Eternal Sonata (PS3)

Pros:

+Fairly good story
+Very inventive battle system
+Very good game; even better looking on the PS3
+A Great soundtrack

Cons:

-Very linear
-Slow story
-Lackluster voice acting
-There are moments when the game is just all out preachy

Eternal Sonata was released on the XBOX360 in 2007 and was largely overlooked by gamers. The game is now being given a second chance to appeal to most gamers. For the most part you're getting the same game you got a year ago with a few extras. It's a little hard to say whether or not it's worth getting a second time if you already played it before.

Eternal Sonata is largely focused on Fredric Chopin. He lies on his deathbed, unconscious and dreams of a world. In this world, those who can use magic are terribly sick and dying of illness. The citizens of this world are also in a bit of despair as Count Waltz continues an unpopular rule and stands against the people. The story is actually not a bad one. Unfortunately it isn't always presented as well. In the first place, the voice acting just isn't the best out there. Some of it is rather dry and emotionless. The voices themselves aren't bad, but the emotion is almost non-existent in most of them. The story also moves somewhat slowly, and that's strange given that Eternal Sonata is not a very long game. Also, some will probably not appreciate that the game eventually becomes incredibly preachy throughout its final moments.

While it may not present its story as strongly as it could, it's gameplay is still as strong as ever. The battle system for Eternal Sonata is one of the most inventive in the genre. It's a turn based game but adds an active element. When a character's turn comes up in battle, they all have what's called an action gauge. When their turn starts the action gauge counts down. During this time you can do whatever you like until it runs out. Mostly you'll be mashing on the attack button to get out as many hits as you can. You can also execute special attacks. It's a very easy battle system to grasp, but it's hard to master. This is because the battle system never stays entirely the same. You also have a party level that increases as the game goes on and it changes how the battle system works. For example, at Party level 1 the action gauge decreases only when you move, and stops decreasing when you stop. When you hit party level 2, however, the action gauge never stops. It adds a lot of variety to the game but also makes sure that battling is always interesting.

The battle system also has special moves that characters can use, but they change based on whether or not you're in the light or the shade. Some enemies will also change form depending on if they're in the light or the shade. It adds some strategy to the game, but in the end Eternal Sonata still feels like a button mashing affair. Along those lines, the game is not that hard. When you really grasp the battle system and learn it, accumulating large amounts of damage becomes consistent.

There isn't a whole lot that's been added to the PS3 version, but some of it is rewarding. Characters can change their costumes, there are now two new playable characters who were unplayable in the 360 version and a couple of new dungeons. On the other hand, Eternal Sonata is still short and largely linear game. It's nice that there are a few more extras than the average port but they still don't make a huge difference in the gaming experience as a whole if you have the 360 version. In short, if you haven't played Eternal Sonata and you want to, the PS3 version is the better choice. If you've already played through the 360 version, however, there's not much here to entice you to play through it again.

One huge noticeable difference between the PS3 and 360 versions, however, is by far the visuals. The animations are smoother and more vibrant on the Playstation 3. Eternal Sonata was already an incredible looking game to begin with, but the Playstation 3 brings out a lot more in the visuals.

Musically, Eternal Sonata still has some of the best in the industry. You'll even hear some of Chopin's own music at certain moments and get a little bit of a historical background on him. Eternal Sonata's biggest strength is easily its soundtrack.

In the end, Eternal Sonata is still a good game. If you have it on the 360 it's not really that different, nor does it include enough new content worth making it worth a second buy, but for those who haven't played it, it's another chance to play a pretty good game.

This game is good, heres the good: Unique art style which looks amazing if not a tad bit girly but none the less its nice looking! The art style is kind of anime-styled and fans of it will love it but anyone else will too! The game has challenges and isnt just easy sailing throughout! Combat is fun with long and short ranged attacks depending on the character and they have different attacks with everyone having different basic attack and different special attacks. The scenery is really beautiful and memorable. Cutscenes look nice and polished and well done and voice acting is avaible in japanese and english which is always a welcomed addition! The music is also amazing and beautiful!The story is good too and it will leave you wondering about what happens and it can leave you confused at the end!

The cons: Combat can be annoying sometimes i had to grind to level up which is boring that you have to repeatively take on enemies also the enemies can become very annoying as there isnt much variation which is a let-down.The learning curve is annoying the end-level bosses always seemed over-powered and I had to go back to level-up by repeatively killing enemies in the enviroment which is boring. Level designs are linear with one path to success and the rest being dead ends and its not very adventurous. Also the japanese voices i found where very annoying in my opinion I liked the english versions better even if they were abit whiny but the japanese was definetly worse to listen to as in combat they repeat phrases over and over and its high-pitched and gives me a headache! Cut-scenes were preachy as in "oh stealing is bad" but it just wasnt effective and you feel its just a pointless remark also cut-scenes were sometimes pointless indeed and they could become boring but there are skippable so thats not a problem! Also you cant just save when you please you have to go to the blue save points throughout the enviroment so you need to play for a while to find one, also sometimes they were badly placed as after i defeated enemies i couldnt save anywhere and ended dying and had to start all over again which is frustrating!

Lets get straight to it this game is amazing very colourful and the music is very good.some r.p.g.s can be a bit of a bore grinding out levels just to defeat the next boss or get a certain trophy.Alas this game has no trophies ( and being a trophy hunter look me up superbaggies)but i brought this game when the psn was down,so i knew that i would be able to just get involved with the plot and the overall game.The difficulty level is set just right not too hard ie demon souls lol or too easy and i like the way you can choose your party with easy to set spells for light and dark magic.Overall I rate this game 8.5 out of ten and at this price its a steal that will also be quite rare one day.