Developer/publisher: Atlus.
Platform: PS4/5,Switch.
Official Site: N/A.
Platform: PS4/5,Switch.
Official Site: N/A.
Release date: 22-09-2020.
I had this game on my wishlist for a while and then... right after I finished Yakuza 2 Kiwami
this went on sale, it was less than 20$ so I said why not? but I ended up playing UtaChro first.
Pro's
- Interesting characters.
- There's payoff if you do all of the character stories.
- Beautiful artstyle.
- Yakisoba pan.
Con's
- Poor presentation, confusing story.
- Repetitive combat system.
The story is the kind of wtf is happening but you ain't getting it from one perspective
so it constantly jumps back and forth between a bunch of characters. I didn't really like
this sort of non-linear story-telling but I was intriguid by the story so I continued anyway.
Besides the characters and interactions were kind of fun too which is a plus in my book.
The game is split between two modes Remembrance and destruction.
There's also analysis but it just kinda exists for collection purpose
and to go over the confusing plot in case you're still confused.
Remembrance being about getting to know the characters and finding out why they're
even fighting in destruction which wastes no time on that, there's some fluff dialogue
before & after battles but in terms of story destruction fell flat. It seems its only there for
gameplay and to progress remembrance. The loop back and forth wasn't so great 20 hours in
which is where I kinda had a good grip on the plot but I was still confused.
You can't get the full story from just 1 character so you gotta finish someone elses
but unlike some VN it all is presented so chaotically it makes my head hurt.
 |
| You know there's some truth to this... |
of those games everyone raves about but I just can't see what's that good about it.
Like its decent to me. I don't particularly enjoy being confused 90% of the time
but there's definitely pay off if you continue the individual stories so that's good.
I generally liked Shu's scenario except it got too ambitious at the end to the point
it couldn't properly finish it, Shu's also a good example of how they tried
to combine multiple stories, for some it worked but others... not so much.
Destruction ends up properly finishing the game but I am still like wtf man when I look back!
I also disliked Renya cuz this guy just had to be a smartass and its like watching sherlock....
*glasses fix* Lelouch voice but hey atleast it made some things make sense and wrapped up the story.
In the end my fav chracters were Shu,Natsuno and Yakisoba pan guy.
 |
| Atleast he's kinda infamous for it... also yea I did enjoy the fluff dialogue in destruction. |
There was also romance but for some of the canon couples it doesn't feel right or
more like some of them felt extremely forced in and man I just can't ship a few of them.
Like I could see Shu & Yuki/Tomi and even Tomi/Neji but Megumi had me cringing while the most
cringe romance in the game definitely was Iori & Ei but for some reason that gets a pass from me. LMAO I guess its the shoujo-manga vibes but whatever, romance is a hit or miss in this game.
Anyway! wasn't for me could be for you and if you really liked odin's sphere or nier automata
then Aegis Rim should be right up your alley too. The only reason why I continued to play
was because of the characters and trying to figure out how it all tied together, this combined
with the visuals was Aegis Rim's strongest points. I regret almost everything though
and at the very least for like 20$ I can say it was definitely worth a try.
For rating I'd give it a 6.5/10 and generally think the game is just fine!
its not as great as I heard people say it was but it was not that bad either.
Some more ramblings after the jump as well as my final thoughts but this is the short of it.
Also there's not really any plot spoilers in this post so don't worry.
Gameplay is like a 2d sidescrolling visual novel and to make it interactive you
have to constantly go over what is being said via a thought bubble.
At first I thought the adventure mode was nice but Juro's quickly became cumbersome
because to understand the character fully you need to do all routes
which means you have to replay the same stage over and over.
You can bet your arse that I ended up using a guide just so I knew what I was doing to
eventually see the story locked away. Anyway seems only Juro was just cumbersome
so I guess it makes sense in the grand scheme of things. Most other storylines except 1 or 2
were fairly straight-forward and you can't even go off the beaten path which makes
it even weirder why Juro had to be such a mes
Occasionally there would be top down RTS battles where you fight using gundams but
IMO this wasn't really the games strong point and often I just wanted to get it over with.
I put it on the easiest difficulty too since I didn't want this to drag on the story like at all.
It was recommended to spam the visual novel mode first so you get meta points
that you can use to upgrade your gundams so it'll become even easier...
Idk if harder difficulties were actually hard but I figure you will actually have to use
the units and their abilities wisely. On casual it is easy enough that if you don't like the mode
you can still just get the story while just upgrading whatever is useful.
