Memento Mecha, Part 1: Time (and Time Again)

In this five-part series, I will examine how 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim pushes the concepts of the unreliable narrator and nonlinear narrative to new, dizzying heights while also arming players with the tools necessary to unravel its manifold mysteries.

 

Some quick notes before beginning: As noted above, I will be taking care to avoid spoilers in this piece, though there will be some broad plot descriptions of both 13 Sentinels and Memento as well as some discussions of early scenes. The specific gameplay mechanics that I will be covering are explained in the manual and shown to the player throughout the prologue. Finally, all images are screenshots from my copy of the game unless otherwise noted.

Time (and Time Again)

Since its initial PlayStation 4 release in 2019, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim has garnered its fair share of buzz, and for good reason. What initially appears to be a fairly standard visual novel/strategy game about teenagers in giant mechs staving off an apocalyptic kaiju invasion is not-so-secretly harboring one of the most wildly complex and ambitious stories that I have ever experienced in any medium. 

13 Sentinels is positively littered with references to monster movies, slice-of-life anime, and the broad, nebulous subgenre that I will simply call “time shenanigans media”. Director George Kamitani listed such diverse media as Macross, Total Recall, and Shutter Island as inspirations for the game’s narrative (C.K.), but one film that surprisingly was not mentioned was Christopher Nolan’s Memento, a psychological thriller legendary for its bizarre, semi-backwards sequencing and iconic protagonist who attempts to rebuild his life on a foundation of tattoos, lies, and Polaroid photographs. I have found that Memento contains close analogues to dozens of 13 Sentinels' most important plot points and mechanics. Thus, while Memento is not officially acknowledged as an influence, it provides a useful framework for understanding 13 Sentinels’ construction as a nonlinear mystery.

IMDB

From the very first scene, Memento requires viewers to draw a clear distinction between story, i.e. the actual sequence of events viewed from an objective frame of reference, and plot, i.e. the way in which events are presented to the reader. Memento’s story is strictly linear: Leonard Shelby suffers from anterograde amnesia, and in order to avenge his wife's murder, he slowly but surely plots to kill a man named Teddy. However, the film’s plot is nonlinear, upending the typical progression of cause and effect at the heart of most mysteries. It zigzags between two halves of the same timeline, steadily building towards a climactic central twist while also depicting the existential anguish of memory loss. The experience of watching Memento is equal parts mesmerizing and maddening due to how each new scene recontextualizes the ones that come before it. Fighting to navigate the plot's intricacies—and eventually understanding them in ways that Leonard never could—is an essential part of the process. 

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim substantially builds on this formula by essentially strapping rockets to it. Instead of one protagonist suffering from amnesia, there are now several with varying degrees and types of memory loss. The game then further complicates things by allowing players to jump between characters and game modes in almost any order. The effect is not merely multiplicative but transformative. Over the course of its roughly 30 hour campaign, 13 Sentinels slowly opens up like a matryoshka doll of nested nonlinear plotlines. The result is a game of astonishing scope and density that, like Memento, is meant to confound and reward players as they connect the dots. Through cleverly implemented mechanics like the thought cloud, mystery files, and event viewer, 13 Sentinels pushes the concepts of the unreliable narrator and nonlinear narrative to new, dizzying heights while also arming the player with the tools necessary to unravel its manifold mysteries.

Up next -- Part 2: "All of this Happened, More or Less"

Works Cited

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. Nintendo Switch version, Vanillaware, 2022.

C.K., Johann. “The Movies, Manga, and Anime that Inspired 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim”. Frontline Gaming Japan, 14 April 2022. https://www.frontlinejp.net/2022/04/14/the-movies-novels-manga-and-anime-that-inspired-13-sentinels/

"Memento (2000)". IMDB, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/mediaviewer/rm655365120/?ref_=tt_ov_i. 

Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan, performances by Guy Pierce, Joe Pantoliano, and Carrie Anne Moss. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2002. Limited edition DVD.