Right from the start, 13 Sentinels sucked me in with its intriguing concept and gorgeous artstyle and it didn’t let me go until I fully experienced all that it had to offer. I got this game during the pandemic when I saw that it was highly recommended by Masahiro Sakurai and Yoko Taro, but I let it sit on my shelf for three years until I finally played it, and I very much regret not playing it sooner.
13 Sentinels’ gameplay is divided into two different genres: half of it is an adventure game starring 13 different protagonists, each with their own narratives with multiple branches that eventually come together to form a single mindbending plot. The other half is a real time strategy game, where the protagonists pilot giant mechs as they defend their home from hordes of invaders. Admittedly, I don’t think that 13 Sentinels does anything better than titles from either genre, but it’s this blend of the two as well as the outstanding quality of its narrative as a whole that makes this game well worth playing.
As I’ve said repeatedly, the narrative of the adventure game half is incredible. However, as an adventure game itself, it’s solid, but by the books. Your “inventory” consists of plot points and objects that you can bring up during conversations or specific events, but the game makes it pretty clear what you’re supposed to use and when. There aren’t really any puzzles in this mode, though for some protagonists, you do need to figure out a specific set of steps in order to trigger a different branch of their story, otherwise you’ll end up repeating branches over and over. Some of these steps can be very obtuse, and I had to look a few of them up, but I didn’t have to do it very frequently and was generally able to figure out how to progress the story on my own. What it lacks in mechanical complexity, it very much makes up for in the complexity and quality of the narrative. I can’t stress enough how good it is. It might be difficult to follow at points due to the terminology of the game and the fact that events aren’t presented in chronological order, but there’s an in-game appendix that you can refer to that does a great job of helping to keep track of all of the different elements of the plot.
The RTS section of the game is also solid, but not spectacular, especially visual wise. The gameplay is visualized by triangles and various shapes representing enemy units on a neon grid. Compared to the gorgeous art and sprites of the adventure portion of the game, it’s kind of disappointing to see the RTS section presented this way, but it’s understandable considering the enormous amount of effort that must have gone into the art for the adventure portion. It almost certainly wasn’t feasible for the devs to maintain that same level of presentation for the RTS portion. As for the gameplay, I found this segment to be pretty fun and engaging, there’s a lot to learn at first, but you eventually get used to what upgrades you need to prioritize and how best to take down enemy units. The difficulty for this section felt very skewed. It has the typical easy-normal-intense levels of difficulty, and I mostly played it on normal, which felt too easy until towards the end, where there’s a pretty big spike in difficulty that really took me by surprise. This segment provides you with a lot of replay value, as it ranks how well you do each mission and gives you a lot of various upgrades for each pilot that allows you to tackle the missions again on the higher difficulty. Despite my enjoyment though, I don’t really see myself coming back to it to improve my score.
I also need to mention this game’s voice acting. I actually played this with the English dub, and it was phenomenal. It is leagues above the English dub for almost any game I’ve ever played, and that is no exaggeration. Each actor’s performance was tremendous. No one sounded out of place, everything felt very natural and I was absolutely sold and enamored with each character. The dub really helped to elevate the already fantastic narrative, and made each character feel like a real person. If you are someone who prefers to play Japanese games with Japanese voice acting, I highly, highly encourage you to give this dub a shot. You will not be disappointed.
13 Sentinels’ amazing narrative and unique blend of two very different styles of gameplay make for an extraordinary experience. Don’t hold off on this game like I did. If you enjoy science fiction stories, 13 Sentinels delivers one of the most in-depth, emotional, gripping, and thrilling narratives out there, with engaging albeit simple RTS gameplay that compliments it surprisingly well. I implore you to give this game a go. It’s an experience that definitely won’t be leaving my mind for some time.
13 Sentinels’ gameplay is divided into two different genres: half of it is an adventure game starring 13 different protagonists, each with their own narratives with multiple branches that eventually come together to form a single mindbending plot. The other half is a real time strategy game, where the protagonists pilot giant mechs as they defend their home from hordes of invaders. Admittedly, I don’t think that 13 Sentinels does anything better than titles from either genre, but it’s this blend of the two as well as the outstanding quality of its narrative as a whole that makes this game well worth playing.
As I’ve said repeatedly, the narrative of the adventure game half is incredible. However, as an adventure game itself, it’s solid, but by the books. Your “inventory” consists of plot points and objects that you can bring up during conversations or specific events, but the game makes it pretty clear what you’re supposed to use and when. There aren’t really any puzzles in this mode, though for some protagonists, you do need to figure out a specific set of steps in order to trigger a different branch of their story, otherwise you’ll end up repeating branches over and over. Some of these steps can be very obtuse, and I had to look a few of them up, but I didn’t have to do it very frequently and was generally able to figure out how to progress the story on my own. What it lacks in mechanical complexity, it very much makes up for in the complexity and quality of the narrative. I can’t stress enough how good it is. It might be difficult to follow at points due to the terminology of the game and the fact that events aren’t presented in chronological order, but there’s an in-game appendix that you can refer to that does a great job of helping to keep track of all of the different elements of the plot.
The RTS section of the game is also solid, but not spectacular, especially visual wise. The gameplay is visualized by triangles and various shapes representing enemy units on a neon grid. Compared to the gorgeous art and sprites of the adventure portion of the game, it’s kind of disappointing to see the RTS section presented this way, but it’s understandable considering the enormous amount of effort that must have gone into the art for the adventure portion. It almost certainly wasn’t feasible for the devs to maintain that same level of presentation for the RTS portion. As for the gameplay, I found this segment to be pretty fun and engaging, there’s a lot to learn at first, but you eventually get used to what upgrades you need to prioritize and how best to take down enemy units. The difficulty for this section felt very skewed. It has the typical easy-normal-intense levels of difficulty, and I mostly played it on normal, which felt too easy until towards the end, where there’s a pretty big spike in difficulty that really took me by surprise. This segment provides you with a lot of replay value, as it ranks how well you do each mission and gives you a lot of various upgrades for each pilot that allows you to tackle the missions again on the higher difficulty. Despite my enjoyment though, I don’t really see myself coming back to it to improve my score.
I also need to mention this game’s voice acting. I actually played this with the English dub, and it was phenomenal. It is leagues above the English dub for almost any game I’ve ever played, and that is no exaggeration. Each actor’s performance was tremendous. No one sounded out of place, everything felt very natural and I was absolutely sold and enamored with each character. The dub really helped to elevate the already fantastic narrative, and made each character feel like a real person. If you are someone who prefers to play Japanese games with Japanese voice acting, I highly, highly encourage you to give this dub a shot. You will not be disappointed.
13 Sentinels’ amazing narrative and unique blend of two very different styles of gameplay make for an extraordinary experience. Don’t hold off on this game like I did. If you enjoy science fiction stories, 13 Sentinels delivers one of the most in-depth, emotional, gripping, and thrilling narratives out there, with engaging albeit simple RTS gameplay that compliments it surprisingly well. I implore you to give this game a go. It’s an experience that definitely won’t be leaving my mind for some time.