The sheer level of detail gone into the look, sound and combat of the game manages to save it from being a stupid, irritating mess. Overall, this game is truly ridiculous, but quite fascinating as well. And of course the concept of a fantasy world in Chopin's mind as he faces his death is a bizarre but fascinating premise, and yet the story is more interested to explore the lore of this random fantasy world and so Chopin himself becomes a side character in his own mind. Furthermore, it still requires some backtracking and you won't even know who or what you're supposed to be trading with. If you don't, you won't be prepared to trade until much later when you have the chance to free-roam. The Trading Sidequest for instance requires you to trade items with certain throughout most of the game, and it requires you to have these specific items at the ready. Playing this game without a walkthrough is not a fun experience at all, as beating the late-game bosses requires some of the best accessories that you would never think to find because of the obscure and cryptic methods used to find them.

That being said however, there are some general grievances I have. And the score by Motoi Sakuraba is handled excellently. For a world existing within the mind of Frederic Francois Chopin, they made sure to nail the crisp detail of nature and sounds that Chopin most likely adored. It also goes without saying that the game looks and sounds beautiful. Her standard arrow attack requires quick action and great sniping skill, but is well worth the risk because of the OBSCENELY high strength of her arrows. I can't stress enough Viola is the best party member, hands down. The game's combat has a surprising level of depth that makes it feel fresh even as the game goes on, and with a fair amount of challenge. The game also changes the rules of its combat through the mechanic of Party Levels, which take away certain privileges and replaces them with new ones, that make the combat feel the same, yet feeling faster and with more potent damage output. But the game compensates for this as well by not having random encounters, and for having a huge roster of characters to play around and practice with. It makes the game pretty challenging, and does require you to grind to be at the best levels to face the bosses. The combat requires careful management of your accessories, moves and characters, and gets more and more fast-paced as you progress through the game that you have to act quick and have sterling reflexes. It's a very rare mechanic that manages to blend turn-based combat and Action RPGs into one without suffering from the mixed results. But when you're not making fun of it, you're having fun with the game's surprisingly tactical combat system. Though the cutscenes are long and even tiresome, the characters move so strange and the dialogue is so unnatural, that it's easy to make fun of it.

Yet in these regards, the game holds a unique charm that is a culmination of the game's strengths and the hilarious nature of the game's weaknesses. What with its exhaustingly long cutscenes filled with the most pretentious dialogue and awkward character animations you've ever seen, and how many of the game's collectables and secrets are invisible and beg the question how on earth they are supposed to be found naturally.

I'm not saying it CAN'T be a good game, I'm saying it shouldn't. Eternal Sonata is a game that shouldn't be good, and yet somehow it still kind of is.

Eternal sonata ost based on chopin