13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim: wow Vanillaware, your mom got you 13 protagonists?

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim: wow Vanillaware, your mom got you 13 protagonists?

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CharlieFoxtrot: Mar 27, 2007; organize digital employees

Thanks!

Next question: I am doing the "Loose Change" event... If this is something I am supposed to figure out like the Iori cat event I don't want to spoil myself but is there something to "solve" here or am I missing something super obvious?

I think I've been to all the locations and looked everywhere, there aren't NPCs or anything

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:30

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# ? Jun 9, 2024 12:07

MorningMoon: Dec 29, 2013; Can't post for 3 days!

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

Thanks!

Next question: I am doing the "Loose Change" event... If this is something I am supposed to figure out like the Iori cat event I don't want to spoil myself but is there something to "solve" here or am I missing something super obvious?

I think I've been to all the locations and looked everywhere, there aren't NPCs or anything

if it's getting change from teh cat:
look at that bird house thing the cat was hanging at, that's your first bit. Afterwards it'll be much easier since it's just finding the cat and change pops up
Took me like half an hour and a guide.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:34

bees x1000: Jun 11, 2020

Yeah he says something like 'I should check under that box' and so I spent ages running around, looking for a friggin' cardboard box or something. But just look at what the cat is sitting next to when you first see it.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:58

CharlieFoxtrot: Mar 27, 2007; organize digital employees

Lol thanks I'm glad I asked because that is a kind of weird thing and not at all intuitive

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:05

ThisIsACoolGuy: Nov 2, 2010; Shaped like a friend

I just... I just wanna check.

I'm at the part where I can pick characters to go through their story chapters and whatnot and I'm supposed to like... not follow a drat thing right? I'm bad with names and the constant jumping around has me going 'wait which person was that? Wait what? Huh? Wait now I'm in the past?'

I'm so loving confused by the story it's trying to tell lmao

# ? Feb 1, 2021 05:59

Clarste: Apr 15, 2013; Just how many mistakes have you suffered on the way here?

An uncountable number, to be sure.

You're expected to be a little confused, but you're also expected to be slowly putting together a bigger picture in your head. Like, you might see someone as a side character on one route and they're doing something weird, but then you play their route and find out why they're doing it. It's almost exactly analogous to trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle. At first it's just a big blank with some tiny isolated pieces, and closer to the end you have most of the picture but are still missing some key information.

That said, I don't think it's intended for you to forget everyone's names all the time. It might help to just follow one character as far as you can to familiarize yourself with them, rather them jumping between different people constantly.

# ? Feb 1, 2021 06:03

RuBisCO: May 1, 2009; This is definitely not a lie

ThisIsACoolGuy posted:

I just... I just wanna check.

I'm at the part where I can pick characters to go through their story chapters and whatnot and I'm supposed to like... not follow a drat thing right? I'm bad with names and the constant jumping around has me going 'wait which person was that? Wait what? Huh? Wait now I'm in the past?'

I'm so loving confused by the story it's trying to tell lmao

It'll feel very all-over-the-place for a while at the beginning, doubly so if you have a harder time with Japanese names. This is by design. Honestly, the game remains fairly scattered right up until the end and it's fascinating that for the most part, the game nails the ending.

You'll be able to pick up plot threads as you go, and eventually more threads come together to form a narrative. Be sure to review mystery files/rewatch events to keep things fresh in your mind!

Enjoy the ride.

# ? Feb 1, 2021 06:04

CharlieFoxtrot: Mar 27, 2007; organize digital employees

I just beat the game and yeah when I started I was like "I can barely remember 13 names let alone 13 names in a different language," today when I did my ranking post I rattled them off from memory and only looked them up to double-check spelling

Edit: crosspost, massive ending spoilers

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

I feel like that it's unfair to rank the characters since some of them play roles of narrative importance which may not make them "likeable" but I guess that's the thing!

