This interview has been edited for clarity.
Racing stalwarts from Need For Speed, Forza, Gran Turismo and Mario Kart might make the turn alongside each new generation of video game consoles, but it is the flight simulators, or flight sims, that have elevated the simulation element to new heights.
From soaring high up in the clouds in the cockpit of a fighter jet, to performing acrobatic aerial manoeuvres like barrel rolls or the Immelmann turn while being pursued by enemy aircraft in a relentless dogfight, such thrills have long captured audiences’ attention in the realm of entertainment media and while films like Top Gun do well to capture these moments in a cinematic format, the true immersion lies in video games, which let players loose on the flight stick and allow for their split-second decisions to drive the action.
Even within the flight gaming genre itself lies a spectrum of titles catered to various skill levels and simulation intensities. Those looking for the ultra-realistic experience have no shortage of hardcore simulation games like Microsoft Flight Simulator, while those desiring a more arcade-style air combat title have franchises like Crimson Skies. These two extremes aside, most tend to fall under the vast middle ground, offering the same intensity of dogfighting with just the right amount of realism for added immersion, and among them, one franchise in particular has literally risen high above the rest – Bandai Namco Entertainment’s Ace Combat.
As one of the longest-running arcade flight action franchises in the gaming world, Ace Combat has established itself as a genre staple since its inception in 1995, with seven mainline games and 11 spin-offs spanning almost every console generation from the original PlayStation to the PlayStation Portable and, most recently, last-gen consoles. Now, the series is making the leap to the modern gaming era with its next chapter built for current-gen consoles, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve.
As the franchise’s first title built for modern hardware, anticipation is certainly high surrounding how the game will make the most of the newest technologies to elevate its tried and tested flight action formula, and Geek Culture was able to get a better understanding of this via an exclusive interview with Ace Combat brand director Kazutoki Kono (Ace Combat Assault Horizon, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown) and game producer Manabu Shimomoto (Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown) ahead of the title’s reveal at The Game Awards 2025.
If the game’s impressive cinematic cutscene hadn’t already made it clear, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve marks yet another generational leap for the franchise, as following the shift to Unreal Engine 4 for 2019’s Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, the upcoming title will be the first in the series to leverage the power of Unreal Engine 5.
On the topic of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, the title made headlines for its groundbreaking cloud rendering technology, which may not sound like a big deal, but makes all the difference when 95 per cent of the gaming experience is spent up in the air. Clouds in the game didn’t just look pretty, but also interfered with a player’s aircraft as they soared through, fogging up their vision or disrupting controls or targeting systems in certain cases. For the sequel, the team is expanding upon the concept with its new proprietary engine, ‘Cloudly’.
“One of the most important aspects of flight action games like Ace Combat is to visualise the clouds as well as the skies,” explains Shimomoto.
“These need to be rendered, something we could only do with Unreal Engine 5 and Cloudly. For example, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve will feature a massive playable area spanning 10,000 square kilometres, a feat only achieved due to modern technology.”
According to the team, Cloudly marks the next evolution of its weather rendering tech, as apart from seemingly retaining everything the system provided in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, the engine brings a host of visual treats for the eyes, including rendering multi-layered clouds, contrails (condensation trails left by aircraft), jet exhaust plumes, or even sunlight reflecting off the cockpit’s canopy, providing both extra immersion and identifiable in-game visual cues.
It isn’t solely the game’s visuals that the team is trying to enhance, with Kono adding that the aesthetic upgrade also improves Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve’s core gameplay functionality. Multi-layered clouds, for example, don’t just serve to look pretty, but help players to accurately measure altitude in the midst of battle, while measuring the time difference between a player and a pursuing enemy aircraft entering and exiting an area of clouds can help to effectively pinpoint the distance between them.
Another advantage of having a brand-new rendering engine to play around with is that the team is now able to dramatically improve the title’s underlying gameplay logic, tweaking elements like object physics to improve realism.
“The key difference from previous titles is the actual settings or logic behind the dog-fighting gameplay, we tried to make it as realistic as possible this time around,” adds Kono.
“For example, in the trailer, there was a large aircraft that was shot down, and it crashed into another fighter jet. This can happen in-game, and it’s all done within its logic and settings, which are running in the background.”
While aerial dogfights are undoubtedly the most exciting part of the experience, an equally thrilling but often overlooked part of most flight action titles is the air-to-ground combat, such as aerial bombardments of enemy emplacements or ground vehicles. While Kono admits that the team has indeed tweaked this specific aspect to improve the experience, they couldn’t specifically share what was changed, instead providing a few scenario examples to illustrate their point.
“It can be something as small as when a fighter jet brushes its wings against the landing strip of an aircraft carrier as it lands, players will be able to see even the finer impacts,” he explains, “On the gameplay front, air-to-ground combat will actually be affected by Cloudly too.”
“Let’s say there’s an enemy vehicle on the ground with heavy cloud cover above, players are able to make the decision, do they approach while hidden in the clouds and risk their view of what’s below, or do they want to avoid the clouds entirely and just approach head-on. Depending on what they choose, each scenario may have its own implications.”
These new features do make it sound like Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is leaning closer towards the side of realism this time around, which might make the title more intimidating for fans used to slightly more arcadey flight games, such as the franchise’s very own action-focused spin-off, 2011’s Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, or new players to the genre. To this end, Shimomoto was transparent in admitting that the game might prove difficult for newcomers, especially since they have to get used to how a plane controls, but he explains that the game will offer extensive tutorials to help ease users into the genre.
With the release of its first trailer, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve looks to return to a more intimate narrative and real-time, first-person cutscenes where the player’s camera can be freely controlled, similar to what was done in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon.
Players will take on the role of a downed fighter pilot rescued by the ageing aircraft carrier, the Endurance. As a member of the Federation of Central Usea (FCU), a nation all but defeated by the invading Republic of Sotoa, players must become a legendary ace fighter, the Wings of Theve, named after the FCU capital, as they take to the skies and reclaim their lost homeland.
This more focused narrative looks to be in stark contrast to Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown’s more typical, all-out warfare plot, and while Kono understandably wished to keep more details on the game’s narrative under wraps for now, he did tease that there’s certainly more than meets the eye.
“There’s always this idea behind Ace Combat, which is that we try to understand the technology at our disposal and try to mimic what the outbreak of war might look like, in terms of how real and realistic the gameplay can be,” Kono explains. “It’s a very different world setting between Ace Combat 7 and 8, and although it looks like the story will centre on just the events on board the aircraft carrier, we’re just using it as a base background to build upon the story.”
“The idea is that, from the aircraft carrier, the story will begin, and then the player gets to explore, and the world will expand from there.”
While this little snippet of information does leave a lot of room for interpretation, the team is definitely aiming for a story on a massive scale while still being told within the realm of reality, something that can also be said about its gameplay, too. This time around, the studio isn’t looking to blow away its fans with just amazing visuals alone, as they are instead looking to craft perhaps the most realistic entry in the Ace Combat franchise yet.
With its shift to Unreal Engine 5 and the introduction of the studio’s Cloudly technology, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is truly kicking in the afterburners as it jets towards its release in 2026 for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
