A love letter to the Sci-Fi genre
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim by Vanillaware is a love letter to the Sci-Fi genre. The game is inspired by countless anime and movies from Evangelion to E.T.; yet also manages to put its own unique spin on the genre. What starts as a cliche plot of high school students piloting Sentinels (mechs) to fight Kaiju, is only the tip of the iceberg. The game surprises and delights until the very end. This, coupled with beautiful hand drawn art and an excellent soundtrack makes 13 Sentinels an unforgettable experience.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim tells a very complex non-linear story. This is not an easy game to comprehend and the developers trust in the player’s intelligence to figure things out. The story is a wild journey through numerous historical and futuristic periods. You will play as characters in 1945 Japan during WWII, in 1985 when Japan’s economy was booming and even in the far future in 2065 where energy guns and droids are commonplace. The common theme throughout these periods are that there are Kaiju that appear and Sentinels that fight them.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, like other Vanillaware games, is esoteric, niche and interesting. The game can best be described as part adventure game, part Visual Novel and part RTS. The game is divided into three sections, Remembrance (the story), Analysis (the in-game wiki) and Destruction (the combat). Unlike a traditional video game with one or maybe a few protagonists, 13 Sentinels, as the name suggests offers 13 playable protagonists with meaningful relationships and interactions with one another.
The Remembrance section plays like an adventure game mixed with a Visual Novel. You move your character around talking to people and using the Thought Cloud (an inventory-like system) to interact with things. There is a handy GUI on the top-right to indicate when there is a new entry in the Thought Cloud and whether a Thought can be used to interact with something. These sections are relatively simple to play through and can be completed by exhausting every option. There IS one tricky part in an early chapter of Fuyusaka's story. If you have trouble feeding a cat, I suggest looking up a guide because the solution to the puzzle is unintuitive.
The Analysis section lists all of the terms that the player has encountered as well as bonus Case Files that can be unlocked with Mystery Points earned playing in the Remembrance and Destruction sections. While an in-game wiki doesn’t sound particularly interesting, I found myself routinely going back to the Analysis section each time I finished a character’s chapter. The Analysis section does a wonderful job at explaining when and what happened in each scene making it easier to decipher the non-linear plot.
The Destruction section is the weakest part of the game. The gameplay is an RTS Tower Defense game. If you imagined explosive, bombastic fights between building sized mechs and monsters, you’ll be severely disappointed. All friends and foes are depicted merely as icons on a blue grid map. Before each battle, players can choose to activate up to 6 Sentinels, while the rest of the crew offers passive benefits. There are 4 generations (types) of Sentinels, ranging from hard hitting melee bruisers to flying support classes. In combat, the objective is usually to protect the Terminal (base) for up to 2 minutes or destroy all foes. Don’t be fooled by the short amount of time because the Kaiju start appearing at a rapid pace. Time stops whenever a Sentinel is ready to engage, allowing players to plan out how to defeat the Kaiju.
On Normal difficulty, the game is not very challenging. It doesn't take much strategy or effort to earn an S rank in battle. In fact, I only remember losing once throughout the entire game. The game does introduce some difficulty with the bonus objectives. Bonus objectives unlock Case Files in the Analysis section. The bonuses are often locked behind special challenges like limiting one’s Sentinel choices or beating a map under a certain time limit. If you don’t want to deal with any of the hassle of earning these bonuses, the game provides a Casual mode for players only interested in the story. I haven’t used Casual Mode myself, but I’m guessing it makes the combat even more trivial.
Like all other Vanillaware games, their style of art is the white elephant in the room. The developer portrays female characters in an overtly sexualized manner: the unrealistic body proportions, amount of skin shown, the body postures, you name it. 13 Sentinels is relatively tame compared to their previous works, but it does portray naked high school students (with private parts obscured) and a woman wearing an extremely tight fitting leather outfit. To be honest, it didn’t bother me that much, but I want to mention this in case you might be playing this game in front of others like your significant other, roommate, kids, etc.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a gem, meant to be savored for as long as possible. It’s the kind of game you want to discuss endlessly about after completing it. It’s also the kind of game where you don’t want to talk too much to avoid spoiling another player’s experience. Even when you think you know where the plot is headed, the story will surprise and shock you. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is an easy recommendation for Sci-Fi fans or anyone who is itching for a good mind-bending story.