1. Yuki Takamiya - Number one with a Leg Spike, easy. In gameplay mode she was my favorite character: flight unit mobility, stack the Brawling perk and the back attack perk to do tens of thousands of armor-piercing damage and pop the giant kaiju like balloons, yes please. In the story, dug the detective story framing, best walk animation and the special gangster squat, plus best relationship with Natsuno. The scene that went "and so I started blastin' " was a fistpump moment

2. Natsuno Minami - The other half of best relationship. Real fun buddy cop dynamic with BJ and also doing the most time traipsing. Laughed with the discussion of E.X.T. and her serious Research Notebook, and especially when this literally happened: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/anime-girl-hiding-from-a-terminator Gen 3 Sentinels were real fun to play with and even though Missile Rain was not her exclusive it felt like it fit her character lol.

3. Takatoshi Hijiyama - Massive himbo energy and "Yakisoba pan angel" is clearly enough to carry one into the top 3. Setting up chain strikes with him, Keitaro, and Natsuno always felt satisfying

4. Iori Fuyusaka - Food-based storylines are going to rank high. Also she gets the iconic line of the game

5. Keitaro Miura - Sincere, upstanding, wants to protect his sister, and also hemborger. Gen 3 Mega Railgun yes

6. Tomi Kisaragi - The scene where she is "marking out" about seeing all the stuff from 40 years ago was fun (and also reminded me that I am a dying husk). lol that she went viral. This is also a placeholder for Best AI Girl Miwako Sawatari, the second best relationship goes to their trio. Honestly got a lower rank because gameplay-wise she gets the dual railgun upgrade but not the Mega Railgun? This made her power ceiling much lower

7. Nenji Ogata - Condensed Demolisher Blade owns bones. His Source Code/Groundhog Day plotline was fun, the end scene where he breaks down because of the rival thugs was

8. Ei Sekigahara - EMP Surround was cutting a swath through the big hordes at the last half of Chapter 3. Sweet bike, but point of order... everyone else in Project Ark was already part of the colonization/science project, dude was a hitman from the outside, how did he end up as one of the DNA samples

9. Megumi Yakushiji - Maybe the actual yakisoba pan angel and hemborger helper should rank higher... a fool for love and seemed pretty credulous throughout, but I get it. I enjoy the "ludonarrative consonance" that in combat I basically just used her for her indirect attack ability with the Interceptors and that she procced Tomi's damage boost. Gen 4 started to shine more lategame because their 0 EP attacks were armor-piercing, too

10. Renya Gouto - The low end for two characters I found really useful in gameplay and serve crucial narrative purposes but weren't "fun." In this case he was Exposition Man. I did kinda like his "reversal of fortune" deductive argument style. His and Megumi's advanced interceptors were super useful for like half the game, but I had to drop them for the last battle because that wasn't enough

11. Ryoko Shinonome - Again, super useful in gameplay (double turrets yes!) The psychological plotline was interesting here... creepy downer of an ending was warranted I suppose

12. Shu Amiguchi - Eh. Jack of all trades in combat when that wasn't really that helpful. Cool stuff in his story but grating personality overall. Every time he said "Yuki-chan" it reminded me of Majima though

13. Juro Kurabe - The face of the game and yet... interesting stuff happens to him but otherwise pretty forgettable? This is what I mean, him being kinda passive is entirely a plot point. In combat he was another all-rounder but worse because of Gen 2 mobility problems, at least Shu can "get in there"

# ? Feb 1, 2021 06:11

Mokinokaro: Sep 11, 2001; At the end of everything, hold onto anything; Fun Shoe

Go dig up that interview with the devs from a few pages back as it offers a lot of insight in the ending and characters.

For instance the devs don't read Ryoko's ending as a downer. They intended to flesh it out more (among other things) but a chief thing about her character is being adaptable. They believe she'll move on and find her happiness

# ? Feb 1, 2021 07:09

Levantine: Feb 14, 2005; GUNDAM!!!

Man, what a ride. I posted a lot of this in the RPG thread but I'll expound on it here:

Levantine posted:

So, 13 Sentinels.

I played through it, beat and platinumed it at about 30 hours. It's a hard game to talk about given the way the story unfolds, tbh. The story bits are like onion layers you peel back fairly quickly. There are several mysteries laid out early on that are solved as you play with the landscape changing with each revelation. It's a really well written character story with a super cool sci fi twist (twists, really). The aesthetic of it is incredible too. The perfect sunsets and color palettes are amazing in some scenes.

