Memento Mecha - The Art of Nonlinear Mystery in 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim 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.
Some quick notes before beginning: 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.
Table of contents:
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 Super 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. Throughout my time with 13 Sentinels, I have found that Memento contains close analogues for dozens of plot points in the game as well as some of its most important 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.
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| 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 audience. 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 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.
"All of This Happened, More or Less"
This theme is hard-coded into the very mechanics of the ironically named “Remembrance” mode. Each chapter of Remembrance is advanced through the “thought cloud,” an expanding word bank of clues, plot points, and relevant items. This is perhaps the most overt similarity to Memento, not just on a superficial/aesthetic level, but on a thematic one as well. To bring up the thought cloud, players can hit △ on Playstation 4 or X on Switch whenever they have direct control of a character. Hovering over an entry plays audio of the protagonist whispering the title of that entry, and "Examining" the thought triggers a brief monologue from the character's point of view.
This isn’t to say that 13 Sentinels’ thought cloud and Leonard’s notes are entirely misleading, though. They do contain information relevant to their respective owners' quests, but because the characters seldom have all the facts, one bad thought can easily spoil the bunch. Both systems expose the inherent subjectivity of memory—one could go so far as to say that they reflect the subjectivity of the individual human experience (maybe I’m pushing my luck here). The protagonists in 13 Sentinels and Memento genuinely believe that they are fighting for what is right, even when reality begins to contradict their (and the player’s) previously held assumptions.
Another helpful yet subtly tricky mechanic is the text log of spoken dialogue and scene information (both location and time) in each chapter. By pressing Select on PS4 or – on Switch, players can pause to revisit the chapter’s script thus far. This becomes extremely useful, as there are times where players will need to pause the game to let dramatic revelations sink in. However, the log is somewhat coy in its handling of certain information since each chapter is still presented from its protagonist’s point of view. The most obvious knock-on effect is that the player will not be able to see a character’s name in the log until that character is specifically identified, which is to be expected considering the subjective nature of these remembrances. There are also cases in which different protagonists appear to know the same character but by different names, as well as moments when a protagonist may have simply forgotten or misremembered the character in question. and we reach a point where even the players will have to check themselves when faced with such conflicting information.
Both 13 Sentinels and Memento introduce these concepts almost immediately, teasing the audience with dozens of potential clues and red-herrings that are intentionally obfuscated by the protagonists’ shortcomings, including but not limited to memory loss. Take, for instance, one of the first scenes in Memento, in which Leonard meets Natalie in a local diner. Despite the fact that neither Leonard nor the audience recognize Natalie, her body language implies some sort of prior relationship between the two. The initial question–what Leonard has forgotten about Natalie?–quickly leads to a larger, even more frightening question: what has Leonard forgotten about himself? The cast of 13 Sentinels is similarly hamstrung by information that they should possess but nonetheless remains tantalizingly out of reach. They feel connections to other characters despite never having interacted with them and recall events that may or may not be real. In the scene screenshotted above, Iori Fuyusaka, runs to school and collides with a mysterious boy. Despite the fact that she and the player do not recognize the young man (hence the question marks in the log), he briefly appears to recognize Iori—at least, until he picks up the student ID that she dropped. Who is this boy, and to whom does Iori bear “an uncanny resemblance”? These uncertainties proliferate as more playable characters are unlocked and, by extension, more potential histories are uncovered. However, all will become clear over time.
The final tool available in the Remembrance mode is thankfully more forthcoming than the text log or thought cloud, though it is still a far cry from straightforward. At any point during a chapter, players can press □ on Playstation or Y on Switch to bring up a flow chart of the choices and story beats thus far (pressing the L/R buttons will also cycle through other protagonists' charts, too). This is another method through which the game alludes to certain causal relationships between events, though there are obviously some curveballs along the way. Regardless, it's much more legible than Leonard's convoluted map of people and locations, which is rarely foregrounded as a reliable resource that viewers are expected or even able to use. Aside from a handful of wider shots at the beginning and end of the film, Leonard’s map is only shown through close-ups of select sections. As much as I would like for the camera to zoom in and linger on the map for a few more seconds, I must also acknowledge that Memento was not designed with constant pausing and scrutinizing in mind (for the most part, anyway).
Luckily, 13 Sentinels is not a film, and thus is able to provide players with several tools that are not just helpful but essential. At first, the thought cloud, text log, and flowchart seem like small touches, but multiplied by 13 and enriched by the connections between characters as the game progresses, the clues begin to add up, just as they do throughout Memento. All it takes is a stray line of dialogue here or a familiar looking location there for the evidence to start forming a bigger picture, slowly but surely.
