All right, I've been working on this on and off for a few days now, and I'm at least reasonably satisfied with it, though I probably said a bit more than I needed to (my reviews aren't usually quite so lengthy.) Nevertheless, here goes...
(Eternal Sonata is available for both XBox 360 and PlayStation 3. Note that Frederic Chopin isn't even featured on the cover of the XBox 360 version, which hints at just how different the two are.)
"Frederic, you said before that this whole world is all just a dream you're having, right? But if you're in your own dream, how can you be so completely positive that what's happening is only a dream. And if what you're experiencing in the dream is so realistic to you, how you can even tell what's actually the real world? And to prove my point, you didn't read my mind earlier. You were wrong. I was thinking about leaving Tenuto. I want to go out into the world and live my own life, even if it only exists inside your dream. I don't know how much time I have left to live, but I want to live what's left of my life in a positive way, bringing happiness to others. I just want to help people somehow." - Polka - Eternal Sonata
(A field of flowers that absorb sunlight during the day and then bloom only at night - do you choose to call them "Death Lights" or "Heaven's Mirror"?)
Eternal Sonata is a Japanese RPG released in 2007, originally known by the title Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream The game was originally released for the XBox 360 console, but was issued for the PlayStation 3 about a year later with a significant amount of additional content and two additional characters made playable.
As the game opens, famed Polish composer Fr�d�ric Fran�ois Chopin lies in bed, seriously ill, attended by his older sister, mother and personal physician. As he lies there, he has a strange dream, one which seems to mirror the events of his life... At first, Chopin does not find himself much invested, believing it to be only a dream. However, as the story continues, the line between dream and reality begins to blur...
Fitting with the theme of the story reflecting the life of Frederic Chopin and being Chopin's dream, all of the characters and locations are named after various music terms. For example, names of characters include Jazz, Crescendo and Viola, while locations include the Sharp Mountains, Forte and Ritardando.
Regarding the characters, for the most part, everyone that's playable has something important to contribute to the story. Except for that one character, each character has their own role to play and each contributes something important to the story and the game would have been less without them. While Frederic Chopin is key to the story, he is rarely (perhaps never?) your avatar that navigate in the field. That role usually goes to either Allegretto, or Polka if Allegretto isn't in the party at the time.
(A young Polka holds hands with her mother, who knows, even now, that her daughter will face great difficulties and challenges in life.)
Both of these characters are able to use "magic," which for them, isn't such a good thing. In this world, anyone who can use magic also has a vaguely-defined incurable illness that is always fatal. Because of this, Polka has been shunned because people fear that they will catch her illness - a baseless fear, as the illness isn't contagious. The game, for some reason, is rather unclear as to exactly what this "magic" is. In Polka's case, it seems to be the ability to heal others, but here's the thing - all of the characters possess abilities in battle that seem to have magical effects - such as being able to heal others, enchant their attacks with elemental powers, or other such things that theoretically wouldn't be possible without magic powers. What's more, every character possesses a stat called "Mag" that increases each time you level up. It's true that for Chopin and Polka, it seems to be much higher than that of the other characters, but still, if they were truly the only ones that could use magic, than none of the others should have it.
If you read other reviews of this game, you may see a fair few complaints about the story. It's true that as far as RPGs go, some elements are rather generic. The themes are the sort of thing you would expect - revolution against a hostile force, trying to make something of one's life, taking responsibility for one's actions, etc. etc. In fact, certain lines and aspects feel feel very Kingdom Hearts in nature - such as a reference to character having a "jewel in her heart that shines brighter than any other." However, what's important to note is that much of what you see and hear within the game is symbolism, based on the events of Frederic Chopin's life. What's more, there are quite a few character-based moments that are definitely entertaining. If the game gets people to think, then I think that it is worth the time and money. Even more so, if they really learn something both about Frederic Chopin and the history of the early 1800s, or even better if their experience playing the game encourages them to seek out additional information.
