Geeks ‘n Games

In this current generation of video games, there seems to be two main styles of RPG. One style of RPG will have pre-generated characters with an elaborate story, and somewhat linear gameplay. The other style of RPG lets the player design their own character, which participates in an elaborate story that can branch off in many different directions, giving the player maximum control over the experience.

Eternal Sonata falls into the first category.

This game is extremely reminiscent of the old-school Final Fantasy and Chronotrigger-type RPGs, which is not necessarily a bad thing. If you’re a fan of that style of gameplay, you will hands-down fall in love with Eternal Sonata. The game’s story is centered around the late classical pianist/composer Frederick Chopin. In the “real world” Chopin has become very ill and is confined to a bed. Meanwhile, in Chopin’s head, an elaborate story, featuring himself among three other main characters, begins to unravel. Being that Chopin was a musician, all the supporting characters have names that come from musical terms such as Allegretto (who goes by ‘Retto’ for short), Beat, and Polka. I’m a former musician myself, so all these creative ideas in the game made me smile in admiration.

Anyhoo, this is supposed to be just a First Impressions look at the game so I’ll go ahead and get to the nitty-gritty of it all. First, let’s talk about the graphics. Imagine that you fell asleep, but then woke up in the middle of a Japanese Anime flick. That’s how I’d like to describe the beauty of this game’s graphics. It’s a perfect blend of 3D-rendered landscapes and cell-shaded characters. But this is not your normal cell-shade technique. The characters, themselves, actually appear to have depth as well, which produces an extremely ‘trippy’ look (being that the story is nothing more than a dream in Chopin’s head, this is very appropriate). Then there’s the sound.

If you’re playing in Dolby Digital 5.1, you’re in for a treat. Eternal Sonata makes very good use of the ambient channels, providing a nice immersive experience while traveling through various areas of the game. The sound effects are very clean and, of course, musical. For a game that sports the look of a 3D Japanese Anime, the voice overs fit in nicely and bring the characters to life with their own unique personalities. Considering how badly this could’ve turned out, I have to give major props to the developers for putting in the extra money and effort it takes to produce good voice overs. Now let’s talk about gameplay.

Remember playing the old-school SNES RPGs? Final Fantasy, Chronotrigger, Secret of Mana? This game plays exactly like those games did, with a twist. When you break into a combat scenario everything is turn-based (with the fastest character attacking first–hero or villain), but you won’t see everyone lined up and performing their moves from some corny formation–you’ll have to physically move each character to strategic places to perform the desired attacks. Each character has a set amount of time to move across the ‘board’ and perform their attack, which makes the combat challenging in a way that I’ve never seen in an RPG before. Plus, there are two types of attacks: performed from a shady area, or performed in the light. “Shady” special moves will produce more lethal attacks, while “Light” special moves can be used to heal other members of your party. I can see where the hardcore players might get annoyed, but you know what? I like this combat style. When you find yourself in more complex battles you’ll really have to use some strategy to take down a boss.

Here’s the negative: this style of gameplay, in my opinion, is becoming (if not already) very outdated–and it’s also extremely linear, which can get boring if you’re a player that demands high interactivity with the story and other characters. As an 11-year old, this style of game is perfectly suitable and satisfactory. As a more mature gamer, this can and might easily bore you to tears. Personally, I’ve outgrown the whole “walk-down-a-path-and-battle-monsters” gameplay and find myself much more satisfied with a game style that is much more interactive like Mass Effect, or Oblivion. In the end, though, I think Eternal Sonata is a worthy venture of an RPG, both fun and smart.

On a scale from 1-10, this ranks at about 8, in my opinion. But you don’t have to take my word for it–there’s a demo available on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. So check it out for yourself!

Other note: Some of you might notice that I fail to mention the co-op capability of this game. That is because it is mainly just tacked-on so that whoever is unfortunate enough to have to sit there and watch you play a cool game, doesn’t just have to sit there and watch you play a cool game!