Mutually Informed Destruction
The Destruction" mode is an interesting change of pace from the dialogue-heavy visual novel at the game's core. It takes the form of a tactical strategy game in which up to six of the titular 13 sentinels can be deployed to fight waves of kaiju. Because this piece is more focused on the game's narrative design (and because there are major plot implications to be found in the battles' mechanics), I will not be discussing Destruction mode in much specific detail. The bottom line is this: the events of Destruction mode comprise a single battle that occurs at the climax of 13 Sentinels' story, which is at a specific point in the game's timeline. The exact time and place is one of the overarching mysteries that players must solve.
This is where the game once again evokes Memento while also spiraling off in its own direction(s). As mentioned in Part 1, half of Memento's story presented chronologically and in monochrome, and half is presented backwards and in color. The effect is similar to that of reading a sestina or reciting the alphabet as "Z, A, Y, B, X, C, etc.—the film starts from the opposite ends and works it way towards the middle. To maintain cohesion, major plot points are referenced and developed concurrently in both halves. One example of this is Sammy Jankis, a mysterious man whose name is tattooed on the back of Leonard's hand. Sammy's story is revealed in bits as pieces as the film progresses: in the black and white sequences, Leonard recalls his interactions with Sammy and how they influenced his own worldview, while the color scenes reveal the truth about why Leonard is forcing himself to remember Sammy in the first place. Each half of the timeline has something different to offer on this subject, both with significant implications for Leonard.
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13 Sentinels achieves something similar with its Destruction and Remembrance modes, which use their unique mechanics to explore topics from different angles. For example, the neurolink that allows the protagonists to pilot their sentinels is mentioned in the first Destruction battle as a clever means of introducing the basic controls (e.g. movement, selecting armaments, etc.), but the Remembrance chapters show how the characters became "compatible" with the sentinels in the first place as well as how the limits and risks manifest in their lives. There are also moments in the game where the relationships forged in the visual novel sections bear fruit on the battlefield, with protagonists' abilities synergizing in ways that reward particular groupings or loadouts. Despite the differences in gameplay, the two modes work in tandem to move the story forward.
Things become even more interesting once players complete the prologue, as they are given the ability to freely switch between Destruction and Remembrance modes at will. Not only that—large chunks of Remembrance can be tackled in any order. Some may opt to focus on a particular character for several consecutive chapters while others may bounce between multiple characters' storylines based on personal preference; players can also choose to focus exclusively on one particular mode for several hours or switch modes when they want a change of pace. As a result, it is highly unlikely that two players will take the same path.
Compared to the set progression of a film like Memento, this seems like a recipe for disaster. How could the developers, let alone a first-time player, navigate 13 overlapping nonlinear plotlines split between two game modes? This is another area in which Vanillaware had to delicately balance narrative with gameplay. Director George Kamitani intended for 13 Sentinels to be “A work whose scope is so wide, your impression of it will change based on who you pick.” Character designer Koichi Maenou echoed this sentiment, remarking that "we wanted players to form their own biases based on the order in which they experience the story." To the team's credit, it is impossible to play through 13 Sentinels without becoming attached to some if its protagonists. However, the tightly interwoven ensemble cast made it difficult to create “a system where it wouldn’t matter which route you took first”. The degree of internal consistency required for this seemed impossible. Kamitani recalls how he almost went "crazy from rewriting the plot constantly over three years and yelling into the night" (“Developers' Talk 1”).
The team eventually found a clever way to subtly guide the player and add a loose outline to the game’s progression. The solution was to create temporary roadblocks to prevent players from completely overwhelming themselves. As one plays through Remembrance and Destruction, progress on one track is occasionally (and, depending on the situation, either mercifully or maddeningly) gated by the progress of another. For example, the next battle in the Destruction section may be locked until the player reaches a certain level of Remembrance completion or a specific point in another character's plotline, but the opposite is also true: one may not be allowed to progress with a particular character until they have won enough battles or seen enough of other characters' chapters.
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| Stefan Miguel Lopez, Gamerant |
These prerequisites ultimately work in the game's favor, creating guide rails that ensure that major revelations happen at a regular pace and at points where players are more likely to possess some relevant information that can help clarify what they just learned. If one item is temporarily restricted, there will potentially be a dozen other paths that will progress the plot in other directions. Besides, the charm of the ensemble cast is enhanced by the wide array of personalities and experiences offered by each individual character. "No matter which protagonist’s point of view you take", Kamitani remarked in an interview, "you will only unravel a portion of the mystery" (Developers' Talk 1).
