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 in the afternoon. Pine forest and the shoreline run south of the runway, with the town of Ishinomaki and the hills hazy in the distance

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 under snow at sunset. Two parallel runways, the New Chitose terminal to their right and the town 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 by day. The town spreads south of the runway, with the Pacific on the horizon

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 by day. Parallel runways run through the farms and woods of the Kanto Plain under scattered cumulus

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 under a mackerel sky at sunset. The runway runs along the Sea of Japan shore with the villages of the Kaga plain 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 in the late afternoon. A river crosses the farms and town, the airport runway lies to the right and the snow-capped Northern Alps fill 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 at sunrise. The runway runs along the shore of the Suo Sea as the sun comes up over the water

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 by day. Two long parallel runways lead out toward the shallow blue water of the East China Sea

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

The Kurobe Gorge by day. An F-2 heads into the deep V of the valley, forested ridges on both sides and snow-capped peaks beyond

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 ridgelines stay above your cockpit.

The Southern Alps in the late afternoon. Forested ridges stack up into the distance as the headwaters of the Oi River wind through the valley floor

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.

Kamikochi at dawn. The snow-covered Hotaka peaks catch the first light above the forested Azusa valley

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 in late-afternoon light, an F-2 flying over the forested lower slopes toward the snow-capped summit

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 by day. A river winds across the farms and villages of the caldera floor, ringed by hills, with an F-2 overhead

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.

Oboke by day. The Yoshino River winds through the bottom of a forested V-shaped gorge, an F-2 following the valley

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 from the sea by day. Mount Rishiri rises above the forests and the villages along the shore

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)