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