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Once you can't your hands on it, you won't be able to stop.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Although its music is amazing and its environments are stunning, what is really great about Eternal Sonata is the gameplay. The battle system us a hybrid of turn based battles and hack and slash action. This gives you the opportunity to run around and attack in battle much like the Tales games, but since only one character moves at a time, you avoid the chaotic atmosphere of Tales games. As the game progesses, the rules on the battlefield change, such as the amount of time for attacks and chaining combo attacks. This keeps battles fresh til the very end. As the rules of battle changes through the game, you will be forced to think strategically about characters' strengths and weaknesses, and about what set of characters can best complement the others. AGain, Eternal Sonata manages to avoid getting stale as you shuffle your party around throughout the game. Exploration in Eternal Sonata appears shallow, but the linear movement of the game makes the experience relaxing and enjoyable. Because of its linear design, Eternal Sonata makes a great RPG for those who are put off by overwhelmingly complicated games. It's relatively short completion time (~35 hours) also may be appealing for those who want a great RPG experience, but don't want to spend 100 hours in front of their 360.

Overall, Eternal Sonata is unavoidably fun.

Fantastic

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Eternal SonataEasily one of the best RPG's in recent memory. An extremely creative Battle System, and an unbelievably clever system of light/dark that completely changes how any attack or enemy works. The cutscenes are very long, but they can be skipped from the pause menu for those who don't like sitting through them. The story is based upon the real life of Frederic Chopin mixed in with the strange world created in his comatose dream, and the two are seamlessly mixed, for creative story elements woven into real life history lessons. The characters are endearing and easily some of the best in any recent game--let alone RPG--and you'll find yourself really caring about them. Truly a 10/10.

A Magical Dream

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Eternal Sonata is a wonderfully beautiful and amazing work of art. The graphics, while not the realistic looking type that we go for today, are gorgeous. They are so vivid and so detailed, all the way from the hair and clothes of the characters, to the surroundings. Not an inch is missed!

And as far as rpgs go, this is one for the books with its introduction of a completely original battle system involving light and dark characteristics for characters/monsters moves and even the form monsters can take. The battle system also combines both elements of active time battles and turn based play, bringing an entirely new type of play that you must develop a strategy for!

It's a wonderful game and I would most definitely recommend it to anyone interested in a good RPG for the XBox 360.

Camera angle is unacceptable

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: February 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The inability to control the camera angle and zoom is unacceptable for a game for an advanced platform and for a game that cost so much. If this was a 19.99 special it would make sense. You can't control the camera angle at all, you can't zoom in on objects or so you can even see your character. I have just started this game and probably will not finish it. There are times that the character is so small on the screen that it blends in with the background and I can't even see where it is, forget about finding ladders to climb or treasure chests.
The incredibly long cut scenes are an annoyance and the story doesn't really exist.
I just finished Morrowind so this game was an incredible let down.

Not a great game, but if you are starving for RPG's, you may as well play it.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: January 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I had just finished playing 'Okami' (which is a fabulous game for PS2 or Wii) when I started playing Eternal Sonata. So, that might be part of my biased disappointment toward Eternal Sonata.

The first thing I noticed about Eternal Sonata is that it felt "OLD", even as a brand new game, and it seems like a game that was designed 5-10 years ago. The color is vivid in the game, but the gameplay itself lacks a modern feel. The characters at times move 2-dimensional directions and rarely have control over the full span of the screen, a similar feel to an old Nintendo game.

A lot of the design seems very lazy. Maybe half of the story scenes do cut to animated film of the characters talking with voices, but the other half of the time, they simply stand in front of something that might pace back and forth on screenwith text displaying on screen. Their mouths don't move, and it's just silly text-based narration. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why some parts are animated, and some are just boring text boxes that you escape by being forced to press 'A' over and over and over.

