13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
Main game
4.36 average rating based on 439 ratings
- Developers
- Vanillaware
- Publishers
- Atlus, Sega
- Platforms
- Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4
- Genres
- Adventure, Simulator, Strategy, Tactical
- Themes
- Drama, Science fiction
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim?
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A Lesson In Story Telling With One Of The Best Narratives In Recent Memory
This review is for the PlayStation 4 version
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a new game from developer Vanillaware, and a departure from their typical style of game (Dragon's Crown, Odin Sphere, Muramasa: The Demon Blade). Instead of taking place in an ancient fantastical setting, 13 Sentinels takes place throughout several 40 year historical incremental periods ranging from 1940s to the far future where you control 1 of 13 school children as they navigate attacks from massive 'kaiju' enemies set on destroying their world. The game is split up into two main play styles. One of which is a side scrolling narrative, almost visual novel style game. The majority of the story is presented through this style, playing small bits of the character's stories in any order you want (apart from some character's being locked out until you progress elsewhere). The other style is more of strategic mech battles which take place with an isometric view of a city and icons/indicators showing the sentinel characters you control and the kaiju enemies you are tasked with eliminating. You can move the characters around and select from various abilities to assist your team, or damage the enemies based on the loadout you choose prior to the battle. While I enjoy …
Read More13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a new game from developer Vanillaware, and a departure from their typical style of game (Dragon's Crown, Odin Sphere, Muramasa: The Demon Blade). Instead of taking place in an ancient fantastical setting, 13 Sentinels takes place throughout several 40 year historical incremental periods ranging from 1940s to the far future where you control 1 of 13 school children as they navigate attacks from massive 'kaiju' enemies set on destroying their world. The game is split up into two main play styles. One of which is a side scrolling narrative, almost visual novel style game. The majority of the story is presented through this style, playing small bits of the character's stories in any order you want (apart from some character's being locked out until you progress elsewhere). The other style is more of strategic mech battles which take place with an isometric view of a city and icons/indicators showing the sentinel characters you control and the kaiju enemies you are tasked with eliminating. You can move the characters around and select from various abilities to assist your team, or damage the enemies based on the loadout you choose prior to the battle. While I enjoy strategy games, this was a bit of a letdown as these battles were incredibly easy. Without even trying very hard or prioritizing a team build, I was able to get an S rank on every battle first try without ever coming close to failing. Luckily there aren't too many of these battles, and I was able to break up the boredom of them with the exhilarating story.
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13 Sentinels Copies Every Science Fiction Hit
This review is for the PlayStation 4 version
I feel like a jerk for even critiquing this game. Most players and critics are vibing with 13 Sentinels. I can't vibe with it though.
I'm not dumb. I know all stories are hacked together from other stories. But 13 Sentinels is a hacked-together homage so blatant it infuriates me. Terminator, Looper, Darling and the Franxx, Source Code, Alien, ET, even Puella Magi Madoka Magica! It's as if the writers thought cramming enough sci-fi cliche's into the sprawling plot, would create something unique.
Unlike its influences, the characters in 13 Sentinels never surprised me. And despite the looming threat of an alien invasion and time-traveling criminals, the stakes never seem high. Moments of intimacy rarely feel genuine and it's clear the voice actors were never in the same room by the way all line readings seem to exist in an emotionless vacuum.
The only thing interesting about the plot is the way it's structured. Being able to explore the story in a nonlinear fashion, and using the in-game currency to unlock exposition are two very inspired choices. The art direction of Vanillaware also continues to be a fascinating mash-up of watercolor art and paper puppetry.
Crafting a compelling …
I feel like a jerk for even critiquing this game. Most players and critics are vibing with 13 Sentinels. I can't vibe with it though.
I'm not dumb. I know all stories are hacked together from other stories. But 13 Sentinels is a hacked-together homage so blatant it infuriates me. Terminator, Looper, Darling and the Franxx, Source Code, Alien, ET, even Puella Magi Madoka Magica! It's as if the writers thought cramming enough sci-fi cliche's into the sprawling plot, would create something unique.
Unlike its influences, the characters in 13 Sentinels never surprised me. And despite the looming threat of an alien invasion and time-traveling criminals, the stakes never seem high. Moments of intimacy rarely feel genuine and it's clear the voice actors were never in the same room by the way all line readings seem to exist in an emotionless vacuum.
The only thing interesting about the plot is the way it's structured. Being able to explore the story in a nonlinear fashion, and using the in-game currency to unlock exposition are two very inspired choices. The art direction of Vanillaware also continues to be a fascinating mash-up of watercolor art and paper puppetry.