The relationship between 13 Sentinels' narrative and gameplay is an odd one to say the least. It's even difficult to describe the degree to which the game is actually "nonlinear" due to the various connotations of this term. "Nonlinear" can mean that events are presented out of order or from a variety of different viewpoints, but it can also mean that players have the ability to make decisions on behalf of the characters. 13 Sentinels only satisfies some of these criteria. As we will discuss in the next section, there is one canonical storyline, and there is nothing that players can do to change the outcome. However, there is quite a bit of freedom when it comes to how one experiences this storyline. Everyone will encounter the same twists and turns, just at different times and in different orders. The end result is an interesting twist on the concept of nonlinearity that makes both the journey and the destination feel worthwhile.
The Facts
The final game mode, "Analysis", is not foregrounded in any of the marketing material or box art. This may be because it seems less like an active "game" mode and more like an evolving library that populates as the player progresses through the game. However, as pointed out by Woolie Madden in his piece “The Brilliance of Analysis” (which in turn was part of an excellent compilation of "13 Creators, 13 Essays, 13 Sentinels"), this portion of the game is an absolutely crucial resource. I’ll be citing some of his ideas throughout this section, so I highly recommend watching the aforementioned video essay as well as his extremely entertaining playthrough of the game–that is after you’ve already beaten the game.
Let's do some quick math to illustrate why the Analysis mode is so important. 13 Sentinels took me roughly 30 hours to complete. This means that the game is about 15 times longer than Memento, a film which Mr. Madden agrees is built with the expectation of a second viewing. Unless someone knows what to look for, there is no way that they would be able to uncover every nuance of Memento’s mystery during their first watch. The Analysis mode seems explicitly designed to give players “the equivalent of that second viewing experience as you play [...] for the first time” (Madden), and this was confirmed in an interview with several members of the development team. Character animator Kouichi Maenou remarked that “while the player enjoys that feeling of information overload while playing the game, it’d be great if they could revise and further consider the information they had learnt; that’s how the ‘Analysis’ section was created” (“Developer’s Talk 1”).
The first half of the Analysis section is an extensive encyclopedia of "Mystery Files'' that gradually documents nearly every noun in the game. You read that right: almost every person, place, or thing gets an entry, even the food. This virtual Rolodex can be accessed from both the main menu and the Start/+ menu, meaning that the player can immediately check a name or face at a moment’s notice. There is a light element of "gameplay" to the Mystery Files in the form of player choice: as seen in the image above, some entries are unlocked by default, such as the file on the first playable character in 13 Sentinels. Others, including locations, certain side characters, and items must be unlocked via "Mystery Points" earned through the Destruction mode. Simply completing a battle will earn a single point, but completing optional objectives and earning an S rank can reward players with several more. The initial scarcity of points forces players to choose which files they want to unlock and in what order. Hoarders need not worry, though, as there are more than enough points earnable on Normal difficulty to unlock every single entry (I had 27 extra points upon finishing the game).
The collection of Mystery Files bears some similarities to the Thought Cloud and Leonard’s system of notes, but there is one key difference: Mystery Files are completely objective. In stark contrast to the Thought Cloud and Leonard’s collection of various memory aids, they are uncolored by characters’ emotions. Mystery Files are carefully worded to reflect the information that players have learned thus far, which means that they only “lie” or “mislead” by omission. New sections will be added that supersede previous ones and bring players closer to the truth, but those earlier entries will never change retroactively. Viewed within the framework of Memento, Mystery Files more closely mimic the viewer’s gradual understanding of the truth that forks off from Leonard’s. Players learn things that exist or occur outside of individual protagonists’ narrow views of their own lives, the world and people around them, and even time itself.
The Event Viewer, which serves as the second half of the Analysis mode, offers similar insights into the game’s myriad mysteries. As one might expect from a theater feature, players have the ability to replay any scene up to the most recently completed chapter, but in 13 Sentinels, this includes sections that involve dialogue options - that is to say that players can actually re-play almost any previous scene. This is yet another way for the game to provide that “second viewing experience” even before the game has been completed. If the player would rather skim through the Event Viewer archive, each entry contains a brief summary of the scene as well as details regarding which protagonist(s) and side character(s) were present. Players can even sort by character and view where the events thus far fit into the objectively correct timeline. This essentially a condensed version of the “bible” used by the QA team during development, which was a massive Excel document that took up “30 sheets of A3 paper” (“Talking Spoilers”).
To demonstrate both the usefulness and the cryptic nature of the Event Viewer, let's consider the entry for the opening cutscene:
For context, this is the very first scene that the player sees upon starting a new save. After a few minutes of gameplay, we are granted access to the Event Archive, which reveals that we just witnessed Event No. 287: the start of the final battle. Just as Memento's first scene is the last event in its timeline—a haggard Leonard Shelby shooting Teddy in the head—13 Sentinels opens with the beginning of the end, as a young schoolgirl mysteriously summons a giant robot out of thin air, but while both establish an overarching mystery from the start, Memento’s more compact construction means that it can get away with leaving viewers to their own devices. After all, they can always rewatch the film. Out of sheer necessity, 13 Sentinels sets up its archives to be revisited and interrogated on a regular basis throughout a single playthrough. Whenever the player needs information, it will be there, waiting to be analyzed
The ways in which the three game modes work in concert is quite elegant: Remembrance provides a steady supply of plot points and character details while high scores and special objectives in the Destruction mode rewards the player with the points needed to unlock Mystery Files. This larger game loop of playing, learning, and reviewing incentivizes an almost scholarly study of 13 Sentinels' narrative—or, to paraphrase Mr. Madden, 13 Sentinels essentially gamifies the gathering and analysis of story information.
