Story Analysis and Impressions of ACE COMBAT 7: Skies Unknown

In this piece, I will analyze the story of ACE COMBAT 7: Skies Unknown, armed with the knowledge I acquired as a member of the Kemono Friends analysis squad.

Reception of this game’s storyline seems to be somewhat divided. To be sure, I also felt that a few developments were rather abrupt.

That said, viewed as a whole, the scenario in this title comes together at an exceptionally high level. I would like to conclude that the story of 7 is the greatest in the history of Ace Combat.

This essay is intended to explain why I thought so—namely, the appeal of this game’s story—and to offer a fresh perspective so that viewers can enjoy this work even more deeply.

At the same time, if there are any mistakes in what I’ve explained, or if you have an even more poignant interpretation, please do let me know. While I’ve written this in definitive assertions to keep the word count down, in truth, I wrote each of these theories with only about 40% confidence.

I think I wrote this text about two years ago. I originally planned to make it into a video, but I got lazy and shelved it. Because of that, the writing is tailored quite a bit toward a video script.

Also, reading it now, there are several parts that make me go 🤔, and I plan to revise those in future versions.

The Main Argument#

So, let’s dive right into the main subject. Intertwined in this story are the three elements shown below:

First, “Human vs. Machine (AI)”
Second, “Longing for the Sky”
Third, “Trigger’s Heroic Tale”

I’d like to explain each element in order: where it can be read from, and what it signifies.

Human vs. Machine (AI)#

First, let’s discuss the first theme: “Human vs. Machine (AI).” This is pretty simple.

Entering the Information Age, countless works have depicted battles against AI that grew so immensely powerful that it became a threat to humanity. The Terminator is a prime example.

In this work, too, this theme is prominently displayed. In this game’s Mission 12, the key to successfully destroying the Arsenal Bird with Stonehenge was ultimately visual targeting—in other words, the power of humans.

<<Don’t give up yet, Major. We still have sensors. Our eyes. The oldest sensors in the book.>>

WO Lehmann

From Mission 18 onward, a classic “AI rebellion” storyline unfolds, with drones self-producing after learning Mihaly’s maneuvers. Ultimately, it was suppressed by Trigger, who represents humanity.

Do you remember how, in a previous video, I brought up Ace Combat 04 from this series as an example of completely different plots running in parallel? The same technique is employed here in 7. And the protagonist of this game’s subplot is an engineer—an intermediary between humanity and machines. This, too, serves to highlight the theme of humans and machines.

Now, the table shown below compiles the final enemies in past titles and what those enemies seemed to symbolize.

Title	Final Enemy	Symbolic Meaning
(Original)	Airborne Fortress	The coup d’état forces’ trump card
2	Fortress Intolerance	Coup d’état forces HQ
3	???	???
04	Megalith	Erusean remnants
5	SOLG	Belka, 15-year-old grudge
ZERO	PIXY	Denial of borders
6	Chandelier	Calamity brought by the asteroid
7	HUGIN, MUNIN, ADF-11	AI, non-human entities

What I’d especially like you to focus on is the “Symbolic Meaning” column. While entries up through 04 and 5 depicted struggles against coup d’état forces or between nations, the ultimate antagonist in ZERO was not a nation, but a faction denying the very existence of nations and borders in the first place.

In 6, Estovakia as a nation was consistently the enemy. However, that simplistic framework of poetic justice ended the moment Gracemeria was liberated. Chandelier, the target of destruction in the final mission, seemed to be portrayed less as a symbol of Estovakia and more as a symbol of the asteroid impact and all the calamities it brought forth.

“It’s time to put an end to this tragic period in our history, which has emerged as a result of the Ulysses incident.”

6-M15 Briefing

In 7, just like in 6—and even more explicitly than in 6—the framework of conflict between nations comes to an end in Mission 17. With the disruption of communication networks, the framework of the nation-state partially dissolves, ultimately boiling down to the structure of humanity vs. AI.

Looking at it this way, it becomes clear: the major difference between the stories up to 5 and those from ZERO onward is that they don’t simply portray clear-cut good vs. evil with some particular nation cast as the villain.

