Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch

In recent years the JRPG was declared dead. But since 2015 the genre has been given a new lease on life, and it seems Eastern studios have learned to modernize and bring new things to the good old Japanese RPG. I Am Setsuna, the first game from the studio Tokyo RPG Factory, was produced with the blessing of Square Enix itself – and sets out to show us how the genre can still shine, even without borrowing mechanics from other genres. The game is a tribute to the greatest classics of the Golden Age of JRPGs (in particular Chrono Trigger and the early Final Fantasy games) and everything that made those games works that will be remembered as epic odysseys.

I see what you did there, Setsuna.

Story: 7.5

I Am Setsuna tells a sober and tragic story. The player follows the group that guards the young Setsuna on her journey to be sacrificed and stop the growing demon attacks on her world. All the events, the way the dialogue unfolds and even the scenery and music perfectly reinforce the game’s message to the player: this is a story about sadness, persistence and resistance against all the cruel obstacles the world has to offer.

The story and its characters are intriguing enough to keep your curiosity and your will to keep playing, but these elements are borrowed from or heavily inspired by those of the classic games. So, although on a direct analysis everything seems well written and well tied together, it’s hard to avoid the feeling that the whole story is one enormous cliché.

Setsuna is a good person in a cruel world.

Mechanics: 8

As a true JRPG, the game has huge maps for the player to explore. There are no random encounters, and sneaking up on enemies from behind gives initiative advantages in combat. Speaking of combat, the system used is practically the same as Chrono Trigger‘s: turn-based combat, but with an action bar that fills gradually (Active Time Battle, or ATB), where character positioning affects the hit area of attacks and characters can attack together (in pairs or trios) to obtain devastating effects.

The game features a system called Momentum, which lets a character boost the effect of their action if the player presses a button at the right moment. You can also choose not to act when the ATB bar is full, which makes an SP gauge start charging and further increases the Momentum bonuses. These mechanics bring a bit more dynamism to the game and are very welcome, but a player who masters the timing of the Momentum activation will quickly stop feeling any difficulty in combat.

Levels only define a character’s HP, so you need to keep an eye out for new weapons and armor that improve the other attributes. There are also special powers and techniques to unlock through items equipped on the characters.

In general, all the mechanics and systems seem adapted from some great game of the past. The mix works well, but not every player will appreciate the genre’s intrinsic repetitiveness.

Audiovisual: 9

I Am Setsuna offers beautiful landscapes for the player to admire and good effects to embellish the battles. An especially well-crafted effect is the trail the characters leave when walking in the snow.

The art direction chose to use more cartoonish models for the characters, which, although it doesn’t completely match the game’s tone, highlights each one’s personality. The game in general is very beautiful to look at and runs smoothly, but there isn’t much color or variety: there are snow-covered fields, snow-covered cities and snow-covered ruins. That’s it.

On the other hand, the soundtrack is impeccable. The songs are memorable and perfectly accentuate the game’s melancholic tone. There are long passages with piano solos that make you feel alone in the world and walking toward your own end… Exactly as the heroine Setsuna must feel throughout the journey.

Final Thoughts:

If you have always been a JRPG lover, I Am Setsuna is for you. The game is a compilation of everything good about the genre, paying homage to and using all the mechanics and story resources that made the great classics of the 90s like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy famous… But the game also exposes the genre’s weaker points, which our nostalgia usually omits from memory. The game can be repetitive and, depending on your skill (or patience for leveling up) even trivial. In general, a great game for a small niche – for everyone else, perhaps just a great cliché.