Eternal Sonata Official thread

[Chasym]

i know theres another thread, but i always find it better to start an official thread once the game is out for people to play so the talk can be about playing the game instead of the talk of previews and speculation. Hope no one minds.

I got this game a few nights ago but didnt play it because i hate starting new games while im in the middle of other ones, so i completed Stranglehold and now im onto this.

Played for quite a few hours and i must say the game is ADDICTING. It has that classic RPG feel and you feel attatched to the characters right from the get go.
The visuals are amazing, The color is so vivid my eyes might start bleeding soon from too much beautiful intake.
The Battle system is pretty solid, The light and dark attacks in shade or light is an awesome addition, Special moves not using MP or any other valuable stat is great. While i generally do not like when games only allow you to use assigned items like potions and such instead of just being able to use whatever is in your inventory, so far it has not created much of a problem.
Im sure in the future when the battles get harder, it will be a little irritating running out of items and not being able to reload it in battle.
I would assume you can accumulate more points for adding items as the game progresses.
The photo taking by Beat is a little confusing at first, especially since the inverted controls throw me off each time i enter the mode, its nice to be able to sell your pictures for Gold. It helped me get a nice amount on my first visit to a shop.

What i find most amazing and lovely about the game is the musical scores.
I was extremely confused at first when suddenly the game went into real world pictures from paris while telling the story of famous composer Chopin and his love George Sand (a woman writer who used this name as a Pseudonym). I thought it had something to do with the story, and have yet to find out if it really does, but from what i gather so far, it tells chopins life and death story while playing an actual song he composed, "Raindrops".
you can go to your menu and check the music listed and re-read the story while that score plays. I do not know what purpose this serves yet but its rather neat that you get to unlock real world compositions like that and learn the story of the composer behind them.

The story is a little confusing so far as they leave you to wonder if this world is real or just a dream world of a dying boy. I cant wait to see what unravels.
If you want a GREAT next gen RPG then this is one of them, It comes in at a close second to the amazing blue dragon, but if this story pulls through it will take first place for me, since i havent finished blue dragon yet and am still on disc 1. But this game is amazing, worth the buy completley, you wont find a game of this quality or blue dragons quality anywhere else for awhile this gen.
GET THIS GAME!

 

[Jereme]

I just started playing it last night. I only played for a short time because some friends wanted me to play COD:4 Beta so I had to oblige. The game definately has nice story so far. It definately draws you to the characters like you said.

The game was released saying it was the story of what someone thought Chopin was dreaming about while he was in the last hours of his life. I definately can't wait to see how it ends.

I finished Blue Dragon and I am only about an hour into this and I would say this takes blue dragon imo anyway.

 

[Rappa]

I'm about halfway through chapter 3 and I'm totally hooked on this game. Everything about it is great, the graphics, the story, the rl to fantasy correlation, the battle system, and of course the Chopin inspired music. I like how the Party Level system works, making the game progressively harder yet allowing you to do progressively more things during battles. That's very clever and keeps things from getting boring. The characters are varied enough to where you can swap them in and out to completely change up your battle strategy mid-dungeon to keep from getting bored. I could go on and on really but I'll stop there, lol.

 

[Chasym]

yeah i finally understand the whole chopin thing, honestly i must say this is not a game, but a great work of art. a masterpiece.
tho i do find it funny theres a city named "Ritardando" yeah i know its no pronounced how its spelled, but i lol'd. im nearing chapter 3 now and i think ill be playing this all day and night, i havent had an rpg pull me in like this in a long long time

 

[Chasym]

completed the game lastnight. I fell asleep during the extremly long ending and had to rewatch it today (thank gosh they gave you the option to just view the ending again instead of doing the battle over) and this game, is absolutley amazing. Every character had attachment value. The story was deep and emotional.
The ending brought tears to my eyes. It is a beautiful masterpiece.
The story and excerpts that told the tale of Chopin's real life made me want to learn more about him.
I never knew that he had such a great fear of being buried alive (which i share that exact same fear, it keeps me up at night sometimes) that when he died, he requested his sister i believe to remove his heart from his chest, put it in an urn, and cement it in a pillar at a church where it is today.
The story of coming to grips with your own death and facing your bare self in your final battle of life was very deep.
I will be playing the encore when i get a break from halo in the future so i can get the extra battles and items.
Ps3 will have extra parts to the story to make it clearer and alternate costumes, but 360 will be getting those on DLC soon as well, and some other extras exclusive to 360 not announced yet.
This game is worth every penny, and if you have a 360 and are looking for an amazing RPG, This is it.
it has taken the top spot for me over blue dragon.