“There is no easily understood good and evil in this world; from the opponent’s perspective, we might be the ‘evil’ ones. It never ends because justice is clashing against justice. Not a single adequate ethical standard exists anymore.”

…I feel like this reflects how the trend of relativization has grown stronger in society.

Longing for the Sky#

Next, let’s take up the second theme: “Longing for the Sky.”

This, too, is quite simple and clear. The Scrap Queen, Mihaly—all of this game’s major characters harbored a longing for the sky. And above all, Trigger—the avatar for us players—was also a character fated to reach for the sky.

This is symbolically demonstrated in the final mission. At the very end, in this game’s final tunnel mission, Trigger passes through the interior of the space elevator and reaches the world of Dark Blue. Because he has no spoken lines, Trigger’s personality remains unknown. However, at the very least, his pilot—namely, the player of this game—must have purchased this title harboring just such a longing.

A classic example of a character driven by a longing for the sky is Icarus, a human who obtained the power of flight with wings of wax. Yet his wings melted when he flew too close to the sun, and he plummeted. Encapsulated there are two conflicting sentiments: the desire to fly in the sky, and the realization that it cannot be attained.

Looking Back at Past Entries#

While the theme of longing for the sky is an element running consistently throughout the series, it was depicted especially clearly in 04. The quintessential example of this is 04 Mission 7, “Shattered Skies” (Sora no Kakera) [sic: Mission 08].

It is no exaggeration to say that the entire first half of 04 is structured to heighten the value of this mission. In this mission, in order to defend the launch base for a reconnaissance satellite, the player flies freely across an expansive combat airspace and gets to savor a pure, large-scale air battle.

The reputation of “Shattered Skies” seems to have reached the development team as well, and several “pure, large-scale air combat” missions attempting to recreate this experience have appeared in subsequent entries of the series.

Zero Mission 10 “Mayhem”, 6 Mission 12 “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (second half), and 7 Mission 19 “Lighthouse” (first half) are prime examples.

All of these missions share the exact same concept of “pure, large-scale air combat.”

Furthermore, to maximize this experience, each of these missions is designed to heighten the exhilaration of flying freely in the sky by placing a relatively grueling ground-attack mission immediately beforehand.

For instance, prior to Shattered Skies, there are an awful lot of ground-attack missions. On top of that, right beforehand, you are attacked by Stonehenge and forced to fly below ground level.

One frequently hears the criticism of 04 that “there are too many ground missions.” While that is certainly true, there appears to have been a clear intention behind it on the developers’ part. The designers were thinking that far ahead.

In addition, these missions all share clever devices designed to build the player up into a hero:

Mayhem
- Bestowed the moniker “Demon Lord of the Round Table”
Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Allies rush in in droves to support you
- Use of Gracemeria’s leitmotif (reprise of M1: Invasion of Gracemeria)
Lighthouse
- Various touches, from radio chatter to the overall situation
- Use of Trigger’s leitmotif (reprise of M1: Charge Assault)

However, if asked whether they succeeded in recreating the experience of Shattered Skies, there was one more thing present in Lighthouse that was missing in Mayhem and Weapons of Mass Destruction. I will explain this shortly.

Trigger’s Heroic Tale#

And finally, let’s take up the theme of “Trigger’s Heroic Tale.”

Retrospective on Past Entries#

Allowing the player to feel the exhilaration of being built up into a hero is the single greatest defining feature of the Ace Combat series. This tradition has been consciously pursued at least since 04, when the in-flight radio chatter system matured.

That “ace pilot feeling” is created by gameplay where you fly and fight freely, and a story where you gradually become a hero.

“Sharing the Kind of Story We Want to Make: Narrative Production Techniques in Ace Combat 7”

In 5, the player was directly made into a hero in the mythological sense. The three-act legend of the Demon of Razgriz blatantly embodies the “Hero’s Journey” structure, in which a hero falls from the ordinary world into the realm of the dead, only to achieve resurrection and attain completeness as a hero. The protagonists complete this journey by retracing this legend.

