One technique AC5 brings over from AC4 is that the main character in the story, the narrator, is NOT the main character in gameplay. The story's told from the point of view of this journalist covering your squadron. The pilot you play as in the missions is basically a cipher, anonymous, he has no speaking role.
I like how that works, a lot more than the melodramatic Wing Commander style they jacked for the Japanese version of AC3.
Lieutenant Nagase's first name is Kei, by the way. No relation to Reiko, but Namco's localization guy says she's some kind of lift from Ace Combat 2 (which I never played, so I'm not sure how that works).
DFS.