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How do I hate this game; Let me count the ways

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 17
Date: November 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have only one good thing to say for this game: it is visually stunning, one of the most beautiful games I have ever played. Everything else I have to say about this game is negative. The characters lack depth and bore the player to tears. Character's motivations are either unbelievable or non-existent. The dialog is even worse than the characters. It is repetitious, the obvious is stated over and over, and seldom contributes to the development of the plot or of the characters. We soon find ourselves wishing Chopin would just die and end it all.

In the beginning of the game we are told Polka can use magic, but she is terminally ill, since only terminally ill characters have magic powers. We expect Polka's magic to be a key factor in the game, but in fact, she never has need of it. Polka, as one of the lead characters, should also be one of the strongest characters. Instead, she is a powerless wimp, who ends each failed attack with the words, "I'm sorry." Since there are a total of nine playable characters, one soon stops playing her. However, it is necessary to level up all the characters, because the game will suddenly force you to battle using a character you have not chosen to use. By leveling up all the characters, we soon run out of necessities, such as floral bouquet. To replenish most needed items, we must get them from treasure chests, because the local shops do not sell them. Treasure chests are few and far between.

The battle system is horrible. In the later stages of the game, when we play a boss, the system attempts to make the boss more difficult to beat by constantly moving it in front of your player characters, so it becomes impossible to control them, because we can't see them. Each turn is time based. Nearly half of each time-based turn is spent approaching the monster, which has been moved away from the player character during the monster's turn. The monsters, of course, have distance attack, but only two of the player characters do, and their distance attacks are very weak. To replenish lost health points, or to revive a character during battle, requires that another character lose its turn. We are never allowed to know how many health points belong to the monsters, so we never know our status in relationship to them.

Then there are the musical sessions. Unless we read music our chances of success with them are slim and none.

These are just a few of this game's low points. Unlike the typical X-Box 360 game, Eternal Sonata is completely two dimensional. There are no side quests either. In my opinion, this game is not worth $[...]. Wait and buy it used at your local game store at a price appropriate to its lack of quality.

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.

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.

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.

A beautiful drem... but a let down as well

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 16
Date: September 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

First off, this is a great game. There are alot of great aspects but as i got far in the game and eventually beat it, there seemed to be more cons that just led to very mixed feelings. (mainly a consequence from the near political messages that constantly pop up in this game)

Ive been waiting a long time for this game. Final Fantasy has always been my favorite game cause I love story so of course when I heard about this game, I was excited. The creative aspect that you're in the dream world of one of the greatest pianists ever, Chopin is a gret idea but if you are to include such a respected man and put him into a JRPG fantasy world, you have to be real careful and to be honest, I dont think this game does a great job portraying Chopin... But then again, can you really put a man like Chopin into a corny JRPG and accurately portray him?

The first 5hrs of the game, I thought it was going to be my all time favorite game. call it slow if you want but I thought the beginning of the game was near perfect. Alot of effort was put in to build up the main characters and show how they meet. I love how Chopin was introduced and the music is amazing. I couldnt put the game down but after about 6hrs, the newer characters were less creative and joined the party in less creative ways. It got to the point where the party would meet and the new character would say: "you saved my sheep. I will join you"... and so she did. It just didnt stay as cool and inventive as it started out to be.

The game's base is pretty awesome: you are in Chopin's dream. This is one reason the first 5hrs of the game is so creative: you are introduced to the world and the awesome idea that its a dream... but unfortunately after you get past that point, its almost as if that creative aspect dissapears. Chopin starts to accept that this "dream world" is real, the mystery and enchantment starts to dissipate and the game just turns into a regular old JRPG with a bland story with a pianist as a character. The concept is cool but the actual story that takes place in this fantasy world isnt anything great and new. An evil guy that looks like he's 13yrs old named count waltz wants world domination (wow thats new) and he's selling a medicinal herb that turns people into bad guys to achieve his goal. So as you can guess, our band of heroes goes to stop this crazy teenager.

The best things about the game have to be the graphics and the battle system. The game looks so great. The environments are lush with movement and captivation and the characters are very detailed. If you have an HD tv, you're in for a treat. The battle system is great. Its turn-based with a mixture of action and strategy. When its your turn, you have a time limit to make your decisions, move around the battle field and act. The only thing I found irritating about the battle system is that it evolves as you level. In translation, the battle system gains levles and gets harder by giving you less time to act, changing the way you use special attacks, etc. I think this to be a great idea but I didnt think it to be necessary.

As for the overall game, The story is surrounded by corny lines (which most jrpgs have) mediocre voice acting and the the WORST thing about the game... messages that have to do with war, peace and the environment..... Did al gore write this game??

Thats right... All through the game you get little messages about how war is bad and how mankind is just destructive towards the environment... Now if those are your beliefs, thats great but I dont think a fantasy RPG is the place for them and I will think twice before buying a bandai videogame next time. I want to slap whoever had the idea of doing this... By the end of the game, i felt like I had been tricked into buying a liberal game when I thought I was getting a fantasy adventure revolving around my favorite pianist. I guess the infection of politics moves from movies now to games... its a shame.

