there's often too much emphasis placed on the value of narrative that is intrinsically gamey - stories that 'can only be told within the parameters and constructs of a game'. the idea here is simple: one wants to demonstrate the value their medium can bring to the table, so naturally any stories that can 'only' exist as a game and would face extreme adaptational hurdles presents the most appealing case for games as art.
i think this line of thought is suffocating, though. leaving aside the fact that this thwarts and diminishes the potential and creativity of other mediums in adaptation, the kinds of narratives that are lauded for best-in-class video game storytelling are often entirely subservient to structure or gimmick, or engage in reflexive and banal meta exercises. what's more, i'd posit that most (maybe even all) video game narratives are only feasible within the context of video games. taking play seriously means looking for the syntax linking the abstraction of mechanics to traditional forms of storytelling and presentation and the bearing that the coalescence of the two has on emotion and thought.
all this is to say that 13 sentinels represents another homecoming for the 'stories that are beholden to complex ADV structure' genre, and that it distinguishes itself from the usual suspects with nothing but endearing and unrelenting passion for its subject matter while considering some surprisingly insightful meditations on japans relationship to the media environment its fostered since the post-war era. character interactions are really fun and they're easy to get attached to, its breezy and freeform format makes for some incredibly comfortable gaming, and yes - it takes a lot of skill to hold a narrative this ridiculously convoluted together. 13 sentinels is practically bursting at the seams, but it's pretty sharp in how it chooses to disseminate its key narrative points. i also found it refreshing in that its far more shoujo than it is shonen.
this is really more of a pulpy 3.5 than a 4 - it's pretty scuffed mechanically and even structurally. it loses a significant amount of steam in the last quarter of the game (having exhausted a lot of its appeal and doing itself no favours when the emotional resonance the final battle should have fails to land), its RTS component can be exhilirating but fails to integrate itself as essential within the ADV structure and is often unbalanced to its own detriment, and certain characters get relegated to expository mouthpieces with only the occasional bursts of charm buoying their place within the game (gouto being the primary offender here).
still, how can i argue with a game in which ultimately, the brash and youthful human spirit triumphs over the petty squabbles and needlessly labyrinthine overcomplications of adults?
i think this line of thought is suffocating, though. leaving aside the fact that this thwarts and diminishes the potential and creativity of other mediums in adaptation, the kinds of narratives that are lauded for best-in-class video game storytelling are often entirely subservient to structure or gimmick, or engage in reflexive and banal meta exercises. what's more, i'd posit that most (maybe even all) video game narratives are only feasible within the context of video games. taking play seriously means looking for the syntax linking the abstraction of mechanics to traditional forms of storytelling and presentation and the bearing that the coalescence of the two has on emotion and thought.
all this is to say that 13 sentinels represents another homecoming for the 'stories that are beholden to complex ADV structure' genre, and that it distinguishes itself from the usual suspects with nothing but endearing and unrelenting passion for its subject matter while considering some surprisingly insightful meditations on japans relationship to the media environment its fostered since the post-war era. character interactions are really fun and they're easy to get attached to, its breezy and freeform format makes for some incredibly comfortable gaming, and yes - it takes a lot of skill to hold a narrative this ridiculously convoluted together. 13 sentinels is practically bursting at the seams, but it's pretty sharp in how it chooses to disseminate its key narrative points. i also found it refreshing in that its far more shoujo than it is shonen.
this is really more of a pulpy 3.5 than a 4 - it's pretty scuffed mechanically and even structurally. it loses a significant amount of steam in the last quarter of the game (having exhausted a lot of its appeal and doing itself no favours when the emotional resonance the final battle should have fails to land), its RTS component can be exhilirating but fails to integrate itself as essential within the ADV structure and is often unbalanced to its own detriment, and certain characters get relegated to expository mouthpieces with only the occasional bursts of charm buoying their place within the game (gouto being the primary offender here).
still, how can i argue with a game in which ultimately, the brash and youthful human spirit triumphs over the petty squabbles and needlessly labyrinthine overcomplications of adults?
Listen, I was a long time Vanillaware ride-or-die fan, but even I couldnt have anticipated the narrative hydrogen bomb they were cooking up in their basement. They pulled what I could only call a “trope blitz” to craft one of the most confusing (compliment) multithreaded narratives Ive ever seen in video games - and while this came at the expense of the actual gameplay, the inoffensive RTS systems are fun enough to toy around with that I didnt mind much.
I would have maybe appreciated a format where you actually get to see the mechs tho; the very distant, sterile treatment makes combat feel very alienated from the rest of the game. Vanillawares usual cheeky depiction of women gets a lil weird here as well when most of the cast is underage (not the best look)
I would have maybe appreciated a format where you actually get to see the mechs tho; the very distant, sterile treatment makes combat feel very alienated from the rest of the game. Vanillawares usual cheeky depiction of women gets a lil weird here as well when most of the cast is underage (not the best look)
I think there's a lot of broad problems with certain parts of the ending and how the writers don't necessarily know how to write a story that doesn't end with all the characters getting paired up. There's a few points I would've liked the game to commit to or elaborate on, and some other weird writing choices here and there. Might put those problems in a rot13 comment later.
But for the most part, the experience of 13 Sentinels is really something special. A complicated web of a story that's arranged to be completely baffling for much of its runtime. It plays a number of tricks to deceive and confuse you. Much of the game's run focus on the player just utterly confused, trying to decipher all the bits and pieces and try to make it all even vaguely coherent in their heads. The real magic trick is that, by the end, the entire game makes perfect sense. All the game's spinning plates land perfectly on this immaculate dinner table its created for you to feast on. This game has some of my favorite characters of all time in it and even the characters I didn't connect with are endearing in some way. Its a truly incredible work of fiction and its a miracle it all flows as well as it does.
Even beyond all that character work, the gameplay was a delight. The real time strategy sections are crunchy little delights that reward a player's experimentation and care. I specifically want to praise the distinctions between the PS4 version and the Switch version I played. The Switch version gives each character unique attacks that weren't present in the original game. It helps differentiate your playable characters and helps encourage switching them out to see what everyone has to offer.
All these little factors combine together in one of the most overwhelmingly satisfying games I've ever played. There's a part of me that was dreading continuing because I didn't want the experience to end. I wanted to spend more time with these characters. Experience their everyday lives and conversations. After 36 hours, I wanted more. And that speaks to the incredible depth Vanillaware managed to put into this experience. One of my new favorite games of all time. What a phenomenal journey.
But for the most part, the experience of 13 Sentinels is really something special. A complicated web of a story that's arranged to be completely baffling for much of its runtime. It plays a number of tricks to deceive and confuse you. Much of the game's run focus on the player just utterly confused, trying to decipher all the bits and pieces and try to make it all even vaguely coherent in their heads. The real magic trick is that, by the end, the entire game makes perfect sense. All the game's spinning plates land perfectly on this immaculate dinner table its created for you to feast on. This game has some of my favorite characters of all time in it and even the characters I didn't connect with are endearing in some way. Its a truly incredible work of fiction and its a miracle it all flows as well as it does.
Even beyond all that character work, the gameplay was a delight. The real time strategy sections are crunchy little delights that reward a player's experimentation and care. I specifically want to praise the distinctions between the PS4 version and the Switch version I played. The Switch version gives each character unique attacks that weren't present in the original game. It helps differentiate your playable characters and helps encourage switching them out to see what everyone has to offer.
All these little factors combine together in one of the most overwhelmingly satisfying games I've ever played. There's a part of me that was dreading continuing because I didn't want the experience to end. I wanted to spend more time with these characters. Experience their everyday lives and conversations. After 36 hours, I wanted more. And that speaks to the incredible depth Vanillaware managed to put into this experience. One of my new favorite games of all time. What a phenomenal journey.
The ability to somehow cobble together a sci-fi epic juggling multiple intertwining characters dealing with time travel, parallel universes, clones AND memory loss in a constantly timeline shifting plot that doesn't absolutely fall on its face is alone worthy of 13 Sentinels price of admission. Vanillaware's propensity to indulge on its talent for crafting some of the best 2D artwork ever realized in detriment of everything else is best served in 13 Sentinels, as it presents itself as a Visual Novel above all else, putting its genre comtemporaries to shame with gloriously drawn lived in backgrounds filled with small details and movement that give life and humanity to the game's bonkers story. Why can't all VNs be like this?
Despite its singular aesthetic and universe, 13 Sentinels is a treasure trove of sci-fi influences and homages that span the entire history of cinema, literature and anime, each character presenting a familiar premise that further complicates the stakes of the overall story and increasingly entangles its web with hard to keep up concepts and twists taken from your favorite formative fiction stories like E.T., Evangelion, War of the Worlds or Total Recall, to name a very short few. This admiration and obssession allows 13 Sentinels to muse and explore our relationship with media and how it inevitably informs our perception of the future and past, serving as both as escapism and a means of making sense of the present. Media dealing with the future always says more about the present, anyways.
Fitting that 13 Sentinels' situates itself in 1985, as it stands as a reflective stage of Japan history where art and socialeconomic outlook expressed the anguishes and aftermath of post-war through the lens of modern and futuristic optimism that rejuvenated the country to the world's eyes. Being a story of human failure, where puppetmasters endlessly obssess with revisiting and rectifying the past within the confinements of their own sins and biases, hoping they can somehow influence the fate of a future that no longer belongs to them, 13 Sentinels pits its cast of young passionate characters against an already unsalvageable world where its culprits are adamant in not passing the torch to the next generation. Waking up to a world suddenly being ravaged by giant robots might feel like a infantile analog for real world issues, but you have to wonder if having your homeland suffer nuclear bombing shouldnt be just as inconceivable.
Much has been said about 13 Sentinels' divide between story and gameplay, and while I do tend to champion videogames that seamlessly intertwine both components, 13 Sentinels manages to be successful in this endeavour by allowing the choice of how you wanna build the story of its characters and recontextualize on your own the partnership that happens in its RTS matrix. Playing on Intense difficulty let's the screen be flooded with seemingly never ending enemies that sells the desperation of the characters and decimating them all with a cathartic single attack never gets old. Where it falters is not so much on its detatchment from the story, but instead in how it positions itself as the culmination of it. One of the major setpieces that acts as a Macross homage doesn't hit as hard as it should because at that point you might not yet be sure why it should even matter. Minor issues that are swept aside by the emotion and fun of it all, and considering that 13 Sentinels' "RTS game" is a tangible thing in its world with inner logical explanation needed to understand the story, it's already going above and beyond what most games do.
13 Sentinels is a mess. It's convoluted, it's overcomplicated, and it's too self indulgent. But it's also beautiful, resonant, and totally japanese. It doesn't matter if you don't understand what the song is about, as long as it was sung well.
https://i.imgur.com/D1HkWTd.png
Despite its singular aesthetic and universe, 13 Sentinels is a treasure trove of sci-fi influences and homages that span the entire history of cinema, literature and anime, each character presenting a familiar premise that further complicates the stakes of the overall story and increasingly entangles its web with hard to keep up concepts and twists taken from your favorite formative fiction stories like E.T., Evangelion, War of the Worlds or Total Recall, to name a very short few. This admiration and obssession allows 13 Sentinels to muse and explore our relationship with media and how it inevitably informs our perception of the future and past, serving as both as escapism and a means of making sense of the present. Media dealing with the future always says more about the present, anyways.
Fitting that 13 Sentinels' situates itself in 1985, as it stands as a reflective stage of Japan history where art and socialeconomic outlook expressed the anguishes and aftermath of post-war through the lens of modern and futuristic optimism that rejuvenated the country to the world's eyes. Being a story of human failure, where puppetmasters endlessly obssess with revisiting and rectifying the past within the confinements of their own sins and biases, hoping they can somehow influence the fate of a future that no longer belongs to them, 13 Sentinels pits its cast of young passionate characters against an already unsalvageable world where its culprits are adamant in not passing the torch to the next generation. Waking up to a world suddenly being ravaged by giant robots might feel like a infantile analog for real world issues, but you have to wonder if having your homeland suffer nuclear bombing shouldnt be just as inconceivable.
Much has been said about 13 Sentinels' divide between story and gameplay, and while I do tend to champion videogames that seamlessly intertwine both components, 13 Sentinels manages to be successful in this endeavour by allowing the choice of how you wanna build the story of its characters and recontextualize on your own the partnership that happens in its RTS matrix. Playing on Intense difficulty let's the screen be flooded with seemingly never ending enemies that sells the desperation of the characters and decimating them all with a cathartic single attack never gets old. Where it falters is not so much on its detatchment from the story, but instead in how it positions itself as the culmination of it. One of the major setpieces that acts as a Macross homage doesn't hit as hard as it should because at that point you might not yet be sure why it should even matter. Minor issues that are swept aside by the emotion and fun of it all, and considering that 13 Sentinels' "RTS game" is a tangible thing in its world with inner logical explanation needed to understand the story, it's already going above and beyond what most games do.
