Gorgeous game that ultimately falls on a flat note. Pun intended.
Story- I found the Chopin side of the story very interesting, although the historical parts seemed almost too out of place, and almost pointless, because after about an hour Chopin's story is almost forgotten. In fact I found myself wondering why Frederick hardly spoke in the second half of the game, when this was supposed to be mainly about him, or at least thats how it was promoted. More on this in the characters section. The game is fueled by lengthy cutscenes, which is fine to me, but when they move at the pace of a snail in a bucket its hard to be patient. For instance, without giving anything away, a main characters death is early on in the game. Of course we never experience any depth to the character and there is no development, so before it even happens most of us are thinking "Who really cares? I don't know this persons story." Then comes the scene, which is probably going to go down in rpg fan history. Over 10 minutes we are treated to a monologue spoken as the character dies, doing flashbacks to scenes we JUST witnessed a few minutes ago. Anyone witnessing it while playing is bound to roll their eyes more than once. The awful english VA doesn't help this at all. Another thing, the game has some mature storylines and plenty of deaths, but we never SEE any of them, and when we do there is never any gore. Of course that wouldn't fit the art style, but with such material that is presented quite dark at points, having some of the bad guys say a few last words wouldn't hurt. For instance, the entire game almost your trying to stop the vil count Waltz, in a pretty climacted battle, you manage to defeat him. Thats it. No death scene, just a battle. Its quite dissapointing at points.
Characters- Like I said earlier, some are hardly developed, and even with the lengthy cutscenes we don't see very much of any interaction between the cast. Most of the cutscenes are elongated just by characters annoyingly repeating themselves. "Can we cross that bridge?" "I think we should probably cross that bridge." Its all over dramatic, and with the frequent pauses and odd choice of dialogues, it can become grueling to watch some of them. Some characters, like Falsetto, and maybe Jazz, actually fill the "Cool" characters category, and pull it off okay, but everyone else either falls into the whiny sidekick role, the typical "we can do it" hero, the weak female lead, ect. ect. Salsa adds some flavor that can be amusing, but its overshadowed by the lack of depth.
Sound- Gorgeous music, although I was expecting a little more Chopin than we got. Although I have to say most of the music is pretty forgettable, but still fits the game while your playing it.
Graphics- How did Eternal Sonata score higher than Lost Odyssey? Probably because of its graphics and frame rate, which rule most of todays review forms. The game is gorgeous, and the environments spring to life with awesome glows and color. The characters all look soft and are fun to look at, unfortunately they remain stiff and blocky for the most part.
Battle System- Its fun. Another reason why it scored higher. Most games with "Newer" styles and systems usually score higher, even if games before it such as the Star Ocean series, do it better. All the fights in the game are fun and racking up echoes is pretty catchy, especially seeing all the damage you can end up doing. The special attacks also look amazing, but are kind of overpowered by repeated attack poses and extremely lame dialogue when they use a special attack. Now I love when characters say attack names, its fun and anime like, a throwback to sailormoon if you will, but when they spout off things that make them seem like a crazy person during the fight? "If you strike a stone rocks will shatter, if you strike a person their soul will shatter. Death to them both!" or something of that sort. Makes no sense...sure it sounds cool sometimes, maybe the first time, but then you go "Huh?". The game becomes increasingly easy as it progresses too, so don't expect a challenge.
Overall Eternal Sonata is fun to look at, and the fights are fun if not a little repetitious and tiring, but the story goes nowhere after the first hour, and the cutscenes are bland and feel unconnected. Some extras flavor it up but by then I just wanted to move on with the game and finish it. So I'd say if your on the fence, rent it. Its not a very long game and not exactly worth the cash. Its too bad because it had a great idea, but just didn't go very far with it.