13 Sentinels guide, in working progress
Introduction.
Welcome to my guide for blind and visually impaired gamers of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.
This game is currently released for Playstation 4, which will also work on the Playstation 5.
13 Sentinels is surprisingly accessible to blind gamers. The game is completable without sighted help.
My goal with this guide is to explain how everything works which is accessible, or which are doable by any other workarounds.
If you have any ideas, corrections to the guide, some great information to add, wanna help by correcting spelling or gramma errors or if you just have any comments, then feel free to contact me.
You can leave whatever feedback you might have in this topic:
https://forum.audiogames.net/post/596042/#p596042
OCR:
It is highly recommendable to use OCR by connecting the Playstation to your computer via the Playstation Remote program, and use OCR via your screenreader to read the text in the game. But OCR is not required to play the game.
The only place where OCR is required is in the upgrades menu, and in the Mystery Files, which is not required to complete the game anyway. It is also helpful to use OCR to know where you are going and which area you are in, but it is not required. If you wanna read the result of the battle screens, then OCR is required, but it is not a requirement to read the battle results to play the game.
Please let me know if you want me to add an OCR section to the guide as well.
What is 13 Sentinels?
13 Sentinels is a mix of tower defence battle and a visual novel, where your choices changes the story. The game is clearly separated between the battle mode and the story mode in a way so you'll never wander in which mode you are playing.
In my opinion, this game is a must have for all blind gamers who owns a Playstation 4 or 5. I hope this guide will get more blind gamers interested in the game.
Menus.
Most menus wraps. However, if you hold down the Arrow key on the D pad in most menus, the scrolling stops when you have reached either the top or the bottom of the menu.
Title menu:
When you boot up the game, you'll first hear the logo, then the intro movie and then you'll hear the games music like if it was played through a small speaker. When the music plays through a small speaker, you have to press a button to open up the main menu. When you do that, the music will change to normal quality.
If you get stuck in the main menu, you can press Circle to go back to the title screen again, where the music plays from a small speaker. This is really a cool feature regarding to how the music changes.
Title menu
This menu is horizontally.
New game
Load game.
When you start the game for the first time, the cursor is on New game.
If you have one or more games in progress, the cursor is on Load game.
New game:
Please select an audio language.
(Audio language can be changed any time in the Options menu.)
This menu is horisontal from left to right, and this menu doesn't wrap.
The left menuitem is Japanese, and the right menuitem is English
Load game.
This menu is vertical. The menu does wrap, but the scrolling stops when you reach the top or the bottom if you hold down the Arrow Keys.
Here you can simply select the save slot you wanna load.
Main menu.
Please note: This menu is unlocked after you have completed the Prolog.
When you load a saved game, you are in the Story menu. You can choose between the stories by using the Left or Right Arrow keys. You can hear what story you have selected in a very accessible way, because each story previews the ambience sounds from the chosen story.
This menu wraps, but it doesn't matter much because of the preview sounds. So you won't get lost in this menu.
If you press Circle, you go back to the actual Main menu.
The main menu is horisontal.
The menu wraps, but you can easily hear what you have chosen because of the sounds. If you choose the wrong menu option, you can just back out by pressing Circle.
Story, Event archive, Battle.
Event Archive
I'm not sure on what that is, and if it's accessible and usable or not.
Main menu: Battle menu.
From left to right, you can replay each battle tutorial.
If you go down once, you can continue the next wave of battles.
I'm not totally sure on how this menu works yet. This section will be updated when I know more about the menu.
Main menu: The pause menu
The menu is vertical. The menu does wrap, but it will stop scrolling if you hold down the Arrow key.
Save
Load
Title screen
Manual
Options.
Options menu.
This menu is vertical. It does wrap, but it stops scrolling if you hold down the Arrow key.
Use the Left and Right Arrow keys to adjust the selected option. The menu does not wrap when pressing the Left and the Right Arrows.
On the first line comes the actual option. I'll mention if it's a slider. If it's not a slider, then I'll mention the settings from left to right on the same line.
On the second line, you'll find the help text for each option, telling more information about the chosen option.
BGM Volume: Slider.
Adjust music volume.
SE Volume: Slider.
Adjust sound effect volume.
Voice Volume: Slider.
Adjust speech volume.
Auto-Advance: Off, On.
Automatically advances dialogue. (Toggle during gameplay with R2
Dialogue Type: Normal, Quick.
The 1st button press displays the entire line. The 2nd advances the dialogue.
