Board 8 > Damn dude 13 sentinels is so good

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm only halfway done with it now, but the guys behind this game hit lightning in a bottle. Hopefully it ends with grace because games like this with the whole mystery/plot twist type of story can really drop in quality if the ending is unsatisfying. But regardless the gameplay and everything I've experienced so far has been top notch

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I found once I finally figured out who people were without spending 2/3 of the time in the mystery section the game was great.

Not a game I ever would recommend though as explaining the plot would sound like a parody of complicated sci-fi plots given how complicated it is.

Also the RTS gameplay is too easy and one dimensional even on hard.

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I'll say they stick the landing incredibly well, I was blown away at how well they did it.

I'm playing it right now and I'm also about halfway through and this game is wild.

Wish the RTS sections were a bit more engaging, but oh well.

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masterplum posted...

I found once I finally figured out who people were without spending 2/3 of the time in the mystery section the game was great.

100% this. way too hard to keep track of people early on

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Yeah this game has been great so far. Im surprised how much I like the gameplay

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I just started this as well! The presentation is outstanding - you can always expect good art from Vanillaware but it's truly astonishing here. I'm still getting through the "tutorial" and being introduced to all the characters but it's very clearly wearing a shitload of sci-fi influences on its sleeve. Very interested to see how it will start to combine, synthesize and move beyond its very tropey beginnings for each character.

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masterplum posted...

I found once I finally figured out who people were without spending 2/3 of the time in the mystery section the game was great.

Not a game I ever would recommend though as explaining the plot would sound like a parody of complicated sci-fi plots given how complicated it is.

Also the RTS gameplay is too easy and one dimensional even on hard.

Yeah I kind of wish they gave them english names or more...unique character designs so it wasn't so hard to tell everyone apart. I'm pretty much at the point where I'm comfortable distinguishing everyone and I have 2 people's stories at 100% (though to be fair I have some at 0% as well, not to make it sound like I'm crazy far in)

And about the gameplay, it hasn't been a struggle in terms of strictly winning, but getting the S ranks has taken a few tries and juggling the characters you use each round can be nerve-wracking , since you don't know who you'll need for the next mission it feels bad to put one on standby, but you gotta pick and choose when to bite the bullet. Ive found that whole management part of it pretty fun

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I had less trouble with the "who" and more with the "when" as I made my way through but that all becomes more and more clear.

Great game

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Absolutely the 2020 game of the year.

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pretty good game for sure BUT I'm iffy on the storytelling. the plot itself is cool and is both original and respectful to its influences, but its delivery is more confusing than it needs to be, imo. the game is still awesome thanks to its great characters and excellent music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlmYYyzek48

give me another track from 2020 that goes as hard as this

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Yeah that song is pretty great. In general I haven't been crazy about the music, it's there and all but nothing spectacular. That song is up there though

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This game feels like it should be a board 8 darling if more people had played it

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_stingers_ posted...

This game feels like it should be a board 8 darling if more people had played it

it's definitely got cult classic appeal. In a few years we'll be talking about it the way we talk about Virtue's Last Reward/DR/Trails probably. can't imagine it having any sequels though.

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just beat the game. damn that was great. 5 stars

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I started a couple days ago. I'm 30% of the way through the RTS section and about 20% of the way through the story section, though I still have like 3 characters to unlock. I'm still connecting the dots on everything but there's already been a good 2 or 3 jaw dropping plot twist moments. Looking forward to finding out more!

Also, sentry gun is overpowered.

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_stingers_ posted...

Also, sentry gun is overpowered.

Sentry Gun and Interceptors are busted as hell. I forget who, but I gave someone a very detailed breakdown of how to progress your level ups to maximize gains when they made a topic like a month ago. I should have saved that!

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LapisLazuli posted...

Sentry Gun and Interceptors are busted as hell. I forget who, but I gave someone a very detailed breakdown of how to progress your level ups to maximize gains when they made a topic like a month ago. I should have saved that!

It was me

One thing I did find though is that I needed two levels (iirc) rather than one in neurolink to get three uses of each character until they had to recharge!

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Oh lol, well then NM.

I could have sworn I just did 1, must have been mistaken.

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I never put anything into neurolink, I just upgraded the generators of my sentry gun users. Iori had like level 50 generator or something stupid lol
If i needed to reset the cooldown of a unit for the next map I just went and redid the first map in the game again. Cheating but whatever, lol

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_stingers_ posted...

