Of all the things the Ace Combat series does well, music is among its greatest strengths. "For this project, every composer created their music after first becoming familiar with Ace Combat 8's story, world, mission design, and other key elements," says music director Mitsuhiro Kitadani. In terms of sound design, the game's sound director Ryo Watanabe talks about supporting "the main character experience" through sound. Having played the game a few months ago, one of the highlights for me was the sound design; effects like explosions and planes zooming by were extremely punchy. I'm super confident Ace Combat 8 is going to look and sound excellent when it comes in for landing on 2nd October.