I Am Setsuna, “Inspired” By Chrono Trigger, To Be Released This Summer
If there’s any sound sweeter to a veteran gamer’s ears, it’s Square-Enix referencing Chrono Trigger when talking about the inspiration behind a new product. That product was previously known as Project Setsuna, but its new name I Am Setsuna will be what it’s sold as when it goes on sale for PS4 consoles, and digitally for PC, this summer.
If you followed the Japanese launch, you might notice that one machine is being left out of this list. Japan got a Vita version of I Am Setsuna; where’s ours? Director Atsushi Hashimoto was asked this question by Polygon, and while he didn’t deny the low adoption numbers for Vita played a role in its exclusion from localization, he said the game just works better with a larger screen 9as those dinky characters in the screenshot would suggest).
“I think the focus was leaning more toward that sense of immersion, being able to jump into the world on a larger screen. That’s one of the bigger elements that sort of drove that decision for the no Vita plan. Of course, there is the technical market aspect as well. Unfortunately the Vita market isn’t as large as the console and the PC-based [market] … that’s the sort of direction the team decided that they wanted to take for the U.S. release, was to rely on the players that are on the Steam platform as well.”
Polygon asked if Square still saw the Vita as a viable platform. Hashimoto laughed. That’s not good.
He followed with a backpedal: “We definitely see the Vita fans, and we acknowledge that there are very passionate fans out there, and we think it’s great. We do feel it’s a viable sort of platform. Of course, it’s just a matter of scale. We don’t mean to give you the impression that we feel that the Vita market is weak or anything; by no means do we want to make it seem like it’s any sort of inferior platform. It is a platform where there are very passionate fans that love the games that are on that platform.”
We should hear more about I Am Setsuna, possibly a specific release date, at E3. It’ll definitely be coming this summer; just don’t expect it to be portable.