This is my first video game review. Constructive criticism will be appreciated.
Chopin is on his deathbed, and he is also in an alternate dimension populated with generic
shounen anime staples? What is he going to do?
This game really is as silly as it sounds. I had fun with it, but I am aware that there are countless others who will have far less endurance for this than I have.
Visuals - 4 / 5It's glossy. It's bright. It pops out of my LED screen. Most of the character designs overflow with cuteness. Most of the monster designs overflow with cuteness, as well. If this game were a bigger hit than it turned out to be, I could easily imagine plush dolls being made with the monster designs on display here. This is a crisp and candy-colored world that exists only in the genre of JRPGs. Even in the midst of battle, the visuals rarely give the impression that there is any real danger in sight.
The contrast between light and dark spots on the battlefields are a large portion of this game. It all looks great for those who are looking for an aggressively bold ambiance, but anybody who is allergic to a visual scheme that is brighter and louder than what most
shounen anime has to offer should probably steer clear.
On the upside, it is all very sharp and crisp. I noticed no framerate hiccups during the entire two playthroughs I had. The graphics do what they intend to do very well. Whether or not one enjoys it is all a matter of personal taste.
Sound - 3.5 / 5If one is looking for a great example of 5.1 sound from the 360, look no further from here. From the opening cinematic sequence, I was hooked on the sound editing. The use of background noises, and the surround effects in the battles, are on the same level as what I get from DVDs of mainstream Hollywood action flicks.
I was disappointed, however, in the soundtrack. For a game that has Chopin as one of its main characters, the score that plays through most of the game is rather lacking in the life and vitality that his work was known for. It's typical JRPG filler music, nothing more, nothing less. At least it sounds great when Chopin's music does get some time in the game.
I played through this game in Japanese with English subtitles. I would have appreciated subtitles during the ending cinematic sequences. I did switch it back to English before the final fight just so I could understand what they were saying. From what I can tell, the voice acting on both tracks is competent. Some characters have pleasant voices, some are shrill and loud. But overall, nothing stands out in this regard.
Story - 2 / 5I don't expect my JRPG stories to make sense.
Eternal Sonata did not disappoint me in that respect.
This is a typical "let's form a party with anime staple characters and have them save the world from the evil King" yarn. It would have worked a lot better if it left Chopin out of the picture. This world supposedly takes place in Chopin's mind on his deathbed. I suppose the producers thought they were entering high-concept territory. Well, I guess it is high-concept; they must've conceptualized this angle of the story while they were high.
It is relatively inoffensive and it demands little from the player. The real problem is that there are many story cutscenes that drag on forever. This includes a ten-minute death scene that features flashbacks to another cutscene that happened immediately before it. It also includes a lot of dialogue where one character states the obvious right after another. I skipped the cutscenes during the second playthrough for this very reason.
Gameplay - 2 / 5For anybody seeking a JRPG with combat that is low in challenge, look no further than here. It is easy to pick up, easy to learn, and easy to master. With each increase in the party level (there are five such increases in the game), combat actually gets much easier. Most of the supposedly tough enemies in this game's only optional dungeon all died without getting to strike back while I chained attacks on them.
Getting pre-emptive strikes is also ridiculously easy during most of the game. The only enemies that are immune to that are one flaming horse enemy type in Chapter 2, one rather large enemy type in the next-to-last story dungeon, bosses and a few enemies in the game that the coders intentionally made sure I could not back-attack.
Mastering the battle system is all about timing the button-presses and paying some degree of attention. It's a combination of turn-based and real-time combat that is incredibly simple. The use of light and dark elements is also put into play - where a character is standing in a battlefield determines what special attacks he/she can use. A character standing under a lamp will have a different set of skills to use than when he is standing under the shadow of a massive dragon, for example. It sounds a lot more complex on this computer screen than it actually is.
It also is ridiculously easy to get most of the best gear in the game at any given time in the story by having one character take photos of bosses to sell to shopkeepers for big bucks, so there really is very little excuse not to have weapons and armor that are appropriate with the level of the party characters.
There was only one battle in the game that proved to be problematic for me, and that was the first boss battle in Chapter 4. It is also worth noting that this battle was only problematic during the second playthrough, where all of the enemies are beefed up in terms of attack, defense and health.
There is one point of genuine annoyance I have found in the second playthrough, however. The collectibles require a lot of backtracking to earlier parts in the game. Somehow, the programmers neglected to program the enemies that you can now kill in a single hit to run away from you when you revisit these areas. I just wanted to get the damn collectibles and move on. I did not want to waste 15 additional minutes because one band of rats I can kill in a single hit kept on running towards me after another.
All in all, this is probably the easiest combat I ever played in a JRPG. There is some degree of strategy, but it is a joke in comparison to what is the norm in the usual turn-based JRPG.
Achievements - 1 / 5Well, here it is. 22 achievements worth 1,000 gamerscore. 17 of these can be obtained on the first playthrough for a less-than-whopping 340 points. The last five require not only a second playthrough in "Encore" mode, but if you don't use a walkthrough at the start of the first playthrough to tell you where all of the score pieces are, consider yourself screwed. A walkthrough is mandatory for the bulk of the gamerscore, unless one wants to spend 600 hours clicking on every object in every corner of every room in every house in every world, just to find all of the score pieces and EZI items. If you don't know how to read musical notes, a walkthrough is also mandatory for the full gamerscore.
It took me about 60 hours altogether for full gamerscore completion. Do not be fooled by the large TA ratio. This takes a lot less time than other JRPGs with lower ratios, and it is a lot easier. But a walkthrough is the only thing that makes completion here even remotely possible. Any gamer seeking the full 1,000 here would be screwed without one. The random nature of where the collectibles are located guarantee that.
Final Verdict (not an average) - 3 / 5I am biased towards JRPGs. I am a sucker for bright colors. I am a sucker for generic anime characters. It'll kill my brain cells in the end, but my personal tastes say that a game like
Eternal Sonata is worth three stars, even if most of its parts are graded less than that.
But when it comes to recommending this to others..... I'll be more honest and give it a 2. There are far greater JRPGs for the 360 than this. I'm glad I completed it. Now I'll move on.
2.0