(This review is based on the Xbox 360 version)
Eternal Sonata is an RPG produced by Namco Bandai and Tri-Crescendo, loosely based around composer Frédéric Chopin. The game takes place largely within Chopin’s dream as he lies on his deathbed, although occasionally you’ll be given a cutscene where the doctor talks about his condition. In between each of the chapters the game is divided into, you’re treated to one of Chopin’s pieces as well as some historical information about his life. These portions are an excellent addition, and are far more interesting than the main story
The main story in this dream world is centered around you’re party of characters’ journey to stop King Waltz from creating and army of what is essentially zombie soldiers by giving all the citizens a drug that cures most any disease, but with a side effect unknown to most everybody. Overall, the story is nothing too special, and most players will see every twist coming miles away.
One plot point sticks in my mind as being handled just dreadfully, and that is the scene of a certain character’s death. It is the most ridiculous Shakespearian death scene ever, with the character flopping around the room for what seemed like half an hour, and by the end of this scene meant to be sad, I was just laughing.
All the characters have their own reasons for trying to stop him, but there’s very little character development, and personally there were only a handful of characters that I even cared about at all since some of them spouted heavy handed life lessons practically ever time they opened their mouths, and these incidents made me want to go into battle and intentionally let them die, but there’s one problem with that.
Overall, the game is painfully easy with only a few challenging bosses. Now this holds true for the initial play through, but there’s an encore mode which is supposed to be much more difficult. Having not yet tried this, I cannot comment on it. The AI for the enemy units is fairly dopey with the exception of the pirate type enemies which actual try to get behind you, but more on the battle systems later. Buying items isn’t a hassle either, as the game practically throws money at you, so you never have to worry about being under prepared, and overall the game is about as linear as an RPG can get, with no overworld or map of any kind.
The battle system is solid, and fairly unique. Battles are turn based, but with an element of real time action. Your actions are fairly limited to: attacking and/or using a special, using an item, or tactically moving away from an enemy. Defense is possible by pressing the defend button right before an enemy attacks you head on, which almost all do, since the AI is far from perfect. The same goes for enemies, so it’s best to attack the rear. While this could get old, there’s a party leveling system which changes the battle elements slightly at certain points in the story. These party level ups are spaced perfectly too.
One major element in battles is the lighting. Character’s have two sets of specials, light and dark. Depending on where you are positioned, in light or shadow, will determine which is available to you. Also some enemies will change form when they move between the two and gain or lose stats accordingly.
The visuals are absolutely striking, a perfect fit for a dream world. All the graphics are crisp, clean, and vividly colored. Character design is excellent as well all around, with musical themes naturally playing a part throughout.
Of course I couldn’t forget to mention music, especially with a game that weaves music through everything. Naturally it is phenomenal, and this game couldn’t get away with anything less considering that is the main theme. Each track seems to mesh well with its designated area, aiding to your immersion into this fantasy world. In addition to the background music there are items called score pieces you can find which are short music clips. These are used to play a little mini game with certain townspeople in which you attempt to match one of your score pieces with theirs, and can win prizes if it sounds good. That’s also the issue I have with it right there, music is subjective, and sometimes I’d hear the resulting session and think, maybe it wasn’t a perfect match, but it wasn’t too bad. Then the NPC would have some snotty retort on how it sucked. Maybe it would be better if I knew how to read sheet music, but really, I shouldn’t have to know that to play this game.
All in all, Eternal Sonata is a mixed bag of good and bad. This game strikes a chord between the flat characters and story and the sharp visuals and sweet melodies, so when it comes down to it, this deserves a 3.5/5.
