I really don’t know where to start this one.
On one hand, I have to respect the sheer audacity of 13 Sentinels’s structure, and the brilliant way in which it constantly throws the player between widely differing perspectives. This will be a spoiler-free review, as all of my reviews are. I played 13 Sentinels off the recommendation of a multitude of online games writing individuals who all praised the construction of Vanillaware’s latest release, and let’s say I was not disappointed when I finally got around to opening the game up. However, despite all those well spoken individuals’ opinions, I have never actually seen someone accurately summarize the game’s bold and confusing structure–especially since the game’s introduction/tutorial takes several hours to complete.
13 Sentinels is split between three disparate game modes: the first of which is a simple, side-scrolling adventure game (titles Remembrance) where you play as the titular 13 high schooler protagonists as you attempt to unravel the narrative. Almost every one of the 13 protagonists is a compelling enough character (sans Juro and Iori) who undergoes a radically different experience with time travel. The way this adventure game segment unfolds is mostly just aimless linear wandering until the characters start talking, and while the talking is very interesting, the walking part is a bit uninteresting. The second game mode is the Real Time Strategy component (titles Destruction) (all three of the game modes are accessible at the player’s discretion after completing the introduction), and the RTS game mode is where the main game actually is. Unfortunately, the RTS section takes place after everything in the adventure, so most of the dialogue doesn’t even make sense until you get to the end of the adventure. The third game mode is basically just an in-game encyclopedia documenting everything within the narrative you’ve learned and placing the timeline in a comprehensible order.
This comes to one of my main issues with a game I otherwise really enjoyed, which is how the non-linear storyline affected my ability to actually engage with the narrative. Without the context of Remembrance, Destruction feels very arbitrary and like it doesn’t add anything to the narrative–as the player is only privy to the emotions behind the principal cast insofar as they’ve played Remembrance. Despite this, I found the game’s sheer ambition to be the most compelling aspect of my playthrough, and that is the basis on which I would most recommend it. I was constantly shocked at the twists and turns of the storyline, and despite the underwhelming RTS combat, I found myself completely immersed within the journey of these 13 protagonists, and I will miss their presence.
On one hand, I have to respect the sheer audacity of 13 Sentinels’s structure, and the brilliant way in which it constantly throws the player between widely differing perspectives. This will be a spoiler-free review, as all of my reviews are. I played 13 Sentinels off the recommendation of a multitude of online games writing individuals who all praised the construction of Vanillaware’s latest release, and let’s say I was not disappointed when I finally got around to opening the game up. However, despite all those well spoken individuals’ opinions, I have never actually seen someone accurately summarize the game’s bold and confusing structure–especially since the game’s introduction/tutorial takes several hours to complete.
13 Sentinels is split between three disparate game modes: the first of which is a simple, side-scrolling adventure game (titles Remembrance) where you play as the titular 13 high schooler protagonists as you attempt to unravel the narrative. Almost every one of the 13 protagonists is a compelling enough character (sans Juro and Iori) who undergoes a radically different experience with time travel. The way this adventure game segment unfolds is mostly just aimless linear wandering until the characters start talking, and while the talking is very interesting, the walking part is a bit uninteresting. The second game mode is the Real Time Strategy component (titles Destruction) (all three of the game modes are accessible at the player’s discretion after completing the introduction), and the RTS game mode is where the main game actually is. Unfortunately, the RTS section takes place after everything in the adventure, so most of the dialogue doesn’t even make sense until you get to the end of the adventure. The third game mode is basically just an in-game encyclopedia documenting everything within the narrative you’ve learned and placing the timeline in a comprehensible order.
This comes to one of my main issues with a game I otherwise really enjoyed, which is how the non-linear storyline affected my ability to actually engage with the narrative. Without the context of Remembrance, Destruction feels very arbitrary and like it doesn’t add anything to the narrative–as the player is only privy to the emotions behind the principal cast insofar as they’ve played Remembrance. Despite this, I found the game’s sheer ambition to be the most compelling aspect of my playthrough, and that is the basis on which I would most recommend it. I was constantly shocked at the twists and turns of the storyline, and despite the underwhelming RTS combat, I found myself completely immersed within the journey of these 13 protagonists, and I will miss their presence.