When monsters regularly invade the world, what can be done to stop them? Offer them a young girl as a sacrifice of course! This is how the village of Nive does about every ten years, and today it is the turn of young Setsuna to fulfill this noble destiny. For this, she must begin a journey to the other side of the world, a journey that she will make in particular in the company of the mercenary Endir, yet hired by a mysterious sponsor to eliminate our heroine. Having to kill someone who is doomed anyway is something to ease your conscience (except for an invasion of monsters...) but, of course, Endir will still quickly befriend Setsuna, who also shows himself endearing than the scenario of the game. Indeed, even if it has a little taste of already-played, the latter is treated with delicacy and goes hand in hand with a poetic and nostalgic atmosphere of the best ilk. This melancholy stems not only from Setsuna's sacrificial nature, but also from the game's superb soundtrack, played entirely on the piano. Whether during the exploration, combat or dialogue phases, it is indeed this unique instrument that you will hear. The compositions ring true, follow each other smoothly and inevitably strike a chord with the player. The systematically cold, snowy or icy decors also contribute to this atmosphere. More generally, the art direction hits the bull's eye all the time, with the character and monster designs being "kawaii" without being ridiculous. On the other hand, from a purely technical point of view, do not expect to take full eyes. I am Setsuna may be available on PC and PS4, but its graphics engine remains relatively limited, and we're not really surprised to see that the game is also coming out on PS Vita. But we quickly get used to this lack of graphic prowess, the artistic direction and the staging largely compensating for the technical weaknesses.
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As far as the gameplay is concerned, we always stay in the classic and therefore effective, the Tokyo RPG Factory studio containing for its first game to apply proven recipes. Aerial view, map of the world allowing access to different very specific places, increase in experience over the fights, purchases and sales of different items, selection of characters limited to three with the possibility of changing protagonists at will outside of clashes, management of health and mana points, etc. The combat system is inspired more particularly by that of Chrono Trigger, itself being derived from the Active Time Battle of Final Fantasy. We therefore find a mixture of turn-by-turn (each character performing their actions one after the other) and real time (the ATB gauge which regularly gives the green light for each character filling up over time). This principle is enriched by different systems, in particular that of "Spritnites", magic stones to be inserted into talismans, as well as those of "Fluxes" and "Singularities", which involve a certain amount of randomness. It would be too tedious to detail here the exact functioning of all this, but know that the richness and the subtlety are indeed there.
The combat system is inspired more particularly by that of Chrono Trigger, itself being derived from the Active Time Battle of Final Fantasy.
The most interesting remains the “Momentum” mode, represented on the screen by a bluish sphere which fills up when the person acts, takes damage or, more interestingly, does nothing while their ATB gauge is full. You can therefore voluntarily "pass your turn", in order to obtain SP (Special Power) points, which can be combined up to three and which allow you to trigger the Momentum during an attack, a treatment or a any spell, which has the effect of positively altering its effect. Smart! By the way, you may have noticed the abundance of English terms in the preceding sentences. This is explained by the absence of a French translation of the game, which is therefore reserved for Anglophiles. Another defect of I am Setsuna, perhaps even more embarrassing: the particularly badly done backup system. You can save at will in the world map, but it is imperative to cross a save point to do the same when exploring a place likely to harbor monsters. Except that these points are extremely rare! Add to that the fact that there is no automatic save from the game, and you will regularly find yourself having to start over a whole section of the adventure, following an unfavorable fight. A way of artificially extending the lifespan which was not necessary, because in any case it takes more than twenty hours to see the end of the adventure, and even thirty if you absolutely want to see everything and do everything. Old school all the way!
