это очень необычная игра! фактически она поделена на две казалось бы несвязанных половины: геймплей и история. немного о них:

геймплей:
во первых, музыка великолепна!
во вторых, я не знаток и, наверное, не фанат жанра, но игралось супер бодро! пусть система не самая глубокая на свете, а еще ее легко зачизить, но как же приятно уничтожать целые толпы кайдзю (тут саунд-дизайн + визуал работают превосходно)
также понравилась синергия системы брейн-оверлоуда и множителя хайскора за битвы, выигранные подряд.

история:
визуальная новелла-симулятор ходьбы-разговоров с людьми и мыслей. в этом плане напомнила диско элизиум, кстати! очень литературно и по книжному написанный сюжет, по структуре ощущается как интерактивная книга, где ты сам выбираешь, главу какого персонажа прочитать следующей. она в том числе про личность и про то, что делает нас.. нами?
снимаю шляпу перед писателями из VanillaWare - они умудрились сделать историю, в которой каждый из 13 главных героев ощущается как главный герой!
и, конечно, не стоит забывать о том, как разные люди могут играть в ОДНУ И ТУ ЖЕ игру и получить совершенно разный уникальный опыт разглядывания загадок истории и попыток понять все происходящее
и, кстати, понравился конец! клубок распутался.

а вот где это становится очень хорошим: история и геймплей работают вместе! вставки до и после боя добавляют контекста и раскрывают некоторые сюжетно-важные факты, а также являются некой передышкой для мозга после напряженного раскатывания сюжетного клубка. 
и пейсинг на удивление хорош, особенно для такого концепта!

на свиче играется великолепно, кстати.

The game is amazing. Great story and art style, if not for the big boobs.

The combat could be less abstract, but it grew on me.

Yay for gay couples

I picked this up as a continuation of my JRPG Journal series but quickly realized that this is much more than just an anime video game

So no, this is not WEAreVermit's JRPG Journal Entry 8

This is 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

I only learned of this game about a month ago and quickly added it to my backlog. The reason I play games is not for fun gameplay or cool characters. The reason I love this medium so much is because the narratives that can be told through it push past the storytelling of almost every other medium. So when I heard that this game was renowned for its exceptional narrative, well I knew it was my next playthrough.

It is that hype of having such an incredible narrative that ultimately stops me from giving this the perfect score. Don't get me wrong, the story is excellent and told exceptionally well. There are reveals and twists and turns around every corner with each storyline creating new questions just as the old ones are answered. My brain was on fire the entire time I played this game. The entire time I wasn't playing this game I was just thinking of it. Connecting the dots and putting the timeline together. That is just about the highest praise that I can give this game. The staying power. It is also the reason why I can see myself warming up to this game even if I do have some caveats with the narrative and maybe grow to give this a full 5 stars. Because it certainly is unique. It is as unique as it is derivative. You can clearly see all these inspirations from all pieces of sci-fi history and it is clear that the writer has such a deep love and passion for high concept sci-fi. It also is full of random anime nonsense that kind of brings some storylines to a grinding halt.

Characters like Iori and Natsuno are well written, but their storylines are just boring. Almost nothing happens and all the cool parts of their stories occur in other character's stories. I like the idea that the intricate spiderweb of stories can connect the 13 protagonists but pretty much everyone else is the main character of their own story. It felt like Iori and Natsuno were just there for the ride. Especially their love interests. They just met and fell in love. Kind of rushes through some concepts that I think could have strengthened their characters. But everyone else I think are really interesting and incredibly well written. If I had to pick a top 5 it'd be
1.) Nanji Ogata
2.) Yuki Takamiya
3.) Takatoshi Hijiyama
4.) Renya Gouto
5.) Tomi Kisaragi

These storylines had me the most intrigued and excited to continue. Nanji was just such a cool character and his storyline tied into SO MANY others that it just worked the most for me. Ei is probably 6th on that list. Truth be told all of these stories were excellent (except for Iori's and Natsuno's) that it would be really hard to rank them all properly. I don't want to spend so much time talking about the story because that's literally the whole game so I'll just end it with this.

I LOVE THE ENDING.

(Thematic spoiler incoming)



I love that it is a happy ending. The whole epilogue had me smiling the entire time. It is such a beautiful way to end this journey. Most high-concept sci-fi ends on bleak notes or thematically dark endings. I love how much the story makes sense and connects by the end and that we actually get to see what these characters are up to after the fact.

