I am Setsuna was one of the more high profile early arrivals on the Switch eShop, and now the aptly named Tokyo RPG Factory (with publishing by Square Enix) is getting closer to releasing its next game - Lost Sphear.
There's a new trailer to show us what this one will play like, including 'Vulcosuits' that'll add a bit more power to a team. Check it out below.
It's all about exploring the world and finding its lost memories facing "an ominous power that threatens the fabric of reality". It sounds dramatic, and is due out on 23rd January.
Comments 30
As if you guys report on this but did nothing on Xenoblade!
Looks good, but I do hope they evolve from Setsuna quite a bit here. The repeating piano music got old, and the same visual theme for the entire game got old. Everything felt "small", which is a similar complaint I have about Bravely Default. It felt like you went through the motions of "this type of area" then "this type of area" just a few little roads here or there, and then the next boss battle, then a few more roads, then a boss battle, and new towns were only seconds away. It never felt like I was on a long adventure, and it had REALLY weird difficulty spikes where trash mobs never represented challenge, but then you'd be thrust into a boss battle with no real chance to grind without warning, and the boss would be 300x harder than everything else you faced. It was an uneven experience that felt very shallow, yet the characters and script were excellent.
If they can take the design of Setsuna but really expand it into a "proper size" RPG with more diversity with a feeling that's more FF/DQ and less BD, it could be a huge winner indeed. I'll be importing physical again I suppose...
Then again, who am I kidding, it comes out after Skyrim, Xenoblade, and probably just before SMTV and DQXI. I haven't even put Rabbids on my radar yet as Splatoon 2, USFII with my new HRAP and Pokken are on the table...
I'd love more info on octopath traveler over here. stupid square
Definitely on my watch list
Isn't this a little like Dragon Ball Fusions in combat?
I want Switch version in Physical form !!
Please, SquareEnix.
Make it easy to buy from Japan to Indonesia.
Btw, should I pre-order when the date is already 23 Jan 2018 ?
@Radbot42 +1 To be honest, I can't shake off the generic feel of this game. But I'm really interested in Octopath
@crackafreeze Setsuna art style combined with a direct knockoff of the Great Chasm from the Bravely series.
Just like I am Setsuna this game is set to fail because of the super bland soundtrack, a real shame, but at least this time I know better.
Get a better composer and then we'll talk.
Will all of Tokyo-RPG's games look, feel, and sound the exact same? I've enjoyed I Am Setsuna, but I'd love for the games to evolve in some way other than mechanics and story.
@Expa0 The music for I Am Setsuna felt rather nice. It fit the mood of the everboding winter. However it doesn't work for this...
Pretty cool, but, what about Secret of Mana on Switch ):< ?
I guess it's too early to judge with only I am Setsuna and an unreleased title, but I hope Tokyo RPG Factory doesn't become another Kemco. Creating generic RPGs with below-average writing and only one or two interesting ideas that never gets fully fleshed out.
I might get this, just to hope I'm proven wrong.
Looks like 60fps to my eyes, but maybe thats a PS4 example. Honestly looks better than I Am Setsuna, although I'm currently enjoying that game for what it is. I'll probably buy Lost Sphear too, but I'm more anxious to hear about FFXV and DQXI on Switch.
@NEStalgia Think I'll ask for your review of this before picking it up. Does give me a nice Grandia 2 on Dreamcast vibe, I miss those days, when JRPG were still JRPG. You're correct about the competition though, I'll need to play XC2, NNK2 and DQXI before getting to this. So 2019 maybe. I don't know why 3 big huge JRPG have to come out so close together, the PS3 gen hardly had any after Eternal Sonata. White Knight Chronicles was a bit off. FFXIII was just so bad I didn't even play the 2 sequels.
No Xbox 1. Can't tell if this is sad or funny
Yes this is day one.
I'm excited for it, I am Setsuna though was not quite as epic as I expected did gave me a fun experience so I expect the same for this one as well.
Have my physical copy pre-order. SE is the only other publisher showing real love for the Switch.
@retro_player_22 @NEStalgia I was glad that Setsuna was a smaller, less epic game; it was nice not to have to dedicate 100+ hours of my time just to get some JRPG goodness.
On my list , but please keep those RPG's coming Square
@rjejr PS3 era was such a bleak era for RPGs overall. I'll chalk it up to X360 dominance. And Sony losing the narrative for a few years. Though the DS got all the RPGs anyway back then
But yeah, TRF seems to have the basics down of how to make a "real" JRPG in the classic sense. They just didn't nail the scope and scale last time. It felt like an "RPG abridged edition" where it hit all the elements as a checklist but they didn't feel weighty. Maybe after that success they're going to double down this time and flesh it out long form. It needs to be an adventure, rather than basically on rails.
@panurgejr Yeah I agree that the total length of the game doesn't need to be a 100hr epic to be a great game. But Setsuna felt "streamlined" rather than simply concise. I'd rather have a "short" game consist of one chapter that nails all the elements rather than one that has 10 chapters that races from "cornerstone to cornerstone" covering the elements one after another as a checklist without any real sense of adventuring or having a sense of free roam, instead getting boxed from one pre-determined location to the next. Bravely Default suffers from this as well despite being a 100+ hour epic (consisting purely of grinding.) Short's ok, especially if it's grind-free. But there's little depth beyond the window dressing.
Not to say Setsuna isn't a great game, but it feels like a facade rather than having full depth.
This may not be the best game ever, but the premise alone has sold me on it.
@NEStalgia "Maybe after that success they're going to double down this time and flesh it out long form."
A few years back on PS3 there was Rainbow Moon, a turn based RPG. They announced a sequel Rainbow Skies for Oct 2014. Still no sign of it, they've been saying "next year" or "this year" ever since. It's the Zelda model of game development. Anyway I Am Setsuna and this game reminded me of that.
Ok sorry its late, I'm tired, and I forgot what my point was.
I ain't buying anything from SE until these idiots learn how to spell
Decided to give I Am Setsuna another shot. As much as I like the music, it does kinda put me to sleep. Nothing fun about feeling tired while trying to play a video game. Sounds like the piano sticks around. Hope it is more upbeat. Oh, and the locales look better. The snow gets pretty stale and boring.
I have yet to finish I am Setsuna (I am close to finishing), as I kept being side-tracked with other games. But looking forward to this one anyway as I am Setsuna is a fantastic game.
@Parmesannn Yeah that's the thing with Setsuna, the snow, the mealncholy, the music, the whole experience feels kind of depressing and sleep inducing. The secret of the great RPGs was the soaring highs and crashing lows of mood. Maybe FF has been TOO meldramatic but even looking at DQ, it has some very happy joyous parts, and some sad/depressing parts. Setsuna just ran the depressing into the ground until you just got numb to it and ignored it, so it lost its emotional hook.
@NEStalgia Actually played through it over the weekend. And I was now turned off from the final bosses.
I get the point of the whole story, so I'll end the game there. Done. She and the others made the sacrifice. GG.
That's a really dumb mechanic to have the final bosses blow up after defeat to inevitably kill you. I hope Lost Sphear doesn't have a crap mechanic like that.
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