Eternal Sonata - Cheesy but playable
If you enjoy sweet, even sappy, JRPGs where the world shines like a sort of CG animated Candy Land then Eternal Sonata is likely the game for you. However, if you're somewhat ambivalent toward the more emotion heavy JPRGs, or if you require a stiff challenge from your RPGs then there is a good chance that Eternal Sonata isn't the game for you.
Eternal Sonata tells the story of Frederic Chopin's life and final days on his death bed and a world that he may or may not be imagining in his sleep. The game play takes place entirely in Chopin's sort of dream world where mineral powder has recently become very popular amongst the populous as a cure for just about everything. The central mystery of the game revolves around the motives of those selling the mineral powder that as you probably can guess might not be all it is cracked up to be .
The connections between Chopin's world that you are provided glimpses of from time to time and the world you spend your time playing in are symbolic at best, and even it bit disruptive to the flow of the game as you the player are bounced back and forth. The connection between those worlds is largely irrelevant to how much you'll enjoy the game. Fortunately, the characters in the dream world are a bit more interesting than Chopin's own real life story, at least in terms of how they are presented.
The characters that inhabit the world you play in are as bright and spunky and yet manage to provide enough variety amongst them to keep them each interesting in their own way in terms of both character and combat. Along with Chopin himself there is a warm hearted and mysterious girl named Polka, a pair of street urchins in Allegretto and Beat, a crew of rebels and several other characters you will pickup along the way. Depending on what point in the game you're talking about there are up to nine characters you can choose from during your adventures and you can a total of three at a time into battle.
The characters bright personalities are only outshined by the game's graphics. Eternal Sonata is a gorgeous game. While it is a fairly linear game and is somewhat limited in terms of space to explore this gives Eternal Sonata a maliciously crafted feel. Most scenes and spaces are beautifully animated with bright bold colors as if they were an impressionist painting.
Provided you're not overwhelmed by the intense characters and graphics it is hard not to smile or at least stop and admire the view now and then. The only downside being that the characters clothing and weapons do not change visually thru the entire game. You do equip a variety of weapons, clothing, accessories, and armor but sadly they have no impact on your characters outward appearance. With such beautifully crafted characters it takes a bit of fun out of buying new items for them if they never actually change their appearance.
The combat in Eternal Sonata uses an interesting light / dark system. When moving thru the world of Eternal Sonata you can (for the most part) pick and choose what enemy encounters you wish to have and what encounters you wish avoid simply by walking into enemies or maneuvering around them.
Upon encountering an enemy the battlefield will either be predominantly light or predominantly dark with opposite patches in various places. What special attacks are available to you are determined by the spaces light or dark characteristics. Stand in a light patch and you have one set of special attacks, stand in dark and you will have another set of attacks. All characters have different light and dark special attacks and will learn new such attacks as they level up. Additionally some items can cast a light or dark aura around you and even the shadows of enemies can provide dark palaces where you can use the associated attacks.
Each character and enemy takes their turn maneuvering and attacking. Each turn is allotted a set amount of time to attack. During your time you can pull off as many regular and special attacks as you can before time runs out. There is also an "echo system" where by a series regular attacks of all the characters are added up and can be used to unleash particularly powerful special attacks.
In addition to your characters leveling up your party can level up too. The result of your party leveling up changes for each level you move up. Each level provides both bonuses and some time limits imposed on the entire party. In general each time your party levels up the combat becomes increasingly fast and furious and the strategies you use will change depending on those levels as well. The result is that the combat remains fresh and exciting thru the entire game.
If there is a downside to the combat it is that the opponents you will fight in Eternal Sonata are almost universally weak and highly repetitive. While your enemies can use the light and dark spaces on the battlefield to go as far as even morph into different creatures the morphing almost seems like a contrivance to keep things fresh in terms of the variety of enemies.
In truth even with morphing enemies your approach to them won't need to change much at all. Also it is disappointing that as you progress thru the latter half of the game you are simply presented identical opponents to those you fought in the first half, and those really aren't that much stronger.
It doesn't help that one character has an ability to take and sell photographs that will provide you with an incredible amount of money. Even if you just dabble in the photography system you'll be able to buy more than enough weapons, armor, and healing items thru the entire game.
Unless you choose to skip a lot of encounters and race thru the game your characters will level up fairly quickly. I am by no means a seasoned RPG player and I was never once killed by any of the standard enemies throughout the entire game. Nor did I feel that I was ever really threatened by them.
The game does provide the option to play thru it again after you complete it the first time at a notably increased difficulty level although that hardly seems to make up for what is a surprisingly easy first run thru. There aren't many optional activities and just about any player should get thru Eternal Sonata in about thirty hours.
Another disappointment is the dialogue throughout Eternal Sonata. While the characters personalities are fun and enjoyable the dialogue can be odd and even grating. It can be odd when a number of times thru the game the characters will have discussion pondering topics like revolution or blind patriotism without seemingly anything initiating the conversation. Of course after the very next plot event later the discussion is suddenly very much on topic. It might be thought of as foreshadowing but it the discussions happen so often, are awfully specific, and it are so heavy handed it ruins many of plot twists thru the whole game. It doesn't help that there aren't many plot twists to begin with.
Additionally the dialogue between characters often seems a bit awkward. The voice acting with different accents is great all around. However, many phrases throughout the game are recycled ad nauseam such as "suffering from a terminal illness" in the same discussion by the all characters, even throughout the entire game. Perhaps it was a result of the translation or just a difference between Japanese to English but nobody ever just truncates a phrase like that to "dying". It doesn't help that it even goes beyond phrases to where entire sentences (that often seem a bit pretentious and melodramatic to begin with) are repeated word for word as they go around the group and discuss the matter.
One scene that should be particularly poignant involves a five minute discussion between two characters. One character leaves and the other remains behind and reflects on the discussion. The problem being that while character reflects out loud about the conversation they just had they also have a series of flashbacks that covers ever single word of the discussion…. that you were just shown. The result being what feels like someone stretching for time or squeezing every bit of emotional turmoil possible out of the scene that you just saw.
The relationships between characters also come up a little short of expectations if only because at thirty hours the game doesn't have enough time to spend with them. There are subplots, romance, and pasts galore hinted at for many of your characters but sadly some are resolved in a rush and most others loose ends are just left hanging at the end of the game. Additionally some of the predictions and ambitions of one of the characters who plays a key role in the final scenes are never explained at all. This gives the impression that while all well meaning the game feels a bit rushed, but fortunately not incomplete.
Without loose ends is the music in Eternal Sonata. Eternal Sonata has some of the catchiest, and probably some of the most defined music in any game. Understandably this is because much of the music is Chopin's own music. While other games will have vague orchestral themes for various locations Eternal Sonata's themes are recognizable, memorable, and with a sort of definition and clarity that few games have. It is a wonder why more games don't simply adapt great existing classical music.
Despite being of a pushover, and slathered in a fair amount of melodrama Eternal Sonata still plays great, sounds wonderful, and looks outstanding, and the story is a memorable one. If you can handle a bit of a sappy JRPG and are looking for a fairly easy but beautiful stroll thru a quality JRPG Eternal Sonata is at least worth a rental.
