Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is a flight-combat game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in January 2019, followed by a Windows release the next month. The game is the eighth main entry in the Ace Combat series and returns to its fictional world of Strangereal, where invented nations and conflicts are presented through the perspective of military pilots.

The story takes place in 2019, during a war between the Osean Federation and the Kingdom of Erusea. Osea’s space elevator, a vast structure built on the Usean continent, becomes a central military objective after Erusea attacks it. The player flies as Trigger, an Osean pilot assigned to the OADF’s penal unit, Spare Squadron. After being blamed for the death of an Osean officer, Trigger is sent on dangerous missions with other convicted personnel. The plot follows his progress from that unit into the regular air force as the war shifts around the space elevator and the increasingly important role of unmanned aircraft.

The campaign’s perspective is not limited to Trigger. Interludes follow Avril Mead, an aircraft mechanic imprisoned for illegally crossing a border, and members of the Erusean forces, including pilot Rosa Cossette D’Elise. These scenes show how the conflict affects people away from the cockpit and explain parts of the war that Trigger does not witness directly. The game also returns to familiar series themes: competing accounts of a conflict, the consequences of military technology, and the way individual pilots acquire reputations that outgrow their original assignments.

Missions combine air-to-air combat with attacks on ground targets, escort duties, and operations shaped by weather or other battlefield conditions. Aircraft can be selected and upgraded through a branching aircraft tree, with weapons and performance parts affecting how each plane handles its tasks. A defining feature is the weather system: clouds can conceal aircraft, while flying through them can reduce visibility and cause ice to accumulate on the player’s plane. Thunderstorms create additional hazards for aircraft and missiles. These conditions make the sky an active part of each mission rather than a backdrop.

Ace Combat 7 was the first main series entry designed for virtual reality. Its VR missions were released for PlayStation VR and presented a separate set of sorties, rather than making the full campaign playable in VR. The game received additional aircraft and mission content after launch. Its campaign, fictional history, and detailed flight presentation continue the series’ approach of pairing arcade-style air combat with a sustained, character-driven war story.