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Eternal Sonata
Platform: Xbox 360
A worthy 360 JRPG with a story that won’t leave any lasting impact on you and is over fairly quickly.
Review by Sirus
Eternal Sonata is a Japanese RPG set in a world that we are told exists solely in the dying dream of famous classical composer Frederic Chopin. Chopin is lying in his death bed dreaming away while people who care about him sit by his side waiting anxiously for the moment when he wakes up. A few times throughout the story we see advancements of this little sub-plot but nothing really happens. To further break up the flow of the game there are also short scenes at the end of most chapters that tell the story of what was going on in Chopin’s life when he composed the piece the chapter was named after. These portions consist of a slideshow of still pictures with text at the bottom of the screen and the piano piece playing in the background. While it is understandable why these scenes were put in the game, they were very distracting and broke up the flow of the game.
The game’s story set in Chopin’s dream follows Polka, a 14 year old girl with a terminal illness who wants to travel to speak with the count to have him get rid of the tax on floral powder. Along the way she is accompanied by two friends, Beat and Allegretto, who are thieves traveling for similar reasons. Frederic Chopin himself joins Polka early on as he tries to make sense out of the world that resides within his dream. There are a number of other characters who join the party at later points in the story. Some of them are interesting but they aren’t developed enough to get too attached. The story starts out strong and really seems like it’s going to be incredibly deep and engaging but it falls flat towards the end. Many of the goals set out in the beginning aren’t realized and the ending doesn’t make much sense. There is very little emotion towards the beginning of the game and at the very end and, in between, a lot of the scenes are lacking direction.
The gameplay in Eternal Sonata is a bit more consistent in its implementation although it tends to get repetitive fairly easily. The enemies you fight in the game are all visible on the field. You can gain an advantage by running into them from behind and can become surprised when they do the same to you. Getting advantage is even more important than in other games because players and enemies have the ability to block attacks but only when those attacks are coming from the front. When surprised, you start the battle with your backs to the enemy, allowing them to attack you without any chance of blocking.
On the left side of the battle screen there is an action bar that counts down as you move, attack, and use an item or skill. Each action takes a specific amount of time away from the bar so if you have to move a long distance before attacking, you won’t be able to attack as many times. Physical attacks, while weaker than the special attacks you have access to, allow you to build up echoes so you can dish out even more damage with your special attacks. The echo gauge goes up in multiples of eight. For each multiple of eight you have built up, the special attacks get more power.
Once you have built up either 24 or 32 echoes, the special attacks become much more powerful and are accompanied by a longer, flashier animation. There are some aspects of combat such as blocking and building echoes that aren’t available at the very beginning of the game. These need to be unlocked with an increase in party level. Defeating bosses at the end of chapters generally increases your party level. Increasing party level adds more functionality as well as speeding up the pace of combat.
To further complicate combat, each battlefield has areas that are in sunlight and areas that are in shade. Characters gain access to different skills depending on whether they are standing in the shade or the sun. Some enemies change forms completely when they move from one to the other. While this dynamic is interesting, most characters end up with a shadow skill and a light skill that function the same and only look a little different. Still, those who rely on healing skills in battle instead of items will find themselves keeping close to the light patches so they can heal when they need to.
One character in your party carries with him a large camera that you can use to take pictures of enemies. These photos are only useful to sell if you need money but taking a few high ranked pictures can give you enough money to last you for most of the game. The combat boils down to using physical attacks until the action bar is almost near the bottom, then letting off your special attacks. There isn’t anything to keep you from using special attacks constantly because characters don’t have any sort of magic gauge to deplete. In the end, while the combat can get repetitive, most regular battles are over fairly quickly and are kept interesting with the numerous things you have to micro-manage while fighting. Most regular enemies are fairly easy and, if you fight every enemy you come across, you won’t have very many problems defeating the game’s bosses. The biggest thing that keeps the game easy is the blocking, which once mastered, makes it really hard to die.
The graphics in Eternal Sonata are simply beautiful and filled to the brim with color. If you are tired of all the browns in next-gen games, this game will surely be easy on the eyes. The characters look especially beautiful with a next-gen cell-shading style that makes the characters look realistic while retaining that anime feel. The music in the game is a mixture of Motoi Sakuraba style and some Chopin pieces although the Chopin pieces are only used in a few cutscenes. The music doesn’t have any of the rock that Sakuraba has been doing lately and is instead filled with many beautiful orchestral and piano pieces. The voice acting is simply awesome. Every character’s voice fits them perfectly and there is plenty of emotion in the lines.
A simple run-through of the game will take 25-30 hours although there is a side dungeon that could add a bit more to that. Anyone who wants to get the achievements will have to play through the game two times and you would probably want to use a walkthrough so you don’t miss anything either time. Eternal Sonata is a good JRPG for 360 that will satisfy JRPG fans looking for a fix but the story will probably remind any casual player why they don’t like JRPG stories.
Platform: Xbox 360
A worthy 360 JRPG with a story that won’t leave any lasting impact on you and is over fairly quickly.
