I Am Setsuna, Part Two
Aug. 23rd, 2016 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI Am Setsuna is growing on me.
I'm still having trouble dealing with the soundtrack. There's a discordance between the pieces that seem to be performed by an amateur musician and the pieces that sound more like a traditional MIDI file played by the computer. There are a lot of variations on the same theme, which is strikingly close to "Epona's Song" from Ocarina of Time. The overworld music is kind of catchy, I suppose.
In addition, I'm still annoyed by the monotony of the landscape. The graphics are very pretty, but every time I enter a new area I'm like I bet it's going to be another snowy forest, and lo and behold it is. Almost all of the enemies have the same color palette of white and gray, with occasional touches of brown or blue. This makes them less lovable than they should be, because their designs are interestingly stylized and remarkably cute.
Despite the awkwardness of the music and the tedium of the graphics, the story is pulling me in. What I'm picking up on is that the events of the game were proceeded by one or more failed pilgrimages, and that multiple people have been at pains to cover this up. What's going on with these pilgrimages, and why is there a conspiracy surrounding this? There are small touches of darkness scattered throughout the game, especially in the dialog of the older named characters and NPCs. For example, some rando old dude at a way station says something completely out of nowhere about how "spatial distortions" have been getting worse over the past ten years. Spatial distortions? I'm intrigued.
Although I'm tempted to spend time grinding, I Am Setsuna employs the Earthbound style of power creep management that limits the characters' levels by means of raising the experience point threshold way above what enemies in a completed area can accommodate, thus forcing the player to move forward. I guess I'll just keep going, then.
I'm still having trouble dealing with the soundtrack. There's a discordance between the pieces that seem to be performed by an amateur musician and the pieces that sound more like a traditional MIDI file played by the computer. There are a lot of variations on the same theme, which is strikingly close to "Epona's Song" from Ocarina of Time. The overworld music is kind of catchy, I suppose.
In addition, I'm still annoyed by the monotony of the landscape. The graphics are very pretty, but every time I enter a new area I'm like I bet it's going to be another snowy forest, and lo and behold it is. Almost all of the enemies have the same color palette of white and gray, with occasional touches of brown or blue. This makes them less lovable than they should be, because their designs are interestingly stylized and remarkably cute.
Despite the awkwardness of the music and the tedium of the graphics, the story is pulling me in. What I'm picking up on is that the events of the game were proceeded by one or more failed pilgrimages, and that multiple people have been at pains to cover this up. What's going on with these pilgrimages, and why is there a conspiracy surrounding this? There are small touches of darkness scattered throughout the game, especially in the dialog of the older named characters and NPCs. For example, some rando old dude at a way station says something completely out of nowhere about how "spatial distortions" have been getting worse over the past ten years. Spatial distortions? I'm intrigued.
Although I'm tempted to spend time grinding, I Am Setsuna employs the Earthbound style of power creep management that limits the characters' levels by means of raising the experience point threshold way above what enemies in a completed area can accommodate, thus forcing the player to move forward. I guess I'll just keep going, then.