13 Sentinels is a mess. It's convoluted, it's overcomplicated, and it's too self indulgent. But it's also beautiful, resonant, and totally japanese. It doesn't matter if you don't understand what the song is about, as long as it was sung well.
https://i.imgur.com/D1HkWTd.png
Renya Goated, just wanted to bang his hot teacher and i can respect the hell out of that
I'm honestly not the biggest fan of visual novels, but this one has one of the strongest stories I've ever seen. It's a nice mix of sci-fi tropes, interesting and unique characters who all have their own perspectives and objectives, and enough twists to keep you interested at every turn. It was a blast to play through the story and piece together the plot as you learn little tidbits of information from each character's storyline. Vanillaware's signature art style and adorable character animation are a joy to watch as well, they just do not miss ever.
The only real downside of the game is the combat sections which were serviceable at best, but get pretty bland and repetitive after a while. Overall though, had a ton of fun with this game.
The only real downside of the game is the combat sections which were serviceable at best, but get pretty bland and repetitive after a while. Overall though, had a ton of fun with this game.
This review contains spoilers
I've had a couple of friends who played through 13 Sentinels and have had nothing but praise for the title, but I didn't get the chance to try it out myself for a little while, since I never owned a PS4. Finally, I took the chance and got myself a PS5, and this was one of the big reasons; it seemed like a great opportunity to catch up on some titles I never got the chance to experience. So, I decided to finally dip my toes into the game this Monday, thinking I'm just going to play this on and off on the side as a visual novel to keep me company on rainy days.
Well, that definitely didn't happen. I ended up binging the game through the entirety of Tuesday and Wednesday, staying up til 3 AM both days just to see this thriller to its end. I don't think I've felt this enthralled about such a complex, weaving narrative since my time with Virtue's Last Reward.
As the title might imply, you've got 13 protagonists to run through; 13 teenagers that somehow got caught up in this extraordinary war between mankind and kaiju. And every narrative tries to do something at least slightly different; one's a Groundhog day time loop, another one has you play as a troubled girl on the verge of a mental collapse, still another one discusses the romp of a young man wandering around an unfamiliar campus scrounging up change for yakisoba pan, and then you've also got another story where an amnesiac wakes up right beside the body of a dead woman wondering if he pulled the trigger. Each story plays out in its own unique way and you as the player often need to piece together the puzzle to progress, in a way that's thought provoking but not abstruse like early adventure games. And that's just 4 out of the 13 different threads that this game spins in its complex yarn of a tale; think of it as 13 different non linear tunnels intersecting one another at different junctions across a sprawling underground, eventually culminating at a center hollow. You don't have to experience each one individually at a time and in fact you can't do that, because this story hinges upon the interactions of these character's backstories and struggles and understanding one character's backstory is crucial to understanding not just other character backstories, but the overall picture as it is painted on the canvas. Somehow, Vanillaware ran us through 13 different stories with different structures, and somehow, all 13 stories are executed with so much care and with fairly distinct and personable protagonists. It's like if 428: Shibuya Scramble were a sci-fi flick alongside its central thriller narrative.
Oh, and there are a lot of twists and turns that will keep you on your toes. They're executed and explained so damn well despite all the jargon that inevitably comes with a sci-fi setting, and I honestly couldn't think of any major plotholes that come to mind. It's genuinely some of the best writing that I've seen in a video game yet manages to pull this off in a way that only a video game can execute. In other words, it makes some of the other games advertised with "strong writing" look like fanfiction.net; I really haven't been this impressed by video game narratives in a long time.
There's a real time tactical RPG side to 13 Sentinels too, with tons of customizable options and varied enemies. It's pretty easy to cheese at normal difficulty (sentry guns go brrrrr) but it's definitely entertaining enough to hold your attention as the tying down point of the whole game, with some good banter between your sentinel pilots to remind you that the characters are very much alive and well. Not ground breaking by any means but it gets the job done.
Regardless, 13 Sentinels was absolute crack in video game form and I have not been this enraptured by the medium ever since playing Shadow of the Colossus last Christmas Eve. I've been meaning to explore some of the classics of the late 1990s and 2000s to improve my overall literacy of the old gaming staples, but it's always good to know that gaming remains in good hands in the modern era with titles like 13 Sentinels, a genuine breath of fresh air despite being a love letter to so many video game and narrative tropes I know and love. I eagerly await Vanillaware's next work if this is the level of quality I can expect in the future, and I'll make another mental jot to get to Odin Sphere this year after having my mind constantly blown by this modern masterpiece.
Well, that definitely didn't happen. I ended up binging the game through the entirety of Tuesday and Wednesday, staying up til 3 AM both days just to see this thriller to its end. I don't think I've felt this enthralled about such a complex, weaving narrative since my time with Virtue's Last Reward.
As the title might imply, you've got 13 protagonists to run through; 13 teenagers that somehow got caught up in this extraordinary war between mankind and kaiju. And every narrative tries to do something at least slightly different; one's a Groundhog day time loop, another one has you play as a troubled girl on the verge of a mental collapse, still another one discusses the romp of a young man wandering around an unfamiliar campus scrounging up change for yakisoba pan, and then you've also got another story where an amnesiac wakes up right beside the body of a dead woman wondering if he pulled the trigger. Each story plays out in its own unique way and you as the player often need to piece together the puzzle to progress, in a way that's thought provoking but not abstruse like early adventure games. And that's just 4 out of the 13 different threads that this game spins in its complex yarn of a tale; think of it as 13 different non linear tunnels intersecting one another at different junctions across a sprawling underground, eventually culminating at a center hollow. You don't have to experience each one individually at a time and in fact you can't do that, because this story hinges upon the interactions of these character's backstories and struggles and understanding one character's backstory is crucial to understanding not just other character backstories, but the overall picture as it is painted on the canvas. Somehow, Vanillaware ran us through 13 different stories with different structures, and somehow, all 13 stories are executed with so much care and with fairly distinct and personable protagonists. It's like if 428: Shibuya Scramble were a sci-fi flick alongside its central thriller narrative.
Oh, and there are a lot of twists and turns that will keep you on your toes. They're executed and explained so damn well despite all the jargon that inevitably comes with a sci-fi setting, and I honestly couldn't think of any major plotholes that come to mind. It's genuinely some of the best writing that I've seen in a video game yet manages to pull this off in a way that only a video game can execute. In other words, it makes some of the other games advertised with "strong writing" look like fanfiction.net; I really haven't been this impressed by video game narratives in a long time.
There's a real time tactical RPG side to 13 Sentinels too, with tons of customizable options and varied enemies. It's pretty easy to cheese at normal difficulty (sentry guns go brrrrr) but it's definitely entertaining enough to hold your attention as the tying down point of the whole game, with some good banter between your sentinel pilots to remind you that the characters are very much alive and well. Not ground breaking by any means but it gets the job done.
Regardless, 13 Sentinels was absolute crack in video game form and I have not been this enraptured by the medium ever since playing Shadow of the Colossus last Christmas Eve. I've been meaning to explore some of the classics of the late 1990s and 2000s to improve my overall literacy of the old gaming staples, but it's always good to know that gaming remains in good hands in the modern era with titles like 13 Sentinels, a genuine breath of fresh air despite being a love letter to so many video game and narrative tropes I know and love. I eagerly await Vanillaware's next work if this is the level of quality I can expect in the future, and I'll make another mental jot to get to Odin Sphere this year after having my mind constantly blown by this modern masterpiece.
Like listening to a friend who's gone on a huge binge of sci fi media of the last 40 years talk about the stories in bits and pieces while cycling through them. The infectious love of the tropes is preserved, as is the solid, pure block of plot, without any of the character or purpose.
One of the greatest scenarios I have seen in a game. Filled with amazing characters, gorgeous artwork, banger music and great gameplay that has mechas (an instant plus). Best game on the Ps4 and Goty of 2019. Do yourself a favor and play this underrated masterpiece.
Celebrating science fiction
A journey into the realm of science fiction and Japanese media, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim manages an expansive and grand narrative rarely seen in the realm of video gaming as it is. It's almost experimental in how open the format is for how much layers each character and the overall story in that you can choose how to progress through it. Some confusion will be warranted but it will all come together in the end not to mention everything else about this game is great for what it is.
The narrative and the characters that drive Vanillaware's epic are the star and show of the whole experience. It's what you're going to be mostly buying or playing this game for and I'm happy to say it has met and exceeded my very high expectations. There's a lot of intrigue and character development here and each time you play Remembrance (which is the narrative 2D adventure mode) and even some in Destruction (The strategy gameplay mode). Each segment will provide a piece of the puzzle and new context to each person's story and saying more than that will be a disservice to yourself.
The gameplay is something I can go into a little more depth in here. Remembrance is the meat of the experience is comprises of the usage of keywords to advance the plot or get information from certain characters. Destruction on the other hand is a bit more than that in terms of what you'll be able to do. As the title of the game dictates, you'll have thirteen units to customize and upgrade in whatever fashion you want within the realms of their generational abilities. An example is one generation being better at range and vice versa. The depth of customization isn't huge but it's enough that you won't feel bored with the mode here. Some units share move sets but some units only get access to very specific abilities so whichever you want to use is up to you. The actual gameplay loop for Destruction consist of a wave defense style where you have to either defend a terminal for a set amount of time or defeat all of the enemies and it rarely changes in objectives sadly. I will say though later on, enemies will completely hoard the mode and using abilities that completely destroy a portion of the map in an special effects explosion is pretty satisfying. There is a chain score mechanic in which if you're going for a high score you can albeit with the mechanic of brain overload that prevents you from overusing pilots so if you're someone that likes to go for that, keep everyone balanced. Analysis technically serves as the third mode in the general experience but it's more of just information and previous events you can view along with using the mystery points you get from playing the game to unlock more explanation on specifics.
The art design is definitely something to be praised here. The character designs and the backgrounds look amazing especially on the OLED Switch screen from how I experienced it. The way the game even does lighting is amazing or how it manages to do shadows in the background that I sometimes forget it's even a two dimensional game sometimes.
The soundtrack for the game is great honestly as it mostly revolves around calming music during Remembrance and high energy electronica during the fighting segments such as this banger but we all know what the best track truly is and it's this.
If you're a fan of the genre of science fiction, you owe it to yourself to play this game. Vanillaware manages to create one of the most ambitious narratives and deploys so many threads that eventually pay off that it's almost surprising to say the least. A Japanese love letter to the genre.
A journey into the realm of science fiction and Japanese media, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim manages an expansive and grand narrative rarely seen in the realm of video gaming as it is. It's almost experimental in how open the format is for how much layers each character and the overall story in that you can choose how to progress through it. Some confusion will be warranted but it will all come together in the end not to mention everything else about this game is great for what it is.
The narrative and the characters that drive Vanillaware's epic are the star and show of the whole experience. It's what you're going to be mostly buying or playing this game for and I'm happy to say it has met and exceeded my very high expectations. There's a lot of intrigue and character development here and each time you play Remembrance (which is the narrative 2D adventure mode) and even some in Destruction (The strategy gameplay mode). Each segment will provide a piece of the puzzle and new context to each person's story and saying more than that will be a disservice to yourself.
The gameplay is something I can go into a little more depth in here. Remembrance is the meat of the experience is comprises of the usage of keywords to advance the plot or get information from certain characters. Destruction on the other hand is a bit more than that in terms of what you'll be able to do. As the title of the game dictates, you'll have thirteen units to customize and upgrade in whatever fashion you want within the realms of their generational abilities. An example is one generation being better at range and vice versa. The depth of customization isn't huge but it's enough that you won't feel bored with the mode here. Some units share move sets but some units only get access to very specific abilities so whichever you want to use is up to you. The actual gameplay loop for Destruction consist of a wave defense style where you have to either defend a terminal for a set amount of time or defeat all of the enemies and it rarely changes in objectives sadly. I will say though later on, enemies will completely hoard the mode and using abilities that completely destroy a portion of the map in an special effects explosion is pretty satisfying. There is a chain score mechanic in which if you're going for a high score you can albeit with the mechanic of brain overload that prevents you from overusing pilots so if you're someone that likes to go for that, keep everyone balanced. Analysis technically serves as the third mode in the general experience but it's more of just information and previous events you can view along with using the mystery points you get from playing the game to unlock more explanation on specifics.
