A story that leaves no one indifferent through Vanillaware's unmistakable artistic style.

13 sentinels is a visual novel with mecha RTS combat. The strong point of the game is how the story is told, fragmented in 13 characters, being able to start practically with the one you want and then link with the others.

It is an achievement how well written it is, as with 13 different characters, starting the story at different times depending on the character at the end of the journey everything makes sense.

Also the use of combat, which is another way to tell the story of what is happening.

I wish they would release it on steam so it will reach more people, if you have playstation or switch I don't know what you are waiting for. And if you think it's not your style visual novels I encourage you to try it when it's on sale.

Una historia que no deja indiferente a nadie a través del estilo artístico inconfundible de Vanillaware.

13 sentinels es una novela visual con combates RTS de mechas. El punto fuerte del juego es como se cuenta la historia, fragmentada en 13 personajes pudiendo empezar prácticamente por el que quieras y luego ir enlazando con los otros.

Es un logro lo bien escrito que está, como con 13 personajes diferentes, empezando la historia en diferentes momentos según el personaje al final del trayecto todo tiene sentido.

También el uso de los combates, que son otra forma de contar la historia de lo que va sucediendo.

Ojalá lo sacarán en steam para que llegará a más gente, si tienes playstation o switch no sé a que estas esperando. Y si crees que no es tu estilo las novelas visuales te animo a probarlo cuando esté de oferta.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about this game but never looked into it because I wasn’t sure it was my thing. However, after playing & really enjoying Unicorn Overlord, Vanillaware’s most recent game, I got curious again & decided to take the plunge…

And man am I glad I did. There’s not much I can say without spoiling but this game kept me guessing almost all the way through & I gasped out loud several times as things got revealed. Pretty much every character in this game is well written, even the ones that didn’t initially caught my interest ended up becoming some of my favorites.

I heard before hand that the battle gameplay was a bit on the weaker side & yeah, I do have to agree on that. It’s not the best, but it did grow on me so it wasn’t as bad as I feared. I’m actually going back to to some of those battles to get an S rank on all so that says something as well. Even if you can’t get into the combat, the story absolutely makes up for it though.

So yeah, I highly recommend this game!

Personally, I do not think another game will take the number one spot away from this game in my lifetime. First game that had me excited to take notes to keep track of different narrative pieces each scene kind of shifting your understanding slightly or insanely. The music is also amazing god deoxybirose is such an amazing track, and in my opinion, its got some of the best voice acting performances ever done in the medium with an insanely stacked cast. While I do expect some games like disco elysium, xenoblade 1, and fata morgana to maybe come close to topping this experience, on a personal level this shit was just so fucking ambitious and lands what its trying to achieve so well its insane. I could see how someone could have some minor issues with this game but to me personally this is my favorite game of all time. Its crazy cause you know the more time passes from playing a game and the more you grow and change the more hazy and fuzzy the memory of it becomes and you know it becomes a lot harder to keep older shit on your top 10 because the newer shit you've played is more fresh in your mind and of course its better by comparison, but even with that in mind and all the 10/10s ive played in the last year, nothing has topped this for me and I think thats a testament to how fucking impressive and gutsy this game is. Even the process of it getting made is really interesting I suggest after finishing it reading some Q&A's and interviews with george kamitani cause i think its really impressive that vanillaware, although their catalogue is amazing theyre not really known for their narrative, was able to pull off a game this good and was able to work on it for this long without someone forcing them to release it.

This game is one of, if not the most insane sci-fi story out there, touching on nearly trope the genre has to offer making it a unique and memorable experience. It’s hard to grasp the scope, to piece together what you’re consuming and how it fits in the puzzle. Confusion haunts the majority of the game. It’s part of the formula that keeps 13 Sentinels so engrossing.

