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Tuesday 4 March, 2008
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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