So if the game would have reamained as creative as it started, the voice acting was better and there was NO little messages, this in my opinion would be one of the greatest games out there.

Mediocre JRPG

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 10
Date: December 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is a mediocre Japanese-style RPG for the XBox 360. It's worth your while to play it simply because there aren't many JRPGs on this platform. How much you will enjoy this game depends on the particular type of JRPG that you prefer.

Forget this game if you like your RPGs to have grand, epic storylines. If your preference tend to lean towards the likes of Final Fantasy and Xenosaga, with their deeply-emotional storylines, well-developed characters, grand orchestral soundtracks, and elaborate cinematics, then please stay away from Eternal Sonata. You will find none of those here.

If you don't really care to have a grand story, or an intriguing plot, then you might like this one. What Eternal Sonata will give you is a battle system that is easy to learn. There will be huge dungeons to navigate, and many, many opportunities to get lost in them. These dungeons also have many dead ends. Basically, the game will keep you very busy, and at the same time the story unfolding very slowly. The enemy battles in the dungeons are highly repetitive. Every time you engage the same type of enemy in a particular dungeon, the battle will play out exactly the same way. It will get old rather quickly if you're accustomed to a lot of variety in your game. There's definitely plenty of "activity"; however, whether such can be called "gameplay" depends on how you define the latter.

If simply navigating through lots of wrong turns, fighting the same exact battles over and over again constitute gameplay for you, then you will be happy with this game. If you're like me and prefer your gameplay to have a point (meaning it moves the story forward and unfolds the plot in a logical way), then you will be unsatisfied with Eternal Sonata.

Eternal Sonata is made by the same developer (Tri-Crescendo) that made Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean and Baten Kaitos Origins. Monolith Soft, the developer of Xenosaga, had a hand in developing the first Baten Kaitos. However, ES is nothing at all like Xenosaga or your typical Playstation RPG. Eternal Sonata plays more like a Nintendo game. Which the two Baten Kaitos are, by the way.

Eternal Sonata is not at all what I would expect from an RPG that was designed for a next-generation video game platform. There are no grand cinematics here. As a matter of fact, you will have to do a lot of reading because just about all of the lines are not "spoken". There's very little spoken dialogue in the game. I almost felt like I was playing on a Gamecube! As I said, Eternal Sonata is more like a typical Nintendo game, which tend to eschew deep plot, character development, epic story, and grand soundtrack in favor of puzzles and repetitive battles.

The story begins at the deathbed of Frederic Chopin. As the hours of his life tick away, he begins to dream. And the game takes place in his "dreamworld". There was a lot of potential here to develop a truly moving and epic story. However, Tri-Crescendo chose to keep the story light and character development became just an afterthought. The dialogue in the game are oftentimes awkward. It's not a problem with the voice-acting though. If you have played any of the Xenosaga and Soul Calibur games, the voices will be instantly recognizable to you. Rather the lines themselves are awkward.

If you only have an XBox 360 and you like JRPGs, then you simply have to give this game a try. It could very well be the best of the genre on this platform. For now, anyways.

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.

Mediocre at Best

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 04, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Given the detail of other reviews, I'll skip the synopsis of the game and go straight into the opinion section.

The game is quite beautiful, with an amazingly developed story line and a bit of a history lesson all rolled into one. The biggest problems for me were how slowly the game moved and how monotonous the play was. As a single player game I enjoyed the game, though it wasn't overly challenging. But, as a multi-player game, it just doesn't work at all. There's too much time spent waiting for your turn or doing nothing while player one makes their way through the map.

If you're going to play, play alone.

Eternal Bliss

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 43 / 44
Date: September 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

There aren't a lot of JRPGs on the XBOX360 and what ones there are aren't as special as promised. Eternal Sonata is a different story. It's a grand game that hits all the right notes. It has a few minor issues, but nothing that keeps it from being fantastic.

Fredric Chopin is terribly sick and dying. As he lies unconscious in bed he has a dream where he is in a world unlike any other. In this world, those who are sick with incurable diseases can use magic, but is it really a dream? Or is it another reality? This world has its own problems, however, the people are being taxed and a man named Count Waltz is slowly enslaving everyone. It doesn't sound like much, but the story is surprisingly deep and is full of several themes. There are also many music references throughout the game. From the characters who have names like Allegretto, Polka and Beat. To some of the places you'll be going like the Chrous Plains.

The story is told through cutscenes voiced by the characters. The voice acting isn't the best in the world. They've got the right voices for the job, but a lot of the actual voice acting is dry. Luckily, if the English voice overs are annoying you, you have the option to switch the voices to Japanese. The story jumps between Chopin's life and the dream world which the gameplay centers in. Also, throughout the game, you'll get to learn a little about the real Chopin. The game gives you some historical accounts and during these moments will play his beautiful music. This is all great, but sometimes these historical segments come up at inappropriate times. The good news about these historical segments is that they do relate to the overall story. Also, as good as the story is, it's rather slow to start. On the bright side, the cast of characters are really likeable.

