In Summary: Question Marks?

[rionaleonhart]

With the slight easing of restrictions, my family were able to have a socially distanced Easter meal in the sunshine, which was lovely!

This was the first time we'd been able to gather since the last-minute cancellation of Christmas, so we were finally able to exchange presents, and my brother gave me 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim may have hit a new record for time from 'I'm hitting "New Game"' to 'I have no idea what's going on'.



I feel I'm going to hate this battle system, but I'm already excited to get to know all these characters and watch them suffer.

I was listening to two characters have a conversation in the background, and suddenly one of them interrupted their chat and called me out for eavesdropping! I'm not prepared for this sort of thing to happen in videogames!

Kind of shipping Kurabe and Fuyusaka already, twenty minutes into the game, even though all I know about them in relation to each other is that they've both had dreams about each other and a few days from now he'll save her from a giant robot.

The way you hear concepts or names whispered as you select them in the thought cloud is simultaneously hilarious and a genuinely nice touch.

Fuyusaka overhearing the conversation about dreams and assuming the guys are dating! Is this game going to have ridiculous shippy subtext all over the place? Because I am entirely in favour of that. I'm absolutely ready to come out of this with an OT13.

I had no idea this game involved time travel, so I was very confused when one of the character introductions took place in the 1940s.

I'm interested in this weird manipulative nonbinary semi-antagonistic relationship. 'Because I know you like it' was a great response to 'why are you still wearing women's clothes?' and I enjoyed how much it flustered Hijiyama.

The more I get into the story, the less I get into the battle system.

WAIT A SECOND, IT TOOK ME A MOMENT TO REGISTER I LAST SAW HER IN 1985, WHY IS TOMI KISARAGI HERE IN 2024 AND STILL A TEENAGER

I realise the answer is presumably 'she's travelled in time at some point', but TELL ME MORE.

Okay, Kurabe appeared from the future, said his name was Izumi and then collapsed face-down in a puddle. This explains why everyone calls Kurabe 'Izumi', only actually it doesn't explain it at all and I have so many questions.

'Half a Year Later: 1985'. No, game. 1985 is not half a year after 2024. That's not how this works.

Is Kurabe a mess haunted by traumatic things he can only half-remember, i.e. one of my favourite character types? Yesssss.

THE CAT JUST TALKED

'Cats can't talk,' the cat just said to me.

'If it's so easy, why don't you just do it yourself?'
'You're not serious, are you? In case you haven't noticed, I am a cat. You really want to leave the fate of the world to a cat? I don't even have thumbs. If I screw up, you're dead too.'



I didn't know anything about this game when I started, and now I'm three hours in and I still don't.

Comments

[batman]

You will not understand what is going on for 80% of the game until it all clicks and then it will blow your mind. It's currently my favourite game for 2021, because the narrative is so clever, but you will be going "WAIT WHAT?!" a lot.

[rionaleonhart]

I look forward to understanding what's going on! And I'm glad I'm enjoying the confusion, at least.

[batman]

And yes, there are several scenes that will make you go "did they make this game for me?"

[(Anonymous)]

With the battle system, you can always crank down the difficulty if it bothers you (though you may have to be out of the tutorial section to do that). There's a lot more story in this game than combat, you'll be glad to know. I actually quite enjoyed the battle system which surprised me, as I was not expecting to. It did take a bit of getting used to though.

Is this game going to have ridiculous shippy subtext all over the place?

Yes!

'Half a Year Later: 1985'. No, game. 1985 is not half a year after 2024. That's not how this works.

Of course it is! :P

Is Kurabe a mess haunted by traumatic things he can only half-remember, i.e. one of my favourite character types? Yesssss.

Do you remember when I played 13 Sentinels and came here immediately to non-spoiler ramble about it? That's my code for playing a game and going, "Riona would really like this." We do have very similar taste in character types. :P

Btw, the voice acting is really, really good, especially considering the vast majority of it was done from home due to the pandemic. Apparently they had people doing their voice acting in wardrobes at home for decent sound proofing! Then the sound engineers have worked really hard on making it all sound consistent and a decent quality - you really wouldn't be able to tell.

-timydamonkey

[rionaleonhart]

I tried to find a difficulty option and was slightly concerned that I couldn't, so I'm glad to hear one will open up later on!

yesssss, I love ridiculous shippy subtext, give all of it to me

I suppose I haven't yet been through 2024, so for all I know it could go straight into 1985.

Ah, I wondered about the voice acting! It sounded a tiny bit muffled or blurred around the edges to me, not as crisp as I'd usually expect, and it crossed my mind that it might have something to do with the pandemic, so it's good to have that confirmed. The performances themselves are excellent, though, and they've obviously worked hard to minimise the quality issues.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I believe they also had to patch the voice acting in as a day 1 patch!

(Also, I can't believe I haven't pointed out yet that Okino is voiced by original Ash Ketchum. You're welcome.)

[rionaleonhart]

Okino is voiced by original Ash Ketchum

EXCUSE ME

THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE FACT

[nrgburst]

Oh yay! That sounds like an awesome Easter - so happy for you! :D

[rionaleonhart]

Thank you! I've missed everyone; it was great to see them and eat in the sun and walk to the pond to admire the ducks together.

[wolfy_writing]

With the slight easing of restrictions, my family were able to have a socially distanced Easter meal in the sunshine, which was lovely!

Awesome! I'm so glad you got to do that!

'Half a Year Later: 1985'. No, game. 1985 is not half a year after 2024. That's not how this works.

Is that not how you do time?

'Cats can't talk,' the cat just said to me.

...I could see a cat doing that, actually.

[rionaleonhart]

Thank you! I'm strangely touched that people are happy for me. I hope all of us have the chance to spend more time with our loved ones soon.

I struggled with learning to read a clock face as a child (I'd completely forgotten about that until this instant), but I think I've mastered the order in which years go, and I find this 2024-to-1985 business highly suspicious.

[runicmagitek]

and my brother gave me 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.

*PTERODACTYL SOUNDS*

I finished playing this a few weeks ago and I'm still not over it. What a fabulous game. Easily in my top five faves of all time. And what a delight to see someone else go into it blind! It's an utter treat, especially as you watch the story unfold and try to connect the dots. It's a damn trip right up until the very last second and I hope you enjoy it!

RE: combat, it took me a few rounds to understand what the hell was going on. While it is in real-time, treating it like a turn-based strategy thing makes it a lot easier to digest. Also literally none of the achievements are locked to what difficulty you do combat, so there's zero shame in bumping it down.

[rionaleonhart]

I've been curious about 13 Sentinels for a while; a friend finished it back in November and texted me, at four in the morning, to say, 'I literally beg you to play this game.' And then I saw you'd posted about it, which made me even more curious! But I haven't actually looked up anything in advance, so please enjoy my confused blind reactions. I look forward to reading your entries about it once I've finished!