Famitsu's first interview about Ace Combat 8 with Kouno Kazutoki and Shimomoto Manabu: an English translation

The original interview at Famitsu by Dedeo and Giant Kuroda is here. Our translation follows:

---

Ace Combat 8: a new game which promises to “deepen” the series the right way. How has director Katabuchi Sunao chosen to depict the game's idolized hero? How will the radio chatter work? We asked the development leads about these points of interest.

The trailer for Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve (ACE8 below), long-anticipated by fans awaiting information, was announced at The Game Awards 2025 on 12 December, 2025 [JST].

ACE8 is the latest game in the Ace Combat series, which turned 30 in 2025. A landmark series which established the arcade flight sim genre, it has taken an untold number players to the skies beyond. ACE8’s release date is planned for 2026, for the Playstation 5 (PS5), Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam).

We’ve had an opportunity to interview Ace Combat Brand Director Kouno Kazutoki, and producer Shimomoto Manabu, continuing in his role from the last game, before this information became public. We asked about ACE8’s development concepts, about where they’ve “powered up,” and about some points of interest in the PV, so pay attention to the very end!

ACE8: a new game which has “deepened” the series the right way

ーーThe game is finally announced! When did you spin up the project, approximately?

Shimomoto: The concept for ACE8 was firmed up and development began in 2020, thanks in no small part to the support you've all shown. Development was spurred on by the high acclaim ACE7 received from fans of the series, and from the fact that it was able to bring in new players. I think there’s a golden opportunity here for the release of ACE8 to truly give the Ace Combat series wings.

ーーSo ACE7 sold well?

Shimomoto: ACE7 will soon have sold over 7,000,000 units. I hope that with ACE8’s success, we can reach even more players around the world. We’ve been putting every effort into development in the hope that it can become an inflection point in the series: one that can take it all the way to its 50th anniversary.

Kouno: You know, you keep talking about the future, but it’s not like I’m going to be at the company anymore by that point (sad laugh)

Shimomoto: Yeah I’ll be pushing 60 too (sad laugh)

ーーSure sounds like you’re making a big effort with this one. May I ask what the core concept is?

Kouno: ACE8 is a proper numbered game, and I consider that the core concepts of the Ace Combat series are as follows:

>The exhilarating sensation of being able to fly freely through the sky
>The exhilaration and excitement of being able to engage and destroy each target according to your own judgement
>The sense of accomplishment of having overcome adversity to become an ace pilot

Those are the three pillars: the three parts of its identity that we’ve adhered to. As such, and as this is the first Ace Combat that fans will be experiencing on next generation platforms, we feel the need to exceed whatever expectations people have for us. For this next step, we’ve aimed to make an Ace Combat that could not, under any assessment, be judged lesser when lined up alongside any of the other latest and greatest big titles.

Fundamentally, Ace Combat is filled with universal experiences, free from the peculiarities of country and culture: the experience of the player themselves becoming an ace pilot, the sense of satisfaction of defeating tough enemies, and an unparalleled longing for the sky. We aim to use new technologies and new ideas to maximize the benefit to these charms and strengths of Ace Combat.

Shimomoto: As development progressed, we had to hash out what elements we should carry forward and which we should change. We say we’re aiming to be a “big title,” but that absolutely does not mean we should start from a clean slate. There are certain elements with which fans have become familiar over the past 30 years. What changes could we make that would be welcome? We’ve put a lot of thought about what the proper course of evolution for a numbered title ought to be as development has gone on, and the word which I think perfectly encapsulates what you should imagine when we talk about this evolution is an ever-delving “deepening.”

ーーI see! On that note, it seems that the way you're depicting the sky is one of those things that’s been “deepened.” What sort of development environment are you using?

Shimomoto: Our game engine is Unreal, which we’ve brought forward from ACE7, but the biggest difference from last time is that we’ve developed a cloud rendering tool called “Cloudly.”

Kouno: Under ACE7’s “renovation of the sky,” we integrated an external tool called “trueSKY.” (※) It really was a spectacular tool, but since we didn’t develop it ourselves, there were limits to how we could improve and use it…

※a real-time cloud generation system developed in England

ーーSo you developed Cloudly yourselves.

