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The Dark Id
Aug 13, 2005

Why
you
know
I
LOVE
THIS SHIT !!!!
[citation needed]


I am Setsuna is a JRPG developed by Tokyo RPG Factory and published by Square-Enix July 19th, 2016 for the Playstation 4 and PC. It’s the first game released by Tokyo RPG Factory, a studio created by Square-Enix specifically to pop out some new franchises styled after old school styled RPGs. In this case: Chrono Trigger. This game is trying very, very hard to emulate Chrono Trigger. Indeed, this game plays like more of a Chrono Trigger successor than Chrono Cross ever did.

Not that emulating a beloved classic RPG is entirely a good thing. Some conventions of RPGS of old were meant to be left in the past. I am Setsuna is not a terrific game. Nor is it terrible by any means! I liked it well enough and I've hated most every RPG since the early 2000s. But it definitely has some severe issues. I’d call it an interesting failure to live up to what it was going for, in the end. Granted, I’d consider Chrono Trigger to be the best RPG ever so… you know, I’m not going to blame any game for falling short of that. Also go play Chrono Trigger if you haven't already. What are you even doing with your life?

Though really, the gameplay and aesthetics is where the similarities to Chrono Trigger end and if you look for anything beyond that, you're barking up the wrong tree. This isn't exactly a lighthearted adventure. If anything, the game's actual plot and tone is a lot closer to Final Fantasy X.

I am Setsuna is not a particularly long game, despite harkening back to an age where RPGs could just easily go on for 80 hours just cuz. It’s in the ballpark of 20-25 hours, all optional end game content included. There is only one ending to the story. Given its short length, it is fairly briskly paced. There isn’t much in the way of downtime. Events will be moving quickly! As such…

:siren: THIS GAME WAS RELEASED EARLIER THIS YEAR! NO SPOILERS!! NOT EVEN IN TAGS! SHEESH! :siren:

With that said, let’s begin…

The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 18:59 on Jan 28, 2017

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The Dark Id
Aug 13, 2005

Why
you
know
I
LOVE
THIS SHIT !!!!
[citation needed]




Part I: I Am the Tutorial



Part II: I Am Just Here On Business
Part III: Local Hospitality
Part IV: Departure
Snow Chronicles 1: Datalogs Without the Refreshing Vulnerability



Part V: I Am Literally Just Auron
Part VI: Goods and Services
Part VII: Don't Fear the Reaper
Snow Chronicles 2: A Parade of Peg-Legs



Part VIII: I Am Turtling
Part IX: A Royal Audience
Part X: Do Not Feed Stray Children
Part XI: Wolf Baron
Part XII: No You Shut Up, Dad!
Snow Chronicles 3: Me, My Son and Our Wacky Neighbor



Part XIII: I Am Activating No Clip
Part XIV: Alternative Medicine
Part XV: Pillar Man
Part XVI: Pyro
Snow Chronicles 4: Equipping My Angry Eyebrows



Part XVII: I Am Concerned With Your Progress
Part XVIII: Cocoon
Part XIX: I'll Beetle You
Snow Chronicles 5: Just Add Spikes!



Part XX: I Am Having a Difference in Opinion
Part XXI: Monstrous Sympathy
Part XXII: Secret Pharmaceuticals
Snow Chronicles 6: Stocking Up For Winter



Part XXIII: I Am Not Listening
Part XIV: I Am a Shadow, The True Self!
Snow Chronicle 7: The Tiniest Update to Take a Month to Post



Part XXV: I Am a Mid-Boss
Part XXVI: There Was a Hole Here...
Part XXVII: And They Were Never Heard From Again...
Part XXVIII: Tiger Uppercut
Part XXIX: To Zanarkand
Snow Chronicle 8: Armored Core



Part XXX: I Am Covered in Feces
Part XXXI: The Gate
Part XXXII: Counting Sheep
Part XXXIII: Monster Energy Drink
Part XXXIV: Luminous
Snow Chronicle 9: Shining Finger



Part XXXV: I Am Asking the Questions Here
Part XXXVI: The Keys to the World
Part XXXVI-2: Flight Club
Snow Chronicles 10: The Chronicles of Rhydderch