The art design is definitely something to be praised here. The character designs and the backgrounds look amazing especially on the OLED Switch screen from how I experienced it. The way the game even does lighting is amazing or how it manages to do shadows in the background that I sometimes forget it's even a two dimensional game sometimes.
The soundtrack for the game is great honestly as it mostly revolves around calming music during Remembrance and high energy electronica during the fighting segments such as this banger but we all know what the best track truly is and it's this.
If you're a fan of the genre of science fiction, you owe it to yourself to play this game. Vanillaware manages to create one of the most ambitious narratives and deploys so many threads that eventually pay off that it's almost surprising to say the least. A Japanese love letter to the genre.
Have you ever played a game which catered to your tastes so specifically that it was almost suspicious? Like the developers had been spying on you, and made the weird mashup game that you had always wanted? That’s what this game is for me. Of the couple game ideas I’ve dreamt about, one of them would be heavily centered around customizing mechs. I love the mecha aesthetic, and the idea of tooling up futuristic weaponry to suit your style really resonates with me. I also love the less serious side of scifi, from pulp stories like Terminator to heartfelt looks to the future like Star Trek. For a game to come out that’s those two things smashed together, I was going to love it regardless of any inelegancies. And really, inelegance is what defines Aegis Rim. The real-time, top-down, and abstracted mecha combat is so far removed from the sidescrolling visual novel it’s attached to that it feels like two unrelated games were just glued together. Not only that, but each of the two games will occasionally block each other until you’ve made a certain amount of progress, and each of the thirteen protagonist stories can even block each other in the same way. If you don’t absolutely adore both the pulpy sci-fi narrative and the mecha combat, this clunky pacing will make you lose patience before the end of its thirty-hour runtime. However, I just can’t escape that this game unapologetically caters to a niche I love. It’s so full of twists and crazy reveals that it feels like a love letter to every piece of pop sci-fi made since 1954. The characters are all lovable and relatable, and I appreciate how their mechs have unique equipment sets to reflect their personalities. I love blasting kaiju with so many rockets that the PS4 struggles to handle all the explosions, with punchy sound design putting it over the top. It also has some notable features and polishes that I really appreciate, like automatically organizing a timeline of story events by character, and having a countless amount of postgame levels for people like me who are always looking to smash stuff with mechs. While I recognize its flaws, they’re the kind I’m able to forgive for an unapologetic celebration of my personal niche. It’s a bit like a Main Battery Heavy Railgun, in that for anyone outside the direct target audience, it will probably whiff completely, but for people like me, it hits hard.
10 Yakisoba Pans out of 10!!!
Vanillaware's greatest accomplishment by a landslide. Hyper-ambitious, utterly indulgent, and convoluted as all fuck, but miraculously never buckles under the weight of its own intricacies. 13 Sentinels pulses with a sense of delirious vitality and freewheeling passion that is so so rare in games with this level of production value and craft. 13S' disarmingly dense story construction feels a bit like the tangled web of plot complexity in the Kingdom Hearts series, but it actually uses those twists in service to its own emotionally resonant characters and conceptual intentions (instead of rendering everyone a charmless exposition machine giving you truly insane loredumps that ultimately dont impart anything that meaningful). The nonlinear, fragmented story delivery is filled with literally hundreds of galaxy-brain twists and turns and occupies dozens of genres at once; different character narratives make up an amalgam of pastiches including Evangelion, Perfect Blue, Macross, Sukeban Deka, Madoka Magica, Barefoot Gen, and more... and it all feels TOTALLY fitting in a game that's clearly a meditation on the experience of coming of age while awash in Japanese history and cultural memory--without a lens of pure nostalgia and nationalism. There's real nuance to the game's exploration of Showa Era Japan's wartime suffering/shame and its eventual globalized cultural/industrial recovery here, and I felt this deeply even from my semi-clueless outsider perspective. It's actual thought provoking stuff that the nonlinearity totally works in service to, and also happens to be an extremely well-crafted and fresh style of story delivery for its' own sake.
Much has been said about the gorgeous illustrative art within the Remembrance portion of the game, and I could gush about it for years (PLEASE MORE PUPPET JOINTED/PERSPECTIVE WARP 2D ANIMATION IN GAMES I LOVE IT) but I feel like the Destruction segments are being a tad undervalued! They're extremely snappy and fun (especially if you play on Intense, which is totally surmountable for average players like me but raises the strategizing requirements considerably). I've seen a lot of responses lamenting that Destruction doesn't share the vivid, illustrative style of the Remembrance segments and can see why people might think that from the trailers, but I totally disagree after experiencing the game. The depersonalized, infographic-style representation of truly harrowing, wide-scale mech carnage feels like a very conscious and effective creative choice to contrast with the intimate and sentimental visual novel sequences. Both visual styles absolutely work in harmony with one another, and the juxtaposition only serves to strengthen them. The combat music is some of the best shit EVER too, who needs fully illustrated mechs when the bops are this massive
Also, I was totally blindsided by the FUN AS HELL queer stuff in this game! It's definitely not "perfect", but said romance is so charming and allows its complicated, lovable characters to be confused, flirty, devious and loyal in ways that few other games do. While there IS some (funny!) humor surrounding one character's klutzy and confused queerness, same-sex attraction itself is never treated as an absurd joke, only validated: the joke is that said character is too bone-headed to admit to himself what's plainly obvious (and beautiful!!!).
anyway I lub dis gaem you should play it it's v special and a truly rare experience. Props to Vanillaware and thank you for toning down most of your skeevy fanservice to a degree where I'm not irritated by it constantly
Vanillaware's greatest accomplishment by a landslide. Hyper-ambitious, utterly indulgent, and convoluted as all fuck, but miraculously never buckles under the weight of its own intricacies. 13 Sentinels pulses with a sense of delirious vitality and freewheeling passion that is so so rare in games with this level of production value and craft. 13S' disarmingly dense story construction feels a bit like the tangled web of plot complexity in the Kingdom Hearts series, but it actually uses those twists in service to its own emotionally resonant characters and conceptual intentions (instead of rendering everyone a charmless exposition machine giving you truly insane loredumps that ultimately dont impart anything that meaningful). The nonlinear, fragmented story delivery is filled with literally hundreds of galaxy-brain twists and turns and occupies dozens of genres at once; different character narratives make up an amalgam of pastiches including Evangelion, Perfect Blue, Macross, Sukeban Deka, Madoka Magica, Barefoot Gen, and more... and it all feels TOTALLY fitting in a game that's clearly a meditation on the experience of coming of age while awash in Japanese history and cultural memory--without a lens of pure nostalgia and nationalism. There's real nuance to the game's exploration of Showa Era Japan's wartime suffering/shame and its eventual globalized cultural/industrial recovery here, and I felt this deeply even from my semi-clueless outsider perspective. It's actual thought provoking stuff that the nonlinearity totally works in service to, and also happens to be an extremely well-crafted and fresh style of story delivery for its' own sake.
Much has been said about the gorgeous illustrative art within the Remembrance portion of the game, and I could gush about it for years (PLEASE MORE PUPPET JOINTED/PERSPECTIVE WARP 2D ANIMATION IN GAMES I LOVE IT) but I feel like the Destruction segments are being a tad undervalued! They're extremely snappy and fun (especially if you play on Intense, which is totally surmountable for average players like me but raises the strategizing requirements considerably). I've seen a lot of responses lamenting that Destruction doesn't share the vivid, illustrative style of the Remembrance segments and can see why people might think that from the trailers, but I totally disagree after experiencing the game. The depersonalized, infographic-style representation of truly harrowing, wide-scale mech carnage feels like a very conscious and effective creative choice to contrast with the intimate and sentimental visual novel sequences. Both visual styles absolutely work in harmony with one another, and the juxtaposition only serves to strengthen them. The combat music is some of the best shit EVER too, who needs fully illustrated mechs when the bops are this massive
Also, I was totally blindsided by the FUN AS HELL queer stuff in this game! It's definitely not "perfect", but said romance is so charming and allows its complicated, lovable characters to be confused, flirty, devious and loyal in ways that few other games do. While there IS some (funny!) humor surrounding one character's klutzy and confused queerness, same-sex attraction itself is never treated as an absurd joke, only validated: the joke is that said character is too bone-headed to admit to himself what's plainly obvious (and beautiful!!!).
anyway I lub dis gaem you should play it it's v special and a truly rare experience. Props to Vanillaware and thank you for toning down most of your skeevy fanservice to a degree where I'm not irritated by it constantly
This is a simply fantastic sci-fi mecha story, filled with lovable, developed characters, time travel shenanigans, and rad RTS style mecha battles, all with that signature Vanillaware artstyle that makes it both pop, and makes it feel nostalgic. Definitely check this one out.
Right from the start, 13 Sentinels sucked me in with its intriguing concept and gorgeous artstyle and it didn’t let me go until I fully experienced all that it had to offer. I got this game during the pandemic when I saw that it was highly recommended by Masahiro Sakurai and Yoko Taro, but I let it sit on my shelf for three years until I finally played it, and I very much regret not playing it sooner.
13 Sentinels’ gameplay is divided into two different genres: half of it is an adventure game starring 13 different protagonists, each with their own narratives with multiple branches that eventually come together to form a single mindbending plot. The other half is a real time strategy game, where the protagonists pilot giant mechs as they defend their home from hordes of invaders. Admittedly, I don’t think that 13 Sentinels does anything better than titles from either genre, but it’s this blend of the two as well as the outstanding quality of its narrative as a whole that makes this game well worth playing.
As I’ve said repeatedly, the narrative of the adventure game half is incredible. However, as an adventure game itself, it’s solid, but by the books. Your “inventory” consists of plot points and objects that you can bring up during conversations or specific events, but the game makes it pretty clear what you’re supposed to use and when. There aren’t really any puzzles in this mode, though for some protagonists, you do need to figure out a specific set of steps in order to trigger a different branch of their story, otherwise you’ll end up repeating branches over and over. Some of these steps can be very obtuse, and I had to look a few of them up, but I didn’t have to do it very frequently and was generally able to figure out how to progress the story on my own. What it lacks in mechanical complexity, it very much makes up for in the complexity and quality of the narrative. I can’t stress enough how good it is. It might be difficult to follow at points due to the terminology of the game and the fact that events aren’t presented in chronological order, but there’s an in-game appendix that you can refer to that does a great job of helping to keep track of all of the different elements of the plot.
The RTS section of the game is also solid, but not spectacular, especially visual wise. The gameplay is visualized by triangles and various shapes representing enemy units on a neon grid. Compared to the gorgeous art and sprites of the adventure portion of the game, it’s kind of disappointing to see the RTS section presented this way, but it’s understandable considering the enormous amount of effort that must have gone into the art for the adventure portion. It almost certainly wasn’t feasible for the devs to maintain that same level of presentation for the RTS portion. As for the gameplay, I found this segment to be pretty fun and engaging, there’s a lot to learn at first, but you eventually get used to what upgrades you need to prioritize and how best to take down enemy units. The difficulty for this section felt very skewed. It has the typical easy-normal-intense levels of difficulty, and I mostly played it on normal, which felt too easy until towards the end, where there’s a pretty big spike in difficulty that really took me by surprise. This segment provides you with a lot of replay value, as it ranks how well you do each mission and gives you a lot of various upgrades for each pilot that allows you to tackle the missions again on the higher difficulty. Despite my enjoyment though, I don’t really see myself coming back to it to improve my score.
I also need to mention this game’s voice acting. I actually played this with the English dub, and it was phenomenal. It is leagues above the English dub for almost any game I’ve ever played, and that is no exaggeration. Each actor’s performance was tremendous. No one sounded out of place, everything felt very natural and I was absolutely sold and enamored with each character. The dub really helped to elevate the already fantastic narrative, and made each character feel like a real person. If you are someone who prefers to play Japanese games with Japanese voice acting, I highly, highly encourage you to give this dub a shot. You will not be disappointed.
13 Sentinels’ amazing narrative and unique blend of two very different styles of gameplay make for an extraordinary experience. Don’t hold off on this game like I did. If you enjoy science fiction stories, 13 Sentinels delivers one of the most in-depth, emotional, gripping, and thrilling narratives out there, with engaging albeit simple RTS gameplay that compliments it surprisingly well. I implore you to give this game a go. It’s an experience that definitely won’t be leaving my mind for some time.
