Chopin Saves the World: Eternal Sonata

In a gaming world where the standard role-playing game hero is usually a teenaged boy from a small village (with spiky hair and a case of amnesia…) it’s quite the change of pace when Tri-Crescendo’s Eternal Sonata opens not in a fantasy village about to be burnt to the ground, but instead in Europe, where famed composer Frederic Chopin lies on his deathbed. As a doctor and loved ones gather around him, Chopin lingers on the brink of the great beyond—all hope for his survival gone, death merely an inevitability. The world inside Chopin’s head is a far different place, though. In his fever dream state, the musician finds himself in a fantastical world filled with vibrant colors, a group of youngsters fighting an evil empire, and working to unravel a nefarious plot to enslave the population. This just scratches the surface of Eternal Sonata—a beautiful game filled with a weird mixture of genre bending ideas and traditional RPG tropes.

For a Japanese RPG, Eternal Sonata is a dichotomy—at once tethered tightly to the traditions of the genre while striving to break free of them at the same time. For example, the narrative features unique interludes that highlight Chopin’s life, yet falls all too easily back into genre conventions at regular intervals. Spunky kids overcome great odds to save a world. Life hangs in the balance. It’s all stuff we’ve seen before. Meanwhile, graphical splendor, which is rarely the hallmark of the genre (outside of Square Enix’s lavishly produced titles) is a primary focus here. Even the battle system, the heart of any good RPG, follows the same cadences. It’s an active time battle system with countless nods to the more traditional turn-based offerings that have been genre standards since the first Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. What makes the game so intriguing is the way it blends convention and innovation into a unique gaming experience that hits more notes than it misses.

Despite the inclusion of Chopin, the story is largely predictable and overly familiar. The rest of the cast doesn’t fare much better. While it’s kind of cute that everyone in the game has some sort of musical name (Jazz, Allegretto, Turntable…okay, I made the last one up), the characters themselves are largely archetypes—the young girl who’s more than she appears to be, the noble knight, the young guy who grows into a hero, etc. Throw in an evil empire and you’ve got a standard RPG experience. What is interesting is that the game breaks from tradition and strives to be more than mere entertainment. As each game chapter begins and ends, players are treated to a lengthy story segment that reveals the events of Chopin’s life. In this regard, the game almost tricks you into learning. I came away from Eternal Sonata knowing a lot more about Chopin’s history than I did before starting.

Since the game features a famed composer as a main character, you’d probably expect that music plays a vital role in the game—and you’d be correct. Eternal Sonata has a fantastic soundtrack that blends classical themes with more modern fare into a heady and enchanting musical mélange. The game’s voice acting is equally impressive (except for the female lead—who has one of those annoyingly high-pitched cutsie voices that seems to be the norm these days). Overall, the aural packaging of the game is a definite high point.

Another place where the game certainly exceeds expectations is in the graphics department. Eternal Sonata is a gorgeous game. While it’s highly doubtful that it’s pushing the 360’s hardware to the extreme, it’s a nice example of how developers can create visually arresting games without having to strive for photo-realism or by pushing hardware to the limits. The game’s fantasy setting is vibrant and alive, full of pastel colors, interesting architecture, and lovely (if traditionally anime-inspired) character models. Environments are lavishly created and my only real beef with the modeling is a lack of diversity in enemy types. The game features a few standard enemies that players will fight over and over again.

At the core of the Eternal Sonata experience lies the battle system. Players will fight a lot battles as the game progresses, but fortunately, the battle system remains challenging and intriguing throughout. Gone are the random encounters of games past—players see enemies on the screen before encountering them. Once battle starts, players fight in a sort of hybrid-styled combat system that combines elements of both real-time and turn-based games. Each player gets a turn, and when the turn begins a timer starts to count down. During this time the player can attack, use items, or simply run away. When the timer expires, the turn ends. Adding to the strategy is an attack system that makes use of lighting. Players can assign various attacks to the face buttons of the controller. Each attack has a light and dark variation. If the attacking player is in the light, the light attack comes up. If they’re in the dark, it’s the opposite. Sometimes, an enemy will be weaker to one attack or the other, so maneuvering around the board is a useful strategy.

As players gain higher levels and advance through the story, the combat system changes even more. At early stages, the timer doesn’t start to count down until the player launches their first attack. At later stages, it starts as soon as you move. At the end of the game, it starts as soon as it’s your turn. Early on, players can only do their own chains of attacks. By the end of the game, players can link combo attacks between all three characters on the battlefield in order to dish out massive damage. The constantly evolving combat is a nice touch—even the most innovative battle systems get old after 40 hours, so the minor tweaks throughout Eternal Sonata keep things fresh as the lengthy adventure progresses.

As far as negatives go, the game doesn’t have many. The first applies only to people who love to collect all the achievements in a given title. Eternal Sonata boasts a full complement of achievements to unlock—unfortunately, most of them can only be earned on a second playthrough. Even with a new game + mode, unlocking all of these achievements is going to require a hefty time commitment. And honestly, does anyone really want to play through an RPG twice?

The only other complaint I had was that the game features an extra dungeon that’s extremely long and complex but features no save points. I spent four hours traveling through it, and only had gotten about halfway. Why are there no save points? Who wants to spend four or more hours straight exploring to get through this dungeon? It reeks of poor game design.

Despite these flaws, Eternal Sonata is a solid RPG experience. Fans of the original Xbox decried the fact that the system didn’t have many Japanese RPGs should find this a good omen for Microsoft’s next gen box. This is a game that firmly straddles convention while defying it in minor ways. The familiarity is nice, the innovation is appreciated even more. It’s not the greatest RPG out there (or even on the system), but it does bode well for the future.