Eternal Sonata

Vorlage:Infobox VG Vorlage:Nihongo is an original role-playing video game created by tri-Crescendo, one of the developers of Baten Kaitos and Baten Kaitos Origins. The Microsoft Xbox 360 version of the game was released on June 14, 2007 in Japan, September 17, 2007 in North America, and October 19, 2007 in Europe. The game will also be released for the Sony PlayStation 3 sometime in 2008 with additional content.

The game is centered around the classical pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 39. The story envisions a fictional world dreamed by Chopin during his last hours that is influenced by Chopin's life and music, and in which he himself is a playable character, among others. The game features a selection of Chopin's compositions played by pianist Stanislav Bunin, though most of the in-game music was composed by Motoi Sakuraba. The game's battle system centers around musical elements and character-unique special attacks. Light and darkness plays a part in the appearance and abilities of enemies on the battlefield, as well as the types of magic that can be cast.

Story

The game's story is told through two different narratives throughout the game. One narrative provides historical information on Chopin's life, presented as a slideshow of photographs associated with Chopin; these narratives are linked with the name of the first six chapters in the other narrative, each named after one of Chopin's works and to some degree connect with the events in the story.

The second narrative tells the story of events in the fictional dream that Chopin experienced during his last hours of life. The dream world is controlled by two major kingdoms at war, the powerful Forte ruled by Count Waltz, and Baroque led by Captain Crescendo. Polka, a young girl that resides in Forte, has a sickness that she knows will take her life someday, but as part of her aliment, she is able to cure others, which scares most other residents. She tries to make a living selling floral powder as a healing agent, but cannot compete with the extremely cheap "mineral powder" that Count Waltz has made available tax free throughout the kingdom, as well as the tax she must pay on her floral powder. She later meets with a young man named Frederic (Chopin's character in the dream world) who offers to help escort her to Count Waltz in Forte so that she may plead with him to reduce the taxes on floral powder. The pair later encounter two young orphan boys, Allegretto and Beat, who are also attempting to see Count Waltz in order to lower taxes so that they can feed other orphans in their town. As they travel, Allegretto is smitten with love for Polka, and she herself feels some connection to Allegretto. Polka also learns that strange creatures called "agogos" react completely differently around her than anyone else.

The quartet are arrested before reaching Forte but are able to escape with the help of a resistance group that is working with Captain Crescendo to overthrow Count Waltz. Though separated on their trip to Baroque, they eventually reunite and learn that the mineral powder offered by Count Waltz temporarily heals people but eventually causes them to become insane and quickly leading to a premature death. After learning that a spy for Forte has worked into his trusted allies, Captain Crescendo takes matters into his own hands and attempts to unconditionally surrender to Count Waltz in order to put an end to the war and stop Waltz' mad plans. Polka and the group are able to stop Crescendo just in time before he is captured by Waltz, and are able to defeat the Count, but are unable to stop his advisor, Legato, from taking a mixture of the mineral powder with an agogo, transforming into a powerful creature that is able to break into another dimension, those occupied by the souls of people who died from the mineral powder. The group gives chase and are able to defeat Legato, allowing them to access the ends of the earth. However, here, Frederic states that this entire world is just his dream and that he must face his own soul before he can go to the afterlife. The party defeats him in self-defense, and he thanks him for helping him to complete his journey.

However, Polka knows that this is her moment of death, and jumps over a cliff, leaving Allegretto mortified. As Chopin dies in the real world, the narration focuses on Polka's younger spirit being met by her mother in the past who is expecting this event. After some years with her mother, she is called by some other spirit that matches her "astra". Returning to the game's present, Polka's body is lifted back over the cliffs by the agogos, and she is reunited with what she now knows is her true love, Allegretto.

Gameplay

Eternal Sonata follows many general conventions in a typical console role-playing game; the player controls a party of up to ten characters to explore the world, talking with its inhabitants, buying and selling equipment at shops, and encountering monsters while in the field. These encounters are visible, and the player can opt to avoid the encounter, if possible, as well as gaining an edge on the monsters by approaching them from behind. Experience points are awarded to all members of the party, though at a reduced rate for those not involved in combat, and characters will improve in various statistics with each experience level as well as learning special combat skills. Weapons, armor, and accessories can be used to improve these statistics, which can be purchased through money earned in combat, found in chests, or by selling both equipment and photographs which can be taken by the character Beat during battle. The player may also find Score Pieces scattered about the world, which represent short musical phrases. Various NPCs in the game will offer to perform with the party, requiring the player to match a Score Piece to the phrase offered by the NPC, with the resulting composition being ranked. Distonal matches will result in no reward, but close or perfect matches will gain a bonus item from the NPC.