Part XXXVII: I Am Doing It Live!
Part XXXVIII: Odds and Ends
Part XXXIX: Planning For Retirement
Part XL: Rock the Dragon
Part XLI: Aeterna Explains It All
Part XLII: Chrono Break
Snow Chronicles 11: Everyone Left in the World



Part XLIII: I Am Questing on the Side
Part XLIV: Genesis
Part XLV: Diplomacy With Dingus
Part XLVI: Dragnarok
Part XLVII: Here Lies Kir. He Never Scored
Part XLVIII: Doom
Part XLIX: President Evil
Part L: Gearadia
Part LI: Eclipse
Part LII: Rebellion
Part LIII: A Tale of Two Dads
Part LIV: I Can’t Leave Without My Buddy Super Boss
Part LV: The Village of Heroes
Snow Chronicles 12: Final Log



Part LVI: I Am Ready to Finish This
Part LVII: I Am a Record



Part LVIII: I Am Alone
Part LVIX: I Am Setsuna


(Thanks Nimsant)

The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Jan 25, 2017

The Dark Id
Aug 13, 2005

Why
you
know
I
LOVE
THIS SHIT !!!!
[citation needed]


Part I: I Am the Tutorial




New Music: Beginning of the End


Welcome. Sorry, there’s no flashy introduction sequence. Just a somber piano piece and the title. By the way, I hope you all enjoy piano music! I am Setsuna’s soundtrack is composed entirely of just piano pieces. There’s some real good music but ehh… Your mileage may vary as to whether that music choice works. There are some bits where it absolute does and others where it feels like the scene is going to turn into a ragtime silent movie gag. But enough about that, let's begin...



We begin our tale taking a quiet, nighttime walk through the snow covered woods. At the time of the writing of this update, it’s the middle of one of the hottest summers in recorded history and my electric bill is being destroyed by constant air conditioning use. I wouldn’t mind trading places with this fellow for a bit…



Our late night stroll is interrupted by a tactical wetsuit clad man passing our field of vision, sending the entire base on alert and immediately jamming the radar. It’s gonna be one of those kinda days…



Or…

A bearded man with similar clothing to the first fellow wanders out from behind the trees…



I am Hapsper. I will be working with you on this mission.
*sheathes sword*
What is your name?



I am Setsuna, staying true to its old school RPG roots, allows us to rename our party members. Meet our main protagonist: Endir. We’ll be sticking with everyone’s default names, for better or worse. I like to stay traditional too. This game, being a RPG hearkening back to roleplaying games of old, is almost entirely text based. The only spoken dialogue is a few combat barks, which all remain in Japanese. So everyone will just use Endir’s name, instead of dodging around the altered title like certain other RPGs I could name…



Our mission is to recover a young girl who has been kidnapped by monsters. Your job will be to exterminate any monsters we encounter along the way. Once we are done, I shall return the girl to our client. Of course…
*takes a few steps and turns back* If she is still alive, that is. Let us begin right away… Are you ready to go?



Endir here is basically a silent protagonist. But he will often be asked questions, of which we can select the response. So he’s clearly saying those lines. I’ll go ahead and spoil that 99.9% of the time, these choices absolutely do not matter and will only alter the immediately following dialogue for a couple lines, before the conversation proceeds as intended. A game with deep moral choice and complex, branching storylines this ain’t.

Usually the choices are Endir just blandly going along with whatever or being a bit of a dick about going with whatever. I don’t think you need to ask which conversation choices I’ll be making in this case.

You need to ask?



Of course, I won’t be getting involved in the combat… except in an advisory capacity. It’ll be a good chance for me to see your ability! Come on, let’s go.



And with that, Hapsper runs off ahead leaving us in control. Our only available action is following behind. The first item of note is that Endir will leave a lovely trail in the snow as he runs through deeper patches. Clumps of snow will also shake free from tree branches as Endir bounds by as well. I am Setsuna does snow really well. I hope you enjoy snow environments because umm… that’s the VAST bulk of the game’s locales!

As we run ahead a few paces, we come upon Hapsper stopped up ahead. Let’s see what’s crackin’ with our non-combatant companion.



Time to get to work, Endir. Ready to go?
Wait a minute.
…You want me to fight that? It is… a penguin. Like a cute tubby little penguin. I was hired to slay monsters, not mascot characters.
A puny foe, but you can never be too careful… If you approach without it noticing, you should be able to strike first.
It is literally looking right at us...
Details.




