13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is the latest game from Vanillaware. It is also nothing like their previous games!
Essentially, it is a visual novel/adventure game with RTS battles. The story plays out in an extremely, extremely non-linear fashion, as you try to piece together what the hell is even happening with these 13 high schoolers who are apparently piloting giant mecha against invading kaiju in the future, but also time traveling around each other and possibly jumping in and out of alternate timelines maybe??? I dunno, I've been playing for 8 hours and still don't know how all these 13 kids end up piloting mecha in the far future.
Of those 8 hours, I've fought 1 battle beyond the tutorial and the rest of that time has been spent exploring the story. This game's story is dense. It also wears its sci-fi influences on its sleeve and wants you to be in on it. I'm a total sucker for this kitchen sink approach and it really does throw everything at the wall. You might think that means it's a huge mess, but the sheer mystery and intrigue happening is incredibly fun to puzzle out.
"Okay, I know it's Vanillaware so: how horny is it?"
There's a very trope-y older woman nurse character who has some bouncy breasts (and also later is shown in a full-body black leather cat suit). In addition to that, there are portraits of every character while they're in the cockpit of a Sentinel. One of the "conceits" in this story is that the pilot of a Sentinel can't wear clothes in the cockpit (naturally??), so this means all of the female characters are given pretty suggestive poses in their cockpit portraits, while they're already naked. So there's that. But also, the teenagers are sensibly written and are not even slightly acting like horny anime teens. Which does make the less-overt-compared-to-past-Vanillaware sexualization stick out even more, because the writing itself really is not horny at all, and when sexuality is brought up at all, it's executed at an appropriate level of "shy teenagers acting shy and naive about sex."
tl;dr: Do you like sci-fi stories and anime and anime sci-fi stories? You might just enjoy this here game!
Essentially, it is a visual novel/adventure game with RTS battles. The story plays out in an extremely, extremely non-linear fashion, as you try to piece together what the hell is even happening with these 13 high schoolers who are apparently piloting giant mecha against invading kaiju in the future, but also time traveling around each other and possibly jumping in and out of alternate timelines maybe??? I dunno, I've been playing for 8 hours and still don't know how all these 13 kids end up piloting mecha in the far future.
Of those 8 hours, I've fought 1 battle beyond the tutorial and the rest of that time has been spent exploring the story. This game's story is dense. It also wears its sci-fi influences on its sleeve and wants you to be in on it. I'm a total sucker for this kitchen sink approach and it really does throw everything at the wall. You might think that means it's a huge mess, but the sheer mystery and intrigue happening is incredibly fun to puzzle out.
"Okay, I know it's Vanillaware so: how horny is it?"
There's a very trope-y older woman nurse character who has some bouncy breasts (and also later is shown in a full-body black leather cat suit). In addition to that, there are portraits of every character while they're in the cockpit of a Sentinel. One of the "conceits" in this story is that the pilot of a Sentinel can't wear clothes in the cockpit (naturally??), so this means all of the female characters are given pretty suggestive poses in their cockpit portraits, while they're already naked. So there's that. But also, the teenagers are sensibly written and are not even slightly acting like horny anime teens. Which does make the less-overt-compared-to-past-Vanillaware sexualization stick out even more, because the writing itself really is not horny at all, and when sexuality is brought up at all, it's executed at an appropriate level of "shy teenagers acting shy and naive about sex."
tl;dr: Do you like sci-fi stories and anime and anime sci-fi stories? You might just enjoy this here game!
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