Gaining levels can be tedious. The battles are the same from beginning to end. This is another reason it feels old; each battle, your characters and the enemies stand in the same place every time. The battles are also turn-based. The only thing that changes from battle to battle is which side of the screen you'll be standing on and whether you or the enemy will have your back to the other, and also which characters you'll fighting with increased difficulty. Same with the battles with the bosses. The whole thing is turn-based and the same each time.

The story itself is laughable at best. It meanders and a lot of it doesn't make sense... nor is it engrossing. In fact it's downright stupid and pointless most of the time. The ending was almost the worst and nonsensical RPG ending ever, so look forward to that. The unfinished feel carries all the way to the very end after "45 MINUTES!" of ending and the credits rolling, when the game just goes to a frozen black screen, which you have reset the console just to even get back to the title screen.

As for achievements... about 1/4 to 1/3 of them can be achieved on the first runthrough (maybe 20-30 hours). To get all achievements, you must go through the game twice. You don't get to keep any of your hard-earned levels nor most of the items you acquired for the second runthough. You get to keep things called "scores" and something called "party levels", which assists you do to more damage in battles, but with more effort.

In the second runthrough, the enemies are more difficult, although the gameplay is identical and with very few new things to do or see. So, if it wasn't fun the first time... it'll be harder, and no more fun the second time, either.

One aside that may not bother everyone, but most of the battles are fighting animals who moan, groan, and wail when you're beating them with your weapons. After a while, it just kind of felt cruel.

Finally, there is no world map. Many times I wish I knew where I was relative to other places, but no such luck. If you forget which area you are in, you just have to run to the edges of each area until you find what you're looking for.

I would recommend this game only if you have time to spare and love RPGs. It's not the best title you can get your hands on, but it's fine if you like the genre. I tended to focus on negative aspects of the game, but there game itself is nice to look at, and some of the areas to explore can be interesting. Just don't expect perfection, because nothing about this game is perfect in any way.

kinda boring

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 8
Date: December 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

imma usually a role playing type of gamer. but this new generation system has boring rpgs. xbox 360 has more rpgs than ps3. but so far they are all kinda boring. blue dragon had big names but was not very fun, but you can get through it. i first saw this game called trusty bell and have been waiting for the north american release. but this game is extremely boring, i found myself not wanting to watching any cut scenes and just skip through it. graphics are nice, story is boring. i also finished mass effect, which is pretty much a copy of ideas from star wars/starship troopers and other sci-fi movies, but at least it was more fun than either blue dragon/eternal sonata. so far, rpgs have been a complete failure for this generation. next i'm waiting for fable 2. i'm not all that interested in FFXIII after how boring FFXII was.

Great game and original RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: October 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I loved this game since I first played the demo. Music is classic and RPG play is very original.

What I like about this RPG is that the battle system is creative, and the game runs continually and smoothly. What I mean by this, is that unlike other RPGs in the past, you don't have to purchase a zillion items to advance through the various stages of the game, and also buying items is extremely easy.

The spoiler for having lots of money in this game is taking pictures and selling them at item shops. They pay pretty good money for even a C rated picture. Money you can hardly get from defeating enemies in battle or finding items in different places.

I'm not a great art and music fan. It's just not me, but I love some of the music of this game, and you learn from Chopin's life in a kind of biography, as that is what the game is about... his dream.

Cutscences are what this game is all about

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game play may not be all that great, but it's still fun though.

This big thing about this game is the cut scenes; you just want to keep playing to find out what happens to polka next; it's almost like watching some anime.

I found the game to be interesting and that whole thing with chopin interesting too, and there are a lot of deep symbols in this game, that goes very deep into human nature; if you listen to all the cut scences you might just learn somthing.

Probably Not

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: January 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Bottom Line: This game has enough major flaws to turn off all but the most devoted, patient RRG gamer.

A lot has been said about Eternal Sonata's visuals. The cutscenes and special attacks are beautiful. But so are many games-- the visuals here are merely consistent with this console generation.* In fact, I would argue that Blue Dragon's blur engine is superior. The landscapes are well-designed, if a bit too multi-colored for my taste.