Welcome to our first tutorial. You ever played Chrono Trigger? Guess what, this game’s battle system is A WHOLE LOT like Chrono Trigger. Though I don’t think gaining initiative depending on where enemies were facing was mechanic. All encounters play out on the field. There’s no separate battle field zone.



The battles themselves work on an ATB Gauge. If you’re interested in this game, you’ve almost definitely played an RPG with an ATB gauge. A little meter builds up. When it’s full we can select an action. Enemies work the same way, though their gauges are hidden. The ATB can be set to Active, where the gauges, both ally and enemies, are ALWAYS filling. Or Wait, where everyone’s ATB will pause when navigating menus or playing out attack animations. I usually just use Wait, which is the default.



Here it comes!
…Really making me do this, huh?


New Music: No Turning Back
(You should probably listen to the default battle theme.)



Alright, time for our first battle against the fearsome… Pengy. I cannot say there is much to it, given it’s the “we’re assuming you’ve never touched a RPG before” school of hit Attack to Attack school of tutorials.



Enemies can and will scurry about the field during battle. Unfortunately, our protagonist is locked in place unless he takes a special action which is currently not available. Spacing and enemy placement is important in I am Setsuna. But, that’s a bit advanced for this course.



After 2-3 hits, Pengy is sent to the great big mascot character marketing center in the sky. Mission: Penguin Pulverizing is a success! :toot:


New Music: Astounding Victory






At the end of every battle, the entire active party receives some experience points, regardless of whether they actually did anything or not. Which is nice. We’re also almost always dumped with an assortment of items. Item drops in Setsuna are… a bit weird. But we’ll get to that later.

Music ends…



Let’s head on. *walks off*
*frown* …It didn’t even fight back. It just walked in circles.



You know what, let’s just get the snow tracing elephant in the room out of the way early, eh?

Continuing further into the woods…



Use a tech to take them all out at once. You have spritnite stones on you, I presume?
*shrug* Spritnite? What?
I don’t do that kinda stuff on the job, guy. Gotta keep a clear head.
You mean to say you have never used spritnite? What astonishing natural talent you must possess… Equipping spritnite allows you to use techs. Try this stone out.



Special abilities, both physical and magical, fall under the banner of Techs. The first one Endir learns is Cyclone. Again… by chance, have you played Chrono Trigger? As this is the same exact ability titling and first attack Crono learns.



So during the course of Setsuna, we’ll be picking up different equipment for our characters which we can stick stones into in order to use different abilities. Equipment in this game is kind of strange and a bit backwards. But we don’t need to concern ourselves with that right now.



We do need to equip our spritnite (I look forward to typing this as spiritnite a bunch) in order to use our Techs. Which requires a bit of menu shuffling. There’s quite a bit to look at in the menu screen. But we’ll save all that for another day. We can learn that we’re apparently in the Hymncott Forest.





Spritnite can be equipped and unequipped from equipment at will. It’s pretty much Materia from Final Fantasy VII in that regard. There’s no cost to learn Techs or grinding to unlock ‘em. Endir is now just good to go with Cyclone.


Music: No Turning Back




Now for the battle at hand. Endir is faced with TWO Pengys. Pengies? Pengi? I’m not certain. There’s two penguins pissed at our hero while completely ignoring the bearded old man just chilling out and bringing up power point presentations to teach us how to fight. Convenient.





Remember how I said enemy positioning matters? Cyclone strikes everything in a certain radius around the targeted foe. So if both of the chubby penguins are bunched up near Endir, he’ll strike them both with the attack. But if one were to have some weird pathing and wander off to the bottom right of the map, it would evade the blow. This doesn’t really matter when there’s just one character in the party, as all enemies will gang up on him. But monsters tend to spread out a bit more when we get a full party.



Techs all use MP. It’s the blue bar on the bottom. Green is our HP. Orange is the ATB bar. The snowflake is another mechanic we’ll see shortly.



