Also, This Game Is Really Pretty.

[rionaleonhart]

More 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim! I've just reached the point where things open up, and I'm working my way through Kurabe's story.



Of course this game has multiple characters with amnesia.

Sekigahara woke up with no memories and a gun, next to a dead woman, and he's worrying that he might have killed her, and this is extremely up my street.

omg, Fuyusaka ran into him and dropped her ID card, he picked it up to return it to her, and now he's found the card in his pocket in his amnesiac state and concluded she must be important to him. I love it.

Wait, has Morimura died twice in different ways? I'm so confused.

'Did I kill her? Did someone order me to do it?' This is EXCELLENT STUFF.

HE ERASED HIS OWN MEMORIES AND LEFT A VIDEO TO EXPLAIN THINGS TO HIMSELF, THIS IS SO STUPID, I LOVE IT

I love 'I - well, you - are stuck here as well'. Realising that, in a sense, he'll be erasing himself; he's speaking to a different person.

Switching to the other amnesiac protagonist: how many times has Shiba erased Kurabe's memories? How much of their friendship is real?

I love how easily flustered Kurabe is. Delightful. I'm so pleased every time he blushes.

Kurabe: I think I've been watching too many movies lately. I'm getting kind of scared. I keep having weird dreams.
Amiguchi: Again?
Kurabe: In the dream, I... I went insane. I killed everyone around me. Including Fuyusaka-san... and you.
Amiguchi: ...
Kurabe: Yakushiji, too. So now I feel anxious whenever she's around. I'm scared... I might end up actually killing her.

Oh, wow, Kurabe is everything I want in a character. A good-hearted, easily flustered, memory-wiped teenage boy who loves his friends, kind of seems like he has a crush on everyone he interacts with, is haunted by the vague sense of traumatic events he doesn't remember or understand, and doesn't trust himself not to do something terrible.

Kurabe correcting Fuyusaka, saying he was there on the bridge, and then realising he has no idea what he's talking about! I really, really, really love characters having vague, inexplicable half-memories of things that, as far as they know, never actually happened. I'm thrilled.

Kurabe finds himself staring at Fuyusaka, and then, when she asks what's up, he explains that she was in his dream last night. 'You were dressed in all black. Strong... commanding... and, honestly, pretty attractive.' And he's so absorbed in trying to remember the dream that he DOES NOT EVEN REALISE WHAT A WEIRD THING THIS IS TO SAY. I love him.

WAIT, WAS KURABE MISREMEMBERING WHO WAS IN HIS DREAM OR ARE FUYUSAKA AND MORIMURA THE SAME PERSON, I'M SO CONFUSED



I think the point I realised I was definitely going to love this game was Hijiyama's prologue. There was Kurabe, who I liked immediately, and then there was Fuyusaka, and I went, 'Oh, cool, I know her from Kurabe's prologue (and potentially ship them slightly); it'll be good to get to know her better.' Then there was Hijiyama, and I went, 'Who the hell is this guy? I'm just going to want to get back to the characters I already know and like.' And then his incredible dynamic with Okino came to light, and I realised that actually I was going to be interested in everyone.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

And now you can pace yourself with the battles as needed! Just do one every now and then and you'll be fine because then you shouldn't ever end up at a point where you have to catch up on a bunch of them in a row if it's not your thing.

Welcome to 13 Sentinels: aka, I have answered this one question I was wondering about, but now I have twenty more!

Due to my "wheeee, just gonna spin the character selection wheel and let fate decide" I did events in a rather inexplicable order (which is why I do it, so I'm not subconsciously biased - partially because I like to watch LPs of games like this, and I've learned that if there is some obvious way to do things, everyone else will do that, and I like looking at other people experience the game with information in different orders, and how that affects impressions of characters).

I said I watched a bit of an LP before picking up the game, just the first few prologues. The weird Juro and Shiba dynamic had me interested. It was Hijiyama's prologue that made me go, "yeah, I'm buying this".

I did have some hilarious early game moments where I struggled telling a few characters apart, because bad with faces and info overload. The girls looked distinct enough, but I kept getting Ei and Miura mixed up chronically, and sometimes Shiba too. You're all too blond!! I think that's partially as I was hopping all over the place with different characters so it took me a bit longer to get a "sense" of some of them, but when I'd finally picked up who was who, it did stay with me!

-timydamonkey

[rionaleonhart]

Welcome to 13 Sentinels: aka, I have answered this one question I was wondering about, but now I have twenty more!

This... yes, this seems extremely accurate.

I hit the point where things opened up and went, 'WAIT, THIS IS GOING TO MAKE IT VERY HARD TO MAKE IT CLEAR WHICH POINT I'M UP TO IN MY ENTRIES,' so for that reason alone I'm likely to go in as obvious an order as possible. (That and the fact that I naturally went for Kurabe's story first, because he is both the first character we're introduced to and my favourite so far.)

I've also had occasional trouble distinguishing characters, although the designs generally succeed better at feeling distinct than I was expecting from the art style. I do sometimes have to bring up the log to check the names next to the dialogue. (And, yes, I saw Miura and went, 'Wow, I really hope this guy wears that hat all the time, because otherwise I am not going to be able to distinguish him from Ei.')

[runicmagitek]

I'm likely to go in as obvious an order as possible

Bold of you to assume there's any order in this game 🤣

[batman]

I have been sitting on my hands ever since you said that you were playing this game so that I didn't go "so Juro is 10,000% your type, so heads up about that" and give it all away. I started off really liking Hijiyama just because he is a very simple soul in a game that is anything but, and then all the characters grew on me and it was extremely rude of them.

I will give you one hint to maximise your enjoyment of Juro's suffering: when you get further through Shu's route, there's a scene in it you should recognise.

[rionaleonhart]

I have been sitting on my hands ever since you said that you were playing this game so that I didn't go "so Juro is 10,000% your type, so heads up about that"

I'm strangely delighted by how accurately I've been assessed, both by you and by the people who appear to have created this character specifically for me. (I love 'all the characters grew on me and it was extremely rude of them', too.)

[runicmagitek]

Oh I love this, especially because when I played, I saved Juro's playthrough for last (I didn't find him nearly as appealing as you lol). I went into his stuff with WAAAAAAY more knowledge of surrounding stuff, which was cool, but I always wondered what it would be like to go into his having zero idea of what was going on. And oh boy, your posts are delivering on that, so thank you!

I realised that actually I was going to be interested in everyone.

YUP. THIS GAME GOES HARD INTO THAT. There were multiple points where I didn't know who to play next because too many awesome things were going on with everyone.

For me, there were characters I loved way more than others, but it's really hard to dislike any of them. They're all so complex and add their own thing and play off of so many delicious tropes. Your comment "THIS IS SO STUPID, I LOVE IT" is 1000000% how I felt the whole time I was playing it and it's amazing :D

[rionaleonhart]

I'm glad I can provide a different perspective on the game, both as someone playing it in a different order and as someone who's programmed to love Juro Kurabe an unreasonable amount!

All the storylines are so cool! I'm really looking forward to finding out what's going on with pretty much everyone.

[samuraiter]

The number of recommendations I have been seeing for this game is tilting me towards getting it. I normally do not pick up Vanillaware games until long after release (because they are good at releasing during times when I have little money – Dragon's Crown Pro is the only exception), but I might pick up the pace on this one.

[rionaleonhart]

This is the first Vanillaware game I've played, and I'm having a great time! I hope you enjoy it, if you do pick it up.