Eternal Sonata Review

I have been playing through Eternal Sonata for the past few weeks and wanted to reserve judgment until I had a good chunk of the game completed. I had been watching this games development for several months before its release, and I bought it the week it came out. I really liked the demo, and the full version is even better. I will even go so far as to say this is one of my favorite Xbox 360 games.

This game is all about the art, music, and story. Although I have not finished it yet, I am totally immersed. Be warned though, this game may not be for all, there is a lot of level grinding, and combat can become repetitive at times, so can the sound effects. There are also some puzzle type dungeons that require a lot of backtracking which can become frustrating. That said, this game is amazing. I think game play is far more important than graphics, but this game has the best cell shaded animation I’ve ever seen in a game to date.

Eternal Sonata is one of the few Japanese RPGs available for the 360 along with Blue Dragon. While no veteran in this genre, the fighting battles in Eternal Sonata are unique. They blend a combination of turn based strategy with real time hack and slash. Basically you have your three characters. Each one has their turn in which you have a few seconds of tactical time to decide what you will do. Once you start your turn or tactical time runs out, the remainder of the turn is real time, usually about 3 to 5 seconds. You run toward your enemy, and start slashing as the timer bar counts down. You can also build up hits each time you attack. The longer you attack the more hits you build up which can then be used for a super powerful attack. This can be done by any character at any time throughout the battle. These are very useful against bosses.

In each battle field there are also light and dark places. These will affect the attacks of each character, allowing them to use their dark attack or light skill. This adds a lot of strategy to the game, as one character may be used to heal others while in light, and another one may have a very powerful magic in the dark. There is a surprising amount of depth to this real-time aspect of the game, but it can also grow frustrating as you waste turns and run out of time while changing items. Items are found throughout the game and can be used in battle. These are mostly modifiers, like light spells, darks spells, poisons, health etc.

Another interesting angle to this game is the score pieces. These are musical pieces you collect throughout the game. When you find other characters that have them you can play together. You will then be marked on how well the session went and possibly get an item. This is a small part of the game, but adds a little extra.

The whole game is based on music. Weapons look like instruments, names and places are musical terms, everything in the game is musical. Without giving too much away, the game is about Frédéric Chopin on his death bed having a dream. Whether it is a dream or not is part of the mystery. The story is actually quite deep, and cut scenes can last for 10 minutes at times, but they are never boring, in fact they are one of the reasons I find myself pushing ahead to see more of the story unfold. As you play you will unlock real Chopin pieces which will play while showing pictures and giving real history about Chopin. The Anime story so far seems to be loosely connected to the real history of Chopin. The songs that you unlock are performed by renowned pianist, Stanislav Bunin. These songs are the most powerful in the game, but even the game music is quite good.

Although the game does have its flaws, its presentation and music blow away any faults. This game is a must for any RPG fan, or Anime fan. The art direction is just stunning and awe inspiring. The detail is unmatched. Everything from tiny sparkling flowers to giant cliffs and trees is rendered in matriculate detail. I find myself stopping and looking around for minutes at a time. The characters are all beautifully rendered and very memorable. If you do buy this game, expect a wonderful journey into a fantasy world that will take you away from the real world for many, many hours.

View my updated post and screenshots on Eternal Sonta

Crackdown, possibly one of the funniest games I’ve played in years

I bought Crackdown the other day with a friend because there was a clearance sale. I know it’s a bit late for a review as this game has been out for some time now, but I believe it deserves mention.

The game offers some of the best co-op play I’ve had on the Xbox 360. The only real drawback is that you can only play one other friend. It would have been nice to have 4 other players or even 8, maybe Grand Theft Auto IV will offer something like this. This game however will provide you with many laughs, yes it’s mindless, but it’s fun, real fun as you run down the road, or drive down the highway blowing up everything in sight.

Crackdown got so many things right, but then again, I’m partial to sandbox type games, and I think this is as sandbox as you get. You can play the game in any fashion you like. Fight the bosses, do the races, build your character, or just go out and have fun. Half the times I find myself doing things that really have nothing to do with the overall objectives of the game. This is a huge success in any game in my opinion. When you reach the level of immersion where the player is deciding they just want to go check something out, or try seeing how many cars they can stack up before laying explosive barrels around them, you have a winner. Do a search on Youtube and you will find many funny videos of people doing crazy things in Crackdown.

There is one major flaw in this game. Luckily it has nothing really to do with the game mechanics and more to do with advertising. There is an 800 MS point add-on to crack down. There is also some free add-on’s. I obviously have no problem with free add-ons, and I don’t even mind the pay add-ons. Where the problem lies is that when you add the free add-on, it adds way points for all of the paid content. It also adds weapons and vehicles. All of this is in the game and asks you if you would like to purchase if every time you run to it or click on items. This is totally unacceptable. I bought the game; please don’t annoy me with what basically amounts to in game ads for more game content. When you buy a movie you don’t expect to be prompted to buy episode two half way through the movie. Please let us play the game, advertise the game content in the main menu or better yet, let us find it in the marketplace. Anyone who is interested in marketplace content will most definitely find it.

Other than the heavy handed advertising this game is hands down one of the funniest and funniest games I’ve played on the 360, and the best part is this game is dirt cheap now. If you want something to tie you over until Grand Theft Auto IV comes out, maybe swing buy your local game store and pick it up.

Overlord game review

So I bought Overlord the other day for my 360. I’ve been playing it for about three days now, and so far I really like it. Playing the Demo first, I decided to buy it the day it came out.

I really wanted something new, and felt this might be it. While it’s no Gears of War, sometimes you need a change. This is also the kind of game that the 360 lacks in general, but that is slowly changing with a lot of future. The graphics are just beautiful and at times very Zelda: Twilight Princess like. It’s so nice to see these rich fantasy type worlds in HD, the one thing lacking on my Wii.

In the game you play an evil overlord in a funny tongue-in-cheek setting. If this game was more serious, you would be a character like Sauron from Lord of the Rings. You also have a horde of crazy demon like minions which growns in size as you progress through the game. There are four kinds in total, Browns, Reds, Greens, and Blues. You start off with only Browns and must find the other three minion hives to gain use of all your minion types. Each minion type has different abilities, and at times you will have to use a mixture to progress through an area. Its really a blend of RPG and stratagy.

The game progresses nicely, and although there’s a lot to do, its very fun and simple. You gradually progress throughout the game and learn new abilities and tactics, so you never end up feeling overwhelmed.

The major downfall fall with this game is the controls. While they are easy to use, they could still be better. Sometimes you feel confined as free look is not as free as it should be. The left stick moves your character and the right stick moves your minions. This is really cool, and once you get use to it you find yourself using the right stick a lot and the Overlord will just stand watching over, as your minions trash, pillage and smite villages, farms, and animals.

What’s not so cool is having to click the left bumper and use the left stick to look around. There are many times where you will find yourself wanting to just look around at the sometimes stunning fantasty world which surrounds you. It’s when you do this that you will feel confined, often not being able to fully look up or down. A zoom feature would have been nice too, so you could look at your minions up close. There is a toggle that lets you look at yourself from directly above in a top down fashion. This is very cool when outside, or planning a battle. Battle itself can also feel clumsy at times, but for the most part your minions are very smart and will work the way you want them too.

That said, Overlord’s strengths far outway its short commings. This game will not be for everyone, but if you enjoyed the demo, chances are you will enjoy the full game. There is much more to do, everything from building your dark tower, to finding a mistress. This game is all around good fun, and I think I will be putting many more hours into it.