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- Eternal Sonata
Eternal Sonata
- January 16, 2007 13:40 PM PST
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And you thought the life of a classical pianist would never make it into a video game. Shame on you!
You've got to love the Japanese. They can make anything (and I mean anything) weird and exciting. Take for instance the up-and-coming RPG for the Xbox 360, Eternal Sonata: Frederic Chopin is the main character. Yes, that Frederic Chopin; the famous pianist and romantic composer.
Yep, it's a turn-based battle system.
STORY: The premise of Eternal Sonata is that as Chopin lay dying in Paris, he dreams that he visits a fantastical world that is filled with people and places named after musical motifs. Chopin travels through this dream world with a young girl named Polka who, though sick and dying, has magical powers that she wants to use to help people. Polka specifically wants to travel to meet with the land's ruler, a count, in order to ask him to help her home village.
As Chopin and Polka travel to the count's castle, they meet other characters along the way, one named Allegretto and another named Beat, who each have their own reasons for appealing to the count. The hitch in the story is that Chopin knows he is dreaming, but as he becomes closer to his traveling companions, he begins to find himself more and more involved and concerned with their plight.
Eternal Sonata's cel-shaded world is huge.
GRAPHICS & GAMEPLAY: The world of Eternal Sonata is huge and brightly animated via anime-style cel shading, where the environments are enormous with plenty of rich detail all around. As you travel to the count's castle, you will have your obligatory enemy and monster encounters that you will battle via a turn-based system that will allow you perform actions while your time gauge is active. As the moment the gauge runs out, the next character's becomes active and they may attack or move accordingly. Enemy monster's stats and physical appearances will also change depending on if they're in light or shadowed spaces. Furthermore, Chopin's piano compositions will be featured as part of the soundtrack for the game, as performed by Russian pianist Stanislav Bunin.
As more RPGs like Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata get released on the Xbox 360, it's going to be interesting to see if the Playstation 3 can retain the Playstation 2's throne as console of choice for role-players. Visually, Eternal Sonata looks like it delivers; it's just a matter of time to see whether or not the story and gameplay content can produce, too.
