Fantasy Wonderland

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday January 21, 2008

Eliot Fish

One's a childlike adventure, the other requires an obsession with Pokemon, writes Eliot Fish.

ETERNAL SONATA

X360

$109.95

M

Rating: 3.5/5

The last thing you would expect from an anime-styled role-playing game is a tale based on Polish composer Frederic Chopin hallucinating an entire fantasy world as he dies of tuberculosis. Well, you're not dreaming, because that's exactly what Eternal Sonata has up its frilly, 19th-century sleeves.

Despite the heavy concept, this is actually quite a gentle, childlike adventure that lulls you into submission with delicate visuals and charming characters. Heavily influenced by Chopin's life and music, there's also a wonderful soundtrack that utilises much of his work. But you don't need to be a classical music aficionado to enjoy the monster battles.

While one of the characters in your party is indeed named Frederic, the two main protagonists are a young girl named Polka and a boy named Allegretto. In some ways, this is their love story.

The game is largely traditional in the sense that you travel between quaint villages and dank dungeons, buy and sell items, chat with characters and get caught up in combat with nightmarish foes. Yet, Eternal Sonata avoids cliche with a few innovative twists that should keep even hardened cynics hooked.

Combat is a clever mixture of real-time and turn-based action. You have a limited amount of time to spend on each character's actions each turn, so while it's advantageous to get behind an enemy, moving around the screen is using up the time you will need to strike or cast a spell. As the game progresses, time limits become harsher to compensate for the greater power you wield.

Despite its gorgeous visuals and the depth of its storytelling, Eternal Sonata does tend to be very linear, with little to distract you from the main thread. But this is a rare example of mature concepts infiltrating a typical monster bash and so warrants attention.

ENDGAME A magical game that should please gamers looking for something akin to Final Fantasy on the Xbox 360. The tunes aren't bad either.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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