Kouno: By integrating Cloudly, we’ve been able to replicate things like the way clouds differ depending on altitude, and render clouds with more layers in them. Kanno (Mr. Kanno Masato: the art director of the game with Namco Bandai studios) is very knowledgeable about meteorology, and he was central to our efforts towards developing a more realistic sky.

Visuals of the sky naturally become richer as machine power improves, and realistic visuals deepen the sense of immersion, but personally I’m not really interested in visual improvements that aren’t accompanied by functionality. In ACE7, the effects upon entering a cloud served naturally as a sign to the player. That's the sort of visual we're looking for: the kind that can function to naturally cue the player into game rules as they play. The contrails and smoke from enemy planes, reflections on the canopy: these things are all cues for the player. With this functionality, the player will naturally pick up on these cues, and it’ll influence how they think and make decisions.

ーーYou mean that the clouds in ACE8 will have even more functionality to them?

Kouno: Yeah. We’ve added multi-layer clouds, which function as a cue to the player that their altitude is high.

Shimomoto: You’ve checked your altitude via the on-screen altimeter in previous games. Obviously you know this if you’ve played the games before, but for people playing Ace Combat for the first time it might be hard to get at first. Obviously you’ve got an altimeter in ACE8, but we’ve been making sure that you can get a sense for your altitude just by looking outside your plane at the types of clouds spread out around you.

Kouno: Personally when I’ve been playing ACE8, I notice the number of times I’ve had to check my instruments has gone down. This is one of the things that benefit that “exhilaration and excitement of being able to engage and destroy each target according to your own judgement” I was talking about. The functionality of these “rich visuals” give you more information to ground your judgements in a dogfight. We’ve been hoping to use the immersive nature of the sky to fill your surroundings with the rules of the world, to make the gameplay feel more natural.

Director Katabuchi’s decision to stay on in his role thanks to Mr. Kouno’s warm regards

ーーIn the trailer, you can see that there are parts where you’re walking through a carrier in first person view. Is that how you’re going to be presenting the story this time around?

Kouno: Ace Combat has been a game that unfolds from the first person point of view since the very beginning. With only a few exceptions, they’ve basically stuck to FPV: the idea that you personally are experiencing the world as an ace pilot. You are the player, so the game doesn’t mysteriously give you excess memories, like you’re not going to suddenly meet your estranged father or anything. We hope to send you to the other side of the monitor to Strangereal (※), so that you can do ace pilot things.

※the fictional world which all the numbered games have shared since ACE3

This line of thought led us to the idea of first person cinema as another way to “deepen,” in a sense, the way that the world naturally spreads out around you. We want the player to be immersed – we want them to be like “dang, I really am part of this world.” On the other hand, Ace Combat up to this point has had a “storyteller” or “storytellers” as an essential part of how the games work.

ーーHuh, I see.

Kouno: In AC04 it was the boy, in ACE5 it was the war photographer, in ACE ZERO it was the enemy pilots, and in ACE7 the Scrap Queen took on the role. We’ll have to talk about this in more detail another day, but we decided that the storyteller of ACE8 should be a “certain someone” at an early stage. With that decided, the first person cinema concept came together easily. We’re focusing on first-person “real time cinema.”

ーーCan you control the player during these cinematics?

The player can control their line of sight during the cinematic scenes. Of course you can’t control where you move or anything, but you could even just stare up at the ceiling when people in front of you are talking if you want. You can discover new things by purposefully looking away, like what characters on the other side of a conversation are up to. It’s very important to us that you’re immersed, that you feel as though you’re actually existing inside the world. The sense of verisimilitude of the visuals is important obviously, but if that were it, we could just get away with pre-rendered movies.

By involving the player in even the cinematics, they can feel more like they’re there. By maximizing the benefits and drama, we’ve been able to improve immersion. You can look forward to some pretty exhilarating dogfights, with the sky folding out around you in game, sitting in the cockpit, flying your fighter around. We hope that soon you’ll be able to stand on our own feet, feeling the reality of both your own existence and those of your comrades, and together bring you a profoundly intriguing story playing out on a stage high above the earth.

