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13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - Vanillaware's Latest Finally Being Released in the West

j2alg

Educated
Joined
Aug 8, 2021
Messages
80
The battles turn out to be a very ho-hum affair, if you don't sleep on the job your units won't even get hurt. I was also somewhat displeased with some scenarios.
Overall though it's greater than the sum of its parts and well worth playing.

also
https://youtube.com/watch?v=mFlCpKHWOo0
 
Unwanted
Dumbfuck
Joined
Dec 14, 2020
Messages
803
Had a blast with the tower defense gameplay, that mission where x character starts singing during the battle felt epic, i have a weak spot for that kind of missions. It's probably the greatest Sci-Fiction game out there that manages to put every single trope of the genre into it making it a fantastic homage, you can see that this was a passion project.
 

Talby

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 15, 2008
Messages
5,507
Codex USB, 2014
It seems crazy that they'd make the combat this weird zoomed out thing where you can't even see the units. At some point in the development someone said "Vanillaware is known for it's great unique artwork. Let's not include any of that during the actual gameplay." Weird.
 
Joined
Nov 23, 2017
Messages
4,009
It seems crazy that they'd make the combat this weird zoomed out thing where you can't even see the units. At some point in the development someone said "Vanillaware is known for it's great unique artwork. Let's not include any of that during the actual gameplay." Weird.

Vanillaware makes low budget games. This was a lower budget game that Dragon's Crown, which was their biggest budget game, and that was just somewhere over a million dollars. It helped keep the budget down while still looking cool. You do get to see what the moves do during the gameplay, but it's only when selecting the attack.

I am a little surprised those animations weren't used as some kind of pop up you'd see when the action happened. The inspiration for the look of battles in this game are Gunparade March on the PSX and the PS2 Fantavision, (I wonder if Geometry Wars may have been too) and in Gunparade March you do get a little cutscene of what's happening when you do it. The only thing is I guess they'd need to make even more stuff for all the different combinations of interaction, and the way Vanillaware went about it here keeps things moving faster.




 

Talby

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 15, 2008
Messages
5,507
Codex USB, 2014
That makes more sense. Bear in mind I'm not saying the game looks bad, necessarily, just that it's a shame you don't see the mech warefare equivalent of the combat in Dragon's Crown. I might still pick this up anyway.

They really need to release their backlog on PC, though.
 
Joined
Nov 23, 2017
Messages
4,009
You do get to see the mech warfare, you'll see what the attacks, it's just instead of seeing it when it happens it's an animation that plays out when you're selecting your actions.

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But all the attacks have them, so you'll see the mech launching missiles, using their saw attacks, deploying drones, using their EMPs, and whatever other attacks and actions they have.

It's probably up to Altus if their stuff comes out on PC, and they're just now toying with PC releases. But not even all of their stuff gets a US release:

 
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Rean

Head Codexian Weeb
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Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,910
Strap Yourselves In
Anyone emulating this? Yuzu seems better than Ryu performance-wise but suffers from low audio volume.
 

Perkel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,804
Tried it. Boring after 2-3 hours. Typical shool anime drama + mecha. Front mission it is not.
I liked their previous games and finished them. Dragon's Crown was especially fun.
 

Rean

Head Codexian Weeb
Patron
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,910
Strap Yourselves In
True. It's no Star Citizen, so naturally it would fail to meet your high standards.
 

Rean

Head Codexian Weeb
Patron
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,910
Strap Yourselves In
I'm very glad I tried this despite initial hesitations. A masterpiece of a game.

13-sentinels.gif
 

KafkaBot

Scholar
Joined
May 4, 2016
Messages
187
It IS great. I never thought I'd ever say this, but Vanillaware actually managed to make a better game than Odin Sphere, which was already a masterpiece.
 

cruel

Cipher
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
854
What makes you guys call this game a masterpiece? I liked it (characters, art style, music), don't regret playing at all, but after all the praise the game gets I was left, I don't know, expecting more? The plot twist at the end felt a little bit underwhelming. Maybe I was mistakenly expecting another Planescape: Torment, who knows.

And don't get me wrong, it's still a 8/10 game for me, I'm just wondering what makes people treat it as 10/10 / masterpiece.
 

distant

Learned
Joined
May 18, 2020
Messages
181
Been chipping away at this one... yeah it's amazing so far.

The way they were able to have these narrative sections that can be played in any order across 13 characters each ending with a cliffhanger, no dead end plots, no filler, all contributing to the narrative. Very impressive. That there is no dead weight character or plot thread, dragging the whole thing down is impressive in itself.

That and the obvious, great artstyle, cool soundtrack, the sci-fi elements (mechs/time-travel/etc) that manage to fold into this narrative without feeling tacked on or out of place.

Maybe i'll change my mind as it goes on but ready to give this a masterpiece seal of approval already.
 

Rean

Head Codexian Weeb
Patron
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,910
Strap Yourselves In
Just finished it.
Here are my thoughts:
Where does one begin without going over things already stated previously? The way every character plays an equally important role in a story of monumental proportions, while at the same combining it all with a not-so-generic 80's high-school setting with touches of time-travel and conspiracy? The formula is fairly common in Japanese games, but it's perfected here.
The mech gameplay was really good, too, and despite actually being in a completely separate screen from Remembrance, added to the story in its own way. It's great how they complemented each other by giving you mystery points to unlock lore when doing Destruction, and meta-points when doing Remembrance, and all the barriers to progress made perfect sense. A fantastic case in favor of railroading the player.
The only thing I didn't like was showing the completion percentage. I want MORE, don't tell me I'm about to be done.

Last stage was fucking tough. I actually had to go back and grind for metapoints.
Juro's probably the worst fighter in the game.

Ending was beautiful. Filled with hope and positivity. Humanity's already extinct anyway. Not everything needs to be all shit all the time. I like how they all decided to revisit the school.

Maybe I was mistakenly expecting another Planescape: Torment, who knows.

Despite all my memes throughout the years, it's obvious PS:T is still a western game. You know how you can tell? Play the two games back to back.
Does PS:T have a soul? Nah. It does not.
Don't ever bring up westoid products in a serious comparison with projects made with love and passion.
 

Talby

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 15, 2008
Messages
5,507
Codex USB, 2014
After completing all the character stories, all the mech missions, unlocking all mystery files, and seeing the true ending, I'm finally ready to share my spoiler-filled thoughts on Vanillaware's sci-fi epic masterpiece;

Natsuno is best girl.
 

Jasede

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
24,793
Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
Playing this a bit when not being bored by Elden Ring. Can you skip the tactical missions? They are impossible to fail anyway and so boring...
 

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