Super 13 Euphoria: Subarashiki Sky

If you want the short version I actually really liked the game despite my grievances with the last quarter and the tower defense gameplay merged with the weird gatekeeping system.

(+) Plot (not the ED)

The very idea of telling a story from 13 different perspectives is just absurd, its so easy to mess it up and have it all feel convoluted and even though the actual plot itself is very hard to follow for the sheer mish mashing of (spoilers) events over separate eras, the multi-perspective storytelling is done VERY competently. Some perspectives didn’t qualitatively add much for example Iori’s route is total garbage, but then other routes were REALLY good. The way I’ve described the quality of storytelling in this game is that its insanely difficult to design a story such that it doesn’t feel like you’re hearing the same facts again and again especially with 13 PERSPECTIVES.

13 sentinels is a culmination of so many of sci-fi tropes in JP media that I lost count, oh you want cloning? mind control? time travel? cyborgs? AI? Whatever you can name the story definitely puts its feet in it, and somehow all of these still felt fresh and (for the most part) fully realized.

The pacing is really bad at the prologue for everyone’s routes, not so much so that its slow infact quite the opposite, you are forced to consume so much information that doesn’t make any sense that its almost a complete turnoff.

I like the idea of sprinkling in story-bits out-of-context that make sense much later down the line but there’s so much happening in a single route sometimes that you can straight up forget where it picks back up when you revisit it after completing OTHER routes that have a lot happening in them. Even then the game still does a very good job of having such distinct events and outcomes occur in routes that you’re able to still have a mental log before you revisit it eventually.

I’m not going to split hairs about the actual plot, sure there are silly moments here and there and I feel like the story is too needlessly incessant on being convoluted especially with added jargon as JP media already does but I have nothing really negative to write about the plot, I just had a lot of fun after the first quarter up till the end. Well-paced and well delivered, as much as they could at least.

(+/-) Characters

All the characters in this game are exactly as 1 dimensional and follow character archetypes that have existed in countless JP media in the past, you ALREADY know these characters before they even properly get introduced in the game because both their design and their dialogue are reminiscent of the mold they were pulled out from.

I think most of the characters are likable but I don’t know what is wrong with the authors they could not write a single character that doesn’t get paired with another, it was such a massive turn-off I almost thought there was a plot-related reason why some characters would suddenly go into heat throughout the game, turning red as if they had a permanent rash on their face one itch away from peeling off their skins, this game has the WORST most POINTLESS romance it actively annoyed me holy shit.

(+) Presentation

Phenomenal, beautiful game

(-) (FORCED) Gameplay

There’s 2 types of gameplay, one is during the “Visual Novel” portion where you have to select actionable/thinkable items from your thought cloud (or on the rare occasion you’ll press a button to shoot) and then there’s a whole separate mode that is tower defense gameplay.

To be abundantly fair I haaaaaaaaaaaaated the tower defense but I had to only do 3-4 consecutive sessions on it up until the game gatekept me, so as inexcusably mind-numbing destruction is it doesn’t take up the massive percentage of annoyance the thought cloud takes up. I HATE THE THOUGHT CLOUD.

The game forcefully breaks up conversations so you keep hitting the interaction key with a character (or multiple) and sometimes it was so absurd that the game will go as far as to have “hello” and the main agenda of the convo require separate key presses to continue the conversation. The thought cloud is artificial interactivity added to the game, the game essentially probes you to select specific pieces of information from the cloud and highlights them out which makes it even STUPIDER… why even encourage the player like this to continue a stream of conversation when you could just continue the conversation directly? Oh right then it wouldn’t make sense why this is even a game rather than a VN.

The most absurd example of the thought cloud “gameplay” is when the game forces you to wander around school, listen to floating conversations and then go collect coins along the premises. BAD.

I don’t like the weird gatekeeping between destruction and remembrance but the gatekeeping within remembrance makes perfect sense. Remove destruction entirely.

(-) The Ending

As much as I will forever hate this type of ending, the game strongly hints it and it does make logical sense as the ultimate conclusion. I still do NOT like the ending but I wasn't melting with rage it felt very reasonable and its unfortunate that this type of ending is just... its tired.

