“The idea of flying freely through these vast skies. I think that’s a universal desire. It doesn’t matter what country or culture you come from. I think it’s an itch that everyone around the world wants to scratch.”
When I got to ask Kazutoki Kono, the brand director of Ace Combat, about the series’ enduring appeal, that was his answer. And it’s one that certainly resonates with me after some hands-on time with his team’s latest, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, ahead of its launch on October 2. After all, games are often exercises in wish fulfillment, as well as the packaging and delivery of exuberant fantasies.
For as much as this space often bandies about the word “immersive” in our assessment of games, few titles actually go all-in on that promise. I’m talking about games that transcend the borders of my screen and become a full-body experience that I feel in my bones. Maybe even my stomach. Something that quickens my heart rate and even forces me to sweat a little. Something that takes my breath away.
I can perhaps count on one hand the number of games that have given me even a taste of that level of immersion, and I guess I now have to throw Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve near the top of that remarkably short list.
In about an hour, I went from an Ace Combat novice—one who’s always known of the series but never engaged with or played it—to a high-flying maverick of the skies. An inheritor of the clouds and guardian of the heavens to my friends, as well as a deliverer of death from above (or behind) to my many foes. “Like Tom Cruise,” even, according to the developers who were on hand to walk me through my first few sorties.
It started with the clouds. Ace Combat 8’s clouds are the real deal. Take any commercial flight through inclement weather and you can get a preview of how simultaneously terrifying and thrilling it is to look out the glass and see nothing. To see droplets of water appear from nowhere and streak across the surface of your window pane. Imagine that from a cockpit. Anything can be on the other side of that cloud, even if nine times out of ten, you know to expect nothing.
In Ace Combat though, there’s seemingly always the promise of exhilarating dogfights and a battle for air supremacy. At least, that’s what awaited me once I’d done Wings of Theve’s brief and breezy opening, plunged into an intimidating cloud formation, and emerged from the other side. What followed was about what I expect Ace Combat veterans have come to know and love of the vaunted series: a harried game of catch-up as I pursued my target, the familiar bleats of a lock-on system homing in on my quarry, and finally the triumphant feeling of downing another fighter jet and living to fight another skirmish.
That next skirmish came mere minutes later as I was dropped into Wings of Theve’s fourth mission, and what the developers dubbed the game’s first “real” mission. The first three levels of the game’s single-player campaign make up a long-form tutorial that Manabu Shimomoto, producer on the game, admits is a conscious effort to make Ace Combat 8 the most accessible the series has ever felt. Embracing the first-person perspective that shows off the gorgeously detailed cockpit of my jet, I put myself in the head of Ace Combat 8’s protagonist, who steps into the shoes of a famous pilot and folk hero who has been killed in action, and set about earning my wings.
This mission had it all. An extensive briefing made clear that Ace Combat is two games: a dogfighting sim and a wartime tactics game. Producer Manabu Shimomoto, who served as my co-pilot and guide, explained how these openings are meant to provide an opportunity for players to plan tactical approaches, which then bleeds into the customization options at the level’s start. Everything from jets to weapons, and even those of your squadmates, can be handpicked if the player wants to take it that far. For the purposes of my demo, though, I ran with a jet picked out by the producer and tricked it out with air-to-surface missiles meant to make short work of some naval targets.
What came next was, in a word, dizzying. As I bobbed and weaved through the sky, so did my head. As my jet banked to realign with a target, be it an enemy team of pilots or the ships I needed to take out, so did I. As I took a loop too fast and too hard, ultimately running aground—or I guess, technically into the deep blue sea—I physically popped out of my seat. I felt like a bit of a rube, sitting there in a suite with PR handlers and developers while my neck and body contorted in rhythm with the game. But I also felt mesmerized and immersed by the action in front of me. I felt in it, like I did back in that cloud at my session’s start. The close calls as I came down to the water, sank two ships, and pulled up just in the nick of time. The missiles that whiffed and, more importantly, the ones that did connect. The moment that I doggedly chased another jet into the sun and blinded myself, only to then be lightly teased by the developers who suggested that actual fighter pilots would use a similar tactic as my enemy to blind their pursuers and get the slip on them.
I couldn’t help but wonder why I’d been denying myself this thrill ride all these years. Though I take my role as a member of the press with some degree of seriousness—you will rarely catch me applauding or guffawing at a presentation—I couldn’t wipe the dumb involuntary smirk off my face. They’d fucking gotten me. Goddammit.
Regrettably, what my time with Wings of Theve (what an awesome name) lacked was a lot of announced changes coming to the series with the latest installment. I’m sure that what I’ve described is the average experience of an Ace Combat player, and I’m sure it’s a comfort to know the team is still cooking on what it does best. But Wings of Theve boasts some entirely new ambitions that have something to prove, and I was disappointed to find them MIA.
For example, the developers kept referencing a first-person perspective in a hub-like area of the campaign where players should expect to interface more directly with other characters and the environment, which I’m sure will be some base or ship carrier.
Additionally, Wings of Theve is, in the eyes of the team, the most ambitious multiplayer game the studio has taken on. Hundred-player lobbies, co-op missions, and a suite of multiplayer modes for a broad spectrum of online experiences appear to be just the beginning for the game. The 100-player mode sounds like a free-for-all in which players take on the role of a low-level mercenary and climb in acumen and coolness, but the real draw for me sounds like the cooperative missions where players can assume different roles in a proper squadron when tackling objectives and grander bosses. It sounds like a welcome alternative to more traditional PvP modes, and I’m sure that players who missed co-op in 2019’s Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown will happily welcome its return.
While Ace Combat 7’s track record suggests a healthy arc, the effort being expended on this sequel’s expansion to the series’ multiplayer offerings screams of live-service offerings, a notably volatile kind of game to make in 2026. Ace Combat 8’s multiplayer will boast seasons of content (every two months!) and a battle pass, and while that stuff is fine on paper—developers need resources to keep the lights on and produce more content and games—it’s enough to cause concern at a time when you routinely hear about studio layoffs and closures due to dwindling returns from these kinds of projects.
At its core, though, Ace Combat 8 sounds like a game for its ride-or-die community first and foremost. Earlier in our conversation, Kazutoki mentioned the series’ wavering popularity and reception over the years, admitting, “I would say it wasn’t always growth and it wasn’t always solid iterations.” But by homing in and serving its most impassioned fans, he says, the team behind Ace Combat was eventually able to revive the once “frozen” franchise that is now as big as it’s ever been.
If Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve takes off the way it seems primed to, then Kazutoki might just be right: The skies might belong to us all.
