Rocket fuel

After 23 years of Ace Combat, you’d think

Ace Combat 7 would be simply going through the motions for Kazutoki Kono and the Project Aces team. Not so: it’s been a tumultuous journey. One difficult moment involved scrapping a completed preview build based on previous numbered titles in the series. “We decided to give up keeping that period’s Ace Combat, and recreate the basis from scratch,” Kono says. “Honestly speaking, I considered cancelling the creation of the title.” But fan support convinced him to move forward with a new numbered series entry. The VR mode has also helped keep Kono and team motivated to keep going. “There’s one thing I learned from development,” Kono says, “‘The creators will be bored earlier than fans’. Or perhaps, ‘We get anxious earlier than fans’. I’ve observed many a long-running title, and it’s really a turning point whether creators can be patient with those anxieties and endure those pressures.”