Eternal Sonata

"An Ingenious Masterpiece Portrayed with Innovative Art and Beauty"

Introduction:

Eternal Sonata. The name alone is beautiful. This game is like no other, mixing addicting JRPG and game play with classical music and it's history. If you love Japanese RPG's, this game will absorb you immediately in its stunning visuals, characters, game play, and storyline. If you love classical music, then buy this game immediately and treasure it forever. This game is centered on classical music, and the famous composer Frederic Chopin. For once you can think of video games as “educational” with this one. I personally, was amazed at how much I learned. Seeing photographs about Chopin's life telling his story, really got me hooked. And for most of you, it will do the same. For some this may not sound so engrossing at first, but when you actually see the deep beauty in a game like this, it is just fascinating. Tri-Ace wanted to try something new, and that is exactly what this game is. A mix of Fiction and Non-Fiction.


Gameplay: 10/10

Most addicting gameplay I have ever experienced, and hopefully for you to. There are NO loading times, and the battle system in this game is a mix of turn-based and real time. Monsters roam around in the dungeons, and when you make contact, obviously a battle starts. The battle screen consists of a gauge on the left hand side of the screen. This displays the amount of time you have to fight. Each character is given a certain amount of time to take action. At the beginning of the game, the time is 5 seconds. This means that the character you are controlling at the time will get 5 seconds to use items or attack. Once the time expires, the next character or monster gets 5 seconds to act. During battle you can attack, use items, or use a special attack. You can also guard to lessen the damage from enemies. This sounds fairly basic, but is not. As you progress, you will obtain “party levels” which change the rules of battle. This makes the battling much more interesting.

Are you starting to get interested? You better be, because there is more. Battles in Eternal Sonata have many crucial elements. On the battle screen, there are light areas and dark areas. Dark areas are created by shadows or are in areas without any light. Light areas are of course in the light, or in dark places, are created by lamps and such. When you move from a light to a dark area or vice-versa, your special attacks change into different moves. Each character has a set of light moves and dark moves, and in order to use them, you must be in either the light or dark. Monsters have a role in this to! Some monsters will transform when they shift from the light to the dark. Sometimes they will transform into cute little cuddly monsters that barely pose a threat, or into a scary monster that you can barely kill. So as you can see, the battle system is like no other, innovatively made to keep you far from bored. The battle system may seem confusing from what I say, but at the beginning of the game the battle system is quite basic for you to get used to. What I love is that the battle system evolves and becomes much deeper as you progress and get better at the game.

So that is what the battle system is like, what about the actual game? Well, you may have heard complaints about this being a linear game. In a way this game is, but not painfully so. There are tons of locations you see and adventure through throughout the story. A big letdown for me, and many others, was the lack of a world map. Yes, there is no world map, you travel from place to place. But when I looked at the battle system, depth, and numerous extras, I immediately forgot about the no-world map. Everything in this game makes up for what it lacks or doesn't have.

A wonderful part about this game is the depth and sidequests. There are many. The biggest sidequest would be the score pieces. There are many score pieces hidden throughout the world. When you find these, if you can play them to the right people, they will give you a rank and depending on the rank, will give you a prize. Some of these prizes are extremely good! There is also a type of New Game +, called Encore mode. Once you beat the game once, you can play the game again with the difficulty MUCH higher, many more sidequests available, and extras. The average time it takes to beat the game on your first playthrough is about 25 hours, not including the many extras. Your encore playthrough can take up 40 hours! Not including all of the extras.

Story: 9.5/10

The story in this game is downright amazing. Mixing history with fantasy was a wonderful idea, and something never done before. The story was anything but cliché, because no other game has a story like it. The story takes place with famous composer Chopin, lying on his death bed 3 hours before his death. During these three hours, he dreams an extraordinary dream, where he meets a variety of lovable characters in a gorgeous world of fantasy and music. This game takes place in that dream, but definitely takes longer than 3 hours. Everyone and everything in Chopin's dream has a name that has to do with music. For instance, some of the characters you meet in the story are named Allegretto, Polka, Beat, Viola…etc. Locations also are named musically, like Chorus Plains, or Baroque City.

So, I definitely loved the story, but there were some minor flaws that kept me from giving this work of art a 10. Except for 2-3 of the characters, the rest don't seem to have the best development, and there was almost no background to a lot of them. Of course, they each had a story to back them up along with a unique atmosphere, but the characters were the one essential element that didn't have a nice deep part in the story. To counter this, I believe the company was keeping the characters from being richly unique to keep the thought that this is a dream that takes place for three hours, and that is also the exact element that makes this story so stunning.

Another important basis that every game needs was the main plot. This was fairly light and obviously wasn't what this game was supposed to focus on. Obviously there is a main villain, with all of his underlings working for him and to accomplish his evil deeds. In many peoples minds this part of the game was a little “cheesy”, or just not the best of quality, but I believe that this was done on purpose, so that the player could focus more on the gameplay and beautiful scenery.

Graphics: 10/10


The graphics are just stunningly radiant. Cel-shading is a great way to portray this story's meaning, and just perfect for a world taking place in a dream. The characters are so intricately detailed along with the absolute divine backgrounds, and it is just beautiful how everything seems to glow with happiness and delicateness. Everything is designed so ingeniously with a fantasy feeling. This is most definitely the games strong point, and perhaps another reason for why the plot wasn't worked on as much. But with graphics like this, the plot obviously doesn't have to play a big part in this game. These graphics are what bring the game to life, and what really makes the game believable. This along with the music is what brings everything together and turns the whole game into a masterpiece.

Sound: 10/10


The music is an element that is just completely unforgettable. Actually, the graphics and music together in harmony is what creates a game with sensational beauty. All pieces are orchestrated, and there isn't a single piece that isn't annoying or just plain bland. All of the music has a fantastical mood to create something so believable yet not, just because nothing in the world could be so great. The quality is amazing, and makes the obviousness needed to show that this is inside Chopin's mind. Throughout the game, you also hear some his works, which are very unique indeed. In this area, there really isn't too much else to say. The music is just downright amazing.

Voice Acting in this game is generally good. There are many well known voice actor/actresses such as Crispin Freeman and Mona Marshall. I do have to say, that some of voices can sound a little over acted, but the majority is very good and well picked to fit the part. This really depends on taste though. For me, I liked most of the voices a lot, but I hear many who either despise them or just simply love absolutely everything about the voices.

Replayability: 10/10


The game is perfect in terms of replayability. They created this game in order for players to see all of the scenery and beauty artistically, more over the difficulty and plot. You will notice that this game is generally easy your first play through. Though as I mentioned before, there is a type of New Game + called Encore Mode, which you obtain after beating the game once. This mode will be more for gameplay over music and the graphics. The difficulty intensifies very much, monsters have much more HP, and many many sidequests and a lot of extra content is opened up for the player. This was a perfect little creation, made so that different types of gamers can enjoy this game the way they please. The first playthrough is to notice the beauty, and the second to have more fun. Definitely play throughout the game a second time, because there is much more to Encore mode than what I have mentioned here.

Final Recommendation:


I seriously recommend you buy this game, just because renting it won't give you the opportunity to see the lush landscaping and wonder of this pure masterpiece. I do hope that more video games like this are created, just because of its hidden deepness and amazing detail. Many have skipped over the excellence missing the perfection hidden beneath it all. This is a masterful work of art that you most definitely should try. The unbelievable artistic mix of music, history, and so much else really makes this game a rare creation. I do hope that you see the magnificence in this game, and that my review has gotten you interested. Thank you very much for reading my review.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/08

Game Release: Eternal Sonata (US, 09/17/07)