Napalm Riot

Eternal Sonata is a game that is not well known, despite it's wonderful story and graphics. It can seem quite colorful at first, but it fits really well with the overall theme of the game and story. This is a great game that MUST be picked up by anyone that either loves classical music or Chopin.

Graphics 9|10
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This game is very colorful. That is the first thing you notice when you pick it up. The characters are very stylized, and all the colors are very vibrant. Some may think of this as a turn off, but I believe they accent the game very nicely. The scenery never got boring, and the enemies were fairly different in the different regions. Overall, I really enjoyed the graphics of this game.

Sound 10|10
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This game has some of the best sound I've ever heard in a game. Much of the music in this game is that composed by Chopin himself, and it is wonderful to listen too. The rest of the music is also really good, and provided for a good experience for the ears during gameplay. One of the most interesting aspects of this game was the mini game centered around the Score Pieces. The score pieces were individual cuts of music that you found around the game. Some of the characters you interacted with had their own pieces that you could combine with yours to make a new song. Depending on how nice the songs meshed, you could get a rare item. Personally, I've had experience with music theory, so when choosing a matching piece i didn't always end up guessing, but one bad thing was that they didn't always put the correct music down, so even if they should match musically, they sounded awful. Despite this, the mini game was still entertaining and made some very interesting (if not exactly good) songs to listen to. Another wonderful aspect of this game was that throughout out the game, whenever you came upon a new piece of music while playing, it would be added to a list that you could listen to at anytime. There was also an independent list of all of Chopin's songs in the game that was eventually unlocked through beating the chapters. This made the music part of the game even better because it was almost like having a cd to listen whenever you had your console running. Just pop in the disc and listen to the music. This is a soundtrack that I would willingly pay the 68 dollars to buy if I had the money to spend. This game is almost worth it for the music alone.

Controls 9|10
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The controls for this game were very easy to understand and made sense. The controls were typical turn based rpg controls. Movement when not in combat, and magic/attack buttons while in battle. The battle controls in this game were very different (at least for me, whether they are unique or not I couldn't honestly say). There is standard attack, and reflex defense/counterattack buttons, but you could only have two spells available at a time. And which spell used depended on whether the character was standing in the light or in shadow. This made strategy very fundamental, because some maps would have very little light or shadow, and some characters would perform better in one or the other. It is possible to chain attacks as the part levels up, and this led to choices being made as to whether the attacker should be in dark or light, etc. This made the game different enough to not be just a standard rpg and made it much more enjoyable.

Story 10|10
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The story was the second best part of the game, second to the music. The plot revolved around Chopin in a dream during his last night of life. AS such, many of the places and people in Eternal Sonata have musical names such as the main character Polka, along with more subtle references salsa (a Spanish dance style). The story is told through gameplay and cutscenes in the dreamworld, and pure cutscenes for the people around Chopin's deathbed. The one quasi irritating thing for people that don't like classical music or Chopin's is that after a chapter is beaten a cutscene comes up playing the namesake piece and giving the history for it. These cutscenes could run very long, and while skippable, could get irritating.

Fun 10|10
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This was by far one of the most fun games of 2007, though it recieves very little recognition. I greatly enjoyed the time I spent playing it, as much as I enjoyed on COD4's singleplayer, and more than Halo 3's. It even rated above Mass Effect's single player for me. Anyone that enjoys classic turn based rpgs will enjoy this game, and it ranks among the top rpgs I've ever played.

Replay 9|10
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This game is highly replayable. Once it is beaten, you have a chance to restart it with the same party level and stronger monsters which helps those more experienced enjoy it more. Going back to it after a hiatus, I enjoyed it nearly as much as the first time I played it, and look forward to many more play throughs throughout the years.