Good endings don't happen enough in video games and sticking the landing was something I was so worried about when playing this game, but it more than suffices to end this intricate weaving narrative. I do not want a sequel. I would hate to see such a picture-perfect ending be ruined even if a sequel could be just as good. I'm happy leaving this one where it is.

Onto gameplay which is a whole completely different mode. Destruction is where the mech vs kaiju gameplay comes into play and I have to say, for having such an emphasis on story this game's combat is actually ridiculously fun. Something about this combat scratched my brain and I would spend my days playing the story and nights before bed remote playing the destruction mode to my Steamdeck (who needs a Playstation Portal when you got a modded steamdeck). The combat, with its top-down angular camera and realtime with pause/turn based mechanics really reminded me of a more fast and amped up to 11 version of a Larian Studios game. Turn based is always much more fun when you get to control objects in a 3D space (even if in this game they are just pixels on a digital map). I see that the 4th area unlocked and if I ever need a podcast game with endless arenas to destroy mecha kaiju in I'll probably keep returning to this game. For what could have been an afterthought, Destruction was just as fun for me as playing through the story was.

If I did have any downside it would be that this story cannot be properly experienced more than once. It is told in such a visual novel way that this would probably drag if you already know where the story is heading. I could see how maybe connecting the dots from the beginning would be cool but by the end you'd "get it" and it wouldn't be as interesting. But in a way, that is an upside. That means that this experience is so well done that it makes that first playthrough one of the most memorable in your entire gaming career.

Needless to say I get the hype. I had some expectations going in but no matter what you have in mind I'm sure you'll be sufficed one way or another.

A mind-bending story that skillfully weaves a massively interconnected narrative between thirteen different main characters. The ability to pull a story of these proportions while being this accessible and consistently entertaining cannot be overstated. Each character wishes to continue living or find a reason to live in a world that repeteadly refuses their existence, and the whole work has such a hopeful, compelling message about wanting to continue forward despite all adversity that I felt couldn’t be the one left behind. The gameplay only helps drive these themes and serves its purpose excellently.

My only real complaint about the narrative is that most of the romances needed tighter writing or more scenes to really sell most of the emotional beats. This is a clear plot centered story despite the multiple protagonists, and characterization being on the thin end was understandable for a huge chunk of the story, but personal attachment was slightly lacking with certain characters when you finally unveil all the layers of this Shinzo Abe coded plot.

I think this is a fantastic VN to get into the genre, especially when the presentation is this top notch, but I find worth mentionining it is also an aggressively horny experience. Seems like a Vanillaware thing. It’s sad that some questionable artistic choices rightfully tarnish the reputation of one of the best narratives in the medium. This is easily one of my new favorites.

Nos ombros dos gigantes que subimos: uma homenagem de clássicos da sci-fi pra cada personagem, sutilmente alteradas o suficiente para não passar da inspiração, espertamente entrelaçados em um emaranhado narrativo lento de desamarrar. Cada episódio é um microcosmo que em seu pior é entretivo e lindamente ilustrado, e em seu melhor, ótimas peças de ficção científica em um globinho de neve. O vai e vem de vários personagens é fortalecido pelo carisma e rica personalidade de quase todo o elenco.

O que no ínicio parece um pesadelo nível 100 Anos de Solidão de decoração de nomes eventualmente revela suas camadas e se mostra que é um pesadelo ainda maior, porém com garotinhos e garotinhas e robôzinhos de anime que eu acabei curtindo bastante, cada um de sua forma. As sessões de combate, inicialmente alheio e confuso em seu lugar na história, acabam por ressaltar essas conexões, além de permitir que você crie suas próprias com os seus soldados favoritos - Nenji Ogata é o meu GOAT.

Não consigo imaginar o pesadelo de escrever uma história modular que envolve treze protagonistas, viagem no tempo, clonagem, inteligência artificial, loops e paradoxos, realidades alternativas e múltipla personalidade - é como se o twist do Liquid Ocelot fosse repetido a cada 30 minutos durante o jogo todo. É impressionante que o jogo, ainda assim, não ficou maçante em momento algum - fato que se pode dar por eu tê-lo jogado em doses homeopáticas ao longo de dois meses.

A natureza modular da história contribui muito à evitar à mesmice, total confiança dada ao jogador para decidir a ordem da experiência: eu preferia jogar um capítulo de cada na hora de dormir até cair no sono, e durante o dia jogava as fases de combate. Outra vez, ressalto que escrever um tipo de narrativa que não desmancha absolutamente diante dessa libertinagem é um feito hercúleo.