Auto-Advance Wait: Slider.
Adjust the length of pause between auto-advancing dialogue lines.
Thought Cloud Controls: Left stick, Right stick.
Navigate Thought Cloud with the Left stick or Right stick.
Directional Buttons: Walk, Select.
During Thought Cloud, keywords are selected with
Stop on Unread: Off, On.
When unread dialogue is displayed, fast forwarding automatically stops.
Character Intro: Off, On.
A splash image is displayed when beginning a protagonist's story .
Camera Zoom Speed: Slider.
Adjust the camera speed of zooming when using L2 and R2 in battle.
Maximum Zoom Out: Slider.
Limits how far the camera can zoom out when using L2 in battle.
Maximum Zoom In: Slider.
Limits how far the camera can zoom in when using R2 in battle.
Tilt-Shift Effect: Off, On.
A blur effect is applied over
AutoSave: Off, On.
At certain moments, automatically
Subtitle Display: Off, On.
plays subtitles for non-conversation volce during bargle
Audio Language: Japanese, English.
Set the audio language to English.
Reset to Default.
Restore all settings to default.
The pause menu: Story mode.
Will be added later.
The pause menu: Battle mode.
Will be added later.
Battle menu:
Please note: More and more things will be unlocked in this menu as you play the game. I will tell you in the prolog section via the tutorials, which menuitems unlocks.
Please note: This menu does wrap, and the scrolling does not stop when holding down the Arrow keys. However, there is a workaround if you get stuck in the battle menu which I'll explain in a moment.
Pressing the Up or Down arrows, you have the following menuitems, assuming you have completed the Prolog:
- action, choose an attack
- move
- repair
- defend
By pressing the Left or Right Arrow keys, you can switch between the pilots. This is confirmed in a completely accessible way by the chosen pilots voice which speaks when being selected.
A workaround if you get stuck in the battle menu:
Pressing the Left or the Right Arrow key to switch pilot, makes the cursor jump back to the Actions menuitem.
Action menu.
In the action menu, you have the list of weapons which are available for the selected pilot. This list will change depending on the pilot, depending on how far you are in the game and maybe also depending on the battle.
Because this menu wraps and the menu won't stop scrolling when holding down the Arrow keys, it can be tricky to know how many weapons are available to you, especially without using OCR. However, I have a workaround, if you absolutely must know how many and which weapons you have available for each pilot in the battle you are playing, but keep in mind that this workaround might have consequences:
1. In the Actions menu, press the Down Arrow once, and give the weapon a try to see which weapon it is.
2. When it's your turn again, select the same pilot if possible. Then in the Actions menu, now press the Down Arrow twice to select your third weapon.
3. Keep doing that, but add one extra press to the Down Arrow until you are back to the standard weapon again. In this way, you can count how many weapons each pilot have available, restart the battle if needed and plan your moves if you wish.
When selecting a weapon in the Action menu, you'll get to the Target screen, which will be explained in the battle section of the guide.
Move.
The Move menu opens up the same target screen as when having selected your weapon. However, you won't hear any clicks when using the Left analog stick, so there is no accessible way of knowing where to move.
Repair.
The repair screen works like the Move screen. I won't recommend to use the repair feature, since there are other workarounds, which will be explained in the battle section of the guide.
Defend.
The Defend feature have no menu. It defends as soon as you press X on the menuitem.
Upgrade menu.
Will be added later when I get more experience with this menu.
the battle mode.
Here I will explain everything about the battle mode and how it works.
Will be added later.
The story mode.
Here I'll explain everything about the story mode: The controls, the movement, the Thought Cloud, move between locations etc.
This will be added later.
Sounds Reference.
Here, I'll make a sounds reference, so people can listen to each important sounds in the game and get an explanation on what those sounds means.
That section will take some time to add, since I have to record the sounds, edit them, and then explain what they mean. In this section, a lot of stuff is going on behind the scene, but I'll do my best to make that happen.
The Prolog.
Here, I will, without any spoilers, explain all the tutorials in the Prolog, so people can complete the Prolog and know what's going on and what they are doing without using OCR.
this section will take a lot of time, since I'll play through the Prolog again, take notes while playing and do my best to explain things so it makes sense for those who can't use OCR, or for whatever reason won't use OCR while playing.
Thanks to.
Here, I'll list all the people who have helped by giving any useful information, or helped directly with the guide. A lot of people have already helped without knowing, and I couldn't make this guide without your great help.
This will be added later.
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