Paul RobertsJuly 07, 2022Maxi Geek Review, 13 Sentiels, SwitchComment

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - Review

Paul RobertsJuly 07, 2022Maxi Geek Review, 13 Sentiels, SwitchComment

Before hitting the Switch, there was a lot of buzz around Vanillaware’s newest game, a visual novel/RTS called 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. But it could only be played on the PlayStation 4, but after a lengthy wait it has finally come to the Switch, so let’s see what all the fuss is about.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is centred on a group of high school students who are caught up in a last-ditch attempt to save the world from an alien force known as Deimos, just think of them as Kaiju. You’ll be re-living snippets of events involving the increasing cast of characters as you’re left to piece together the order of events. These events will take you through different time periods as the story twists and turns, keeps you guessing all the while.

Now there are plenty of teenagers piloting giant mech stories out there, 13 Sentinels manages to keep the mystery behind the enemy and the truth of the world interesting, making it easy to jump back into the wide variety of characters' stories.

Admittingly the game initially throws you right into the thick of it, it is overwhelming in an unpleasant way as there are so many disparate threads. As the story progresses it starts to fall into place, and it is enjoyable to see it all click. It can be annoying when a game or even a tv show, gets off to a slow start, making it hard to know if it is actually going to pay off, making you question if you should stick it out in the early days. While 13 Sentinels is slow to start, it is worth untangling that big bundle of threads and piecing together just what is happening.

Because of the ever-growing cast, there’s more and more to keep track of. Fortunately, the game provides a flow chart to help keep track of what’s going on. You can also read a synopsis of moments whenever you want to, to help keep you on top of things, if you need it.

There are two different game portions of 13 Sentinels, there’s Adventure/Remembrance and Battle/Destruction. The Adventure side of the game, is where the visual novel component comes into play, with episodes based on an individual character, although the other characters are interwoven through one another’s story. Usually, these episodes don’t involve much more than talking to the relevant character, going over your thoughts or initiating memories. While you may not need to do much during this part of the game, the story pulls you in as you want to untangle the story threads.

Given the game is about high school children piloting giant robots, the other part of the game is doing just that. The fate of the world hangs in the balance, and the Sentinels are the last line of defence in protecting terminals. Essentially you’re guarding a home base and trying to reduce the damage to the surrounding city. The Battle/Destruction section of the game, places your squad of teenage-pilots in the aforementioned Sentinels, on an isometric grid of the city. While the Deimos are a real threat when they smash up the place in Adventure, when you get to take control in Battle, it will be your turn to be smashing them up instead.

The Sentinels and the Deimos - or Kaiju’s, are represented by little icons on the map, watching them will show you where swarms of Deimos’ will be targeting the relevant terminal. The terminal is key for protecting the city, so the goal is to keep the enemy from whittling down the terminal's health. You either need to clear the city of Deimos, or keep the terminal safe for two minutes. At first it’s mainly about managing waves of large groups of smaller Deimos, but flying types, giant and even shielded units will start to appear, giving you more to worry about. As for the Sentinels you also have access to different types of capabilities, such as movement options. To give yourself the best chance of surviving the waves, you’ll need to manage your team to make sure you have the most effective weapons for the expected units coming your way. The teens controlling the Sentinels can also only battle so many times before they need to cool down. So you have to balance not only your Sentinels, but also the pilots that control them, to make sure that your team can handle anything the Deimos’ throw your way, even if it isn’t the most optimal line up.

Something that is going to be a subjective thing, depending on the player, but I found the RTS sentinel portion of the game, would bring the momentum of the game to a sudden halt. As you’re working through the different Adventure episodes, piecing together what is actually going on, you’ll find characters are blocked from progressing until you clear certain waves. Now the story is also revealed during conversations that take place amongst the battles, but surely it could still unfold in a cutscene afterward, during a regular adventure episode. I know everyone won’t feel this way and they’ll enjoy having it to give them a break from piecing together the story. Just know coming into this, there’s two quite distinct halves of a game here. If you aren’t enjoying one section you can at least lower the difficulty to make it way more manageable.

Vanillaware’s trademark art design is front and centre throughout the game and it looks beautiful; although in this day and age, it’s unfortunate to see some of the usual “fan service” elements present. Looking past this, the story part of the game deserves all praise that it receives, because the art is just stunning. If there had to be a downside, it is that you’ll see locations often repeating a bit, as the adventure episodes often overlap, however the world they’ve built is still great to look at every time.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a game that I wanted to uncover every aspect of, from its twisting and winding story, to the secrets that characters are hiding, but are slowly revealed as the truth becomes clear. There is a whole part of the game which threatens to derail all of that momentum, depending on how much you want to play a RTS in an adventure/visual novel game. Vanillaware’s familiar art style looks great, making the large cast of main characters distinct from one another. I found 13 Sentinels to be a very conflicting game, although the positive still easily outweighs the negative.