13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Review

Vanillaware are a much-loved company with many cult classics under their belt, despite the sales perhaps not reaching the lofty heights their games deserve. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim was originally slated to launch in Japan in 2018 before being pushed back and finally seeing release in November 2019 where it launched to rather low sales numbers. Fortunately for Vanillaware, word of mouth soon caught on and the game was praised from all corners of the Japanese games industry, not least from Masahiro Sakurai of Nintendo fame and Square Enix’s Yoko Taro, both praising the scenario above all else. This led to an increase of sales in January 2020 where the game sold over 100,000 copies, a success all things considered and one which ultimately led to the localization in the west.

The story begins in the 1980s in Japan where you will be introduced to a set of characters that you will follow throughout the story. What soon follows is a time-travelling epic that focuses on 13 protagonists as you gradually piece together the truth. The art style perfectly captures that Vanillaware feel but with a distinct 1980’s touch along with all the sci-fi tropes that come along with the time such as giant invading aliens that borrow a lot from War of the Worlds, androids and much more. The story is gripping from start to finish as the game dangles plotlines in front of you that is revealed through other protagonists later in the adventure and it is easy to get swept away in it all.

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It’s unfortunate that the characters are striped of their clothes in their Sentinels but thankfully this is as far as it goes.

Before we go any further however, there is the matter of the large elephant in the room that will have been evident from the outset. The characters are all of high school age and the decision to have the characters lose their clothes whenever their piloting their Sentinels is an odd one and really, brings nothing to the story other than shameless pandering (despite the in-game lore’s best attempts to give it a reason). When you encounter this early in the game, I was initially worried about what would follow and was expecting to see plenty of instances like this throughout the game however, despite love playing a heavy part in the game’s narrative, it’s all handled tastefully outside of the issue above. Additionally, even when in your Sentinels during the battle stages, you will only see portraits of the characters and although it is clear to see the characters are naked, none of it is explicit.

The first thing to take away from 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is that it is completely different to anything Vanillaware have produced before. Whereas games like Dragon’s Crown and Odin Sphere were focused mostly on gameplay with lots of action, Aegis Rim is the complete opposite as the game is more of a visual novel than anything, harkening back to the days of point and click adventure games as some heavy inspiration. Over 80% of the game takes place in this “Remembrance” mode where you will gain control of 13 stories for each of the protagonists as their stories intertwine and unlock progress in each one. These play out very much like a visual novel, you’ll be able to move on a 2D side-scrolling background and as you speak to the other characters around you, you’ll gain thoughts that enter your Thought Cloud. This will allow you to ponder about certain subjects and then relay them back to other characters to progress the narrative.

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The art style is gorgeous and brings the world to life.

Using this method, during certain storylines, you will be able to take a different path and these all lead to revelations that push forward the main narrative of the game. If you are not a fan of visual novels, then it is highly advised to steer well clear of Aegis Rim as it is a visual novel at heart. The genius with the way the 13 protagonists are set up is that you can experience the stories in your own order for the most part, this leads most player’s progress through the story to be a unique one and although as the story reaches its conclusion and you’re forced into certain character’s storylines to progress through locks on others, it does give the player a lot of choice through it. Remembrance, despite being the main portion of the game, also unlocks features on the game’s other two modes, Destruction and Analysis so you are always unlocking something and feeling like you are making progress.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim’s narrative is by far its strongest point, it is an excellent story and watching it all unfold is a joy, especially when accompanied by the gorgeous art and the outstanding soundtrack. It can, however, be difficult to follow with all the moving pieces on the chess board and this is where the game’s second mode, Analysis, comes into play. As you discover new knowledge about the story and the universe, it will be listed here in the Analysis section where you can read further detail about everything in the game (yes, even Hamburgers and Yakisoba Pan). More will unlock as you progress further through the game, allowing you to piece together more of the story however you’ll come across some locked entries. To unseal these, you will need to play through the game’s third mode, Destruction, to gain Mystery Points, the currency used to unseal these files. Aegis Rim is best experienced by dipping in and out of these three modes to piece everything together or even take a break from the story and battle some giant aliens. Even more useful is a well-designed timeline that unlocks and can be filtered down to certain characters, this will allow you to refresh your mind or even experience the story again.

