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Flamojo14's Eternal Sonata (360)
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| [March 4, 2008 07:36:40 PM]
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Game Session 2:
Game Play:
During my second session of playing Eternal Sonata I spent the entire time running around in the sewers and fighting. The fights got a little repetitive because I must have been involved in 30 fights and they were all with cute rats with glowing lights on their tails. It was cute the first few times but eventually I got a little bored. I know it is early in the game so my characters haven’t had a chance to learn any new skills yet, but I got a little of tired of using the same two skills over and over. I probably need to give the game a little more time and grow my characters a bit more and then I will get some new abilities (this is an RPG after all).
The music was good and the visuals of the game are amazing. Despite being cartoon like the world still looks very three dimensional and there is a lot of shadowing and blending to make the colorful world very appealing. There are also a lot of details like water reflecting light on the wall and little lizards scampering around to give the game a very rich environment. The world is very nice, but the actual game play has yet to impress me too much.
Design:
As far as innovation goes this game doesn’t do very much. It is immediately recognizable to anyone who has ever played and RPG before. There are item shops, weapon shops, houses with people who provide pointless dialogue but provide atmosphere, pretty much everything you’ve seen in other RPG games. The fighting style is slightly different but is still reminiscent of Final Fantasy XII. One difference is that for each player’s turn they have an action gauge and when the gauge runs out the player‘s turn is over. If a player holds still and does nothing the gauge won’t drop, allowing the player time to think and strategize. When they take an action like an attack, moving or using an item it depletes their gauge. The player must decide how far they have to move to get within range of an attack or whether they want to stand away from the enemy and use magic (depending on each character’s abilities). I like that the gauge won’t move if you hold still because it allowed my to think without pressure which provides the more strategic play of turn based RPG’s. You can play very slow paced or very fast paced depending on your preference as a player. From the cut scenes that I have experienced so far the plot features an embedded narrative that is very linear. It is not the most exciting kind of narrative but again it holds true to the traditional RPG format. This game is enjoyable for its faithfulness to the traditional RPG that many people enjoy and brining a new visual and musical fullness that takes advantage of the strength of the 360’s graphic ability.
The game world is pretty predictable. I ran through the woods to get to a village, I ran around a city and I went into the sewers. All of these are classic locations but re-envisioned with the new visual style.
The motivations for the players are a bit lacking for my taste. So far I’ve had to get home before dark and deliver some bread. My first boss fight was against a big rat who wanted the bread. OK….I haven’t really learned yet what my main goal in the game is besides running around with various characters that I assume are going to meet up eventually and create a party. So far this game seems like it is a really slow starter and it seems like it needs more than two hours to start getting into the real meat of the game which is a bit slow for may taste. I think that the creative aspects like the visuals and the music are fantastic and that the battle system is simple but nothing new. Overall this game is adorable, and very nice and enjoyable to play, but I wouldn’t say that it is anything extraordinary or groundbreaking.
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| [March 4, 2008 06:40:26 PM]
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Game Session 1:
Summary:
Eternal Sonata is an RPG that takes place in a peaceful but mysterious land that I believe may end up being a dream world created by Frederic Chopin. Chopin is a famous musical composer that came to be known as a child prodigy on the piano. In Eternal Sonata his story has been adapted to create a world out of the mind of a child who has suffering from failing health his entire life. So far the story has consisted of playable characters that are children but who have hard lives from being homeless in one case and rejected from society for using magic in another. With each character you travel through the world to complete tasks and fight monsters along the way.
Game Play:
The first thing that I noticed about the game was the intense color scheme and artistic style. The graphics of the world are very stylized and rounded looking to create a very beautiful and cartoon like environment. The characters all drawn in anime style which adds to the sweet and cute tone of the game. The color palate is extremely vibrant and bright which makes the whole visual aspect of the game adorable. Even the sewers and sewer rats were cute and colorful. I could tell from the look of it that this would be a game that is very sentimental and sweet. Normally I enjoy scary and action oriented games so I wasn’t sure if this game would really engage me, but small hints at a more complex plot really drew me in and made me want to find out more. Despite being incredibly cute, cut scenes that show small portions of the character’s everyday lives reveal that life for them isn’t as sweet as it looks. The main character Polka has the ability to use magic but the ability means that she will die young and she is outcast from society because they fear that her abilities will hurt them. After playing as Polka for awhile the game switched to a new character named Allegretto who lives on the streets but does his best to support his little brother and other homeless children. The game seems really interesting even early on because it plays with the themes of childhood innocence, death and perseverance with characters that try hard to do good despite their own hardships.
Another main aspect of the game is its focus on music. The game focuses on Chopin, a famous composer and all the characters and town names are musical terms. Though I must say that the town names “Ritardando” amuses me even though it is a musical term. The musical score for this game is amazing obviously. So far this game seems like a basic RPG with item shops, lots of menus and world battles but Eternal Sonata took a hint from FFXII and made the monsters walk around the world so you can avoid them if you choose. The fighting is turn based, but being able to block enemy attacks by taping a button at the right time keeps the battles interesting even when it’s not the character’s turn so you don’t have to sit and watch your character take a beating.
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Flamojo14's Eternal Sonata (360)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 4 March, 2008
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