Combat

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Combat in Eternal Sonata takes place in both lit and shaded areas, affecting the skills the player can use

While the main combat system is turn-based using only 3 characters within the party, it incorporates elements of an action game. Each character's turn is preceded by "Tactical Time", a period of time which the player can use to decide the course of action to take with that character. Once the player initiates an action or "Tactical Time" expires (a function of the Party Class Level), the player then has a limited amount of time denoted by an Action Gauge to move the character, attack the enemy, and use recovery skills or items. Regular attacks are made at melee or ranged distances depending on the weapon choice of the character, and add a small quantity of time back to the Action Gauge, and additionally add to the party's "Echoes" meter. Special skills which can include both offensive attacks and recovery skills will consume whatever Echoes have been generated to that point, and will have a more powerful effect relative to that number. When a character defends against an attack, there is a short period before the attack strikes where the player can press a button to block some of the damage for the attack, or to possibly even counterattack the blow and interrupt the monster's turn. Recovery and other one-time-use items are kept in a common pouch with a limited capacity; the player must "set" items in the pouch so that they can be cycled through and triggered during battle.

Light and dark areas on the battle field generated by the time of day, environment, and shadows of the characters and monsters will affect combat. Each party character has one or more special skills that are active in lit areas, and a similar number but with very different effects in a dark area. Monsters themselves may have a dissimilar set of powers in the area of the battlefield they are in, while other monsters will actually change form when they move between lit and dark areas. The player can manipulate the nature of areas using special items, but this can also be affected by the monsters themselves, or through dynamic changes on the battlefield such as the shadow of a cloud moving across the ground.

As the player progresses through the game, they will increase their Party Class Level. Each improvement in level grants some bonuses while also imposing additional limits on combat. For example, one Party Class improvement increases the number of slots for special skills for each character, but at the same time, cuts down the amount of Tactical Time and time available in the Action Gauge.

Audio

Vorlage:Sect-stub Eternal Sonata features a large soundtrack, mostly composed by Motoi Sakuraba, with seven of Chopin's compositions performed by Stanislav Bunin and presented in 5.1 surround sound. Featured music of Chopin's include Étude Op. 10, No. 12, Étude Op. 10, No. 3 and Polonaise Op. 53. A Japanese aria composed by Sakuraba titled Vorlage:Nihongo is also performed by Akiko Shinada for the soundtrack. The game's background music was released in Japan as the four-disc album Vorlage:Nihongo on 25 July, 2007 under the King Records label.

Development

Says director Hiroya Hatsushiba: Vorlage:Cquote

For the localization, the game's text was proofread by the Frederick Chopin Society in Warsaw. The localization team wanted to be as historically accurate as possible, without losing the original message of the script.

On April 23, 2007, the ESRB posted their rating for Eternal Sonata listing the game as being intended for release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. However, when news of this quickly spread, the ESRB removed the listing entirely. On September 11, 2007, Bandai Namco's official site listed Eternal Sonata as coming soon to PlayStation 3, yet also listed the Xbox 360 version as being "available now." Again, as news quickly spread, the information was removed. The following day, scans from Famitsu were released, confirming the game as being released for the PlayStation 3. On September 14, 2007 Bandai Namco officially announced Eternal Sonata was coming to the PS3, during Spring 2008 in Japan.

In addition, Namco Bandai stated that there will be features exclusive for the PlayStation 3 version. This includes new playable characters, Crescendo and Serenade, who played a major role in the plot of the game, but were not playable in the Xbox 360 version. It will also include a new clothing system, in which the player can freely change his/her character's costume.

Reception

Vorlage:Sect-stub Anticipation for the game seemed high prior to release, with the game having reached number four in Amazon Japan video game pre-orders not long after a demo was made available on the Japanese Marketplace, and even number one on Amazon Japan's video game charts not long before the game's release. Famitsu rated the game 9/9/9/8, for a total score of 35/40. During its release week, the game reached second place on the Japanese sales charts. The following week, it had placed 35th. [1][2]

At E3 2007, it won GameTrailers.com's award for Best Role-Playing Game and IGN's award for Best Orignal Score on Xbox 360, and was a runner-up in Best RPG, Best Artistic Design on Xbox 360 and Best Use Of Sound on Xbox 360.

External links

• Official Site (Japanese)
• Official Site (English)
• Official European Site