Looking past the character's voices and linear plot, this game has delivered where other 360 RPG's have not...
Bad: Voices are out of place with the characters | Linear story line | Childish quotes said by the characters
As the Xbox and Xbox 360 move on in history, their bitter failure in making a good RPG has succeeded through the times. When I say and heard about Eternal Sonata coming to the 360 this fall, I couldn't be more happy. Winner of the E3 Best RPG and Artistic Design 2007 award and good scores from both IGN and Gamespot gaming community websites. This game was a gift the xbox gods. The story is based off of Frederic Francois Chopin last hours of life and his dream world that he has dropped into but there is a story behind that as well. We start off watching a girl named Polka who grew up in this dream world with magic but people who use magic will soon die and are out casted by the others in this world. She and Frederic meet up later in the story and he starts to question if this is a dream or real world. We then take a look at another duo by the name of Allegretto and Beat who are thieves and steal food for the other homeless children and themselves to live. They decide to take a trip to Forte Castle to ask the king to lower the taxes so that they didn't have to steal and live a comfortable life like the rest of the people. They soon meet up with Frederic and Polka later in their story and it continues on from there. The story will have a grand total of 10 characters to play as. Sadly, none of the characters can be customized or have a different look/feel to them.
Graphics: The visual display of the game is outstanding but childish. Even still, people can see why it won an award for its artistic design at the E3 convention. Even though you can't run around the whole map freely, you can still admire the detail of the close character and environment design as well as the background and scenery design.
Controls: Nothing to complicated when you are walking around before a battle. Left thumb stick to move around, A button for speaking/action and the Y button to view the menu options for setting up your items and character battle order. Once in battle, the opinions are showed to you but left thumb stick to move around the battle field, A button to attack short/long range, Y for Special Attack, Right Button to use an item, right thumb stick to move from item to item. Nothing to difficult and the game tries to give you some time to get use to them at the beginning of the game with some helpful tutorials and infinite time to plan your attack. Later in the game, you will have a time limit to set yourself up with an attack before your attack time starts. Unlike other RPG's, this style of combat is time based as the user and monster have x amount of time to attack before they go to the next turn, once you move, use an item or special skill, the time will start (unless your start time, if its being used, ends which will start your attack time automatically).
Gameplay: The story is linear and it seems you can't change move things around but staged like a movie video game. I like the battle mode of the game the best where you fight monster with a certain time limit. Each physical attack you place on the monster is the same but you have 2 type of special attacks you can choose from, a light or dark attack. If a character is in a shadow or under some clouds, the characters special will change but if under the light, will produce something totally different. Also, monsters have different forms in different light conditions. A monster could turn into a bigger monster under darkness which will increase his DEF but under light, will be normal with its original DEF. This varies from monster to monster and not every one can change. The story and characters might get on your nerves but shouldn't hurt your enjoyment to much of one of the better RPG's for the 360.
The game has the look of a child's game but really is intended for a older audience. I would still advise anyone who likes RPG's to buy it or rent it once to see if they enjoy it. The linear story or annoying characters shouldn't take away the enjoyable fighting and fun time with playing an RPG. You might be like me and just enjoy a good story no matter how childish it may be.