13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (Coming to Switch on 12th April 2022)

[Julius]

Atlus really are bringing everything to the Switch besides mainline Persona, huh? 

Thanks for reminding me that I've had the PS4 version sitting on my shelf, SEGA  hopefully this will bump it up the pecking order some! 

Edited November 28, 2021 by Julius

[killthenet]

Great news, I have been wanting to give it a go but it seemed like it was better suited to playing it on the Switch so I'll definitely pick it up when it comes out in April

[Happenstance]

That’s cool. Definitely a game that deserves to have more people able to play it.

[WackerJr]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Thanks for reminding me that I've had the PS4 version sitting on my shelf, SEGA  hopefully this will bump it up the pecking order some! 

Exactly the same here! 😃 I’m so pleased to hear this, and until I finally get around to playing it I’ll just have to base my opinion on the myriad of positive reviews for the game!

With this news, and that the Danganronpa team are also working on a brand new IP there’s plenty to be excited about for fans of story-based / interactive visual novel games.

[MindFreak]

Why is an Atlus game being exposed on SEGA Europe Youtube channel? 

Edited November 29, 2021 by MindFreak

[Dcubed]

46 minutes ago, MindFreak said:

Why is an Atlus game being exposed on SEGA Europe Youtube channel? 

Err… because SEGA own Atlus?

Edited November 29, 2021 by Dcubed

[MindFreak]

17 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Err… because SEGA own Atlus?

Really?? Wow. Didn't know that. XD

[Hero-of-Time]

With the game soon to be released on the Switch, I decided it was time to finally play the game. I've had the PS4 version sat on the shelf for ages now and figured now was a good time to start it. After playing it on and off for a week or so...

Firstly, this game is absolutely gorgeous. The art style used in the game made for some amazing looking scenes throughout the game. Take a look.

With the game being a type of visual novel, I was curious whether not I would like it. I'm not a fan of the genre but with the praise the game got I figured it deserved a chance. I'm glad I did because the game is a gem. Anyone who does decide to plays this is in for a wild ride and this will be you before the game ends...

The game has you take control of 13 different protagonists. Each of them plays a vital role in the story, with crossovers happening between a few of them during their storylines. I was a little concerned about if it would be possible to keep track of 13 different stories but it works surprisingly well. You kind of have free reign in how you tackle the story. You can pick who you want and can either play their story until you reach a road block or chop and change between characters and get a bit of story from them all. The road blocks I mentioned are raised to encourage the player to try other stories. A development in a story may call for the player to experience another side of it before they can move on. This happens a fair few times in the game and again it works very well. 

There are plot twists and turns in abundance in the game but not of these feel forced or cheap. There is a lot of ground work done in the lead up to certain events and as such these plot developments feel earned. It's a very satisfying feel seeing something that occurred earlier in the story or in different character's scenario having a big payoff. Just like a good book or TV show, a lot of these twists and turns happen at the end of a chapter and I felt the need to continue my playthrough just to see what would happen. 

With there being 13 characters to play as I figured there would be a few rubbish characters thrown into the mix and were there to just make up the numbers. That wasn't the case at all and I found each of their stories compelling. I did have a preference for some over others but all of them had enjoyable stories. Also, each of the characters seemed quite unique from one another. Yuki Takamiya is very strong willed and feisty, Takatoshi Hijiyama is a man confused about how he feels, Nenji Ogata is a school hard case that would fit in the Yakuza series... the list goes on. 

I decided to play the game in Japanese and with subs. I'm very keen on playing games in English if a Japanese option is available, especially if the setting is in Japan. The writing is spot on through the game and it really brought each of the characters to life. Some of it is flat out hilarious and I was surprised to even see some of it in the game. For example, there's a point where some of the characters are looking for the school nurse and one of them can't think who she is. One of the female characters is very blunt and says " You know? She's the one with the big knockers."  Hilarious.  

