There are very few games like 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. It's not just because of its gorgeous artwork and mind-bending storyline. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim has a unique structure. Not only does the player jump between two very different gameplay modes, but the story is presented out of chronological order, through the eyes of the 13 titular sentinel pilots, with the player choosing who to follow next.
It's not a completely freeform experience, however. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim structures itself through a progression lock system. Every character's storyline and every leg of the 13 Sentinel pilots' grueling Kaiju battle is unlocked by completing some other part of the game.
The player still has some freedom on who to focus on; several characters have more than one unlock condition after all, but this guarantees that they'll have to juggle multiple plot threads at once. For those intimidated by the idea, 13 Sentinels lets players easily recap the plot with Analysis mode.
Unlocking 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim's Starter Characters
13 Sentinels opens in media res, with a series of tutorial prologue battles. Each of the six initial cast members' remembrance chapters are unlocked with each battle.
Juro Kurabe
- Unlocked by completing Prologue Wave Battle 1
Takatoshi Hijiyama
- Unlocked by completing Prologue Wave Battle 2
Natsuno Minami
- Unlocked by completing Prologue Wave Battle 3
Megumi Yakushiji
- Unlocked by completing Prologue Wave Battle 4
Shi Amiguchi
- Unlocked by completing Prologue Wave Battle 5
Ei Sekigahara
- Unlocked by completing Prologue Wave Battle 6
Unlocking the Rest of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim's Cast
From here, each character's story is unlocked by finishing an event with another already unlocked character.
Iori Fuyusaka
- Unlocked by completing Juro Kurabe's prologue chapter.
Keitaro Miura
- Unlocked by finishing "Transcending Space and Time" in Nastuno Minami's story, or "Those of Us in a Dream" in Shu Amiguchi's story.
Renya Gouto
- Unlocked by finishing "Those to Protect" in Keitaro Miura's story.
Yuki Takamiya
- Unlocked by finishing "My Best Friend's Meddling" in Natsuno Minami's story, or "Where Do We Come From?" In Keitaro Miura's story.
Tomi Kisaragi
- Unlocked by finishing "Girl with Red Glasses" in Yuki Takamiya's story.
Nenji Ogata
- Unlocked by finishing "Truth of the Kaiju" in Tomi Kisaragi's story or "I'm a Liar" in Megumi Yakushiji's story.
Ryoko Shinonome
- Unlocked by finishing "Victims of Poison" in Nenji Ogata's story or "Suspicious Pills" in Yuki Takamiya's story.
The Path After Unlocking
There are two things that players should note about the structure of this game. The first is that they might unlock characters in a different order than on the above list, as evidenced by the number of characters with two possible unlock points.
The second is that these are only the initial unlock conditions. In each character's story, the player will eventually hit one of 13 Sentinel' s cliffhangers, and that character's story will be locked again. Thankfully, the new unlock condition is immediately visible.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is available for PS4 and the Nintendo Switch.