13 Sentinels’ gameplay is divided into two different genres: half of it is an adventure game starring 13 different protagonists, each with their own narratives with multiple branches that eventually come together to form a single mindbending plot. The other half is a real time strategy game, where the protagonists pilot giant mechs as they defend their home from hordes of invaders. Admittedly, I don’t think that 13 Sentinels does anything better than titles from either genre, but it’s this blend of the two as well as the outstanding quality of its narrative as a whole that makes this game well worth playing.
As I’ve said repeatedly, the narrative of the adventure game half is incredible. However, as an adventure game itself, it’s solid, but by the books. Your “inventory” consists of plot points and objects that you can bring up during conversations or specific events, but the game makes it pretty clear what you’re supposed to use and when. There aren’t really any puzzles in this mode, though for some protagonists, you do need to figure out a specific set of steps in order to trigger a different branch of their story, otherwise you’ll end up repeating branches over and over. Some of these steps can be very obtuse, and I had to look a few of them up, but I didn’t have to do it very frequently and was generally able to figure out how to progress the story on my own. What it lacks in mechanical complexity, it very much makes up for in the complexity and quality of the narrative. I can’t stress enough how good it is. It might be difficult to follow at points due to the terminology of the game and the fact that events aren’t presented in chronological order, but there’s an in-game appendix that you can refer to that does a great job of helping to keep track of all of the different elements of the plot.
The RTS section of the game is also solid, but not spectacular, especially visual wise. The gameplay is visualized by triangles and various shapes representing enemy units on a neon grid. Compared to the gorgeous art and sprites of the adventure portion of the game, it’s kind of disappointing to see the RTS section presented this way, but it’s understandable considering the enormous amount of effort that must have gone into the art for the adventure portion. It almost certainly wasn’t feasible for the devs to maintain that same level of presentation for the RTS portion. As for the gameplay, I found this segment to be pretty fun and engaging, there’s a lot to learn at first, but you eventually get used to what upgrades you need to prioritize and how best to take down enemy units. The difficulty for this section felt very skewed. It has the typical easy-normal-intense levels of difficulty, and I mostly played it on normal, which felt too easy until towards the end, where there’s a pretty big spike in difficulty that really took me by surprise. This segment provides you with a lot of replay value, as it ranks how well you do each mission and gives you a lot of various upgrades for each pilot that allows you to tackle the missions again on the higher difficulty. Despite my enjoyment though, I don’t really see myself coming back to it to improve my score.
I also need to mention this game’s voice acting. I actually played this with the English dub, and it was phenomenal. It is leagues above the English dub for almost any game I’ve ever played, and that is no exaggeration. Each actor’s performance was tremendous. No one sounded out of place, everything felt very natural and I was absolutely sold and enamored with each character. The dub really helped to elevate the already fantastic narrative, and made each character feel like a real person. If you are someone who prefers to play Japanese games with Japanese voice acting, I highly, highly encourage you to give this dub a shot. You will not be disappointed.
13 Sentinels’ amazing narrative and unique blend of two very different styles of gameplay make for an extraordinary experience. Don’t hold off on this game like I did. If you enjoy science fiction stories, 13 Sentinels delivers one of the most in-depth, emotional, gripping, and thrilling narratives out there, with engaging albeit simple RTS gameplay that compliments it surprisingly well. I implore you to give this game a go. It’s an experience that definitely won’t be leaving my mind for some time.
13 Sentinels may not be a perfect game but the way it juggles more than a dozen non linear character driven plotlines that intertwine into an actual coherent and unique (despite hitting off every scifi trope ever conceived) story - it's a master craft second to none.
The visual novel parts are the main meat, they're lean on mechanics but have rich beautiful visuals.
the combat part is more abstract but carries a surprising amount of impact and velocity.
Fantastic experience
The visual novel parts are the main meat, they're lean on mechanics but have rich beautiful visuals.
the combat part is more abstract but carries a surprising amount of impact and velocity.
Fantastic experience
this game fucked my brain pussy
You'll enjoy this wild ride of a story if you like any of the following:
- Total Recall
- Terminator
- Source Code
- Godzilla
- Shutter Island
- Pacific Rim
- Groundhog Day
- The War of the Worlds
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Matrix
- Macross
- Mazinger Z
- Evangelion
- Sailor Moon
- Megazone 23
- Steins;Gate
- Remember11
- Virtue's Last Reward
And a shit-ton of other works I haven't played/watched/read that I'm now interested in.
- Total Recall
- Terminator
- Source Code
- Godzilla
- Shutter Island
- Pacific Rim
- Groundhog Day
- The War of the Worlds
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Matrix
- Macross
- Mazinger Z
- Evangelion
- Sailor Moon
- Megazone 23
- Steins;Gate
- Remember11
- Virtue's Last Reward
And a shit-ton of other works I haven't played/watched/read that I'm now interested in.
you overestimate your borger my friend
I literally can't say anything about this game for the sake of spoilers, so being vague. This story is fucking insane. constant twists and turns, with differing protagonists too boot, somehow, amidst all of the chaos, there is beauty. By the end of it all, it all makes sense, and your hit with a beautiful message that moved me like few other games have. I also like the funny yakisoba pan man.
13 sentinels: aegis rim is a megalomaniac mess of a game. actually, it is two games: a narrative adventure with gorgeous 2D art style where you control 13 different protagonists, seeing facts under others interpretations, zigzagging and crossing paths with each other and a real-time strategy with a messy UI, frame rate drops and an overall feeling that it seems disconnected from the “first game”.
well, that’s my first problem with 13 sentinels aegis rim: you have two completely different games, not thirteen. oh, did you think that i was gonna tell you that the “destruction mode” seems off? that’s a plot twist, huh? and that game has many! but that’s not the time to talk about it, i would like to first apologize for my metalinguistic mistake of communicating so directly with you who are reading this. being honest, i actually prefer to type a text this way, makes me feel more comfortable, you know? anyway, the second thing that i would like to do is share some thoughts about this “destruction mode”: yeah, it is messy and yeah seems off but actually isn’t. in the game, there’s a reason for that happening, a really good contextualization out of the “yeah, we fight with mechas” that made me smile for how canny this narrative is, but i would prefer not spoil the entire game, you know? i may talk a bit too much already, even without revealing the plot, so i will not explain my point - if you’ve already played it, you may know and if you haven’t, please trust me.
talking about the combat: i like it! it is like playing league of legends except you are controlling 6 characters at the same-but-not-real time, there’s other 6 defending your tower and you have to fight with all the bots, many of them, some with a real amount of HP. controlling the characters is like playing final fantasy 12 without gambits, having to constantly choose their actions and wait for your ATB bar charge. you can upgrade your mechas, your tower and level up your characters, like in a rpg, but it is a messy playground where everyone plays war. it is fun but can get a little sickening if you play like i have played: all the stages in a row until i could go back to the story again. the game suggests a really good order to experience its ideia: in the prologue, you do two paths and then play one round of the “destruction mode”. maybe this is the best way? it is up to you, of course.
and oh yeah, the paths. the narrative. 13 sentinels: aegis rim feels like if hideo kojima had put the whole metal gear lore in one game - the first one - and mixed it with different characters: you play 1 with solid, 2 with raiden, 3 with naked etc. and shows what connections it has with each other: you fight ocelot in 1? let’s show how big boss met him in 3. of course, is only an analogy, aegis rim is not something that kojima would make, it is written completely differently. 13 sentinels: aegis rim does not have the “everything is a metaphor” thing that kojima’s games have or such an impactful message about our society, individuality or language. actually, my real first problem with 13 sentinels: aegis rim was that it is a really good story but… it kind of lacked a message of its own.
george kamitani is a sci-fi fan, as well as an anime fan and you don’t need to read any interviews to notice that. the totality of the 13 sentinels: aegis rim narrative feels like something written by a nerd, however, i don’t think that it is necessarily bad. i’ve finished persona 5 this year and something that really bothered me is how each character seemed so flat. it is not a problem using anime tropes but, since persona 5 is a character-driven story, i was expecting the characters to have some personality aside from it’s tropes and maybe they tried, but i genuinely don’t think that persona 5' dialogues are good enough to make me feel so emotionally connected with it characters. 13 sentinels characters’ are tropes, too, but they are not exactly the focus and i believe that this is both a blessing and a curse: while george could make a zigzagging-ly sci-fi story utilizing, also, sci-fi tropes (oh God, i typed “tropes” so much, didn’t i? sorry for that) without having to care too much as persona 5 probably cared, i believe that it also prejudiced the chances of having an message so impactful on me?
look, the characters are important. things happen because they do stuff. this stuff may be good, may be bad, may be questionable, but they are the cause. you see their motivations, their interactions, their relationships, but you do not seem who they are inside and i’m really conflicted about it: while i genuinely think that it is a work of a genius utilizing anime character tropes in such smart way as 13 sentinels does, i also feel that… they just looks like plot-inducers, you know? i do love all of them and i do care about all of them, but i would like to see a more introspective development and maybe >certain thing< would be more impactful to me. but i also feel that it couldn’t be that way. the game being a non-linear narrative, with 13 different stories taking placing at different times and crossing each other, having a lot of plot twists and explanations after those (in different paths, of course) to, in the end, just wrap it up brilliantly… there wasn’t a way to do it. it would be too long and less cohesive.
maybe i’m just nitpicking? yeah, but i just want to get those feelings out. by the way, saying one more time about tropes: the sci-fi tropes are good! it uses it more as an ignition point to do what the game does and the game being a non-linear narrative makes all those tropes more like knots to connect the 13 narratives, and those knots, generally, are the plot twists. it is fun that while you do have the “Oh My God, Did It Actually Happened?”, you also have the “Oh, And They Utilized It?”. it is better when you see that the whole trope-y things and nerd references actually… makes sense to the narrative. it is self-conscious without breaking the fourth-wall or being ironic. that makes me happy.
i’ve said earlier that the game lacked of a message of it’s own, since it is trope-y as it is and many commentaries are just sci-fi commentaries in general, but in the end, it actually summarizes the adventure into a point: humans can try again. we have the determination to do so. as long there’s life, there’s hope. it is beautiful and adequate. “why were you criticizing it, then?” - you may ask. well, what i’m trying to say is: is george kamitani saying what he wants to say or he is doing what he is supposed to do? it feels more like a proper conclusion to the game as fiction than to the game as an channel for it’s creator.
i could be wrong, too. maybe george kamitani wanted to pass the message before completing the story. he’s probably more smart than me and he probably knew that someone would notice it. it happens. my certainty is that, if i am wrong, at least 13 sentinels: aegis rim teached me that i can try again - and this is probably the proof.
ps: i want SO BAD to eat yakisoba pan!!!
well, that’s my first problem with 13 sentinels aegis rim: you have two completely different games, not thirteen. oh, did you think that i was gonna tell you that the “destruction mode” seems off? that’s a plot twist, huh? and that game has many! but that’s not the time to talk about it, i would like to first apologize for my metalinguistic mistake of communicating so directly with you who are reading this. being honest, i actually prefer to type a text this way, makes me feel more comfortable, you know? anyway, the second thing that i would like to do is share some thoughts about this “destruction mode”: yeah, it is messy and yeah seems off but actually isn’t. in the game, there’s a reason for that happening, a really good contextualization out of the “yeah, we fight with mechas” that made me smile for how canny this narrative is, but i would prefer not spoil the entire game, you know? i may talk a bit too much already, even without revealing the plot, so i will not explain my point - if you’ve already played it, you may know and if you haven’t, please trust me.
talking about the combat: i like it! it is like playing league of legends except you are controlling 6 characters at the same-but-not-real time, there’s other 6 defending your tower and you have to fight with all the bots, many of them, some with a real amount of HP. controlling the characters is like playing final fantasy 12 without gambits, having to constantly choose their actions and wait for your ATB bar charge. you can upgrade your mechas, your tower and level up your characters, like in a rpg, but it is a messy playground where everyone plays war. it is fun but can get a little sickening if you play like i have played: all the stages in a row until i could go back to the story again. the game suggests a really good order to experience its ideia: in the prologue, you do two paths and then play one round of the “destruction mode”. maybe this is the best way? it is up to you, of course.
