Niche Corner: I am Setsuna

Platform: PS4, PC, Steam, Vita
Release Date: 7/19/16
Genre: JRPG

There is a lot of hype surrounding this game which is considered to be the spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger, a classic JRPG made from this publisher SquareEnix. As I perused the official website it even said that it's battle system was inspired by the game. They aren't even trying to be coy about the similarities lol. For those of you that don't know, the community has been clamoring for a sequel to Chrono Trigger and what we got was Chrono Cross. Chrono Cross was a great game in it's own right but not quite what people were looking for.

The story of I am Setsuna follows a girl aptly named Setsuna who was gifted with enchanted powers and chosen to be a human sacrifice to pacify a fiend. A mercenary was chosen to guard Setsuna and make sure she arrives to her destination and that's where the adventure begins.

The lastest trailer was shown off at E3 which I will link for you guys. From the video clip I can say that the art is beautiful. While the games graphics are more polished than the above mention title, its safe to say where the inspiration comes from. I am super excited for this game and can't wait to play it next month. I'll definitely keep you updated on any new information I find.

Until Next Time,

DreaPoetic

Sources:

Image:
http://d2.christiantoday.com/en/full/46139/i-am-setsuna.jpg

Youtube Clip:
https://youtu.be/4txT2EicrHE

Official Game Website:
http://www.iamsetsuna.com/us/

Final Fantasy 15: The Future of the Franchise or the Last Hurrah?

Platform: PS4, Xbox One, VR Compatible
Release Date: September 30th, 2016
Available both retail and digital download


The title sounds super bleak but in my heart of hearts that how I really feel about the franchise and the game as a whole. To catch everyone up who isn't familiar, Final Fantasy 15 (FF15) was formally known as Final Fantasy Versus before it was re-packaged into one of the numbered entries. This game has been in production for the last 10 years and is finally getting it's release on September 30th 2016. This game will also be the first game in the series to almost completely abandon the active turn based battle system in favor of a more action rpg like feel. This game is also set in a completely immersive and massive open world much like Witcher or Skyrim. And finally, but not really finally, this game has 4 male protagonists and no female characters to be a part of the main cast. We don't know if there will be a female guest NPC to play at some point but I guess we will see.

This game has so many red flags for me personally I don't even know where to start. To be fair, I am more of a traditionalist when it comes to rpgs. I love turn based combat and while I find some action rpgs enjoyable, for this series it almost immediately put me off. The creators released two different demos, FF15 Duscae and The Platinum Demo. I skipped the first one despite having brought Final Fantasy Type 0 to play it, but I did play the second demo because you can have the carbuncle join you in the game if you complete it. Who doesn't love a cute Carbuncle right? And the combat felt like Kingdom Hearts minus the Disney Property. Even the enemies looked like low level Heartless mobs from the game. 

Plenty of publications came to the same conclusion as I did about the feeling of the battle system. In Final Fantasy it's not like them to have a recycled idea. Some people could argue that the turn based battle system is nothing but a giant rehash but SE has always managed to make it fresh. I couldn't get past Final Fantasy 13 but the paradigm shift battle system was fluid and seamless. A lot of people didn't like the Junction System in Final Fantasy 8 but that was also a different take on turn based combat. I could state the battle system for all the entries I have played but this was glaring to me.

The next thing is the open world. Most of the older titles had an overworld map or something similar. Final Fantasy 12 was probably the one that had the most open world feel in comparison to Final Fantasy 10 or 13. I believe that I am personally suffering from Open World Fatigue, a term i'm borrowing from Colin Moriarty of Kinda Funny Games Podcast/Channel. The term basically means that most of the games that have emerged have so much open world, space etc that you can literally get lost in doing side quests or your own thing that you never finish the main campaign or you may complete it but it will be after sinking a gajillion amount of hours into a game. That's more like MMORPG territory which is fine if that is what you signed up for. It's definitely a more western gaming idea that the East has been trying to adopt for some fucking reason. Personally I like a self contained environment that does not overwhelm me the possibilities of what I could do but gives me the freedom to play how I like. Bottom line is that I payed for creators or someone to make the game and tell me a story. I don't need to "make" my own, but that's just me and plenty of people will disagree.

And probably my last issue is the amount of pomp and circumstance they are putting into its release. They have an anime, and prequel movie, some VR elements that look half baked and some more gimmicky stuff. I have never needed that to sell me on a Final Fantasy and I think most of the FF fanbase hasn't either. I'm worried that the lore of the game is going to be mixed in with all of the other media that a regular gamer won't be able to truly grasp the story without exploring it as well. And the story sounds like it has the making to be epic but its over exposure is almost like the big movies that spoil things with the trailers. The stories and game have always spoken for itself and I guess I'm concerned that all of this marketing hype is hiding that this game is another dud in the series.

I really want to love this game. I really want the game to do well. If this is the direction that the series is going then maybe I may need to face the music that this series is not for me anymore but either way, we will see in September. 

Until Next Time,

DreaPoetic

Source:

All images are property of SquareEnix

Persona 5 Gameplay Footage

Well since Persona 5 won't be coming stateside until Valentine's Day, I have continued to scour the internet for any news from E3 so lo and behold, Kotaku has answered my prayers. In an article posted yesterday on the website they managed to get some game play footage. If you're familiar with the series, all of this looks very reminiscent of Persona 3 and 4 but with way more polish. I can't wait to get my hands on it. I'll discuss my love of the Persona series in another post but for now join me in being jealous of our Japanese friends for getting this in September :(

Here is a link to the article on Kotaku:

http://kotaku.com/some-fresh-persona-5-gameplay-footage-1782004547

And here is a link to the trailer courtesy of YouTube, IGN and Atlus at E3 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3JkO-82YQ8

E3 2016 Has Begun

So E3 began this week and as far as RPG news goes I'm scouring the shows and news sites to see what's out there. I mainly own Sony Platforms and no Xbox One or Xbox Scorpio now, but I'll still post information about it if it applies.

So far the conferences have been kinda blah as far as presentation goes except for Sony that came with a live orchestra and nothing but game trailers. Sony decided to let the games speak for themselves but only a handful of them had release dates or real information about the actual game itself.

The Microsoft presentation may have been more lip service but at least they talked about actual games this year instead of how the Xbox One is a multimedia device.

This isn't my overall thoughts so I'll keep it brief. Square Enix is doing their show tonight and Nintendo is today as well. We shall see what else happens and if it's anything good I'll let yall know.

Until Next Time,

DreaPoetic