An epic of the most grand scale from the perspective of 13 unlikely individuals.
This is what video games have been leading up to. An amazing harmony of different sections coalescing into the perfect gameplay loop. I get to enjoy an amazing mystery narrative with such layered and charming characters, each interesting enough to play their own role as the main character, while at the same to getting to experience such a robust real time strategy that’s pretty approachable for a beginner to the genre, but provides so much fun and challenge after properly learning through the mechanics. All of this presented in such a distinctive art style which seems to be Vanillaware’s trademark look and I have just completely fallen in love with this game.
Although 13 Sentinels does indeed look pretty standard anime from its promotional material and covers, Vanillaware’s recognizable aesthetic for its character models definitely gives it its own identity. They work really well on the visual novel segments where it really does feel like an anime is playing with how natural some scenes can look with the well drawn backgrounds and stellar voice performance both in japanese and english audio. The combat sections look just as visually appealing as its set in what looks to be a screen map you’d see in Sci-Fi military movies where it's a digital interface. I can understand some people would want to see the actual robots and kaiju fighting, but this presentation creates a level of immersion as being in a war setting which I really appreciate.
Said immersion really adds well to the gameplay. 13 Sentinels essentially features three game modes; remembrance - a visual novel story where we recount the events of the 13 characters each being the main character of their own part of the story, destruction - where the main combat real time strategy action takes place as you need to complete stages in order to unlock certain story parts within remembrance mode, and analysis - which isn’t really game mode but more so a library of terminology and events in clarifying certain concepts. A lot of these are unlockables which you need mystery codes and you need to unlock them as some story segments require it to progress. Overall this structure creates an amazing game loop as you’re never burnt out on either game mode since you can always switch to the other to further progress the game. A small caveat to the story mode would be the fact that sometimes it's unclear how to progress the story as I would be stuck not knowing what combination I have to use to talk to a character but this was very rare. On the combat side, I find it best enjoyable in the hardest difficulty but the first wave is a tad too easy with a massive difficulty curve by the second wave which might catch some off-guard. Nonetheless, 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim is just very solidly designed so that such minor issues won’t impact the whole experience.
The story is what’s really the biggest selling point of this magnificent game. Featuring thirteen different character stories, the Remembrance mode has the player going through each character’s point of view as events are told in a shuffled order as you’re meant to piece the events together as part of a larger mystery narrative. It's honestly very confusing at first, and I wouldn’t even blame anyone if there’s certain things one might not understand even by the end, but the mystery has a very rewarding payoff as multiple narrative threads are answered at an even pace of the game culminating to a really satisfying conclusion which connects both the Remembrance mode and the Destruction mode. Moreover, each main character in the game really has a lot to offer. Despite more less starting out as obvious stereotypes, each of them get fleshed out enough and develop throughout the game in a very compelling manner where there was not even a single character story I found to be a slog whatsoever. My personal favorites though have to be the displaced WW2 soldier conflicted about his romantic feelings, the devoted girl who wants to bring back the memories of her loved one, and the cool playboy who will always be there for a lady who needs him. 13 Sentinels is a truly engaging narrative that’s hard to put down once you start a session.
I really love this game. Every single aspect seems like it was designed for a person of my tastes. It is an all-time favorite and I want to tell everyone about why they should play this game and why I love it so much. After this, I’m definitely going to be checking out more of Vanillaware's catalog especially with Unicorn Overlord around the corner as of the time of writing. Play this amazing game that’s managed to capture my heart with its captivating story and be in awe once it all ends.
This is what video games have been leading up to. An amazing harmony of different sections coalescing into the perfect gameplay loop. I get to enjoy an amazing mystery narrative with such layered and charming characters, each interesting enough to play their own role as the main character, while at the same to getting to experience such a robust real time strategy that’s pretty approachable for a beginner to the genre, but provides so much fun and challenge after properly learning through the mechanics. All of this presented in such a distinctive art style which seems to be Vanillaware’s trademark look and I have just completely fallen in love with this game.
Although 13 Sentinels does indeed look pretty standard anime from its promotional material and covers, Vanillaware’s recognizable aesthetic for its character models definitely gives it its own identity. They work really well on the visual novel segments where it really does feel like an anime is playing with how natural some scenes can look with the well drawn backgrounds and stellar voice performance both in japanese and english audio. The combat sections look just as visually appealing as its set in what looks to be a screen map you’d see in Sci-Fi military movies where it's a digital interface. I can understand some people would want to see the actual robots and kaiju fighting, but this presentation creates a level of immersion as being in a war setting which I really appreciate.
Said immersion really adds well to the gameplay. 13 Sentinels essentially features three game modes; remembrance - a visual novel story where we recount the events of the 13 characters each being the main character of their own part of the story, destruction - where the main combat real time strategy action takes place as you need to complete stages in order to unlock certain story parts within remembrance mode, and analysis - which isn’t really game mode but more so a library of terminology and events in clarifying certain concepts. A lot of these are unlockables which you need mystery codes and you need to unlock them as some story segments require it to progress. Overall this structure creates an amazing game loop as you’re never burnt out on either game mode since you can always switch to the other to further progress the game. A small caveat to the story mode would be the fact that sometimes it's unclear how to progress the story as I would be stuck not knowing what combination I have to use to talk to a character but this was very rare. On the combat side, I find it best enjoyable in the hardest difficulty but the first wave is a tad too easy with a massive difficulty curve by the second wave which might catch some off-guard. Nonetheless, 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim is just very solidly designed so that such minor issues won’t impact the whole experience.
The story is what’s really the biggest selling point of this magnificent game. Featuring thirteen different character stories, the Remembrance mode has the player going through each character’s point of view as events are told in a shuffled order as you’re meant to piece the events together as part of a larger mystery narrative. It's honestly very confusing at first, and I wouldn’t even blame anyone if there’s certain things one might not understand even by the end, but the mystery has a very rewarding payoff as multiple narrative threads are answered at an even pace of the game culminating to a really satisfying conclusion which connects both the Remembrance mode and the Destruction mode. Moreover, each main character in the game really has a lot to offer. Despite more less starting out as obvious stereotypes, each of them get fleshed out enough and develop throughout the game in a very compelling manner where there was not even a single character story I found to be a slog whatsoever. My personal favorites though have to be the displaced WW2 soldier conflicted about his romantic feelings, the devoted girl who wants to bring back the memories of her loved one, and the cool playboy who will always be there for a lady who needs him. 13 Sentinels is a truly engaging narrative that’s hard to put down once you start a session.
I really love this game. Every single aspect seems like it was designed for a person of my tastes. It is an all-time favorite and I want to tell everyone about why they should play this game and why I love it so much. After this, I’m definitely going to be checking out more of Vanillaware's catalog especially with Unicorn Overlord around the corner as of the time of writing. Play this amazing game that’s managed to capture my heart with its captivating story and be in awe once it all ends.
Phantasm
2 months ago