Tasha Severskaya is Joker Flight No. 3 and a former Zvezda star in ACE COMBAT 8. See her backstory, voice actresses Emi Lo and Chika Anzai and her costume.
Ace Combat 8 Tasha Severskaya: From Zvezda Star to Joker No. 3
Quick answer: Tasha Severskaya flies as Joker No. 3 aboard the carrier Endurance, an ensign who used to be the star pilot of Yuktobania's Zvezda aerobatic team before the war stranded her on the ship. She is voiced by Emi Lo in English and Chika Anzai in Japanese. The development team described her as the most expensive character to design in the game, a claim reported by press on September 9, 2026.
This page is written on September 27, 2026, five days before launch. Everything below comes from the official character pages, the Bandai Namco Asia voice cast announcement as relayed by press, and clearly labeled press reporting where the source is an outlet rather than the publisher.
Who Tasha Severskaya Is
Tasha holds the three slot in Joker Flight and carries the rank of ensign. Her background is the reason she stands out: she was a star pilot of Zvezda, Yuktobania's aerobatic display team, so her record before the war is precision show flying rather than combat hours.
When Sotoa invaded the Federation of Central Usea in July 2029, Tasha was aboard the Endurance shooting promotional footage. She stayed with the ship when the shooting stopped and ended up in Joker Flight, so her first combat sorties are a long way from an air show routine. The official character pages present her as a display-team ace stepping into a war, not as a veteran of earlier campaigns.
That contrast drives her arc. Press reviews singled her out as one of the emotional high points of the campaign, with Polygon's roundup noting that her story confronts the cost of her pacifism. Treat that as press reported, since it comes from reviewers rather than Bandai Namco.
The Name Spelling: Severskaya Versus SeverSkya
Search results show both spellings, and the inconsistency is official rather than a typo someone invented. The US official character page renders her name as "TASHA SEVERSKYA", while the EU character page and the PlayStation Blog use Severskaya.
This site uses Severskaya throughout, matching the EU page and the blog. If you are searching for her, try both strings — "Ace Combat 8 Tasha" and "Severskaya" turn up the same character, and the variant spelling is not a second person. The same page also lists her under the Joker Flight section, so the US character roster and the EU one describe the same ensign.
Official source: Bandai Namco EU character page for Tasha
Tasha's Voice Actresses
Tasha has full voice acting in both supported languages, and her cast announcement was one of the bigger pre-launch character news items.
| Language | Voice actress |
|---|---|
| English | Emi Lo |
| Japanese | Chika Anzai |
Both names come from the Bandai Namco Asia voice cast announcement, which outlets such as Automaton and The KON Network relayed alongside the character profiles. The pairing is easy to remember once you have heard either performance, and it is the reason language choice is a genuine decision for this character rather than a wash. Press also came back to Tasha with a dedicated follow-up piece during the preview window, so her name appears in coverage separately from the general cast reveal.
The rest of the eight-person cast, from Kenjiro Tsuda as Jan Cope to Yuko Sanpei as Adelina Santos, is on the characters and cast page.
ACE COMBAT 8 ships thirteen languages, but only English and Japanese carry full audio. If you want Chika Anzai's performance you have to run the game in Japanese; the other eleven languages get subtitles and interface text only.
The Most Expensive Character in the Game
The development team described Tasha as the most expensive character to design in ACE COMBAT 8. That claim was reported by IGN on September 9, 2026, so it is press reported rather than a figure Bandai Namco published — no budget number was ever attached to it.
It lines up with the coverage around her. Press called her a fan favorite during the preview window, reviewers singled out her arc as one of the campaign's emotional high points, and she carried most of the character marketing before launch. No budget figure was ever attached to the claim, so the honest reading is that the team invested heavily in her rather than that a specific number exists.
Tasha and the Deluxe Edition
The Deluxe Edition includes a Tasha Costume Set, and the fine print matters: the costume is usable in online mode only, so it does not change her appearance in the campaign. Alongside it sit three other cosmetics — an F-4E Mobius Squadron livery, an F/A-18C Team Zvezda livery that nods to her aerobatic team, and Scarlet Missile Smoke.
