Looking for a RPG game? Eternal Sonata is just for you!
This game was 18 dollars when I got it. It was well worth my 18 dollars and the time put into it was well spent.
*Storyline:
- Starting with the story, it was decent at best. You start off with a girl name Polka who has "magical powers". Having magic in their world seems like having a disease in a real life. She goes on an adventure with the other characters to stop the mineral powder distributed from Forte, the city. This mineral power supposedly cures anything but at a cost. Taking too much causes people to turn into monsters and literally kill them. Basically, it's like taking drugs in real life. You'll get addicted and stuff like that. She also goes to live her life out as she doesn't have much time to live. With different characters that you'll meet, the storyline is decent and touching. While I had trouble understanding parts of the story, it was still enjoyable. There are plenty of twists in the game that will throw you off and that's fine, as long as it makes sense. You'll meet Allegretto, the thief swordsman who believes in helping people to survive in harsh times, Beat, the tiny photographer who takes pictures for the memories and Frederic, the pianist.
- There are many more but it's too long to discuss as each have their own distinct story that awaits you. Just notice each character's names... There are about 13 different characters you can play with which is great.
Rating out of 5: 4
*Graphics:
- There's not much to say here as this is a coin toss for people. You may like the anime style and the O.O eyes. You might not. I liked it a lot but sometimes when the story got serious, there wasn't that "serious" factor into it. A little too cutsy I guess. The characters are well drawn and there wasn't graphic lag. The environments were well-drawn and monsters were also well drawn. Cutscenes are great.
Rating out of 5 : 4
*Music/Voiceover:
- The battle music was decent but it got repetitive over time. It's usually the same music playing in the background but each battle doesn't last really long (we'll get to that in gameplay.) However, when you get to free roam around the place, the background music is superb. Each dungeon/city had their own song which made it extremely unique. You have score pieces which are pieces of notes that you can play with. You play with the other NPCs who have their own piece. It's your job to play your piece with theirs and if they are played well, you earn items I believe. I rarely got As but I feel that it's more of a side quest, you don't really need the items.
- I used only English voice overs (there are Japanese voice overs too) and overall I liked it. The only one I didn't like was Polka. She was a little bit too... how should I say? Too cutsy again? I'm not sure but she seemed extremely annoying. At least you're allowed to skip over it!
Rating out of 5: 4.5
*Gameplay:
- I'm happy to report that this game doesn't use the crazy/stupid random encounter factor. Monsters are like NPCs that roam around and you can just touch them if you want to battle.
- This game is more like a RTS than anything. You start off with a timer and simple actions. Usually, it's just to attack as much as you can and combo with the timer running. After the time runs out, the enemy gets their turn to do the same. You have the option to guard by pressing circle and counterattack (X, this depends on party level) if you see "CHANCE!/Counter!" You can only guard attacks that are in front of your character. You can't guard from side/back attacks which is good. The max in a battle for your party is only three and is the same for the enemy.
- Each character has their own set of moves which is usually just spamming X to a triangle attack (being their special attack.) Each X = 1 hit which gives you stars.
- It goes from 4 stars all the way to 32 stars in sets of 4. The more stars/combos you can string together, the stronger your triangle attacks become. At 20+ stars, your character says a worthy quote before doing their attacks where is nice and all till you heard it about a million times.
- They also add a interesting twist by using the light/dark system. Depending on if you're in a lighted area or not would change the effect of the character's special (the triangle attack.) I love the system because I have to think about where my characters have to be for each move to be successful.
- You get party levels at certain points of the story, which is changeable depending on your play style. The higher the party level, the "harder" it is. You get more perks though which is great.
- The item system is interesting. You can't access all your items and can only use items that you assign in your "Item Set" section. Each item has a certain value to it. Depending on their effects, would give you their values. For example: an Angel Trumpet (which is similarly to a Phoenix Feather in FF) would cost around 3PP I believe to be used. At lower party levels, you don't have much items at your disposal. At higher party levels, you get more PP to use. There's some strategy to it which makes it a huge plus. With your timer going down, using items is a turn off though. It costs you some time which is bad but at least you are allowed to scroll through your items using L1/R1 while the battle is still going on.
- The bosses are great but still too easy in my opinion. Depending on which characters you use on your team (it really doesn't matter who you use but I prefer two attackers + one healer), is the difficulty level in my opinion.
- With only 3 characters that you're allowed to use in battle, you probably are saying to yourself: "Man, that means I can only use my top three characters! That means more grind!" This isn't true. Some of the experience points you earn are given to your other teammates who aren't in battle. This is great as you can just simply train three characters and the rest would catch up or at least be close to your strongest three.
By the way, plenty of save points prior boss battles so... save! Buy items!
Rating out of 5: 4.5
*Value/Bonus Content/Side Quests:
- Like I said earlier, it was definitely worth 18 dollars.
- After finishing it the first time, there are additional dungeons and other things to try in the new game plus. There is plenty of replay value since there are many different character party combinations to play with and mess around.
- I say playing the score pieces are side quests because you don't really need to actually complete them. Looking for costumes to change your character's look is decent...
- There isn't trophies here, so if you are a huge PSN trophy fan, it might turn you off.
Rating out of 5: 4.5
TL;DR:
Storyline: 4 out of 5
Graphics: 4 out of 5
Music/Voiceovers: 4.5 out of 5
Gameplay: 4.5 out of 5
Value/Bonus Content/ Side Quests: 4.5 out of 5
Total of 21.5/25 = 0.86 * 10 = 8.6 (8.5 since GS don't have that now ~.~)
Well worth to buy!