REVIEW: Eternal Sonata (Spoiler Free)
By Jacob Bond
March 21st, 2008

Over a year ago I bought my 360 because of the promise of a bunch of RPGs coming to the system. At the time Blue Dragon, Mass Effect, and Eternal Sonata were mentioned and I was excited for all three. While the first game didn't get stellar reviews, things seemed optimistic for the latter games and I preordered them both. Oddly enough despite all of the hype, it wasn't Mass Effect I was really looking forward to. I couldn't wait to get a hold of Eternal Sonata.

Unfortunately real life kept me from playing it until recently, hence the really late review. Although it's a few months late, I have indeed finished the game and feel the need to spill my thoughts into this electronic journal, because honestly if I don't I think my head will explode. The game came very close to breaking my brain for a variety of reasons.

For the record, this is a non-spoiler review. I'll try to keep things as vague as possible, and if something seems like it's a spoiler I probably only mentioned it because it's an obvious part of the plot that any preview would have mentioned already.

I'm finding some difficulty deciding where to start. I think it ultimately depends on how you view the game, so I'll cover both the literal story and the one of interpretation, beginning with the former.

One of the things that attracted me to this game was the idea is was centered around the musical genius Fredrick Chopin. The idea was intriguing and I was interested to see exactly how they could spin his life into an RPG. The basic premise of the game is that Chopin, on his death bed, enters a world of magic and monsters. Initially he's convinced it's a dream, but as he spends more time in the world he begins to question which world is real.

Before I jump into the story (because honestly there's so much to cover it's best left to last) I'll get the basics out of the way. The non-story elements of the game are a mixed bag to say the least. The artwork is absolutely beautiful, giving the world and characters a unique style that helps the game stand out among other RPGs.

Unfortunately the animation, with the exception of the end of the game, suffers greatly. While the beginning showed a load of promise, halfway through the game I found myself forcing my through long cut scenes with long pointless pauses, jerky random movement, and horribly robotic looking scenes. For example, there are a couple of scenes showing two characters hug, but the scenes looked horribly awkward. Both wound up looking like the characters didn't want to touch each other at all, and any emotion I was supposed to get from the scene went out the window. I also couldn't help but notice that for some reason any character around the age of eight can't put his or her arms down. There were good spots here and there, but overall the animation was absolutely terrible. It was a distraction and killed the pacing of the game at certain parts.

Regarding the battle system, it was certainly unique but after a while began to feel almost like a button masher. With the exception of recovery items any other objects used in battle were simply sold or sat in my inventory, collecting dust. Between healing moves and special attacks that never run out, there wasn't much point to extra items in the game. And while, as I said before, the battle system was interesting after a while it became repetitive. There is little to no strategy in the game when it comes to fighting. Regardless of which boss the player faces, the strategy can pretty much be summed up as building up echos and healing the party. That's it. Don't get me wrong, the lack of strategy didn't ruin the fun of the game, but after a while it was certainly noticable.

The voice acting is also something that I had a mixed opinion on. While characters like Viola, Falsetto, and Allegretto were pretty good, others likes Beat, Salsa, and to an extent Polka were annoying. There is the option of listing to the Japanese cast if you can't suffer through the English version, though. It isn't enough to make ears bleed so it's certainly tolerable.Despite some of these issues, there is a big shiny spot to the game, and that's the music. Based on Chopin's work, the game sounds absolutely beautiful. Between chapters it treats the player to a piano only version of Chopin's music as the game gives a history lesson on the pianist. It's really weird to be playing a video game and find yourself learning at the same time.

Now that the basics are out of the way, it's time for the meat of any RPG: story.

As I previously mentioned how you walk away from this game feeling depends on what part of the story you're focusing on. Let's cover the literal part first. The literal story is pretty disappointing. While the potential for something special and epic was there, the story seemed to burden itself with subplot after subplot and numerous love triangles, half of which come out of nowhere with little-to-no set up or follow through. I was left scratching my head at some of the random plots tossed in and quickly forgotten, or some of the logic characters used for the sake of story progression, even though it didn't make sense at all.

I think part of the problem lies with the fact that there are so many characters involved there was no time to properly develop stories for them all. There are ten playable characters plus no less than eight non-playable characters with key parts at various stages of the game. With so many characters to focus on if a subplot actually makes it through to completion it ends almost as quickly as it begins, giving no build up whatsoever to subplots that should be been important mysteries or potential relationships that ended up being no more than a tease. That's, of course, if those subplots and relationships are lucky enough to have a conclusion. Unfortunately quite a few story elements dropped in are never resolved.

If you look at the game from that point of view, the story is horrible. It's sloppy and riddled with holes.

But then there's the other part. The overall story that ties the game together. Chopin's story. If you can ignore the horrible unimportant parts of the story and focus just on Chopin and his journey, that's where the gem of the game is.

I'll admit that after finishing the game my mind was swimming with so many questions and thoughts that I didn't know what to make of it. I was very confused and figured there was a deeper meaning to the story but having played it only once (and not eager to have another go at it any time soon) I sought out the opinions of other people who had more time with it. I found a variety of interpretations of what the game meant, and any of them could be right. If you ignore the obvious in your face parts of the story and focus on the subtle things, the clues begin to add up to what the game really means, whether the world is real or not, and how ultimately the game is and always has been about Chopin's story. Looking at it from this point of view the story is absolutely amazing, in spite of the more obvious flaws. It also helps make sense out of some of the weirder actions of certain characters.

I think I definitely need to play through the game again with this new perspective. It might not be for awhile because I need some time away from it. After spending the last few weeks working through some pretty horrible subplots and cut scenes, I need a beak. But the game deserves a second play through, this time ignoring the literal aspects of Polka's world and focusing on how they relate to Chopin.

Regardless of how potentially deep the story is, though, it's still a game and there are some pretty big glaring flaws that should have been addressed. It's a fun game with frustrating parts. How big of a payoff you get depends on how you view the game and honestly while it's something I don't think many people will regret playing, it isn't something that should be pushed to the top of the list above Mass Effect or from what I've heard Lost Oddessy. I like the game and I'll probably like it more my second time through, but I probably could have waited to play it longer than I did.

There IS a PS3 version coming out with more content and supposedly a more fleshed out story. If you own (or will own) a PS3 and intend to check this game out, it will probably be worth waiting, especially if it means even close to a more coherent story.

SCORE: 7 / 10

PLAYER'S GUIDE REVIEW:

As a little bonus, here's a very quick review of the Brady player's guide. Yes, I used a player's guide. Normally I avoid them on games except RPGs since those games tend to involve the player doing a series of various tasks to get an important item. Without the player's guide figuring that stuff out is practically impossible.

Anyway, from my experience with the guide I've found a few different errors and missing information. The issues range from hidden items not marked in the book to obvious save points the authors completely missed on the map. That isn't such a big deal because the save points are out in the open (you don't need the book to find them) but it's the point that they missed something as easy as that that reflects on the quality of the book.

The biggest and most frustrating part is the book completely skips explaining what needs to be done to face Dolce for the third time. Without doing something very specific at a certain place if you miss it, there's no chance of going back to do it again. A mistake like that is inexcusable. It's a shame I gave $18 for the thing.

The guide still has plenty of useful information, but be careful with it and look somewhere else for Dolce information. If you can find an alternative to this I would suggest it, but if this is the only option it works too.