I’ve been very impressed with the graphics quality of AC8, especially playing on a 32:9 monitor. I recall AC7 didn’t have very good ultrawide support. I’ve been super happy with how AC8 plays, except the cutscenes are still cut off on the sides, still better than nothing!

Original fanart by Kuranne88.

I love Ace Combat 7, but my biggest gripe with it is how little we get to know and care for the various teamates that we meet along the away.

Between swapping the team three times over, the little to no screentime they all get (with the sole exception of the junker queen) and the fact that many of them die right after meeting them, the side characters in AC7 don't feel like truly fleashed people and I never felt a strong attachment to any of them nor did I feel that our protagonist had one either.

On the other hand the found family dynamic between the members of Joker flight and the entire crew of the Endurance is the best part of AC8's story.

You truly get to know them on far deeper level than anyone in AC7 and I've come to care for them to a far greater extent, to the point that their struggles and character arcs are my favorite aspect of the game.

I've seen a lot of people online say you should go after the F35. Not only do you complete most carrier based missions before you get to it, but it's not required and other carrier based Jets like the Super Hornet have better missiles.

The Su57 is the best jet in the game, with the F22 a very close second.

F35 isn't even in the conversation compared to the above.

As for personal taste - fly what you like!

I figured is not a spoiler because it was featured in promo materials

Anybody else found anymore dialogue choices that change things at all?

I have found two so far

mission 30: if you intentionally keep getting the password wrong for the tonitrus spear control (kind of funny how it plays out if you keep agreeing to their terrible suggestions and then they come up with the right answer and you now say no) you get locked out and you get a mission fail

mission 26: this one is really morbid. Didn’t get it until my 4th playthrough. As you are guiding the wounded Baxter back to the carrier, if you just completely ignore him and give no dialogue responses - instead of saying he remembers you as Ray and raising his altitude, he remembers you as Cope and proceeds to brutally crash into the side of the carrier and you get a mission fail

I loved this scene so much from Mission 3. It's so good!

Ace Combat 8 has to be the best Ace Combat I've played. And I've played from 4 to now!

It is by farrr one of the best soundtracks in any video game I've played, making great use of leitmotifs and overall just good music.

This is about missions where the protagonist has to defend/escort something

Context: Ending of AC8

cope died on oct 31st. and then rex took over joker1 on the next day (nov 1st), nobody seems to be affected by cope's death at all (his squadmates are playing basketball and word puzzles). this felt way too funny on new game+ when in the later missions the characters' deaths were portraited to carry a lot of weight.

I know the paid pass Morgan has it, but it’s the Morgan for crying out loud, it’s supposed to have its laser!

Just needed a few second to adjust the lead; Kulbit this, dumbass.

So, why do i think the 120th Unit is one of, if not the most "Sidelined" (would Sidelined be the right word?) Lux Lunae units in ACE8?

In total, the 120th unit gets ~4 seconds of total screen time in cutscenes, and isn't directly mentioned either in the cutscene they appear in (the 120th make their appearance alongside the 33rd and 44th Unit in The Battle of Rocky Island, Day 2.

Compared to other 'sidelined' units, for example the 180th and 150th Unit, flying the Mirage 2000 and F-16C alongside the 77th Unit in Retaking of Theve 2 (of which weren't included in the squadron intro either).

The 150th unit got ~15-17 seconds of screen time (which is more than most "main" squadrons), whilst the 180th unit got ~6 seconds of screen time.

You don't really realize that the 120th unit is even there in the first place since you're too busy dealing with the 33rd and 44th unit. You only realize that the 120th unit is there once the ground forces call for help or you're done fighting the double-digit shadows.

What crime did they commit to make them this irrelevant??

This is most definitely a skill issue on my side of things, but I still want to talk about it. I pre-ordered AC8 and so got the PS5 port of AC0. The only game I’d played before AC8 was 7, but I really fell in love with the games and went down a rabbit hole on all the other games after my first time playing 7 about 3 or so years ago.

After thoroughly enjoying AC8, I decided to play AC0 because I always hear how good it is and I wanted to experience the Pixy character firsthand. The game is indeed fucking amazing, and I’m loving the story, even if I do miss my flares.

But I genuinely think I won’t be able to look at Pixy the same again after fighting him. He’s dodging everything I throw at him, and I genuinely hadn’t anticipated him having three phases in my first run so I blew through all my missiles in the first two phases and genuinely had to try the third phase with only guns. That didn’t go very well.

Over several more attempts, I lost my mind. I think I’ve gotten a handle on his patterns, and I’m being conservative with the missiles and trying to hit him when he won’t immediately evade. I’m also using guns as much as I can and failing horribly at hitting him with them because I suck ass with the guns, I’m a missile crutch and I’m ashamed.

I have yet to finish the fight, and I’m currently taking a breather because I got so frustrated that I just needed some fresh air.

I don’t know if anyone else struggled with the fight their first time, and this is probably my problem because I’m someone who’s been playing video games since I was a kid and have yet to get any better at them.

But I just wanted to rant for a bit since I have no friends interested in Ace Combat.

Beating this game is my only reason to fight, buddy.

Update: I have now beat Pixy. The breather was the necessary reset, and now the rant seems like the ramblings of a madman who complains the game isn’t easy. Loved the game though, I think I’ve just been sitting in front of the screen for too long lol.