Game Journal – Eternal Sonata (Entry 02)

More philosophical discussions about death. Holy cow! Polka seems determined to do something good with the rest of her life and I say more power to her.

More philosophical discussions about death. Holy cow! Polka seems determined to do something good with the rest of her life, and I say more power to her.

I’m seeing a pattern here with the plot. I wish we had more reasoning behind what we are doing. It seems like we just fight our way through the forest and then whammo, some creature attacks us for no reason.

It does seem to be very formulaic at the moment, nor are reasons really given for these attacks. They do give a definite end to each character segment, but I hope our characters meet up soon so we don’t have to stick to the same formula forever.

Oh snaaaap, DAT DAMAGE! Holy crap, the damage that the enemies do are incredible. We really need to be careful with how we fight. Learning to use the guard button is basically mandatory at this point. Did you realize that it lights up when you have to hit it. I was trying to use the visuals of the game to figure out when to block and that was working…pretty much not at all.

Yeah, guarding successfully is way more than cutting damage in half, it’s more like an 80% cut in damage! Not guarding can be catastrophic, and if it’s an area of effect attack, anyone else caught in the blast relies on the targeted character to guard for them. If you miss a guard, everyone might get whalloped. I also started off using visuals to try to guard, because waiting for the word “Guard” to appear on screen is way too late. I didn’t notice that the button lit up, I’m going to try that.

The Light/Dark System is neat but definitely presents a challenge. I fought the coconut dudes and I am having a hard time getting them to move into the light.

I agree, they just seem to want to stay put once they transform.  Just had an idea – what if you used the “Mouse Tail” item, or whatever it was called – it generates an area of light around you.  Maybe they’ll change back?

Holy cheese and crackers, that history lesson! An entire segment about Chopin and George Sand.  The whole sequence was done with real life pictures overlaid with a filter to looked oil paintings (or something similar).  It also had what I am sure (but have no idea of the name) is a Chopin piano piece.  I loved this and I hope the relationship between George Sand and Chopin actually has some bearing on something plot related.  If not, I still think that segment was amazing.

That was really neat.  I don’t know much about the historical Chopin, and this was a pretty accessible nugget.  I love “Raindrop Prelude”, the song that is playing, but didn’t know any of the details on how it was written. It’s an interesting bit of edutainment, and I hope there are more of these segments.

And then I ran into Monocle Man…What the heck was the point of this boss battle?!  I died in about 3 hits.  I think this is an unwinnable battle and I don’t really get why we even had to go through this.

Yeah, this seemed like a pretty clunky way of introducing a bad guy.  He just shows up, beats up Chopin and Polka, and leaves them there, thanking them for the “exercise”.  It was definitely an unwinnable battle.  He’s on a hunt for a glowing thing.

It’s time for my thoughts on using Chopin in battle! Chopin is a pretty good fighter.  I love that he attacks with his baton, and I especially love using “Piu Grave”, his special attack.  It’s just so fun to say!  I find myself saying “Mess ‘em up, Chopin!” to the screen, which… honestly was not something I thought I’d ever say.

Our party level increased! The game increased the “party level”, which makes battle harder.  Now, once you start moving, the timer never stops counting down.  There are 5 total party levels, and we’re at #2, so it may get a lot harder.  I imagine this also gives the game a way to lower the difficulty of a boss battle or something if you keep losing.

• I went to check on the orphan kids before leaving, and in that area is a treasure chest you can’t open… because some mice are kissing on top of it and you don’t want to disturb them.  At least it’s an inventive way of stopping.
• You can look up and listen to any game theme you’ve heard so far.  The theme music for Ritardando is called “Mediocrity for All” – some subtle commentary there, huh?
• I like that the sound of your characters walking changes based on what they’re walking on.
• In the path from Ritardando to Agogo Forest, Allegretto can read something someone has written on the wall – “It hurts – but there’s no way I can escape the pain”.  Hmm.  Something dark is never far beyond the game’s bright surface.