and oh yeah, the paths. the narrative. 13 sentinels: aegis rim feels like if hideo kojima had put the whole metal gear lore in one game - the first one - and mixed it with different characters: you play 1 with solid, 2 with raiden, 3 with naked etc. and shows what connections it has with each other: you fight ocelot in 1? let’s show how big boss met him in 3. of course, is only an analogy, aegis rim is not something that kojima would make, it is written completely differently. 13 sentinels: aegis rim does not have the “everything is a metaphor” thing that kojima’s games have or such an impactful message about our society, individuality or language. actually, my real first problem with 13 sentinels: aegis rim was that it is a really good story but… it kind of lacked a message of its own.
george kamitani is a sci-fi fan, as well as an anime fan and you don’t need to read any interviews to notice that. the totality of the 13 sentinels: aegis rim narrative feels like something written by a nerd, however, i don’t think that it is necessarily bad. i’ve finished persona 5 this year and something that really bothered me is how each character seemed so flat. it is not a problem using anime tropes but, since persona 5 is a character-driven story, i was expecting the characters to have some personality aside from it’s tropes and maybe they tried, but i genuinely don’t think that persona 5' dialogues are good enough to make me feel so emotionally connected with it characters. 13 sentinels characters’ are tropes, too, but they are not exactly the focus and i believe that this is both a blessing and a curse: while george could make a zigzagging-ly sci-fi story utilizing, also, sci-fi tropes (oh God, i typed “tropes” so much, didn’t i? sorry for that) without having to care too much as persona 5 probably cared, i believe that it also prejudiced the chances of having an message so impactful on me?
look, the characters are important. things happen because they do stuff. this stuff may be good, may be bad, may be questionable, but they are the cause. you see their motivations, their interactions, their relationships, but you do not seem who they are inside and i’m really conflicted about it: while i genuinely think that it is a work of a genius utilizing anime character tropes in such smart way as 13 sentinels does, i also feel that… they just looks like plot-inducers, you know? i do love all of them and i do care about all of them, but i would like to see a more introspective development and maybe >certain thing< would be more impactful to me. but i also feel that it couldn’t be that way. the game being a non-linear narrative, with 13 different stories taking placing at different times and crossing each other, having a lot of plot twists and explanations after those (in different paths, of course) to, in the end, just wrap it up brilliantly… there wasn’t a way to do it. it would be too long and less cohesive.
maybe i’m just nitpicking? yeah, but i just want to get those feelings out. by the way, saying one more time about tropes: the sci-fi tropes are good! it uses it more as an ignition point to do what the game does and the game being a non-linear narrative makes all those tropes more like knots to connect the 13 narratives, and those knots, generally, are the plot twists. it is fun that while you do have the “Oh My God, Did It Actually Happened?”, you also have the “Oh, And They Utilized It?”. it is better when you see that the whole trope-y things and nerd references actually… makes sense to the narrative. it is self-conscious without breaking the fourth-wall or being ironic. that makes me happy.
i’ve said earlier that the game lacked of a message of it’s own, since it is trope-y as it is and many commentaries are just sci-fi commentaries in general, but in the end, it actually summarizes the adventure into a point: humans can try again. we have the determination to do so. as long there’s life, there’s hope. it is beautiful and adequate. “why were you criticizing it, then?” - you may ask. well, what i’m trying to say is: is george kamitani saying what he wants to say or he is doing what he is supposed to do? it feels more like a proper conclusion to the game as fiction than to the game as an channel for it’s creator.
i could be wrong, too. maybe george kamitani wanted to pass the message before completing the story. he’s probably more smart than me and he probably knew that someone would notice it. it happens. my certainty is that, if i am wrong, at least 13 sentinels: aegis rim teached me that i can try again - and this is probably the proof.
ps: i want SO BAD to eat yakisoba pan!!!
This review contains spoilers
Give me a year or two, and I’ll probably know what I think of the story by then- I think I liked it?
Would have gladly traded a few of the expository scenes for some more of the slice-of-life stuff; I don’t think Iori or Hijiyama have the greatest stories, but the focus on their daily life was an appreciated reprieve from being inundated by all the “mystery box” teases. If there’s anything that might weaken this game with time, it’s the realization that you can play through an entire character’s plotline and still not know them- ended up thinking of about half the cast more as delivery vessels for exposition than as fully-formed characters unto themselves.
Interested in how much a different character order might change that perspective, though. I’ve been thinking on KingBancho’s review where he discussed the value of the narrative despite the lack of interactivity- something I was debating over the course my playthrough. I know I enjoyed playing as Ryoko more than most of the characters because I felt the same confusion and pressure she did, constantly trying to place where I was, who was telling the truth- a feeling that was strengthened by having her sections take place under the pressure of time limit. And I wondered if other characters could've benefited from similar mechanical additions: would Natsuno's story be more compelling with stealth sections, or should Yuki's investigation have had interviews you could fail at? (I know what the armchair designer in me thinks.)
But that's an admittedly narrow view, and on a broader level, it’s the player who’s stitching the whole thing together, an editor with a hazy sense of the script deciding on the final cut. That might also explain why the game loses steam in the latter half- if you’re anything like me, you’ll rush to complete your favorite characters storylines whenever they become available, while the back end is spent begrudgingly clearing out whoever’s left, the pacing suffering more because of player agency than weak writing. There's a post by author BC that has me especially curious about how choosing a different sequence of events could change my reading of the story, as they noted playing everything chronologically made the narrative more satisfying, saying:
The nebulous satisfaction provided by the ending actually felt like a deeper and more meaningful achievement for these characters because I could understand what they overcame to get there. I saw their growth as the product of choices made early in the plot, not just a series of sort-of-arbitrary, disconnected scenarios. During moments of heightened tension, I understood what the characters stood to lose, and the way their trauma informed who they were and what they cherished.
And it’s an interesting dilemma, letting players dictate the pace of a story that stands to be weaker than a traditionally-authored narrative, but one fueled by a insatiable curiosity that’ll have you darting between stories as you start to slowly unravel the truth- something that would likely be lost if you couldn’t decide where the story headed next.
Certainly more engrossing than the RTS missions; think it mostly serves its purpose as a break from the VN sections, something you can get deep into but isn’t really a requirement- all I’ll say is that I found it was much more tactically engaging with less units. On the few missions that had an optional objective to play with 4 characters instead of 6, I was pushed to consider every facet of the game more seriously: take one sentinel from every generation to cover your bases or commit to a lopsided strategy? And in the missions themselves I felt like I had to properly strategize, really thinking about how to use my four turns to overcome the odds instead of just committing half my team to turret/missile rain duty.
But it’s the first Vanillaware game I’ve finished and one I’d like to revisit someday, so I guess that makes it a rousing success for a developer whose games I’ve spent more time trying to like than actually enjoying.
_____
Works Cited:
13 Sentinels Review, KingBancho
The Narrative Box of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, BC (The link is acting weird- had to cancel loading the page to actually see the article)
Would have gladly traded a few of the expository scenes for some more of the slice-of-life stuff; I don’t think Iori or Hijiyama have the greatest stories, but the focus on their daily life was an appreciated reprieve from being inundated by all the “mystery box” teases. If there’s anything that might weaken this game with time, it’s the realization that you can play through an entire character’s plotline and still not know them- ended up thinking of about half the cast more as delivery vessels for exposition than as fully-formed characters unto themselves.
Interested in how much a different character order might change that perspective, though. I’ve been thinking on KingBancho’s review where he discussed the value of the narrative despite the lack of interactivity- something I was debating over the course my playthrough. I know I enjoyed playing as Ryoko more than most of the characters because I felt the same confusion and pressure she did, constantly trying to place where I was, who was telling the truth- a feeling that was strengthened by having her sections take place under the pressure of time limit. And I wondered if other characters could've benefited from similar mechanical additions: would Natsuno's story be more compelling with stealth sections, or should Yuki's investigation have had interviews you could fail at? (I know what the armchair designer in me thinks.)
But that's an admittedly narrow view, and on a broader level, it’s the player who’s stitching the whole thing together, an editor with a hazy sense of the script deciding on the final cut. That might also explain why the game loses steam in the latter half- if you’re anything like me, you’ll rush to complete your favorite characters storylines whenever they become available, while the back end is spent begrudgingly clearing out whoever’s left, the pacing suffering more because of player agency than weak writing. There's a post by author BC that has me especially curious about how choosing a different sequence of events could change my reading of the story, as they noted playing everything chronologically made the narrative more satisfying, saying:
The nebulous satisfaction provided by the ending actually felt like a deeper and more meaningful achievement for these characters because I could understand what they overcame to get there. I saw their growth as the product of choices made early in the plot, not just a series of sort-of-arbitrary, disconnected scenarios. During moments of heightened tension, I understood what the characters stood to lose, and the way their trauma informed who they were and what they cherished.
And it’s an interesting dilemma, letting players dictate the pace of a story that stands to be weaker than a traditionally-authored narrative, but one fueled by a insatiable curiosity that’ll have you darting between stories as you start to slowly unravel the truth- something that would likely be lost if you couldn’t decide where the story headed next.
Certainly more engrossing than the RTS missions; think it mostly serves its purpose as a break from the VN sections, something you can get deep into but isn’t really a requirement- all I’ll say is that I found it was much more tactically engaging with less units. On the few missions that had an optional objective to play with 4 characters instead of 6, I was pushed to consider every facet of the game more seriously: take one sentinel from every generation to cover your bases or commit to a lopsided strategy? And in the missions themselves I felt like I had to properly strategize, really thinking about how to use my four turns to overcome the odds instead of just committing half my team to turret/missile rain duty.
But it’s the first Vanillaware game I’ve finished and one I’d like to revisit someday, so I guess that makes it a rousing success for a developer whose games I’ve spent more time trying to like than actually enjoying.
_____
Works Cited:
13 Sentinels Review, KingBancho
The Narrative Box of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, BC (The link is acting weird- had to cancel loading the page to actually see the article)
I bought this game on a whim based on a lot of hype around it. I must admit I didn't expect to like it, this is one of the few occasions I am happy to have been proven wrong.
It's my GOTY so far for 2021 of games I've played.
It's a mixture of visual novel / adventure game and strategy combat. The adventure parts take up 80% of the game compared with the combat. During this aspect you take control of 13 characters at different times piecing together the story unlocking more characters and scenes. To be honest most of this kind of blew my mind in how crazy everything that happens is and it comes together really well except for a couple of small loose ends. Not going to go into it as I won't spoil anything but it's addictive, I loved I had no idea what was happening for the longest times.
The combat is pretty basic but I quite enjoyed the speed it aims for in destroying the enemies as quickly as possible. You can equip your party and adjust the load outs of their weapons and skills. You get a birds eye view of a digital view of the city and need to use heavy weapons to wipe them out as quickly as possible. While the whole OST is fantastic I found the combat music especially great and has been on my walkman since I played this.
Production wise the game is stunning, I love the art, the colour palette, and I chose to play the game in the Japanese dub and thought the voice acting was perfect. Overall I think the game took about 30-35 hours and I have thought about it fairly often since.
+ Fantastic characters and story.
+ Gorgeous art.
+ Great OST.
It's my GOTY so far for 2021 of games I've played.
It's a mixture of visual novel / adventure game and strategy combat. The adventure parts take up 80% of the game compared with the combat. During this aspect you take control of 13 characters at different times piecing together the story unlocking more characters and scenes. To be honest most of this kind of blew my mind in how crazy everything that happens is and it comes together really well except for a couple of small loose ends. Not going to go into it as I won't spoil anything but it's addictive, I loved I had no idea what was happening for the longest times.
The combat is pretty basic but I quite enjoyed the speed it aims for in destroying the enemies as quickly as possible. You can equip your party and adjust the load outs of their weapons and skills. You get a birds eye view of a digital view of the city and need to use heavy weapons to wipe them out as quickly as possible. While the whole OST is fantastic I found the combat music especially great and has been on my walkman since I played this.
Production wise the game is stunning, I love the art, the colour palette, and I chose to play the game in the Japanese dub and thought the voice acting was perfect. Overall I think the game took about 30-35 hours and I have thought about it fairly often since.
+ Fantastic characters and story.
+ Gorgeous art.
+ Great OST.
The sunset that permeates throughout 1985 Japan is meant to invoke a sense of nostalgia, and even if you haven’t had any experience in that setting, the invocation of certain well-worn otaku media tropes will encourage a feeling of familiarity. Yet, you’ll never settle into a state of complacency within even the most innocent of scenes. The constant displacement in time forced by the necessary narrative-switching results in this world feeling alien and uncertain. Even within character’s narratives, scenes will play out the exact same way only to diverge midway through, leaving you unsure as to whether this is truly the next in a sequence of events, or some parallel timeline, or maybe even somehow both? Even the tropes that 13 Sentinels deals with are so heavily interconnected and draw from so many different genres, from shoujo romance to psychological horror to historical drama, that results in a rather distinct feel even if one is experienced with otaku media.
