I was pretty excited about this Chrono-Trigger inspired RPG. However...

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/07/i … throwback/

    A cliché story that cleaves to the past, without the same energy or endearment.
    Unexpected, poorly explained, and incredibly complicated progression.
    Missing quality-of-life tweaks that could make it much, much smoother.
    A very linear and predictable journey.

There was a time when nearly all you played on a console were poor, or shall we say "awkwardly" scripted/translated JRPGs. Fortunately that's no longer the case. Granted, I don't play that many JRPGs anymore but those that I do play -such as Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma, Fire Emblem, are extremely well written (even if the plot does leave a bit to be desired). However, sounds like Setsuna is a bit too poor and perhaps even too nostalgia-driven for my taste. Anyone played it?

Am I the only one that's somewhat torn on this review in general? From what you wrote I was expecting the guy to slam it, but he doesn't. He makes some good, well articulated arguments yet there's something (style of writing?)  that feels off at the same time.

Does anyone else get that feeling or is just me?

Anyway, I'll say this. If I had one ounce of interest left in the J-RPG genre and I wanted to play this, this review wouldn't stop me. To be honest a lot of what he's saying reminds me of what was said about Final Fantasy: The  4 Heroes of Light which is similar in that it doesn't contain all the "improvements" the genre created over time. A lot of people looked down on it for that but the game managed to carve out a niche with me. I like that game but geez, I overplayed it since I wrote a FAQ for it. I don't think I'll ever play it again because I overdosed on it.

Disclosure: I didn't read the review.

Why focus on this one negative review, when there are plenty good ones out there though?

http://www.gamerankings.com/ps4/168682- … tml?sort=5

It's currently at a 79% average on Game Rankings, and my experience with games in this score area tends to be: you should just try it yourself because there's no real consensus.

For my two cents, I bought it and played it back when it came out in Japan, and although I appreciated what they were doing (and I'd like to see more new low budget IPs from SQEX), I put it down after a few hours because it just failed to hold my attention.
It's not bad per se, but it's a tad too monotonous, and the fact that every area is a snow area and the music is NOTHING but piano doesn't help either.

Yeah not a fan of the soundtrack, and I love piano music. There's just something about it that bothers me after all I've seen, and one thing I've read is that it's pretty much the story and not much else. Plus being pretty much all snow areas does sound pretty monotonous.

Hi.  I'm only about 90 minutes into the game and am loving it.  I'm playing the pc version on mac through parallels on windows 8.   My only complaint so far is I haven't figured out how to map the buttons to my gamepad into a config that works for me. it makes battles tricky I'm only used to using the gamepads analog sticks in flight sims and not as the main input.   I'm enjoying the game and the music, although I imported the soundtrack as soon as it came available.  I'll update with more reactions once I am further into the game.  As for the snowy areas being monotonus I guess it is all a matter of perspective.  I live in Canada and have winter anywhere from late October to early April, so i'm used to the snow (although I do like how the close ups of the falling snow are single snowflakes). 

Cheers,

David

Hi All.  I finished I Am Setsuna about ten minutes ago and wanted to give you all my impressions while it is still fresh in my mind.   I'll break down everything into pros and cons with a little ending summary.

Pros

1) A well told story….but
2) The Active Time battle system.
3) Some of the graphics are really beautiful…but...
4) Loved the character design and the fact that you could change the character names.
6) The music fit the story…

Cons

1) The music works better as a 2 cd set than in game music.  I would have prefered more variety of instruments.  I'm not saying the game needs an orchestral score, but add in a violin or cello to help fill out the soundscape.

2) The add ons to the battle system where poorly explained and impossible to execute (I never once pulled off a momentum attack).

3) Killing enemies with different attributes (fire, water, etc.) to get different stuff.  It works on paper but leaves something to desire in execution.

4) The graphics…I understand that it is a somber story and the graphics represent this but we need more colour and less muted graphics.  Also every village with the exception of one felt very similar to each other.

5) Dungeon variety and enemies. The dungeons are linear and enemies variety through the story is lacking until you reach the Last Lands.

6) The story while well told,  is very linear and does not reward exploration.  They could have expand the story a bit, fleshing out characters and places.  A few more side quests would have been nice.

7) No new game plus mode or end game content

8) Slow downs and graphic problems.  I experienced several  slowdowns and graphical problems but this may be because I'm emulating windows 8 on my mac so I can run the game.

Summary

Despite the flaws I enjoyed my time with I am Setsuna and while it won't be something I would return to again and again like FF 9 or Chrono Trigger, I will play it again eventually.  I hope that the studio puts out more old school games, and I hope they get translated into english. 

Cheers,

David

all of the boss battles are against black metal bands whom you surprise while they are out doing a photo shoots for album covers

if i were ever to get back into gaming, this would be the type of thing i would be interested in. all the rpgs nowadays have so many levels of complex parameters that you have to set in order to level-up, item-up, & magic-up

I actually really want to play this, but I'm either going to need a PS4, or wait until I can get it DRM-free on PC.

Only way you're going to get it truly DRM free would be to pirate it.