The world is no longer a happy and peaceful place, it is regularly beset by angry demons. The demons grow in numbers by the day and the people become more afraid of their lives. Only a sacrifice can appease the demons, only Setsuna can help us…
I Am Setsuna is a JRPG that was earlier released on PlayStation and PC but now shines in the launch title line-up of the Nintendo Switch and is definitely a game the Switch needs right now.
The story of I Am Setsuna begins when mercenary Endir gets the orders to assassinate a girl. What he don’t know is that the girl he was contracted to kill is actually the only hope to appease the demons. This Girl is Setsuna, a girl that was destined to be the sacrifice in order to restore the peace in this somber world. After Endir hears the story of Setsuna he decides he would help her instead of assassinating her.
In order to save the world from the impending threat of the demons, Setsuna has to make a pilgrimage to the Last lands where she will complete her holy sacrifice to appease the demons. If she were to die before she can complete her sacrifice all hope for this world would be lost. That is why she has a loyal entourage the protect her during her quest to save the world and rescue many lives in exchange for her own.
When played I am Setsuna for the first time, you will notice that this game took a lot of inspiration from older Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games. I thought that this was a pretty good idea to get JRPG fans interested in the new Nintendo console. After some hours into this game, I remain by my opinion that I Am Setsuna has unique elements added to the JRPG recipe. Most RPG elements are found in the game but are approached in different ways which made them feel fresh and unique wich makes this game very interesting. The downside is that I sometimes got a bit confused and clueless during my playthrough due to the sometimes strange approach or special decisions they made during the development.
Fighting in I Am Setsuna was one of the most refreshing things in this game. In most RPG games, you fight your battles turn based, this is typical for the genre but can feel a bit static in comparison to action games. But for I Am Setsuna they completely rethought the way a turn based RPG is played.
Instead of waiting for your turn, the battle is played constantly and you can be attacked at any giving time. An energy meter will decide when it’s your time to attack. When this is full you can make your next move so it’s kind of turn based, but also encourages fast decision-making. Taking too long to decide will leave you open for your opponent attacks. Although waiting has its downsides it can be helpful in certain situations. When two players in your party both have a full energy meter they can perform combos for insane damage. Every time your energy meter is filled your momentum meter starts to add up. The momentum meter is a meter which stacks until 3. These stacks can be used to trigger momentum to drastically improve the stats of your following move.
During battle mode, the games differentiate 3 moves: Attack, Tech and Item. Attack is just a basic attack that doesn’t consume any MP(=resource points). Tech are the lists of special moves and combos that each have a different cost. Item is pretty self-explanatory, making use of an item in your inventory. Important to note is that every move requires the same amount of time to recover your energy meter and both attack and tech can make use of the momentum trigger.
The techs you use in battle are not learned spontaneously by the characters. You have to get spritnites, these are obtained by selling specific items to a magician to unlock the spritnites. These items can are found everywhere during your adventure marked as a shiny object on your map. It is definitely worth your effort because you unlock new abilities and these are an easy income which both help you to improve the strength and affections of your character. This is easy to do but the first time you do it, it is not so easy because the game never really tells you to do it or how to do it so it. I was clueless for a while until I figured it out and felt pretty stupid.
The lack of information you get from the game is generally lagging and is, in my opinion, the worst part of this amazing game. Ok, you discover it for yourself after a while, but this can be frustrating at the beginning of the game when you just want to play. The game is not that forgiving for players who don’t read all the dialogues or who are easily distracted. But I definitely recommend reading all the dialogues because the story of I Am Setsuna is very good. The plot itself is very deep and interesting, the dialogues are intriguing but funny at the same time. Every character has a unique role in the story and has a reason for the existence. This great story is set in the amazing snow mountain setting which is perfect for this adventure. Each area is different but they all look amazing. This simplicity fits this game perfectly. All this results in a game that is more like a movie with game elements than a game with a story.
Conclusion:
This game is definitely a must own if you are into JRPG and if you love a good story. For newcomers to the RPG genre, I recommend to give this a try and push your way to learn the mechanics to discover the amazing and beautiful story that I Am Setsuna has to offer.