Combat is super fun, almost tower defense style and you can set the challenge to your liking. Later missions are total furballs with Deimos rocketing in at every single angle. The final mission is some Horde-mode poo poo where you just fight and fight until it's over. Some of the systems are kind of opaque though. For example, I didn't even realize you could upgrade Sentinel stats until drat near the final mission.

As a visual novel type game it's hard to recommend. I've never traditionally enjoyed them but the story beats never overstay their welcome, the characters all have interesting arcs and I don't think I've seen a story in a long time that had me saying "Holy poo poo!" as much as this one did. It's really not an RPG outside of some stat stuff you do with the Sentinels but I'm not sure where else to talk about it.

I beat it this morning and I can't get it off my mind. Just how well everything fit together with as many moving parts as there were. The sound and the look of it were second to none. I was really unsure going in (I got it on sale) but this is easily one of the best gaming stories I've ever experienced.

I'm trying to put my thoughts together on specifics. I know I have a few questions:

So anything that happens in the Sim impacts them for real, correct? It's personality "data" but they have real bodies. Did Ryoko wake up all hosed up or was she fine? Also, when Tamao met her previous incarnation, she was #18? So they've only done this 19 times? How long has this pod or whatever been doing its thing away from earth? Cat-426 mentioned it had been 2Million years at one point but cat version of him just talked poo poo so I dunno. I still need to go back and watch the extra scene I"m hearing about so maybe some of this will be answered.

I absolutely love the soundtrack to this game. I've been listening to it since beating it and man some of those tracks are so atmospheric and just big mood. I wish every game had the level of thought and quality put into it as 13 Sentinels.

# ? Feb 1, 2021 19:24

CharlieFoxtrot: Mar 27, 2007; organize digital employees

Levantine posted:

I'm trying to put my thoughts together on specifics. I know I have a few questions:

So anything that happens in the Sim impacts them for real, correct? It's personality "data" but they have real bodies. Did Ryoko wake up all hosed up or was she fine? Also, when Tamao met her previous incarnation, she was #18? So they've only done this 19 times? How long has this pod or whatever been doing its thing away from earth? Cat-426 mentioned it had been 2Million years at one point but cat version of him just talked poo poo so I dunno. I still need to go back and watch the extra scene I"m hearing about so maybe some of this will be answered.

I absolutely love the soundtrack to this game. I've been listening to it since beating it and man some of those tracks are so atmospheric and just big mood. I wish every game had the level of thought and quality put into it as 13 Sentinels.

Yeah after you beat the game like all the analysis stuff gets updated a ton, not just the event viewer but a lot of the mystery entries have additional information, some of which touches on that:

there have been more than 300 loops, so somewhere around 5000 years has passed. I forget how many light years away from earth they are but since they don't have FTL travel, that's another factor

As for simulation stuff, I don't think it physically injures your body like The Matrix but when you "die" in the simulation you lose consciousness and are disconnected. That's what happened to Tamao and Okino. I thought it was funny that they were wearing glasses and stuff in the pod but I think an interview said that wasn't the actual physical representation, like there's not a camera in the pod

CharlieFoxtrot fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Feb 1, 2021

# ? Feb 1, 2021 19:42

Fedule: Mar 27, 2010; No one left uncured.
I got you.

It says something that even given a full spoileriffic post-game updated compendium of every single plot event there's still a bunch of things I don't understand and need to reread about, again.

# ? Feb 1, 2021 19:46

arteliad: Jan 4, 2014

Levantine posted:

So anything that happens in the Sim impacts them for real, correct? It's personality "data" but they have real bodies. Did Ryoko wake up all hosed up or was she fine? Also, when Tamao met her previous incarnation, she was #18? So they've only done this 19 times? How long has this pod or whatever been doing its thing away from earth? Cat-426 mentioned it had been 2Million years at one point but cat version of him just talked poo poo so I dunno. I still need to go back and watch the extra scene I"m hearing about so maybe some of this will be answered.

