Eternal Sonata

Eternal Sonata came out some time ago, but as with many games, I missed it due to the high volume of games that I attempt to play. Every year there is a stack of un-played games that just seems to get ever taller. It was mostly on impulse that I tried out Eternal Sonata, a classical music themed JRPG by the developer tri-Crescendo, and I am certainly glad that I did. It is certainly one of the more beautiful games I have played with well fleshed out and rendered characters and a lush world to support them. Add in a fun and ever evolving set of battle mechanics and a compelling story about life, death and just about everything in between and you have the makings of a great game which I highly recommend to anyone who loves games, let alone RPG’s.

But where to begin…

First off there is the setting, as it takes place in a world were items and people are named for musical terms and instruments. There is the young girl who is the main protagonist, named Polka, from the village of Tenuto who soon meets up with her friends Allegretto and Beat from the city of Ritardando to go on a grand adventure to save their world from the threat of mineral powder. This powder is the more powerful alternative to the usual flower powder which people like Polka and her mother produce from flowers in the region of Tenuto. So you start the story with a little bit of the Industrialized World v.s. the Natural/Old World. However, Polka soon meets, and joins up with a fellow named Frédéric Chopin, who claims that the world she lives in in not real, but is instead merely a dream of his as he lies deathly ill in bed in the “real world”. This opens up the story from a simple save the world adventure to the broader concepts of life, death, and reality itself.

I found the characters, for the most part, to be delightful and well acted. There are a few of them that tended to get a bit too “cutesy”, but as the style of the game is very anime influenced, it wasn't anything I hadn't seen before. The real key is that within the context of their world they felt real and engaging. They looked very good as well, with the animators going the distance with some very detailed touches to the characters musical themed costumes such as lots of ruffles and moving buckles and such. I do wish there could have been more variation in the outfits as the game progressed. Even as you approach the final battle with ultimate weapons in hand and armor equipped, you look exactly the same as when you started the game. While that works very well for keeping the characters looking the part throughout the story, it still sort of feels hollow getting a new weapon that looks like the old one.

The chapters of the story are broken up with small vignettes of music and pictures from various periods in Chopin’s life. These are cool, though they can get a little long and break the flow of the game. Still, they are important as there needs to be a balance between the world of Eternal Sonata and the real world where Chopin’s life hangs by a thread.

The game play has a lot in common with other RPG/JRPG’s, with one significant exception. They implemented a battle system that is much more dynamic so as to keep the game from getting stale after the 40 or so hours of play time. It is still primarily a turn-based game, but for each person’s turn you get to move anywhere and do your actions (Attack, Heal, Cast a Spell) in a kind of free form way limited only by a timer. When the timer empties, your turn is over and it moves to the next person or creature.

The game is pretty good about layering in new concepts for you and your three person party as well. At first you are mostly doing simple attacks. Then they introduce the concept of building up chains of attacks, as well as timing based blocking and counterattacks. Then they add in the special attacks, which of course benefit from having built up more of the more of the chained attacks. This pattern continues for other concepts, such as a the key elements of Light and Darkness. Certain spells and special attacks will only work while in the light, and some while only in the darkness. Additionally, some creatures will change into different forms (some stronger and some weaker) when in light or darkness, so you start to weigh the lighting conditions in your tactical plan.

To keep the player from getting bored as you level up, the game also has a concept of a party level. Each time your party levels up as you progress through the story, you get additional powers for the group, such as the ability to start chaining special attacks for even more damage. But to balance this increase in power and keep you on your toes, as the party levels you start to play more and more in actual real time. At the beginning of the game a character’s turn timer does not start until you start moving or casting to allow you to survey the battlefield and make some plans. As you progress through the game, the delay before the turn timer gets reduced and finally is taken away entirely such that the timers for each character start running immediately on their turn. I found this to be initially frustrating each time it happened, but I was able to quickly settle down into the new flow of the game and it was a lot of fun getting the new party abilities, especially the chaining of special attacks.

Overall the game covers a lot of topics: religion, industrialization, relationships, reality, dreams, life and death. Depending on your mindset coming into and playing this game, this can either come off as pretentious or existential. For me personally, the game tended to hit more right notes than wrong, and I found that I enjoyed the things the game was trying to say and do. This game also had one of the longest end credits sequences I have ever seen with what felt like an entire episode of some Eternal Sonata anime. So if you do get to the end, there is certainly a payoff beyond “You win”, if you like story in your games.

So if you like video games with a lot of style, beautiful characters and art direction, fun RPG battle mechanics, and a heady story that goes beyond the “heroes save the world” theme, then this is the game for you.