13 Sentinels Aegis Rim Reviews
I've never been much of a fan of science fiction, let alone real-time strategy games, but 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim impresses in every possible and imaginable way. The complex plot, fragmented into 13 parts, is extremely competent, even if it can sometimes seem repetitive. The complex yet didactic combat, combined with the incredible audiovisual presentation and the excellent performance on Switch, makes this title from Vanillaware one of the best in the hybrid console library.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Having a team of six Sentinels rain down clusters of missiles, bust out special finishers, and slink in and out of combat to repair was like watching a neon rave party on screen. Building a diverse team pays dividends and perfecting your strategy to time your cooldowns or minimise damage to the city, and with the addition of a bit of party management, all lead towards a ranking system per engagement.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a must-play for players who want to experience an impressive story with memorable characters, as well as surprisingly compelling real-time strategy gameplay.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim should be tried by everyone. If you’ve got a Switch and literally thirty minutes, try it. Give it a genuine go and see what happens in the first half of the hour long tutorial. If you aren’t at least mildly intrigued, fair enough, walk away. But if you can enjoy that thirty minutes, you’re on the hook for hours upon hours of fighting, upgrading, exploration, beautiful design, amazing soundtrack and just some of the tightest coding the Switch has had the privilege to house. You cannot go wrong here, and I cannot recommend it enough.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a gem with fully justified award wins in 2020, and the Nintendo Switch port is a very welcome opportunity for more players to dive into its fantastic sci-fi story. While it’s light on the action, it’s a wholehearted recommendation for those who enjoy narrative adventures and RPGs in general.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is another spectacular tactical RPG that combines turn-based and real-time strategy to great effect. The battles are definitely on the easier side of things and it can be a bit tricky to read the visual prompts, although 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim makes up for this with a riveting story and addictive gameplay that’ll hold your attention for the game’s 30-40 hour runtime.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim’s combat may only be serviceable at best but incredibly handled story more than makes up for this shortcoming.
With 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim developers Vanillaware have achieved their most ambitious work yet. A combination of different genres that surprisingly manages to walk hand in hand, supporting a great narrative experience that should be enjoyed by any fan of time-travelling stories, paranormal elements and introspective dramas with a typically Japanese style. The portability on Nintendo Switch is also a perfect match for the pace of the game's missions and single narrative sessions. If you've already enjoyed it on PS4, this version offers nothing new. If not, this is the perfect opportunity to pick up this precious gem.
Review in Italian | Read full review
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, a Vanillaware title from 2020, is the ideal Switch port. Everything that makes this game great is enhanced by the Switch’s unique form factor. What was once a niche PlayStation exclusive becomes an essential experience for owners of Nintendo’s hybrid.
Despite the battles being a bit of a letdown, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a must have for those who love plot driven games. Up until the very last moment you're still not sure of what's going on, but that's not annoying. Far from it: every single plot twist just makes it harder to put your console away.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
13 Sentinels holds its place among the likes of The Last of Us Part II and Disco Elysium as a narrative-driven triumph that leverages the interactive medium to deliver a story that can only be appreciated through its lens.
There was so much room for 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim to just not work. So many threads are weaved together in a way where, by far, the most likely outcome of the whole thing should have been an interesting failure. That it instead sticks the landing, weaving together a plot that has no business being this moving and satisfying, is astonishing. If you’re at all interested in visual novels, or adventure games, or science fiction, and you don’t play 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, you must be suffering from brain overload.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim tells an ambitious and compelling story that takes an anaconda's worth of twists and turns, but it's careful to never overwhelm you to the point of exhaustion, while remaining grounded enough in its characters and concept to deliver everything with a bang. While the other half of the experience is pretty unremarkable in comparison, it doesn't prevent 13 Sentinels from standing high as an example of video game and science fiction storytelling.
With an incredible presentation, flashy combat, memorable characters, and depth and nuance in its complicated time-travelling kaiju-fighting narrative, 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim is a must-play for most PS4 owners with at least a tolerance for anime melodrama.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is an excellent game which a thoroughly involving story which takes some time to get your head round, once you do though you’re going to really enjoy the experience. The story sucks you in whilst the games mechanics give you a several different challenging but entertaining experiences. If you want to kill 20-30 hours and enjoy an enthralling game then you won’t go far wrong with 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.
This RPG values your time, does complicated sci-fi storytelling right, and just may usher in a new style of how RPG's play.
13 Sentinels is more than just a great game, it’s a true experience; its incredible narrative, coupled with great gameplay and stunning visuals, makes the title one of the best PlayStation exclusives of this generation.
Review in Italian | Read full review
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is much larger than the sum of its parts. It is a deeply captivating and indescribable title — it is, in a single word, art. It is an essential game for literally anyone with a PS4 and one that I personally would like to see reaching other platforms so that even more players have the opportunity to experience it.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
You haven’t experienced a story of this magnitude and quality not just in a video game, but in the sci-fi genre as a whole. 13 Sentinels, and Vanillaware as a whole, are video game cultural treasures, no buts about it.
The focus of 13 Sentinels is the anime-like narrative. Exciting, multi-layered and longlasting, 13 Sentinels manages to enrich the genre of visual novels. Anyone who is in the mood for an end-of-time Japanophile story about gigantic 'Mechs, teenage drama and crazy scifi plots will find what they are looking for in 13 Sentinals Aegis Rim.
Review in German | Read full review