A.I. Tamao being #18 is a reference to the Sentinel she piloted during the Sector 2 (2065) battle, not the number of loops they've experienced.

# ? Feb 1, 2021 20:23

Levantine: Feb 14, 2005; GUNDAM!!!

arteliad posted:

A.I. Tamao being #18 is a reference to the Sentinel she piloted during the Sector 2 (2065) battle, not the number of loops they've experienced.

Ah, I see. That makes a little more sense.

I've been dicking around with the unlocked battles and they're a little harder which is good, but I'm sore that I lost my score multiplier when I beat the game! I was up to like 310% by the time I got to that final mission. I'm having to build it from scratch again. Is there a ceiling to the Sentinel stat categories? I've got Neurolink up to 20 something on a few pilots.

# ? Feb 1, 2021 22:51

Instant Grat: Jul 31, 2009; Just add
NERD RAAAAAAGE

There's that one boss battle that you can win in about 5 seconds by having a G4 fly to the other end of the map and do a Leg Spike on the boss, if you wanna quickly re-build a battle multiplier.

# ? Feb 1, 2021 23:17

VHGS: Jul 24, 2013

Levantine posted:

Is there a ceiling to the Sentinel stat categories? I've got Neurolink up to 20 something on a few pilots.

Presumably it stops eventually, but it's probably like 999 or something.

It also may be helpful to know that damage does not cap at 99999, just the display.

# ? Feb 2, 2021 00:46

Redezga: Dec 14, 2006

Instant Grat posted:

There's that one boss battle that you can win in about 5 seconds by having a G4 fly to the other end of the map and do a Leg Spike on the boss, if you wanna quickly re-build a battle multiplier.

This just reminded me how much I liked sending out my G1 boys like a pack of hunting dogs. I was so anchored on just defending the first half of the game, if it wasn't for the giant drum mine kaiju I probably would have never really considered bringing anyone outside of the shield bubble unless absolutely safe or necessary.

# ? Feb 2, 2021 03:21

The REAL Goobusters: Apr 25, 2008

Just got this, should I play in Japanese? How�s the English dub?

# ? Feb 2, 2021 04:13

Agrias120: Jun 27, 2002; I will burn my dread.

The REAL Goobusters posted:

Just got this, should I play in Japanese? How�s the English dub?

English dub is phenomenal. The Japanese VAs are also really good, so you can't go wrong.

# ? Feb 2, 2021 04:15

The REAL Goobusters: Apr 25, 2008

Agrias120 posted:

English dub is phenomenal. The Japanese VAs are also really good, so you can't go wrong.

Dammit now I can�t decide ahhhh, I�ll switch around gently caress it

# ? Feb 2, 2021 04:15

morallyobjected: Nov 3, 2012

I played in Japanese and loved it

# ? Feb 2, 2021 04:26

CharlieFoxtrot: Mar 27, 2007; organize digital employees

Compared to other games it's really easy to switch between voice tracks, you can do it in the middle of dialogue lines lol.

I switched to English for a bit just to hear what all the VAs sound like, also because I couldn't read the battle barks in the middle of the RTS stuff

# ? Feb 2, 2021 04:41

Metroid Fitzgerald: Feb 13, 2012; B O O O O B S . . . !

I beat this game this past week and was absolutely blown away by it! I didn't think it was humanly possible to tie together all those hanging plot threads in the end but by god they did it!

I love my big, dumb yakisoba pansexual himbo Hijiyama

# ? Feb 2, 2021 04:43

ThisIsACoolGuy: Nov 2, 2010; Shaped like a friend

I think the funniest thing about the story chapters is that they're rather mundane just talking to each other- but in the last 5 seconds you're suddenly in space or in a ruined future or sky diving out of a exploding airship or whatever. It's kind of charmingly predictable to the point where I got to Keitaro Miura's 37% and when he was talking about a dent in the pillar not being there I muttered to myself 'okay now for the scene to change to the city on fire and one or two characters dead on the ground.' Only it was just outer space talking to a 112 year old lady about rebuilding a house.

