Feb 122016
Ikenie to Yuki no Setsuna (Setsuna of Snow and Sacrifice), or “Project Setsuna,” as it was referred to at E3, is one of my most-anticipated games of 2016.
It’s being developed by Tokyo RPG Factory, a new studio created by Square Enix specifically to create new RPGs. Setsuna is an old-school, turn-based RPG, and so far it looks fantastic.
New footage was recently shown, so let’s see what we can learn.
Now, I don’t know Japanese, so they might say all sorts of things about the game I can’t pick up on. Just looking at the footage, though, fills me with excitement.
First, it looks like there are at least 6 party members. I assume the one in the lead is the mercenary, I think the red-haired one is Setsuna, and I know there are characters named Kuon (the hooded one?) and Yomi (dark-haired guy?). I don’t know who the others are.
Three are in the party at a time, and all three appear on the world map. We need more classic RPG overworlds, and best of all, they show off an airship! I love flying around a world map in an airship.
With the airship, they show off a bit of the world map. Mainly snow. Some fans are afraid this means the setting won’t be too varied. Snow is in the title, so it might show up a lot.
It looks like enemies appear on the screen, rather than random encounters. It has an active-time battle turn-based system, like in Chrono Trigger and many Final Fantasy games. Your position on the battlefield also affects your attacks.
I believe the snowflake gauge that builds during battles is the Setsuna gauge, which adds additional effects to your attacks through timed button presses. I remember something about combination attacks, too, like in Chrono Trigger. It looks like an example of that at 13:06.
Since I can’t read their dialogue, I don’t have a good sense of the characters or story. My only fear for Project Setsuna is that it might have a scaled-back story. I want it to be just as epic as, say, Final Fantasy VI! The gameplay, though, looks pretty solid. This might be enough to convince Square Enix turn-based RPGs aren’t outdated.
Ikenie to Yuki no Setsuna will be released in Japan next week (February 18) for the PS4 and PS Vita. We should know more about it then. Localization is planned for sometime in 2016.
What do you think about Project Setsuna based on this new footage?
---If you want posts like this delivered straight to your inbox, enter your email in the box below to subscribe!