I Am Setsuna is all about nostalgia. Sure, it doesn't rehash a familiar franchise or dig up a cast of long forgotten characters, but it does serve up a mixture of PlayStation-era graphics and storytelling that harks back to the classic '90s RPGs that came to the West from Japan. The result, from the few of hours I've played, is a game that feels reassuringly familiar without being gratuitously mercantile in the process.

The story begins grimly, taking a more adult approach than is typical of the genre. You play as Endir, a warrior born into a tribe that pays its way through the world by offering mercenary services to whomever needs them. Following Endir's impressive feat of heroism in saving a girl from a monster (a sequence that acts as tutorial for the turn-based combat system), he is commissioned to kill another girl, Setsuna, who is about to turn 18.

Without straying too far into spoiler territory, it turns out Endir's mission is part of a series of regular sacrifices that are made to prevent monster attacks on settlements. Those attacks have been becoming more frequent, leading to more sacrifices. Before you can kill Setsuna, which Endir is more than ready to do given his sell-sword lineage, you're stopped by a small group seeking to end the cycle of teen killings. After some negotiation, Endir becomes a reluctant member of the group.

Sacrifices and rebellion are nothing new to RPG storytelling, of course, but the way in which they're portrayed in I Am Setsuna is noticeably different. In particular, the aesthetic applied to the world creates a melancholy, subdued tone thanks to its combination of snow-blanketed environments and dreamlike, undulating music. Like any desert of snow or sand, there's a beauty in the bleak sense of isolation and infinity.

Such introspection is aided by an art style that uses a classic isometric perspective as its lens and refuses to go into too much detail in regards to character design. The elevated viewpoint and lack of reliance on dialogue text over full-motion video (not to mention the fact that there's no voice acting outside of a few grunts during combat) to progress the plot means that there's plenty of opportunity, even necessity, for you to impart your own meaning and slant on much of what is shown.

















































The fact that you can't see the facial expressions of characters morphing as they talk means that you're free to infer much of the subtler meaning behind their words in a way that isn't generally possible with the modern obsession for more pixels. It's difficult not to apply an aura of sorrow to everything that is said, which in turn helps you feel as though you have some sort of parental responsibility to keep your party safe.

The turn-based battle system delivers some of that same potential for interpretation, too. Attacking an enemy sometimes leads to its bouncing around within the battle area, altering its position in relation to its allies and your characters. This has a significant effect on what attack you might want to use next, given that using certain abilities results in enemies bouncing around in a particular pattern.

For instance, some attacks might affect the entire battlefield along a certain vertical line, whereas others might deal damage within a cross shape. Understanding the pattern of damage, and how it relates to the current formation of enemies, is vital to being efficient in combat. Very quickly you begin to think two or three moves ahead in that you're looking to knock an enemy into a certain position in order to then use another, more powerful, move that only works properly when your foes are lined up correctly.

As is usual in many Square Enix-published RPGs, there's an "active time battle" (ATB) gauge that must be filled up before you can attack. There's also a second "special" (SP) gauge that fills up once the ATB is full. If you stand around and wait with full ATB then you eventually earn SP points that can be used to trigger a Momentum System, which improves the damage of subsequent attacks.

Waiting until you've earned an SP point before unleashing a regular attack, for example, can lead to a critical hit or the imparting of a negative status effect. Use one when casting a healing spell and the number of hit points gained is increased. Unleash offensive magic and the area of effect might be increased. These abilities can also be used in combination with one another, meaning two characters can act at the same time, link their attacks and cause even greater, more widespread damage—the drawback being that you have to wait until all participants are ready before executing it.

In order to successfully pull off one of these Momentum-enhanced actions you have to press a specific button when a flash of light illuminates your character for a brief moment, adding an element of physical interaction to an otherwise tactical decision. The risk with using the Momentum System at all is that you're giving your enemies more time to make their own moves as you wait for your points to build up.

With only a few hours of play it's difficult to tell just how impactful the system will be across a game that spans tens of hours, but I can say that it felt essential in order to defeat a couple of early game bosses. Given their volume of hit points and the strength of their attacks, it would have been difficult and time-consuming to defeat them without the benefit of Momentum to buff both the attacks and heals of my three-person party.

It's unclear how many characters are eventually going to be available to form your team of three, but four have been revealed so far. Endir is the typical protagonist in that he is capable in most areas but fails to excel in any of them, enjoying a respectable ability in both attack and defence. Setsuna is the quintessential white-magic user, providing healing and positive status buffs for the team. The feisty, outspoken Aeterna is adept in offensive magic, while the tank-like Nidr is all about absorbing damage.

There's certainly a lot to look forward to, both for fans and newcomers to the genre—the former able to enjoy a classic RPG that's becoming increasingly unfashionable, and the latter given the opportunity to play a distinctly old-school offering on a modern console setup. Whether I Am Setsuna finds an audience or not, it's encouraging to see a game paying homage to the design principles of the past in a way that is original and respectful, rather than derivative and trite.