Of particular interest - this is one game where your choice of console makes quite a bit of difference. The game was originally released for XBox 360, but if you have both that and a PlayStation 3, there's only one real reason why you might consider playing on XBox 360 instead of PlayStation 3 - the Xbox 360 version makes use of the Achievements system for the XBox LIVE network, but the PlayStation 3 version doesn't have Trophies for PSN. This is, apparently, because Eternal Sonata was a "launch title" for the PS3 and it was released before the Trophy system had been developed.
Assuming that sharing your achievements within the game isn't a huge concern for you, then you're almost certainly better off playing the PlayStation 3 version, if you can get it. The Playstation 3 version includes a boatload of extras, including two characters that have been made playable that previously weren't, some entirely new locations, and new bonuses, such as the ability to dress certain characters in "costumes." But perhaps the biggest and most important changes are to the plot - apparently, it's rather like a director's cut. Entire new scenes have been added, and others have been greatly modified to either make the characters more likeable and bring understanding to them, or clarify issues related to the plot that were somewhat murky in the original XBox 360 version. Having not played the original XBox 360 version, I don't have a personal experience of the difference, but just from looking at a guide to the differences, I can tell that they're very significant - rather like the difference between watching the original Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children on DVD or watching Advent Children Complete on Blu-ray.
(Visually, the battles look about the same in both versions, save the altered control scheme.)
Let's take some time to talk about the combat system. As far as normal enemy encounters go, the process is sort of like Final Fantasy XIII. In general, you'll see enemies in the field, and having an encounter with one of them takes you into a separate battle screen. Eternal Sonata, however, adds another dimension, by allowing you to control the battle conditions based on how you handle these encounters. If you just walk up to the enemy face-on, then you have a normal encounter. However, if you approach the enemy from behind, then you initiate a back-attack, which essentially means that your characters are guaranteed the first strike. (And depending on your speed, may be allowed up two turns before the enemy even has a chance to attack.) The one thing you don't want to do is allow the enemy to approach you from behind, because then they get the first strike. This has both its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, if you just have a normal encounter, you can escape from it. In fact, I've found a very valid strategy to be to escape from any normal encounter, which will then give you an opportunity to approach the enemy from the back and give you a more favorable battle condition. On the other hand, while battles are for the most part easily avoided when you don't want them, you can't run to escape on the field like you can in Final Fantasy XII. Enemies will sometimes pursue, so if you're not paying attention, you could very well end up in a back attack situation, and the game won't let you escape until one of your characters gets a turn.
Right, now to getting down to the actual battles. Once a battle is initiated, your team is taken onto a battle field containing both light and dark areas - more on those in a bit. Both characters and enemies can move about within this battlefield and are generally spaced out throughout it. The game employs both a turn-based system and real-time combat. So, as you would expect, both your characters and the enemies get turns. When one of your characters has a turn, they can either move about the battlefield, or take an action. Something that will be somewhat familiar to those who have played Final Fantasy X-2 - your characters get chain attacks. The more you attack, the higher the chain builds, in intervals of 4 up to 16, at which point you need 8 more in order to advance it to the next level of 24, and then 8 more again for the max of 32. Building this chain increases the effect when you use a characters' special ability. These special abilities generally allow the characters to either attack or heal, though they sometimes also add some sort of special effect. Believe me, you want to be using these abilities, though you have to determine the balance of how much time you want to spend powering them up, or whether you'd rather attempt to unleash multiple ones within one turn. Or even, in fact, whether you want to unleash one within a particular turn at all, because the attack chain is shared by all of your characters, and doesn't reset until one of them uses a special ability. Each character uses a different type of weapons and unlike some games, this choice actually matters. There are a variety of different weapons, ranging from the traditional swords, to Beat, who uses something like the Final Fantasy series gunblade weapons, except in his case, his weapon is a combination of a gun and hammer. He can use it as a hammer at close range, or a attack from a distance with the gun portion. Both also figure into the choices of special attacks that you get for him. There is also another character, Viola, who uses crossbows that can deliver either powerful long-range attacks, but can also be used at close-range when needed. I would like to be able to say that each character is equally useful, but with 10 playable characters (12 if you're playing on PS3), I'm afraid that this just isn't so. Some have statistics that make them obviously more powerful than others, and later in the game I found myself mostly fighting with the same party. Due to the situations of the story, though, you usually don't have the full group at your command till late, though most of the time, you do have choices. Luckily, the game only rarely forces you into situations where you have to include a particular character in your party. Admittedly, in my first playthrough (I'm currently on my second in "Encore Mode,"), I only leveled my main party to around Level 55 or so (and the others to mid-40s - characters that aren't in your battle party gain half EXP), so I didn't get the chance to explore the full range of special abilities for each character, which you gain every so often with a level up.