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The story is full of twists and turns as the protagonist’s plots intertwine.

The third mode, Destruction, is where the gameplay part of the game takes place and once again, it is far removed from anything Vanillaware has ever produced before. As the title suggests, you will be piloting the Sentinels on a map of the city in a top-down view. It looks rather unremarkable and the objective for the battles are to defend the Terminal where you spawn, basic in nature and basic in execution unless you opt for the highest difficulty level. The battles themselves are a mix of Tower Defense with a Real Time Tactics system where you will control up to six Sentinels in one battle and where time pauses after a character’s turn is available. At this point, you have an option of which attacks to use, and these are carried out instantly rather than real-time adding a pseudo turn-based feel to the battles. The abilities of your sentinels do change based on the Generation of each of the protagonists’ Sentinel ranging from the melee focused G1 Sentinels to the more Flight based G4 Sentinels meaning you’ll need to consider who you bring into battle.

There is some depth to the battle system so if you find yourself enjoying it, there’s plenty to get stuck into however if tower defense isn’t your thing, don’t pass on Aegis Rim if you’re a fan of visual novels. As mentioned above, this Destruction mode only makes up around 20% of the game and if you are only here for the story, there are three gameplay modes to make it a lot easier. I played through the entire game on the default difficulty setting, finishing every stage with an S Rank and I am by no means an expert at this gameplay style. You even have a choice as to when you play these battles too, outside of each character’s Prologues, I never touched a single battle until I was around 60-70% total completion of the story although you will eventually be locked out of the story until you progress it to a certain point.

In between battles, you can spend a currency known as Meta-Chips to enhance your Sentinels or the Terminal itself. Increasing the Terminal level will unlock powerful abilities you can unleash once your score meter in battle fills by defeating enemies and these take the form of map-wide EMP blasts, 30% recovery to either your HP or EP (the resource needed to use abilities) and other such boons. Alternatively, you can focus on the Sentinels themselves and unlock new armaments for them along with increasing the effectiveness of them, giving you some choice over how you build your characters. Finally, as you progress through the mode, you’ll be able to directly upgrade the stats on your Sentinel by pouring the Meta-Chips into certain sections of the Sentinel, this is usually more expensive than upgrading your armaments and is something that will get more use on the higher difficulty setting. Although each of the 13 protagonists’ pilot one of the four generations of Sentinels, they will learn unique skills to that pilot every five levels, helping to make each character feel unique and give reason to bring them into battle.

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The battles are lackluster and the game would be better without them.

The sound design is excellent across the board, not least the stellar soundtrack from Composer Hitoshi Sakimoto’s Basiscape studio. The music captures the feel of a sci-fi epic in the 1980s and truly brings the world alive, I still find myself leaving the title screen on to listen to the excellent theme there. The voice acting is also top notch and the entire game is voiced from beginning to end, at the time of writing, only the Japanese voice cast was available to me although the day one patch will bring the English voice acting along with it. From the soundbites we have been provided however, there’s a stellar voice cast to look forward to however I do feel the Japanese voice acting perfectly captures the style the game Is going for and it’ll be interesting to play through again with the English setting. Thankfully, as mentioned above, the game’s Analysis mode will allow you replay the entire story in chronological order if you want to experience it in a different language.

Due to the nature of the game, there wasn’t many chances for technical issues although I did experience some slowdown during some of the more hectic battles where there’s a lot of abilities all flying off at once but this was an extremely rare occurrence. I was happy to see that a fine job was done with the localization and I never caught any mistakes or typos which is the most important factor when dealing with games like this. Of special note is all of the explanations of the delicious looking food that is littered throughout the game, certainly a strong point of previous Vanillaware games and I was pleasantly surprised to see it make its way into this game.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is certainly a game that is not for everyone, it is very story heavy and is virtually a visual novel for all intents and purposes. If that is not your style, then this game is not for you, even if you find yourself enjoying the battles. On the other hand, if the battles are not to your liking, don’t let that deter you from the experience, the game’s easiest difficulty setting will make them an afterthought.