Eternal Sonata (Sony Playstation 3, 2008)

Here's your opener: this is a wonderful game.

Eternal Sonata tells the story of a critically ill Frederic Chopin's deathbed dream-world. It is a traditional Japanese style RPG and playing it will make you wish that RPG designers in the 16 bit era had had access to PS3 level technology. The HD-era glory never obstructs the core package here as in some titles. Rather, it augments it wonderfully and the game itself comes shining through.

Everything is bright, colorful, vivid, and generally beautiful. Art direction as well as the actual graphics are top notch. The game moves virtually seamlessly between cut-scenes and gameplay and characters are rendered in a convincing anime-style. The environments are not only visually stunning but they are filled with clever artistic choices, and character models are done in a classic anime style but one which never goes 'too far' with character design.

The music is very possibly the best in any video game yet created. It is difficult for many game composers to come near the quality of a Chopin piece, and this game is filled with very high quality virtuoso performances of them. The rest of the music that is in the game is also of a high audio quality and composition quality. Voice acting is never very bad and often quite good if a tad cartoony; the original Japanese vocal tracks are included with the PS3 edition along with optional subtitles, which is an excellent addition.

As for gameplay, the game generally feels like a straight up JRPG where the party can see enemies on the map so there are no random encounters. For battles there is a transition to a new field of play (standard rpg custom) wherein it becomes a turn based action RPG. Turns consist of the ability to run around the map to gain position, attack, use items, or one of several special abilities that range from powerful, cinematic attacks to long range healing spells. There is a simple but strategically engaging combo system in place and enemy characteristics actually change depending upon environmental factors -- an enemy in shadows may morph into a more powerful, shadow monster, for example -- but the battles are generally on the easy side. Boss fights are regular for each significant area and present a naturally greater challenge, but the game is on the easy rather than the hard side. The game's attempt at keeping the fighting system dynamic by introducing new limitations or conditions as the game progresses -- for example, the turn timer will be less forgiving when the party reaches a certain level -- have mixed results, but things certainly become more frantic as the game continues.

The story is perhaps the best part of this title. It is peppered with interludes featuring historical information and truly beautiful tunes and the chapters of the game's story draw their inspiration from these historical situations. The game features two intertwining stories that in form resembles something like Final Fantasy VI with a smaller cast. The story is deep, interesting, and worth sticking with the whole way through.

I'd give it 4/5 stars easily, the only drawbacks are the somewhat low difficulty level and it's rather linear form.

These are minor issues, Eternal Sonata is excellent and for RPG fans a must play.

Eternal Sonata (トラスティベル ～ショパンの夢～, Torasuti Beru Shopan no Yume?, Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream) is an original role-playing video game created by Tri-Crescendo, one of the developers of Baten Kaitos and Baten Kaitos Origins. The Xbox 360 version of the game was released on June 14, 2007 in Japan, September 17, 2007 in North America, and October 19, 2007 in Europe. The game was also released on the PlayStation 3 with additional content as Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream - Reprise (トラスティベル ~ショパンの夢~ ルプリーズ, Torasuti Beru Shopan no Yume Rupurīzu?)　on September 18, 2008 [3] in Japan, and in North America on October 21, 2008 (release date announced as of 9-15-08),[4] and in Europe (with the original name 'Eternal Sonata') on February 13, 2009.[5]

The game is centered on the Polish romantic pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 39. The story envisions a fictional world dreamed by Chopin during his last hours that is influenced by Chopin's life and music, and in which he himself is a playable character, among others. The game features a selection of Chopin's compositions played by pianist Stanislav Bunin, though most of the in-game music was composed by Motoi Sakuraba. The game's battle system centers on musical elements and character-unique special attacks. Light and darkness plays a part in the appearance and abilities of enemies on the battlefield, as well as the types of magic that can be cast.[6]

I was somewhat uncertain how well the gameplay would be considering that you can have two people playing simultaneously during battle play. The primary controller controls navigating through the world, finding items, configuring the characters with equipment, etc. If you are one who doesn't mind watching game play while waiting for a battle scene to come up -- then this is a great RPG for two people to play.
The world was done very well graphically. The cut scenes dividing each of the chapters reveal more and more information about the life of Frederick Chopin.

The facet of the game most enjoyable was the music. Containing many original Chopin piano pieces and completely filled with music terms, this is a vibrant wonderfully portrayed musical fantasy land.

