with a civil terminal as Ibaraki Airport.

Komatsu Air Base at dusk, the runway parallel to the Sea of Japan shoreline with village lights scattered inland

Komatsu Air Base

Komatsu, Ishikawa

A fighter base on the Sea of Japan, home of the JASDF aggressor squadron. Take off and the coast is right there; Mt. Haku stands 42 km to your right.

The Matsumoto basin at night, filled edge to edge with city lights, a single lit runway at its centre and the Northern Alps black on the horizon

Matsumoto Airport

Matsumoto and Shiojiri, Nagano

657 m above sea level — the highest airport in Japan with scheduled service. Ringed by 3,000 m peaks, no ILS, and only 2,000 m of runway.

Tsuiki Air Base at twilight, runway lights along a shoreline jutting into the Suō Sea with village lights inland

Tsuiki Air Base

Chikujō, Fukuoka

JASDF Tsuiki Air Base — two F-2 squadrons in one place, more F-2s than anywhere else. The sea is off one end of the runway and the Hikosan range is behind you.

Kadena Air Base by day, two long parallel runways with the turquoise coral shallows of the East China Sea beyond

Kadena Air Base

Kadena, Okinawa City and Chatan, Okinawa

Two runways of 3,688 m — the longest and the southernmost terrain in the game. West of the pavement, coral shallows all the way out.

Mountains & Valleys 07

Kurobe Gorge by day, the river a thin ribbon at the bottom of a deep V-valley between conifer slopes and snow-streaked ridges

Kurobe Gorge

Kurobe river headwaters, Toyama

One of Japan's three great gorges. Walls rising 1,800 m on both sides of a V-shaped valley, followed upstream along the river. The gateway to low-level flying.

The Southern Alps in morning haze, layer upon layer of forested ridges with a backlit skyline fading into the light

Southern Alps — Ōi Headwaters

Akaishi range (Southern Alps), Shizuoka

Deep in the Akaishi range at the head of the Ōi river. You enter over a reservoir and climb as the valley climbs — and it is always upstream that the outs run out.

Kamikōchi at dusk, forest filling the Azusa valley floor with the snow-streaked rock of the Hotaka range lit on the left

Kamikōchi — Azusa Valley

Matsumoto, Nagano — Chūbu-Sangaku National Park

In over the surface of Taishō Pond and up the Azusa river. Walls of 3,000 m rock on both sides, and no room in this valley to climb.

Mount Fuji at twilight, the summit standing black above a sea of cloud under the first stars

Mount Fuji

Shizuoka and Yamanashi

Japan's 3,776 m peak, built at survey scale. You can orbit the foot of it — or climb the south face and drop through the summit crater.

Aso under a starry sky, the dark caldera floor in the foreground with the outer rim and central cones as a black silhouette

Aso Caldera

One of the largest calderas on Earth. A ring of outer rim mountains with towns living inside it, and a cluster of central cones in the middle.

Ōboke facing the rising sun, broadleaf forest in the foreground falling away into a gorge with backlit ridges layered behind

Ōboke Gorge

Miyoshi, Tokushima — Shikoku mountains

The Yoshino river cutting clean through the Shikoku mountains. A tight, twisting gorge run downhill — the place name is the warning label.

Rishiri Island seen from the sea at dusk, the volcano's triangle rising from calm water under reddish lenticular cloud

Rishiri Island

Rishiri Island, Hokkaido

A round island 19 km across in Japan's northernmost waters. A free-standing volcano that goes from sea level to 1,721 m — the island is the mountain.

The terrain included varies by edition and platform. See the description of each edition for details.
Elevation data: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI)