Stay for the Battle Systems!!!
User Rating: 7.5 | Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yume Reprise PS3
I was holding back this game when it was released on Xbox 360 and thankfully bought the PS3 version at a reduced half price. JRPG has always been my favourite genre and I was hoping to get the typical "Star Ocean"/"Tales of" storyline. I was disappointed as to how lame and outdated it is. Typical girl/boy pledging their love and one of them has to sacrifice. Maybe after FFVII, JRPG assumes that the girl sacrificial theme is gonna hit the mark. But then FFX uses the same concept but opposite gender as a revival. Hmmmm, isn't there anymore originality in JRPG?rnrnI can forgive if the storyline expands further and develop other characters. But Eternal Sonata did nothing of that. In fact, the main characters are mildly entertaining and under-developed. rnrnWhat I find mostly engrossing and thus the high mark, is the battle system. I just can't get enough of it and this is the ONLY reason why I stick through the game for over 60 hours. Trying to level up to open the Party Level is extremely addictive. It is mainly action-based with limited movement. The battle system expands and just when you thought you've seen it all, they introduced the Harmony Chain and wait..... there's more as you can counter-attack and more Harmony Chains with the highest Party Level 6 of getting all the Special Attacks for all 3 party members performing Harmony Chains. The random buttons switching is a throwing to gain your full attention!rnrnThe pacing of the battle system is incredible as without realizing, I have invested over 60 hours of my time in this game to eventually view the ending. Although it is a very lame, predictable and dragging ending scene (one of the worst RPG endings). rnrnThe difficulty is a little bit inconsistent. I find myself struggling with the bosses in the first 15-20 hours. Even the latter bosses, you find yourself breezing through one and ended up KO in a minute. They are also highly superficial and unoriginal except for a couple of them.rnrnI can't help but thinking that I was playing an old-dated RPG storyline if not for the beautiful graphics and the fast-paced battle system that briefly reminded me of my PS3. 