As we add two more cutesy mascot character design creatures’ notches to our belt, you’ll notice we’ve gotten an “Exact Kill” on both of the enemies. Setsuna rewards players with different loot drops based on how they finish enemies. For instance, an Exact Kill means the killing blow drained the enemies HP to just about exactly zero. So if the enemy had 25 HP left and we did 26 HP of damage with the killing blow, that’s an Exact Kill since there’s a bit of leeway. I’ll go over the types of finishers later.

Music ends…



Come on. Let us hurry on.
*nods*



The two run off further into the woods. But Endir stops short upon noticing this strange ring of light.






What is this?
Hmm…? What is what?
This. The glowy thingy.
Sensed the presence of monsters further inside the woods, did you?
No… THIS thing. Right here. In front of us. The bunch of floating rings and the ground farting up some mystical energy. Are you not seeing this thing?
All the more reason for us to hurry on… *walks away*
Wait… No. But… The hell is this thing?! Hey! HEY! Oh… forget it.



So this is a save point. Hey, you see the very last couple lines in this tutorial. READ ‘EM CAREFULLY! This game is going so old school that it has neglected to make auto-saves. Which… No, Tokyo RPG Factory. gently caress off there. Nobody looks fondly back on losing hours of play because they neglected to save and they got wiped or the power went out or what have you. That poo poo sucks! It doesn’t help that this is also keeping with the old school aesthetic of no continues. A Game Over is a booting out to the menu.

I am Setsuna will make no further efforts to remind us to save. The onus of that is entirely on the player. When we reach the world map, we’ll be able to save again. Indeed, the world map is the primary place where the game can be saved. There are save points in the world. But they’re mostly reserved for the ends of dungeons, prior to a boss. Towns don’t have save points, non-dungeon but enemy filled regions rarely have save points. Indeed, I think the next actual in-game save point is a good 90+ minutes from now.

:siren: DO NOT FORGET TO SAVE YOUR GAME! :siren:

Endir follows Hapsper, saving his game diligently beforehand…



Although not for long, at this rate…



The team’s investigation of what appears to be the lost girl we’re rescuing is interrupted by a less than friendly sounding roar…


New Music: Deadly Gamble




MAN BEAR! And he is pissed we’ve been slaughtering his Pengy buddies frolicking about.



It doesn’t look like we’ll be getting out of here alive without defeating it…
Ah. So you’re pitching in this time?
No matter how powerful, every foe has its moments of weakness. You must seize such moments to strike!
…I’m noticing the emphasis on ME doing this. Again.



A couple more tutorials for us. Momentum Mode. This makes the ATB system a bit more interesting. There is a secondary gauge that fills when our ATB meter is full or when we attack/take damage. This allows us to do a timed button press to buff our attack. The timing is quite generous and there’s little reason not to use Momentum Mode whenever it’s available.



I couldn’t really tell you the specifics of this mechanic. What you read here is pretty much what you get. If the meter is full, we hit the Momentum button and something cool will happen! We don’t get a whole lot of control over it. There’s some RNG where it could buff the entire party involved. It’s kind of a vague, weird system. Super Mario RPG timed attacks this ain’t.




New Music: Relentless Advance




Now we have our first boss encounter: Jaboo the Manbear. Or Bearman. I’m not sure what they prefer to call themselves. Regardless, it’s a bear. It’s bad news by its very nature! Jaboo isn’t too tough of a customer given… you know, him being about fifteen minutes into the game. He’s got around 200 HP compared to the 50 or so of the penguin fodder we’ve been tackling. On the other hand, it’s pretty darn slow. Endir can usually take two turns for every single one the angry bear can take.



The Jaboo can claw Endir at close range from around 25 HP of damage. At least it says claw. The monster is clearly wearing massive gauntlets obscuring its claws. But details…



Additionally, the Tutorial Bear can grab Endir and bite him twice for 20+ HP each chomp. Though in this case, it managed to whiff once. C'mon bear. How do you whiff a bite? That's like your entire thing!



The Cyclone Tech works quite nice in shoving back Jaboo, who needs to lumber back to our position to attack with his close range melee abilities. Timing it right can let Endir get a third turn before the bear gets one go.





Additionally, we can try out that whole Momentum Mode thing. Assuming we have a spare Momentum Gauge filled, when performing the next action, a strip of lightning will appear above our character’s head. If we tap the attack button when that flashes on screen…





Our character will follow up with… something. In this case, Endir’s standard attack got a secondary sweep for near double damage. I’ll take it.



