Eternal Sonata for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

Like a lot of people, I read some fantastic things about Eternal Sonata. I mean, how bad can a game be that's about Frederic Chopin? Unfortunately, the game was frustrating and disappointing.

Not being a fan of turn-based combat, I thought I'd give this game a try because of its real time combat and engaging story. The combat was instead only a mild step up from turn-based, as you can run around on your turn or consume a potion before your turn runs out, and when it's not your turn you can sometimes try and block in coming attacks. But you'll still find yourself tapping X and Y for five minutes with identical results. Gear and weapons don't change your appearance or even change animations during combat, so it makes improving gear and weapons almost pointless. As a result of the repetitive combat system, I gets very old very quickly. And yes, they're not random encounters because you can see them coming, but you're still transported to a "fight scene" and most of the time you can't avoid them.

Yes, the game is very pretty, but it's completely destroyed by the fixed camera perspective that doesn't let you appreciate it or your character's attractiveness. The fixed camera is probably one of my major complaints about the game. It's so far away from the character that I found myself squinting most of the time to try to make out where I was going. The lack of a map didn't help either. I got lost in th woods countless times.

All that aside, I was looking forward to the story line, which sounded genuinely unique and interesting. It was, however, poorly executed and hardly if at all driven by player actions or combat. On top of just flat out ghastly voice acting and cliche, poorly written dialogue, over the course of gratuitously frequent and long cut-scenes make this game virtually un-playable.

If you like poorly executed animes about potentially good ideas and don't mind monotonous combat, maybe you can stomach this unfortunate title. I couldn't.