Unfortunately turns out this Destruction was the main story and it will only really
make sense after you plow through all of remembrance.
Also this was kind of the most effortless platinum for me, sure I played on casual
but I sorta expected a trophy for the post game stages but turns out it was an endless gauntlet
so I understand why they didn't and its just there if you liked the battle stuff. Now for me
the hardest stage was the final one because there was a heck of a lot going on so instead
of more battle trophies instead we had... a trophy for eating all the food in Iori's route.
it was weird how I got the all Srank trophy before even doing the final battle.
Ok well I guess anyone can platinum then!
Art... well its vanillaware so it is gorgeous, can't complain with these guys.
Music was fitting enough but didn't really stand out too much.
While for me the gameplay wasn't a strong point, it sure was unique.What was its strong point was the visuals,characters and story-telling but still I can see that
some people may not like it and jump out while still getting served character prologues.
I looked at the psn trophies which seems to confirm my suspicions but then again
lot's of people may try a game and then... never go past the second chapter.
 |
| Me halfway through this game... |
TBH I didn't really like the way the story was told, sure things started to become clear
but I was constantly confused and unsure which character to even play first
right after completing ''beginning of the end''. I went with the most logical choice
of Juro or Iori till I hit some sort of lock and do whatever else to continue
but I didn't start liking the character stories till I got to Megumi, Ei and Natsuno.
It really did get better when I continued Natsuno, did Yuki, Army guy and finally Shinonome.
Yeah... Iori and Juro may seem like leading lady and heroine...
but their stories were not as good at explaining everything like some of the others.
I liked bread guy but it seems he was mostly there for comedy and can seem like there's not much
to him in terms of story, doesn't help that he is locked away so you won't even get to him till later.
At times I even forgot about breadguy so I poured points into him in destruction cuz I liked him.
Due to the constant switching and the many characters I also had trouble remembering things.
Names eventually stuck, but in terms of story it was only the facts. I suppose its a me problem
but there was just so much to take in that unless characters were right in the scene
i'd just forget about them which basically just sums up my experience with the game!
I'd remember a bunch of facts here or there and the rest is forgotten..... cuz my brain can't keep up.
13 Sentinels Aegis Rim also reminds me of Odin Sphere, a game I once played on PS2.
It was something with a ton of charm but due to the many characters
and different plot threads I was never able to finish it. Now I am older
and a bit more dilligent to finish games I buy but I did struggled to get into this.
Final thoughts?
This games plot was rather convoluted and complicated but it was cool I guess?
the presentation can be a bit poor though especially early on like why're they fighting?
well you'll find out if you do remembrance and can be bothered to remember it all
because honestly I can't even remember half of it, only the important facts.
I enjoyed it the most when I was actually going through the stories but as soon
as the story stopped I lost most of the plot threads as there were just too many
characters with ongoing plotlines and only a few of them were good really.
Its just revelations upon revelations and I could barely even process it before the next one came.
Like the story is honestly such a wtf experience, you'd have to see for yourself
writing about it will probably make it seem worse than it is. Atleast the ending was OK
but when I really look back at the majority of the game I am just wtf was that?
Good character stories would be Natsuno, Ryoko, Tomi, Shu, Yuki... the worst would be Megumi.
Ei, Miura, Juro, Iori and maybe Neji were kind of in the middle ground, anyone else wasn't
worth mentioning or were OK at best. Renya's good but you probably won't see him much
and if you do the rest isn't till the end. I liked yakisoba pan guy but his story is just
inaccessible for a good chunk of the game so I actually forgot about him.
The majority of the game can also be cutscenes and the battlle stuff
can fall into the background but eventually you will have to do the TRPG stuff
since there's a few characters like Shu that just need you do it to even get into their stories.
At the 20 hour mark, there was basically nothing but tower defense games since
all the stories were in their final stage and its basically forced on you at that point.
Like I said, this game has its charms in the visual department... but idk while I get it could
be great like people say it is i'm also kinda like well its not bad, just decent & a bit cool.
According to the psn trophy list, a lot of people who start don't even finish Renya...
but people who do also finish the rest of the game aka the final stages. Idk what that says
other than people just try stuff for a bit and just never finish it.
6.5/10
I understand that this game released during the covid19 lockdown period so...
people probably devoured this game and went wow that was dope.
I can agree with that it's cool... but yea maybe this wasn't for me! I just don't like
this kind of story-telling or when the story has these weird twist like star ocean 3.
I could probably still recommend it to people who like Nier automata
and don't mind non-linear story telling but this game ain't for everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment