i am setsuna was the debut game from a small studio called tokyo RPG factory, it was published by square for a bunch of systems in 2017 and was billed as a throwback rpg calling back to the likes of chrono trigger or ff6 and it kind of is this, but it's also so much more and it was a game that really showed the studio as one with a very distinct style and vision, making games that felt like they could have belonged alongside those great old games but also doing what a lot of throwback rpgs fail to do, being worthwhile games with an identity of their own, as opposed to many who just try and recreate those games with none of their own vision, setsuna is really something.

what i think sets the game apart are 3 main things, it's setting and visuals, its music and its atmosphere. the game is beautiful for a start, many of the games environments are top down and 3d and look good but theres a few areas in the game where it actually uses some pre-renders and it really shows off just how good a pre-rendered game can look on current hardware, the game is also set wholley in a snow covered world, all towns are cozy snow towns, forrests with white trees and snow that actually tracks where you walk and many of the games caves have ice floors, you even have things like a iced over lake you need to cross or a beach covered in snow, it gives the game a very distinct setting and as someone who loves snow areas, the game is like a dream come true, i've always wanted one like this. the atmosphere too is very unique, the game has a constant sense of melancholy, part of this is the music but it's also just the story itself, it's a sad world full of sad people and the story even from the outset, being based around you escorting a girl to be sacrificed for the good of her world, it's not a happy game, it's got a similar setup to FFX but taken to its saddest route, the game constantly has you dealing with this eventual end and its heartbreaking every time it comes up because you do end up caring for these characters and seeing how messed up their world is makes you want to fix it, despite the cost to it, it reminds me a lot of a quintet game in that way, it's a game that has that old RPG vibe but with a sense of real darkness underneith, it's very unique and it was something tokyo RPG factory excelled in, a later game of theirs that i also played through called oninaki does this same vibe but maybe to an even better degree, they made sad games better than almost any other studio.

the music also ads to this, it's an all piano score, the battle theme, the cozy adventure themes and the town themes all and it both fits the game perfectly with its sadder more somber atmosphere, but it's just a great soundtrack (composed by tomoki miyoshi who has also worked on lost sphear, digimon survive and soul calibur 5 and performed by pianist randy kerber who also worked on lost planet 2 and resident evil 5) it's varied despite being piano focused and it's super listenable, a good few of these have made their way into my regular playlist, the vocal theme too is amazing. the gameplay isn't massively unique though (though one dungeon with a non combat boss fight was unique), it does have an ATB system with some combo attacks (that are very confusing to unlock due to the materia-like spritenite system being a little messy and confusing, i didn't find these too useful) similar to chrono trigger, it's a fine enough system, you have elemental weaknesses, status effects and stuns and different classes like a dragoon, black mages and healers, the usual but you do get a decent bit of leeway with their movesets because of the spritenite system, it also has a kind of limit break system, you store the energy and you can use it at the start of an action to modify it, be it with adding a healing effect to an attack for your team, adding extra buffs to buff attacks or just dealing more damage with an AOE effect, the timing for it is tricky because its based on timing after you chose your attack, but it ads a lot of interactivity and strategy, though the game isn't difficult at all, especially if you use endir who has some broken spritnites, it's short enough too, maybe 15 hours, 20 if you want all the sidequests and optional dungeons. the one big critisism i do have of the gameplay though is weirdly, the shops, they're very confusing, you have to sell items to get spritenite but it's very cumbersome and hard to know what to sell at first, i wasnt sure if selling them from the sell menu even counted towards the item, i don't like that system very much.

the story also really stands out to me, you have cute little individual stories along the way, fun characters and some really interesting settings, each part of the world is dealing with how bad things are in their own ways, for better and for worse and you see almost every corner of it especially if you do the postgame side-quests that really flesh out some of the lesser explored areas very well, like a village of bandits you can only visit post airship, it's also unrelentingly sad at times, i was in tears multiple times near the end, but its a game with a lot care and empathy, it's never cynical or edgy despite its dark themes, the characters try their best to make the adventure fun, despite how they know how it will end and the interactions help the tone a lot to keep it from getting to be a bit too much. it's a really fun cast, my favourites were the grumpy group dad, ndir, a warrior who failed his previous sacrificical pilgrimage, julliane, a corrupted knight who brings a lot of moral grey to the party with her performing public executions and almost wanting to attempt a genocide at one point, she's a very fun subversion of the usual rpg princess and setsuna, who brings a lot of sweetness to the game, shes probably the most well rounded character outside of julianne and she brings a lot of much needed cheer to the story and the crew, the rest of the cast are good too, with a little animal boy who bickers with ndir, a silent MC whos maybe a little boring but you can choose his dialogue and play him like either a nice voice of reason or a complete jerk, a mysterious girl who started the pilgrimage with setsuna and who might know a lot more than the rest and a secret party member i wont spoil, but he only comes in the last dungeon so he isn't very relevant, he's cute though. the story also has a really cute twist involving the save points, i won't say what but it made me smile a lot, it was super clever.

the game has 3 ports, they're all fine, the vita ver is what i played physically, it's not in english but it looks beautiful on the vita screen, the ps4 and switch vers would come in english and physically at that but you'll need to import that, there was a digital release too i guess, there isn't much difference in ports though other than language and the switch version having a kind of multiplayer collosseum mode. there would be 2 games the studio would make after this (all directed by atsushi hashimoto, who also worked on final fantasy explorers and alice gear aegis) , the very similar lost sphear which i bought after starting this game and oninaki, a game i bought many years ago but only started playing last week, it'd be the studios most different game, with a vastly different combat system but it'd also be their last, the sad timing of this was that as i was playing the studio shut down, or was absorbed into square, same thing really, it's a shame because both this and oninaki are amazing games, lost spear too probably, they had a real talent and some interesting ideas, a real sense of identity and a lot of heart, in the latter section of the game after you find the airship you can find this little 8bit village full of developers who thank you for playing and talk about how proud of the game they were, it made me cry, it made me sad and it honestly made me angry at square for how they treated this studio, setsuna never got a physical release in the west and when oninaki came out it only had one via their website, i remember having to scramble to get one day of launch because they underprinted it, sure it had a wider release later, but it just shows how little square wanted to care, it's a shame and it's very depressing.