Square Enix Has Absorbed 'I Am Setsuna' Developer Tokyo RPG Factory

This was coming a mile away, I liked their games but "average" games have a hard enough time selling on their own..

I honestly think the golden era of HD 2D may have already passed. If I'm wrong, I just want Tactics. There's literally a million games like it but nothing like it.

I know their games were always all seen to be average at best but I really did enjoy them, especially Lost Sphear and Oninaki. Setsuna is my least favourite of the three. I've actually only just finished Oninaki, and I was so much more engaged and impressed with it than I had expected to be following all the 'meh' reviews it got back in 2019.

Oh boy, can't wait to see how many employees get laid off! /s

@Tasuki It has always been a subsidiary of SE. This isn’t much of a change.

It was a small team and their output was pretty small. These kind of games will probably continue to be made within Square, and if anything their output should speed up because they will probably have a bigger team in a sense now.

The Tokyo RPG Factory name is gone, but not the soul, so I don't mind this to much. Heard their games were average, but they have an audience and I can't see Square completely abandoning that audience, even with how disorganized the company is.

Thought they were always owned by Square. Probably Square couldn't find a buyer so they're just dissolving them.

@KeeperBvK yeah, but in the context of SE also saying they were going to focus on bigger projects, it's worrisome.

Their games were well made but the characters and writing fairly generic and mid.. I am Setsuna was pleasant but got boring. Lost Sphear was decent & I'd 100% recommend on a good sale. Oninaki I never played and may be in the bowels of my wishlist awaiting deep sale. Shame about the dev being absorbed like Majin Buu or even devoured like Kenjaku, never to be seen again. Hopefully this means positive things for the workers because themre is absolutely some real talent there. Hopefully something positive comes out of this for the workers and their works. We'll see.

I fell off Setsuna after a few hours. I suppose I wanted to like it more than I actually did. I did like the look though, and I still like the idea of their type of games; hope there’s still a place for them.

I can't wait for them to release their new game, 'I Am NFTuna.'

@KeeperBvK yeah, sounds more along the lines of when Bamco "absorbed" Banpresto and Namco Tales Studio.

Having played I am Setsuna for 2 hours, I think it's a fortunate name. RPG "Factory". Setsuna wasn't really a creative rpg, more like something that would come out of factory than an atelier.

I really enjoyed i am setsuna, chrono trigger combat, gorgeous visuals and music, the story and character were a bit by the numbers, and story felt a bit more low key than some of the bigger epic ffs etc but just had something about it, and that ending...saw it coming but still sad if you saw it through.

They should have given them bigger budgets instead.

If this and endless FF7 spin-offs are SE’s new direction, count me out.

Man, I was just talking about how I was expecting this a couple weeks ago. One of the rare cases where I hate to be proven right. I just happened to buy I Am Setsuna's soundtrack yesterday too, along with a few others. There are some truly beautiful piano pieces in there, and somehow a combined feeling of melancholy and warmth throughout the whole thing. I still haven't gotten around to grabbing Oninaki, so I guess now I'll have to just so I can say I played every one of their games.

Well hopefully everyone involved can take their growth to new internal projects.

@deecas Oninaki was definitely a game where you could tell if a reviewer finished it or not!

I thoroughly enjoyed their first three games, so I was looking forward to their next title. Maybe this means we'll get more games from the team with the full support of SQEX from now on?

I really enjoyed all three of those games!

I’ve occasionally googled this team in anticipation for what was next over the last (geezus) half decade.

I Am Setsuna was interesting but lost steam eventually, and I missed Lost Sphear entirely, but Oninaki was so good that I felt the studio finally was heading towards greatness.

And now we are here :/