Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25142096-20141011054905/@comment-25142096-20141011082741

TheTLMguy wrote: I think Bandai-Namco uses those stars to represent the "importance" of an aircraft.

Importance does not necessarly mean "strength", despite we would easily think so. "Importance", uh? That's a good point; all the 4-stars planes are either from previous Ace Combat titles, or have special high-quality designs (like the Vent d'Ange), except for Shin Kazama's F-20A. The 3-stars are from other franchises (only Area 88 for now), the 2-stars are quite simple and not-so-special and the single stars are 100% simple.

That may be the answer, good job, TLM.