13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

this is a very complicated story told in a unique way that remains grounded by its cast of charming characters... but i feel like the events of the story itself are just not that compelling?

if you're familiar with sci-fi / anime tropes this isn't doing that much new with them, and the out-of-order structure drains the weight from the big reveals and ending. but maybe the whole "figure out the mystery" front-heavy plot structure just isn't interesting for me.

The trash gameplay you gotta slog through to get to the actual interesting part brings this game down so much it's unreal

I just 100% the game after 40 hours on my first playthrough

As a newbie to rts the tower defense sections were real hard, even in Normal mode

as someone who doesn't watch a lot of anime a lot of the common tropes made me really uncomfortable

The ending made me emotional but overall I wish the game had focused less on its endless mysteries. It's undoubtedly satisfying to put two and two together, but I think the cast could have used a bit more emotional weight to make their endings individually pay off

Super Large Missile go brrr

Practically every review of this game dunks on the RTS segments and I'm actually finding them super addictive and fun? Like to the point where I am bummed I have beaten every available mission and have to go back to the adventure mode. Wasn't expecting this at all ha