I've finally gotten some time to catch up on all the XBox 360 Demos I've been letting slide (specifically I finally found the time to clear off the drive and make some room for more demos... damn I wish somebody would figure out how to do a third party drive at a remotely reasonable price).
The two games that I've been dying to try are "Eternal Sonata" and "Blue Dragon". These are traditional Japanese RPG games - a genre that's been nearly non-existent in the current generation. In truth the current generation hasn't being very kind to me so far: I loathe Sports games, dislike most driving games and am getting less and less impressed by gritty shooters. I've been waiting for the epic RPG, adventure and platforming games to begin to appear. "Eternal Sonata" was pure pleasure. It's an odd game; the Wikipedia synopsis should give you an idea: "The story takes place in a dream world which centers around the piano composer Frédéric Chopin, who died at the age of 39 due to tuberculosis. The plot centers around the concept that three hours prior to his death, Chopin dreamed of a fairy-tale land, in which people with incurable diseases have great magical powers. In the dream world, Chopin meets a young girl in the Village of Tenuto, Polka, who also suffers from an incurable disease." Despite the rather dark foundational themes the game itself is light, airy and beautiful. The characters, while classically anime in style, have a soft, organic quality that's instantly endearing. The game, at first blush, is a very traditional JRPG with all the best conventions firmly in place. You wander through a visually stunning world, talking to people, doing quests and fighting monsters. At the same time the game adds some very interesting wrinkles of its own which serve to make it seem both fresh and familiar. The battle system departs most from tradition. It's a hybrid turn-based, real time system: your turn offers you five seconds in which you can move around the battlefield, use items, attack, etc. You can perform as many actions as you can squeeze into the time allotted. As an added wrinkle the battlefields are splashed with areas of light and shadow and your special attacks vary depending on where you're standing when you launch them. For example when Polka stands in the light she can heal others, while in the darkness she unleashes a damaging strike to an enemy. Although simply executed the battle system is plenty deep with your time, your distance from the enemy your position in the light or shadow and several other factors coming into play. Even when an enemy is attacking (traditionally a "watch what happens" event) a "block" icon will randomly appear: time your button hits correctly and you will dramatically reduce the amount of damage taken. The whole system make battle seem much more active, almost like an action game but without the pressure. Unlike some other attempts in the genre these changes don't make the game feel tediously micromanaged: you always have something to do, but the pace is still leisurely enough to satisfy. While I don't think that anything will dethrone "Little Big Planet" as my most anticipated game this demo has pushed "Eternal Sonata" into a close second place. For me it sits in a nice, eminently attractive area between Action-RPGs like "Kingdom Hearts" and hardcore RPGs like "Final Fantasy". "Blue Dragon", on the other hand, may have been more impressive had I played it first. The game is undoubtedly beautiful (although this comes at a price as choppy framerates marred the experience at several points). It's graphical style, still clearly anime, is clean to the point of sterility. The characters seem plastic and lifeless (especially in the facial expressions and eyes). The graphics are cutting-edge crisp and I'm sure many people will love them, but I found them soulless. The game has some great ideas. Each character is accompanied by a different "shadow" which performs attacks, magic and special maneuvers on behalf of the character. Magic and special attacks are, as you'd expect, element based. Battle is as turn-based vanilla as it gets: you attack, then they attack. You can do nothing while the enemy is engaged (except watch your characters die). There's some attempt at depth here: a "charge meter" allows you to strategically plot out character attacks and store up power, but it struck me as confusing and tacked on. The localization seems fine. Nothing markedly impressive but also nothing embarrassing. Unfortunately none of the characters stood out enough for me to care about them at all in the time I played (the demo is timed to an hour's play through). A couple were downright annoying. In short, with rare exceptions, this game seems completely by-the-numbers in mechanics, story, characters and design. The game may end up pleasantly surprising me - for all my griping it's still a definite "must buy" if only to fill the void in good RPGs - but based on the demo it seems wrote and uninspired. Good, not great; competent, not classic. Still, if "Eternal Sonata" ends up being half as good as it seems it'll have been a good year for RPGs. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Enterprise web applications, build robust, secure scalable apps today - Try it now ColdFusion Today ColdFusion 8 beta - Build next generation apps Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:240039 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