It’s tough to review this game without telling you what it’s about, and I don't mean the plot but the experience itself. Let me elaborate. Whenever you start a new game you’re not familiar with you trip and stumble doing silly things, you attack everything around you to see what breaks, you try talking to every NPC to get something. In a nutshell, you try every action available and learn from the responses you get. That’s our way to understand the worlds we get into, how we get familiar with the rules the game devs set. In your first 5 hours, 13 Sentinels will toy with this idea, it will teach you using deceit. After finishing the first set of prologues the game opens up to an overwhelming degree, letting you continue the story of the characters you just played as at your own leisure. This is where the guess work begins, picking up a character’s story will leave you at a state that doesn’t quite make sense. There isn’t a linear progression from where you last left it at, sometimes it will be as if you never did the prologue at all, you’re back to square one, but things seem a little different. You get the flowchart. A web of seemingly interconnected events that more often than not take you back to the same starting point despite progressing further. The game is certainly teaching you something, though you start doubting what is shown to you. This is where your mind starts to wander. What is happening? Is this an alternate story? A different character? Time-period? Timeline? Universe? My mind surely went through these theories and more.

There is a golden rule in horror media, “Don’t show the monster”. When you do it stops being scary. The reason is because what is the scariest is what your mind comes up with, your thirst of expectation grows wild as it brews in your head. When you show the monster, it becomes underwhelming compared to whatever you concocted in your mind. 13 Sentinels gives me a similar feeling throughout, where my theories were put to test with each new reveal, to my surprise what lied behind the curtain was an escalation, an even crazier idea than the concepts I thought of. It tore down what I planned, and where did that take me? Back to square one. In a funny way the gameplay loop is the ideas that run through your head and the re-conceptualization at each step. Your experience is likely to be different than mine, the plot can be tackled in any order feeding reveals at different paces. 13 Sentinels balances this by locking you out of some events until you have better understanding of others. This is a fail-safe that keeps the sense of escalation going. Of course, it doesn’t do so infinitely, it has to crescendo at some point. Whether the final reveal and conclusion is satisfying is up to how your expectations were met, and whether your head went beyond what Vanillaware had in mind. I for one, was pretty satisfied with the conclusion, the epilogue was a wholesome cherry on top of the whole experience.

The plot of 13 Sentinels is boxed in the “Remembrance” section, which I’d argue is the gameplay itself, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about “Destruction”, a complete subversion of the formula. Much like in the game I wasn’t quite sure where it fit in this review. Destruction takes place in the very final battle, but is introduced at the very beginning. It’s very akin to an RTS and possibly added as a selling point. I understand the idea of a visual novel is a very hard sell to your average gamer. Destruction has a complex UI and as such the game holds your hand through the majority of it. It starts too slow and seemed like a distraction from the main plot… at the start. In time I really started to enjoy it. The strategic scenarios are clever, it becomes a decent challenge towards the end of the game. I just found it a shame it took so long to click.

I’ve played several graphic novels in the past and let me tell you, most of them aren’t good. 13 Sentinels is a cut above the rest, with better looking sprites and more interactivity than its peers you should not sleep on this one even if you’re sour on the genre.

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."

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. :)

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

(Plot twist the game)
Oh boy where to start.well for starters it truly does live up to all its praises if not exceeds it.

The story:-
Man this was such a journey,It's no exaggeration to call this one of the best storys I have experienced in any medium Tho I can agree this game is not for everyone you either got to have a good memory to remember the all the events to link them together and understand the story or keep notes but damm is it worth it I had my mouth dropped so many times cause of the plot twists and the story is so well crafted for the way it conveys it linking things together as you figure out the story along with the characters
is just gold.in the ending when I saw the ending and reconstructed the story it was truly satisfying

The combat:-
Tbh I didn't think I would enjoy it at all from the trailers and reviews but God damn was I proved wrong.the combats like a rts tower defense but you have so many options with the meta system upgrades to your mech and team building.watching waves of enemies get obliterated will never not be satisfying.tho I did feel the Final battle was a little disappointing.

The ost is also really good especially area 2 wave 5

Final thoughts:you should give this game atleast a chance if u find it on a subscription service or smtg yes the first hour is confusing but it does get really good after that.

(Funny story:-as I was watching the ending the power cut so watched it on yt and the video length was 13mins so was my phones battery
You know 13 ppl and stuff haha....I'll leave sorry)

Video games that cannot be replicated in any other medium tend to be exemplary in their presentation & mode of storytelling, one that simply can't be formed through traditionally constructed stories. 13 Sentinels, alongside Outer Wilds, is the title I'd point to in saying "This is why video games are art."