You could just forget, indulge in the mindless delicacies like crepes and kaiju movies of bubble-economy Japan without paying to mind just how unnatural capitalist luxuries really are, that our way of life is so far displaced from humanity’s origins. The usage of puzzles during the narratives prevent that, forcing you to be actively thinking about the world you’re presented with and manipulating it for your own progression to demonstrate an understanding of its artificiality. This romanticization of an era of false peace calls into question what it means to truly be forward-thinking for a better society. The convenience of a pre-existing image to base an ideal world on does not negate the many failures that have been proven through history, but the question looms “is it even possible to imagine a realistic post-capitalist society with how deeply entrenched capitalist realism is now?” 13 Sentinels doesn’t have a solid answer, but I’d rather that over pretending that there is an easy answer.
You could just forget, indulge in the mindless delicacies like crepes and kaiju movies of bubble-economy Japan without paying to mind just how unnatural capitalist luxuries really are, that our way of life is so far displaced from humanity’s origins. The usage of puzzles during the narratives prevent that, forcing you to be actively thinking about the world you’re presented with and manipulating it for your own progression to demonstrate an understanding of its artificiality. This romanticization of an era of false peace calls into question what it means to truly be forward-thinking for a better society. The convenience of a pre-existing image to base an ideal world on does not negate the many failures that have been proven through history, but the question looms “is it even possible to imagine a realistic post-capitalist society with how deeply entrenched capitalist realism is now?” 13 Sentinels doesn’t have a solid answer, but I’d rather that over pretending that there is an easy answer.
If anything is deserving of the title "masterpiece", it's this game.
I'll be real here, if this wasn't a spoiler free review this would be five times the length but I'm not here to subject you that, in fact we can both do that once you the reader are done with this game one day! I'm here to try my level best to condense my thoughts into something coherent without ANY spoilers, without sounding like a crazy lunatic, on selling to you what is arguably my favorite story in fiction so here goes. There will be ABSOLUTELY ZERO SPOILERS in this review, I'll be making sure of that. Spoiling this game for someone or for yourself has to be a cardinal sin or something SO I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT LOOKING UP ANYTHING ABOUT THIS GAME UNTIL YOU BEAT IT, NOTHING ABOUT THE CHARACTERS, NOTHING ABOUT ANY OF THE TERMS YOU HEAR AND DON'T EVEN MAKE A SIMPLE SEARCH ABOUT THE CHARACTERS I'M SO SERIOUS. LOOK UP ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
First off, what is 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim? Well in a nutshell it’s a VN-esque game pumped full of steroids and cranked up to the max. This game features a non-linear narrative revolving around, you guessed it, 13 distinct characters. There are 2 types of gameplay options: Remembrance and Destruction. Remembrance is the real meat of this game and features the non-linear story with you controlling characters in a side-scrolling scenario whereas Destruction is the RTS (Real Time Strategy) section where you control the Sentinels as per the games namesake. Usually, you're mostly here for Remembrance which is understandable, I was too, but I personally find Destruction quite fun despite some considering it the weaker part of the game which I disagree with, it is genuinely really fun once you get the hang of it. It doesn't take too long once you get the hang of it either and the gameplay itself is quite minimalist, simple and most importantly it ends rather quickly as to not distract you from the story, in fact it adds even more to the story but that's a discussion for another day. That's it for the basic rundown of this game but allow me to go in depth and the reason why I hold this game in such high regard without spoiling anything for you.
This will be talking exclusively about Remembrance for the record but let me to get the simpler stuff out of the way first: the visuals are absolutely fucking gorgeous, so is the artwork and animations, characters have such subtle animations during events in order express their personality with some even happening in the background unbeknownst to the player and all accompanied by stellar voice acting in both languages but I personally find the dub much more enjoyable and would recommend it. The game is a visual treat for the eyes, this is Vanillaware at its peak, the music and even the sound effects are absolutely phenomenal as well but that's enough of the little stuff let’s move onto why you're really here. This game has the most unique way of telling a story that I've ever seen in a game, you can quite literally play the story in any order you like hence the obvious reason it’s called a non-linear narrative along with swapping between Remembrance and Destruction at your leisure albeit you will need to fulfil certain criteria to progress the overall narrative but worry not, the game spells out exactly which pre-requisite you need to do for unlocking the next segments. Every single character has their own distinct stories which branch into multiple other stories, oh and a neat fact, every single one of their stories is a unique spin on an existing piece of media or a movie, the characters themselves are also exceptionally well written for the most part. This may seem daunting but its presented in a way to hook the reader in, the stories overlap and intersect, there are countless clashes between the characters and their own goals and beliefs, some work together, some are at odds with each other and what really drives this home is the fact that eventually you will be seeing these certain events from another characters perspective sooner or later when you pursue the aforementioned characters story which on its own sheds even more light to the overarching narrative along with adding even more context on the event you just experienced. Again, this may seem daunting but it truly isn't, I say it has a unique way of presenting its story but it’s not merely just presented, the real reason is that piecing together the story IS the gameplay and I don't just mean the overall mystery, the game trusts and respects the players intelligence unconditionally. If a certain word is said again in another route? There is no flashback or "I remember them saying this" for the most part, the game reminds the player nothing because it trusts the player to remember the finer details and it does not let up in the slightest along with giving you an extensive archive to help you keep track. The plot is this constantly changing schematic inside your head which changes drastically as you take in and learn new information and plot threads, sometimes even flipping it over its head entirely, challenging everything you may have pieced together thus far. You the player are tasked with piecing this gigantic puzzle together, that in itself IS the gameplay, the puzzle may not make sense at first but you soon suddenly have some manner of "OH NOW I GET IT" moment which feels immensely satisfying BECAUSE you did this all yourself, the game did not feed you this revelation in a traditional manner, you the player pieced it together before the answer was even presented to you. It’s such a unique concept and I wish more games went to the lengths 13 Sentinels does in respecting the players intelligence to do. No matter how farfetched a plot detail may seem the game WILL expand on it in a well-executed manner at a certain point, the game trusts the player and it expects the player to trust the game in return, a symbiotic relationship if you will. Every bit of info, every bit of context from a different perspective and every single plot thread is tailor made to fit into the overarching narrative in such a disturbingly cohesive manner that you gotta wonder how long it took for the writers to make everything not seem nonsensical in fear of it seeming like multiple asspulls. Then again, this game WAS delayed multiple times so mayhap that was the reason, contrary to popular belief I haven't exactly deep dived into this game’s development cycle... yet.
This game is an experience like no other and, full disclosure, this is just me quoting 2 certain well known and respected game developers but I truly believe there will never be another game like 13 Sentinels but I would LOVE to be proven wrong, in a perfect world maybe everything was this game but this is just me being delusional for the sake of it but its heartening to know this games sales went from poor to exceeding expectations due to strong word of mouth by its small albeit extremely dedicated fanbase, giving Vanillaware the push they needed and deserved. This game is a phenomenal work of art, an extensive labor of love and passion by the developers and if you still managed to listen to my ramblings this far, I recommend this game to you with everything I have. Now go get in that Sentinel and strap in for the ride, also here's a cool line from the game to end this review cause why not :P
"It's really happening... Just as you said it would. So we'll do what we have to do. Get in the robots and fight. Our fate was sealed a long time ago."
First off, what is 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim? Well in a nutshell it’s a VN-esque game pumped full of steroids and cranked up to the max. This game features a non-linear narrative revolving around, you guessed it, 13 distinct characters. There are 2 types of gameplay options: Remembrance and Destruction. Remembrance is the real meat of this game and features the non-linear story with you controlling characters in a side-scrolling scenario whereas Destruction is the RTS (Real Time Strategy) section where you control the Sentinels as per the games namesake. Usually, you're mostly here for Remembrance which is understandable, I was too, but I personally find Destruction quite fun despite some considering it the weaker part of the game which I disagree with, it is genuinely really fun once you get the hang of it. It doesn't take too long once you get the hang of it either and the gameplay itself is quite minimalist, simple and most importantly it ends rather quickly as to not distract you from the story, in fact it adds even more to the story but that's a discussion for another day. That's it for the basic rundown of this game but allow me to go in depth and the reason why I hold this game in such high regard without spoiling anything for you.
This will be talking exclusively about Remembrance for the record but let me to get the simpler stuff out of the way first: the visuals are absolutely fucking gorgeous, so is the artwork and animations, characters have such subtle animations during events in order express their personality with some even happening in the background unbeknownst to the player and all accompanied by stellar voice acting in both languages but I personally find the dub much more enjoyable and would recommend it. The game is a visual treat for the eyes, this is Vanillaware at its peak, the music and even the sound effects are absolutely phenomenal as well but that's enough of the little stuff let’s move onto why you're really here. This game has the most unique way of telling a story that I've ever seen in a game, you can quite literally play the story in any order you like hence the obvious reason it’s called a non-linear narrative along with swapping between Remembrance and Destruction at your leisure albeit you will need to fulfil certain criteria to progress the overall narrative but worry not, the game spells out exactly which pre-requisite you need to do for unlocking the next segments. Every single character has their own distinct stories which branch into multiple other stories, oh and a neat fact, every single one of their stories is a unique spin on an existing piece of media or a movie, the characters themselves are also exceptionally well written for the most part. This may seem daunting but its presented in a way to hook the reader in, the stories overlap and intersect, there are countless clashes between the characters and their own goals and beliefs, some work together, some are at odds with each other and what really drives this home is the fact that eventually you will be seeing these certain events from another characters perspective sooner or later when you pursue the aforementioned characters story which on its own sheds even more light to the overarching narrative along with adding even more context on the event you just experienced. Again, this may seem daunting but it truly isn't, I say it has a unique way of presenting its story but it’s not merely just presented, the real reason is that piecing together the story IS the gameplay and I don't just mean the overall mystery, the game trusts and respects the players intelligence unconditionally. If a certain word is said again in another route? There is no flashback or "I remember them saying this" for the most part, the game reminds the player nothing because it trusts the player to remember the finer details and it does not let up in the slightest along with giving you an extensive archive to help you keep track. The plot is this constantly changing schematic inside your head which changes drastically as you take in and learn new information and plot threads, sometimes even flipping it over its head entirely, challenging everything you may have pieced together thus far. You the player are tasked with piecing this gigantic puzzle together, that in itself IS the gameplay, the puzzle may not make sense at first but you soon suddenly have some manner of "OH NOW I GET IT" moment which feels immensely satisfying BECAUSE you did this all yourself, the game did not feed you this revelation in a traditional manner, you the player pieced it together before the answer was even presented to you. It’s such a unique concept and I wish more games went to the lengths 13 Sentinels does in respecting the players intelligence to do. No matter how farfetched a plot detail may seem the game WILL expand on it in a well-executed manner at a certain point, the game trusts the player and it expects the player to trust the game in return, a symbiotic relationship if you will. Every bit of info, every bit of context from a different perspective and every single plot thread is tailor made to fit into the overarching narrative in such a disturbingly cohesive manner that you gotta wonder how long it took for the writers to make everything not seem nonsensical in fear of it seeming like multiple asspulls. Then again, this game WAS delayed multiple times so mayhap that was the reason, contrary to popular belief I haven't exactly deep dived into this game’s development cycle... yet.
This game is an experience like no other and, full disclosure, this is just me quoting 2 certain well known and respected game developers but I truly believe there will never be another game like 13 Sentinels but I would LOVE to be proven wrong, in a perfect world maybe everything was this game but this is just me being delusional for the sake of it but its heartening to know this games sales went from poor to exceeding expectations due to strong word of mouth by its small albeit extremely dedicated fanbase, giving Vanillaware the push they needed and deserved. This game is a phenomenal work of art, an extensive labor of love and passion by the developers and if you still managed to listen to my ramblings this far, I recommend this game to you with everything I have. Now go get in that Sentinel and strap in for the ride, also here's a cool line from the game to end this review cause why not :P
"It's really happening... Just as you said it would. So we'll do what we have to do. Get in the robots and fight. Our fate was sealed a long time ago."
Absolutely enthralling from start to finish.
I wouldn't say 13 Sentinels has the best writing or story I've seen, but the way it's presented is absolutely fantastic. Mushing every sci-fi trope together and making this giant amalgamation of plot twists that only increases how confused you are. I loved piecing the story together and trying to figure out the order everything took place and having to rearrange my entire brain when something new got revealed.
