I came here for the extremely anime and ludicrous plot. That aspect of Ace Combat 7 was honestly disappointing in some ways, the storytelling has some wonderfully over-the-top moments but is also just kind of a mess. This isn't helped by key story details being littered seemingly everywhere, showing up within the mission briefings, the cut-scenes that are told from multiple different perspectives (one of the most important perspectives disappearing for several missions in the middle of the game?), and during in-mission over-the-radio conversations. It's so easy to be laser-focused in on the gameplay, which is often so intense that it needs your undivided attention, only to miss out on some plot detail that's said over the radio as a result and be left confused as to what exactly is happening. By the time I finished the game there were multiple core pieces of the plot and surrounding worldbuilding that I could just absolutely not even begin to try explaining to someone.
The flipside to this is that the sheer nonsense the game indulges itself in lends itself to some incredible and thrilling set-pieces; there are so many moments that are legitimately breath-taking, and even in its final mission Ace Combat 7 manages to just completely one-up itself yet again. Honestly the gameplay here is just generally excellent with plenty of pulse-pounding moments every play session I had, and a superb variety of missions that very rarely repeat the same beats and that recontextualises those beats when they are repeated. I had no idea I would enjoy an airplane dogfighting game, but AC7 manages to make it so much fun. On top of this the game looks gorgeous, especially the weather effects, and the music is fittingly perfectly over-dramatic. Really, with the exception of a couple missions that missed the mark or were a bit too frustrating, everything about this game was super impressive...apart from that tangled up mess of a story.
Revision (16th November 2021); reading kingbancho's excellent review of AC7 (linked below) has helped cement some concerns I'd had previously about the game regarding its xenophobia and how problematic some of the framing in the game is. I think this can be easy to miss both due to how much of a mess the storytelling is and due to how exciting and absorbing the gameplay often is too, but hearing it all laid out as clearly it is in kingbancho's review just...makes it hard not to think a lot less about this game as a result, and certainly makes it much harder to recommend the game to anyone.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/kingbancho/review/253306
The flipside to this is that the sheer nonsense the game indulges itself in lends itself to some incredible and thrilling set-pieces; there are so many moments that are legitimately breath-taking, and even in its final mission Ace Combat 7 manages to just completely one-up itself yet again. Honestly the gameplay here is just generally excellent with plenty of pulse-pounding moments every play session I had, and a superb variety of missions that very rarely repeat the same beats and that recontextualises those beats when they are repeated. I had no idea I would enjoy an airplane dogfighting game, but AC7 manages to make it so much fun. On top of this the game looks gorgeous, especially the weather effects, and the music is fittingly perfectly over-dramatic. Really, with the exception of a couple missions that missed the mark or were a bit too frustrating, everything about this game was super impressive...apart from that tangled up mess of a story.
Revision (16th November 2021); reading kingbancho's excellent review of AC7 (linked below) has helped cement some concerns I'd had previously about the game regarding its xenophobia and how problematic some of the framing in the game is. I think this can be easy to miss both due to how much of a mess the storytelling is and due to how exciting and absorbing the gameplay often is too, but hearing it all laid out as clearly it is in kingbancho's review just...makes it hard not to think a lot less about this game as a result, and certainly makes it much harder to recommend the game to anyone.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/kingbancho/review/253306