If you are a fan of classical music, enjoy intelligent and in-depth multiple non-linear story lines -- then this is a great RPG to play. I also hear that it was not widely available in the United States. I could not find it in any local game stores -- the only place that had it available was the internet.

The only complaint I have is the length of the game. It could easily be beaten by a single player in under 48 hours of play. But considering everything else -- the play, the music, the graphics, the story -- it leaves you more interested in the story and the unusual characters you meet along the way.

Very interesting, creative game. One to hold on to also.

Eternal Sonata is one of those games that delivers a refreshing twist to an already-outdone genre. When I first read that it was a RPG set in the dreams of the dying composer Chopin, I almost laughed. Such a crazy idea would never play out well! Or, will it?

Firstly, I'm going to talk about the graphics. Eternal Sonata definitely impresses on just about every graphical level; the cutscenes rival the very best Disney movies, and the in game cell-shading in a real-time world is truly breathtaking. The atmosphere in this game is truly astounding, little details like light flourishes through tree canopies, and floating petals from flower fields...It truly comes together to make a spectacular, dreamy world to play in. A minor annoyance is that the camera is fixed, and thus there's no freedom to look over the dreamy landscapes, and it leaves you wondering what beauty lies just beyond the paths you are forced to walk. A quick note, although the camera is fixed, never once does it become awkward, or get in the way. The camera is done just perfectly, in my opinion. Another note, this game runs as smoothly as butter, and there's never any frame drops! I want to say this has been recorded at 60fps but don't quote me. It's just smooth.

The story revolves around Chopin, and his party of followers that he meets whilst in his dreams. The voice acting isn't terrible, and definitely gets better as the game progresses, but this is after all a Japanese RPG, so we can forgive that aspect. Characters are so vibrant, and the personalities are so real, for once there's an RPG where you actually care about the characters! I suppose this is almost playing a book, with Disney film style graphics, there's real depth and character, and real involvement on the player's behalf.

Music? The score to this game features music composed from Chopin, as well as some specially-performed tracks, and overall the music is absolutely stunning. It's graceful, elegant and definitely beautiful to listen to. This is just another aspect where this game excels!

There's no more random encounters, either! All enemies are present in the world, so you have the choice whether to fight or not. The levelling system isn't the best, either. Save for a few boss battles, you never really have any trouble with enemies, even with the weakest characters. The battles are done very well too, mixing traditional turn-based techniques with a clever time limit which promotes quick thinking and a little button bashing. Overall, I think its a very good system and it makes for fun play during the long long hours spent on this game!

Overall, the game is stunning. Great visuals, stunning musical score, and a gripping story. There's fairly limited replayability, though. As once you know the plot and how the game ends, there's very little reason to go back other than to witness the sheer splendour of the environments once more. Definitely an RPG worth having.

I bought this title because I played the demo on PSN. I really enjoyed the battle style on the demo as it vaguely reminded me of Chrono Trigger just slightly more mobile.

The battle system is very well done and, although repetitive the battles seldom get boring.

My gripes with this game are three-fold, for one I CAN'T STAND THE CHARACTERS! They made these characters so "feminine" it feels like I'm playing a game about dolls. Because of this It's very hard to connect with the characters and as such I find myself not caring too much about the story.

Secondly, parts of the story are told in reference to Chopin, the famous pianist. These parts, at least where I am in the game bear little to no significance to the game or it's dumbed down "we can do it if we stick together" story. They are boring, they are long and I find myself dreading the next time one of those segments should pop up.

Lastly, the game is excruciatingly punishing. You can't really heal outside of battle or even during battle. If you want to heal outside of battle you must use consumables, consumables which, by modern RPG standards, are fairly rare. In battle you must charge a battle gauge by attacking in order to effectively heal. This wouldn't be that much of an issue if the enemies weren't capable of wiping out 1 to 2 of your characters in one fight. Because of the aforementioned reasons I find myself grinding before each dungeon so that my characters won't have to rely on healing, be it in battle or through consumables.

As my review header indicates I can't really recommend this game unless you can find it for 30 dollars. Now if you're dead set on purchasing said "doll game" and somehow find yourself having trouble deciding between this version and it's sister XBOX 360 version I would recommend this one as it comes with all the optional DLC the XBOX 360 version users had to pay for.