13 Sentinels is such an accomplishment in video game storytelling and its status as being a severely underlooked game is quite a shame. I don't think I've seen a story with so many moving parts and elements that could so easily crumble, yet sustains the strongest parts of its plot and intertwines them with genuinely captivating and moving character arcs. Everything works together so seamlessly here: both the gameplay, the different routes and individual plotlines mesh in an ever-expansive web of terminology, events, timelines, characters & whatever the fuck in a way that all links together just perfectly. Somehow, a story of behemoth proportions in scale never loses touch of anything and in the end you're rewarded with a powerful, uplifitng message of humanity's continuous perseverance among other things that'd be spoilers you don't deserve to hear for such a phenomenal work.

To say 13 Sentinels isn't a sum of its sci-fi counterparts would be a lie, yet it doesn't even feel like any sci-fi story I've seen regardless. Pulling in tropes from all forms of sci-fi media from Evangelion, Godzilla, 2001: A Space Odyssey and more, this could've easily been a mess of tropes and a watered down version of much more iconic sci-fi tales. Yet, it is somehow just an even more impressive cumulation of all these tropes to deliver a completely mindbending story that tackles a plethora of ideas perfectly. Between all the time loops, parallel universes, robots, androids, mechas and GOD so much more, the core of the plot never loses itself and the continous back and forth mystery shifts and evolves without losing sight of anything. To have 13 individual protagonist routes combine together seamlessly with BARELY any loose plot threads (if not any) is genuinely insane. Everything works together perfectly, every reveal works, every character's arcs works and their respective dynamics and relationships unfold beautifully. It all feels naturally written and doesn't rely on bullshit to move the story logic along, instead allowing the player to connec the dots themselves and figure out this huge web and really understand just what this games about.

One common criticism you'd hear with the game is it's gameplay and I'd say...it's good! It's not very complex or difficult (though I stuck with normal all the way through), but it's still engaging and very, very satisfying. The strategic depth required to go through each level is as simple as countering what the main kaiju type is and going ham with your abilities. That being said, it all comes together really well and I was never irked by anything the game did with its systems. There are some parts I feel aren't really necessary, like the Sentinel stat upgrade system (which I kind of ignored in favour of skill upgrades) but I imagine on intense the gameplay becomes more thrilling.

Beyond that, this game is gorgeous. The artstyle, the character designs, the spritework... it's just so, so beautiful. It's not a unique artstyle per se, but its complemented heavily with visually distinct CG's and backgrounds, great character designs and some amazing lighting all in a 2.5D perspective. The soundtrack is really good, but I guess there aren't really any distinct soundtracks aside from 2? Even then, it fits the game perfectly in just about every way: from the combat themes, the slice of life friend hangouts to gripping plot revelations, the soundtrack never takes you away from the moment and puts you right into what the characters would be feeling.

I love this game so much and I wish more people played it. There's just so much passion put into it from Vanillaware, its a love letter to all forms of sci-fi media yet has its own distinct identity, one that truly gripped me from start to finish. I fell in love with this game halfway through and by the end all I'm left with is a story so incredible, so grand and yet so small in what it's really about. I love this game so much, what a journey.

13 Sentinels is telling an engaging story with some really good characters. The gameplay falls down for me in both sections of the game, however. The visual novel parts don't do enough to make things compelling in an interactive way and the tactical battles are flashy and interesting at first but wear out their welcome pretty quickly.

The story is somewhat unique, taking a couple of different sci-fi tropes and mashing them up in a new way. I found the twist to be very obvious from about halfway through the game, though the details were still engaging to uncover, and the characters' individual journeys were still interesting.
The character stories are the real focus here and they mostly deliver on an individual basis. A couple of them suffer from feeling vestigial or unrelated to the actual narrative. Vanillaware ran into this with Odin Sphere as well -- they are trying to give everyone equal screentime without having an equal amount to say for every character. Megumi and Nenji for example just feel like their stories are drawn out or unnecessary in a way that I got pretty tired of. On the flip side, Natsuno, Yuki, Hijiyama, and Miura all work really well and weave together in interesting ways. 
The game is also very obsessed with pairing up the cast (which sort of makes sense in the end but is still weird) in ways that are not always natural or even believable. I don't think most of the 'relationships' the game adds do more for the narrative or character development than regular ass friendships would, and in most cases just detract from what is going on or feel like nonsense.