What's a lot different about this game from something like a Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts type game is what happens when it's an enemy's turn. In those games, you're normally either readying your next attack (or whatever other option you're taking) or doing nothing while the enemy is acting. In Eternal Sonata, it's different. Each time the enemy attacks, you have the option to Guard by hitting the circle button at the right moment. This is key, because if you successfully guard, then generally you limit the damage to taken by at least half and sometimes quite a bit more. Also, later in the game, you're offered the option to counterattack instead by hitting X. This is very powerful because it does three things - completely negates the damage from the attack, ends the enemy's turn and allows the character that blocked the attack an extra turn (about half the time of a normal attack.) There's just one problem - which great power comes great difficulty. You see, not only is the timing generally more difficult on a counterattack, but counterattack is offered at random. Therefore, if you want try for it, you have to listen very carefully for the sound effect, and not let yourself be thrown off it doesn't appear. On the whole, it's rather tough to determine if it's actually worth it, because if you miss it, then you also miss out on the opportunity to guard, and end up getting creamed by the full power of the enemy's attack. One other thing - if the enemy approaches your character from behind, then you're not given any opportunity to guard at all, at least until you're able to turn your charcter around by using circle, and this can take some time. This can present a real problem if there's more than one enemy in the battlefield and your own characters are spread out also.
Boss fights can be challenging. One problem is that later on in the game, boss fights often seem to be more of a test of endurance than anything else. Rather than having particularly powerful or tricky attacks, the bosses instead have massive amounts of HP, so the result of the battle becomes a question of which will give out first - the enemy, or your characters and their supply of items. There is no "scan" option - the only indicator that you'll get is that the enemy will appear doubled over if they're low on HP, but even this is only of limited use, because they also appear that way if they're under some sort of negative status effect, such as poison. Oh, and it's definitely worth mentioning the game's "Party Level" system, as it changes the dynamics of the battles as you go throughout the game. When you begin the game, you start with a system where you're allowed a certain amount of "Tactical Time" (at first unlimited), where you simply sit and do nothing at the start of a characters' turn and survey the battlefield. However, you're only allowed an extremely limited number of items and no special attacks. As you move forward in the game, the Party Level increases, taking away the Tactical Time, but allowing you much more in terms of special attacks, and more items. However, items max out at 40 points, but this doesn't mean 40 items necessary. Items have a point cost, ranging from 1 point to around something like 8-10 points for the most useful items. This is something else to consider for the difficult battles, becuase you can't just rely on a large supply of items to save you. Once they're gone, they're gone for the remainder of the battle.
One other annoying thing about the battles - something I thought was a bug at first - for some reason they decided to map the option to skip a characters' turn to L3, or pushing in the left analog stick. This is something that is very easy to do by accident and I didn't even realize what was happening because until I asked about this problem online, I didn't even realize what the L3 button was, exactly. Once I found out what was going on, I started using more of a light touch when moving the characters, but even now, I sometimes still skip a characters' turn by accident.
