Back to Blog
Tales of eternal sonata ost5/3/2023 ![]() It's educational, but it's also incredibly fun and interesting as you piece together what happened in the game and correlate it to reality. It's not quite obvious, which is why the game has brief interludes, complete with a composition by Chopin, between chapters which inform the player about events which occurred in Chopin's life. The themes, events and motivations for characters have correlations with Chopin's real life. It uses his music and life to bring context to what is happening in front of you. You see, the game doesn't just use Chopin's name as a gimmick. In doing so, it teaches music appreciation and history. The game puts you in the role of a historical figure. You've never played an RPG like this before. Eternal Sonata takes a step in the right direction. It sounds like a pipe dream - most educational games are downright boring. Done properly, you could enjoy yourself and learn without cracking open a textbook. It isn't a far stretch to imagine a role-playing game where you take on the role of a chemist to learn science, for example, rather than a young anime hero. Several forward thinking educators, such as Professor Jim Gee, have argued that videogames have great potential as tools in education. It isn't that often that you can point to a game as an example of entertainment that is both socially responsible and fun at the same time. But let's not overlook the fact that Eternal Sonata does several important things in terms of game design that should be recognized. Sure, Eternal Sonata is a great looking game and exploring the musically inspired world is wonderfully original. And if you find it particularly annoying, you can switch to the Japanese language track at any time. The voicework doesn't quite keep up with the rest of the audio, but it is slightly above average for a JRPG. It almost goes without saying that the music in the game is good, with a good number of Chopin compositions accenting the original soundtrack. Even small scraps of music can be found scattered throughout the land which can be played with agreeable persons you meet along the way in a fun little mini-game. Allegretto's sword has violin strings adorning the hilt. Jazz fights with a giant sword crossed with a trumpet. Polka, Salsa, Jazz, Allegretto, Beat, and others join Chopin to fight the evil Count Waltz and his imperialistic desires. The world is the dream of a composer and, as such, is chock-full of musically inspired characters, locations, and knick-knacks. This is a game that, while likely not taxing the Xbox 360 hardware, is a great example of why you want an HD television. The rich use of color turns a standard flower into an enchanting sight. You can see the threads crisscrossing on tapestries. The world of Eternal Sonata is detailed with a meticulousness not often found in JRPGs. As soon as you turn Eternal Sonata on, you'll find that this is no big surprise. Overall, I think it's pretty worthwhile to play through though it's relatively brief on the first playthrough so burnout isn't too unlikely, but it has enough optional stuff and iirc offers somewhat robust NG+ alterations and bonuses that can keep the game fresh beyond its normal shelf life.Although Chopin is the inspiration for Eternal Sonata, in the game he often takes a backseat to the dream world around him. ![]() ![]() However, it does suffer from incredibly bad balance some characters are just blatantly way better than others, to the point that some of them cough Viola cough cough would literally be better solo than a full party of 3 other characters, but the game itself isn't really aware of this imbalance, so during the very frequent party splits you'll run into situations where one group's boss is borderline impossible without grinding and the other group's boss is a piss-easy cakewalk that lasts maybe 2 full rounds.ĭuring the parts where you have a variety of characters to choose from it's not quite so bad, since the weaker characters frequently have something useful to offer in support roles, but a lot of the game is less a difficulty curve and more a difficulty seismograph. The battle system is fundamentally pretty good it's an interesting turn-based/action combo where each of your turns gives you a limited time to move and attack in real-time, and a light/dark gimmick that dramatically changes your special moves to emphasize positioning, so I found it pretty engaging and surprisingly cerebral. The story is, well I don't really remember it too well, but it's nothing groundbreaking and parts of it suffer from really weird characterization and unclear motivations, so it comes off kinda sloppy but still enjoyable enough, it's more focused on the themes and setting anyways, and the characters themselves are mostly likeable and enjoyable. I think it's enjoyable, it definitely has a pretty unique setting and a great OST.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |