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Review: I Am Setsuna Is A Classic JRPG Throwback

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Nostalgia is the word and the state of pop culture right now. I’m totally digging it. We have all kinds of expansions of movies, comics, music and games that call back to the 80’s and 90’s. If you stepped out of a time machine from the future right now, you would have to check your flux-whoozatwirl to make sure you were in the right decade. One of my favorite things about my nostalgic thoughts are all the classic RPG’s I used to play. It looks like I wasn’t the only one thinking about those either. Square Enix and Tokyo RPG Factory have released a classic turn-based RPG called “I Am Setsuna” that is an almost perfect way to revisit your long lost RPG adventures.

“I Am Setsuna’s” story picks from different story elements of classic JRPG games. The setting is a depressing one. The character you play as is tasked with traveling to a nearby village in order to assassinate a young girl named Setsuna. Once you arrive, you discover that the girl is an important character in the world that is destined for a sacrifice during a ceremony. This sacrifice forces demons out of the area for a limited time, until the next sacrifice is required. Recently the area has become infested with demons and their numbers only seem to be growing.

Setsuna understands her destiny and is perfectly ok with giving herself up for the greater good. Once your character hears this he agrees to be a guard and help escort her to the sacrificial ceremony.

Along the way, you meet a cast of characters that join your group and assist in delivering Setsuna to her final destination. As you would expect from this sort of RPG, the world is full of twists, turns and the like.

The game takes place in a desolate world covered in snow. And when I say covered I mean it is everywhere. If this were “Game of Thrones,” the tagline would be “Winter done come!” While the snow scape does help to cement the idea of how cold and desolate the world is, it also becomes a very boring thing to look at. From screen to screen, all of it begins to look the same. There are small chunks of time where you visit dungeons that kind of breaks up the monotony. Overall though, there is too much of the same thing from area to area when it comes to snow. Boring. white. snow. 

The combat system is a mirror of a hybrid “Final Fantasy VI” and “Chrono Trigger.” They aren’t trying to be vague about that fact either. Some spells and combo attacks are named after some from the before mentioned games. Combat is a turn-based, three party system. It consists of dealing out attacks while trying to heal and protect members of your part from dying. There is nothing groundbreaking, but that isn’t what we came here for is it? This is a classic JRPG with everything that you loved about them built right inside.

Abilities can be equipped and switched out to allow for variety in attacks. You acquire special abilities by collecting materials and selling them to a merchant. Weapons can be purchased and reinforced in order to give them special perks. None of the mechanics are going to be anything new but it does offer one hell of a breath of fresh and nostalgic air.

I’m hoping to see more of these sorts of games from Tokyo RPG Factory. I’m hoping for larger games with a larger variety of landscapes. The magic is definitely there and should be developed to give us more of the same with added bonuses.

I’m a fan of “I Am Setsuna.” It was hard to pull myself away from, I enjoyed the blast from the past. I’m interested to see what younger gamers think about it without the hindsight of the nostalgia factor goggles.

…offer one hell of

a breath of fresh

and nostalgic air.

Setsuna offers a great story full of emotional highs and lows along with some memorable characters. It borrows from all the right games to make all the right mechanical decisions. You get exactly what you pay for in both playtime and RPG elements. It was also a nice break from from first person shooters and 3rd person adventure. My eyes are going to be on Tokyo RPG Factory in the coming years to see what is next.

“I Am Setsuna” is available on PS4 Vita and Steam.

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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