And that counted as a Momentum Kill to finish off this first boss. Yep, we’re done already. Assume there were a couple Cyclones and a few standard attacks thrown in before the beast was slain. It’s not like a tutorial fight is ever particularly flashy.





We also leveled up thanks to our slaying of the fearsome Jaboo. Leveling comes fairly fast and quick early game in Setsuna. Our stats are slightly buffed with each level. But the big thing is that all our HP and MP is restored with levels. Indeed, leveling up will be our primary means of restoring our characters for the first several hours of the game. It’s weird.

We also gain some new materials of unknown use. Sure, let’s just shove some bamboo and a beehive claw into our pockets. It’s fine. You never know when it may come in handy!


New Music: A Moment of Respite




Oh. Right. We should probably check on the girl we’re meant to be rescuing. I don’t think the pay is as good if they come back slightly bear-manhandled.



Huh? What’s…
You don’t need to worry now.
Umm… I…
! Th-The monsters! Where are the monsters!?
Do not worry... He took care of them.
At least you’re giving the right guy credit for doing all the work.
Oh… so… I’m safe… Thank you… But… why?
This is our job.
Your job?
That’s right. We are from a tribe of people who make their living as mercenaries. We came here because we were hired by your father.
Yeah, kid. So your college funds went right out the window and in our pockets after you got kidnapped by a bunch of penguins and a bear. I’m not even gonna ASK how that situation even arose…
I see… Thank you so much… I’ll… I’ll be able to see everyone again… Thank goodness. Thank you… Thank you so much…
*nods* Take this, Endir.



Gettin’ paid, son. Granted, we have no point of reference to know if this is a healthy sum of a reward or if we’re working fantasy minimum wage for our efforts.



*nods*
This had better be like a 20/80 split here, old man. Combat pointers or not, the effort spent in this gig was not equal.
It’s what was agreed to.
I’m a little fuzzy on that negotiation.

It is time for us to go our separate ways, Endir. I shall take this girl back to her father. Take care, Endir.
Yeah, alright. Say, if anyone back at the village asks… just tell them the part about how I wrecked the bear dude. You can leave out all the little penguin guys that barely fought back. That kinda just… I mean. Dilutes the heroic narrative, eh?
Worry not. Nobody wants to hear about any random encounters in the first place.

*nods and walks off*

Hapsper begins to follow the girl but stops after a few paces…



How long do you plan on staying in this line of work?
*shakes head* I’ve never even thought about it.
I *did* just learn how to spin with my sword. That’s gonna open a lot of exciting new career opportunities in this field...
How strong you are, Endir… Even if some very difficult decisions are forced upon you, I am sure you will prevail. Please treasure your time.



And with that, Hapsper departs along with the girl. Welp. Mission done. But our evening in the woods is not quite over…


New Music: Feeling of Unease




When a man wanders out from the darkness of the woods with music like that, I feel like you should draw your sword. But that’s just me.



Were I a foe, I would have already attacked you from behind, would I not? Not that I think there is any way I could possibly defeat a swordsman of your caliber, of course…
*sheathes sword*
Just so we’re clear, I noticed you coming. You try anything and you’re NOT getting that full ATB gauge at the start.
…Noted.




I have a mission I would like to ask you to complete on behalf of my master.
And you think I’ll accept, do you?
*nods* Yes, I believe so. You will see through any mission, no matter how arduous… That is what I have heard.
I’m listening.
Just off the coast of the mainland there is a small isle, and on that isle there is a small village… In that village, there is a young girl who shall turn 18 years old this year. My mission for you, Endir…





And that concludes the prologue of I am Setsuna. A mysterious man tasks our mercenary protagonist with giving the gift of assassination to a young woman for her birthday. What could possibly go wrong?







Endir Official Art – The two-tone neon ponytail really brings the whole design together.



Pengy Render - D'aww. Look at this goofy little dude Endir gutted multiple times.



Jaboo Render - Upon closer inspection, this guy has a few more problems than being a dopey tutorial bear.




