Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is a 2026 combat flight simulation game developed by Bandai Namco Aces and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The ninth mainline installment in the Ace Combat series and a sequel to Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (2019), the game was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on October 2, 2026.

Gameplay

As with its predecessors, Ace Combat 8 is a combat flight simulation game in which the player pilots military aircraft to complete various objectives, ranging from dogfighting hostile aircraft and eliminating large superweapons to destroying ground and naval targets. At launch, the game will feature more than 30 aircraft for players to use. They are further divided into four categories, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Players can select an aircraft and its loadout before each sortie. Unlike previous games in the franchise, players can now damage hostile planes by hitting them anywhere, without needing to target specific weak points. Destroyed aircraft may also damage other targets in the area. Similar to Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, players can also order squadron wingmen to attack enemies and use special weapons.

The player's combat performance, along with minor narrative decisions, affects the survival of non-player characters and their roles in specific story beats, though the overarching plot remains largely unchanged. In between missions, the player character is stationed on an aircraft carrier named the Endurance. For the first time in the franchise, the story of the game is told from a first-person perspective.

According to Bandai Namco, Ace Combat 8 has the franchise's "largest online mode". The multiplayer part incorporates elements from Ace Combat Infinity such as teams engaging each other or the same enemy, with the team with most score winning, including battles against superweapons from previous Ace Combat games.

Synopsis

Setting

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is set in the series' fictional universe of Strangereal, where Earth has entirely different nations, geography, and history. The game's story details the 2029 Sotoa-Usea War, fought in the continent of Usea between the Republic of Sotoa and the Federation of Central Usea (FCU) ten years after the Lighthouse War.

Facing countrywide desertification that threatens the native Sotoans' nomadic way of life, Sotoa aims to settle in the continent of Usea and launches a blitzkrieg invasion of the FCU using a combination of the Tonitrus Spear kinetic bombardment satellites and experimental amphibious vessels armed with powerful railguns known as land battleships. By the start of the game, Sotoa has occupied most of the FCU including the capital Theve, with many of the federation's forces joining Sotoan-allied separatists.

The game's silent protagonist is a member of Joker Flight on the aircraft carrier FCU Endurance, led by Commander Jan "Rex" Cope, alongside Lieutenant Commander Ellington "Professor" Baxter, Lieutenant William "Noise" Coster, and Ensign Anastasia "Tasha" Severskaya, a civilian stunt pilot from Yuktobania.

Other crew aboard the Endurance include the ship's Executive Officer Jessica Pike; Lieutenant Commander Katherine "Little Bee" Evans, leader of Queen Flight; AWACS Dealer, Joker and Queen Flight's navigation and radio officer; and Lucas Díez "D.D." Doniphan, a liaison from the decentralized mega-corporation Enso Order, who serves as the squadron's social media manager.

Other characters include Major General Carmille Tewy, a legendary ace pilot and Commander of the elite Sotoan Air Force Squadron Lux Lunae; Colonel Girish "Ares" Toprak, a Sotoan ace pilot that serves the Sotoan Air Force's Lux Lunae squadron as Shadow 22, leader of its 22nd Unit; Major Jenkins, an FCU Air Force mechanic onboard the Endurance; and "Rosie Falcinelli", former Princess of Erusea who is now the Chairwoman of the Selatapura Autonomous Zone, a haven for stateless refugees, where the International Space Elevator resides.

Plot

In July 2029, five months into the war, the game's silent protagonist is rescued after being shot down and brought aboard the Endurance, where he is immediately assigned as Cope's weapon systems officer. On their first flight, Cope admits to the protagonist that he has never shot down a single Sotoan and that D.D. has fabricated his legend to maintain morale. Their aircraft is then ambushed and shot down by Lux Lunae and Toprak. The protagonist escapes and attempts to rescue Cope but only manages to grab his dogtag before Cope drowns. After being rescued once again, D.D. urges him to take up the mantle as "Rex" and the "Wings of Theve" and lead Joker Flight to liberate Theve and the rest of the FCU. Rex also begins to hear Cope's voice talking to him.

After initial setbacks, Joker Flight, alongside Queen Flight and with Enso Order's assistance, rallies the remaining FCU forces to retake Theve and disable one of Sotoa's land battleships. D.D. continues to actively promote the squadron as the "Wings of Theve" through artificially inflating kill counts and squad size. Many on both sides begin questioning its authenticity as a broadcast from rogue FCU soldiers exposes the lies behind the "Wings of Theve."

During a reconnaissance mission, Rex and Baxter end up stranded in Sotoa-occupied Rio Bajo. A local rescues them, and they have a brief meeting with Carmille and Toprak. The Sotoans destroy Rio Bajo using the Tonitrus Spear as resistance fighters in the city begin an uprising. The two pilots narrowly escape to safety with help from local freedom fighters before Tasha and Coster rescue them. Returning to the Endurance, Rex and the crew discover from the broadcast that Cope was Sotoan-born, explaining his refusal to shoot down Sotoan aircraft. When Pike confronts him, D.D. admits he knew Cope's past but convinces the others to maintain the "Wings of Theve" narrative.