I've gotta shout out the English voice acting in this game because MAN did they do good. Usually, I'll try and listen to the English voices for like an hour and switch to Japanese but the voice acting here is stellar.
The battles are pretty whatever since they're so easy, but they serve to give you some fucking fire songs and usually a funny interaction or two after a battle. EXCEPT FOR THE FINAL BATTLE THAT WAS PEAK!!!!
I don't think it's perfect as I didn't really like how some of the characters were handled compared to others. Though, it's kind of impossible to give anything lower than a 9/10 when I think about how much of the story stuck in my mind as I tried to piece together events.
If you can sense any form of soul, you will be forced to kneel to this game at some point. If you like sci-fi and visual novels DEFINITELY check this out.
SHOUT OUT MIYUKI!!!!! SHE'S A REAL ONE!!!
I wouldn't say 13 Sentinels has the best writing or story I've seen, but the way it's presented is absolutely fantastic. Mushing every sci-fi trope together and making this giant amalgamation of plot twists that only increases how confused you are. I loved piecing the story together and trying to figure out the order everything took place and having to rearrange my entire brain when something new got revealed.
I've gotta shout out the English voice acting in this game because MAN did they do good. Usually, I'll try and listen to the English voices for like an hour and switch to Japanese but the voice acting here is stellar.
The battles are pretty whatever since they're so easy, but they serve to give you some fucking fire songs and usually a funny interaction or two after a battle. EXCEPT FOR THE FINAL BATTLE THAT WAS PEAK!!!!
I don't think it's perfect as I didn't really like how some of the characters were handled compared to others. Though, it's kind of impossible to give anything lower than a 9/10 when I think about how much of the story stuck in my mind as I tried to piece together events.
If you can sense any form of soul, you will be forced to kneel to this game at some point. If you like sci-fi and visual novels DEFINITELY check this out.
SHOUT OUT MIYUKI!!!!! SHE'S A REAL ONE!!!
i haven't played this game yet
edit: ok now i have
on paper, this is one of the most impressive video games to come out of the entire medium. somehow manages to juggle an utterly sprawling narrative along with engaging (albeit easy) RTS-lite combat, a pretty solid soundtrack, some god-tier presentation, and a mostly good cast of characters - all without completely tripping over itself every step of the way
...despite these achievements however, the plot does lose steam especially in the last third because of how abundant and predictable its twists become. ultimately resulting in a mostly well-crafted story, but not really one with a lot of its own identity. definitely too derivative for its own good
edit: ok now i have
on paper, this is one of the most impressive video games to come out of the entire medium. somehow manages to juggle an utterly sprawling narrative along with engaging (albeit easy) RTS-lite combat, a pretty solid soundtrack, some god-tier presentation, and a mostly good cast of characters - all without completely tripping over itself every step of the way
...despite these achievements however, the plot does lose steam especially in the last third because of how abundant and predictable its twists become. ultimately resulting in a mostly well-crafted story, but not really one with a lot of its own identity. definitely too derivative for its own good
i couldnt dislike it as much as i told myself i would, mostly because it is really fun to experience as something i thought i couldnt stand anymore: a story of constant reveals with the eventual goal of having everything explainable in the end. i was not ready for the sheer /volume/ of this 13 sentinels was bringing to the table, in its way more impressive than other plot twisty adventure games it gets compared to, like uchikoshi-written games or danganronpa. it is better at being this kind of thing than those mostly for the unique thrill of being so overwhelmed from many angles, and the way this overwhelmingness works in tandem with being a story about memory and perception is more potentially interesting to me.
but i also could not love 13 sentinels as much as i would like to because, just as i was afraid of, it chose a path of plot dumping at the cost of its character writing. many characters' motivations feel unexpounded on past their tropey origin point, and maybe you can argue theres some sincerity to exploring these tropes but i am not sold by that alone. you are bombarded with information and that means the game doesnt try hard enough to give many of its characters time to breathe beyond moving plot forward. this results in their scenarios often lacking impact as you reach their conclusions, giving me no reason to come around to characters i didnt care for (yakushiji) and sucking the wind out of some of the ones i did (shinonome). and one late game character is barely a character as much as an excuse to tie up loose ends, and the game mechanically admits as much.
this game is genuinely fun when i was there, playing it, and even the combat wasnt a hindrance to that. i dont regret playing it by any means. but looking back i feel like its just an especially good version of strictly concrete [100 intriguey setups = 100 explanation pay offs] type narratives that are always valued as "Best Story" in games, and thats all there was. maybe im not giving credit to its themes expressed thru its kaleidoscope of sci fi ideas but still, would like to have felt something outside of its intellectual exercise.
but i also could not love 13 sentinels as much as i would like to because, just as i was afraid of, it chose a path of plot dumping at the cost of its character writing. many characters' motivations feel unexpounded on past their tropey origin point, and maybe you can argue theres some sincerity to exploring these tropes but i am not sold by that alone. you are bombarded with information and that means the game doesnt try hard enough to give many of its characters time to breathe beyond moving plot forward. this results in their scenarios often lacking impact as you reach their conclusions, giving me no reason to come around to characters i didnt care for (yakushiji) and sucking the wind out of some of the ones i did (shinonome). and one late game character is barely a character as much as an excuse to tie up loose ends, and the game mechanically admits as much.
this game is genuinely fun when i was there, playing it, and even the combat wasnt a hindrance to that. i dont regret playing it by any means. but looking back i feel like its just an especially good version of strictly concrete [100 intriguey setups = 100 explanation pay offs] type narratives that are always valued as "Best Story" in games, and thats all there was. maybe im not giving credit to its themes expressed thru its kaleidoscope of sci fi ideas but still, would like to have felt something outside of its intellectual exercise.
An epic of the most grand scale from the perspective of 13 unlikely individuals.
This is what video games have been leading up to. An amazing harmony of different sections coalescing into the perfect gameplay loop. I get to enjoy an amazing mystery narrative with such layered and charming characters, each interesting enough to play their own role as the main character, while at the same to getting to experience such a robust real time strategy that’s pretty approachable for a beginner to the genre, but provides so much fun and challenge after properly learning through the mechanics. All of this presented in such a distinctive art style which seems to be Vanillaware’s trademark look and I have just completely fallen in love with this game.
Although 13 Sentinels does indeed look pretty standard anime from its promotional material and covers, Vanillaware’s recognizable aesthetic for its character models definitely gives it its own identity. They work really well on the visual novel segments where it really does feel like an anime is playing with how natural some scenes can look with the well drawn backgrounds and stellar voice performance both in japanese and english audio. The combat sections look just as visually appealing as its set in what looks to be a screen map you’d see in Sci-Fi military movies where it's a digital interface. I can understand some people would want to see the actual robots and kaiju fighting, but this presentation creates a level of immersion as being in a war setting which I really appreciate.
Said immersion really adds well to the gameplay. 13 Sentinels essentially features three game modes; remembrance - a visual novel story where we recount the events of the 13 characters each being the main character of their own part of the story, destruction - where the main combat real time strategy action takes place as you need to complete stages in order to unlock certain story parts within remembrance mode, and analysis - which isn’t really game mode but more so a library of terminology and events in clarifying certain concepts. A lot of these are unlockables which you need mystery codes and you need to unlock them as some story segments require it to progress. Overall this structure creates an amazing game loop as you’re never burnt out on either game mode since you can always switch to the other to further progress the game. A small caveat to the story mode would be the fact that sometimes it's unclear how to progress the story as I would be stuck not knowing what combination I have to use to talk to a character but this was very rare. On the combat side, I find it best enjoyable in the hardest difficulty but the first wave is a tad too easy with a massive difficulty curve by the second wave which might catch some off-guard. Nonetheless, 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim is just very solidly designed so that such minor issues won’t impact the whole experience.
The story is what’s really the biggest selling point of this magnificent game. Featuring thirteen different character stories, the Remembrance mode has the player going through each character’s point of view as events are told in a shuffled order as you’re meant to piece the events together as part of a larger mystery narrative. It's honestly very confusing at first, and I wouldn’t even blame anyone if there’s certain things one might not understand even by the end, but the mystery has a very rewarding payoff as multiple narrative threads are answered at an even pace of the game culminating to a really satisfying conclusion which connects both the Remembrance mode and the Destruction mode. Moreover, each main character in the game really has a lot to offer. Despite more less starting out as obvious stereotypes, each of them get fleshed out enough and develop throughout the game in a very compelling manner where there was not even a single character story I found to be a slog whatsoever. My personal favorites though have to be the displaced WW2 soldier conflicted about his romantic feelings, the devoted girl who wants to bring back the memories of her loved one, and the cool playboy who will always be there for a lady who needs him. 13 Sentinels is a truly engaging narrative that’s hard to put down once you start a session.
I really love this game. Every single aspect seems like it was designed for a person of my tastes. It is an all-time favorite and I want to tell everyone about why they should play this game and why I love it so much. After this, I’m definitely going to be checking out more of Vanillaware's catalog especially with Unicorn Overlord around the corner as of the time of writing. Play this amazing game that’s managed to capture my heart with its captivating story and be in awe once it all ends.
This is what video games have been leading up to. An amazing harmony of different sections coalescing into the perfect gameplay loop. I get to enjoy an amazing mystery narrative with such layered and charming characters, each interesting enough to play their own role as the main character, while at the same to getting to experience such a robust real time strategy that’s pretty approachable for a beginner to the genre, but provides so much fun and challenge after properly learning through the mechanics. All of this presented in such a distinctive art style which seems to be Vanillaware’s trademark look and I have just completely fallen in love with this game.
Although 13 Sentinels does indeed look pretty standard anime from its promotional material and covers, Vanillaware’s recognizable aesthetic for its character models definitely gives it its own identity. They work really well on the visual novel segments where it really does feel like an anime is playing with how natural some scenes can look with the well drawn backgrounds and stellar voice performance both in japanese and english audio. The combat sections look just as visually appealing as its set in what looks to be a screen map you’d see in Sci-Fi military movies where it's a digital interface. I can understand some people would want to see the actual robots and kaiju fighting, but this presentation creates a level of immersion as being in a war setting which I really appreciate.
Said immersion really adds well to the gameplay. 13 Sentinels essentially features three game modes; remembrance - a visual novel story where we recount the events of the 13 characters each being the main character of their own part of the story, destruction - where the main combat real time strategy action takes place as you need to complete stages in order to unlock certain story parts within remembrance mode, and analysis - which isn’t really game mode but more so a library of terminology and events in clarifying certain concepts. A lot of these are unlockables which you need mystery codes and you need to unlock them as some story segments require it to progress. Overall this structure creates an amazing game loop as you’re never burnt out on either game mode since you can always switch to the other to further progress the game. A small caveat to the story mode would be the fact that sometimes it's unclear how to progress the story as I would be stuck not knowing what combination I have to use to talk to a character but this was very rare. On the combat side, I find it best enjoyable in the hardest difficulty but the first wave is a tad too easy with a massive difficulty curve by the second wave which might catch some off-guard. Nonetheless, 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim is just very solidly designed so that such minor issues won’t impact the whole experience.
The story is what’s really the biggest selling point of this magnificent game. Featuring thirteen different character stories, the Remembrance mode has the player going through each character’s point of view as events are told in a shuffled order as you’re meant to piece the events together as part of a larger mystery narrative. It's honestly very confusing at first, and I wouldn’t even blame anyone if there’s certain things one might not understand even by the end, but the mystery has a very rewarding payoff as multiple narrative threads are answered at an even pace of the game culminating to a really satisfying conclusion which connects both the Remembrance mode and the Destruction mode. Moreover, each main character in the game really has a lot to offer. Despite more less starting out as obvious stereotypes, each of them get fleshed out enough and develop throughout the game in a very compelling manner where there was not even a single character story I found to be a slog whatsoever. My personal favorites though have to be the displaced WW2 soldier conflicted about his romantic feelings, the devoted girl who wants to bring back the memories of her loved one, and the cool playboy who will always be there for a lady who needs him. 13 Sentinels is a truly engaging narrative that’s hard to put down once you start a session.
I really love this game. Every single aspect seems like it was designed for a person of my tastes. It is an all-time favorite and I want to tell everyone about why they should play this game and why I love it so much. After this, I’m definitely going to be checking out more of Vanillaware's catalog especially with Unicorn Overlord around the corner as of the time of writing. Play this amazing game that’s managed to capture my heart with its captivating story and be in awe once it all ends.