Crafting a compelling story has been an issue for Vanillaware since their debut. GrimGrimoire was a bizarre retelling of the first Harry Potter book. Odin Sphere was a tedious exercise in boring stoic fairytales. And Dragon's Crown asked the daring question, 'what if a witch had boobs?' It feels strange to me that a studio so obsessed with narrative seems unable or unwilling to craft a decent one of their own.
VivCousland's review of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
This review is for the PlayStation 4 version
ITALIAN REVIEW
La prima volta in cui ho tenuto in mano un gamepad risale all’incirca al 1998/1999 quando avevo solo tra i tre e i quattro anni. La mia grande passione per i videogiochi è partita da Yoshi’s Island su SNES, se la memoria non inganna. All’epoca non conoscevo il genere o la categoria a cui questo titolo apparteneva, solo qualche anno dopo scoprì il nome: platform o videogioco a piattaforme per rimanere in terra nostrana. Col tempo mi sono approcciata a diversi generi, tra cui quello degli RPG che ad oggi rimane il mio preferito, e ho provato diversi titoli ibridi difficili da collocare in una determinata tipologia di videogiochi. Lo so, probabilmente vi starete chiedendo che cosa c’entri 13 Sentinels con una premessa del genere. C’entra eccome perché un videogioco unico nel suo genere, un ibrido tra Visual Novel e RPG strategico, come 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim non lo avevo ancora visto.
🔖 Continua sul sito del Pick a Quest: https://pickaquest.net/2020/10/18/13-sentinels-aegis-rim-seaside-vacation/
13 sentinelle per la protezione dell'umanità
Capolavoro di Vanillaware, che mischia elementi da visual novel con un gameplay da strategico in tempo reale. Storia fantastica: spazia dal fantascientifico ai temi adolescenziali e riesce sempre a sorprenderti con nuovi colpi di scena finché le tue supposizioni sulla storia non sono svelate nel finale. Gameplay eccellente e bilanciato: non viene mai noia di giocare! Ottima anche la sezione archivio dove consultare i dati raccolti e collegare i punti salienti della trama. Giocato su Switch: perfetta console per questo gioco! Magari ci fosse una versione PC: lo ricomprerei volentieri! Voto: 10/10
Overrated but decent
This review is for the PlayStation 4 version
Disclaimer: This is less of a review and more of brain dump of my final impressions.
It's a decent VN and if you enjoy sci-fi you'll probably enjoy this.
I keep hearing about how this is one of the best stories people have heard in a while, but the sci-fi falls flat for me. It introduces a lot of interesting ideas and threads but they tug on them for too long and they don't lead anywhere particularly interesting. There was a lot of good potential here, but no meaningful resolution or climax here.
It feels like a hot pot of sci-fi ideas. I wish they spent more time really focusing on a few ideas and really fleshing it out. On that note, a lot of the character endings felt really rushed and jarring. There were a few good ones there, but maybe half of them felt unfulfilled. A lot of the romances felt shoehorned as well.
I like to imagine that the writers came up with the story and split it among the 13 protagonists, but then found that it turned out to be quite short. So they added a bit of Fluff to pad out the gameplay. The core …
Disclaimer: This is less of a review and more of brain dump of my final impressions.
It's a decent VN and if you enjoy sci-fi you'll probably enjoy this.
I keep hearing about how this is one of the best stories people have heard in a while, but the sci-fi falls flat for me. It introduces a lot of interesting ideas and threads but they tug on them for too long and they don't lead anywhere particularly interesting. There was a lot of good potential here, but no meaningful resolution or climax here.
It feels like a hot pot of sci-fi ideas. I wish they spent more time really focusing on a few ideas and really fleshing it out. On that note, a lot of the character endings felt really rushed and jarring. There were a few good ones there, but maybe half of them felt unfulfilled. A lot of the romances felt shoehorned as well.
I like to imagine that the writers came up with the story and split it among the 13 protagonists, but then found that it turned out to be quite short. So they added a bit of Fluff to pad out the gameplay. The core ideas are neat but the VN portion overstays its welcome. I actually think that they could have told a better story by either telling it linearly or more thoughtful gating of storylines behind certain events. I appreciate the freedom in unraveling the story but it took too long to get anywhere.
I've finally moved this to my "In Limbo" shelf, which is what I do when I'm considering dropping a game but haven't committed to it fully yet.