(+/-) OST

It serves its purpose not much to say

Truly a one-of-a-kind experience. While this game may not be for everyone (i.e. those who enjoy a bit more "game" or who can't tolerate anime tropes in their stories), it truly excels as one of the most interesting narrative experiences I have ever seen in a game. The art style is gorgeous throughout, and while the animations are limited, they never fail to be expressive. While narrative is the clear focus of the game, and its greatest strength, the pseudo-RTS "Destruction" mode is still a rather enjoyable pallet cleanser in between all the dialog heavy interactive cutscenes. As a package, 13 Sentinels is just so unique, and so ambitious with how it presents its story that you can't help but be in awe of it.

On the gameplay side, you have 2 options. "Remembrance", which are the 13 individual character stories for each of the main characters, and "Destruction", the RTS mech combat mode that involves about 90% of the actual "gameplay". Destruction is a relatively simple game mode, with S ranks for the missions being almost trivial to achieve without any challenge, but the core mechanics are actually quite strong and fun to play with, and as you progress, further upgrades and enemy types manage to actually push you a bit in the late game, forcing you to stategise to achieve those S ranks. That depth to the gameplay comes a bit too late to really make the mode stand-out for most people I imagine, and that fact is not helped by the absolutely horrible in-game UI, and even moreso the upgrade menu. The amount of visual clutter makes it so easy to miss unlockable upgrades which offer some of the most enjoyable mechanics to really make the 13 characters stand-out from each other. In-game, the simple digtal map aesthetic is functional for the most part, but doesn't really convey the cool factor of the mech combat, and at worst it can become downright headache inducing to keep track of all the things on screen. In the end, Destruction does provide some casual fun, and there is depth and optimization to be found, but the game takes too long to ramp-up to it, and never really demands that much out of the player, which is a shame.

Despite this, the real meat and potatoes of this game is the Remembrance mode. This mode plays out as a visual-novel crossed with a point-and-click adventure game, though it lacks the puzzles that make-up the bulk of the experience in the latter. Instead, this mode feels a bit more like a television show than a real game, with most of the time being watching cutscenes with minor interactivity to give the player something to do. While that fact may deter a more casual audience from playing this game, the sheer ambition of the narrative and the bold way it presents itself is what elevates this game into greatness. You get 13 character stories to explore, and each one will reveal bits and pieces of the greater narrative, but you can explore those stories in almost any order, and with a narrative that throws as much information and concepts at you as this game does, that player-determined order can lead to you making wildly different predictions on where the plot if going, and THAT is the most fun part of this game. I liken the experience of this game to a show like Lost in that most of the story unfolds through flashbacks, but placing those flashbacks together in order, and using them to try and solve the greater mysteries, is just an absolute blast. Truly, the story of this game is one of my favourites to have experienced, and even if it can't always wrap itself together with how insanely dense with information it is, the journey was one I will never forget.

I haven't experienced many other visual novel or point-and-click adventure games, so a lot of the charm of this game comes from the sheer quality of the delivery of the mechanics of those genres. Everything from voice work, to animations, to art design, to music, it all creates a solid bedrock upon which the rest of the game can unfold. The narrative is breathtaking in scope, but still manages to take time to ensure the characters themselves get fleshed out. The RTS Destruction game mode is a good time, with a decent amount of player expression to be had, even if it fails to really push those mechanics to their fullest extent. Overall, it's a truly one-of-a-kind experience, and one that I will forever cherish as an all-time favourite.

story + characters: was good from start to end, with twists. If you want the story to be told chronologically though that is not the case here.

sound & graphics: really good/clean art style and sound design. After playing the game I still frequently play the Ost, and even more so play 2 songs from the game.

gameplay:
this was my biggest worry before playing the game. I liked the combat from the start, and it just became better and better and better the more I played and understood more & unlocked more "weapons".

summary: Really fucking good game

This is one of those games I can’t help but have a ton of respect for after finishing it. As a relatively new Vanillaware fan (Unicorn Overlord was my first title from them) it’s no wonder this game is beloved by so many and I’d say it’s more than earned it’s passionate fanbase.

The prospect of weaving together a narrative of 13 different protagonists to create a cohesive story isn’t something I would’ve ever thought could work as well as it does here, and the fact that it does is extremely impressive. With that said, there are some hiccups with the overall story presented here which frankly was always going to be the case given how ambitious this method of storytelling is.