ES's battle concept is fresh. The time you have to strategize is limited and gets shorter and shorter as your party progresses. Any maneuvering on the battlefield is also subtracted from your turn length. Unfortunately, the end result of these innovations is that by mid-game ES feels like nothing more than a button-mashing fighter. Which is a MAJOR turn-off for RPG fans. There is also almost no customization, and only three members of your party can participate in any battle. Another huge turn-off.

Otherwise, the gameplay is weak. No game in this generation should have a fixed camera, no matter what the trade-off-- even with cutting-edge graphics, this is so outdated. And I guess every game produced nowadays has to have annoying puzzles; I chose to skip as many as I could, even though I didn't get the special prizes (weapons and armor). Also, this game is the definition of linear-- you go where the story goes and nowhere else. No side quests!

But the storyline itself is where ES ultimately flounders. Character motivations are unbelievable. Voice acting ranges from dull (Polka) to mind-blowingly obnoxious (Salsa). The dialogue is preachy and can be excruciatingly redundant. The ending doesn't really make sense. You want to forgive all of this because the setting is a dream, but it's too much.

Conclusion: If you are a hardcore JRPG fan, rent and beat this game (30-ish hours). There aren't many RPG's on this console and we have to take what we can get. Then buy Blue Dragon, which is better and 2-3 times longer for the same price. For everyone else, this one is a maybe. I doubt anybody couldn't beat this game, and it's probably sort of fun if you're a kid.

* Check out Gears of War, Bioshock, Blue Dragon, The Darkness etc. etc. if you don't agree.

"Classically" awesome.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Just got this today for the X-Box 360. I hate to be a graphics whore, but the art and graphics for this game is amazing. I've never seen anything look so good through my HDTV, and that's saying a lot.

The game is fairly unique in that it's based off the last few hours of composer Frederic Chopin's life, in the hours he was unconscious and near death. While in this state, he enters a realm of high-fantasy that contrasts sharply from the dark and dreary surroundings of old timey France.

Since this involves Chopin, the game revolves a lot around all things musical. Even the characters in your party are thusly named; Allegreto, Beat,Polka etc.

The gameplay is just as unique, as depending on whether you sneak up on enemies from behind, from the right side, from the left, or head on, it makes a difference in the battle. Yeah, that's not so unique, but while in battle light and shadown play a big role. Some monsters are weaker or stronger depending on whether you fight them in the sunshine or lure them into the darkness. Monsters can also mutate into other forms depending on if they are in the light or shadow. Battles are sort of real time, when you start a meter starts counting down and you can attack until that meter runs out. Every time you hit an enemy, it fills some of that meter back up. So it's in your best interest to attack fast and furiously as it gives you more time to attack. There's also numerous ways to use "Echo points" in every battle which make your special attacks more powerful. There is one thing I didn't like about the combat, and that's the fact that your average run of the mill enemy is easy to somewhat easy to kill, but the boss battles, and there are many of them, are long and hard. I'm 3 hours into the game and have fought 4 or 5 boss monsters already, most of them nearly wiped out my party by the end, and the latest one I've tried 5 times and have yet to beat him. I'm sure he has some weakness I'm not exploiting, but it still seems a bit uneven compared to regular battles.

The complaint about assigning items I didn't find a problem either. It reminded me of how you had to use items in a very limited space in Odin Sphere for the PS2. Once you get used to it, it becomes another strategic gameplay mechanic.

Some have said that the story isn't up to par, and while you're in the fantasy world it is pretty cliche, but there's a lot, a TON of backstory and character development, so you get to know your party members fairly well, even early on.

I'm quite surprised that over the last few months most places rated Blue Dragon higher than Eternal Sonata higher than Eternal Sonata. Blue Dragon is a great game, but I find Eternal Sonata a lot funner and more in-depth than Blue Dragon.

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