Joker and Queen Flights later attack Comona Space Base to stop the Tonitrus Spear from being reloaded. While successful, most of Queen Flight is killed by the Lux Lunae in an ambush. They discover that Comona was a diversion used by Sotoans to occupy the Space Elevator, which they plan to use to launch an entire network of Tonitrus Spear satellites. D.D. discovers that Enso Order planted a spy aboard the Endurance, leaking intel to the Sotoans. The spy is shot and killed by Pike. With help from "Rosie" and volunteer fighters, Joker Flight stops the Sotoans, destroying another land battleship in the process. However, a second Tonitrus Spear is still launched, and the Space Elevator is partially destroyed in the battle. D.D. is fired from Enso Order for siding with the crew and explains to Pike that Enso Order is engineering an escalation of the war by drawing in Osea and Yuktobania, two rivaling superpowers, so Enso can mediate a ceasefire at the end to orchestrate the framework of a rebuilt world without borders.

Baxter and D.D. launch from Comona into space to disable one of the Tonitrus Spears, while Joker Flight, now joined by Kate, simultaneously destroys a massive aerial command aircraft that controls the Spears. This allows the FCU to initiate a counteroffensive to reclaim the rest of Usea. During the battle of Rocky Island, one of the Spears reactivates, causing numerous casualties, while Kate is shot down and is presumed dead. During the naval battle for Cima Island, en route to Megafloat Fatsia, Sotoa's main military stronghold, Carmille appears in a prototype aircraft and decimates the fleet with experimental weaponry, fatally wounding Baxter as he protects Rex from a railgun attack. Through Cope, it is revealed that Cope and Carmille had a personal relationship before Cope migrated to the FCU.

After successfully destroying the megafloat, the remnants of the entire Sotoan Air Force, including Carmille and Toprak, who seized control of the Sotoan military by seemingly cooperating with Enso Order in orchestrating the deaths of its top leaders, attempt to swarm and destroy Joker Flight. Joker Flight is outnumbered and outgunned, but numerous FCU forces, ex-separatists, volunteer fighters, and mercenary squadrons arrive as reinforcements, including Kate, who survived being shot down, rallied by Joker Flight's real exploits as the "Wings of Theve". Rex and the coalition defeat the Sotoan Air Force and shoot down the remaining Lux Lunae, including Toprak. Carmille escapes to Theve as Enso Order launches the remaining Tonitrus Spears against their own facilities to cover up their involvement in the war.

As one of the Spears flies toward an Enso facility in Theve, Carmille tries to redirect it using a laser guidance system toward the nuclear reactor in the disabled land battleship, which would cause a radiological disaster Enso cannot cover up, intending to expose Enso at all costs for manipulating her fellow countrymen into war. Rex and Joker Flight catch up to Carmille and shoot her down. The Spear destroys the facility in Theve, the last one in Usea.

Realizing that D.D. still holds evidence of Enso's involvement in the war through a company-issue smartphone used by the Endurance spy, the company sends out a prototype unmanned submarine to kill him and destroy the Endurance. D.D. redirects the last remaining Tonitrus Spear to the submarine, using a backdoor password Carmille gave Rex in her final moments. D.D. broadcasts the submarine's attack, exposing Enso Order's involvement to the world. Inspired by the "Wings of Theve", people around the world cheer on Rex and Joker Flight as they destroy the submarine, saving the Endurance. The FCU and Sotoa announce a ceasefire, ending the war, while Enso Order is dissolved; the company's assets are absorbed by General Resource Limited, propelling them to global prominence.

Sometime later, during a patrol mission, Rex has one final vision of Cope, in which he bids farewell and assures Rex that his and Carmille's souls are now at peace, before Kate pulls him out of the vision. As they leave Sotoan airspace, Cope's dog tag is seen on the desertified ground near some of Sotoa's native anemone flowers.

Development

In 2021, producer Kazutoki Kono announced that Bandai Namco Entertainment and ILCA, one of the co-developers of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, had commenced the development of a new Ace Combat game. In 2022, a new studio named Bandai Namco Aces was formed with the sole objective of working on the next Ace Combat games, with Bandai Namco owning 51% of the new studio and ILCA owning the remaining 49%. After Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown introduced the franchise to a new audience, the team decided for Ace Combat 8 to remain accessible, with a comprehensive tutorial and various training modes for new players to learn its mechanics and systems. With Ace Combat 8 marking the 30th anniversary of the franchise, the game will also incorporate elements from previous Ace Combat games.

The game's development focused on three pillars: photorealistic sky rendering, aerial combat gameplay, and a heroic narrative theme. The team also visited air force bases and interviewed pilots to ensure the game's depiction of both fictional and real-life weapons was grounded and convincing. According to director Kazutoki Kono, the team aimed to capture the "exhilaration of flying freely through the sky" by introducing significantly bigger maps. It also no longer scaled down the size of real-world objects, utilizing a true 1:1 scale for all real-world assets. The team also introduces a new technology known as "Cloudly", which renders more reactive weather environments, allowing players to track visual signals such as contrails and enemy engine smoke to make tactical decisions. Story scenes are told through a first-person perspective, as the team learnt from their experience creating the virtual reality mode of Ace Combat 7 and felt that this perspective provided a more immersive and emotional experience.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve was announced in December 2025 at The Game Awards. The game is set to be released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on October 2, 2026. Players who pre-ordered the game received a modern port of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War (2006). Players who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition additionally received an additional aircraft and early access to the game starting from September 29. A four part prequel mini series called Hour Zero was announced on September 10, with Josh Holloway, Brandon Routh, and Tamlyn Tomita playing lead roles. The first episode was released on September 15.

Reception

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received "mighty" approval, being recommended by 99% of critics.