Eternal Sonata

I held off on buying Eternal Sonata for awhile.  There were always other games to play, and the cover looks like every other Japanese RPG out there.  Not that I don’t like a goof Japanese RPG, but the back stated it had an immersive real-time battle system.  This usually means “Star Ocean Clone” and that battle system gets old fast.

After playing through the other RPG’s the 360 had to offer, I was wandering around Gamestop and saw this was pretty much the only thing on the shelf aside from a $69.99 copy of Fallout 3.  Being as I will never pay that much for a game, I finally picked up Eternal Sonata, encouraged by the Gamestop employee that it has some pretty good reviews.

I’m not going to lie, with it’s bright colors and love of chiming sound effects, Eternal Sonata is one of the girlier-looking games out there.  Heck, you can see that by the cover above.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I guess every game can’t be a blood-hued background with a severed head as a cursor.

I will say that the game has one of the best and most innovative battle systems I have ever seen.  It manages to blend turn-based and live action flawlessly.  It begins as calm and nearly completely turn-based, but as you progress and gain “Party Levels”, you can set the battle to be more active, and are rewarded for it (more moves and combos during battle, faster, but less time to plan your actions).  Unlike many other games that use a similar “active battle system”, you take turns controlling your party, so there’s no AI, which means that no one gets slaughtered while you’re too busy making sure the character you’re controlling doesn’t die.

Eternal Sonata also holds the prize for the only RPG I can think of that has better mechanics than plot.  I can think of dozens of games where I struggled with dull or bad mechanics because the plot kept me going, but none where a dull plot supported excellent gameplay.

This is not to say the plot wasn’t promising, it was just executed poorly.  I’m about to get a little spoilerific.  I’ll try to keep it to a minimum, but if you plan on or are currently playing the game, maybe you should just stop reading here.

The game’s basic premise is that Frederic Francois Chopin (yes, the famous composer) is on his death bed, and in his death throes, is dreaming he’s in the world the game takes place in.  Honestly, I’m interested so far, and combined with the orchestrated soundtrack, the presentation is very nice.  The story begins to build as you learn that magic is bad omen in the world, as everyone who can use it invariably dies of disease, and of course, one of the main characters can use magic.  The story further builds upon itself when you learn that the leader of the land (Count Waltz, because everyone and everything is named after music terms) is distributing a miracle drug called ‘Mineral Powder’ which cures every disease, but make people eventually use magic, go mad, then die.

It is at that point, about halfway through the game, that the plot takes a nosedive.  Because it was then that the writers, instead of continuing the growing plot, decide to read from their philosophy books.  The rest of the game is essentially drivel, and it answers absolutely nothing about the first part.  Why does magic make people die?  Don’t know.  What is Mineral Powder exactly?  Can’t say.  Why is the count bent on being evil?  Couldn’t tell you.  The game essentially tells you nothing besides nonsense until you finally defeat the last boss.  Then, over the credits, the characters decide to get quite preachy with their views on the human psyche, which is amazing being as the oldest one is about fourteen years old, and a few as young as eight.  Really… they should have an older cast for some of the feelings and ideas they’re trying to portray.

The turning point for me is when a character I just met was assassinated.  I had this character for all of one or two levels, and she’s had about a few minutes of face time.  As she dies she monologues about her life, she talks, and talks, and talks.  She even flashes back to the scene THAT JUST HAPPENED.  Literally, it’s a flash back to the beginning of the SAME SCENE you’re watching.  Add to that is that I basically just met the character, I don’t care about her.  Again, not that it would have been a bad development by itself… but without the proper timing and emotional connection, there’s nothing there.  It was a poor execution of a potentially good development.

Despite all that, it’s a very fun game to play.  Each character has a different feel in battle, and you can customize your party with any of nine members.  When you finally find that perfect combination of a character, move-set, and equipment that can one-shot most enemies you come across, there’s a definite sense of accomplishment.  So to that, I give the developers kudos.

So, final synopsis… play the game.  If you like RPG’s, and can find this for $20, it’s well worth it.  You’ll have fun, and that’s really what games are all about.

Zel-kun out.