Revisiting I Am Setsuna: A good idea that loses steam near the end.
TL;DR: It's fine if you just have an itch for a "throwback" RPG that has a decent (but poorly told) story, and don't mind an excessive amount of unavoidable battles.
We had beaten this game at some point. "Some point" because the memory fails on exactly when that was. According to Steam this was the first time playing; so it may have been on another console. But by the time the credits rolled we distinctly recall the experience end-to-end, and knew exactly where to go at points.
The bottom line of Setsuna - without spoiling - is that "something" is wrong with the world that requires Sacrifices to keep it in check. However...near the end of the game, you'll learn something rather surprising around the true reason for Sacrifices, then reach an ending (the only 'real' ending) that results in a Sacrificial event anyway.
But here's the problem.
The first 25% of the game is intriguing but largely meaningless and unexplained by the last 25%; then the last 25% is in of itself fascinating but poorly told. The plot twist is just suddenly revealed to you, and taken in stride rather than resulting in more reaction from the crew.
It's also telling that this game clearly gave inspiration to the story used in "Tales of Aionios" (named elsewhere as Xenoblade Chronicles 3) because the last 50% of the game is basically the same thing as that game, minus the campy, over-the-top villains.
I Am Setsuna is essentially a game of multiple fate-based threads where one thread has changed things and created an opportunity.
So why not recommended?
❌ Too many battles that simply cannot be avoided. Way too many.
❌ By the time you get a form of true fast travel there's not really much left to do story-wise. This isn't like Final Fantasy VI where the airship basically opens up not only the main world but later the World of Ruin and both are integral to the story progression.
❌ No English dub. Obviously some people hate English dubs and that's fine - but for the price asked, there's no excuse.
❌ Significant amounts of backtracking.
❌ The plot twist could and should have been handled way better.