Aleks Franiczek
It’s been over 6 years since Vanillaware launched 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, and in that point the sport has garnered a popularity as one of many nice videogame narrative masterpieces of the fashionable period. Clearly, I had lofty expectations entering into. Cue the primary scene: a schoolgirl is erotically posed bare in a mech whereas screaming about her incompetence to a senpai. Was I being punk’d or one thing?
Fortuitously, what unravels from there’s typically fairly fascinating and even cleverly subversive. The non-linear format of the 13 fragmented character tales results in a relentless sense of intrigue and I turned simply invested. The plot itself is, frankly, a variety of cleaning soap opera-like melodrama amongst layers of convoluted sci-fi concepts. Nonetheless, the journey by way of it was persistently compelling and enjoyable regardless of its silliness.
And whereas the RTS-style fight parts are concurrently too easy and sophisticated in elements, they work very properly as a second mode alongside the journey recreation sections. It’s a disgrace the sport’s inventive construction and wild plotline couldn’t go away room for a extra significant emotional core, however what 13 Sentinels does obtain by way of its ambition nonetheless deserves a variety of credit score.
Ben Love
Regardless of being an enormous fan of Vanillaware’s video games, I postpone enjoying 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim since launch. I all the time knew I’d ultimately play it, however the extra…unsavory facets of the presentation put me off. Whereas all of Vanillaware’s have some degree of ostentatious sexualization, 13 Sentinels appeared to cross a line from eye-rolling however ignorable into actually embarrassing territory.
To some extent, these preliminary impressions are warranted. The sport depends closely on anime tropes, each the mundane and innocent and the less-than-savory. But, after a couple of hours with the sport, these reservations largely fell away. As an alternative, the intricate internet of narrative threads, the forged of colourful characters, and the compelling thriller tying all of them collectively had me guessing at the place issues went subsequent.
13 Sentinels managed to shock me with how the actual time technique segments layered on complexity and mechanics, evolving from perfunctory to actually partaking. The narrative twisted and turned in sudden instructions, delivering some surprisingly heartfelt depictions of queer romance, an examination of how a lot our identities are resulting from circumstances and surroundings reasonably than genetics, and the impression of trauma and battle on these caught within the crossfire. It doesn’t totally stick the touchdown, however the journey to get there was price all of it the identical.
Zach Wilkerson
For the primary 25 hours or, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is fabulous—the best way the story strikes, how the characters and narratives interlock in fascinating methods, and better of all, the best way the writers managed to make all of it really feel coherent and satisfying, no matter which route you go, is without doubt one of the extra spectacular achievements in video video games. I couldn’t wait to search out out the following reply or to uncover the following character second.
However that very narrative presentation which carries the vast majority of the 13 Sentinels can also be what causes the finale to fail for me. The ultimate hours abandon all that for boring exposition, a end result that whereas intelligent in principle, doesn’t execute different story beats properly sufficient to make it land for me emotionally.
That’s okay, although. I do know what yakisoba pan is now, and whereas I won’t prefer it as a lot as Hijiyama, it’s downright scrumptious. Definitely worth the playthrough for that alone.
