So last week I didn’t write anything because I was too drunk. I had to be, there’s no other way you can play Eternal Sonata and not weep tears of blood!
Many people on the internet argue whether videogames are art or not. I like to avoid either polar option and take the middle ground that they can be, but while games like Eternal Sonata exist they won’t be!
The story follows Frederic Chopin, the famous composer, who on his deathbed dreams a fantasy world themed around classical music. So it’s exactly like Brütal Legend… only stupid!
That’s not entirely true. I actually like classical music almost as much as I love metal, except while Brütal Legend built its entire design aesthetic around the genre and the attitude of the music, Eternal Sonata just gives everyone music themed names like Tuba, Allegretto and Jazz… Jazz isn’t a classical genre, and there’s a transforming robot that would like to have a word…
The gameplay follows usual JRPG (Japanese-Role-Play-Game) fare where you run around a vibrant and beautiful setting that actually has nothing in it but the occasional enemy for you to run into and fight. The main difference from other RPG’s becomes apparent when you’re fighting; the battles are only half turn based. During each characters turn they are given a set period of time in which to go nuts on the enemies you’re up against.
This may sound weird and needlessly complicated, and it is, but it opens up a truckload of strategies you can use. Do you send one of your three combatants to attack one enemy each, or do you have them group up and gang rape them one at a time while piling up your special attacks for the next one along the line, which risks them sneaking up behind one of your fighters and piling the hurt on them while they’re defenceless…
It’s such a pity that a game as cerebral and complex as this can be so utterly stupid in every other way! The writing is horrific, the character designs have everyone holding their arms out at a forty-five degree angle and the voice acting has me screaming Die….Die!…. DIE! at the screen every thirty seconds! The game takes every cliché that has plagued JRPG’s for years and runs them with a naïve belief that we somehow won’t notice.
A big fat guy in an eyepatch who wanted to hurt the main characters (I warmed to him immediately) tried to arrest us. In battle I wiped the floor with him so thoroughly he failed to knock out a single one of my characters… when the fight was over, his guards arrested us. No option to fight, no reason why we couldn’t even try. The guards just stood there while my characters rammed a sword, a conductors baton and several hundred arrows up the guys arse and only decided to step in when he was on the brink of death!
And yet still I play…
Why? I have no idea. Is it because I enjoy slowly overcoming enemies that were once a real threat until I can sweep them from the battle in one turn, is it the satisfying flush of a carefully constructed plan coming together to bring the pain to a boss in spectacular fashion. Is it because I find screaming the word DIE over and over again somewhat cathartic… I have no idea.
To return to my original point, I believe that videogames can be art if they deliver a message and an emotional response through the experiences and actions of the player. Games like this go against everything like that. I don’t care about the story one bit. I hate the characters I’m playing as, and the ones they’re trying to protect even more. I’m simply playing it to watch the ever growing numbers that float up on the screen every time I hit an enemy.
To be fair, I do quite like the fact there’s a co-op mode where a friend can just pick up a controller and help in the fight. But unless you have a friend to play the whole game together, they’ll probably find themselves out of their depth with all the stuff you have to do as the game goes on.
If you really love JPRG’s, and I mean love them so much you’ve played all the others. Then this may be worth a go if you get it for a tenner like I did. Otherwise, there are a million other better games for you to try out instead.
I think the problem with video games at the moment is that they are just so many of the things! With more and more title coming out, the care and love that used to be put into games like this is lost. Unless quality remains high on video game, which made them popular the first place then people will stop buying them!
Great review Jack, made me laugh in a couple of places. Keep up the good work!
The annoying thing about this game is that a lot of love probably did go into it, just in the wrong places. The story just runs with every cliche known to man and the cutscenes are terrible…
But the more I play the more I tolerate it. They’re so bad it’s funny. Play it with a couple of mates and beers and you’ll have a laugh riot, and the fighting system is truly innovative. Every step back it takes, it takes another one forward.
For instance, my party gained a character that I assumed would annoy the shit out of me… She turned out to be a fucking demon on the battlefield, and she warmed to me through her sheer brutality. It’s funny how gameplay experience can colour your perceptions of everything else in the actual story.
It tells a very important lesson on games design, players will grow to love a character because of their effect on gameplay first, and their dialogue and character second (as long as it’s not completely hideous). If you want me to love a character, make them useful in the game, and I soon will.
The thing is, to me, this game looks like a child’s game. I think that after stuff like Toy Story, we just expect children’s media to be of the same quality of adult media. I think this game can be forgiven if not as much money was spent on fine tuning it. As long as you got some fun out of it, that is all that matters.
It’s an easy trap to fall into. But just because the screenshots have bright colours doesn’t make it a ‘childs’ game necessarily. I still to this day believe that ‘Wind Waker’ is the best of all the Zelda games with the deepest plot, the best gameplay and shitloads of style.
Killer7 had some hella’ bright colours… I’d only let my kids play that if I wanted to break their spirits!
If you feel that a game won’t be as good because it looks ‘kiddie’, then you might as well say that games that look ‘brown’ are good.
…
On the other hand… Eternal Sonata… yeah it probably is a childs game, but he’d have to be a pretty smart child to get through some of the fights. And you’d be amazed how discerning kids can be some times.
Don’t get me wrong, I like kids games. One of the best games ever was Lego Star Wars, as much like Toy Story, it is interesting for all ages. My point is more that, some games are simply geared to children, with difficulty set to the level of a child’s, yet adults play them as say they are easy/boring.
Grey colour games are boring, Gears of War 2 bored me to tears!