It’s not a completely freeform experience, however. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim structures itself through a progression lock system. Every character’s storyline and every leg of the 13 Sentinel pilots’ grueling Kaiju battle is unlocked by completing some other part of the game.

RELATED: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim’s Switch Port is a Perfect Opportunity to Play

The player still has some freedom on who to focus on; several characters have more than one unlock condition after all, but this guarantees that they’ll have to juggle multiple plot threads at once. For those intimidated by the idea, 13 Sentinels lets players easily recap the plot with Analysis mode.

Unlocking 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim’s Starter Characters

13 Sentinels opens in media res, with a series of tutorial prologue battles. Each of the six initial cast members’ remembrance chapters are unlocked with each battle.

Juro Kurabe

Unlocked by completing Prologue Wave Battle 1

Takatoshi Hijiyama

Unlocked by completing Prologue Wave Battle 2

Natsuno Minami

Unlocked by completing Prologue Wave Battle 3

Megumi Yakushiji

Unlocked by completing Prologue Wave Battle 4

Shi Amiguchi

Unlocked by completing Prologue Wave Battle 5

Ei Sekigahara

Unlocked by completing Prologue Wave Battle 6

Unlocking the Rest of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim’s Cast

From here, each character’s story is unlocked by finishing an event with another already unlocked character.

Iori Fuyusaka

Unlocked by completing Juro Kurabe’s prologue chapter.

Keitaro Miura

Unlocked by finishing “Transcending Space and Time” in Nastuno Minami’s story, or “Those of Us in a Dream” in Shu Amiguchi’s story.

Renya Gouto

Unlocked by finishing “Those to Protect” in Keitaro Miura’s story.

Yuki Takamiya

Unlocked by finishing “My Best Friend’s Meddling” in Natsuno Minami’s story, or “Where Do We Come From?” in Keitaro Miura’s story.

Tomi Kisaragi

Unlocked by finishing “Girl with Red Glasses” in Yuki Takamiya’s story.

Nenji Ogata

Unlocked by finishing “Truth of the Kaiju” in Tomi Kisaragi’s story or “I’m a Liar” in Megumi Yakushiji’s story.

Ryoko Shinonome

Unlocked by finishing “Victims of Poison” in Nenji Ogata’s story or “Suspicious Pills” in Yuki Takamiya’s story.

The Path After Unlocking

There are two things that players should note about the structure of this game. The first is that they might unlock characters in a different order than on the above list, as evidenced by the number of characters with two possible unlock points.

The second is that these are only the initial unlock conditions. In each character’s story, the player will eventually hit one of 13 Sentinel’s cliffhangers, and that character’s story will be locked again. Thankfully, the new unlock condition is immediately visible.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is available for PS4 and the Nintendo Switch.

MORE: Games To Play If You Liked 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim