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Eternal Sonata (Xbox 360) | 
| From: Atari
Category: Video Games
List Price: £39.99
Buy New: £14.93
You Save: £25.06 (63%)
New (23) Used (12) from £6.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 2029
Platform: Xbox 360
Rating: To Be Announced
Media: Video Game
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 3296580803804
EAN: 3296580803804
ASIN: B000UYUJCK
Release Date: October 19, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Marvellous stuff! November 20, 2008
October, 1849- the great composer Chopin lies upon a Paris bed, his slender frame ravaged by the deadly tuberculosis bacteria. As the sands of time continue to deplete, plagued by delirium, the renowned piano virtuoso begins to experience a most vivid hallucination. Suddenly he finds himself being transported to a fantastical new realm- in which a young cartoon character named 'Polka' is also battling against the affliction of progressive terminal illness. As he begins to drift in and out consciousness, the patriotic Polish-born musician experiences visions of himself escorting Polka to the court of the tyrannical 'Count Waltz', in order to plead with him to place greater tariffs upon the sale of 'mineral powder'- so as to level the economic playing field for her own 'floral powder' (which brutally high taxes have prevented her from marketing within a justly competitive price-band).
While his frail, diseased lungs continue in their fight to take in an adequate supply of oxygen, "The Poet of the Piano" witnesses this epic quest for justice being played out within the deepest recesses of his subconcious mind- as the cutesy teenaged characters are forced to engage within mortal combat against a series of wicked creatures (such as fearsome dragons and gigantic turnips with palm trees growing out of their heads). If the troop are to survive these testing sessions of statistical turn-based combat (that exist solely within the nineteenth-century composer's mortally-induced phantasms) they will not only need to call upon powers of brawn, but also those of the magical arts of spellcasting and sorcery.
Fans of the "Final Fantasy" games will surely find plenty to engage themselves, within the morally-uplifting story. I also like the way in which the game provides 'covert education' to the player- by featuring both the story of his final days and selections of his music (superbly performed by Stanislav Bunin- grandson of the great Heinrich Neuhaus). Personally I am eagerly awaiting the upcoming release of an equally educational game about Mozart. According to the game's news site, it will feature a story-line in which the jovial-natured composer must personally investigate a series of brutal murders that are linked to Masonic rituals- and single-handedly uncover a plot to overthrow the emperor (Google "Mozart- The Conspirators of Prague" for the site)!
Rumour has it that a few other such games can also be expected in the future, including a forthcoming project that will feature a heavy presence of William Shakespeare's works. The storyline is said to begin with the Bard of Stafford-upon-Avon tripping over and being transported into the future (after falling into a stray wormhole). Can the historical playwright succesfully lead the earth's space defence forces in the fight against the wicked Fargelian race, as they attempt to re-colonise our planet with titanium-based cyborgs? Equally, will he have time to quash the invasion before the portal closes- potentially preventing him from returning in time to create some of his finest literature? With Kenneth Branagh signed up to provide the voice of the great bearded-writer (as he recites some of his most inspirational monologues between missions- in order to boost the morale of his fellow 27th century freedom-fighters) this project promises to be a winner.
Perhaps the most eagerly awaited of all, however, is the forthcoming Tchaikovsky game. As the Russian composer lies slumped in a puddle of his own tears and alcohol-riddled vomit, after finally settling on the decision to commit suicide by drinking infected water (rather than allow the secret of his personal proclivities to be publically exposed), he begins to hallucinate. He envisions an alternate existence, in which he can continue to make music freely and openly, without fear of being shamed by bigots. In this daze, he pictures a radically different world of possibility, featuring stunning new instruments and adventurous timbres of sound that he had never previously known. Standing proud once more, he sees himself strutting onto a spotlit stage- where he is met by the cheering of thousands of admiring fans, who are literally screaming out for his music. Not wishing to let them down, Tchaikovsky rips straight into the 1812 Overture- like a possessed demon with a 'scotch bonnet' chilli pepper lodged up its rear. With a soundtrack that features performances of his music by such rock legends as AC-DC, Guns and Roses, Led Zeppellin and Chris deBurgh, the chance to portray the nationalistic Russian composer in "Guitar Hero: Tchaikovsky" will surely have a wide appeal.
 Beautiful and Charming June 15, 2008
Eternal Sonata is a strange premise, you play a game (a JRPG) about polish composer Frédéric Chopin. It might all seem strange and quirky, well thats exactly what Eternal Sonata is. If you enjoy JRPG's you are going to absolutely love this to bits. Its beautiful to look at... I mean jaw droppingly pretty. This game will really show off the capabilities of your 360 and your HDTV with rich clean colours and animations.
The game itself plays like any normal JRPG, play as a team of oddly dressed characters all complete with funny hairstyles to save the world from an evil force. The true differences lie in the little touches I don't want to spoil it for anyone but lets just say this game has dramatic if a little obvious twists. The way the game plays is also similar to other JRPGS... Turn based(ish) hack, slash and magic your enemy to death. it introduces a clever light and dark system which adds a layer to the combat, on top of this you have your timer which kicks in as soon as you take a step and later on in the game as soon as your turn starts. As you progress through the game you will probably find that you way out level your enemies. Fights are still fun none the less. You have a whole array of wicked cool magic attacks and specials to your disposal, all look amazing and are wonderfully eccentric. The game also has a few other nice touches in combat that help part it from the competition it's nothing revolutionary but its nice.
