Extremely impressive game and certainly the best in vanillaware's catalog. 13 sentinels has an incredibly complex, interesting, and well-put-together sci-fi plot with tons of surprising twists and good character moments. Nearly all of the characters are likable and distinct and their individual story routes all have unique vibes to them giving the story a good sense of variety. The only route I wasn't a huge fan of was Iori's because the ways to progress could be very obtuse like feeding the cat at the intersection. The writing and voice-acting were very natural and I was enthralled the whole way through. The art was beautiful as it always is with vanillaware and this was clearly the best of their efforts so far. The music was fitting and generally solid with some awesome combat tracks that helped liven up the otherwise easy steamrolling. The one thing really holding it back from being a straight 10 is the combat which was clearly an afterthought. Sentry guns and interceptors completely decimate any and all challenges with ease and while it can be satisfying to blow everything to smithereens without lifting a finger, it does make the battles lose their sense of urgency and strategy. Also I really like giant robots so it's a big shame to me that everything in the battles are just represented by colorful icons instead of actually getting to see the mechs fight. That being said, the game is certainly primarily a visual novel so the lacking nature of the combat doesn't impact the overall enjoyment too much.