The Ace Combat franchise emphasizes fast-paced action and dramatic plots with semi-realistic gameplay; for example, aircraft have flight dynamics controls and can stall, but are also able to carry dozens of missiles.

This makes large-scale interstate warfare common, and many nations field large militaries with diverse equipment, develop superweapons, train elite special forces-esque "ace" fighter squadrons, or hire mercenaries to augment their forces.

Most Ace Combat games are set after a 1999 impact event in which the asteroid "Ulysses 1994XF04", on a collision course with Earth, split into numerous fragments, some of which were destroyed by anti-asteroid weaponry but others still struck the planet, causing widespread destruction and global crises.

Another major event in the series' continuity is the 1995 "Belkan War", a World War II-esque conflict in which the advanced ultranationalist nation of Belka attempted to invade neighboring countries during an internal crisis, was repelled by an international coalition, and used nuclear weapons on their own territory to prevent a retaliatory invasion, causing their defeat and earning them global condemnation and scorn; Belkan nationalists seeking revenge for their defeat play major roles in some of the games.

A tie-in novel for Assault Horizon, Ikaros tells a story of series character Kei Nagase as she participates in the JASDF's ASF-X Shinden II fighter program.