Lush worlds, soundtrack make 'Eternal Sonata' a simple, fanciful trip
Role-playing games transport us to fantastic fantasy realms. It's a genre where swords and sorcerers come standard, and "Eternal Sonata" isn't an exception to this tradition, even if it supplies an unconventional premise. The game transpires within the mind of famed 19th-century composer Frédéric François Chopin -- a dream world that the player slowly discovers as the real Chopin battles tuberculosis on his death bed.
It's definitely an unusual concept. The game dwells on themes of life, death and reality as the main storyline finds Chopin accompanied by a gang of anime-haired rebels and misfits seeking to overthrow the corrupt lord of the land, Waltz. The devious leader is slowly obtaining an army of mindless monsters, but it's a mystery how.
The plot seems serious, but more often it's playfully expressed: "Eternal Sonata" is a colorful, youthful tale that'd fit well in a storybook. The dream domain is layered with a rich musical template. The characters you'll take hold of call themselves Jazz, Falsetto, Salsa, Beat and Polka, to name a few, and even the weapons you'll equip resemble cellos, violins and trumpets. Merging its art, story and visual design is arguably where the game succeeds.
The unique surroundings set the stage, but "Sonata" is still a conventional RPG through and through. A semi-active battle system combines with meandering dungeons and hours of dialogue-dense cut scenes that, though well-acted, seem like they were scripted more for grade-schoolers than for anyone else. The younger characters in your party haven't hit puberty, and they certainly play the part. If you're looking for more mature storytelling, "Eternal Sonata" won't satisfy. Some gamers will appreciate a lighthearted, cute tale, but even the RPG enthusiast will roll their eyes here and there at "Sonata's" script.
The story's simplicity extends to "Eternal Sonata's" battle system. You'll command a three-person party against an endless army of dragons, giant rats, mechanical fish and pirates. Characters take turns dealing out blows or casting magic, but instead of a complicated menu, you're essentially limited to three commands: normal and special attacks, and use of items. Taking down enemies is usually a matter of charging up "echoes," a combo chain for regular attacks that improves the damage dealt by your special one.
It's rarely a challenge because the enemies you encounter don't seem smart enough to work together, and a large percentage of the damage dealt against you can be negated with a well-timed block, triggered with the B button. Likewise, enemy configurations seem overly redundant -- in a dungeon, you'll fight the same three-enemy spread a couple dozen times. Something that does add complexity is the way light and dark influences combat -- monsters transform as they move between shade and sunlight, and characters have separate special attacks for different lighting. It supplies some strategy to a system that otherwise only requires button-mashing.
The gameplay's a bit pedestrian, but it's helped by the good presentation that penetrates the rest of the experience. Quality audio lets you feel the blows you're dealing out, and characters contribute some chatter to liven combat. Still, your senses will be better served during cut scenes and wandering, where "Eternal Sonata's" elaborate art is on display. The characters, as well as the beautiful levels, each have an ornate quality that makes them seem intricately designed. Dungeons and towns avoid being repetitive or too linear, but otherwise, they're meant simply as a decorative space for the story to play out.
Another stylistic draw of "Eternal Sonata" is the way it integrates information about Chopin's life. The characters loosely parallel some of Chopin's acquaintances, but more explicitly, we get sequences that bookend each chapter of the game. During these, you'll hear one of Chopin's famous melodies while the game gives context to the time in his life that he wrote it: "Nocturne" after he fled Poland and "Raindrops" as he was approaching death, for example. It's an appealing way to break up the gameplay and encourage the player to understand "Sonata's" story alongside Chopin's life.
"Eternal Sonata" wraps rich art around a musical template. Gamewise, it's another traditional, relatively easy RPG with a basic combat system that's neither inspiring nor totally boring. What "Sonata" gets its mileage out of is its unique, colorful design. The levels look great, the characters have personality, and the audio is rightly top-notch. We'll whistle some appreciation for a game in such contrast with the typical bullet-based, macho library of the Xbox 360, but "Sonata" still lacks enough challenge or complex storytelling to have us completely singing its praises.
"Eternal Sonata"
Platform: Xbox 360 Developer: Tri-Crescendo Publisher: Namco Bandai Games Genre: Role-playing Rating: 2.5 stars