E devo adicionar: ilustrações absurdas aqui se encontram, que, misturadas com o sistema de iluminação - bem dramático em seu caloroso pôr-do-sol e manhãs serenadas - criaram uma qualidade de apresentação que é fascinante em sua simplicidade de execução e beleza. É quase difícil não achar um momento do jogo que não pareça digno de um screenshot.

Por que eu sempre choro com esses finais idílicos?

O entendimento da vida e do amor como aquilo que é puro da alma e nunca somente dos corpos e dos suportes, dá vontade de viver indendente da condição daquilo que entendemos por vida.

Viva por seus devaneios, viva pelas histórias, viva por quem você ama, por nós e por você.

This game is a visual novel in spirit, and a fantastic one at that. It's a cleverly executed sci-fi mystery story, with a controversial (but in my opinion quite good) gameplay segment that's strongly decoupled from the narrative sections.

The narrative is neither linear nor chronological, being largely split between the thirteen playable characters' individual stories, which themselves are often not chronological or feature large gaps that can only be pieced together by revisiting the same event from another character's point of view.
The each of these thirteen scenarios are quite different in tone and structure, ranging from typical linear narratives to groundhog day scenarios, and from whodunits to shojo romance.
Overall, the story is very good but not flawless. Piecing together this Rube Goldberg machine of a story is a very unique experience and incredibly satisfying, though like many mysteries of this kind it loses some traction in its third act, as the plot loses its "what the fuck"-ness and struggles to find another strong emotion to drive it. Nevertheless, the twists and revelations never stop coming, and the story sticks the landing with a satisfying ending.
The character writing is worth highlighting as well. The shifting point of view means no character remains in the spotlight for very long, and yet the cast is composed of fleshed out and multidimensional characters, with distinct personalities that leverage tropes quite tastefully.
One specific problem I have with the writing is that most of the female playable characters' narratives rely very heavily on their romantic interests to drive the story, which feels a little uninspired, but each is still distinct enough in style and substance that I can easily look past this.

The combat sections, although disliked by many, were actually very enjoyable for me. The gameplay is difficult to label, as it's fairly unique, but it resembles the "real time with pause" style of combat featured in some CRPGs.
The game's narrative and combat sections are distinctly separate and don't really intermingle, though progression in one is occasionally gated by the other, and you need to complete both to finish the game. The gameplay half has a story of its own, and piecing together where and how it fits into the rest of the story is a fun part of the experience.
Personally, I found the gameplay a little easy, but still good fun. On the highest difficulty I found myself getting S ranks on most missions on my first try, and only one of them took me more than one retry to get that highest ranking. I never failed a mission, or even came close to doing so.

I remember the feeling of being entranced by games like Danganronpa or the Nonary Games when I was younger, with their particular flavour of dramatic mystery and mind-blowing moments of discovery. Whether it's an increased sensitivity to those games' problems or just the passing of time, I've found it difficult to go back to them now and feel even a shadow of that excitement.
To have experienced something like that again all these years later and in a game which I have no real gripes with has been a privilege. I'd recommend this to anyone.

I had heard from a bunch of people that this game was absolutely incredible, and maybe one of the best games released in a while. And uh. Wow. Yeah, this was an incredible experience.

The storytelling is the biggest highlight here. I don't really wanna say much about it cause like, this is the real meat of the game. But I will say that this game manages to juggle 13 protagonists, and none of them feel underdeveloped or pointless. It's so cool the way the story unfolds and the way the characters grow, and by the end of the game, I really liked and cared about just about every character, even the ones I wasn't fond of at the start.

The battle portions were super satisfying as well. I'm not much of a TRPG person, but the battle mechanics in this felt really fluid, unique, and fun. And the way the game forces you to keep swapping around what characters you have in battle felt like it made the game feel more balanced. And something about that firework sound effect when an enemy dies is just soooooooo satisfying, especially when you destroy a ton of enemies all at once. I still definitely preferred the story segments, but the battles were really fun and not too hard for me.

All of this packed into a game with genuinely one of the most beautiful art styles I've ever seen in a video game. Both the painting-like art style in the story segments, and the more futuristic, electronic, & neon art style of the battle segments.

Not to mention the music is phenomenal as well. Not even just the battle themes, the story segment music is all so beautiful and nails the emotions perfectly. All with some really fun and pretty instrumentation. I love this soundtrack so much.

So yeah, this is a truly unique and phenomenal game. I highly recommend it.