This game does stumble a few times unfortunately and they are some pretty big hurdles too. The entire quest should not take you more than 20 hours, while lengthy by most game standards this is relatively short for a JRPG (not including the weak attempt at getting you to play the game through twice) Also the story while interesting and a little kitsch, its extremely predictable and linear, so those looking for something to get lost in may find this is not the game for them. The game also features a lot of cutscenes some of which teach you about Chopin's life and music, it's a nice idea but its dull and breaks the games pace up.
Even with it's shortcomings, Eternal Sonata is a shining gem of a title, and something the 360 sorely needed, if you like JRPG's that don't take themselves too seriously or if your just looking for something pretty to stare at, look no further.
 Dull and repetative May 28, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I bought this game off Amazon based on the above average customer review (4 stars)and low price. I like the odd RPG game and thought this would be a good time filler until something better came along. Well, it certainly is a time filler but for all the wrong reasons.
The basis of the game is that you are living out the last dream of composer Chopin. A rather original storyline but don't get too excited as it goes down hill from there. The game play is structured in a similar way to the final fantasy series where it is split into combat mode and travel/exploring mode. The travelling mode lets you move your character through some fairly attractive 3D surrounding. Unfortunately, these environments are largely un-interactive with the exception of a few items (ropes, ladders etc) that you can activate by pressing the A button. The areas themselves are fairly limited offering only a single route from start to finish. Some have fairly basic puzzle elements but are still linear in nature.
Anyway, the combat mode surely makes up for the travelling. After all, battling monsters and evil doers is what these games are all about eh? The battles are normally started by walking into an enemy whilst travelling. The screen changes to an arena mode where up to three of your team-mates, chosen before hand, face up to three enemies at a time. However, unlike other similar RPGs of this ilk the attacks take place in a kind of quasi-real-time. Each character attacks in turn, based on there speed rating, and can either perform normal attacks, use and item, perform a special/magic attack or a combination of the above in the allotted time (this starts at 5 seconds and reduces as you progress through the game). Initially, this make for a more exciting experience than just selecting something from a list and watch your character perform it. After the 100th battle though you realise how repetitive this action is. Although you can use any combination of attacks/actions there is a particular formula that you will work out after a while that wins 99% of all battles. About a quarter of the way through the game I found myself yearning for the old school "select an attack and watch" system.
Still, even with those complaints this would still be a 3 star game but for one thing. The cut scenes. Oh....my....god.... Eternal Sonata has probably the longest cut scenes I have seen in any game. My controller turned itself off twice during one. The cut scenes could maybe be forgivable if the voice acting and script wasn't so poor, but they are. Proper stinkers too.
This game will be gracing the bargain bins soon and probably end up being reviewed by the angry Xbox nerd in twenty years time on youtube. So do yourself a favour and avoid it unless you have a broken leg and need a game that will fill several pointless hours of your life.
The best RPG on the Xbox 360 since Oblivion! May 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I will admit to not being the biggest JRPG fan, having never seen a Final Fantasy game through to it's conclusion, but I know what I like, and I loved Eternal Sonata, so much so that it made me actively seek out other Japanese RPG's for more of the same.
Everything about this game is a hit; the visuals are simply gorgeous, the whole game is wonderfully imaginative, the combat is fully engaging and fun, the story is an absolute delight, and despite a linear storyline there are still plenty to be done in this rich and beautiful game. It's definitely a game with replay value and it's a game that's an immense amount of fun to play.
I got through the game in about 24 hours in total, which admittedly is a little short, especially considering that Lost Odyssey, the most recent Xbox 360 JRPG is 60 hours long, but I'd say I fully enyoyed at least 22 of them. I definitely intend to play it again just because it's such a wonderful experience. You will be sitting through some rather long cutscenes, and the story does get rather preachy, but these minor problems did nothing to dent my utter enjoyment of this game.
Considering that I got this game for less than 20 from good ol' Amazon, in retrospect if I had known how good it was I would have gladly paid 40, and at 15 you would be hard pressed to find a better game. Every Xbox owner who enjoys a good colourful game with some real nice combat has no excuse for not buying this simply amazing game. 9/10 (rounded up to 5 rather than down to 4)
aimed at children or fans of anime February 5, 2008
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
Positives: i like the fact that it's trying to be original with it's story. Good graphics, decent battles.
Bad: First of all i felt it's far too easy. Same strategy for every battle. However the biggest problem i had was the cutscenes which were very slow and tedious to the point were I just skipped them everytime they came on. I had never done this before in a game but i found myself not caring at all about the story. In the end i couldnt be bothered finishing it. I'm sure other people would prefer to stick with it but i felt there so many better things i could be doing with my time. Maybe it's a cultural thing and japanese enjoy this sort of super cute animation and slow dialogue. Not for me.
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