The game isn't all that different from your traditional JRPG. There's a field mode and a battle mode. Outside of battle you'll run around on the field gathering treasure and talking to denizens. Battles are contact based which means you can easily avoid battles you don't want to bother with. Battling in Eternal Sonata is quite fun, though.

The battle system is perhaps one of the most inventive battle systems in the genre. Your characters and enemies have what's called an "action" gauge. When a character takes his or her turn in battle they'll have what's called an "action gauge" on the left hand side of the screen which will count down. Within the allotted time, you can pretty much do anything you want. Either attack normally, use items or special attacks. You'll have to plan well, though. It's a simple battle system to grasp, but it's hard to master. This is because the battle system never stays entirely the same throughout the journey. You have what's called party levels, and the higher your party level the more difficult battles will be. For example, at Party level 1 the action gauge decreases only when you move, and stops decreasing when you stop. When you hit party level 2, however, the action gauge never stops. Just when you're positive you've mastered the battle system, it throws another twist at you, via the party level.

The battle system works well because it relies not only on real time, but strategy as well. Special moves are an important part of combat. There's no limit to how often you can use them, but even here there's a twist. Your party has what's called echoes. The more hits you score in battle the more echoes you get. These will increase the power of your special attacks and are shared by the whole party. While it's tempting to end every combo with a special attack, it's even better to save them until you've acquired enough echoes. Just the same, Eternal Sonata will give you quite a challenge, especially in the boss battles. You can also block your enemies attacks by pressing B at the right time. This doesn't mean you can just mash on the B button when the enemy attacks as your character will guard prematurely and take the full extent of the damage. These timed presses take a long time to master.

Another really big aspect of the games battle system is the use of light and dark. Special attacks change based on whether or not you are standing in light or in shade. That's not all light and shade have an impact on. Some enemies change form depending on where they are. Some enemies will also throw you for a loop because they can provide their own light. The game is very touchy on this as even standing in the enemies shadow will cause you to use a dark special attack instead of a light one. It's pretty amazing stuff.

The only major issue with Eternal Sonata is that there simply isn't much to the game. There's a sidequest where you can collect and play musical pieces, but for the most part, it's quite linear. There's no overworld map either, so there's not much of a chance to really explore anything throughout the game. Another big issue with exploring the environments is that the camera is at a fixed angle and you can't shift or rotate it. In some moments when you're traversing behind scenery, it'd be nice to be able to shift the camera to see what was in front of you.

Another smaller issue involves the story itself. While it is good, there are moments when it rambles and even (to a certain extent) preaches to you. A lot of the cutscenes are long, but that shouldn't be much of a problem. You can skip them.

Those issues aside, the game is absolutely gorgeous looking. It's not the greatest looking game on the system, but it's beautiful and artistic nonetheless. This is one of the most beautiful looking cel-shaded games out there. It also doesn't suffer from terrible load times or framerate issues. The best part about Eternal Sonata is its beautiful music soundtrack, which sounds nothing short of fantastic. It's absolutely remarkable. The fact that they also play some of Chopin's music is also really nice.

Eternal Sonata is easily the best JRPG available on the XBOX360 at the moment. It has a surprisingly deep story and is a burst of creative energy. All minor problems aside, it's an enjoyable game.

Pros:

+Surprisingly deep story
+Very well defined characters
+Some historical background on Chopin's life
+Very inventive battle system
+A good challenge, and the game only keeps getting harder as you go
+Very gorgeous game
+Remarkable soundtrack, some of Chopin's actual music is also used

Cons:

-Very linear
-Historical moments sometimes show up at inappropriate times
-Slow story
-Bad voice acting
-There are moments when the game is just all out preachy

Eternal Sonata is amazing! Do not miss this game!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Eternal Sonata is amazing!

This game was just splendid! From start to finish there is never a dull moment. A deep fleshed out story line with characters based on real life people combined with totally original characters all blended up into a refreshing mix of RPG amassment. The story is about the Famous composer redrick Chopin and his band of dream world heros as they strive to take down an evil king. It's incredibly well done and no RPG goer should miss out on such a masterpiece.

Visuals: 9
High def anime beauty. Tons of detail can be seen on every single character model and lush environment throughout the game. Crisp anime style characters, glowing forest, and so much more can be seen here. It's truly a feast for the eyes.

Gameplay: 10
A totally new concept for the action adventure RPG style. Namco took eveything you love about action RPGS and slapped it into a turn based strategy package. It works out very well. There are tons of different moves to learn that change depending on if you are in light or dark areas. It's a lot of fun!

Music: 10
With a game based on a composer.. You have to ask. How is the soundtrack? Well, it won't disappoint. There is a wide variety of music to be heard ranging from Chopins work to new original music to fit the anime style theme

Overall: 9.5
Eternal Sonata will not disappoint. There is so much to love and so much to do here that you will never get tired of playing. I recommend every fantasy/rpg gamer pick this up ASAP!

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