| Eternal Sonata |
| Posted on 8th November 2007 by Nick Turner |
If you’re looking to sink into a satisfying stupor, or you’re new to JRPGs as a whole, then Eternal Sonata, an interestingly original Japanese role playing game (JRPG) from developer tri-crescendo, might well be the game you’ve been looking for. Eternal Sonata breaks the mould in more ways than one, but the crack never seems much more than superficial. The story for instance, though the core of JRPGs since their conception, is startlingly free of clichés and has some unique plot points; a game set in the feverous hallucinations of a dying musical genius, where else can you find that? The main body of the story is the generic set of twists, character splits and dramatics we’ve come to expect from a JRPG, there’s no fault in that; it works. The fault occurs in the slow pace these plot points reveal themselves at, and in the fractured voice acting from the characters themselves. Relating to a characters plight is made so much harder when the tragic character won’t stop philosophising about dreams and reality!
The main redeeming features of Eternal Sonata are the stunning visuals, every flamboyantly spined tower, every sculpted valley, exudes a charming beauty, infusing the hyperbolic environments of earlier JRPGs with sparkling life. Breathtaking. Even the characters inhabiting these environments share a graphical quality that intertwines anime and realism, not quite cell shaded, but still a caricature.
For a traditional JRPG, Eternal Sonata’s battle system is unexpectedly active, using a mixture of turn based combat and time-limited action tri-crescendo have made a surprisingly engaging battle system. But that’s all it is; a surprise. After your first half hour of experience, it will fit you like a glove, but a glove isn’t very exciting. Tri-crescendo has cut off the bad points of turn based combat, but in the process they’ve severed the complexity of battles. They seem to have realised this, and as such have incorporated a few, genuinely interesting twists into the combat: The first is the ‘echoes’ mechanic; just a damage increase system for special attacks, dependent on the number of normal hits the party has inflicted collectively. The second is a unique arena warp, using the shadows cast across the arena to change the forms and fighting styles of the monsters themselves. Both of these imaginative mechanics add a lot to the combat system, sadly the rest of the system’s one-dimensionality lets them down, with none of the weaknesses or expansive special abilities that we have come to expect from all JRPG battle systems, your eyes will glaze soon after your first battle.
This boredom is only accentuated by the dungeon environments themselves, as beautiful as you might expect, but not exactly exciting, with only a few enemy types per stage, the battles become a tepid and repetitive stupor. Luckily, as with almost all points of Eternal Sonata, there are redeeming features. Most are focussed on a single puzzle, moving platforms or opening doors, an effective, if simplistic cliché. As you might expect, each stage has the done-to-death boss fight, no quarrel with this mechanic. It works. But you’re given an unsatisfactory explanation to why they’re there most of the time – ‘It’s guarding the pool’ Why in God's name would there be a giant devil-bird guarding a pool? Please! In a genre characterised by story, pay a little attention to detail!
The one, unforgivable flaw in this game is character development. You have absolutely no control whatsoever over which attributes increase and which abilities they learn. What qualifies for character development in Eternal Sonata, is gaining enough experience to level up, watching some numbers increase, and, every once in a while, the exciting addition of a new ability to your character’s pitiful repertoire. While other games, notably final fantasy, have a huge range of abilities – buffs, debuffs, black magic, white magic, blue magic, speed magic, weakness oriented attacks and status attacks – what does Eternal Sonata have? Special attacks... Impressive.
The sole choice that could be seen as character development is equipment, and even this has a minute effect, each character has a weapon, and one piece of armour, each item increases or decreases the character’s low range of attributes. The range of equipment is also disappointing, generally dissolving outfitting your characters into equipping each new item you come across, it’s certain to be better than the one you last had.
Eternal Sonata, then, is a simplistic, yet mildly enchanting JRPG, with perfect visuals and an engaging battle system. This game is perfect for you if you find the usual JRPG too tense, complicated and derivative, yet you still enjoy stunning vistas, turn based party combat and a substantial story. This game may well be ideal for a younger sibling or child, new to JRPGs and looking for a gentle start. They’ll be more likely to connect with the infantile characters too; ironic for a 12+ rated game. |
Single Player Score: 6/10
Multiplayer Score: 0/10
Overall Score: 6/10 |
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