Video: I am Setsuna Opening Credits

The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Aug 28, 2016

Materant
Jul 22, 2010

see, what you don't understand is he now has

THE MANLIEST MUSTACHE

it defies physics


Nice choice. I liked I am Setsuna, though I didn't really stick with it for long. Looking forward to seeing how the game plays out.

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

That random battle theme really isn't working for me.

AlphaKretin
Dec 25, 2014

A vase to face encounter.

...Vase to meet you?

...

GARVASE DAY!

Huh, I can't say I was expecting this for your next LP. Good to see you doing a game you don't mind for once. I'm interested in this game, but not enough so to pay the asking price for a reportedly mediocre game.

Galaga Galaxian
Apr 23, 2009

What a childish tactic!
Don't you think you should put more thought into your battleplan?!


Heard a lot of "this game is good" "no it isn't" talk about this in the steam thread, but not a lot of details, so this should be interesting to watch.

And funny that, I just got done reading your Nier LP after a friend linked it cause I was curious why he was so excited for Platinum's announcement. Good stuff that was!

The Dark Id
Aug 13, 2005

Why
you
know
I
LOVE
THIS SHIT !!!!
[citation needed]
Whoops. Correction. This is the main random battle theme. (Keeping track of which musical track is which is remarkably difficult when they're all the same instrument, as it turns out!)


New Music: No Turning Back

The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Aug 22, 2016

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

The Dark Id posted:

(Keeping track of which musical track is which is remarkably difficult when they're all the same instrument, as it turns out!)


Reminds me of trying to keep track of a bunch of old chants for a music class back in the day.

Galaga Galaxian
Apr 23, 2009

What a childish tactic!
Don't you think you should put more thought into your battleplan?!


The Dark Id posted:

Whoops. Correction. This is the main random battle theme. (Keeping track of which musical track is which is remarkably difficult when they're all the same instrument, as it turns out!)


New Music: No Turning Back


Well, various pieces of this remind me of several different songs whose names and origins I can't remember, but its basically a scattered dose of musical deja vu.

Rirse
May 7, 2006

by R. Guyovich
Oh cool, I did enjoy this game from what I played so I am glad to see you LP it.

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


I think this LP should come with a Trigger Warning! :commissar:

Sorry, had to get that out of my system. About how long is this game?

Woodbeam
Dec 30, 2012

The Dark Id posted:



Endir Official Art – The two-tone neon ponytail really brings the whole design together.

Jeez he's lanky.

Also a cat person, if the ears and eyes mean anything.

edit: whoops.

Woodbeam fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Aug 22, 2016

Arsonist Daria
Feb 27, 2011

Requiescat in pace.
I heard about this in the giant bombcast a few weeks back. Apparently it's, yeah, a lot like Chrono Trigger, but one of the biggest differences is the tone is a hell of a lot more heavy and serious than CT. Still curious about the game, but what I'm really nostalgic for about CT is that I got to fight alongside a frog knight and a robot with rocket punches.

SOLarian
Oct 29, 2012
Pillbug
I agree with you that CT was (at least one of) the best RPG of all times, so I will definitely follow this thread. I'm also curious what sort of avatars this will generate for TDI. Got to keep the tradition running :allears:

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

Lumberjack Bonanza posted:

I heard about this in the giant bombcast a few weeks back. Apparently it's, yeah, a lot like Chrono Trigger, but one of the biggest differences is the tone is a hell of a lot more heavy and serious than CT. Still curious about the game, but what I'm really nostalgic for about CT is that I got to fight alongside a frog knight and a robot with rocket punches.

That's because this is FFX dressing up like Chrono Trigger, apparently.

Augus
Mar 9, 2015


The piano music is nice and all but it seems like it would wear thin after a while in a 20+ hour RPG. How much of the same instrument could you take?

The gamplay may be a clone of Chrono Trigger but the tone sure as hell doesn't seem to be. Unless the girl you're going to kill turns out to be a talking frog who wields a sword and speaks in ye olde proper English and then a giant robot joins your party just for the hell of it and helps you fight against the dinosaur empire. Man, Chrono Trigger had the best JRPG story ever.

Hargrimm
Sep 22, 2011

W A R R E N
Well, if there's two things Chrono Trigger is known for, it's the single-instrument subdued score, and the single-biome monotonous environments. Looks like the RPG Factory is off to a great start trying to bring back CT's spirit! I hope the story turns into something interesting at least.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
I've heard of this game, but wasn't really interested to play it myself. Gonna see what I'm missing out on through this LP.