Deluxe also brings the three-day early access window that opens on September 28, 2026 at 15:00 PDT, plus a PREMIUM ACE PASS PLUS voucher with thirty tier skips. The full price breakdown sits on the editions and price page.
How She Fits the Rest of the Roster
Tasha sits inside a flight of very different people. Jan Cope is the leader whose manufactured legend the story inherits, Ellington Baxter is the former lecturer she calls Teach, and William Coster is the only wingman who can stay with her through the hardest maneuvers — his callsign in the flight is Noise. The seat the story hands you is the one Cope left: the silent pilot who takes over under the Wings of Theve callsign.
On the ship side, Jessica Pike runs the Endurance as executive officer and Kate Evans leads Queen Flight, the carrier's other squadron, while Adelina Santos is the corpsman who will argue with the XO to protect a patient. First-person cinematics aboard the Endurance are where these relationships play out between sorties, so the flight time and the downtime are deliberately intercut.
Her story also sits at the edge of the wider fiction — the 2029 invasion, the capital under threat and the propaganda around the Wings of Theve name. The setup is summarized on the what is Ace Combat 8 page, and the live-action HOUR ZERO prequel covers the same invasion from civilian angles on its own explained page.
FAQ
Who voices Tasha in Ace Combat 8?
Emi Lo in English and Chika Anzai in Japanese. Both come from the Bandai Namco Asia voice cast announcement, and both languages ship as full audio.
What is Tasha's backstory?
She was the star pilot of Zvezda, Yuktobania's aerobatic team, and was aboard the carrier Endurance filming promotional footage when the July 2029 invasion began. She stayed with the ship and joined Joker Flight as its No. 3 ensign.
Is her name Severskaya or SeverSkya?
Both appear in official material. The US character page reads TASHA SEVERSKYA, while the EU page and PlayStation Blog use Severskaya. This site uses Severskaya.
Is Tasha the most expensive character to make?
The development team said so, as reported by press on September 9, 2026. No budget figure was published, so the statement stands as press reported rather than an official number.
Do I need the Deluxe Edition for Tasha content?
The Deluxe Edition includes a Tasha Costume Set, restricted to online mode. It is cosmetic only — Tasha herself, her story and her voice acting are part of the base game.
Does Tasha appear in HOUR ZERO?
No confirmed appearance. HOUR ZERO is a live-action prequel with its own cast of three, and no official source links it to any in-game character. That status is not yet confirmed.
Related Guides
- Ace Combat 8 Characters and Full Voice Cast — all eight named characters with both language casts.
- Ace Combat 8 Editions and Price Comparison — what the Tasha Costume Set actually ships with.
- Ace Combat 8 Hour Zero Explained — the four-episode live-action prequel and its own cast.
- What Is Ace Combat 8: Setting, Story and Release — the 2029 war her flight is fighting in.
More Ace Combat 8 Guides
ACE COMBAT 8 gameplay pairs four difficulty tiers with two control schemes and four mission types, inside a campaign press reports at 25 to 30 hours.
ACE COMBAT 8 Hour Zero is a four-episode live-action prequel, not a game chapter or DLC. See the episode schedule, the cast and what the series adds.
ACE COMBAT 8 sits at 87 on Metacritic for PS5, 86 on PC and 90 on Xbox Series X, with an 88 on OpenCritic as of September 27, 2026.
Ace Combat 8 PC requirements: Windows 11, 16 GB RAM, RTX 2060 or RX 6600 XT, hardware ray tracing and a 150 GB SSD for 1080p at 30 fps on Low.
The Ace Combat 8 PS5, Xbox Series and Steam versions launch October 2, 2026. PS5 adds Pro Enhanced support; Xbox lists 4K, HDR10 and ray tracing.
Pre-order any Ace Combat 8 edition before October 2, 2026 to get the F-14A plus Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. Here is what you get.
Steam and Xbox preload for Ace Combat 8 is not yet confirmed. PS5 preload is press reported for September 29 at about 108.672 GB.
Ace Combat 8 unlocks worldwide on October 2, 2026 at 22:00 UTC. See the release date converted to PT, ET, BST, CEST and JST.