Most if not all of the protagonists are endearing and have their own standout moments from their own stories, and being able to gradually piece things together in varying orders depending on whose stories you focus on was overall a fun experience that does a great job of getting you attached to the characters themselves. Some were more interesting than others (Minami and Ogata were particularly great) but I’d argue everyone at least had something going for them that kept their respective narratives interesting. I had a few qualms with the ending of the overall plot and felt some aspects were rather convoluted but at the end of the day it’s more than serviceable and accomplishes what it sets out to do.

The combat sections are…fine. You assign members of the team weapons and abilities to fight in squads through strategic mech battles fighting off waves of machines, and its clear that while these sections serve the plot, it isn’t the focus of 13 Sentinels. It works well enough and can thankfully be taken care of relatively quickly if you know what you’re doing, especially given that the battles themselves aren’t particularly difficult.

Overall, Vanillaware made something special here and it’s no wonder that this game has developed such a dedicated following. It isn’t perfect, but the scope of the game combined with its endearing cast of characters makes this a title I’d recommend to just about anyone into narrative-heavy titles.

Наверное, чтобы искренне полюбить 13 Sentinels, нужно так же любить жанр Sci-fi, который не то чтобы меня цепляет. У меня нет никаких претензий к повествовательно части игры, а геймплейная часть не смотря на всю простоту даже радует (не в последнюю очередь тем, что не душит между сюжетными главами).

Естественно отдельно хочется отметить графический стиль Vanillaware, который неизменно радует и частенько смущает откровенными изображениями героев.

Игра абсолютно точно не плохая, и я даже мог бы рекомендовать с ней ознакомиться. Но пройдя где-то половину я поймал себя на том, что мне просто не интересно следить за происходящим и не очень-то интересно что произойдёт дальше. Поэтому было решено забросить игру и идти дальше

This game is so good.
The story is absolutely fantastic, it's very complex and told in an EXTREMELY interesting and unique way but still makes perfect sense. Because of the nature of the presentation, plot revelations can be found in completely different orders depending on the player's choice. I've never seen anything quite like it, and it's really amazing.
The gameplay is also really fun and pretty unique, although not as unique as the story. It's a fusion of tower defense and trpg with a focus on customization. The enemies are pretty standard but still lead to fun situations that force you to improvise.
The game definitely isn't for everyone. You're essentially playing a normal game bundled together with a visual novel that you swap between. They feel rather disconnected, which is definitely intentional but some people might not be a fan of. It's also a bit too anime for my tastes (although the plot and characters more than make up for it). Also, it's a small issue but there's one or two characters who feel a little bit underdeveloped considering their plot significance, even if they only feel underdeveloped because of how good everyone else is. All of these issues don't really matter though, especially considering how amazing it is that this game works at all.

