Everyday Gamer

The great composer Frederic Chopin, while on his deathbed, has a series of wild visions and dreams that transport him into an alternate reality, where he must join forces with a group of outcasts to save that dream land. With that wacky scenario as a premise, Eternal Sonata takes players into one of the most fanciful and bizarre worlds found in videogames today. The story, told through a series of in-game cutscenes featuring the real and dream worlds, interwoven with historical occurrences of Chopin’s life, is certainly a strange concoction. Yet Eternal Sonata will charm RPG fans with likeable and memorable characters, gorgeous visuals, and a fun battle system .

Gameplay Eternal Sonata shares a lot in common with the GameCube original Baten Kaitos and its sequel, from its artistic style to character designs to its presentation. While the gameplay is certainly different in regards to the battle mechanics, the games still feel very similar in execution. The game’s exploration segments feature a capable non-user controlled camera system that, for the most part, presents the gorgeous scenery appropriately. There are times where the proper route is obscured or difficult to see because of the camera angles, but in general the game handles the camera well and presents the most appropriate angle to not only show the relevant locations, but present them in a spectacular way.The battle system is mix of real time and turn based combat, in which you attack in real time, but have to wait until its one of your character’s turn before being able to attack again. The amount of time you and your enemies have to attack is dictated by a timer on the left hand side of the screen. At first, you are given an unlimited amount of tactical time to prepare your items and attacks before the timer starts, but as you progress, the time you have to prepare is limited, and so is your total attack time. I wish the game had kept the initial unlimited tactical time, if for no other reason than it is often times necessary to pause a bit to look at your characters, their health status, the items queue, and the position of your enemies. You can use the time when you’re being attacked as tactical time, but because the game allows you to block certain attacks by timing a button press, that’s what you’d rather be doing.Still, you eventually get used to shifting items around BEFORE entering fights, since you can see most enemies before you engage them. Besides your standard slashing attacks, you can perform special attacks that cause more damage, but take more time to execute. Also, by using your standard attacks only, you build up the strength of your special attacks. In the end, this creates a variety of ways to approach each battle, since you can build up your special attack’s strength and use that to heal your other characters or to allow your strongest character the most strength for his/her special attack. When you’re fighting powerful enemies, you’ll appreciate the flexibility this provides, but unfortunately fighting the common enemies tends to get tedious once you find the pattern that works best for them.

Graphics The graphics in Eternal Sonata are nothing short of stunning. The game looks like a collection of paintings in motion, much like the backdrops to Baten Kaitos. The difference, of course, is that the game is rendered in real time unlike Baten Kaitos, which allows for dramatic camera sweeps and changing angles that show off the impressive amount of detail the developers placed into every area. The locales vary between saccharin sweet vistas to dark, brooding swamps that still manage to look beautiful and inviting. The art in this game is top notch, and is reflected in the meticulous detail that even mundane items like background trees and even doors display. Cell shading has always looked spectacular in games like Wind Waker, but Eternal Sonata is obviously the next evolution of this technique, with detailed characters and huge environments. The attire on some of the characters seems overly complex at times, but that is obviously something that is apparent in other role playing series like Final Fantasy.

Sound The music in Eternal Sonata matches the upbeat and energetic vibe of the visuals as well. For the cutscenes, piano driven tunes inspired by Chopin serve as the background to beautiful imagery with information on his life. It’s all very well put together, and gels nicely with the overall contrast between bright cheerfulness and the gloomy fate that awaits the composer. The battle scenes feature an uptempo tune, but unfortunately it doesn’t vary and ends up feeling repetitive as the hours go by. The game features quite a bit of voice acting, and while there are a few character’s whose voice I found annoying, it’s clear that the localization team spent a good deal of time making sure the conversations carried some sense of genuineness. Not the best voice work I’ve heard, mostly because some character’s voices are far too clichéd, but very competent nonetheless.For fans of Baten Kaitos and its sequel, Eternal Sonata is a no-brainer, since the games are so similar in presentation and overall feel. And RPG fans in general will find something to like about this game, whether it’s the visuals, the battle system, or the engaging characters. While relying somewhat on the typical RPG stereotypes, Eternal Sonata still manages to be unique and interesting. While the Xbox 360 is known for its large library of shooting games, it’s certainly refreshing that great role playing games like Eternal Sonata can still find a home on the console.

9/10