Vanillaware’s 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim has always been a game I’ve been dying to try out, with one comment that kept ringing in my head: “If you’re a fan of both the Nonary Games and the Danganronpa series, you’ll be sure to love this game.”
That being said, even if you never played the series I’ve mentioned, you’ll still enjoy this game, as it is a sci-fi masterpiece with engaging plot twists merging a futuristic worldview of past, present, and future. Pretty much every sci-fi scheme is at play here, which might seem confusing at first, but it all clicks together in the end.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim follows an ensemble cast of protagonists as they fend off an impending alien threat, utilizing the power of advanced mech suits to accomplish their goal. The story spans several decades as it follows characters in different eras, while players will have to discover the truth hidden beneath. With its Switch release coming on April 12, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim will provide a unique experience on the go.
▍Diverging Stories With Many Protagonists
In 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, you will be hopping around with multiple protagonists. Each protagonist has their own unique story and situation, but some groups tie with one another, in both direct and indirect ways, considering that each story actually takes place in different “eras”.
In order to unlock the truth, you must play through the same story over and over while managing to find what are known as Keywords, while keeping close attention to how past, present, and future all connect together in the world of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.
You cannot stay too long on one character, however. At certain points, a lock is placed that will require you to either clear a certain stage at the battle mode, or progress in another protagonist’s story before proceeding any further.
The conducting of the mechanic is very well crafted, and this is where I closely drew relations to the Nonary Games, especially because if you press the Square button at a given scenario, you’ll be able to see a full flowchart with hints on which Keywords must be engaged before proceeding to that split.
▍Defend the Terminals in Destruction Mode
The battle of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is known to be a Destruction mode. In here, you’ll be fighting a series of enemies laid out in a tactical RPG style. Before you start, you choose which characters to deploy and which will stay on the defensive.
The objective for most of the missions is to protect a key location and also not allow any of your characters to die. Furthermore, there are also bonus objectives, such as having an offensive team of 4 or fewer or having a specific character on the offensive. By clearing these objectives, you can obtain Mystery Files, as well as Mystery Points, which can be exchanged for more information on objects at the Archive.
Battles have three difficulties to choose from: Casual, Normal, and Intense. The higher your difficulty, the more points you can obtain, but whichever difficulty you select will not lock you out of the bonus objectives.
Personally, since I wanted to enjoy the game’s story, I went with the Casual difficulty, and that’s because the more you use a character, the more fatigued they feel, until eventually cannot use them for a wave unless you reset your win streak. And the Casual difficulty is more directed towards my playstyle, as it won’t obstruct you to enjoy the next part of the story.
▍The Truth Is Out There…
In both of the modes I’ve mentioned previously, all of the Keywords you collect will all be stored in the Analysis Mode. Here, you can spend your Mystery Points, and unlock more information pertaining to the objects and people you’ve met in the Main Story’s Remembrance Mode.
This is definitely the place to go in case you ever need a refresher on how the stories overlap, as there are a lot of different protagonists, it might help in case you don’t understand or need some clarification on a certain term. You can also rewatch past events in the Event Archive.
▍Famous Seiyuus Voicing The Characters?! Yes, Please!
For my own preference, I chose to go with the Japanese voices, since they felt much more in line, given that the game and its plot all take place within Japan. And imagine my surprise when I found out that some of my favorite seiyuu such as Tatsuhisa Suzuki and Shimono Hiro voiced some of the characters!
The voiceover was on point, and each and every voice actor fit their character perfectly. While I did not try out the English voiceover, I can definitely recommend the Japanese voiceover for those who are looking to immerse themselves even more.
▍Final Thoughts
13 Sentinels Aegis Rim is perhaps one of the best games I have played in recent memory. The execution and the story are all so harmonically connected together in ways I did not expect. And after playing through the entire story, the comment that was in my head when I started the game makes a lot of sense now.
If you ever happen to have even the slightest curiosity, this game will certainly not disappoint. And its ending? Well, all I can say is that the ending will just have you wide-eyed, and the events leading to it start off confusing, with everything clicking into place eventually.