There's another side to the game and that's the tower defense gameplay. There are 30 missions to complete and these can be done in between the story segments. You can pick when to play these but, like the story segments, you will need to tackle these at some point due to the road blocks. It's a fairly simple premise. You pick 6 of your characters to defend your base. Each of them pilot a mech called a Sentinel and it's up to you to use your various weapons and skills to either defeat the approaching enemy forces or hold out until the time is over. My go to strategy was to upgrade sentry turrets and deploy them all over the place. It's a tactic that worked stupidly well and carried me through most of these encounters. However, you can't use the same characters over and over again. Once they've been used in two battles they need a cooldown period. With each character having a different loadout, it means sometimes you do have to change things up a bit, even if it's just for a single fight.

I could go on and on about the story but i don't want to spoil anything because that where the main appeal of the game is. I've tried to keep things about the story as vague as possible as to not spoil it but I will say for those who are thinking about picking it up for the Switch, you are in for a treat.  It's probably more suited to that platform as well due to the portable nature of console. You could lie in bed and play/read a few chapters before bed. It's an adventure that will take around 30 hours to complete and you are in for a Hell of a ride. 

[Sméagol]

When I first of this title, I was hoping for something similar to their previous games (as I haven't played the Playstation games). But I like visual novels so I'm looking forward to this as well. I'm also a sucker for their artstyle, so that helps.

[darksnowman]

I've had this on my mental watchlist and now it's almost here I'm not sure if it's a day one buy to show Atlus people on Switch want their stuff, or just wait and grab it on sale a bit further down the line. I'm leaning towards the latter at the moment as buying to show support in the past hasn't really yielded the further support I've been hoping for.

[Hero-of-Time]

I see you're playing this @darksnowman. I look forward to reading what you think of it.

[darksnowman]

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I see you're playing this @darksnowman. I look forward to reading what you think of it.

Guilty as charged. It hadn't twigged with me until the other day that its release lined up with Easter weekend, so I made a deal with myself that if I saw it today, I'd get it. I wasn't sure how likely that'd be as I'm not used to games coming out on Thursdays? Well, there was one copy on the corner of the shelf so pick it up I did.

I'm in the tutorial waves so very much in the early stages of seeing what's going on and how these characters' stories/lives connect and intersect. So far I think Dr. Space is my preferred. Previous to that, the guy with his yakisoba pan was amusing. The action sections seem pretty unlosable at the moment what with it being the tutorial but it's a nice change of pace.

So yeah... intrigued. Not gonna pretend I know where it's going as I'm sure there are plenty of twists and turns on the way though I have a grasp on what's happened so far. BTW, I hadn't seen footage of this and it's blatantly from the Muramasa people as soon as you see it in motion.

Any missables I should be concerned about? At the moment I'm compulsively checking around the screen for keywords (or items) just in case. So far it hasn't yielded anything so I dunno if I'm wasting my time with that or not.

[Hero-of-Time]

No missables, at least as far as I know. Also, I wouldn't worry about looking for missing words/key words, especially early on. Various sections will get repeated and you'll eventually get the phrases you need to move towards different paths.

As for the yakisoba pan guy, he's great and very obsessed with eating them.  

[darksnowman]

That's good to know. It's because of the way the (prologue) chapters conclude with a results screen numbering how many mystery files and event archives you've obtained that had me wondering what I could be missing. It's all the stranger because as far as I'm concerned, I've amassed none of either!

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

As for the yakisoba pan guy, he's great and very obsessed with eating them.  

Shades of Sonic and chilli dogs, haha.

My only early inkling with it is that the characters' storylines are going to converge (knowingly or not) to change the kaiju futurescape that's being depicted. That's possibly as safe a prediction I could make, or it's going to pan out being so far off the mark it's unreal.  

[darksnowman]

On 14/04/2022 at 7:20 PM, darksnowman said:

So far I think Dr. Space is my preferred. 

May have seemed that way to begin with but now I've seen a bit more of it, all (or most of them, since I haven't got all 13 yet) are

Spoiler

sci-fi

so they're all piquing my interest. And it's much more interwoven than I anticipated. 

[darksnowman]

The battle portion seemed to be shaping up as a bit of a token gesture thrown in to break up Rememberance (the dialogue). That was until enemy Gladiator units came along and broke my string of S ranks in style with a D!  Looks like a smidge of thought and positioning is going to be beneficial rather than just kicking back and unleashing barrages of missiles at every opportunity... as satisfying as that's been.  