While battles could be challenging at times, one thing that I liked was that in general I did not have to spend too much time level-grinding, at least in the intiial playthrough. Of course, since you for the most part have control over your encounters, you can choose whether to take the battles as they come, or adventure through an area, and then spend some time building your characters. There were only maybe three or four times probably that I actually felt the need to do some level-grinding before I could take on a boss battle. This was good because the game has a disappointing lack of enemy variety. In any given area, there would be two, perhaps maybe three at most different types of enemies that you could fight - for example, a pirate ship that contained two different types of pirates. Would it really have been too difficult to maybe include some mutated sea creatures or something? Oh, and I already mentioned the light and dark areas, but this was one thing that increased the variety of enemies, sort of. On occasion, you would encounter enemies that could morph between "light" and "dark" forms. When in a light area of the field, they would become a completely different creature from what they would be in the dark area, and one form was usually much tougher than the other. You could choose to either take on the tougher form, or try to force it into a different area.
(The appearance of Ritardando, a small seaside village, evokes memories of Final Fantasy IX's Alexandria Castle..)
Graphically, the game is beautiful. Unfortunately, the game does not offer you the ability to rotate the camera within the field, or in any way alter the view other than by moving around. I don't know if this is because they simply didn't develop full 3D environments, but it's something of a shame, because there were many times when I was enchanted by the graphics and wished to have a better look. Stylistically, the game appears a lot like Final Fantasy IX, except, of course, with beautiful, HD/PlayStation 3 quality graphics. Even the font that they use for the opening credits is very similar to Final Fantasy IX, as are the field icons.
Music - I think it's fair to say that a game which bases itself on the life of a classical music composer and which features said composer as a playable character would be expected to have excellent music. Eternal Sonata not only fulfills this criteria, it greatly exceeds it. The game's original music is composed by Motoi Sakuraba, whose credits include Super Smash Brothers Brawl, the Star Ocean games, and the Valkyrie Profiile series. The music works exactly as you would expect it to. The battle themes are thrilling and engaging, the location themes are well-suited to each area and there are also wonderful character themes and music for the various cutscenes. What is more, actual compositions from Frederic Chopin are featured throughout the game, played expertly by Stanislav Bunin during the scenes in which the player learns about the history of Frederic Chopin's life.
Before I wrap up, I'd like to mention some pleasant technical aspects of the game. One of them is that you are offered the option of either the English dub or the original Japanese. Personally, I don't have much interest in listening to people speak in a language I don't understand, if I can help it, but this might be worthwile for some people. A number of reviewers have commented that they feel the original Japanese vocals are greatly superior to the dub, though I didn't have any problem with the English-language voices. You also have a choice of either English or French subtitles. Another nice things is the ability to skip cutscenes, which can be quite useful at times, given the difficulty of some of the battles. One other thing - the game also allows you to access from the menu any music that you've previously heard, including battle, location and character themes, and this data carries over if you beat the game and play in "Encore Mode."
Okay, I realize that this review has been rather lengthy, so in conclusion I'll just say that if you've enjoyed Final Fantasy-type games in the past, or other games of this nature, then you'll likely enjoy Eternal Sonata. To be sure, you're unlikely to find another RPG featuring a 1800s classical music composer as a core character, nor one that would take breaks from its gameplay/story to provide you with a life history of said composer. Even if you don't have time for the game at the moment, or don't have a system to play it on, the soundtrack in itself is worth a look.
("The Shape of Life," or "The Snail and the Caterpillar")
One other thing - a sidenote - I'd like to share something, a cute little parable of sorts that was included at the end of the game called "Shape of Life." Since it doesn't have anything to do with the plot of the game itself, it doesn't spoil anything. You can find it here (
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4808997/1/The_Shape_Of_Life) - somebody posted a script of it there. As the person who posted it mentioned, you have to have patience to see this, as it doesn't appear until after the message "Fin" appears. And here (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xt1PDhvjyA) is the music that goes along with it.