Game Journal – Eternal Sonata (Entry 09)

So, this was, strangely enough, a huge letdown for me – the Killer Knight was a complete pushover!  Although I did successfully block his attacks, nothing did more than about 100 damage, and nothing he had was all that impressive.  I’m more scared of the magic caster mooks he brought with him!  So he got totally thrashed and I made it out of the fort.

Uh-oh! Party level 3 is here.  We no longer have unlimited time to consider our options before moving; now we’re down to 3 seconds, and our action time has been reduced from 5 to 4 seconds!  This seems like a huge change, and a real spike in difficulty.  On the plus side, our characters can now equip two light and two dark skills each, giving us a lot more flexibility.  Also, the Item Set, our configurable bag of items for use during battle, has doubled in size.  Basically, everything is harder, but we have more flexibility to compensate.  We’ll see how this plays out.

There’s a timer for how long we get to think now!  GAH!!!  This definitely makes the battle a little more tricky, but I am excited for the challenge.  I like the way they move you up in stages and just when you are getting comfortable you have to think on your feet again!

The team gets into another “roundtable” style discussion of the world, in a sequence that is rapidly becoming a staple of the game, and something I really enjoy watching.  Today’s discussion focused on why the fort is abandoned, instead of being manned.  Allegretto believes it’s because Count Forte is more concerned with an invasion from the neighboring country of Baroque, or with the Andantino resistance movement, who are probably being supported by Baroque to stir up trouble.  Jeez, kid, you’re pretty sharp!  Viola has a low opinion of Andantino, Chopin seems like he’s taking it all in.  Polka is concerned that a revolution would be destructive, but Beat thinks it will make people’s lives better in the long run.  He wants to back whoever is “the good guys”.  Allegretto, ever wise beyond his years, cautions that it’s hard to tell who that is – Baroque, the Count, Andantino – all may be the wrong choice to win the coming fight.  Polka summarizes it neatly, wondering aloud which side’s version of “justice” is the right one.  While it is odd watching these seeming kids talking at such a deep level, it’s clear a lot of thought went into their viewpoints.  The game is careful never to give you an easy, black-and-white understanding of events, and I appreciate that.

I particularly like the line where Allegretto says “War is above common people like us”.  This hits home in a lot of ways because if you think about it, we never really truly understand the motivations of what brings and keeps two (or multiple) countries at war.  Wow…very deep for a group of kids.  Sometimes I get the .hack//sign vibes off these characters.  They are all meant to bring a viewpoint about different topics to the table (based on their personalities and not necessarily their ages) and we the player get to think about whose view we agree with or relate to.  It’s even easy to relate to beat, who as the “naive” viewpoint (this one actually COULD be playing into his age) tries to just side with whoever is “good”.  It would be amazing if they keep this rolling and it turns out that even we the players have a hard time siding with Andantino, or feel remorse for the Count or something.

We finally see them in action!  We’ve got Jazz, the seeming leader (male), and two girls, Claves (needs things to be repeated, but figures stuff out as it’s explained) and Falsetto (easily exasperated by Claves’ slowness).  They are planning to rescue the forest guardian from Forte’s dungeon, where she is being interrogated for information on the glowing Agogos.  Oh no, Salsa!  Jazz explains (in his deep, authoritative voice) that the super mineral powder made from glowing Agogos can make people into mindless soldiers, probably to use in fighting Baroque.  They plan to infiltrate the dungeon through a secret passage in the Hanon Hills.

I’m already interested if the Count is actually 100% evil, or if he’s doing all this to protect his country from Baroque.  Something to keep an eye on.

I bet Salsa was captured because she wasn’t wearing her amazing hat (that we are supposed to deliver)!!!  I wonder how deep the Andantino network goes?  The matters about the glowing Agogos were discussed by the Count and Fugue (as far as we’ve seen anyway) in private quarters.  Perhaps Legato (his advisor) is in with Andantino?

Legato: in a smooth, flowing manner, without breaks between notes. Hmm..doesn’t really look like he’d be a traitor but maybe he’s so good at hiding it, Count Waltz doesn’t notice??

For my money, I bet Fugue just can’t keep his mouth shut about his mission, so it’s become somewhat common knowledge.  He just seems like the type to gloat.

A lightly forested grassland area with a dirt path.  Another new musical theme for the area, a kind of soft yet full-of-energy song.  There are neat stone pillars, falling leaves, and dappled sunlight throughout the area; quite pretty.  A tall spire can be seen in the distance, but it’s not clear if it’s the castle.

At one point, Allegretto notices a crack in the natural rock wall with a breeze coming through it, but doesn’t investigate further.  I think I know where Andantino will appear from…

My Legend of Zelda instincts kicked in and I was like “a crack…in the wall…WHERE ARE MY BOMBS?!?!?”.  Yes, I think it’s clear that Andantino is going to break onto the scene (I know…I am just too clever)

New, upgraded goat enemies have appeared, with stronger attacks than before!  At least they can be snuck up on.  The dragon things from the plains have returned, but now if they are in shade, they turn into tough bat critters with incredibly strong attacks. Over 1200 damage for some of their hits, and very hard to block!

It’s a weird dynamic because I can usually get Allegretto or Chopin to take out the bats in a couple of regular hits + Special Attack, but their attacks are impossible to block.  They also have the horrible one that slows down a character.  The Earth Shakers take so long to take down but at least I can block their “slow as molasses” attacks!

The battlefield now has moving shade, in the form of shadows from clouds.  Things are a lot more dynamic now, and enemies can change forms in between turns even if they don’t move.

SO THAT’S HOW THAT WAS HAPPENING!!!  I was like, Gah!  Why do they keep changing?  I just thought the enemies got more dynamic and were moving around more (the Earth Shakers are also huge so they move two steps and end up in a shaded area).  Man, this game really uses its environment more so than any other JRPG I’ve ever played.  I love this idea and how natural it is. 

The new lower action time makes things quite a bit harder.  It’s also quite tricky to try and strike an enemy while holding down R2 to change from one skill to another, so managing each character’s set of two skills each for light and dark is super tricky, and requires a lot of memorization and planning.

One of the new armors for sale has the side effect of increasing the tactical time (the time before you start moving) for the character that wears it.  I was expecting a minor boost, but it’s fully 5 additional seconds on top of the measly 3 we have now!  This opens up some serious possibilities.  I’m hoping for items that boost action time.

I didn’t notice that, I was just paying attention to the stats!
Breast Guard -> Allegretto
Coachman’s Coat -> Chopin
Bat Umbrella -> Polka (will this help me fight the bats?!?!)