Review by Sirus
Eternal Sonata is a Japanese RPG set in a world that we are told exists solely in the dying dream of famous classical composer Frederic Chopin. Chopin is lying in his death bed dreaming away while people who care about him sit by his side waiting anxiously for the moment when he wakes up. A few times throughout the story we see advancements of this little sub-plot but nothing really happens. To further break up the flow of the game there are also short scenes at the end of most chapters that tell the story of what was going on in Chopin’s life when he composed the piece the chapter was named after. These portions consist of a slideshow of still pictures with text at the bottom of the screen and the piano piece playing in the background. While it is understandable why these scenes were put in the game, they were very distracting and broke up the flow of the game.
The game’s story set in Chopin’s dream follows Polka, a 14 year old girl with a terminal illness who wants to travel to speak with the count to have him get rid of the tax on floral powder. Along the way she is accompanied by two friends, Beat and Allegretto, who are thieves traveling for similar reasons. Frederic Chopin himself joins Polka early on as he tries to make sense out of the world that resides within his dream. There are a number of other characters who join the party at later points in the story. Some of them are interesting but they aren’t developed enough to get too attached. The story starts out strong and really seems like it’s going to be incredibly deep and engaging but it falls flat towards the end. Many of the goals set out in the beginning aren’t realized and the ending doesn’t make much sense. There is very little emotion towards the beginning of the game and at the very end and, in between, a lot of the scenes are lacking direction.
The gameplay in Eternal Sonata is a bit more consistent in its implementation although it tends to get repetitive fairly easily. The enemies you fight in the game are all visible on the field. You can gain an advantage by running into them from behind and can become surprised when they do the same to you. Getting advantage is even more important than in other games because players and enemies have the ability to block attacks but only when those attacks are coming from the front. When surprised, you start the battle with your backs to the enemy, allowing them to attack you without any chance of blocking.
On the left side of the battle screen there is an action bar that counts down as you move, attack, and use an item or skill. Each action takes a specific amount of time away from the bar so if you have to move a long distance before attacking, you won’t be able to attack as many times. Physical attacks, while weaker than the special attacks you have access to, allow you to build up echoes so you can dish out even more damage with your special attacks. The echo gauge goes up in multiples of eight. For each multiple of eight you have built up, the special attacks get more power.
Once you have built up either 24 or 32 echoes, the special attacks become much more powerful and are accompanied by a longer, flashier animation. There are some aspects of combat such as blocking and building echoes that aren’t available at the very beginning of the game. These need to be unlocked with an increase in party level. Defeating bosses at the end of chapters generally increases your party level. Increasing party level adds more functionality as well as speeding up the pace of combat.
To further complicate combat, each battlefield has areas that are in sunlight and areas that are in shade. Characters gain access to different skills depending on whether they are standing in the shade or the sun. Some enemies change forms completely when they move from one to the other. While this dynamic is interesting, most characters end up with a shadow skill and a light skill that function the same and only look a little different. Still, those who rely on healing skills in battle instead of items will find themselves keeping close to the light patches so they can heal when they need to.
One character in your party carries with him a large camera that you can use to take pictures of enemies. These photos are only useful to sell if you need money but taking a few high ranked pictures can give you enough money to last you for most of the game. The combat boils down to using physical attacks until the action bar is almost near the bottom, then letting off your special attacks. There isn’t anything to keep you from using special attacks constantly because characters don’t have any sort of magic gauge to deplete. In the end, while the combat can get repetitive, most regular battles are over fairly quickly and are kept interesting with the numerous things you have to micro-manage while fighting. Most regular enemies are fairly easy and, if you fight every enemy you come across, you won’t have very many problems defeating the game’s bosses. The biggest thing that keeps the game easy is the blocking, which once mastered, makes it really hard to die.
The graphics in Eternal Sonata are simply beautiful and filled to the brim with color. If you are tired of all the browns in next-gen games, this game will surely be easy on the eyes. The characters look especially beautiful with a next-gen cell-shading style that makes the characters look realistic while retaining that anime feel. The music in the game is a mixture of Motoi Sakuraba style and some Chopin pieces although the Chopin pieces are only used in a few cutscenes. The music doesn’t have any of the rock that Sakuraba has been doing lately and is instead filled with many beautiful orchestral and piano pieces. The voice acting is simply awesome. Every character’s voice fits them perfectly and there is plenty of emotion in the lines.
A simple run-through of the game will take 25-30 hours although there is a side dungeon that could add a bit more to that. Anyone who wants to get the achievements will have to play through the game two times and you would probably want to use a walkthrough so you don’t miss anything either time. Eternal Sonata is a good JRPG for 360 that will satisfy JRPG fans looking for a fix but the story will probably remind any casual player why they don’t like JRPG stories.
| 8/10 - Fast-paced battles with lots to micro-manage. | ||||||
| 9/10 - Colorful world with realistic anime-style characters. | ||||||
| 9/10 - Fantastic voice acting and piano-heavy music. | ||||||
| 6/10 - Starts out great but loses its direction towards the end. | ||||||
| 7/10 -Beat the 25-30 hour game twice to get all achievements. | ||||||
| 7.8/10 (Good) | ||||||
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