• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

I Am Setsuna Review Thread

ULTROS!

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Metacritic: 78 - http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/i-am-setsuna
Opencritic: 79 - http://opencritic.com/game/2879/i-am-setsuna

RPG Site - 90
While much of its charm comes from its attention to traditional design minus the frustrating elements, those with the patience to explore the opposite spectrum of big budget, hollow excursions may find satisfaction in this wonderfully mature experiment in the modern era.
Click to expand...

CGMagazine - 90
I can’t think of another game that manages to evoke the themes it presents to players so well. In every way imaginable, from the plot, to the scenery, to the music, and even to the combat system, I am Setsuna wants players to question their mortality, the time they have left, and the decisions they can make in that time.
Click to expand...

The Daily Dot - 90
While not as challenging as some of the JRPGs of the past (no Emerald Weapon here, sorry), I Am Setsuna makes it clear that someone is listening to all of those grumbly veteran gamers who miss the adventures that made them fans for life. They long for a story to care about, and that's what this game provides.
Click to expand...

Playstation Universe - 80
I Am Setsuna brings to light all the memorable aspects of what made classic games classics. With the good outweighing the bad, I Am Setsuna embodies old concepts and creates a challenge worth undertaking, even if the pilgrimage to the end is as difficult for the player as it is for Setsuna.
Click to expand...

Stevivor - 75
I Am Setsuna is the good kind of nostalgic. It utilises the best elements of the past to its benefit, rather than to excuse an otherwise lacklustre game. And yet, while playing to the nostalgia it also makes sure to do something different to set it apart. The more sombre tone of the story means you’re not going to be adding a chivalrous frog knight to your party here, but the package you get it doesn’t suffer as a result.
Click to expand...

Game Informer - 75
I Am Setsuna has lots of nods to Chrono Trigger, from its general combat framework to specific references to skills like X-Strike and Luminaire. However, it doesn’t capture why most players connected to that seminal title. Even though the combat is entertaining, I Am Setsuna’s characters are dull, the environments are repetitive, and the story is predictable.
Click to expand...

Hardcore Gamer - 50
Who would have thought a game with a snowy setting such as this would look so dull? There’s some good to be discovered in I Am Setsuna, but it’s overshadowed by its sheer unoriginality and repetitiveness.
Click to expand...
 
R

Rush_Khan

Member
It's looking pretty mixed. Good nostalgia but dull characters and environments? Maybe it wasn't a good idea to pre-order this.
 
P

Possumowner

Member
That's an interesting spread of reviews.From dull to wonderful,i will wait for a brave GAF member before jumping in on this one 😋
 
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
Any word on pc performance?
Based on the weaker scored reviews its as traditional as can be so thats ok in my book

Possumowner said:
That's an interesting spread of reviews.From dull to wonderful,i will wait for a brave GAF member before jumping in on this one 😋
Click to expand...
My faith is in Crom
No braver a gaffer will u find
 
T

Tye The Czar

Member
Yeah. I kind of predicted it would end up in the mid-70s. Aside from Chrono Trigger esque battles(why aren't most modern JRPGs capable of encounters taking place on the same screen? 😩), the plot and characters never stood out for me. I might try it when the price goes down though.
 
O

oSoLucky

Member
Bladenic said:
After 2.5 hours I'm quite enjoying it.

Also, what's the difference between Meta and Open Critic?
Click to expand...

Open doesn't weight scores at all I believe, whereas Meta weights the larger outlets more(and there's been outcry about them not releasing their formula).
 
W

Walpurgis

Banned
oSoLucky said:
Open doesn't weight scores at all I believe, whereas Meta weights the larger outlets more(and there's been outcry about them not releasing their formula).
Click to expand...
This is why I preferred them until I saw this.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/uncharted-4-a-thiefs-end

http://opencritic.com/game/1538/uncharted-4-a-thiefs-end

Why does MC have 111 reviews and "Open" Critic has only 76 (it's usually the reverse)? I think there are more differences than just weighting. :/
 
V

veloxStrix

Banned
S

Shin-chan

Member
This is about what I was hoping for given the import impressions. Seems like a solid title for a brand new studio. Let's hope it does well and they're given more projects and new IP to develop
 
S

Shift Breaker

Member
Wait, this is out already?

Ugh, I'll have to pass for now, I'm currently going through a few JRPGs at once, one more would just get lost. Good to know that it's good, I'll keep it on my radar.
 
B

Blobbers

Member
An 8/10 by media consensus JRPG can vary from good to "holy shit this is one of the greatest games ever" in my experience. Take for example Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth which sits at a 75 and it's by far one of my most favorite games of the year.

Walpurgis said:
This is why I preferred them until I saw this.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/uncharted-4-a-thiefs-end

http://opencritic.com/game/1538/uncharted-4-a-thiefs-end

Why does MC have 111 reviews and "Open" Critic has only 76 (it's usually the reverse)? I think there are more differences than just weighting. :/
Click to expand...

I think they only count reviews from certain countries, sadly
 
B

BTA

Member
veloxStrix said:
...what am I supposed to be seeing here? They both openly list their reviewers, they both have the exact same score.
Click to expand...

Their point was that if OC is just supposed to be MC without weighting, then it should otherwise consider exactly the same critics. (I don't really care too much about the scores of either personally; just wanted to help clarify.)

EDIT: Oops, beaten by actual explanations.
 
O

OVDRobo

Member
Really interested to see how this pans out critically. I'm open to the idea of a modern Chrono Trigger-style JRPG, but still on the fence as to whether or not it's mostly a nostalgia plug.

I'm definitely going to wait a little while to see how public opinion is on top of critical opinion before I pull the trigger through. I've had enough of good-but-not-great JRPGs recently. Genre's too plodding and long-winded to spend that amount of time on anything short of great.
 
M

Mattenth

Member
Walpurgis said:
Why does MC have 111 reviews and "Open" Critic has only 76 (it's usually the reverse)? I think there are more differences than just weighting. :/
Click to expand...

OpenCritic currently only supports English publications. It sucks and we are working on it. It's hard to create automated parsers for languages that none of us speak, especially when our engineers also have full time jobs at companies like Amazon and Riot.

We also think the experience sucks - seeing an English quote, clicking the "read review" link and then realizing that you can't read it.

We opened up our CMS to critics and editors yesterday so that they can submit and edit their own review Metadata if they so please. We hope to use this to open up to non-English publications in the next couple of months.
 
H

Hero of Canton

Member
It feels like the kind of JRPG some people will mildly enjoy and a smaller group will fall in love with. Despite the setting, there's a warmth there. It's a very *likeable* game. And the music is just lovely.
 
P

pixellated_man

Member
I think the Eurogamer review has sold me on this game. Simon Parkin is one of the more reliable reviewers out there, at least when it comes to these smaller / niche / artsy games. Will wait for first discount though.
 
P

pixellated_man

Member
Possumowner said:
That's an interesting spread of reviews.From dull to wonderful,i will wait for a brave GAF member before jumping in on this one 😋
Click to expand...

Almost every game has a wide spread of review scores these days. Take Uncharted 4 for example. It's easy to miss that amongst all the plaudits, that the game has two 50 and below scores on Metacritic.
It's also important to note that even good to great jrpgs have traditionally not scored as highly as one would expect or even deserve. Looking back at how some of the 'classics' of the golden era's were received can be quite an eye opener.
 
P

pixellated_man

Member
http://gamingtrend.com/reviews/walking-in-a-winter-wonderland-i-am-setsuna-review/

'The 15-20 hour average completion time might be shorter than what many JRPG fans would expect, but it is also a good entry point for newcomers without being a daunting 100+ hour experience. It is safe to say that I am Setsuna is a worthwhile journey.'

This being much leaner and less of a time sink than the typical jrpg is music to my ears. The length of these type of games is the no.1 reason I have a huge backlog of jrpgs which never seems to get smaller. I really, really want to play them but tend to find them too daunting and end up picking something shorter and more 'safe'.
On the other hand, I know some who have more free time will no doubt be disappointed by this, particularly those buying at full price. Should have been priced £25 max in my opinion.
 
M

Madchad

Member
Really enjoying this game so far, i only hope this leads the studio putting out more rather than SE walking away from it.
 
T

Teknoman

Member
I'll start today, but I'm not surprised that an rpg that only has one main environment type would get points docked because of it. Most people expect diversity in locales, so it was probably a bit of a shock.
 
W

Walpurgis

Banned
Mattenth said:
OpenCritic currently only supports English publications. It sucks and we are working on it. It's hard to create automated parsers for languages that none of us speak, especially when our engineers also have full time jobs at companies like Amazon and Riot.

We also think the experience sucks - seeing an English quote, clicking the "read review" link and then realizing that you can't read it.

We opened up our CMS to critics and editors yesterday so that they can submit and edit their own review Metadata if they so please. We hope to use this to open up to non-English publications in the next couple of months.
Click to expand...
That makes sense. When I first learned about OC, I thought it was going to be the definitive review aggregator without arbitrary restrictions but the lower review count put a damper on that. I'm glad to hear that you're going to fix it though. Letting critics do it sounds like a good idea.
 
C

CHC

Member
Reviews sound better than I expected, I liked Kotaku's write up. But the dull locations..... why? Why!? Like, if the developers meticulously played and analyzed Chrono Trigger how did they not notice that such a big part of the joy came from exploring new and interesting places? Dull locales is kind of an Achilles heel for RPGs in my eyes, but I will probably still give this a shit down the line - in the winter when the setting is more in-line with what's outside my window.
 
S

Spaced33

Member
Is the battle system the only thing that is Chrono Trigger-ish about this game? I keep hearing comparisons, but not too many details on what that even means. I think it's cool that it elicits such praise, but c'mon man.
 
B

Bladenic

Member
Spaced33 said:
Is the battle system the only thing that is Chrono Trigger-ish about this game? I keep hearing comparisons, but not too many details on what that even means. I think it's cool that it elicits such praise, but c'mon man.
Click to expand...

The developers themselves likened it to CT, I think, and it seems to show mainly in battle system with dual and triple techs.
 
D

duckroll

Member
Spaced33 said:
Is the battle system the only thing that is Chrono Trigger-ish about this game? I keep hearing comparisons, but not too many details on what that even means. I think it's cool that it elicits such praise, but c'mon man.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, yeah. It's nothing like CT outside of the battles given that the entire game takes place in a single snowy setting.
 
M

Meffer

Member
I had no idea about this game. Completely under my radar, but if it's battle system is like CT I might buy this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak | Preview Thread | Free Demo Available on PS4 and Switch on June 4
Opinion Trailer
9
438
Punished Miku replied
Homeworld 3 | Review Thread
Analysis Review
22
2K
amigastar replied
Today, I had gaming "eureka moment" while playing Witcher 3: I hate story-driven games! Am I alone with it?
2 3
135
8K
NeoIkaruGAF replied
Sea of Thieves | PS5 Version | Review Thread
Analysis Review 2
86
5K
adamsapple replied
SaGa Emerald Beyond | Review Thread
Opinion Analysis Review
13
1K
Thick Thighs Save Lives replied
Top Bottom