One in every of my largest gaming regrets was not taking part in Vanillaware’s time-travel narrative journey 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim when it was launched in 2019. All people round me saved telling me to simply choose up the rattling recreation and provides it a attempt as a result of they knew I would really like it. I didn’t play it till 2023, at which level I shortly smacked myself over the top as a result of it was completely my kind of recreation.
So I’m glad to say that I acquired in on the bottom ground with 1000xRESIST —one other “extraordinarily my shit” recreation—out on Could 9 for PC and Nintendo Change. I do know I might remorse sleeping on this twisting experimental narrative, so I’m right here to ensure you don’t make that mistake.
Starting at what seems to be the top, 1000xRESIST is a story-driven journey about time and identification. You might be Watcher, considered one of many clones, and one of many first stuff you witness is your character killing a former ally over some ideological deadlock. However with out a lot context, you need to return to the begin to learn the way Watcher will get to that time.
Following a virtually world-ending pandemic (wow, can’t think about what that’s like), a society consisting completely of clones of a being they name ALLMOTHER lives inside a bunker as they search to struggle off the aliens that brought on the top of the world. Each clone is given a reputation, however not within the conventional sense. These aren’t monikers that decide one’s individuality. Reasonably, they’re known as features and denote the function of a given clone in society.
Watcher’s function is to watch the reminiscences of ALLMOTHER, who was as soon as a woman named Iris who lived through the peak of the pandemic. That begins by visiting the highschool of the ALLMOTHER, whose actual title was Iris. Traversing by means of the college at totally different time limits turns into an enchanting method to discover the trigger and impact of 1000xRESIST’s inciting incidents. Within the current, Watcher finds a courtyard full of graves, however return in time and immediately it’s full of scholars gossiping concerning the upcoming dance. It’s a splendidly executed—if morbid— meditation on how ephemeral life is, but additionally how our minds can’t assist however revisit occasions in our lives again and again.
Within the case of ALLMOTHER, these oft-revisited reminiscences aren’t very glad. Regardless of being practically a god to her military of clones as ALLMOTHER, Iris was a flawed girl coping with human issues. Xenophobic hate from fellow college students who blame her for the spreading illness, in addition to emotions towards a feminine classmate she doesn’t know fairly learn how to deal with, lead Iris to make quite a lot of errors. What emerges is a nuanced and surprisingly compelling portrait of an individual that’s a lot greater than what the sisters’ thought of the ALLMOTHER first leads you to anticipate. Studying extra about Iris and the way she turned the ALLMOTHER will get you invested within the bigger story, and drives you ahead to maintain exploring its mysteries.
As she shifts throughout totally different time durations to discover the world and these eventualities, Watcher generally encounters conversations so emotionally charged and pivotal that she is pulled right into a distortion of time and house. These liminal environments are sometimes stark white and full of big floating furnishings, turning the sport right into a puzzle platformer with hints of Gravity Rush, wherein you need to fling Watcher by means of house to particular floating factors. It’s a extra action-driven engagement that helps break up what may very well be a tiring bombardment of dialogue.
Nonetheless, the dialogue in 1000xRESIST is something however boring. Regardless of the sport’s attractive stylized world and fascinating time and space-bending mechanics, 1000xRESIST is a narrative recreation at the beginning. It’s an formidable story bearing on deeply philosophical questions surrounding identification. In a literal sense, it’s about Watcher and the opposite clones scuffling with existence as a part of a collective somewhat than as people. Metaphorically, nonetheless, it’s about coming to phrases with your personal identification as one thing that shifts and modifications over time. You aren’t the individual you have been at some other cut-off date. That is all propelled with precision by the sport’s sharp dialogue, which explores heady themes however by no means feels too overbearing.
The sport’s first 5 hours evoke shades of NieR: Automata and 13 Sentinels, whereas developer sundown customer 斜陽過客 has cited much more expansive inspirations on social media. It’s a classy amalgamation of inventive sensibilities that has been nothing however distinctive throughout my time with it. I can’t wait to see what else 1000xRESIST has in retailer for me.
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