Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2021-04-24 02:23 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2021-04-24 02:23 pm
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I Knew It! No Human Butt Is That Defined!
I've finished 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim!
Ryoko not remembering Gouto is considerably more disconcerting now that I know they dated for half a year.
Ugh. Ida was already the worst, and now I learn that he tricked Ryoko into infecting the Sentinels with DD-426?
Ryoko just sort of accepts the fact that she can't remember her own name. She doesn't seem especially distressed or surprised. It's slightly heartbreaking.
I don't especially care for Juro Kurabe/Megumi as a pairing, but I do like that, when Juro says he loves her, he acknowledges the strange possibility that it's because of Izumi's memories in him. 'Maybe it's because of his memories... but even so.'
I suppose there's also some interesting potential for tragedy in Kurabe being in love with her while she's laser-focused on turning him into someone else.
Given this game's varied shipping potential, it's a bit of a shame most of the characters are clearly paired off by the end. I just want everyone to have a crush on everyone else!
I love Ei responding to the video of his own past self with 'Sounds like a real moron.'
Don't expense your taxi when you're doing a murder!
Morimura and Izumi were also together in 2188?
Poor Miura, only learning they were living inside a virtual reality after fighting with everything he had to defend it!
Poor everyone, learning that everyone in their lives except the other pilots was an AI.
Awww, the reunion with Miwako is really sweet! They know she's an AI, but they still love her.
It's sort of hilarious that Ei is too socially awkward to show up in the epilogue.
Really hard not to read Juro and Megumi's 'you should come over to our house later' to Izumi as an invitation for a weird threesome, given that it immediately follows Izumi calling himself a third wheel.
Ogata getting emotional over Wajima is INFINITELY DELIGHTFUL. I am loving this epilogue.
I really need to write fanfiction where they complete Operation Aegis and end up trapped in the ruined world forever. I feel it's my destiny to write this fic.
My final verdict is that 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is the perfect game if you're me and is probably still a very good game if you're not. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys extremely story-heavy games full of wild twists.
A word of advice to anyone playing this game: it looks like you can save mid-battle, but loading the file will just put you back at the beginning of the battle. Don't be me and discover this in the last quarter of the final battle.
Ryoko not remembering Gouto is considerably more disconcerting now that I know they dated for half a year.
Ugh. Ida was already the worst, and now I learn that he tricked Ryoko into infecting the Sentinels with DD-426?
Ryoko just sort of accepts the fact that she can't remember her own name. She doesn't seem especially distressed or surprised. It's slightly heartbreaking.
I don't especially care for Juro Kurabe/Megumi as a pairing, but I do like that, when Juro says he loves her, he acknowledges the strange possibility that it's because of Izumi's memories in him. 'Maybe it's because of his memories... but even so.'
I suppose there's also some interesting potential for tragedy in Kurabe being in love with her while she's laser-focused on turning him into someone else.
Given this game's varied shipping potential, it's a bit of a shame most of the characters are clearly paired off by the end. I just want everyone to have a crush on everyone else!
I love Ei responding to the video of his own past self with 'Sounds like a real moron.'
Don't expense your taxi when you're doing a murder!
Morimura and Izumi were also together in 2188?
Poor Miura, only learning they were living inside a virtual reality after fighting with everything he had to defend it!
Poor everyone, learning that everyone in their lives except the other pilots was an AI.
Awww, the reunion with Miwako is really sweet! They know she's an AI, but they still love her.
It's sort of hilarious that Ei is too socially awkward to show up in the epilogue.
Really hard not to read Juro and Megumi's 'you should come over to our house later' to Izumi as an invitation for a weird threesome, given that it immediately follows Izumi calling himself a third wheel.
Ogata getting emotional over Wajima is INFINITELY DELIGHTFUL. I am loving this epilogue.
I really need to write fanfiction where they complete Operation Aegis and end up trapped in the ruined world forever. I feel it's my destiny to write this fic.
My final verdict is that 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is the perfect game if you're me and is probably still a very good game if you're not. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys extremely story-heavy games full of wild twists.
A word of advice to anyone playing this game: it looks like you can save mid-battle, but loading the file will just put you back at the beginning of the battle. Don't be me and discover this in the last quarter of the final battle.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2021-04-24 01:50 pm (UTC)(link)Ryoko not remembering Gouto is considerably more disconcerting now that I know they dated for half a year.
