Although it's been available for about a year now in Japan, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, the sidescroller and RTS hybrid from Atlus and Vanillaware, has largely flown under the radar for those living in the West. And now that the game will finally be available to an international audience, players will be able to discover what Smash Bros. director, Masahiro Sakurai, was talking about when he said that everyone should play this game.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim can essentially be separated into two different sections: Remembrance, the game's sidescrolling adventure and storytelling experience, and Destruction, sequences where players do battle with various kaiju in a new take on the real-time strategy genre. These sections come together to craft 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim's overall narrative as one complete package.
The bulk of the story for 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is found in its Remembrance mode. This mode revolves around 13 teenagers of various backgrounds that must come together in order to protect the world from mechanized Kaiju called Deimos. All 13 teens are main characters within the game's narrative, and each of their unique stories feeds into the overall plot of the game. With 13 main characters, it's easy to assume that some characters might not be as important as others or might not get as much screen time. And although early parts of the game seem to point towards Juro Kurabe, a boy obsessed with sci-fi movies and giant robots, as the central main character, all 13 protagonists end up being incredibly important to the story by the time things are all said and done.
The actual gameplay for Remembrance is a little on the limited side, however. With this mode focused on story, gameplay has been restricted to an almost visual novel-esque format, with players utilizing something called the Consider system. This system adds keywords to a thought cloud where players can "consider" different topics, getting the character's thoughts on the subject. Players will also need to present keywords to other characters in order to advance the plot.
The idea of weaving 13 characters' stories together and giving plenty of importance to all of those involved in one overarching narrative is a daunting task in and of itself. However, this is where Atlus and Vanillaware decide to push the envelope by adding another complex ingredient: time travel. While the majority of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is set in 1985, segments of characters' stories occur in the past or the future, oftentimes traveling between various years. With 13 Sentinels allowing players to tackle any of the stories of its Remembrance mode in almost whatever order they wish, this time travel element can be a little confusing in the early hours of the game. However, the game does include two elements that assist with that problem.
Each protagonist's story will sometimes become locked between chapters, with players needing to complete specific requirements to continue with that storyline. More often than not, players will need to complete a chapter of another protagonist's story, or will need to advance past a specific point within the game's Destruction mode. The inclusion of these unlock parameters may seem arbitrary at first, but when actually played out, the chapters in question give context to the revelations experienced in the locked character's story.
The other element that helps with 13 Sentinels time travel narrative is a tool called the Event Archive. The Event Archive is a timeline of events that fills itself in upon completion of story chapters. This timeline is instrumental for establishing when each protagonist's story takes place within the game's narrative and makes the time travel elements a lot easier to grasp.
The other key part of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim's package is its Destruction mode. In a sense, Destruction mode could be considered the sequel to the game's Remembrance mode, as it deals with the aftermath of the latter's events. However, this is where players will experience the actual defense of the world in their mechs, or Sentinels, through RTS combat.
Each Destruction mission has the constant goal of protecting a central point called the terminal, with some missions adding additional win conditions such as eliminating an amount of a certain type of enemy. Before the mission begins, players are given the choice of which 6 Sentinel pilots they wish to bring as their strike team (controllable units) and which 7 will stay back to defend the point in case any kaiju get by. Sentinels are separated into 4 different classes or "generations," with each having their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, Gen. 1 Sentinels are up-close melee units while Gen. 3 Sentinels are long range units.
While Atlus and Vanillaware have described the combat of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim as an RTS, the truth is that it feels more like a hybrid of real-time strategy and turn-based combat. Selecting one of the strike team Sentinels will pause all combat until it is ordered to move, perform an action, repair (heal), or defend to take less damage and charge EP (the resource that is used to perform actions).
Once a Sentinel performs any of these options, they go on cooldown while the enemy Kaiju perform their "turn" all at once in the interim. This turn-based/RTS hybrid feels like a unique innovation on the traditional RTS formula that could be a great starting point for beginners looking to ease their way into strategy games. Although it can sometimes be difficult to see where friendly units are due to the mode's art style, and seasoned strategy fans might see the combat scenarios as trivially easy, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim provides a fun and unique top-down experience.
At its core, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is an absolutely gorgeous game. The game features two different art styles for its modes that fit their respective aesthetics perfectly. Destruction's art looks as though it was ripped straight off of a computer screen in an 80's sci-fi movie, complete with brilliant neon reds, yellows, and blues. Remembrance, on the other hand, looks as though every frame and animation was lovingly hand-painted, with its 2D character models existing in a slightly 3D world.
While the game typically runs consistently smooth even on a regular PS4, there are a few moments where players might see some dropping of frames in Destruction. One mission in particular has the player facing off against a massive horde of kaiju where the game really begins to struggle when multiple enemies are taken out at once. Moments like this are few and far between though, and don't take away from the overall gameplay experience.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a wonderful package that delivers on its mission statement of merging a compelling sci-fi story led by 13 protagonists with a unique take on the classic RTS formula. Despite some points of confusion early on due to time travel shenanigans in Remembrance and a sometimes hard-to-read battlefield in Destruction, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is one of 2020's must-play games and will make players want to mount up in a Sentinel of their own.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim releases on September 22 on PS4. Game Rant was provided a PS4 code for this review.