One of the games I wanted to play for a long time now is 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. I saw this game in many recommendation lists, and it looked cool. I finally got to play it on Nintendo Switch!
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a Sci-fi narrative-focused Real-Time Strategy RPG with an intriguing cast of characters and a lot of heart. This is my first impression review after completing the Prologue Chapters, and getting to know the first group of characters.
The game is developed by Vanillaware which is known for their art direction, and the presentation of their games!
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim follows a group of high school students across various timelines as they battle Kaijus (huge monsters) using mechas known as Sentinels. The story is mainly set in 1985 Japan, but jumps through other points in the timeline, hinting at Time Travel's influence.
The art direction of this game is Beautiful!
I love the art style of Vanillaware games, and this might be their best-looking game yet. The characters' sprites are so expressive, and they feel realistic, despite being hand-drawn 2D animations. The character portraits (both male and female) look very attractive!
The mechas have an air of mystery around them. I still have more questions than answers regarding those sentinels.
The story is told in a non-linear fashion. The game allows you to experience character-based chapters, which you can switch between at any time. From my understanding, there's no real main character, as every playable character gets their time to shine. Juro Kurabe and Iori Fuyusaka seem to be the player surrogates because of how little they understand what's going on.
I loved the stories for all the characters I played as so far, Natsuno Minami's sections were the funniest to me, while Ei Sakigahara's were the ones that left me most curious. Megumi as well. Her plot revolves around stopping "magic users..." I'm not sure about her story's direction, but I love Megumi's backstory, especially knowing she's from 2024 despite the story taking place in 1985, so she's from the future in the game's timeline!
During the story segments, you move in a side-scrolling environment and interact with other characters. Each playable character has their own set of Keywords that you can 'Think' about or 'Use' on other characters to move the story forward. I love that the keywords keep being relevant throughout the chapters of each character's story.
Sometimes using different keywords or interacting with other characters can lead to a branching in the story. I wonder if that means the game has multiple endings.
It seems like romance would play a significant role in the story. Just a hunch, but I already see more than a few pairings about to blossom just from the prologue alone. (I find it funny how the girl Takatoshi Hijiyama fell in love with, turned out to be a guy in disguise.) Both Iori and Megumi's main motivations seem to be love-related.
After finishing the prologue, I unlocked an option to see previous scenes in chronological order. Most of the scenes are marked '???' for me right now, but I did notice a pattern. Every story piece I played is out of order, and I'll just say that chronologically speaking, the first scene of the game is supposed to happen near the end of the story.
The battles in 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim are played in Real-Time Strategy gameplay. All prologue battles were scripted, and I only unlocked the difficulty modes after finishing them, so I can't judge the gameplay well in this first impression review.
Most of the prologue battles seem to be happening in the future. All characters know each other, while most of them haven't even met in the story segments. The story will most likely reveal how they all came together. Even the battles don't seem to be happening in order, though. From the context cues, I assume some later battles happened before the earlier ones.
I still don't understand the battle system. The fact I haven't lost a battle so far shows how scripted the prologue was. By the time I reached the 5th battle, I was able to switch between characters as I wanted, and I'm not sure if I missed how to do that before, or if I wasn't allowed to. The battles happen in real-time, but time stops when navigating the actions menu.
The battle screen is minimalistic and visually impressive at the same time. While we don't see the actual mechs and enemies, the animations while choosing which attacks to launch are fantastic!
The Kaijus feel more like a 'Force of Nature' threat rather than actual characters. I'm not even sure if the story will explore what or who they are. If it would, I'll be excited to see that!
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a very unique game. Even now, an hour or two after the prologue, I feel impressed by its story structure. It makes me want to analyse what's been given so far. Though, I'll wait until I've aquired more pieces before drawing my own conclusion.
I've heard a lot of reviews saying the battle system is hard to describe, and I agree. I can only say 'It's a RTS-battle system' but it has to be experienced to know if it's for you. It's very unique. If you know a game with a battle system like that let me know.
What do you think?
Anyway, that's all I have for today. I hope you liked reading this first impression review. Maybe I'll post a full review after I finish the game, but since I'm playing it on a Nintendo Switch and not PC, I won't be able to capture footage on me playing the game. Playing 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim got me interested in Vanillaware's latest game: Unicron Overlord! Let's see how that goes.
Thanks again for reading.~
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- All images are screenshots of the game taken by me on Nintendo Switch Lite.