I never put anything into neurolink, I just upgraded the generators of my sentry gun users. Iori had like level 50 generator or something stupid lol
If i needed to reset the cooldown of a unit for the next map I just went and redid the first map in the game again. Cheating but whatever, lol

I did that too, but it was much less annoying having way fewer of my units on CD

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Finally managed to break away from Remembrance to play some Destruction after hitting the first lock with everyone.

It's pretty fun! I feel kind of bad for relegating my Gen 2s to just spamming Sentry Guns for most of the map, and doubly so when they get MVP for doing that and nothing else, lol. Even with that, the slight differences between all the pilots (skills and loadout options) is enough to keep me reasonably engaged. I'll be interested to see how demanding (if at all) the mode eventually gets, since there does seem to be some potential for some actually interesting play here.

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some of the last missions were tougher to S rank, but I only ever actually lost once. and it's just because I played really greedy. I thinks sentry guns break the game too much for it to be really difficult. it's still really enjoyable blowing up 100 enemies at once with a giant missile rain though, so I had a lot of fun

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Im just getting into it, but I just want to say that the part in the prologue where it cuts to black and drops a War of the Worlds quote on you was PRETTY good.

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Yeah Sentry Guns are great, whenever I field Juro or Iori they are the top scorer by a longshot.

I'd do some speculation, but it's too tough to talk about where I'm at in the story because of how you can tackle the characters' stories.

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I played it recently as well and basically marathoned the whole thing in 4 days I was so absorbed in it.

Definitely GOTY 2020.

yeah I got the platinum in 5 days. lol

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I just started this game, I really like the music.

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hopefully i'll get around to it this year

i wanna replay grimgrimoire before then though

i hope more people have noticed that game exists now too thanks to this since it's a big favourite of mine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWNzyavR2lU&list=RDUWNzyavR2lU&start_radio=1

up there with plastic love and stay with me

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oh yeah inaba has some bangers

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Some of the stuff I'm now discovering past the first locks is actually insane. You'd think this story would be awful with the sheer number of shameless tropes and plot twists shoved into it but somehow it's one of the most compelling things I can remember experiencing.

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Yeah I think they just do one thing in this game but they do it really well. And that's anime scifi

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Sorta related, apparently the developers had this giant board that shows when and where everyone is at any given moment and when and where their routes intersect:

https://twitter.com/Naked_T/status/1228950709913022465

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nifty

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I've never gotten anything below an S rank and never seen the terminal take more than single digit damage, but I just did 2-5 and got utterly wrecked, rofl. The bonus mission called for no more than four units so I put out one of each generation and the Deimos Gladiators just bum rushed the terminal and I felt almost helpless to stop them. Ended up getting a D rank, I was stunned - quite a change after steamrolling everything up to then!

Now that I've seen what they do I'm pretty sure I can no-sell them, especially with a full team, but that was quite the nasty surprise.

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I used the generation 1 guys to handle those.

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_stingers_ posted...

I used the generation 1 guys to handle those.

Yep, I went back with three Gen 1s and S ranked with zero damage to the terminal or any Sentinels. That was really just 100% down to the surprise factor, lol.

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It's pretty different from any past Vanillaware game. This one is basically a hybrid Visual Novel/real-time strategy game. The story is an homage to a bunch of different sci-fi properties/tropes.

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I will say that I found the battles fun but if you consider youself a fan of RTS, I'm sure that what 13 sentinels has is extremely basic

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yeah its more 70-30 vn to rts. the battles were fun like he said but they werent particularly challenging even on the hardest difficulty.
maybe if you dont use sentry guns it could get pretty tough

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UltimaterializerX posted...

Damn this sells me pretty hard. RTS is my jam.

It's a super basic RTS though. The real draw is the story, I've never gone "Wait what?" as much as I did playing this game.

Also looks incredible as is the standard with Vanillaware.

I got my first two stories to 100%! Juro and Yakushiji.

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It being of similar quality to Undertale's bullet hell elements is a pretty good comparison.

It doesn't get to some of the more creative elements like Undertale does with it but in terms of executing the base system its pretty close. It's not something I'd play a whole ton of afterward but it was good enough to keep me engaged the whole time through.

I'm at 60% Remembrance, everyone's around the same percentage in their story except Gouto and Hijiyama who keep getting locked. I did a ranking of the characters as I see them now to see if they'll change by the end.

Nenji > Natsuno > Shu > Miura > Tomi > Megumi > Juro > Ei > Yuki > Iori > Ryoko > Gouto > Hijiyama

It's hard to rank though, it's a great cast of characters and I like all of them except maybe Hijiyama. Gouto I just don't have enough information on.