Eternal Sonata review

So, we've established that the battles are awesome, but the story is no slouch either. As we mentioned, the idea of Frederic Chopin, a real historical figure, entering a magical dream land seems a bit out there at first. While the main story is told in aforementioned fantasy world, with a fictionalized Chopin as one of the characters, the story's chapters are broken up with a series of interludes that tell the real-life story of the famous pianist. This allows players to draw their own parallels between real historical events and what's going on in the game, and brings a sense of realism to the otherwise fantastical world of Eternal Sonata. What on the surface seems to be a wacky premise, ultimately creates a brilliant contrast between reality and fantasy.

So, we've established that the battles are awesome, but the story is no slouch either. As we mentioned, the idea of Frederic Chopin, a real historical figure, entering a magical dream land seems a bit out there at first. While the main story is told in aforementioned fantasy world, with a fictionalized Chopin as one of the characters, the story's chapters are broken up with a series of interludes that tell the real-life story of the famous pianist. This allows players to draw their own parallels between real historical events and what's going on in the game, and brings a sense of realism to the otherwise fantastical world of Eternal Sonata. What on the surface seems to be a wacky premise, ultimately creates a brilliant contrast between reality and fantasy.

The only disappointing aspect of the story is the RPG-typical stilted dialogue between characters in the cinemas. Instead of carrying on a natural, flowing conversation, the characters engage in the all too familiar pattern where one character says a sentence or two, followed by a pause, then another character says a sentence, pause, and so forth. Luckily, the story and writing are strong enough to shine through anyway.

Some might dock Eternal Sonata's original Xbox 360 release for being a tad on the short side for an RPG (around 30 hours), but the PS3 version adds enough extra content to make that gripe irrelevant. Not only are there new dungeons and new events that flesh out the story a bit more, but also two of our favorite characters, Prince Crescendo and his lovely fiance Serenade, are playable this time around. The battle system is still addictively fun, the multifaceted story is riveting, and the graphics are amazing... we couldn't ask for much more.

Nov 11, 2008