Everything In Its Right Place
Roughly 30 hours after beginning 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, players will reach the canonical ending of the game. They will undoubtedly be confused, mentally exhausted, and potentially on the verge of tears. But if my experience is anything to go by, most players will immediately want to dive back into the Analysis mode to see what they've missed.
I will tread lightly here to avoid spoilers, but I plan to discuss a few things that unlock after the credits. These descriptions will be extremely vague, and there will not be any specific plot or character details. However, if you are incredibly sensitive about what counts as a spoiler, everything beyond the next image is about the post-game experience.
The game officially ends as credits play over the canonical ending cutscene, and after a few minutes, the story of 13 Sentinels is complete. However, I can guarantee that most players will not stop here. Even with several major plot points clarified in the game's final moments, there will inevitably be gaps in players' memories and understanding. This is where the Analysis mode continues to be an incredible and indispensable resource, beyond what can be reasonably expected from any standard appendix, codex, or glossary, regardless of the medium.
As one might expect, the final chapters and battles reward players with the last handful of Mystery Files, finally granting them access to the complete, objective truth. Character backstories, location details, and more will be updated to include the revelations from the final cutscenes. Some supplementary files (mostly about side characters, food, and Sentinel tech) may still be locked behind the Destruction mode if a player has not completed the S-Rank and Bonus objectives for every level or if they do not have enough Mystery Points to unlock everything. However, by this point in the game, players should be able to easily revisit previous missions and trounce the invading kaiju. In addition, the Event Viewer receives several updates that makes revisiting key moments even easier. Not only will the Viewer contain the completed main timeline and all of the characters' individual timelines; there will be additional filters for secondary characters as well as two subtle bonus features that I cannot explain here without delving into spoilers. Any question that players have asked themselves can be answered by perusing the contents of the Analysis mode. This still requires a good deal of effort, it prevents the need for another 25+ hour playthrough.
With that said, it's been three weeks since I finished 13 Sentinels, and I still cannot stop thinking about it. I've put in another three to four hours just reading through Mystery Files and revisiting earlier chapters in the Event Viewer, even some from the tutorials and prologue. Not since Memento have I been as enraptured by a narrative's presentation as I was by the narrative itself. Vanillaware—like Christopher Nolan before them—has achieved something special, crafting a deeply human story about memory that both exploits and subverts the very processes that allow one to form memories.
As a work of art, 13 Sentinels is messy. Its labyrinthine construction and seemingly endless barrage of twists can be mentally exhausting. One can see how Kamitani nearly lost his mind “from rewriting the plot constantly over three years and yelling into the night”. But it also becomes clear why several of the game’s designers called it “something precious, almost something to die for” and “a miracle” (“Developers’ Talk 1”). Where 13 Sentinels potentially eclipses many of its influences and contemporaries is the degree to which its form enhanced its function. The uncompromising totality of its vision could only be realized in an interactive medium, and an interactive story of this scope would only be possible if the players were given the proper tools with which to navigate it. The game’s mechanics were built with this express purpose in mind, resulting in a truly singular multimedia experience that deserves to be remembered.
Works Cited
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. Nintendo Switch version, Atlus, 2022.
“13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Double Helix – Developers’ Talk 1”, translated by Garm, Garm’s Translations, 21 Aug 2021. Originally published in Famitsu, 12 Dec 2019. https://garmtranslations.wordpress.com/2021/08/11/13-sentinels-aegis-rim-double-helix-developers-talk-1/.
“13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim – Talking Spoilers with Kamitani and the Cast”. Frontline Gaming Japan, 20 Feb 2020. https://www.frontlinejp.net/2020/02/20/13-sentinels-aegis-rim-premium-talk-event-report/
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/
Image of Shu Amiguchi's locked character selection screen. "13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - How To Unlock All The Characters", by Stefan Miguel Lopez, 21 April 2022. Gamerant, https://gamerant.com/13-sentinels-aegis-rim-unlock-all-characters-how/. Accessed 23 June 2022.
Madden, Woolie. "The Brilliance of Analysis". 13 Creators, 13 Essays, 13 Sentinels, uploaded by JayEm, 24 June 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnVEWEOrNI0.
"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.