Fabulousvillain
May 2, 2015
I do like the Piano only music in for music in video games, usually when it's just that one song for that one level/boss/section. Not sure about a whole soundtrack though, it sounds good so far.
As far as the game, I'm reading this completely blind. I just hope it's not something that kills me slowly inside like that one game I forgot the name of.

Gnome de plume
Sep 5, 2006

Hell.
Fucking.
Yes.
I'm sure this assassination gig will be carried without any unexpected obstacles, revelations, changes of heart, betrayals or future repercussions popping up.

Mega64
May 23, 2008

I took the octopath less travelered,

And it made one-eighth the difference.
I've been interested in trying this out but kinda put off by the price, so I'm looking forward to this LP partly to see if I'd enjoy it.

I like how so far it's just Chrono Trigger except instead of time travel you murder penguins and teenage girls.

Qrr
Aug 14, 2015


Sweet, new TDI LP!

Doesn't seem to be much to say about the game yet. That sure was a tutorial. I'm confident that everyone here knows exactly what a spirtnit is and will never have any trouble spelling it.

Blackunknown
Oct 18, 2013


And so a new TDI thread rises. I am looking forward to this, the fact that it's not the abomination that was the game that shall not be named from the last thread, fills me with hope that TDI won't go crazy from overexposure to bad games.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer

Woodbeam posted:

Also a cat person, if the ears and eyes mean anything.
That or it's an extremely silly helmet and he's really Batman.

Llab
Dec 28, 2011

PEPSI FOR VG BABE
The cropped image TDI uses for dialogue did not prepare me for how goofy the rest of the ensemble looks. It's still a bit better than Tidus' outfit. I hope everyone else is just as bad as dressing themselves.

HR12345
Nov 19, 2012
Welcome back, Id.

Black Mage Knight
Jan 25, 2012

stop biting my cape

Hargrimm posted:

Well, if there's two things Chrono Trigger is known for, it's the single-instrument subdued score, and the single-biome monotonous environments. Looks like the RPG Factory is off to a great start trying to bring back CT's spirit! I hope the story turns into something interesting at least.

Yeah, this game is pretty much Chrono Trigger in gameplay only. Everything else about it is not even trying to be like CT, which while I do love CT, I actually kinda like that about this game.

Really, I feel that is the biggest problem with the marketing for the game. It tried to sell itself as a spiritual successor to CT, which it kinda is in gameplay alone, but CT is the sum of all of its parts. So when this game is a bit of an unrelenting downer in tone, people going into it will of course be taken aback. All that said though I really like what they are going for with this game. It uses the core gameplay of CT because it still is a really fun game, and then departs from there to be its own thing.

Black Mage Knight fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Aug 22, 2016

ManSedan
May 7, 2006
Seats 4
I've read this game is largely, if not entirely in snowy cold regions and I think that's really cool.

Harrow
Jun 30, 2012

ManSedan posted:

I've read this game is largely, if not entirely in snowy cold regions and I think that's really cool.

It is, and the soundtrack is about 99% solo piano. The only exceptions I noticed are battle themes (which have some percussion and sometimes a second piano).

I have plenty of complaints about this game, but the soundtrack is brilliant the whole way through.

Augus posted:

The piano music is nice and all but it seems like it would wear thin after a while in a 20+ hour RPG. How much of the same instrument could you take?

The gamplay may be a clone of Chrono Trigger but the tone sure as hell doesn't seem to be. Unless the girl you're going to kill turns out to be a talking frog who wields a sword and speaks in ye olde proper English and then a giant robot joins your party just for the hell of it and helps you fight against the dinosaur empire. Man, Chrono Trigger had the best JRPG story ever.

I'm not sure when the "spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger" comparisons started coming up in the marketing, but yeah, they are not favorable to Setsuna. Its similarity to Chrono Trigger is in the combat alone. Everything else owes much larger debts to other, non-Chrono JRPGs.

Sometimes I forget how legitimately brilliant Chrono Trigger is. I think, "yeah, it's good, but how good could it really be? It's probably nostalgia making it seem so great." Then I replay it and I go, "oh, right, it's loving brilliant."