[darksnowman]

On 14/04/2022 at 7:26 PM, Hero-of-Time said:

As for the yakisoba pan guy, he's great and very obsessed with eating them.  

Noodles stir-fried in sauce, enfolded in sweetened bread... he doesn't trust much in this post-war world... but if there's one exception it's his yakisoba pan.

Yup, I've seen a couple of storylines to the end now and I've circled back to yakisoba pan guy again.  Hoping he gets to chow down in every chapter. 

[darksnowman]

This game does not disappoint. LOL.  

[darksnowman]

Finished this off 100% in Rememberance and Destruction. I think I amassed around 85% in the other section, the info/story notes. So there's stuff to go back for (and no missables as I was worried about at the beginning).

Some animé moments aside (i.e. can we get these kids some clothes!), this was a top game overall. It pulls in basically everything you can think of from decades of the story genre and puts its own spin on all that material. Really good stuff and well thought out with twists, turns and revelations aplenty to keep you wondering just how far they are going to take it. The way you can go through a lot of it in the order of your choosing means twists will vary between players depending on when you're exposed to certain storylines.  

Obviously, the story (Rememberance) can be enjoyed at your leisure and that is the case by and large for Destruction mode too, however, out of all the missions, there were two I had to retry and go out of my way to spend stat points on. First, Area 3-2 or 3-3 I got overwhelmed out of nowhere before waltzing onwards to the finale which I also had to retry a fair number of times. Before my winning attempt, I ended up spending all my points and even then just scraped through with ~10% terminal defence remaining. So it'll keep you on your toes. 

Anyone looking for a change of pace would do well to add this to their collection.  

[darksnowman]

Had this appear on Youtube. For those wondering how spoilerific it is, it's not too bad. At the end, it says the clips and story beats discussed come largely from the opening hours so if you can cope with that, what are you waiting for? Pop the kettle on and enjoy. 

[WackerJr]

Just completed it 100% and I think I spent most of my time in a state of ignorant bliss.  I was so confused by what was going on, but I was enjoying it!

The top-down battles were a nice break from the reading, even if not overly deep.  Even Atlus recognise them as accompaniments to the story and being able to change the difficulty of them with no penalty is a nice touch and so you can choose whether you want a challenge or just want to clear the levels.

While most of the 2D sections are very linear, there are a few that have puzzles of a sort, and I enjoyed.  The characters are all relevant and there was something endearing about them.  Despite feeling lost I felt compelled to complete it & I enjoyed it!

 

 

Edited June 25, 2022 by WackerJr

[Hero-of-Time]

Who was your favourite character, @WackerJr?

[WackerJr]

14 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Who was your favourite character, @WackerJr?

Good question! There were so many moments, or elements of characters that I enjoyed.  If I had to plump for one I’d go with Nenji Ogata, as I really enjoyed his story and it’s puzzle elements, as well as being one of the Sentinels that did a lot of damage for me in the Destruction stages.

Yuki Takamiya & Natsuno Minami were close runners-up for me and I really enjoyed playing their stories.

What about yourself @Hero-of-Time?

[darksnowman]

10 minutes ago, WackerJr said:

Good question! There were so many moments, or elements of characters that I enjoyed.  If I had to plump for one I’d go with Nenji Ogata, as I really enjoyed his story and it’s puzzle elements, as well as being one of the Sentinels that did a lot of damage for me in the Destruction stages.

Yuki Takamiya & Natsuno Minami were close runners-up for me and I really enjoyed playing their stories.

What about yourself @Hero-of-Time?

Haha, I particularly enjoyed the Nenji bit during the credits.  

[Hero-of-Time]

12 hours ago, WackerJr said:

What about yourself @Hero-of-Time?

Hard to say. I think all of them have some fantastic moments and play well off each other. To be honest I like them all, which is surprising when you consider how many characters they are. Yeah, I can't pick just one.  

I would love to see this converted into an anime series. I think the the story and characters would translate well into a TV show, kinda like how they do with the Persona games.