When history witnesses a great change,

Razgriz reveals itself…

first, as a dark demon.

As a demon, it uses its power to rain death upon the land—

and then it dies.

However, after a period of slumber—

Razgriz returns,

this time, as a great hero.

The lyrics to “The Journey Home,” the theme song of 5, also reflect this Hero’s Journey structure of journeying from the ordinary world of earth to the celestial realm above, and bringing the elixir obtained there back down to earth.

From above I can see from the heavens, down below I see the storm rages on

And somewhere in the answer, there is a hope to carry on

When I finally return, things that I learn carry me back to home

The thoughts that I feed

Planting a seed

With time will begin to grow

The protagonist’s story in ZERO is likened to Arthurian legend. This is a tale often cited as a quintessential heroic epic.

As this retrospective shows, an underlying theme runs throughout this series: building the player up into a hero. To achieve this, it has an established track record of deftly incorporating mythological motifs. The reason I concluded that 7’s story is the greatest in the history of the series is because I found its execution on this front to be magnificent.

The Approach in 7#

No one would dispute that Trigger’s story is a classic Hero’s Journey. But there appear to be two “journeys” coexisting here.

The first journey is his journey as a hero of the war against Erusea.

He falls from the ordinary world of the IUN [sic: typed INU in original] into the extraordinary world of the Spare Squadron (penal unit), but along the Road of Trials, he obtains an elixir in the form of a gap in the air defense network, returning to the ordinary world of the LRSSG. Using that elixir, he captures Farbanti and brings the war to a successful conclusion.

AWACS Long Caster

<<You did really well out there.

This is sure to bring an end to the war. You’ll be heroes.>>

*Radio transmission upon achieving the target score

With the capture of Farbanti, Trigger achieves completeness as a hero of the war against Erusea. Even if the game had ended and the story concluded right here, this heroism would remain unassailable.

However, that is not what happened. The series’ signature deceptive cadence exploded into play, and another heroic epic came to the surface: that of a hero in the war against the “non-human.”

And this heroism is reinforced by diverse motifs, taking on a purer mythological dimension. Among them, the most symbolic is the International Space Elevator, depicted as the axis mundi (world axis).

The Space Elevator as the Axis Mundi#

What is the axis mundi? I touched on it briefly in a previous video, but let’s dig a little deeper.

Since ancient times, humanity conceived of this world as a “rotating disc.” Naturally, at the center of the disc is an axis of rotation, pierced by an axis perpendicular to the disc. The axis is connected to the heavens, drawing the energy that rotates the world from the celestial realm above.

This is the universal human understanding of “how this world works,” etched into human genetics for over 10,000 years. And the marvelous thing about the axis mundi system is that it appears to be a concept shared across all humanity, East and West alike.

For example, the axis was interpreted as “Mount Kunlun” or “Mount Atlas,” and the energy flowing from it as the “Yellow River” or the “Nile.”

Originating from this premise, countless stories came to be born. Let’s list various implementations of the axis across time and space:

Zhang Qian headed toward the source of the Yellow River and, passing through Mount Kunlun, reached the celestial realm where the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd reside.

It is said that when Zhang Qian returned to earth, a new star was shining in the night sky.

This Chinese historical anecdote is said to date around 140 BC, but intriguingly, records show that in Rome, too, a nova was observed in Scorpius in 134 BC.

Heracles went to Atlas and obtained the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides (≒ Garden of Eden).
A certain emperor burned the elixir of immortality atop a mountain in Suruga, sending smoke rising all the way to the moon.
A certain sailor reached a paradise existing on the reverse side of the Earth’s surface where we live, through a great hole at the North Pole.

Once the flat Earth theory was debunked, humanity began seeking the “celestial world” in another unknowable realm: the underground. In other words, this was the birth of the Hollow Earth theory, comprised of a paradise existing on the other side of the Earth and a giant hole at the North Pole leading there.

Vertical movement is equivalent to traveling to an alternate realm.

