August 20, 2007

Don’t Wake Me Up – I’m Dreaming of Eternal Sonata
By Louis Bedigian

“It really is a completely new idea: the melding of turn-based and real-time.”

This fall, the drought of next-gen RPGs will finally end. Eternal Sonata, the long-awaited RPG from developer Tri-Crescendo and publisher Namco Bandai, will be released in September. It sounds quirky, looks gorgeous, and has a whimsical premise that could be a serious hook for anyone who takes the journey.

“It takes place in a dream that could have been had by [Frederic] Chopin on his deathbed,” said Stephanie Fernandez, Localization Specialist. Eternal Sonata was largely inspired by the work of the classical composer whose fictitious dream, constructed by Tri-Crescendo, you will experience. “He enters this fantastic world where he meets this girl named Polka who has this terrible disease. Because of the disease she has magical powers, and she wants to use this power to help others, specifically the people in her village, before she dies.

“She has decided she’s going to leave the village and try to speak to the count who holds the land and try to convince him to do something about taxes that are making it so difficult for the lives of the people in her village. Chopin decides to go with her. He admires her strength and will and decides he will accompany her. As they’re traveling they meet others who also, for their own reasons, want to go see the count. For example, Allegretto, an orphan boy who they meet along the way. He also wants to talk to the count about the taxes because there are children in his town who can’t eat because their families can’t afford to buy bread.” Stephanie had to stop there to avoid getting into any spoilers.

Notable Features:

• Acquire an unlock key within the game to access Chopin music online.
   
• Play the game with Japanese or English voice tracks

• Up to three characters can be included in your party, and each character may be assigned to a different player.
  

Though the story is one of the game’s focal points, Stephanie says that the gameplay is also a key element. It will take a minimum of 30 hours to complete the game, she informed us, but the journey will be much longer “if you do everything and explore everywhere.”

Regarding the side quests, she comments, “They’re entirely optional, but I definitely think you’ll have more fun if you use them because you’ll get more items. There are items that will strengthen your characters a great deal that you definitely want to get. Not that you can’t finish the game without them, but you don’t get the whole, whole story unless you finish those quests.”

Music is said to have a role in the combat system. How does this work?

Stephanie Fernandez: It doesn’t have a role in the combat – it plays a role in the game. The combat system, a lot of the weapons are based on musical instruments. Jazz’s big, huge sword is based on a French horn, I think. There’s something based on a flute [and other] various instruments. If you look at the characters’ weapons you can tell which instruments they represent.

Then there’s also the music involved in the score pieces, which is a side quest in the game, where you gather pieces of music. As you’re traveling through the game you’ll also meet people who have pieces of music. If you try playing the music you’ve acquired with their music, the resulting composition gets graded and you can get some valuable items depending on how your performance is graded.

A lot of RPGs claim to feature unique battle systems. What makes Eternal Sonata stand apart from the crowd?

SF: It really is a completely new idea: the melding of turn-based and real-time. You are able to control each character in turn, but then when it is their turn you’re actually controlling their movements. Not just making this spell or this action happen, you’re actually making them move on the screen. They can approach enemies from behind in real-time.

There’s also the effect of light and shadow on the battle. It really introduces a new aspect of strategy in the game. You can have different attack depending on if you’re standing in light or shadow. Sometimes your enemies are going to be completely different depending on if they’re standing in the light or shadow. Sometimes they’re this small, little guy, and then they move into the shadow and they’re 10 times that size.

As the game continues there are even more aspects to the battle system that makes it more challenging. There are the harmony chains that are introduced. The harmony chains allow you to do more than one special attack. There are these echoes that you build up to strengthen your special attack. Really getting later in the game there are moving commands, which is where you’re at the highest level possible, and you have to watch where your commands are because they start moving around on the controller.

How is the story presented?

SF: It’s presented with event scenes that have voice-overs and with scenes that have text boxes. All of the scenes are in real-time.

Do the text box sequences have a voice track running as well?

SF: No, [the voices are] just for the event scenes. The text box scenes are just text. But there are a lot of event scenes.

How many playable characters are there and how many can you have in your party simultaneously?

SF: There are 10 playable characters total, when you have all of them. At different points in the game there are times when you will not have all of them because of something that’s going on in the story. The maximum you can have in your party is three. But if there are only one or two people in your group that’s all you’re going to have fighting anyway. The game varies in that way as well.

What kinds of weapons and/or magic system does the game employ?

SF: Each character has a basic type of weapon. That weapon gets upgraded throughout the game. Visually it doesn’t change but the power changes and its abilities change. As far as magic, that’s really more connected to the special attacks, although there are healing moves as well. The special attacks are equipped with the characters. You start out having only two – one dark and one light. As you level up you’ll get four eventually – two dark and two light. The strength of those increases as you get new attacks. You’ll have about a dozen to choose from.

Are enemies visible before combat or battles randomly encountered?

SF: The battles are, well, you choose if you want to have the battle or not. Except for the boss battles, which you have to fight or you’re not gonna get anywhere. The enemies along the way – you can avoid them and not fight them if you don’t want to.

How are the side quests acquired? Is it like in Final Fantasy where you can venture off the world map and discover a cave that isn’t on the main course? Or…?

SF: There is stuff like that but what happens is… When you go through the game a second time, there are certain capabilities that are unlocked. And also, certain things that are carried over to your second [time] through the game. That makes it possible for you to complete theses quests that you would not be able to complete [on your first time] through.

And what might these capabilities be?

SF: I don’t know if I’m allowed to say! Sorry!

Are they only the kinds of things that are unlocked at the end, or might you get ‘em along the way of your journey but have to carry them over to the end?

SF: Umm… It’s stuff that’s unlocked by playing through the game the first time, and then becomes available playing through the game a second time.

Thanks to everyone at Namco Bandai and Kohnke Communications for having a wonderful conference call.

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