13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
Exclusive titles on the Playstation are few and far between in recent generations. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is brought to us by Atlus, a very strong developer that likes to take chances and bring interesting content. In this title they didn’t pull any punches, blending real time strategy battles with visual novel storytelling.
The story of 13 Sentinels is told through the point of views of 13 different characters. They’re not all open at once and open up as you progress through the stories of others. Sometimes a progression will get blocked until you progress someone else’s story to a certain point, or you reach a certain percentage complete in the battle portion of the game.
The game is split into three portions. The battle, the story, and the journal. Battling and progressing the story open up new journal entries. You jump back and forth between the battles and the story as needed. Certain times they will block each other until you complete a certain benchmark in the other. Sometimes characters are blocked by opening up locked journal entries as well. It’s a fairly simple gameplay loop that doesn’t take much time to get used to.
The story is the high point of the game. It’s told in a visual novel-esque manner. Each character takes about 1 and a half hours total to see their story, and it’s told in chunks that are almost like chapters. Sometimes these chapters are straight forward, and sometimes you have to solve riddles or puzzles to get the correct path to see the proper outcome of that chapter. Overall it’s addicting and fun to see the story through the eyes of everyone involved. It’s heavily based in sci-fi and mystery and it’s fun to try to piece it all together. Even when you complete the story a lot is left for the player to put together. Going through the extensive journal of terms helps fill in all the pieces more clearly, so you shouldn’t ignore reading through it.
The battles are the low point of the game. Even on the highest difficulty it’s extremely easy to cheese. There are some characters that can place unmanned cannons that just decimate everything when you place enough of them. Also some characters that can launch unmanned drones that attack enemies as well. Even on the last battle all I did was place Sentry Cannons and call on Interceptors (drones), while keeping my shields up and I took no damage and let my autonomous sentries and drones wipe the floor with the hordes of enemies. The battles get boring really quick. Maybe that’s my fault for using cheap tactics, but it is what it is.
Visually the game is stunning, and has an art style extremely unique and well done. The music is awesome, and my favorite track is the one that plays in Natsuno’s story.
I was very addicted to the gameplay in the beginning but by the end I was pretty bored with the battles and just pushed through. Overall I think the game is very enjoyable but suffers from a lack of diversity in the way it tells the story, and lackluster battle system. I do recommend it, as it’s a short game. It took only 25 hours to finish, and the ending was powerful and emotional.
