Ace Combat is already known for being one of the foreign video game franchises narratively, but it has still tried to remain as grounded as possible in its gameplay, especially when it comes to the design of its aircraft and their mechanics. Each entry has featured a wide variety of authentic aircraft, and even its fictional jets usually look like something that could belong in the real world if military technology were pushed just a little further than it currently is. That balance is part of what makes the series work, and Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve continues that tradition with a version of near-future warfare that feels believable enough to accept, even when it asks players to face something as ridiculous as a team ship tearing through a city.
I recently attended a First Look event at Orbital Studios in Los Angeles for Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theveduring which I got nearly six hours of hands-on time with the game and an opportunity to hear more about it from brand manager Kazutoki Kono. Little did I know that one of the hardest missions I played during the preview, Mission 9, was apparently inspired by Godzillaaccording to Kono. If that's not an indication of how far Ace Combat 8 is willing to stretch his own version of reality, I don't know what is. What made that assignment work so well though is that it never felt completely out of place. Sure it was wild, but it still felt like it Ace Combatand it's a much harder balance to find than it might sound.
Ace Combat 8 walks a fine line between reality and fiction
Ace Combat has always been a series that asks players to accept a very specific version of reality. Its aircraft must feel recognizable, its warfare must feel close enough to the real thing, and its fictional ideas must feel exciting without pushing it too far into military science fiction. It's a tough line to walk, especially for a game like Ace Combat 8: Wings of Thevewho is clearly interested in taking the series' version of near-future warfare even further than Ace Combat 7 did. According to Kono, the team starts by making sure the world has a believable foundation before starting to expand beyond it:
Well, first is to establish a baseline that is credible. So we want to make sure that our line of reality is something that can be imagined. It starts with a lot of research and just gathering data about what the current state of warfare looks like and then trying to imagine a little bit into the future what that might look like.
That foundation seems particularly important because Ace Combat only works when players can believe in the world before the game starts bending it. No one enters Ace Combat 8 expect a military sim, but the jets, weapons, and battlefield still need to feel like they belong together. Once that part is established, the series has more room to introduce the kind of ideas that would probably feel ridiculous elsewhere.
Ace Combat 8's ninth mission was inspired by Godzilla
That philosophy couldn't have been clearer in one of the most challenging levels I played during the preview. This particular mission tasks players with taking down a national team ship tearing through the city of Theve, but what makes it so difficult is that it often feels like nothing can stop it. No matter how hard you try, it just keeps mowing down everything in its path, and things get even more complicated when an army of swarm drones shows up to prevent your missiles from hitting the battleship. On top of that, you're fighting against the clock as well as the enemy UAVs that regularly spawn in the area. I didn't get to play through the entire mission for spoiler reasons, but even after reaching the end of the part I got to preview, the ship was apparently still alive and well.
Ace Combat has always been a series that asks players to accept a very specific version of reality.
As Kono continued to explain how Ace Combat 8 blurring the line between fiction and reality, he actually started talking about what I'm almost certain was that ninth mission that gave me so much grief. He didn't specifically mention that it was that mission, but after playing it and hearing his description, I'm convinced that's what he was referring to:
We have battleships that can go on land and land and surface, which, I know, is a little further out in a kind of fantasy. But it was something that our mech designer came up with, and he wanted some kind of scene where Godzilla destroys the city. So it was almost an homage or throwback to Godzilla. So, we thought, how do we create that feeling but do it at least in the realm of believability.
After playing that mission myself, I can see exactly what Kono means. A national team ship plowing through Theve should probably be too much, even for Ace Combatbut it worked because the game never presented it as a joke. It was a ridiculous premise, but it was also a serious threat, and that made all the difference. I was too busy trying to survive, clearing a path through the swarm drones and stopping the thing from reaching its target to stop and think about how absurd the whole scheme was.
That's why Mission 9 feels like such a clear example of how Ace Combat handles fiction. It's odd, but it's not random. The game still draws from the same military foundation as the rest of the series, then pushes it far enough to create something players will remember. Kono described that approach as a matter of knowing how far reality can be bent before it breaks:
We're trying to take what we know is real and believable and then kind of bend reality to a point where it's a bit of a stretch, but okay, I'll let it slide. We dig pretty deep into our research and how we convey that across the screen, which ultimately, I think, lends itself to Ace Combat's own sort of realism line that people have come to like.
No matter how difficult it was, that's ultimately why Mission 9 made such a strong impression on me. The idea of a national team ship tearing through a city because the team wanted something that felt like Godzilla could easily have sounded ridiculous in the wrong hands, but this is the team behind it Ace Combat we talk about. With eight mainline entries under its belt now, the developer seems to know what it's doing. Theve's wings is still grounded enough to make its world worth buying into, but it's also weird enough to give players the kind of over-the-top action and spectacle that this series has always been known for. If Mission 9 is any indication, Ace Combat 8 not backing away from that identity but instead leaning into it with more confidence than ever.
- Released
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October 2, 2026
- ESRB
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Teen/Blood, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence, In-Game Purchases, User Interaction
- Developer
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Bandai Namco Aces
