Board 8 > Rate the VG Story Day 37: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

(+) Yeah! (+)

A lot of people voted last time and today should be another good one, its 13 Sentinels. How would you rate the story on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest?
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Previous Results:
Outer Wilds - 9.63 (20 votes)
Omori - 9.6 (5 votes)
Nier Automata - 9.25 (31 votes)
Xenogears - 8.71 (23 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 8.67 (31 votes)
Metal Gear Solid - 8.67 (27 votes)
Final Fantasy Tactics - 8.65 (23 votes)
Disco Elysium - 8.58 (12 votes)
Undertale - 8.49 (39 votes)
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective 8.35 (18 votes)
Final Fantasy X - 8.36 (53 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 8.13 (39 votes)
The Last of Us - 8.1 (34 votes)
Life is Strange - 7.91 (29 votes)
Doki Doki Literature Club - 7.8 (21 votes)
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - 7.67 (27 votes)
Bioshock - 7.6 (22 votes)
Celeste - 7.5 (23 votes)
Mass Effect - 7.35 (28 votes)
Tales of the Abyss - 7.34 (27 votes)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - 7.26 (29 votes)
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony - 7.17 (23 votes)
Super Paper Mario - 7 (20 votes)
Hollow Knight - 6.98 (20 votes)
Death Stranding - 6.73 (13 votes)
Chrono Cross - 6.69 (16 votes)
Dark Souls - 6.62 (20 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All - 6.61 (29 votes)
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - 6.6 (27 votes)
Valkyria Chronicles - 6.5 (16 votes)
DOOM (2016) - 6.25 (12 votes)
Professor Layton and the Curious Village - 6.1 (13 votes)
Final Fantasy IV - 5.72 (29 votes)
Uncharted: Drakes Fortune - 5.26 (28 votes)
Final Fantasy XIII - 4.79 (26 votes)
Fallout 4 - 4.39 (14 votes)

You can still rate previous days games if you missed them, just write <game name> <rating>. If you want to change your rating you can just specify that you are changing your rating. Nominations for future days are also welcome, nominate as many games as you like and I will get to all of them.

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10/10

Might be recency bias since I beat it a month or two ago, but man, it's great. The format almost guarantees no two players experience the story the same way. There are some minor nitpicks I could make, but nothing that makes me think less of it.

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10

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I don't really want to give a rating because I don't want to try and justify to myself a score, but I will just say I was satisfied by the ending and given the scope and situation of the story, that impresses me a lot.

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9.5

I loved pretty much everything about it except for the last twist, where they're living in a VR simulation. It was still executed well, so it wasn't a big negative, but I would've loved the game even more without that.
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10

Basically what Leon said. The story is excellent, and the storytelling format is super cool. While I also agree with what Mac has in spoilers I don't dock it any points for that.

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9.5

There are flaws but for the most part it's excellent

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10

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8/10

Very tough to rate this one.

On one hand it's mind-boggling that a story of its complexity even exists.There's SO MUCH going on, so many moving parts: thirteen main characters and plot lines; time travel to multiple periods of alt-history and the future; tons of sci-fi gimmicks like cloning and body-hopping... And somehow it all holds together well. I want to give it a 10/10 for the effort and craftsmanship alone.

But on the other hand, I have to admit that the story wasn't as gripping as I'd hoped it would be. The early world-building and character introductions tended to drag, and by the time I reached some of the bigger payoffs at the mid-and-late stages of the game, they didn't deliver the mindblow that I'd expect from a long-awaited revelation. I think the game's non-linear progression hurt it in this regard, because choosing certain characters before others would cause the game to tip it's hand at times.

Overall, while the game was consistently intriguing, I never felt like a true page-turner. And while I liked all of the characters, I can't say that I loved any of them other than Ogata, Yuki, and maybe Amiguchi. That's said, it's a one-of-a-kind story that takes advantage of the gaming medium, and I hope we see more games like it.


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9.5.

It does a lot of things right. I'd give it a 10 but there's a few core things that the game doesn't handle too well. The final route (Gouto) felt pretty weak and the "core" romance of Kurabe and Megumi might honestly be one of the worst of the canon relationships. In the grand scheme of things, those are both kinda minor but I think it keeps me from giving it a 10.

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Mac Arrowny posted...

9.5

I loved pretty much everything about it except for the last twist, where they're living in a VR simulation. It was still executed well, so it wasn't a big negative, but I would've loved the game even more without that.

While it seems like VR simulations have become the go-to game cliche in the past ten years, I too loved the execution of it in 13 Sentinels. Credit has to go to the world-building, because the way the writers set things up with the different time periods made it feel fresh.

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5.5

What if generic anime but Cloud Atlas

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9.5

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8

Fun ride, but the end result/overall picture is not as good as the journey. Some character stories are much better than others: they weave together to form a good overarching story, but this doesn't save Renya Gouto from being pure exposition.

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9

One of the best payoffs in games. However, it does have some points that drag a little.

Evillordexdeath posted...

What if generic anime but Cloud Atlas

That sounds awesome though.

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8.9
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10

I would say this is the best story in a video game that not a VN out there.

And yes I guess if you wanted to be cheeky you could say this is a VN too...but I'll grasp at my straws, dammit!

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If there was ever a game that proved that the VN label is meaningless, its this one. Its not a VN at all, its half RTS half point and click adventure, its missing the novel part of visual novel. These days people just use the term to mean any Japanese game with a story, just silly really.

Its less of a visual novel than most Final Fantasy games!

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VN has basically come to mean a game that's heavy on the story, light on the gameplay.

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People started getting cocky about throwing out the VN label when it was suddenly incorrectly deemed OK to call AA, DR, and ZE games visual novels.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

People started getting cocky about throwing out the VN label when it was suddenly incorrectly deemed OK to call AA, DR, and ZE games visual novels.

What should they be called?

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Adventure games.
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