A trailer for Tokyo RPG Factory’s (I Am Setsuna) newest game, Lost Sphear, appeared on both the official Nintendo YouTube channel and the official PlayStation YouTube channel on May 30.
Solemn music plays in the background of the trailer as the words “What if those that you loved… vanished” appear on the screen. It cuts to what appears to be a child telling a group of warriors, or what is assumed to be some of the main characters, that his mother has mysteriously vanished and turned into mist. The music intensifies as the audience sees the group of main characters standing on some sort of aircraft, as character Kanata says “Okay… I’m ready now. With all our strength combined, it’s time… it’s time to bring back the world!”
The audience then is shown some of the settings of the game, including grass islands with roaring rivers, abandoned ships, and a darkened city. Some of the RPG-style combat is shown, with an “Attack,” “Skills,” and “Items” option available for one of the characters as Kanata slashes down a large group of enemies. The trailer finishes with a town seemingly coming out of oblivion, with the words “In order to rescue the world fading to oblivion… the beautiful, cold moon must shine upon fate” appearing on the screen before it fades into black, with the Lost Sphear logo being displayed.
The game shows the story of a boy named Kanata, whose hometown has mysteriously disappeared after he woke up from a nightmare. He will go on an adventure, with the help of his friends, to stop the world from disappearing in its entirety by using Memory to turn “thoughts into matter” according to the official Lost Sphear PR announcement posted on Nintendo Life. The game will be published by Square Enix, who were recently involved in controversy over the future of the Hitman franchise.
The developers of Lost Sphear, Tokyo RPG Factory, also created I Am Setsuna, another JRPG sold exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. It seems that the two games are similar in its combat systems, both having the same options as shown on the I Am Setsuna official website. The website further details that the JRPG style combat is inspired by Chrono Trigger, a JRPG released back in 1995.
I Am Setsuna is about a young girl with magical abilities who must be sacrificed to a monster terrorizing her home island and must go on an adventure to reach the sacrificial ceremony. The goal of both I Am Setsuna and Lost Sphear is to get players emotionally involved in its unique story and to ultimately tug on the heartstrings.
Hopefully, Tokyo RPG Factory will have better success with Lost Sphear in comparison to I Am Setsuna. Despite the mostly mixed to positive reviews in the U.S., the game did not sell well in its first week in Japan according to TechnoBuffalo. The company lost around $2.4 million last August due to the lack of attention for I Am Setsuna from the Japanese public.
I Am Setsuna received a score of 75 on Metacritic, and one review from Digital Chump says “Everything from the length of the game (around 25 hours), the battle system, difficult, art, music, characters — this has proven to be a treat of an experience for me and one I would happily recommend to any Switch owner.” Digital Chump gave the game a score of 90.
Lost Sphear will be released in early 2018 on the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC. There is no official release date as of yet. It will cost $49.99, according to the official Square Enix online store.
Featured image of Lost Sphear screenshot via Lost Sphear official website.
