13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

Playtime: 39.6 Hours

Finished 07 March 2026.

This is my second playthrough; I previously played through the original PS4 release when the game came out, but decided to buy a physical copy again on the Switch so I could always play it portably. This version of the game is basically the same as the original outside of some balance changes to the tactics segments; every character now has unique unlockable armaments (some better than others), and a number of broader balance changes were implemented. Specifically, a couple of the ones that stand out are a massive sentry gun nerf and a huge buff to the Gladiators to give them Composite Ceramic Armor, effectively making them immune to the Demolisher Blade and making them an actual threat this time around. The Adventure section really is the meat of the game, but I think the Destruction missions are a big enough chunk of the game consider this a 'Tactics' game (at least for now, maybe I'll change it later). It's pretty unique though, so it could probably fit into the Adventure, Tactics, or VN sections.

Played on Normal difficulty; avoided grinding and tried to balance EXP across my party as well as possible - my party is around base Lv25 at the end of the game. I gave heavy favoritism to a few characters, though; Natsuno has the most busted AP cannons & is my favorite character, Yuki's Quad Spikes are the new Gladiator killers, and Juro's (different) AP cannons are also super powerful, on top of being a huge boon for the final fight.

Character Tier List

There isn't that much I have to say about this game that hasn't already been parroted by pretty much anyone who's played it; it remains one of the best games I've ever played, and could easily be considered Vanillaware's magnum opus, even given the quality of everything else they've produced over the years as one of the most consistently excellent developers I'm aware of. This game manages to carry out almost everything it set out to do flawlessly, and there's exceptionally little that I have to complain about. I'm just a little bit sad that this wasn't my first playthrough, so I don't have any record of my original reactions to all of the revelations towards the end of the game.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of the game is it's incredibly intricate, yet understandable narrative. It pulls from basically every common trope in apocalyptic science fiction: Kaiju, mecha, human-like androids, AI, simulated worlds, aliens (kinda), nanomachines and digitized people, time travel & loops, etc. What's even crazier to me is how these are all integrated into 13 different interlocking narratives that you unlock and play through over the course of the game, and yet somehow everything comes together and starts to all make sense within the game's world. As long as you're paying attention, the story can be followed without much trouble - an incredible achievement in itself given the density of the concepts and the massive roster of main characters. Pretty much anyone with any appreciation for Science Fiction from almost any era will find at least something to appreciate - from H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, to E.T., to the Matrix and Gundam, there's something for everybody to latch onto.

Speaking of which, the characters and the massive interlocking web of their relationships is handled phenomenally well. Across the 13 main protagonists and numerous other side characters, tons of stories and personality archetypes are represented - though the game also does a fantastic job breaking every character out of their shell and making them feel multidimensional. Ogata's a classic high school delinquent, but he shows a much more caring side when he's trapped with Tomi & Miwako in the ruins of 2025, Hijiyama's an uptight meathead soldier from 1945 that slowly comes to understand his feelings for Okino, Natsuno's a bit of an airhead with dreams of finding alien life yet has no issues accepting the truth once she learns of AI Miura's nature and purpose, etc. Everyone has different but believable motivations for their actions, and yet no character in the game is ever shown to be perfect, not even the characters that "know" or are trying to "control" the plot behind the scenes. Yet even with all the scheming and counter-scheming and the destruction raging across the worlds, somehow there aren't any truly evil characters left at the end of the day. Everyone's still going to have their own biases though; that's always going to be an unavoidable fact.

The gameplay of the destruction missions is a very interesting hybrid of a turn-based tactics system and an RTS; I can't think of anything else that plays quite like it. Gameplay balance was really the only significant update to this Switch version from the original PS4 version; I've put some details in the Status section but it seems like the big ones are a huge nerf to the Sentry Guns that doom Ryoko to irrelevance, and a massive buff to all Gladiator units in the form of Ceramic Composite Armor (300 damage threshold, a bit less than the Sentinels' 500 damage threshold) - which specifically counter Gen1's Demolisher Blade very effectively and make Yuki the designated Gladiator killer for the entire team. Every character now also has a number of unique unlockable weapons/equipment to make them feel more different; most of them are just solid upgrades, but there's a few that really stand out.

Juro gets a ridiculous AoE AP cannon that wipes out massive sweeps of small-to-medium enemies, allowing him to mop the floor with entire enemy waves. Yuki extends her target-killing capabilities with Quad Spikes - an upgrade to the Leg spikes that hit 4 times instead of just twice, giving her the ability to kill almost anything in the game (including enhanced Hi-Quads, RPFs, Terra Carriers, Gladiators, etc.) in one shot. Ei gets a Hurricane Rush move that hits like 20 times and can somehow punch aerial units. Megumi gets some nice large-AoE piercing attacks (lasers & missiles) that help take down large swathes of weaker armored targets, and Tomi gets an upgrade to the Gen3's long range missiles that do double the damage and help sweep up enhanced versions of medium forces. But Natsuno got some of the most absurdly broken kit in my opinion, at least for the main game. Her main unique unlock is another AP cannon like Juro's, except it hits WAY harder at the cost of not really being AoE. The cone of fire is a bit narrower, but it's really accurate and it absolutely shreds anything in its way; a single burst basically cuts through any of the super heavy units, slicing down RPFs, Terra Carriers, Hi-Quads, or anything else unfortunate enough to be in front of it. The kicker is that it has a ~3 second cooldown time, made even shorter with her natural cooldown reduction bonus (Forced Cooling Device), meaning that she can delete a miniboss unit or a line of mediums & APSOS units every 2.X seconds. It's not even costly at 100EP; its basically guaranteed that she will never be at an EP deficit. Coupled with the Gen3's standard Railgun & a Wide Railgun (her other unique), she has incredible long-range and targeted-AoE destruction capabilities, with her single weakness being against Gladiators - something that Yuki can always help to fix. Truly, the best girl is also the best unit in this game - as it should be :)

I've always loved the visuals and really appreciated the chance to visit this game again if only to appreciate how beautiful the game is; the designs and art feel very true to each era, while retaining the signature hand-drawn aesthetic that makes Vanillaware games really stand out. I know there was some criticism (especially early on) that the destruction mode didn't show actual sentinel & enemy models on the map, but the little pop-up animations you can watch for each attack are animated so beautifully, in a way that wouldn't be possible or as good in 3D. It also allowed them to absolutely stuff the map full of hundreds or thousands of enemies in the last few missions; speaking of which, I'm impressed that the performance was perfect this time around, given that the final mission actually made my PS4 Pro chug when I played the original game so long ago.

When I decided to play this game again on a whim, I was wondering if it would really hold up to my opinion of it the first time around, especially since I still remembered a number of the big twists and overall premise of the game. I couldn't be happier that it's everything I remembered it being, and maybe even a bit more than that. While I still have a small handful of games that I'd probably say I like more than this due to my own biases & experiences, I really don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that this might be the most perfect game I've ever played. I hope that remains the case when I boot this up again a number of years down the line for Loop number 3. ;)

Natsuno <3