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.

… continued