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.

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.

(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)

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.

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!

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.