Review in progress:
Just to preface, this review includes both my actual final verdict and initial thoughts (from roughly 10 hours in) on the game. The latter of which obviously don't fully reflect my current thoughts on the game, but I do think first impressions are still important!
Final Review
While I don't think it'll be for everyone, any fan of existentialist sci-fi and anime will surely find 13 Sentinels to be a real treat. It's clearly a passionate love letter to many of my favorite stories, and whether intentionally or not also borrows a lot of great aspects from other works I like; Terminator, Bladerunner, Alien, The Matrix, Godzilla, Men in Black, NieR, Zero Escape, the list goes on, and I've really gotta respect how well the game does thematic justice to each of its inspirations. On top of that, the originality Vanillaware brought to the table here shouldn't be downplayed. Where 13 Sentinels may lack some degree of cohesion, payoff for its unique design decisions, it certainly makes up for in innovation. I've never played another game quite like it, nor experienced another story quite like it, and though I find said story falls short in a few areas, its resolute experimentalism should be applauded nonetheless.
As for what I loved— the things that kept me playing daily till completion, I would have to cite the aesthetics, the mystery, the mech fights and their banter, and most of the characters. As I stated in my initial review, this game is just so. fucking. pretty! Each background is a stunningly beautiful painting, warmly lit with a palette of striking, glowing hues. Each character sports a simple yet effective design, brought to life by expressive, endearing animations, and a brilliantly emotive voice cast (I went with the English dub, and would recommend it to even the most dedicated sub Andys). The soundtrack too always provides an amazing accompaniment to the action onscreen, and a number of the tracks were very memorable— the final battle theme is so very hype. I even kinda like the way the battles look, albeit I will say they sorely lack visual clarity, not the most conducive trait to such a complex tactical rpg.
As for these battles, despite my minor complaints with their presentation, they were by far one of my favorite parts of the game, and I'm honestly pretty surprised by how divisive they seem! For me, they strike a really cool balance between rts and turn based combat, and even though they're all holograms they still feel incredibly badass, surely in no small part due to the satisfyingly punchy sound effects and campy voice lines. There's a refreshing amount of depth in how you approach encounters, manage team compositions, and otherwise game the system to your advantage, but it also somehow never felt remotely overwhelming to me. 13 Sentinels does a phenomenal job easing players into its mechanics, and that's no easy feat with just how many systems there are. I do sort of wish their difficulty spiked up a little sooner than it did (for the record, I played on the highest difficulty all the way through and it generally felt pretty well tuned), but once you begin reaching the final encounters you really need to plan and improvise strategically, particularly if you want S ranks. I'm super stoked to go back for the optional encounters you unlock after beating the game, and it was honestly just a really pleasant surprise to see their inclusion in the first place!
If you're reading this now, I do have quite a bit more to finish saying, though it's currently 4 am and Imma go to bed for the time being!
* * *
First Impressions
Pretty sure I'm only like 25% of the way through this beast, but I just wanted to get some initial thoughts out since it's been getting me to think a lot, and I've been enjoying my time with it pretty thoroughly! First off, this game looks and sounds gorgeous, and that's coming from someone who's generally not huge on anime artstyles! I'm a massive sucker for hand painted sprites and damn does Vanillaware deliver— the soundtrack goes insaneo style too. ALSO, I fw the mech combat hard, and I'd honestly be perfectly content if that's all 13 Sentinels was.
However, what I more so wanted to talk about was this game's narrative, an aspect of it I'm a little conflicted on, at least as of writing this. To specify, I'd like to speak more of its writing's quality than of my personal experience with it, because regardless of if it amounts to little more than pulpy anime bullshit, I can't lie, I've been getting quite a kick out of following the ludicrously convoluted paper trail. I think my final verdict on 13 Sentinels' story will be contingent on whether it uses its unconventional structure for something meaningful, or if it's just confusing for confusing's sake (and knowing the GOAT Yoko Taro praised it, I'm hopeful).
Something I'm a little confused by is the ratio of information 13 Sentinels leaves ambiguous to that which it just directly tells you. I'm usually a pretty big advocate for show-don't-tell, but when a piece of media throws 30 wacky new keywords at you every second, I think it's totally understandable and generally advisable to include some exposition, or even a glossary. 13 Sentinels is an anime mystery game so it obviously would fall into that camp, and does indeed compensate with a much appreciated and cohesive glossary (and at that, a pretty clever one in that you unlock entries as you go). However, for how happy the game is to leave you in the dark on major plot details, it can be surprisingly heavy handed when it comes to the more digestible ones.
For instance, in the scene that introduces Megumi (whose plotline has probably interested me the most so far), she's walking and talking with her friend Tomi, and then Tomi basically just turns to the camera and says "This is my good friend Megumi Yakushiji. She's always been the Hopeless Romantic character archetype, probably because she's so Shy personality trait." I'm exaggerating a little of course, but what I mean is that it feels really awkward and unnatural to blatantly exposition dump during a casual conversation between high schoolers, especially when that exposition is simply one of said student's personality, something that was already being established organically. Now, it's honestly very possible that the tropeyness of the cast is actually a highly intentional David Lynchian stroke of genius, but when the rest of Megumi's plotline consists of contracting with a talking cat to shoot witches with a magical gun in order to revive her deceased boyfriend from a different era, and none of THAT is explained, I'll admit this kind of thing feels a little off— probably just some clunky translation, idk. When basic information is so bluntly communicated in a story otherwise seemingly apathetic to one's understanding of it, there are times when it's hard to tell whether the game actually respects its players' intelligence.
At least, going directly into another time traveling RPG immediately after Chrono Trigger gives me a little whiplash. On one hand, I think complexity is great for a story, but it also needs to be earned, well placed. CT's story is instantly very effective because of its simplicity, but 13 Sentinels' seems much more of a slow burn. With that being said, I do really appreciate how the characters themselves generally don't seem to know what the fuck is happening either, and it makes them a lot easier to connect with. On the surface, they may all be defined by an archetypal personality trait and a like and dislike or two, but with the game's focus on story and its 40 some hour runtime, I'd have to imagine they go a little deeper than that once they're better established.
13 Sentinels is as niche as it is a vibe, and from what I can tell, its opening chapters are a weeb-level filter if nothing else. Since it's as well received as it is, I think I'll just have to swallow my pride and trust VW to cook, but nonetheless it's pretty damn fun. :)
Just to preface, this review includes both my actual final verdict and initial thoughts (from roughly 10 hours in) on the game. The latter of which obviously don't fully reflect my current thoughts on the game, but I do think first impressions are still important!
Final Review
While I don't think it'll be for everyone, any fan of existentialist sci-fi and anime will surely find 13 Sentinels to be a real treat. It's clearly a passionate love letter to many of my favorite stories, and whether intentionally or not also borrows a lot of great aspects from other works I like; Terminator, Bladerunner, Alien, The Matrix, Godzilla, Men in Black, NieR, Zero Escape, the list goes on, and I've really gotta respect how well the game does thematic justice to each of its inspirations. On top of that, the originality Vanillaware brought to the table here shouldn't be downplayed. Where 13 Sentinels may lack some degree of cohesion, payoff for its unique design decisions, it certainly makes up for in innovation. I've never played another game quite like it, nor experienced another story quite like it, and though I find said story falls short in a few areas, its resolute experimentalism should be applauded nonetheless.
As for what I loved— the things that kept me playing daily till completion, I would have to cite the aesthetics, the mystery, the mech fights and their banter, and most of the characters. As I stated in my initial review, this game is just so. fucking. pretty! Each background is a stunningly beautiful painting, warmly lit with a palette of striking, glowing hues. Each character sports a simple yet effective design, brought to life by expressive, endearing animations, and a brilliantly emotive voice cast (I went with the English dub, and would recommend it to even the most dedicated sub Andys). The soundtrack too always provides an amazing accompaniment to the action onscreen, and a number of the tracks were very memorable— the final battle theme is so very hype. I even kinda like the way the battles look, albeit I will say they sorely lack visual clarity, not the most conducive trait to such a complex tactical rpg.
As for these battles, despite my minor complaints with their presentation, they were by far one of my favorite parts of the game, and I'm honestly pretty surprised by how divisive they seem! For me, they strike a really cool balance between rts and turn based combat, and even though they're all holograms they still feel incredibly badass, surely in no small part due to the satisfyingly punchy sound effects and campy voice lines. There's a refreshing amount of depth in how you approach encounters, manage team compositions, and otherwise game the system to your advantage, but it also somehow never felt remotely overwhelming to me. 13 Sentinels does a phenomenal job easing players into its mechanics, and that's no easy feat with just how many systems there are. I do sort of wish their difficulty spiked up a little sooner than it did (for the record, I played on the highest difficulty all the way through and it generally felt pretty well tuned), but once you begin reaching the final encounters you really need to plan and improvise strategically, particularly if you want S ranks. I'm super stoked to go back for the optional encounters you unlock after beating the game, and it was honestly just a really pleasant surprise to see their inclusion in the first place!
If you're reading this now, I do have quite a bit more to finish saying, though it's currently 4 am and Imma go to bed for the time being!
* * *
First Impressions
Pretty sure I'm only like 25% of the way through this beast, but I just wanted to get some initial thoughts out since it's been getting me to think a lot, and I've been enjoying my time with it pretty thoroughly! First off, this game looks and sounds gorgeous, and that's coming from someone who's generally not huge on anime artstyles! I'm a massive sucker for hand painted sprites and damn does Vanillaware deliver— the soundtrack goes insaneo style too. ALSO, I fw the mech combat hard, and I'd honestly be perfectly content if that's all 13 Sentinels was.
However, what I more so wanted to talk about was this game's narrative, an aspect of it I'm a little conflicted on, at least as of writing this. To specify, I'd like to speak more of its writing's quality than of my personal experience with it, because regardless of if it amounts to little more than pulpy anime bullshit, I can't lie, I've been getting quite a kick out of following the ludicrously convoluted paper trail. I think my final verdict on 13 Sentinels' story will be contingent on whether it uses its unconventional structure for something meaningful, or if it's just confusing for confusing's sake (and knowing the GOAT Yoko Taro praised it, I'm hopeful).
Something I'm a little confused by is the ratio of information 13 Sentinels leaves ambiguous to that which it just directly tells you. I'm usually a pretty big advocate for show-don't-tell, but when a piece of media throws 30 wacky new keywords at you every second, I think it's totally understandable and generally advisable to include some exposition, or even a glossary. 13 Sentinels is an anime mystery game so it obviously would fall into that camp, and does indeed compensate with a much appreciated and cohesive glossary (and at that, a pretty clever one in that you unlock entries as you go). However, for how happy the game is to leave you in the dark on major plot details, it can be surprisingly heavy handed when it comes to the more digestible ones.
For instance, in the scene that introduces Megumi (whose plotline has probably interested me the most so far), she's walking and talking with her friend Tomi, and then Tomi basically just turns to the camera and says "This is my good friend Megumi Yakushiji. She's always been the Hopeless Romantic character archetype, probably because she's so Shy personality trait." I'm exaggerating a little of course, but what I mean is that it feels really awkward and unnatural to blatantly exposition dump during a casual conversation between high schoolers, especially when that exposition is simply one of said student's personality, something that was already being established organically. Now, it's honestly very possible that the tropeyness of the cast is actually a highly intentional David Lynchian stroke of genius, but when the rest of Megumi's plotline consists of contracting with a talking cat to shoot witches with a magical gun in order to revive her deceased boyfriend from a different era, and none of THAT is explained, I'll admit this kind of thing feels a little off— probably just some clunky translation, idk. When basic information is so bluntly communicated in a story otherwise seemingly apathetic to one's understanding of it, there are times when it's hard to tell whether the game actually respects its players' intelligence.
At least, going directly into another time traveling RPG immediately after Chrono Trigger gives me a little whiplash. On one hand, I think complexity is great for a story, but it also needs to be earned, well placed. CT's story is instantly very effective because of its simplicity, but 13 Sentinels' seems much more of a slow burn. With that being said, I do really appreciate how the characters themselves generally don't seem to know what the fuck is happening either, and it makes them a lot easier to connect with. On the surface, they may all be defined by an archetypal personality trait and a like and dislike or two, but with the game's focus on story and its 40 some hour runtime, I'd have to imagine they go a little deeper than that once they're better established.
13 Sentinels is as niche as it is a vibe, and from what I can tell, its opening chapters are a weeb-level filter if nothing else. Since it's as well received as it is, I think I'll just have to swallow my pride and trust VW to cook, but nonetheless it's pretty damn fun. :)