Biggest fault I have with the game right now is that like... I'm not really incentivized to actually interact with the *game* part. I've only cleared like 3 areas of the section after the tutorial and I just haven't felt the need to look at it again.

# ? Feb 2, 2021 05:36

bees x1000: Jun 11, 2020

Play in English so you can get their battle lines stuck in your head forever

what�s wrong with me!? I�m acting like an amateur...

# ? Feb 2, 2021 07:36

PunkBoy: Aug 22, 2008; You wanna get through this?

Are we...winning?

# ? Feb 2, 2021 07:57

Gyoru: Jul 13, 2004

Gotta put on a good show for Yuki-chan

# ? Feb 2, 2021 08:01

RuBisCO: May 1, 2009; This is definitely not a lie

Gyoru posted:

Gotta put on a good show for Yuki-chan

Gotta put on a good show for Yuki-cccHHHHHAAAAN

# ? Feb 2, 2021 08:20

S.J.: May 19, 2008; Just who the hell do you think we are?

I absolutely love how god damned adorable the romances are in this game

# ? Feb 2, 2021 08:27

Agrias120: Jun 27, 2002; I will burn my dread.

bees x1000 posted:

what�s wrong with me!? I�m acting like an amateur...

# ? Feb 2, 2021 15:31

MorningMoon: Dec 29, 2013; Can't post for 3 days!

Another dumb joke
https://i.imgur.com/enbU7yj.png

# ? Feb 2, 2021 17:22

ThisIsACoolGuy: Nov 2, 2010; Shaped like a friend

I've gotten everyone to 50% and it feels weird to say I think I figured out what the plot actually is. Just wondering if it's possible for me to be wrong as I didn't think things would come together this soon.

I figured that there's no actual time travel going on to the past, everything takes place in the future past 2186 (I think that was the date). That all the 'kids' are android body doubles or AI's and the robot kaiju aren't going to the past- they're just here doing their thing now. It's why Ogata keeps getting rebooted to the train station platform and why everyone is having nanomachines controlled and whatnot, and why the space station cutscenes about rebuilding houses to be perfect exists.

There's more to dig into obviously but if that's the big twist and general outline for the story then huh, easier to catch then I thought.

# ? Feb 4, 2021 18:39

Agrias120: Jun 27, 2002; I will burn my dread.

ThisIsACoolGuy posted:

I've gotten everyone to 50% and it feels weird to say I think I figured out what the plot actually is. Just wondering if it's possible for me to be wrong as I didn't think things would come together this soon.

I figured that there's no actual time travel going on to the past, everything takes place in the future past 2186 (I think that was the date). That all the 'kids' are android body doubles or AI's and the robot kaiju aren't going to the past- they're just here doing their thing now. It's why Ogata keeps getting rebooted to the train station platform and why everyone is having nanomachines controlled and whatnot, and why the space station cutscenes about rebuilding houses to be perfect exists.

There's more to dig into obviously but if that's the big twist and general outline for the story then huh, easier to catch then I thought.

# ? Feb 4, 2021 18:49

morallyobjected: Nov 3, 2012

ThisIsACoolGuy posted:

I've gotten everyone to 50% and it feels weird to say I think I figured out what the plot actually is. Just wondering if it's possible for me to be wrong as I didn't think things would come together this soon.

I figured that there's no actual time travel going on to the past, everything takes place in the future past 2186 (I think that was the date). That all the 'kids' are android body doubles or AI's and the robot kaiju aren't going to the past- they're just here doing their thing now. It's why Ogata keeps getting rebooted to the train station platform and why everyone is having nanomachines controlled and whatnot, and why the space station cutscenes about rebuilding houses to be perfect exists.