A certain scientist attempted to imitate God’s work of creating human beings in a small garret on the top floor.
A certain man discovered that the vengeful spirit spreading death among people on the surface originated from a corpse dumped at the bottom of a well.
A certain urban legend claims that you can travel to an alternate world by riding an elevator up and down in a specific sequence of steps.

……

Even in the 21st century, this worldview that has persisted for over 10,000 years remains unshaken.

In stories revolving around an axis, the hero’s goal is generally “reaching the axis” and “establishing / normalizing the axis.”

Since the axis is a path leading to paradise, aiming for the axis is only natural. Furthermore, because this world endures thanks to the energy supplied by the axis, if the axis is not plugged into an appropriate otherworld, a crisis befalls the world due to energy exhaustion or the inflow of undesirable energy.

Let’s look at more examples of the latter:

A certain human fell through a mountain connecting the surface and the underground into the world of monsters. At the end of the story, she breaks the mountain’s barrier, normalizing the axis connecting the two worlds.
Yet another human awakens in the world of beasts due to energy released by a volcano. At the end of the story, she restores the volcano’s filter, normalizing the axis connecting the two worlds.

The motif of “establishing an axis” frequently appears in the real world as well:

In the 1960s, there was a competition to construct an axis to send humanity from Earth to an alternate world.
A certain axis was built on a site that had been a cape since antiquity. The axis draws spiritual energy from the higan (the other shore / realm of the dead) and diffuses it across the entire Kanto region as radio waves.

Land jutting out into the sea is the front line between the other shore and this shore, and this axis is the bridge connecting them.

A certain axis was built on a peninsula. This axis is equipped with a solar power generation system, supplying colossal electrical energy to the surface. As the world’s tallest transmission tower, it possesses the capability to broadcast information across the entire continent.

Of course, this final axis I introduced is the International Space Elevator. And with that, we’ve finally returned to Ace Combat 7. Trigger’s second heroic quality is tied precisely to this axis.

Trigger is the hero who normalizes the axis mundi.

This is the heroic epic that touches the true core of this game, revealed by centering our thinking on the concept of the axis mundi.

What was present in Shattered Skies and Lighthouse, but missing in Mayhem and Weapons of Mass Destruction as mentioned in the previous section, is also this axis mundi motif.

In terms of establishing an axis, missions closer to the experience of Shattered Skies would include 5 Mission 6 “White Bird (Part 1)”, ZERO Mission 18 “ZERO”, and 7 Mission 13 “Bunker Buster”. Shattered Skies and White Bird are stories of establishing an axis mundi, while ZERO and Bunker Buster are stories of stopping the enemy from establishing their own axis mundi.

Summary of Trigger’s Heroic Tale#

So, Trigger’s heroic epic as humanity’s representative comes out to something like this:

Plugged into somewhere other than paradise during the war, the axis threatens to broadcast anomalous energy into the world. Having prevailed in the struggle against the non-human entities and normalized the axis so that it connects to an appropriate otherworld, Trigger passes through the axis and vanishes into the celestial world of Dark Blue.

The normalization of the axis, and sublimation into the celestial world through it.

This is the core experience of this game. Both the Scrap Queen’s story presented at the beginning of the game and the controls the player executes at the end of the game clearly manifest this theme.

Along the axis normalized by Trigger, blessings from the otherworld immediately begin to arrive. Pilgrim means a traveler on a pilgrimage. Around a religious axis, pilgrims gather from across the world.

Conclusion#

And so, I analyzed the story of Ace Combat 7 from three perspectives: “Human vs. Machine (AI),” “Longing for the Sky,” and “Trigger’s Heroic Tale.” These elements are not independent; they are deftly woven together, magnificently constructing a gestalt of this work’s experience.

In this video [script], I focused solely on the “narrative.” And even within that narrative, I haven’t been able to speak sufficiently about characters other than Trigger. I have still only touched the barest surface of the elements that make up this game’s appeal.

If I was able to offer a new way to enjoy this title to those who love it, or if I could convey the brilliance of this game to those who haven’t played it yet, I could not be happier.

Nevertheless—and here is a great key to the understanding of myth and symbol—the two kingdoms are one. The realm of the gods is a forgotten dimension of the world we know.

Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces