I finished Ace Combat 7 and was going through on the internet other entries I had missed since Ace Combat 4. Suddenly, this game popped up. An indie game that appeared to be on par with the mainline series though made by a much smaller team. Call me interested.

A few hours in, and it hits all the marks I was looking for from the Ace Combat games. The game controls amazing, the music is fantastic, the plot and situations are in are insane. And the story is... a lot.

This, like Ace Combat, is a power fantasy. You and your strangely decked-out airplane single handedly take down an army for independence. But this game didn't shy away from letting the story of war be a tragedy, even if you are on the winning side. Some really terrible things happen in this game even if it is at a level of ridiculousness that I would call unimaginable.

This is one of the few games that has made me feel genuine anger, and I have never seen a "victory" screen and been told that you won and yet feel so... hollow. It's stuck with me for a really, really long time. That alone turned it from "indie Ace Combat" into one of my favorite games of all time.

Favorite OST track: Coronation. Enjoy your crown, as meaningless as it is now.
To Steam Page
< Back to Tierlist