All that narrative is presented in a very slick visual novel wrapper. You get a very small amount of agency here (you can walk around and choose conversation topics) but really you are just hunting for the next thing to do to advance the very linear plot. I liked this at first, but I don't actually think the gameplay here justifies this being better than simply reading or watching it in a linear media format would. This is a general problem with visual novels though, so you kind of go in expecting it.
These sections look amazing, of course. The backgrounds are varied and beautiful and the characters are all unique and expressive. I like the more realistic style Vanillaware has opted for here, as compared to their usual Adonis/Venus inspired character designs.
The tactical layer is very cool looking and flashy. I really like the way this is presented, in a very simplified visual style with some smart hand-drawn intercuts and flourishes. It does manage to be somewhat exciting and tense... in the beginning. Some choice and depth is gestured at with different generation of mechs being available and different upgrades you can choose, but the differences were obvious enough and couldn't really be leveraged to change your approach or gameplay in many significant ways (beyond one or two abilities). There simply isn't a ton of strategy here, unfortunately, and this mode has more presence in the game than its depth can support.

13 Sentinels is a cool game that does a lot to bring me along despite being a type of game I am not usually drawn to. The story could be tightened up a bit and my choices could matter more, but that honestly isn't really what this sort of game is going for. If you are a fan of Vanillaware or this style of game, I don't think you can go wrong giving this a shot.

Expectativa: jogo de estratégia/rpg com elementos de história que eu pretendo ignorar.

Realidade: Um enrendo surpreendente, cativante, dinâmico, e que bota A série DARK da netflix no chinelo. Os trechos de combate são tragáveis, mas massantes.


Mas meu amigo, que história! Sinceramente eu esperava alguma punhetinha japonesa genérica que eu iria ignorar pra aproveitar os trechos de luta, mas foi o completo oposto. E que maturidade do enredo em deixar o jogador escolher a ordem dos atos! A história é complicadíssima, mas não deixa uma ponta solta, e não segura sua mão também! Então caso fique perdido ( vai ficar ) retorne nos logs e procure informações. Me surpreendeu.

nota: 8,5.

Every single plot reveal in this game feels like they're doing this without making the tower completely collapse.

Fascinating non-linear sci-fi story that you can play in whatever order you want and at no point does it fall apart because of it. A real feat of storytelling to get everything to work how it does. A game you gotta go in completely blind.

The RTS portion of the game is a lot of fun when you figure it out, I just wish that there was a way to balance it out and make it feel less Start-And-Stop than it is but it is satisfying to see the waves of bad guys explode on the screen. I thought for sure the last mission was going to make my launch PS4 melt through the floor.

cool game.

Aegis rim, is prolly the best story I have ever gotten to experience in my life. Now I won't pretend that I understand the story at all and I won't act like not understanding the story left me satisfied in anyway, but I don't think I was really supposed to, at least not on my first playthrough. But don't mistake me here, just bc I didn't get it, doesn't mean the twist and turns of this game didn't have my hands on my head screaming "WHAT!?!" this game will never cease to Surprise you and entertain you, it somehow pulls you back into the story even though you have no idea what's going on. The moment you think you have a grasp on the story the game hits you with another plot twist that completely switches your thinking. The games story is amazing and the way it's told unique (though I would've mush perfered if it more if it was more direct in its story telling) the story is complicated, and the characters are nothing but a delight, you will find yourself finding a home with these mentality ill teenagers. My biggest complaint with the game is the gameplay. The gameplay is just boring tbh not much I can really say about it. Overall though the game is beautiful, the story is complex and exciting, and the characters are funny and are oozing of personality, and their very complex too. This game has definitely taken it's place as the best game in terms of story for me at least

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