13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is not really what I expected. Granted I was very hyped up because it's Atlus published and the high ratings, I was expecting something in the line of Persona and SMT complexity even if it's more in the strategy realm. To my surprise it's more of an adventure game, and the strategy battles or more of an addition on top of it and aren't really the core of the game although essential to complete.

The story is actually very complex and it's told through flashbacks of 13 different main characters, and you get to have the option to choose which one you are progressing in just about any order (with some minor unlock restriction). After the long prologue you also have the option to switch between the Adventure (story) parts and the battles. The battles happen in the present, but you don't really know why they are fighting in these huge robots until you progress more of the story, so it's up to you to balance it out properly. The story of the game is actually very good and I would say the main draw here, it's hard to explain without spoiling anything but there's many occasions where certain reveals happens and they make you re-assess everything you have learned so far and make you view the game world in a completely different way.

The adventure parts aren't very challenging to progress as the more you talk with people you gain some thoughts that you can initiate conversations with on certain key NPCs, and that's how things progress. The story segments vary in length from a few minutes to some very longer ones, but keep in mind that there's a ton of them and the game does take 30+ hours to complete (I clocked in at 39 hours myself). The disappointing aspect of the game is the battles themselves, it's sort of a defend the core strategy of which you control 6 mechs (sentinels) where you need to defeat the invading enemies. Its shortcomings and limitations show very quickly, after a few battles you kind of know what to expect next and it's mostly just repetition of the same strategies. The game does offer a lot of customization in which abilities you want to equip and upgrade on your sentinels, but it's mostly just about buffing them as high as possible with all the credits you are making from battles and story progression.

Overall 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a pretty unique game, and unlike any other I've played before. I do not consider it a masterpiece as there's some pretty apparent flaws in it, but I did enjoy my time with it and it's pretty good story to unveil until the end. Not essential Atlus and not a reason to get a PS4 (or Switch), but if you already have access to one of those it's certainly not a bad pick and worth getting. My only advice would be to go in expecting a story heavy adventure game and not your typical Atlus RPG complexity.