 

[Negorissimo]

I don't want to spoil Eternal Sonata's experience because of HALO 3 is coming out. I want to buy this game and enjoy it like I know I will and from your comment it looks very promising. ^^

 

[Chasym]

yeah i stayed up all night when i completed this game, because i wanted to know how it ended before halo 3. i made sure i did lol.

 

[Negorissimo]

I'm surely gonna have to get it by october. I'm not even in Disc 2 of BLUE DRAGON and HALO 3 comes out today. November is FFXI:WotG month too! D=

 

[Firestreak]

Yeah this was the #1 360 exclusive I wanted to play. Was going to bug my roommate to buy it until they announced the PS3 version. I've been playing piano since I was 5 and I've always really enjoyed Chopin's music. They sold me on the concept alone that it's worth my $60, but the fact that it's an RPG and everyone says it's a lot of fun and innovative juiced me up for the game.

 

[Malagra]

Honestly, after playing through nearly all the game (believe I'm on the last dungeon, not the extra one though), I'm finding it a bit lacking. Sure it looks nice, sounds nice, and the battles can be fun for awhile, but there's hardly any story. What is there sounds more like a high school short story than a professionally published RPG. It was the same with Rogue Galaxy, after about half way through, the game just loses steam, and gets progressively worse.

I also have a problem with some of the camera angles and the monsters. Some things are so big, and flying, that you can't be sure if you're actually going to hit something without wasting your action time (which you get precious little of later on). And then wasting more of it so you can defend properly.

Also just about every light skill having a dark counterpart and vice versa kinda ruins the light/dark dynamic, and giving more skill slots. Thanks game, for giving more slots so I can use the same skill anywhere instead of having unique skills that actually develop the light/dark system, instead of tearing it down.

I'll probably end up keeping it though, because some of the photographs during the Chopin song info parts are absolutely stunning, but the game on a whole doesn't match up to my RPG benchmarks (the Tales series).

 

[Evalice]

Pretty much just another 'Tales of' game with a different title. A Ps3 version with extras is coming out. Game follows everything to the book as far as jRPGs go which made me feelin zzzzzz

 

[Makelith]

I picked this game up now, and i'm completly in love with it. I'm stuck in the Chap. 2 dungeon though and i'm almost gonna give up. Whatever you have to do just isn't clicking in my head, and i'm pushing on level 20 right now trying to get through it.

Great pick up if you can do puzzles.

 

[Malagra]

That the fort one with the movable water room?

That took me forever too. It's not a "hit each of the switches in a row", it's a "hit the proper switch to move it into the proper location".

Unless that's not what you're talking about at all....

 

[Makelith]

No, thats what it was. I actually just beat it about 5 minutes after i posted it. I've been kicking myself all the time since for a such a simple solution.

 

[Anglis]

I have it and played it for a bit, but I got halo 3 the same time and I always end up quitting all my games to play Halo online lol, first time ive been addicted to FPS multiplayer.

 

[Makelith]

Unless i'm playing with friends, i can't seem to drag myself to play Halo. I find myself quitting halo for this game, haha. I've been stuck at gunnery sergent for awhile thought because i can't find any good people that are around my level to play with.

 

[Anglis]

Well im not really into the single player Halo 3 (first time really because 1 and 2 I only played the single player), but yeah im sure ill make it around to this game again. It's just hard with Tactics for my PSP, Orange Box, Halo, and next month COD4 and MASS EFFECT.

 

[exodusamphi]

Looks alot like Skys of Arcadia kind of game, I almost thought it was a sequal.

 

[Strid]

Unless i'm playing with friends, i can't seem to drag myself to play Halo. I find myself quitting halo for this game, haha. I've been stuck at gunnery sergent for awhile thought because i can't find any good people that are around my level to play with.

Hate to branch off-topic but can't hurt to much.

Play Lone Wolves unless you have 1-2 friends to play ranked Team Slayer with. In Lone Wolves you don't have to depend on others to have a good match. If you can't get passed Gunnery Sargent in Lone Wolves, it's your own fault. Team Slayer though, is different. You can be a decent player and get shut out with a horrible kill/death ratio if your team is ass, for a while anyways. In the long run Lone Wolves will teach you to defend yourself against multiple opponents making, at least your rank and kill/death ratio, better in Team Slayer pubs. Now that I've gotten good at FFA Slayer I can pub into a Team Slayer match and have a good round even if my team is pathetic.

 

[exodusamphi]

roll with friends... duh, the good kind only tho.