Also raises some questions about what Gouto is thinking during those early Ryoko segments, where he's following her around for Morimura and she's like "who are you? go away, you're annoying" while clearly suffering. Poor Ryoko. She is my favourite. (I also liked Juro's breakdown, obviously.)
I liked Megumi's story a lot: I really like the scene where she shoots Fuyusaka and at last admits to herself that she's doing this for herself, however much she keeps trying to justify it as being for Juro, and then later on that when Juro finally confronts her about his being Izumi, she has the opportunity to really zero in on that when he's vulnerable, but she doesn't because she promised Tamao, even though she clearly wants to. I can take or leave the Juro/Megumi pairing though.
Here's something your friend may have told you: 13 Sentinels was supposed to be a lot longer. They cut around half the planned content for the game. I think it generally holds together pretty well, although there are some places where it's clear that storylines vanish (the pills story with Tamao being the most obvious example), or where plot is implied but not followed up on (what happened to the previous loops Miura's friend?), or stories that are given a lot of attention but ultimately taper off (the key) - that last one in particular is fine to me, because I just read it as them all exploring many different avenues, some of which work out, and some of which don't, such as the plan to get Ryoko to remember how to remove the infection from the sentinels.
Did Gouto's story grow on you? I used to watch loads of detective shows, so his arc reminded me of the "get people together and make them confess!" moments, so I enjoyed it for that nostalgia feeling. :P
Have you got a character ranking? What about a playable story ranking - are they the same? :P
Here are some interesting interviews:
https://www.frontlinejp.net/2020/09/29/13-sentinels-aegis-rim-spoiler-qa-with-george-kamitani/
https://www.siliconera.com/13-sentinels-aegis-rim-voice-acting-during-a-pandemic-interview/
One thing I'm finding interesting watching the Bittersweet Gamers (one of my fave LPers) LP of the game - which is ongoing - is that they are both mega fans of mecha, the sci-fi genre etc, so they pick up on a lot of plot points early because the game does a lot of homages to other media. And then there are other things that they don't pick up on, too - but their style is to play games very slowly as they are very stop and think and debate, which is great as I watch LPs to hear another person's thoughts and theories, not just to watch an entire game all over again and get the same experience. Plus, they've been doing the game in a very... unique... order, starting off by jumping around a bit then playing through a load of Tomi's story, so it's been very interesting seeing theories crafted from seeing that arc first rather than nearly last. (They even unlocked Ryoko's story through the scene in Tomi's story where she's setting the androids on them all, then Ei says she can't help it and she clearly doesn't have a clue what's going on, which leads to a much different first impression of Ryoko than the one we both experienced!).
Many people want happy endings. People who are Riona may prefer the bittersweet everyone being stuck for the rest of their lives in a hellhole, for sad banging times. :P
-timydamonkey
no subject
I really like the scene where she shoots Fuyusaka and at last admits to herself that she's doing this for herself, however much she keeps trying to justify it as being for Juro
When I played, I read that line as 'shooting Fuyusaka specifically is for me'. If I look at it as Megumi admitting that her entire mission to restore Juro's memories is for herself, I like it a lot more. Thank you for giving me a different perspective on that scene!
Here's something your friend may have told you: 13 Sentinels was supposed to be a lot longer.
My friend's response on seeing this comment (I've been linking him to my commentary): 'your comment friend has figured me out it seems'. It's surreal to think this game could have been twice as long! Considering how much was cut, it holds together impressively well.
I never loved Gouto's storyline in the way I loved the others, but I did like that it gave us the opportunity to see scenes from the final battle sequence, and I appreciated his feelings about Ms Morimura adding some complexity to his character!
It's hard for me to rank characters because so much of my enjoyment of them is tied up in how closely their storylines align with my interests! Removed from context, my favourite is probably Tomi; in context, my favourite is Juro. I don't think I could separate the characters and their storylines enough in my heads to create a full ranking. (Yuki's definitely a case where I like the character more than the storyline; Hijiyama's probably a case where I like the storyline more than the character.)
Many people want happy endings. People who are Riona may prefer the bittersweet everyone being stuck for the rest of their lives in a hellhole, for sad banging times. :P
I'd love to pretend you haven't assessed me perfectly here. I did like the happy ending, but a part of me is definitely a tiny bit sad that the game introduced the 'everyone stranded together in the ruins forever' possibility and didn't deliver!