A solid RPG with innovative battle systems and charming visuals, but plagued by a confusing ending.

User Rating: 7.5 | Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yume Reprise PS3
By kageroblight | Review Date:
Eternal Sonata is a solid Role-Playing Game with innovative battle systems and charming visuals, though the whimsical take on the ending makes the story less than satisfactory. Fans of old-school role-playing games will welcome this new spin on the good old turn-based battle system. Players need not sit there idling after inputting their commands as they will have the opportunity to block or counterattack by timing their button presses. Different enemies have different attack speeds which varies the rate at which the players should hit the buttons, different attacks also go on at varying speed, making every parry or counter exciting and engaging. They also balanced the time allowance to hit the buttons in such a way that some enemies' attacks are harder to block than others. Each character can be assigned up to 4 skills, 2 skills that can be used in the dark, and similarly 2 skills to be used in lighted areas. The enemies' shadow also counts as the dark and some enemies morph when traveling from lighted areas to dark areas or the other way round, changing their defenses and strengths. This makes for another innovative aspect for the battle system, involving strategy on the player's part. They introduce new features to the battle system such as Harmony Chains gradually as you progress along the chapters. At the beginning, battling was more forgiving. Infinite planning time was given at the start of each character's turn and more attacks can be dealt. As more things come into play, the battle intensifies as the game takes away the "planning time" altogether, making players think on their feet. At the end of the game, should players choose to go through with the optional dungeon, they will unlock the most difficult and exciting battle mechanics in which the counter and parry buttons will be randomized. All these contributes to their rock solid battle system.

Without any doubt their visuals are beautiful and enchanting, leading you into the depths of the musical story. But one key problem with the characters is that they tend to have the arms floating a slight distance away from their bodies, seemingly defying gravity. This however has a lot to do with the fact that most of their characters with the costumes are pear-shaped in silhouette, making it difficult to rig or animate properly. I remember near the beginning at the Inn of this new town, there was this little girl Non-Playable Character who really looked like her arms were floating. All in all, this issues are easily overlooked when the game is as good as it is.

The story is pretty much well thought-out but the way in which it was told was pretty much a snooze-fest. Cut-scenes can span out to around 30 minutes long with lengthy and boring dialogues which nothing much going on except for talking. Each chapter also has a song that evokes the story as most would remember to be the extremely boring slideshow of pictures and text which the classical masterpiece is playing at the background. I find myself skipping through most of these towards the end of the game when it does get a little tiresome. And speaking of waiting, the worst part of this musical adventure ironically are the jamming sessions with random NPCs where you have to guess which of all the 20+ score pieces you have collected thus far, goes well with this NPC's music. In order to do that you have to play through every single one of them, and that means a ton of waiting. The ending was exceptionally confusing to say the least and was pretty much a let down after so many hours of waiting through cutscenes and jamming sessions. I blame the regionalization of games. Most Japanese games that may sound whimsical in their culture become less than meaningful when translated into our language. Though this may be a downside it is still essential for us gamers to experience quality RPGs such as Eternal Sonata every now and then.

In short, RPG players who love the anime-style story-telling or old-school RPG fans should definitely check this game out. For everyone else, loan from stores or from your friends to try out their awesome battle mechanics!

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