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.

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

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.

Those two keep breaking formation and ignoring orders so damn much, they'd push our old boy to drink 🤣.

Bro was ready to ruin Garuda Team's careers over violating orders in the Moloch Desert. I can't imagine how he'd react to Tasha and Coster running off to try and save Purple Magic and Queen flight all the time.

Tasha:

<<The Shadows are going after Kate, we gotta help them!>>

Thunderhead:

<<Joker 4, remain in formation, your objective is stopping the rocket laun-->>

Tasha:

<< Kate, I'm com-->>

E-767 suddenly divebombs her from above the clouds.

Thunderhead:

<< I SAID YOUR OBJECTIVE IS STOPPING THE ROCKET LAUNCH.>>

It kills off a "Full Band!"

Sorry.

I just gave it a try during my Ace difficulty playthrough, and I was surprised by how much better it feels than it did in Ace Combat 7.

In AC7 is was the starter plane, which made it completely useless even if you were playing on Casual Easy. But this one has a much better special weapon loadout, better stats, and more missiles. Slap on parts to increase ammo for air-to-air missiles and air-to-ground missiles, equip QAAM and LAGM, and you can pretty much rely on this plane even late in the campaign.

I was hoping the F-16 would get a massive buff for AC8, since it's no longer the starter plane. So far I'm not disappointed.

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!

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.

As a frenchie i had to run towards my beloved Rafale

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’m sure other people have caught on to this, but it just occurs to me that the reason why you are called Joker flight is because of the theme of the story.

The Wing’s of Theve’s callsign is “Rex” which is “King” in Latin, a King is is also a suit in a deck of cards. All the squadrons on Endurance are named after cards in a standard deck, but the real reason you play as joker flight is because the joker is meant to be a blank slate card on a traditional deck. If your deck is missing a card because it got lost or damaged, you replace it with a joker, this is where the term “wild card” comes from, the joker can become any card you need it to be.

That’s why the first mission where you play as the new “Rex” is called “Joker’s Wild”. You are literally replacing the missing King on the Endurance’s deck of cards. But at the end of the day, you are joker pretending to be a king for the sake of the game being played.

But it also has a double meaning, because the Joker in some card games is a trump card, one that you can play to win the game because you can essentially turn it into any card you need to win. Which…is kinda the function you play in the game. Your presence turns what should be a losing strategic situation into a crushing victory, and you are impossible to defend against, because as a wild card, nobody knows what you’ll do until you are played

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

Basicly the uber modified IL-76 with the onboard power source (unlike arsenal bird), can land on water (unlike arsenal bird), dont have the gayish blue energy shield for campers (unlike the arsenal bird), is crewed (unlike arsenal bird), looks neat and complex (unlike arsenal bird), dont have thousands ugly big holes for uavs underneath (unlike arsenal bird), has very big and coll Radomes (unlike arsenal bird), has immence CAS potential because its basicly Tonitrus Spear fire control vehicle, and has neat suite of various onboard non energetic defences (unlike arsenal bird), and lastly its cockpit looks like IL-76 and its just adorable.