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| Reviewer | Platform | Publisher | Developer | Players |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ross Gilder | Xbox 360 | Namco Bandai | tri-Crescendo | 1 (1-3 share screen in battles) |
| Requirements | Buy from Amazon.co.uk | |||
| 5.7MB HDD/Memory Unit space to save game, 60Hz-compatible screen | Click here to buy Eternal Sonata. | |||
Eternal Sonata is one of those games that so desperately tries to bend the mould of RPGs. In some respects, it does this in a glorified fashion, removing the hundreds of menu systems just to attack the enemy usually found in most titles in the genre. In its place, the developers have put in an attack system which is somewhere between Paper Mario, and Kingdom Hearts. This attack system is easily the single most important reason to play the game.
The system works by allowing all players to directly control each character in the game when its their turn, thus making what was a seemingly standard RPG into a hack-and-slash action game. There are, however, some restrictions to this due to the fact that it is still an RPG. On encountering an enemy you are moved into a battle arena, so to say, similar to those found in the likes of Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, etc., and once you have moved to this arena things start to change. The menu system is, well, its not there. Instead, you get a Legend of Zelda-style button action image showing what each button on the controller does; Y: special attack, X: Item, B: Defend, A: Attack, RB: next item, LB: previous item.
You may be thinking, hey, that list is all the standard menu commands, just assigned to buttons... In some respects, you're right. It is. If you pushed any of them on your turn of the battle (yes, turn) you'd most likely do an attack that would miss completely. Instead, when it comes to your turn, you should use the left analogue stick to move to your opponent first. However, it's not entirely that simple; as soon as you do something you are immediately sprung into "action time" and a bar on your left will quickly move down the screen. This bar tells you how much time you have left to attack your enemy. For every hit on the enemy you get more time to attack and move. So in other words, once you start doing anything, no changing your mind; run and attack until you're out of time. Then it's the next player's turn (either you or an enemy indicated by an arrow above the character's head). Once you've tried it out, I'm sure you'll agree that it is an amazing battle system.
The same, however, can't be said for the rest of the game. The game is ridiculously linear and very confusing in terms of story, which I feel brings this game down substantially. The story is a very strange idea that made little to no sense, and it gets more convoluted and confusing as the game progresses. The game is also, for the most part, voice-acted, and unfortunately I felt that some of the voices chosen for the game were annoying and irritating. I actually turned the voices over to the original Japanese version, and while I might not have been able to understand what they were saying most of the time, they were certainly less annoying. Luckily for those who can follow the story, the game stays subtitled in English no matter what you hear, so you won't miss anything but the annoying voices, which I feel is a good compromise.
The other thing I couldn't really understand was that a fair amount of the game's cut-scenes were lacking in music, and for a game which is based around music it seemed a little odd. Where there is music, it's of a very classical nature, and for someone who listens to power metal, its hard to properly comment. The graphics in the game are fairly nice, and while they're not up with the likes of BioShock, they hold up a consistent style throughout the game which is by no means bad.
In short, this is a game that has great elements and bad elements. It just happens to be that the convoluted story is that bad element, which, for me at least, is the driving force in RPGs, action or menu-driven. It's worth a rental, though, to check out the battle system and maybe complete over a weekend.
| Graphics | Good, but not great. | 7/10 |
|---|---|---|
| Gameplay | Great battle system, emphasis on action and tactics. | 9/10 |
| Value | Let down by the story. | 5/10 |
| Lifespan | A short RPG, but then the developers do want you to complete it twice to fully complete it. Also, the fact you can't skip the credits or actually do anything after watching them puts the game time up by at least 2 hours. | 6/10 |
| Audio | Feels like it was missing something during those non-battle moments, especially during cut-scenes. I did like the battle music; it's no FFVII, but it's still good. And the voice-overs are annoying as hell, or just annoying, in English or Japanese respectively. | 5/10 |
| Overall | Even though you may not enjoy the majority of the game, the battle system compensates for this, so if anything, RPG fans should give it a go to try it out. | 7/10 |
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