To my dismay, I've finished Eternal Sonata. Now I can safely say it's one of my three all-time favourite games. I savoured every bit of it until the end, and I'm so sad it ended. So here's my mini-review:
Story and characters: The idea behind the story and the characters are very good, though the game lacks development. Most characters aren't properly devleoped and their potential is wasted. It's not like it sucks, but it's not as good as Grandia 2, for example. The ending attempts to make up for some of this offering a delightful series of cut-scenes taking over 45 minutes together.
Gameplay: The game is pretty fun. It offers an action combat system that evolves through the game. It starts out pretty weak, but past half of the game it becomes more interesting. The dungeons have pretty good designs, some offering several paths or being a bit of a 3D maze. The 3D factor is well exploited in most dungeons. Other than that, the game is linear, which is not a bad thing.
Visuals: The game is an absolutely delightful, orgasmic experience for the eyes. I haven't seen a single game that comes close to Eternal Sonata in the artistic department, maintaining a consistently beautiful, colourful, vibrant environment. Remember the Granas Cathedral in Grandia II? That'd be about the dullest scenario in Eternal Sonata. Animation is silk smooth and pleasant too. And technically, the graphics are stunning as well. There's not a single bad thing I can say about Eternal Sonata's graphics, though you might dislike the fact you don't control the camera.
Music: On par with the graphics there's what's now my favourite videogame soundtrack. Spanning an awesome 4 discs, featuring Chopin pieces played by Stanislav Bunin, and 100% orchestral music from Motoi Sakuraba (including Chopin arrangements and new piano pieces). Most notably, this game easily has the best (to my liking) boss music ever. Pieces like "I bet my belief" or "Your truth is my false" made me realize Sakuraba is easily one of the very best and most flexible active composers.
Voice: I've only used the Japanese voices (though the English voices from the demos are pretty good too), and, like almost any instance of Japanese voices, they are very good. Salsa, voiced by Mika Kanai, was my favourite. She's disturbingly cute and lovable. (Attention loliphiles, this game has awesome lolis, though I'm not sure if I should have said this. They're meant to be loved in a non-sexual way :p .)
Overall, this game is a marvelous experience and I recommend it to absolutely everone, including those who haven't played videogames. Playing this game is the kind of thing for which I'm alive, get my ass out of bed early in the morning, commute, and work 8 hours a day.
After finishing the game, this is what I'd like to show its creators, besides my gratitude and admiration: http://img300.imageshack.us/my.php?image=moardogcc0.jpg
<font color="#345E81" size="1">[ June 29, 2008 09:22 AM: Message edited by: -Wiseman- ]</font>
