Eternal Sonata may not seem like it, but it is a Great RPG with a fairly dark story for something that looks like this.
Like stated above the story revolves around 3 characters mainly: Polka, a 14 year old who is on the brink of death, but nonetheless keeps a bright outlook on life, Chopin, a pianist who is on the brink of death also, and Allegretto, a 16 year old boy who finds the good in pretty much everyone. These aren't the only characters however, as there are many more, but these are the main three that have to do with the story. Without these guys the story would suck. Anyway, as you progress through the story your main goal is to stop the evil Count Waltz who is using Mineral Powder to make asuper army of mindless freaks. These people taking the powder think that they are being cured, but in reality they are closer to death. Your goal is to stop the production of mineral powder. Yup. The entire story revolves around that main goal, but many other things happen as you try to achieve that goal.
Gameplay is pretty much standard for an RPG. You go from place to place, visiting towns and various other area while fighting enemies along the way. Eventually you hit a few boss battles and that's prety much it. It may sound boring, but it is done in a spectacular way. There are no random battles. You can actually see you enemies and chose to fight them or not. You can't just run away from every battle though, or you may find yourself in many game overs. The Battles themselves are one of my favorite parts of the game. It is like some sort of hybrid Turn Based/ Real time battle system. Whenever your turn comes up,you have a limited amount of time to move and attack. During this time, no one else moves and youc an basically wail on your enemy. You have regular attacks and special attacks. The specials are strong, but they take up more time than regular ones. Also, whenever an enemy is attacking you can use a well timed block to lower damage, and at a higher party level you can counter attack. This system worked extremely well, but on occasion I did find some of the fights a bit easy. Towards the second half of the game you can maybe get 10000+ damage done per person. However, the attacks are all awesome and there are many different combinations of Special and regular attacks you can do. Outside of battle, you do the standard exploring and Talking to people. You can play little songs with other people to earn some items and you can sell photos taken in battle for alot of gold. However this made getting some of the items way too easy. One thing I didn't like was the lack of Side Quests. There were maybe one or 2, but the story is very linear, so don't expect to spend a good 40 hours in this game. That's pretty much it in the gameplay aspect. Just be prepared for alot of interesting battles.
Graphics wise, this game is brilliant. In my opinion even though the Cartoony style art didn't match up witht the almost dark story, they had a bit of charm to em. You couldn't help, but smile at them. Some people may not like the stlye, but that's their beef. The loandscapes are pretty good and the enemies are pretty cool looking. There actually also are very few loading screens that last longer than a second. That is really something for an RPG on the 360.
Sound is where this game really excells. The entire musical score is one of the most interesting soundtracks I have heard in awhile. The Piano music of Chopin that was selected was amazing. The Voice acting was actually pretty well done. The character's voices weren't extremly annoying or anything of that sorts.
Overall, this is a great RPG for the 360 that may not look like it, but it has one hell of a story and the gameplay to back it up. While it is a bit easy, you can get a good 22 hours out of a single runthrough in the game. Eternal Sonata combines two of the best things: Music and Video games, and combines them to form a wonderful Masterpiece on the XBOX 360. Anyone who loves games should definitely check it out. Unless you hate cartoony style graphics. However, it is a great game, nonetheless.