There's more to dig into obviously but if that's the big twist and general outline for the story then huh, easier to catch then I thought.

oh sweet summer child

# ? Feb 4, 2021 20:49

motherbox: Jul 19, 2013

I just got to a revelation regarding Natsuno's mother, and this game is the closest I've come to the feeling of watching Lost since that show aired. I'm really enjoying the fact that I can play three story segments and be certain that my understanding of the story will end in a radically different place than when I started. I'm just over 50% story completion and I've only done the first half of the first city's combat encounters and I like the combat encounters (and I generally dislike visual novels). What a game.

motherbox fucked around with this message at 03:20 on Feb 5, 2021

# ? Feb 5, 2021 03:18

S.J.: May 19, 2008; Just who the hell do you think we are?

motherbox posted:

I just got to a revelation regarding Natsuno's mother, and this game is the closest I've come to the feeling of watching Lost since that show aired. I'm really enjoying the fact that I can play three story segments and be certain that my understanding of the story will end in a radically different place than when I started. I'm just over 50% story completion and I've only done the first half of the first city's combat encounters and I like the combat encounters (and I generally dislike visual novels). What a game.

I'm pretty sure I literally yelled at my TV about that part

# ? Feb 5, 2021 03:35

willing to settle: Apr 13, 2011

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

Yeah after you beat the game like all the analysis stuff gets updated a ton, not just the event viewer but a lot of the mystery entries have additional information, some of which touches on that:

there have been more than 300 loops, so somewhere around 5000 years has passed. I forget how many light years away from earth they are but since they don't have FTL travel, that's another factor

As for simulation stuff, I don't think it physically injures your body like The Matrix but when you "die" in the simulation you lose consciousness and are disconnected. That's what happened to Tamao and Okino. I thought it was funny that they were wearing glasses and stuff in the pod but I think an interview said that wasn't the actual physical representation, like there's not a camera in the pod

It's been 5000 years since they made planetfall, but a couple of million years total. The light years to the nearest candidate thing is kind of a red herring, there are a ridiculously huge number of terraforming missions thanks to the self-replicating probes, this just happens to be the story of one that took a couple of million years to find somewhere to settle. This is the reason the loops are going to stop working, the facility the terraforming bots made to house the clones while they were aged up/socialized had a 5000 year operating limit (per the analysis page). So after this loop they'll have to break it down and build a new one.

# ? Feb 5, 2021 03:39

MorningMoon: Dec 29, 2013; Can't post for 3 days!

motherbox posted:

I just got to a revelation regarding Natsuno's mother, and this game is the closest I've come to the feeling of watching Lost since that show aired. I'm really enjoying the fact that I can play three story segments and be certain that my understanding of the story will end in a radically different place than when I started. I'm just over 50% story completion and I've only done the first half of the first city's combat encounters and I like the combat encounters (and I generally dislike visual novels). What a game.

The absolute greatest strength of the game is that feeling you're getting, yeah.

Like, I think the game's final hours are a 9, the combat is an 8.5, and the very start is a 9, but everything from hour like 5 to 25 is a 12. Just unprecedently structured to give the maximum amount of good brain chemicals.

# ? Feb 5, 2021 03:56

Levantine: Feb 14, 2005; GUNDAM!!!

MorningMoon posted:

The absolute greatest strength of the game is that feeling you're getting, yeah.

Like, I think the game's final hours are a 9, the combat is an 8.5, and the very start is a 9, but everything from hour like 5 to 25 is a 12. Just unprecedently structured to give the maximum amount of good brain chemicals.

The absolute drip of revelations and holy poo poo moments through the middle of the game is incredible. I swear that every time I was like "I have this figured out" there was another character reveal or something to draw me in even deeper. The more I think about this game the more I'm amazed at how well it holds together, and not just that but succeeds on pretty much all fronts.

# ? Feb 5, 2021 14:23

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# ? Jun 9, 2024 12:07

Fedule: Mar 27, 2010; No one left uncured.
I got you.

13 Sentinels feels like a miracle, still. A lot of the time you play a really good game and it's like, it shows you something that feels newly possible, it's pushed something about the medium forward a little bit and now we can look forward to future games learning from it now that we've all been shown how. 13 Sentinels still feels impossible even having played and absorbed it, it feels like it couldn't and shouldn't have worked, like its astonishing success is some kind of aberration, like maybe it didn't work and somehow just deludes everyone into thinking it did, like we cannot possibly ever see its like again, and if we ever do it will be as much of a shock again.

# ? Feb 5, 2021 15:14

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim: wow Vanillaware, your mom got you 13 protagonists?

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