Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown

"Soon there will be no one gripping a control stick and taking to the skies."

- Our Science: Era of the Drones

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is the upcoming 17th entry in the Ace Combat series. It will release on the, , and in 2017. The game will also feature optional VR support, exclusively through the.

Ace Combat 7 was initially revealed through an Ace Combat Infinity data leak in November 2015. It received an official announcement trailer at PlayStation Experience in December 2015, and its second trailer aired at the next PS Experience in December 2016. As of the second trailer airing, the game is 50% complete. An extended version of the second trailer was released in late January 2017.

Synopsis
Around 2020, the country of Erusea - which had reformed into a Kingdom - declared war on the Osean Federation for unknown reasons.

Few other details are available. A space elevator near Usea known as Lighthouse and its defender, the FAS, will be central to the plot. The game's story cutscenes will be from the perspective of multiple characters, similar in a way to Ace Combat 04's cutscenes that were from the perspective of the Side Story Narrator. The theme of "comparison" will be significant throughout the game; manned vs unmanned, veterans vs rookies, etc.

Characters
This list will be incomplete until the release of the game. See Category:Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown characters for all characters added to the wiki.


 * Trigger
 * Mihaly
 * Unnamed Erusian woman
 * Unnamed scientist

Core Mechanics
Ace Combat 7's gameplay will feel similar to Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War and Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. However, little gameplay has been shown for the game.

According to the newest trailer, the HUD will be very similar to that of Ace Combat Infinity. Flares will be returning for player control from Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. Clouds will play a major role in gameplay for the first time, providing a degree of stealth and hampering visibility. According to producer Kazutoki Kono, other important aspects of gameplay with 7 are allowing players to manually perform advanced maneuvers as well as "improving strategic aspects against enemies".

Unlike Assault Horizon and Infinity, helicopters and Piston Fighters will not make an appearance in 7; the game will focus solely on jet aircraft.

Virtual Reality
Ace Combat 7 will have optional support for PlayStation VR. VR support on Steam is unconfirmed.

The extent of PS VR's support in the game's campaign and multiplayer modes are unclear. According to Kazutoki Kono, the main campaign and the VR experience are being developed separately, and VR will sacrifice some visual detail to maintain the required 60 frames per second.

When playing in VR, the player will be forced into cockpit mode; first-person and third-person are not available. The player must turn their head to look at an enemy in order to lock on to them, at which point they can fire missiles as usual. Holding down the Options button will recalibrate the headset. The HUD elements - radar, ammo, time limit, etc. - will be moved to the bottom of the screen and made semi-transparent. The player will be able to look down and see the entire cockpit, including the pilot's legs. The pilot will interact with the plane's controls, despite the player holding a Dualshock controller.

Screenshots
Also see Category:Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown for all Ace Combat 7 screenshots uploaded to Acepedia!

Trivia

 * Ace Combat 7 will be the first...
 * ...Ace Combat game since Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation to feature a number in the title;
 * ...console Ace Combat game since Ace Combat 6 to take place in the Strangereal universe;
 * ...Ace Combat game to release on ;
 * ...Ace Combat game to use a third-party engine, namely ;
 * ...Ace Combat game since Ace Combat: Assault Horizon on PC;
 * ...Strangereal-based Ace Combat game on PC;
 * ...Ace Combat game since Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War to feature local multiplayer; and the first
 * ...Ace Combat game to be localized in Traditional Chinese.
 * Project Aces was not initially certain on having a subtitle for Ace Combat 7. On December 6, 2016, the Skies Unknown subtitle was leaked. It was formally announced on January 26, 2017.
 * Immediately prior to the Ace Combat 7 announcement trailer's first airing, Asad Qizilbash, head of Software Marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America, described "staying up all night to unlock this easter egg, it was a FALKEN fighter", referencing Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War.
 * On November 15, 2014, Bandai Namco producer Katsuhiro Harada (producer of the  series) stated that Ace Combat would never get VR support due to the "horizontal" being "shaken violently" as if one was drunk. The fact that Ace Combat 7 supports PlayStation VR shows a shift in Bandai Namco's acceptance of virtual reality for those who can physically tolerate the technology.