13 sentinels aegis rim is one of those games i saw get really hyped up and picked up because of how much i liked the english VAs in it. after playing like three jrpgs prior to this i much appreciated the break of a 30 hour game even though those 30 hours were completely batshit. Let’s discuss:
- story is really good. and also VERY convoluted. every scene you’re gonna be sifting through plot twists. it does have a slow start (especially when you’re going through six or so different prologues) and i got kind of bored of what i call interactable cutscenes where a long exposition dump is interrupted by you needing to interact w the character again so its not just a 30 minute cutscene (this is a constant throughout the game) but i kept coming back every day just because i was HOOKED and finished the game in under a week. juggling 13 stories is no easy feat and i think this game does so very well in a way that’s very well… characteristic for each character. the stories riff off and shout out a lot of other media (even outside of sci-fi) so most of the references fly over my head but i still enjoyed it? it’s absolutely helped by the analysis mode which recaps events in chronological order and sticks specific reveals in mystery files; looking at that alone answered most of my lingering questions about the plot when the story itself wasn’t quite clear. it actually made more sense to me than some simpler stories i’ve gone through (eg. persona 2 innocent sin, a game i played not long before this, where i could not tell you what the hell in lak’ech was about) which is SURPRISING
- you need to know AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE about the story going in though. to get the best experience
- characters: this cast fucking rocks. there’s only one character out of the main cast i really didn’t like and even then i think her story is cool (even if i think they kind of drop the ball with its resolution it still made me cry for other reasons?!! can’t explain without spoilers) i just got tired of megumi going “juro… 🥺🥺🥺” after the first three times. i would break down what i like about each one but that would take forever and it’s also hard to be spoiler free about it. side cast is cool too though i wish they had the time to do more with tamao in particular. there is so much cut content and ideas for this game it’s not even funny
- gameplay: i don’t have much experience with RTS games so i was worried i would regret buying this looking at the gameplay but it’s pretty… fun?!! it’s like a power trip for me even on normal (i managed to S rank every story stage with.. not that much struggle?!). experience may vary between ports bc i know the switch version made some changes. my personal strategy i settled into was using just the first and third gen sentinels but different stages will call for different team and even armament compositions. it’s quite malleable like that. since destruction all takes place chronologically after remembrance i decided i would play as much of remembrance as i could before i needed to progress in destruction and then go back and since destruction can spoil some stuff it’s not a bad idea but also sitting through story can get kind of tiring especially with the information overload. it’s a balancing act. i also had the occasional performance issue but that was only when my screen had sensory overload levels of attacks and kaiju like the missile rain armament and it runs super well otherwise.
- oh i guess remembrance also had some gameplay too? aside from the extended cutscenes it was pretty easy to get through. i had to look up a walkthrough a couple of times but the system will generally lead you in the right direction
- presentation is AMAZING. this is my first vanillaware game and holy shit they were not kidding that art is gorgeous. character designs are top notch. music is also really good; not mindblowing because a lot of the soundtrack is ambient but some tracks do really stick with me even outside the battle themes. my favorite track is probably the insert song seaside vacation. once again can’t speak for the jp cast but the english voice acting is so good i’m shocked to learn they recorded during covid lockdown and it still turned out THIS GOOD. i firmly believe because of the versatility of these roles that they’re among the best roles for many of these VAs. allegra clark (one of my ALL TIME FAVES ❤️) and mick wingert (who i’m surprised i didn’t discover was this good sooner?!) in particular have to do a lot of heavy lifting here and WOW do they exceed expectations!!! but they’re not the only ones who get to show the extent of their range they’re just the biggest examples
- unfortunately this is not a five star rating. there are two things that bump it down for me though not enough to be just 4 stars. they are the needless high schooler fanservice (ESPECIALLY the girls… the staff’s perverted tastes are embedded so far in down to how they summon their sentinels compared to the boys…) and the obligatory pairings between all the protagonists. with story in mind i can sort of get why it’s there and appreciate how they play with some characters having multiple different love interests depending on their Circumstances but they feel kind of shoehorned in (like “this is a boy and this is a girl so they have to kiss!”) so really not all pairings are created equal.
- the bright side to these forced pairings is that we do get a queer romance that is MY personal favorite but honestly even if it was a straight couple and thus we didn’t get the comphet dilemma it would still be the best couple in the game.

to sum up: if you can sit through a lot of mind melting story (probably the biggest barrier) focused on high schoolers i highly recommend this game. lived up to all the hype For Me. peak fiction. 4 and a half hemborgers

Absolutely mindblowing.
This game has one of the most complex narratives I've seen in a videogame, and by the end, it successfully manages to answer every single question you have, and this is what I call good writing.

The way the story is structured is very fascinating, having to replay the same sections but slowly gathering more information and creating new branching paths is such a clever idea to tell a story, and it never gets boring. Also the way the overarching story is connected via the character stories is incredible, some character arcs conclude inside other characters' arcs, and they make perfect sense.
Reading the mystery files also gives a ton of information about what is currently happening in the game, and it's very helpful.

Sadly the game has only one specific flaw, which is honestly quite major, and it's the gameplay. The Destruction mode itself is a decent idea, having combat in between keeps it fresh considering how the vast majority of the game consists of pure dialogue, however, the combat itself is very shallow and mediocre, even though it can be fun sometimes, there are barely any interesting mechanics, and it's frustratingly repetitive. It only gets worse when you are forced to progress the Destruction mode so you can progress the story because it hurts the pacing.

Personally I didn't expect to love this game that much, it's a very unique experience, the plot hooks you from the beginning and slowly unravels in a way I've never seen before, the overall story is just phenomenal, and the characters are very well written.

Final Rating: "Amazing" ~ 9/10.

I put this game off for the longest time. I wish I didn't. This game needs way more attention than it gets :(
Cons: sadly you can tell that the developers had to cut content and skip over extra-shit which is a shame considering the circumstances surrounding this game...
Pros: The cast are great, Gameplay might seem like a turn your brain off type-beat but can take you by surprise with some curveballs, The story is very good, and even more satisfying when you piece together the entire timeline.
Recommend this game to more people please ;(