This has been out in Japan for several months, and by all accounts, it's fantastic.
There's also murmurings that the long-awaited reveal of the US version is coming soon, possibly tomorrow!
Yoko Taro thinks it's pretty good:
This guy did, too:
The OST was composed by Basiscape, Hitoshi Sakimoto's company, and is stellar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlmYYyzek48
So what on earth is it?
13 Sentinels is a hybrid of visual novel, and, as far as I can tell, tower defense mecha game.
Complete with the super detailed 2D visuals that Vanillaware specializes in.
Posts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrwxpyTw2_c
Steam: TheArcadeBear
It's a really basic tower defense type deal. You have units that you direct around a point with health and MP, and can use a small set of skills. Enemies wander towards the objective. There's not a whole lot more than that. It's very bare bones.
I may have to sit this one out.
But l really love the song they use in the trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iWxf5IruMQ
Steam: TheArcadeBear
From this description and the OP I thought this was a mobile game, but I guess it's PS4?
More like 90%, by all accounts, the story is phenomenal.
(The OST, too.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvjt30BNZtY&t=5s
In case you were on the fence:
https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/13-sentinels-aegis-rim
But it's still less than ideal. And really incongruous with the rest of the game.
This game is like...what if in Night in the Woods, you HAD to play Demon Tower every now and then in order to progress through the actual story?
I'm gonna be honest I'm not the biggest VN fan but I will pick it up eventually
I'll grab it eventually for sure with those reviews. Vanillaware does good work.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
A small detail concerning the sentinels themselves
"...only mights and maybes."
The game does this Darkest Dungeon thing where pilots you use one mission have to sit out the next. The sentinels are highly specialized and you want to keep at least one of each type active in order to address mixed threats or you might get overwhelmed.
"...only mights and maybes."
Skimming the artbook took me all of a minute. Just characters and the mechs, no concept art whatsoever. Kind of disappointing.
I really really fucking like this game so far
I'm still going to play on easy because I'm here for the story, but I can see some folks getting into the combat.
The structure reminds me a lot of Odin Sphere, just way more ambitious.
Megumi's my favorite, reminds me a lot of Homura from Madoka Magica(in more ways than one).
EDIT: Also yup. . . this is a VANILLAWARE game.
Holy shit what an amazing story. I don't know how you throw literally every anime trope into the blender, blend for a few minutes, and end up coming out with a coherent, thought provoking story that makes you shout "WHAT?" in increasingly higher pitches at every turn.
I'm going to need to think about this game away from it for a bit before I call it anything but an 11/10 based on storytelling alone.
About what I was willing to pay given it sounds more VN than game but I'm also interested to see why it has gotten so much praise.
I'm pretty sure the real reason this game kept getting delayed was because every time Kamitani saw a new sci-fi film, he wanted it thrown into the plot.