Everyone* needs to stop what they're doing and play
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
It's a PS4 game that is coming (already out?) on the Switch as well. The first thing to know is that it's anime as hell. How anime? At one point you have a giant robot battle while a pop idol sings for you from space. And it's AWESOME.
*Of course, being anime as hell might be an immediate turnoff for you, so don't let me stop you for excusing yourself from the class. That said, my partner started calling it "your dumb anime game", but after she started catching bits and pieces she started asking "can you play more for your dumb anime game?"
The game itself is split into three distinct modes: the first is the 2D adventure game where you will pick one of the 13 protagonists to explore, talk to people, and unlock branches in their narrative. The second is a real-time strategy psuedo-tower defense where everyone's in giant mechas. You will murder hundreds of enemies in singular attacks. It's great. The third is an analysis/archive which helps keep track of everything you've learned to that point and which you'll likely need to refer back to regularly because holy crap is there a lot that happens in this game.
In this game you and/your characters will:
*Protect an adorable alien from the government
*Meet-cute an amnesiac time-travelling hitman
*Get stuck in a timeloop at a train station
*Hide from Terminators
*Solve the mystery of the destroyed bathroom
*Shoot witches with a magic gun at the behest of a talking cat from the future
*Deal with unwanted house guests
And that's just a part of the beginning of the story. The game wears all of its inspirations on its sleeve, winking and laughing as it dances around endless tropes and references, gleefully tossing aside expectations at every turn. It's a lot of things, but primarily it's a story about stories and why we tell them.
There's always so much going on, every answer opens multiple new questions, and you will have to radically reconsider everything you think you know about what's actually happening on a regular basis. It's the sort of game that will close out an early scene taking place in 2024, and then open the next scene with a title stating "Half a year later - 1985". The game is not at all interested in explaining to you what is going on at first.
I'll leave one last pitch a fellow who LP'ed the game named Wooliee:
"I've figured out the commercial for this game. You know how horror movie trailers will show the audience reactions? Just the audience
ing their pants? That's what this game needs... just a bunch of reactions of people getting their minds blown out of their
ing skulls. 'What?!' 'But how?!' 'Wait no...' 'That can't-' 'That doesn't make any-' 'Space?!' '
CEO?!'... '
MOM?!' Then bam- '13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, available now.'"