Shimomoto: The fact that the Ace Combat series is story-driven is important. Just like the rest of the series to this point, the story of the game proceeds by way of cinematics, but in order to make it feel more like you’re really there you’ll be able to control the point of view. You’ll also be able to do things like shake hands when prompted by pushing a button, so we think you’ll find the degree of immersion higher than it’s ever been before.

ーーWhat were the some of the most challenging parts of developing the cinematics?

Shimomoto: Well, there were a bunch, but the biggest thing was reproducing tiny little details when the scale is so dang big. You can be freely flying around in this massive 10,000 square kilometer dogfight map, and then in the cinematics we have to be able to craft something as small as that hamburger you saw in the PV.

Kouno: The in-game aspects of the previous title were done in Unreal Engine at a 10:1 scale, but we’re doing everything in real scale this time around. The in-game map and the hamburger have to exist in the same world.

ーーSo it gives rise to a world with a greater sense of verisimilitude. Incidentally, the screenplay was handled by director Katabuchi ※, carrying on from the last game. How did the offer come about?

※director Katabuchi Sunao, best known for anime like Black Lagoon and In This Corner of the World. In this series, he contributed to the screenplays for AC04, ACE5, and ACE7

Kouno: So in preparation for the interview, I went back through my text messages, and I found that I sent director Katabuchi a long offer DM in June 2020. I was aware at the time that director Katabuchi was in the middle of production for a movie and had quite a lot of work ahead of him, but I told him in the DM that I wanted to take Ace Combat to the next step as an IP. I told him I’d been entrusted with this task, but I didn’t feel like I could make it a success without director Katabuchi’s DNA. I really poured my soul out to him.

Director Katabuchi’s film project was stalled out at the time, but even so he replied “ah, well, if it means I get to work with you on Ace Combat,” and we were able to schedule a meeting. This was during the start of Covid, when everyone was trying to avoid crowds, so it was just Shimomoto and me who met with director Katabuchi at the workplace. We were able to talk through a lot of things.

Director Katabuchi officially agreed to work with us after that, and that evening he sent me a message with all of his ideas written out. I was on the return train when I got it, and when I read what it said, I got goosebumps. Right then and there, we decided on the most important factor of the game. It’s incredibly shocking to look back now and go “holy crap, there it is, we already had the main theme nailed down.”

ーーI’m really curious what director Katabuchi wrote in that message then!

Shimomoto: We’ll have to save that discussion for another time, when more information about the game has been revealed.

ーーI’ll look forward to that. How did you decide on the protagonist’s plane being an F/A-18E Super Hornet? It somehow reminds me of a certain movie…

Shimomoto: Yeah…so compared to the F-35C Lightning II or something, the F/A-18E is of a slightly older generation, but it’s a very widely known, iconic carrier-based fighter, which as you have so observantly noted, is because it was featured in a famous fighter movie. As the stage of our story is an aircraft carrier, we chose the F/A-18E ※.

※the F/A-18E can operate from aircraft carriers

When we conducted our preliminary research, we found that as we hoped, both Ace Combat fans and fighter fans could tell from the images and key visuals we published that the setting would be an aircraft carrier, and could picture the sort of story that might unfold.

ーーI thought it was very unusual for the key visual of an Ace Combat game to not depict a flying scene. It seems like you were trying to really get across that the story is set onboard a carrier.

Shimomoto: For the past 30 years, what we’ve always wanted to communicate first and foremost with our key visuals was the sense of freely flying around the sky, so we’ve always used scenes of fighter planes in flight, but this time we wanted to depict the characters too – to give a sense of what the story is like. If you look reeeeeal close at the key visual, there’s one thing in particular you might be able to find. Take a look, think about the story, and let your imagination run wild.

ーーThe thing is, if the setting is a carrier, will there be non-carrier-based planes? A fan might hear that and be a bit uneasy.

Shimomoto: There’ll be other planes than just carrier-based ones, just like the rest of the series. Don’t worry.

ーーI’m glad to hear that (laughs). There’s an aircraft in the trailer that looks like the Arsenal Bird ※ from ACE7…what is it in this game, exactly?

※a fictional massive unmanned aircraft intended for defense. It's goddamn huge.