For a narrative-heavy game, the tutorial really failed to set up any kind of compelling hook. It really just tosses out a bunch of disjointed pieces of the story and goes "Don't you want to know what's going on?" And the answer, unfortunately, is "No, not really."
It did improve somewhat after the tutorial because I had more freedom to explore the different narratives at my own pace but it still failed to get its teeth into me. The knowledge that I'd have to play through a bunch of RTS sections I don't have much interest in to progress isn't helping either. And then there's the pervy writing and art and just...eghhh.
Maybe this ain't it, folks. I'll give it some time but it's hard to see myself coming back to this one.
I tried the game and could see myself loving it, but the desire to keep track of all the storylines and piece it together started to feel a bit like work. So, not exactly a game I can play after a long day.
If you like great stories and art, and especially sci-fi, you owe it to yourself to try this game out. Incredible experience
I find this information interesting because I didn't realize I played my Switch quite this much in 2023. Possibly because a lot of this play time was in the early half of the year and the first half of 2023 is a bit of a blur, lol. But it's very interesting because that's more than both PS5 and Xbox separately. But it is only 17 hours more than PS5, so it seems those two were my main conventional consoles in 2023 (I say conventional because I suspect Steam Deck might be the runaway top console of the year for me).
Sci-Fi games about 13 kids who must get into mechs to fight off alien robot invasion, that came from the future, to save the world. There are 2 game modes: destruction and remembrance. Destruction mode is action's/combat's mode and it plays as RTS tower defense (except when you select unit to do some kind of action, the time stops). Remembrance mode is a game's story mode (which is so complicated I'm not gonna even try to explain it). While the combat mode is mid, the story mode is where the game really shines. To learn/unfold this game's massive and complicated storyline (which of course include time travel - well kind of...) you choose 1 of 13 perspective/characters. As you play, you learn that you can play up to certain point of 1 person's perspective. To unlock/progress further in the character's perspective you must play another person's perspective until you find a clue/answer or learn specific thing that lets you go on with the story. Art style differs between 2 game modes. In destruction mode it resembles typical mech video game art (which has its explenation in the story), while remembrance mode has unique anime art (which apparently the studio Vanillaware …
Read MoreSci-Fi games about 13 kids who must get into mechs to fight off alien robot invasion, that came from the future, to save the world. There are 2 game modes: destruction and remembrance. Destruction mode is action's/combat's mode and it plays as RTS tower defense (except when you select unit to do some kind of action, the time stops). Remembrance mode is a game's story mode (which is so complicated I'm not gonna even try to explain it). While the combat mode is mid, the story mode is where the game really shines. To learn/unfold this game's massive and complicated storyline (which of course include time travel - well kind of...) you choose 1 of 13 perspective/characters. As you play, you learn that you can play up to certain point of 1 person's perspective. To unlock/progress further in the character's perspective you must play another person's perspective until you find a clue/answer or learn specific thing that lets you go on with the story. Art style differs between 2 game modes. In destruction mode it resembles typical mech video game art (which has its explenation in the story), while remembrance mode has unique anime art (which apparently the studio Vanillaware is famous for). Soundtrack is very well chosen - it fits given any situation, also worth pointing out is that the game is fully voice acted (both in English & Japanese). Overall 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is not a type of game everyone will enjoy, but if its for you, you're in for a long ride
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Does anyone know if there are other VNs with a similar approach and structure to what Vanillaware pulls off with 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim? I haven’t felt this invested in “what’s going to happen next” with a game narrative since The Outer Wilds and I want to find out if there are other games doing interesting things with the VN format.
This story is killing me! And in many ways it reminds me of Dark, the three season sci-fi on Netflix that similarly involved
Given a major portion of this game is RTS it’s a big departure from other Vanillaware games, something I know reviews have covered extensively. But like Odin Sphere the story is still branching, divided into character stories and split between narrative sequences and combat sequences. What is interesting is that the school theme makes it reminiscent of Persona games, minus the usual time constraints of that series. It’s an interesting direction for Vanillaware even if it shares commonalities with some of their other games.
Oh boy, already stating to worry about the narrative paths this seems to be treading. Worried my earlier comparison to Persona games is closer to home than I thought it might be, especially Persona 4 and its unfortunate handling of Queer themes. Here’s hoping I’m wrong.
Man, this game give me the feeling that the devs at Vanillawear were feeling extra horny during development. I’m hoping it doesn’t lean too heavily into the fan service side of anime because it feels very different from games like Odin Sphere or Muramasa: The Demon’s Blade where characters are more explicitly adult in age, or at least not coded as young teens or children.