Ace Combat 8 Wings of Theve - Coping as Techbros Ruin Everything

I'm glad I did my Ace Combat catch-up tour in preparation for 8, because it sure is making a lot of call-backs. Consequently, this post will speak freely about spoilers for 3: Electrosphere, 04: Shattered Skies, 5: The Unsung War, Zero: The Belkan War, and 7: Skies Unknown. I have unfortunately been unable to play 6: Fires of Liberation because it still has somewhat janky emulation and I refuse to play the LLM-coded recomp. Which is not to say this game wouldn't be enjoyable if you've never played Ace Combat. If you're interested, I absolutely recommend it even as a first game! This is just to say that 8 is hugely informed by its place in the series. 7 was a pretty blatant greatest hits tour, and 8 is somehow even moreso, which seems weird to note as a positive, but hear me out. 7 was the first Ace Combat game in years that took place in the series' secondary setting, the Strangereal. It had a troubled development and narrowly avoided cancellation multiple times, so it was kind of up…