Kouno: It’s under a massive attack so it looks like an Arsenal Bird, but it’s actually a giant transport plane. As for what it’s doing in the trailer, we can discuss that in more detail another time if we get the chance, but it’s connected to the game mechanics, in particular how we’ve rethought how we've designed the support elements for air combat: how we’ve made them easier to understand and more dynamic in how we’re representing them. If you really look closely at the trailer, you can see some things happening that don’t usually happen in Ace Combat games.

ーーAlso, in the trailer it seems like you can see a Su-57 Felon doing a post-stall maneuver. ※ What’s going on with those?

※when an aircraft maneuvers while stalled. The cobra, hook, and kulbit are all various post-stall maneuvers

Kouno: That scene is in there to give you a dramatic impression of the obligatory rival plane. It’s a post-stall maneuver we thought of that the enemy fighters can use, which we call the “Parthian shot” in the production materials. “Parthian shot” is the name we came up with during production, but it's possible they don't mention it in the game.

ーーI see. So there’s a type of shot that a horse archer can make called a “Parthian shot,” but like…what is it in-game?

Kouno: So, there’s obviously a reason it’s called the Parthian Shot, and it’s connected to the culture of the country your rival and opponents are from. We’ve prepared the background materials in exquisite detail for this one.

Shimomoto: If you pay attention to the Parthian Shot scene, you should be able to see “SHADOW22” written on the airframe, and hear them referred to as “Shadows” on the radio. As for what “Shadows” means, you’ll have to wait to find out.

ーーIncidentally, can the player perform post-stall maneuvers like in ACE7?

Kouno: How you do them is currently being tweaked.

ーーI look forward to following up about that too. You brought up the setting earlier: that the setting would be the world of “Strangereal.” Is this the same world as the previous games?

Shimomoto: Yes, you’re in the Federation of Central Usea (abbv. FCU), which is in the world of Strangereal.

ーーCould you explain in detail what kind of polity the Federation of Central Usea is?

Shimomoto: The Federation of Central Usea is a federal state on the Usean continent. All you need to know for Ace Combat 8 is that the FCU is a federation consisting of various countries in Usea.

If I can speak a bit more for fans of the series, the Independent States Allied Forces (ISAF) the protagonist belonged to in AC04 was a military alliance of Usean countries centered around this FCU, but by ACE7, the job of maintaining public order on the Usean continent had passed to the United Nations military (IUN-PKF), and ISAF was gradually dissolved.

By the time of ACE8, the various countries of Usea established a centralized government out of ISAF and became constituents of the FCU. However, the government of the FCU has long been struggling and failing to address the painful legacy of the wars and cumulative economic issues, and just as discontent among constituent states was growing, they faced an invasion from Sotoa – which brings us to the beginning. For those who want to know more, we’d like to do something to explain all this separately, so look forward to that.

Your pilot alter-ego, “The Wings of Theve,” “Rex”…an idol?

ーーI’m curious about the three letters, “REX,” written on your helmet, and the red winged emblem. What are those?

Shimomoto: Those red wings are the eponymous “Wings of Theve.” The protagonist’s TAC name is “REX,” a name celebrated as that of a legendary ace, spoken of as a symbol of hope, but that reputation is unfounded. After a certain incident, the player will take on the name “Wings of Theve” and alight. The final image of the trailer, the words “enlighten me, o sky!” represent the troubled feelings of the protagonist forced to bear this complicated duty.

ーーSo you’ll be experiencing a story of growth from an idolized hero to an ace pilot. There’s also a shot in the trailer that shows a closeup of a pilot’s face, like a trailer for a Hollywood movie. Are there shots like that in-game?

Kouno: Yeah. Up to now, we could only depict narrative scenes using radio chatter and shots of fighters from the outside, but now we can use a cockpit camera to shoot wingman characters. We’ve created a few conversation scenes like that which you’ll come across occasionally in missions, but boy did we have production issues.

We’d envisioned how we could make the story easier to understand by inserting actual shots of pilots talking before, but in order to do that we needed to create a camera for all of the plane’s cockpits. It wasn’t possible in previous games, but we decided to take on the challenge.

Except there’s no way to work a cockpit camera into every scene. There are scenes where we still ask you to just imagine the expression on the character’s face, and we’ve been thinking about other techniques we can use for those. Also, there may seem to be some shots of a pilot that seem to be the player, but those are solely for the replay camera. I feel like implementing the replay-only camera has really improved the entertainment value of dogfights.

ーーSince this is an Ace Combat game, I’m interested in what the radio dialog will be like. I’m guessing we can look forward to frenetic conversations during these fierce dogfights?

Kouno: But of course! I consider radio chatter to be one of Ace Combat’s areas of innovation. You’ll be flying around the battlefield in the cockpit, getting a sense for the frenetic drama playing out around you – all the things happening in the background that can’t be depicted visually – through radio chatter.

But as you are aware, Ace Combat is a game where you can choose freely where you fly, and where the player is at any given time is going to change each time they play the mission. This time we’re recording multiple subtly different takes and adjusting their timing to suit the circumstances. There’ll be radio chatter that might not even play depending on the situation, so this is certainly the most recording we’ve ever had to do in the whole entire series.

ーーI’m looking forward to the radio dialog, but…what if a skilled player were to shoot down enemies at a rate outpacing the radio dialog?

Shimomoto: That question is related to what we were saying before about radio chatter that might not play depending on the situation. We’ve created radio chatter at key points that will only play if the player is performing much better than we’ve expected. We’re calling them “rewards” internally.

ーーI see. I’ll try and trigger those on my replay attempts. If I may change the subject to music, does the music playing in the PV include the game’s main theme? I'm given to understand Kobayashi-san ※ is involved with the soundtrack but…

※Mr. Kobayashi Keiki. He's been involved since AC04, including as the main composer for ACE7

Kouno: The music in the PV is the main theme. Actually we’re smack dab in the middle of adjusting and refining the climactic second half. The trailer music is from a very important scene, but there are a few more tracks that represent ACE8.

As for the sound team, Watanabe※ and Kitadani※ are the core, with all the staff who’ve created the series’ most famous pieces participating, including Kobayashi-san. We’re always working on the music until the last possible moment. We’re always swapping things out and adjusting the arrangement until we go “that’s it!” We’re trying to deliver the strongest emotional experience for the player here.

※Mr. Watanabe Ryou. He's been involved since ACE ZERO, and is credited as ACE7's sound designer
※Mr. Kitadani Mitsuhiro. He's worked mainly as a composer on various titles, and is credited as the composer for Enchanter I and Mimic from ACE7.

ーーI’m looking forward to the music too! Also, is there an online component?

Shimomoto: We will, of course, include a multiplayer mode. We’ll explain in more detail at a later date.

ーーI’ll look forward to that explanation too.

Shimomoto: We’re aiming for a release in 2026, so development is still moving rapidly. Stay tuned for more information.

ーーThe Ace Combat series had its 30th anniversary this year. How do you feel looking back on such a special occasion?

Kouno: Let me start by expressing my gratitude towards my senpai who brought the very first ACE1 into being. Without them, the past 30 years wouldn’t’ve happened. Next, I’d like to thank the fans who’ve been with us the past 30 years, the staff who these fans have empowered, and the family and friends who have supported that staff. I can only feel immensely grateful when I think of the huge number of people who have supported Ace Combat as a series. Thank you for these 30 years, and I look forward to even more.

Shimomoto: It’s been about 15 years since I became involved with Ace Combat: Assault Horizon in 2009, and honestly it’s gone by in the blink of an eye. Every day I think how I can give Ace Combat larger wings in my current role as producer. I told you this at the start, but I hope ACE8 becomes a new inflection point which will see the series continue to grow to its 50th anniversary.

ーーWith ACE8 announced, I’m sure the excitement of Ace Combat fans around the world will be ceaseless. Do you have a message for them?

Shimomoto: ACE8 has finally been announced. It’s undeniably the largest work of the series so far. Please check back for more information as it’s revealed, and look forward to its release.

Kouno: Thank you very much for waiting. Production has been moving forward far more than anyone knows. ACE8 shall mark the dawn of a new era for Ace Combat. Let’s share this moment together.