Game Review//Eternal Sonata

Here's a review I wrote a little while back. Just me trying to add a little bit of yesterday to today.

For those of us who don't believe that Halo is the One and Only and have waited ages for an enjoyable, quality JRPG experience for a next-gen system; hath no fear because all of your prayers have been answered within something called Eternal Sonata – a healthy dose of de-ja-vu courteously brought to us by the fellows at Namco Bandai and Tri-Crescendo.

The game world is alive with beautifully colored landscapes, the characters themselves feel like they are part of their environments meticulously placed somewhere between 2d sprites and full on 3d bodies – an effect similarly seen in such games as Tales of Symphonia or Okami but made even more glorious with the wonders of HD resolution.What really takes the player for a unique experience is perhaps the story. It starts off innocently enough, with a young girl wanting to leave her village to better understand her illness and to seek an audience with the Count, she then meets a mysterious gentleman by the name of Frederic and they both set off on an epic adventure full of very likeable characters and some moving emotional moments. While there are the shades of a “lets rebel against an evil figure of power” storyline the player is then taken behind the scenes and shown that everything is the dream world of a dying composer – a real life figure of classical music. Frederic Chopin. The story then goes back and forth between the “dream world” and what happens in the “real world” whilst Mr. Chopin is clinging to his last dear moments of life. There are 7 chapters to play through and each one unlocks a sort of “life and times” montage of the composer told through real life photographs and accompanying music of Chopin's most famous works – definitely not typical JRPG material.

What moved me to call this game a “dose of de-ja-vu” is the fact that I can't help but notice the similarities between it and another game called Baten Kaitos and/or Origins. The music most certainly sounds familiar, which is fantastic since I very much enjoyed the score of both BK titles, while the battle mechanics feel like a fusion of any of the past two BKs and a Tales game. You can still pick and chose your fights as enemies appear onscreen instead of random encounters but the battles themselves can be oddly fun and challenging at the same time. There is a certain amount of time [several seconds] that is allotted to each of your characters as well as enemies [think BK] during which you must run up to an enemy and mash the attack buttons. [think Tales] What adds a twist to your typical formula is that you are allowed to assign a “Light” and “Dark” attack to the Special Attack button which you can perform depending on where your character is standing – in a lit area of ground or in a shadow. Normal attacks build up something called an Echo Gauge and if one character performs a Special while it is at it's maximum then the effectiveness [or damage] is greatly increased. Monsters change sizes and shape in light or shade. Lastly, your primary source of income will be from taking photos of these critters. [back to BK]

This leaves us with a phenomenal piece of gaming that will probably be overlooked by die-hard Halo fanatics but if you are a gamer who has needed a healthy serving of next-gen JRPG goodness, then you owe it to yourself to experience this Eternal Sonata.

A DEFINITE BUY for 360 J-gamers and a DEFINATE RENT for any RPG fan who wants to try something new.