I do not understand the high ratings this game gets
1) Sound - The sound in this game is pretty good. The soundtrack is very majestic with the orchestral scores, and Chopin's work is a plus. the voice acting is good, if a little wooden ,and the sound effects are standard JRPG whooshes, hits and such. overall, 8 out of 10
2) Graphics - The graphics are great. The Cell shaded look is absolutely awesome, although I must say that as far as cell shaded games go, I liked Dragon Quest 8 better, but this game is beautiful, but some of the animations, like characters always having their arms stretched to their sides unmoving, like dolls, was a tad odd. 7.5 out of 10
3) Gameplay - This is where this game, in my opinion suffers the most. The gameplay segments are short, inter spaced with extremely long Cutscenes, ala Xenosaga, but without the goodness that was Xenosaga's grandiose Sci-Fi epic. The storyline of this game just really doesn't make sense, is terribly long winded, even more so then Xenosaga, and having to play for 15 20 minutes, then watching a half an hour worth of cutscenes just doesn't work with how absolutely boring this storyline is, despite how fun the combat system is with echoes and the special attacks. Also this game is easy. Ridiculously, mind-numbingly easy. It's very easy to essentially have unlimited money, because you can just flash pictures of everything and sell them for ridiculous amounts of gold. 2 out of 10
4) Story - Interesting premise. VERY poor execution, both from the meandering dialogue, and the slightly wooden voice acting of some of the characters( Jazz is almost monotone....) The speech patterns have an almost whimsical note to them, which I think detracts from the storyline, as it tries to be meaty and kiddish at the same time, which I feel is not a good way to project this storyline, considering it takes up 80 % of the game. 3 out of 10
All in all, Eternal Sonata was a great concept that suffered from some very boneheaded decisions on the part of the Producer.