Eternal Sonata (Short Review)

[Triforce_Luigi]

Game: Eternal Sonata
Developer: Tri-Crescendo
Genre: RPG
Rated T for Teen

Story: Eternal Sonata focuses on the renowned piano composer Frederic Francois Chopin. The story is fairly linear, and you won't have time to do too many side quests. The game begins with a thirty-nine year old Chopin on his deathbed, dying of tuberculosis. In his final hours, Chopin dreams of a world of wonder, where those who wield magic are afflicted with an incurable disease. In this dream world, Chopin meets Polka, a fourteen year old girl who is doomed to die with such a disease. Polka, as a side effect of her illness, possesses magical healing powers.

Polka sells floral powder, a medicine, but no one will buy because the tax on the substance is higher than that of other medicines. Chopin and Polka decide to meet with the dream land's ruler, Count Waltz, in the city of Forte Town to lower all taxes. From there, things spiral out of control. The two are forced to travel around the country, meeting new allies such as Allegretto, Beat, and Viola. Along the way, they also meet enemies such as Fugue and Tuba. The story is very well-done, full of old-fashioned romance, adventure, and all the things that make a good tale.  4/5

Graphics: The game has beautiful graphics. It is quite obvious that the developers were paying attention to detail. You can see every stitch in your characters clothing. Not much left to say here. 4/5

Sound: In a game about a pianist, you'd expect awesome musical scores. And that's exactly what you'll get. There are a good selection of scores by Chopin himself, and thei in-game music by Motoi Sakuraba is fantastic. Voice acting is a little behind in comparison to the music, but it is still pretty good. 3.5/5

Gameplay: Eternal Sonata borrows some elements from the typical RPG. You control a party of ten to do all the stuff you'd expect. Buy gear, talk to people, battle monsters, etc. Monster encounters are visible and can be easily avoided, though you may not have a choice with some. You can gain an advantage over some opponents by attacking from behind as well.

Money is fairly easy to get, being found in chests, in battle, on the field, and all the typical places. There is one unorthodox way of earning money, however. Early on in the game, a character called Beat will join your party. He has the special ability to take photographs of enemies in battle. You can sell these photos for money, but you may not know what to do with all the money.

The battle is turn-based, with only three party members in combat at a time. Before a character moves, you have "Tactical Time." This is the time in which you can give your character commands. Once you decide on an action or Tactical Time expires, the player has a limited amount of time to heal, attack, etc. Light and darkness play an important part in battle as well. In lit areas, an attack might have a different effect than in the darkness.

To complicate matters further, enemy shadows will create dark areas as well. As you can imagine, this adds a whole new layer of strategy to battle. 4.5/5

Overall: Overall, Eternal Sonata is a great game, one that I would recommend to those who like RPGs and have an XBox 360. Eternal Sonata is an example of how video games can be used for education. Between chapters, you will see brief overviews of Chopin's life. In reality, it is an edutainment game.4.5/5

[Allegretto]

Great Review and a great time