June 2016’s Game of the Month: I Am Setsuna
Read the Review!
Managing Editor Ed McGlone: Ironically, despite being a very traditional JRPG, I Am Setsuna is a breath of fresh in the genre dominated by action-RPGS and massive choice-driven open world games. It has all the elements you remember from the golden age of JRPGs back in the late 90s, early 2000s. Airships, traversable world maps, turn-based action, towns loaded with NPCs, the occasional side quests, and more are all in play in I Am Setsuna.
The game’s success isn’t just fueled by nostalgia either. I Am Setsuna modernizes the genre too. Visually, the game looks like a proper 2016 console JRPG with an old-school touch. Tokyo RPG Factory didn’t settle for using a dated graphical style. It channels that aesthetic, but has a modern polish which looks beautiful. The game’s momentum system (which you can learn about here) takes the monotony out of frequent battles by giving you the opportunity to overwhelm weaker enemies in a way that never gets old and it also adds a layer of strategy in tougher boss battles. The grinding in I Am Setsuna is rare, but even when I needed to, it was actually kind of fun just slaughtering packs of enemies so easily by taking advantage of momentum.
I Am Setsuna is a prime example of how you can still teach an old-genre some new tricks instead of completely overhauling everything that people remember for the sake of being “modern.” Will it go down as an all-time great JRPG? No. However, this month, in an era devoid of solid JRPG games, helping Setsuna reach the Last Lands is definitely a journey we enjoyed embarking on, which makes I Am Setsuna more than worthy of our July 2016 Game of the Month honors.
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That does it for our July 2016 Game of the Month. Congratulations to I Am Setsuna! What were your favorite games this month? Let us know in the comments!
