Editor's note:Â Interestingly enough, I would've quit Eternal Sonata at the same place Alex did if I hadn't been forced to review it -- twice! -- for 1UP. And I agree with his assessment: RPG puzzles should challenge the player -- not annoy them. -Fitch
Many gamers think the PS3 lacks traditional Japanese RPGs. Partly true, because Sony has a fair amount of high-quality RPGs made by the Japanese (Demon's Souls, Valkyria Chronicles, Folklore) -- it's just that those aren't really "traditional." But fans who want "traditon" need to broaden their horizons a bit, because as I recently found out...
...Tradition sucks.
Eternal Sonata was one of the few early well-received Xbox 360 Japanese role-playing games. Even though it was overly cutesy and the voice acting was on the short list of good reasons to tear off your own ears, the game seemed to have a novel plot and an engaging battle system. Even better, the port to my system of choice (PS3) kept the Japanese voice track intact, so I could actually stand the cut-scenes when screechy-voiced Polka speaks.
So I purchased the game and gave it a couple solid play sessions. The Japanese voice acting was actually pretty decent! I suppose good acting is just good acting, no matter what language it's in. The battle system reminded me of the best parts of the Star Ocean series, except for a quirky item-management system. But no big deal.
The graphics and artwork are nice, but then again, I'm a sucker for cel-shading. The music's a definite high point as well, especially the Frederic Chopin tracks. The plot involves the aforementioned composer being transported to a music-themed world on his deathbed, and...stuff happens. I don't know exactly what, though, because I'm about to explain why I stopped playing -- despite the intriguing plot!
Ahem...
F*** dungeons. At least, f*** overly large puzzle dungeons. You know what? New rule: Games will no longer have big stupid puzzle dungeons with lots of annoying enemies. Does anybody actually enjoy these anymore? Did anyone EVER enjoy them?
About 5 to 10 hours into the game, you cross a big ol' bridge. At the other end, your party enters an ancient fort, which is inexplicably made up of three or so large rings, with two floors per ring. You can't simply walk a straight path to get from one end of the dungeon to the other. No! You have to hit switches, which rotate the rings, and then run around trying to figure out how the map's changed while also getting attacked by rats and mage-like things. You can't easily figure out the correct path because of the dungeon's sheer size, so eventually fatigue led to frustration - which, oddly enough, led to me feeling sleepy. So I quit.
Up until that point, I'd honestly enjoyed Eternal Sonata. But suddenly, the developers decided I'd reached a good spot to put a time-consuming dungeon in the game just to waste the player's time. That was the last straw for me. These kinds of RPGs need to break away from the archaic design decisions -- conventions that, in my opinion, are part of the reason Japanese games have fallen behind their Western counterparts.Don't get me wrong; I've loved Japanese RPGs on every conceivable system for years. The original Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy 5, Shadow Hearts -- and the list goes on. But Eternal Sonata was only released, like, two years ago! I can't put up with the lazy designs that permeate traditional RPGs -- at least not anymore. When I hit that stupid dungeon, I realized that I don't want to play that anymore. It's a chore. It's not worth my time, even if I may enjoy the rest of the game. I'm done. I'm just sick of seeing that crap in my Japanese role-playing games like it's a genre requirement.
To the community: Have you played anything recently that just wasn't worth the effort? Or was everything acceptable except one aspect was past your point of tolerance? Do you think I'm overreacting here?
