I Am Setsuna

I Am Setsuna is a great game, but that's all. It falls short of it's full potential in a few different ways, but fortunately the excellent soundtrack and brilliant art direction make it a joy to experience.

I Am Setsuna seems to come straight from the classical JPRG genre. The game looks amazing and the gameplay is very smooth. The lack of length is therefore a real pity.

I am Setsuna is a beautiful ode to the JRPGs from the 90's, but it does not really do anything new. It's a nostalgia trip for JRPG players, but that means you will also have to deal with the classic annoyances in the genre.

It has a few too many flaws to be considered a classic, but I Am Setsuna does enough right to make it worth a play through - especially for fans of old-school RPGs.

It’s the tip of the spear of what could be a major JRPG resurgence, a sign that the games of old haven’t lost their place within the hearts and minds of millions of players out there. While there are certainly some way that they could be updated to better fit more modern sensibilities, the main ingredients of this formula are, for the most part, nailed here in I Am Setsuna and show that one the long revered genres in gaming is primed for a comeback.

It doesn't quite recapture the magic of Chrono Trigger, but I Am Setsuna has enough interesting mechanics to stand on its own without the crutch of nostalgia.

I Am Setsuna is a love letter to the Golden Age of the JRPG. It is far from perfect, but it does a nice job replicating the gameplay mechanics and feelings from that era.

A creation designed to be appealing to the nostalgic RPG gamers, but it's unable to transmit because of its zero personality.

Old school JRPG throwback I Am Setsuna tells an interesting story with a fittingly sombre tone, but features none of the combat oomph of its predecessors.

I Am Setsuna has the look of a Super NES game created on a modern graphics engine.

I am Setsuna is as vintage as it can get and manages to recall what we did love about the JRPG genre in the '90. It is however very low budget and comparatively expensive. It also tries to tell a good story at a somewhat frantic pace in repetitive locations and throughout extremely simple fights.

A well-crafted homage to Chrono Trigger, which isn’t scared to add its own ideas – ensuring this is far more than just a nostalgic novelty.

An unapologetic homage to beloved Japanese RPGs that plays well but takes few risks.

I Am Setsuna capably fulfils its role as an echo of past Japanese adventures, but in doing so, it seems unwilling to take risks and forge its own legacy. Its story is predictable and its battle system struggles to define itself, but its traditional charm and fantastic atmosphere do more than enough to ensure that this an inviting and thoroughly pleasant journey.

I Am Setsuna is a mixture of beautiful, heartfelt, and depressing moments, one whose depth is unfortunately overshadowed by its over-abundant moments of shallowness. The worth in Setsuna may end up being not in what it did on its own, but the groundwork it provides for future projects.

It could have – and should have – been far better than it is. Held back by a lack of ambition and never daring to crawl from the shadow of better games, I Am Setsuna stops itself being something special...But at least it’s not garbage, and I sincerely hope Tokyo RPG Factory has something bigger in the pipeline, because I see a hell of a lot of promise.

The relaxed, largely goal-free nature of the game has the potential to wear thin, but personally I found the controls fun enough, the environments and music beautiful enough, the various animals smile-inducing enough that even after the three hours it took to reach the end I was happy to dive back in, ready to search for more clues and uncover what it was all about.

In short bursts of play, I Am Setsuna ticks all the boxes one could want from a modern JRPG designed as a callback to the classics: a seemingly emotionally involving story, stirring music, pretty visuals, and a battle system that offers up nuggets of nostalgia like "ATB" and "tech combos".

It’s everything you loved and hated about the PlayStation One generation of role-playing games, with such a classic feel that you’re content ignoring a lot of the things that could warrant hate.

I am Setsuna is the perfect J-RPG we have all dreamed of when we were 15 years old. In 2016, the game can feel a bit rough on the edge for most of the players. But if you do dare to give it a shot, you will find yourself being part of a wonderful journey filled with amazing battles and great character customization while listening to a marvelous soundtrack.

I Am Setsuna is visually haunting and whimsical and sometimes even tactically intriguing, but it’s also monotonous and needlessly confusing. Surely we can have these experiences with more of the former, and less of the latter.

I love old school role-playing games. But I am Setsuna almost makes me fall asleep. Too static, too easy, too monotonous.

Just a competent JRPG. How could it not be, considering how much it liberally lifts from its betters? Looking at it with a purely analytical eye, this Frankenstein’s Monster of a game has haphazardly pieced everything needed to make it stand among the giants it aspires to be, except the most critical of requirements—a spark of life.

I Am Setsuna desperately tries to pull us back in time, but just feels old and worn out, no matter how good the fresh new lick of paint looks.

I wish I Am Setsuna took me on another beautiful, multifaceted adventure like it wanted to, as the JRPGs that its creators admire once did. I wish the characters weren’t bland caricatures of familiar characters I’ve seen in the past. Instead, it feels like a cold attempt at harboring nostalgia, only managing to remind me of JRPGs of the golden age, and how so much better they were—and, critically, still are.

In spite of its myriad frustrations, I Am Setsuna is far from a characterless husk, but its mechanical regurgitation of shallow tropes and the over-complication of a ready-made battle system manages to cast a dim light on its reserved tone and glacial atmosphere. Designed to be a reverential ode to cherished RPG classics, I Am Setsuna is a functional footnote rather than a sweeping fresh stanza.

I Am Setsuna aims to invoke the spirit of classic 16-Bit JRPGs like Chrono Trigger, but its obtuse combat and monotonous pacing keep it from reaching those lofty heights.