The backgrounds are so beautiful and detailed, it really feels like you’re in Japan! What would you say are the defining visual characteristics of this game?Īkiyasu Yamamoto: As someone who’s worked very closely with the Vanillaware staff watching the creative process unfold, one challenge that particularly stood out to me early on concerned the visuals. I’m super excited to bring 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Producer Akiyasu Yamamoto to today’s PlayStation Blog to answer that!Īrianne Advincula: Compared to previous titles, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim has a completely different setting, in metropolitan Japan. Vanillaware’s upcoming sci-fi epic, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, is no different! So, how does Vanillaware do it?
But because it is more gifted at intriguing than moving, unlike other narrative experiences from Japan, it also seems to us that 13 Sentinels missed that small emotional connection that would have made it the real big narrative hit we were hoping for.One look at Dragon’s Crown or Odin Sphere and it’s obvious that the defining characteristic behind Vanillaware’s games is the painterly art style, beautiful backgrounds, and characters so realistically animated that they feel like they’re breathing on screen. In substance as well as in form, the work done on 13 Sentinels commands respect, and we will probably remember most of the characters who gave their souls to form this Vanillaware like no other. Even these seemingly disheartening strategic battles ended up becoming a motivating lever, as did the need to get all the answers to the many leads sown by an author who has nothing to be ashamed of in this great leap into the world of SF.
Still, we couldn't imagine Vanillaware's boss being so skillful in the art of keeping us on the edge of our seats with nothing but his pen, without resorting to the fights that usually make up the salt in the studio's games. The noticeable effort to create a mix of familiar and the new makes it Vanillaware's best game to date, and one of my favourite games of the year.Īs much in its deliberately biscourteous narrative structure as in the complexity of the paths it sometimes takes, 13 Sentinels decided to keep it simple and straightforward, as if George Kamitani feared that his first science fiction story would be too easy to read or end too quickly. It's a good reminder that taking risks and trying new things takes a lot out of even the most seasoned team.
A Sentinel slowly hulking onto the screen fills me with the same awe here as it would in a blockbuster movie, knowing Vanillaware's programmers had no idea how to design such sequences, but they were so essential to the vision for the game they took years to figure it out. That way of thinking makes it difficult to enjoy the feats of ingenuity on display. It's easy to forget about, what with developers and publishers shrouding the whole process in mystery, before we as players tend to automatically compare whatever we play with the biggest thing already out there. Being Kamitani's passion project, two games in one made by a game of just 29 people, simply reminded me of the effort that goes into making a game.
This, above all else is why 13 Sentinels matters to me so much. Movies and games both have reached a technical ceiling where it's really difficult to surprise audiences on a technical level, so the surprise lies in delivering unguarded, enamouring passion instead. I think of this kind of ridiculous entertainment as absolutely essential, especially within games, because the craziness is driven by a desire to go all out.