Spring Break
Eternal Sonata Not Music To Gamers Ears
John Bailey
Issue date: 9/25/07 Section: Focus
Even if the characters had anything interesting to say, you wouldn't want to hear it. The voice acting, while not necessarily worse than the average role-playing game, ranges from unimpressive to absolutely atrocious. Notably bad are Lord Waltz, the faux-insane villain who opposes you through most of the game, and Beat, the iconic naive, wide-eyed youngster who just asks to be punted through a brick wall. Switching the language to Japanese, a sometimes effective remedy for this problem, proves ear-bleedingly worse.
The game's saving grace (and what a grace it is!) is the battle system. In most console RPGs, the battle system is a mechanism to advance the plot, develop the characters and uncover mysteries. Sonata's story and characters, on the other hand, are a cobbled-together excuse to fight a bunch of awesome battles. The combat is an even blend of turn-based and real-time; characters and enemies trade off turns, but during each turn they have a set amount of real time to attack and move freely around the screen. Tactical decisions must be made in a brief period of planning time, which decreases as your party progresses through the game. The number of tactical options available to you increases with time as well, allowing you to block and counterattack enemies. The combat is enjoyably kinetic, requiring rapid tactical judgments and fast reflexes.
The pace of combat is manageable enough in the beginning, but the endgame becomes frenetic and challenging. It's worth noting, however, that until that end, the battles themselves aren't particularly difficult. During my play through, I skipped as many fights as I could (there are no random encounters; monsters all appear out of combat), yet I was able to win nearly every battle with ease. It wasn't until a boss fight three quarters of the way through that I even had to use a healing item. In addition, it's also possible for up to three to play simultaneously, at least during battles. Multiplayer doesn't actually add any content to the game, but it ramps the fun level up considerably. The energy of the battles takes a leap with three people yelling and pounding controllers, and you get some buddies to laugh at the dialogue with.
The game's saving grace (and what a grace it is!) is the battle system. In most console RPGs, the battle system is a mechanism to advance the plot, develop the characters and uncover mysteries. Sonata's story and characters, on the other hand, are a cobbled-together excuse to fight a bunch of awesome battles. The combat is an even blend of turn-based and real-time; characters and enemies trade off turns, but during each turn they have a set amount of real time to attack and move freely around the screen. Tactical decisions must be made in a brief period of planning time, which decreases as your party progresses through the game. The number of tactical options available to you increases with time as well, allowing you to block and counterattack enemies. The combat is enjoyably kinetic, requiring rapid tactical judgments and fast reflexes.
The pace of combat is manageable enough in the beginning, but the endgame becomes frenetic and challenging. It's worth noting, however, that until that end, the battles themselves aren't particularly difficult. During my play through, I skipped as many fights as I could (there are no random encounters; monsters all appear out of combat), yet I was able to win nearly every battle with ease. It wasn't until a boss fight three quarters of the way through that I even had to use a healing item. In addition, it's also possible for up to three to play simultaneously, at least during battles. Multiplayer doesn't actually add any content to the game, but it ramps the fun level up considerably. The energy of the battles takes a leap with three people yelling and pounding controllers, and you get some buddies to laugh at the dialogue with.
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