Eternal Sonata: A game with heart
The most creative aspect of Eternal Sonata is its storyline. The game begins with Chopin on his death bed dreaming of a fantastical world. Eternal Sonata is essentially the story of the dream that Chopin is having. The game has a corrupted monarch, a rebellion and a “mysterious” character with a troubled past, all elements of your standard JRPG. So what’s the big deal? The answer is quite simple really, character development. At its core Eternal Sonata is about its characters. It lets the player develop a relationship with them, to the point of actually caring about their development. Each character grows and changes in a way that is both believable and interesting. Eternal Sonata’s graphics are quite dazzling. They are presented in a cel-shaded style with a vibrant colour pallet. Each environment is detailed and well drawn. The cities themselves may be quite small, but, they are lovely to look at. Between each city you will find many forests and fields. There is one instance where you come to a field of beautiful yellow flowers. You can’t help but delight in the shear elegance of the way the environment is presented. The dungeons incorporate a zoomed out camera. At first, you may find this upsetting but, you will soon realize that it is necessary in order for you to navigate through them. The game presents some of the best visuals available on the Xbox 360.
The battle system can be best described as a Real-Time/Turn-Based Hybrid. This means that it incorporates elements of both a turn based and an action RPG system. The “A” Button is used for primary attacks while the “Y” button is used for special attacks. Special attacks change depending on the level of light that your character is standing in. If you are standing in a shadow then you can use shadow attacks. This adds to the strategic element of the game as you can choose to have some of your characters fight from the light and others fight from the dark.
As you advance through the game you gain experience with your party in the form of levels. Each level allows you to do more things but, also limits the time you have to carry out an attack. An example of this is during the first party level the timer doesn’t begin to decrease while you are standing still. In the second level, you are allowed to use more items and echoes (combos) but, the timer begins to decrease immediately.
For all its glory, there is one major flaw with the gameplay in Eternal Sonata. The game has a fixed camera which makes it incredibly linear. This makes it difficult to feel as though you are truly exploring these beautiful “3-D” environments. You will also find on your initial play-through, that you won’t back track often. Some may find this to be a blessing, but, it also serves as a reminder as to how limited the exploration can be. Eternal Sonata is scored by Motoi Sakuraba. He also created scores for the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile games. Sakuraba manages to successfully heighten the gameplay experience with his music and elicit emotions during tense battle sequences. Stanislav Bunin was recruited to present the compositions by Chopin in the game. Each of these pieces plays during game segments that deal with Chopin’s life and sound brilliant. Much care was put into the sound design of Eternal Sonata and the end result is extraordinary.
Eternal Sonata is a game that everyone should experience. Not only does the game look wonderful but, the sound and battle system are exceptionally designed. While the linear gameplay may detract from the overall experience, it doesn’t do so to the point of frustration. If you are going to buy one JRPG for the Xbox 360 make sure it’s this one.