And defeating the usual minions might be easy enough, until a point in the story offsets the system and the “Party Level” goes up. The characters may get more powerful after hours of grinding. But Eternal Sonata constantly throws a curveball into the system. This is still all relatively simple and straightforward, so much that the average person might think that the gameplay gets boring. This can force the player to employ tactics to keep the enemies from straying into the wrong part of the battle arena and becoming too difficult to handle. The transformation can have profound effects on the enemies’ health and defense as well. Not only do their moves change but they also may transform into another creature entirely. The shadows also have an influence on the enemies as well. This can be as drastic as making a healer in the sunlight the heaviest hitter on the team once he/she moves into the shadow. The special moves of each character are dependent on whether or not that character is standing in the shade or light. In Eternal Sonata there is distinct difference between fighting in the light and the dark. And since each character is timed during their turn, there is only so much time to get to the enemy and fill up that meter before it’s someone else’s turn so a fair amount of strategy is involved in who is going after whom, as well as what moves to use.Īside from the normal risks involved in the battles in an RPG, there is also the environment to take into account. So if the number reaches the maximum 32 and a character unleashes a special attack, the results are likely to be very fruitful. The echo meter is essentially a multiplier for the characters’ special moves. The payoff is that as a character strikes an opponent-with either normal or special attacks-an “echo meter” fills up. Even though it is all turn-based and the player takes control of one character at a time during battle sequences, each character has their own fighting styles and unique special moves. The interesting thing about this formula is how Eternal Sonata messes with the norm. The more battles you fight, the stronger you become it’s RPG 101. Should the character bump into these creatures, a battle sequence will initiate and players will have to defeat all the creatures on screen before the battle is over and he/she can progress on. There is a path for the player to walk and enemies of the area will be patrolling. The gameplay starts off simple enough like most other JRPGs. Rather than starting with story, it seems more prudent to get gameplay mechanics out of the way. Eternal Sonata was a game that has been out for years, but like some hidden eastern RPG gems, it deserves to be put in the spotlight once again. Instead, this Late Bird Review is about a JRPG that went with a traditional style, but consistently delivered an unexpected perspective. But this review isn’t about Final Fantasy. It stuck to problematic clichés and tried to be different in certain ways without being successful. There was the release of Final Fantasy XIII, which enjoyed some commercial success both here and in Japan after the many long-awaited years, but that game has a long list of issues and problems behind the design that is worth discussing. With all this competition, JRPGs have fallen behind in their once flourishing popularity in the United States. There are the games like Call of Duty that have seemingly taken some of the unique qualities of the genre and made it mainstream as well. However, Western RPGs have established a strong niche with games like World of Warcraft, Dragon Age: Origins, and Fallout. Squaresoft/Square Enix was releasing RPGs left and right with various franchises eating up the market. In previous years there would be a Final Fantasy, a Dragon Quest, or a Shin Megami Tensei game coming out one after another. Japanese RPGs seem to have become less prominent in the US market when it comes to fantasy video games.
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