I Am Setsuna (PC) Review

I Am Setsuna is an RPG that had a clear purpose and a clear direction; the developers hit every mark they were going for. Unfortunately, those marks are riddled with issues. This overall feels less like a homage to the various RPGs of the '90s, and more like a direct lift of them. The perfect example? Its story.

The plot doesn't involve much that hasn't been seen many times. There's some merit to re-hashing old ideas for new audiences, but with flat characters and predictable plotlines, the whole thing comes across as hit-or-miss. Furthermore, dialogue is choppy and unrealistic, and limited to text, with characters speaking Japanese during battles, which goes curiously untranslated. Despite this, the story does have its moments of humour, sadness, and beauty, and remains consistently solid enough to carry players' attention.

Battles themselves consist mostly of waiting around for meters to fill before being allowed to press buttons, and, with characters standing still as statues while enemies wander around animated, the whole thing looks ridiculous and feels boring, particularly in the early stages when there's only one character to play as. Enemy placement, meanwhile, seems to have some effect on which attacks connect, adding an interesting layer of strategy to the mix.

The rest of this adventure looks and feels like a standard 3DS RPG (excluding the clunky PC keybinds): chibi-like models, graphics that look good in their own context but aren't at all mind-blowing (and, being set in snow area after snow area, get tiring), and adventure and gameplay elements that feel compacted for a mobile experience. I Am Setsuna's best point is easily its piano-laden soundtrack, which feels like something straight out of a Ghibli film.