How is the progression in this game?

I’ve spent very little time with the Ace Combat series and thinking about picking up 7.

Howlongtobeat says it’s about 15 hours long but I’m wondering, are the missions varied? Different strategies to deploy? Is it more about the story? Really, idk shit about AC so any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

There’s a decent amount of progression. There’s an Aircraft Tree that lets you use credits you earned based on your performance on a previous mission to buy new weapons or items to attach to your jets as well as buy new jets. These purchases open up different paths for you to purchase more items and aircraft. The missions are pretty varied too as some range from dogfights to earning a specific score based on how many aircraft/bases you destroy and even one where you’re fighting in a lightning storm and you need to avoid the lightning or else your radar temporarily goes out. You really get more about the story in the cutscenes and it’s a bit weird at first because the cutscenes focus on characters you don’t see Within in-game missions until way later in the game (expect for one character that you see in mission 7) but the story comes along really nicely in the end and you start seeing why the war started and what specific people behind the scenes are trying to achieve. I certainly recommend it. It’s a fantastic game for even newcomers since I never played an Ace Combat game until this one.

@mocbucket62: Cool thx! Good to know from someone that was new to the series. Picked it up!

I came into the series at 6 and it unfolds in much the same way, i'm basically repeating MocBucket62 but the missions explore pretty much everything you can feasibly do with a jet, as there's only a handful of things you can do with a jet you'll start to have similar objectives between missions but they do a good job of mixing it up with environments and special objectives/dog fights.
There's loads of jets and weapons to unlock, but i found there's not a huuuge difference between the jets of each category, some are slow but carry a lot of ammo, some are more nimble, but it comes down to personal preference which you like the most rather than stats (i like the Rafale), but that actually makes it quite fun to try them all because you aren't just picking the one with the best stats.
One last thing, by the end of the game i still had a fair few jets to unlock, so in a year or so when i want to play again i'll still have the upper tier stuff still left to try.

@cikame: ok thx! Picked it up!