Harrow fucked around with this message at 14:51 on Aug 22, 2016

Bufuman
Jun 15, 2013

Sleep in the briefing room.
At your own peril.
Oh poo poo, I WOULD see this in my Twitter feed right when I should be going to sleep for my evening shift tonight. I really should just save it for later and go to sleep anyway.

...Eh, Red Bull and 5-Hour Energy Drinks are both things, so gently caress it, I can at least read this first update. :allears:

kalonZombie
May 24, 2010

D&D 3.5 Book of Erotic Fantasy
All this game really ever did for me was make me want to play Chrono Trigger again. I'm not a fan of the materia-like spritnite system they have, but the momentum thing is a cool addition to a system I otherwise felt like should have died with the SNES.

Also gently caress no autosaves. I once lost an hour and a half of progress because of a surprise boss that did a party wipe on me.

Harrow
Jun 30, 2012

kalonZombie posted:

All this game really ever did for me was make me want to play Chrono Trigger again. I'm not a fan of the materia-like spritnite system they have, but the momentum thing is a cool addition to a system I otherwise felt like should have died with the SNES.

Also gently caress no autosaves. I once lost an hour and a half of progress because of a surprise boss that did a party wipe on me.

I really liked the momentum system. That and the music were my favorite parts.

I was a little disappointed with how spritnite turned out, but that discussion can wait until later in the LP, I think, when people who haven't played have a clearer picture of how the whole skill system plays out.

Gologle
Apr 15, 2013

The Gologle Posting Experience.

<3
I'm already 5'ing this thread as hard as I can.

U-DO Burger
Nov 12, 2007




I am really loving that random battle theme, but I can imagine the constant piano in the rest of the game gets annoying after awhile

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
Oh boy, this game already? Nice. Haven't played much but I can echo a whole bunch of points here.
Something that can't really be understated is that this game nails it's aesthetic like woah. I actually swore at the game when I noticed some details that look, really freakin' good. The color palette can leave something to be desired but it fits the theme and tone of the game as a whole so I consider it a subjective complaint.

One thing to note is that this tutorial is mandatory and takes like, 15 minutes. Compared to Chrono Trigger where the 'tutorial' is optional and takes like 5-6 minutes tops, supplemented by the first chunk of gameplay being designed to ease you into the systems as a whole. First big hint that everything CT in this game is mostly going to be systems and music.

Black Mage Knight posted:

Yeah, this game is pretty much Chrono Trigger in gameplay only. Everything else about it is not even trying to be like CT, which while I do love CT, I actually kinda like that about this game.
Not quite true actually, this game does borrow/reimagine a lot of music from Chrono Trigger which I feel is to it's detriment. I Am Setsuna has some good tracks but some of the ones you hear the most are cribbed pretty directly from Trigger and it makes the effort put into this game seem transparent.

U-DO Burger posted:

I am really loving that random battle theme, but I can imagine the constant piano in the rest of the game gets annoying after awhile
The battle theme is one of the worst tracks in the game because it's Chrono Trigger's, only without everything that made CT's battle theme amazing. (Soft Piano instead of Faux Guitar really ruins the energy and hype. As does the slower tempo.)

Sylphosaurus
Sep 6, 2007
Despit the colourblind outfit I have to give our boy some points for being metal enough to use a monsters ears and hands as a cap.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Nobody mentioned yet that penguins and polar bears don't belong in the same hemisphere? :colbert:

Penguins do seem like an odd choice of wandering mook, though. They're about as non-threatening as you can get.

U-DO Burger
Nov 12, 2007




EponymousMrYar posted:

The battle theme is one of the worst tracks in the game because it's Chrono Trigger's, only without everything that made CT's battle theme amazing. (Soft Piano instead of Faux Guitar really ruins the energy and hype. As does the slower tempo.)

CT's normal battle theme wasn't that great tbh. Actually most of Mitsuda's normal battle themes aren't anything to write home about. He's generally pretty good at boss themes though

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NeruVolpi
Apr 23, 2016
Shouldn't the main character be called....Gundam?:suicide:

This game seems very nostalgia based and stuff. But auto saves os something that should be patched. Moreover if the Save points are spaced out.

Hungry for more, Id!

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