Eternal Sonata

It’s been a long time coming, very long, but finally Eternal Sonata has arrived on PS3 and it’s just as good as it ever was – maybe even slightly better. This could be because there are several new dungeons and a couple of newly playable characters for the PS3 release. In case you didn’t know, Eternal Sonata has been kicking around on the Xbox 360 since 2007, and back then it was heralded as being one of the best-looking role-playing games in existence, and you know what? It still is.

Graphically Eternal Sonata is a sumptuous feast for the eyes. It really is stunningly beautiful and it’s easy to get lost in some of the scenes because you’re picking out all the little details that are massaging your retinas. The characters themselves look amazing and the way they interact with the world around them will endear them to you.

This is something we haven’t felt for quite some time in a role-playing game – where you actually feel something for the characters – and this is even more odd because the characters are all a figment the composer Frederick Chopin’s fevered dying mind. The game begins with Chopin’s life about to end as it did in Paris in 1849, but instead of being a game about grieving, we enter Chopin’s mind and the world he invents in his head.

Yes, this is one of the most bizarre and surprising setups of an RPG we’ve ever come across, but the truth is it kind of works. Chopin himself is the star of his dreams where he has managed to create such a strange word that it could only have been imagined to life by someone with severe synaesthesia. Or a person at Namco anyway.

It’s a strange world inside Chopin’s head, it’s full of monsters for a start and a cast of characters that don’t always conform to RPG clichés. One of the main characters, Olivia, can use magic, which might be great if the whole world didn’t treat her like she has some sort of disease. But this is because Count Waltz of Baroque has poisoned the minds of everyone there with a propaganda campaign. The Count has also placed heavy taxes on everything that isn’t the mysterious mineral powder. The mineral powder has many uses, but its main function is to keep the population docile and obedient. Mostly it works but there are a few people who are resilient to it, so Olivia, Chopin and an everincreasing cast of characters band together to end the Count’s Machiavellian rule.

This of course means that you have to fight a lot of monsters, and a few angry cabbages for some reason, but what’s nice about the battles is that you can see the enemies on the screen so they’re not irritatingly random. Sneaking up on baddies and initiating the battle from behind gives you the advantage of attacking first. What’s even nicer about the battles is the way they play out.

It is turn-based gameplay, but you’re not just picking actions on a menu. It’s much more action orientated than that as you can unleash some combos on the enemies before going for a special attack. You have only got a set amount of time to get your attacks in, so making use of the Tactical Time you’re given before you move your character is essential. In the later stages it becomes imperative to plan your attacks wisely and keep your other two characters in a healthy state because the baddies in Eternal Sonata have a nasty secret.

The enemies become more difficult whenever they’re in the shade (there are some lovely lighting effects in Eternal Sonata). This means what looks like a pretty harmless insect in the sunlight transforms into a huge armoured battle beast in the shade. When enemies are in their dark forms they gain extra hit points and can dish out a lot more damage. This isn’t always the case, though, so you will find enemies that are stranger in the sunlight than in the shade. But luckily certain attacks you can do knock back an enemy, so you can run around them and knock them into the sunlight or shade so you can fight against the weaker version. This makes the battles not only tactical but also a hell of a lot of fun.

Levelling up is pleasant enough, with new attacks and skills coming your way regularly. The only thing is you soon build up a large cast of characters, and unfortunately you can only have three to use in battle at once. This makes the decision of who to use to use a bit of a difficult choice because you know one of them is going to run off with all your stuff at some point. They have to, it’s RPG law.

Eternal Sonata is a beautiful game and so far one of the best RPGs on the PS3. Plus its tale of fantasy and politics is a refreshing change from the usual Japanese RPGs.