Game Journal – Eternal Sonata (Entry 16)

Andante town has kind of a quasi-Native American feel to it.  Set among cave walls and numerous small waterfalls are torches, hanging beads and glasswork, and stretched leather coverings, with lots of bright paint.  The music accentuates this; it’s kind of a folk-sounding tune, with breathy woodwinds accompanied by something stringed, almost like a harpsichord, and a flute.  I particularly like the bridges that are placed over all the water – the railing posts are G clefs.

I did enjoy Andante and it was interesting to note the Native American influence. I do love how they weave the music symbols into everything.

The town is full of people nobly committed to Andantino’s cause.  Everyone has an ideal they follow.  One guy lets us know that Andantino is careful to never harm civilians during its attacks.  Another guy, Etude, is willing to give his life for the cause (though his girlfriend is less than pleased).  It’s interesting to note that while everyone is here for good reasons, they don’t always see eye-to-eye – the local doctor is concerned that the young men of the town are starting to glorify martyrdom.

As always this place is filled with interesting people and varied motivations.  I love it and I give the designers so much credit for all the effort they put into this place.

In another room, to underscore the doctor’s point, three soldiers are preparing to attack Forte themselves, as they feel Jazz is being too cautious.  They plan to recruit Etude to help them – uh oh!

You idiots are going to ruin everything and bring Waltz right to your hideout!  I bet we are going to have to flee to Baroque (much to Jazz, Falsetto and (maybe) Claves’s dismay).  Andante is in big trouble.

Finally, we find some townspeople that are willing to dish us the juicy gossip on the Andantino leadership.  Falsetto and Jazz are childhood friends, and are among the founding members of Andantino.  Meanwhile, Claves joined only recently, but has been rapidly rising through the ranks.  She and Jazz are now considered an item (to Falsetto’s dismay).  My suspicions of Claves as the resident traitor have only increased, but I don’t know if Jazz will be able to be so objective.

I am equally suspicious and I feel for Jazz since he has the hots for Claves.  Sorry dude,  you fell in love with the enemy.  She’s totally playing you for a sap

Yeah, her name probably should’ve been something implying strength or speed, but Forte (strong) and Allegretto (moderately fast) are already used.   Maybe something like “Presto”?

Simile flowers can only live in water from the Simile Spring, and due to human development of the cavern, the water no longer makes it to the town, so we decide to go through the Lento Cemetery to get some water for a little girl’s flower.  The area looks to be quite large, with an exploration “minigame” of sorts based around using colored flames to open new areas blocked by colored fog called the Goblin’s Grudge.  I think we’re going to be here for a while.

The cemetery itself is an interesting area.  Many different kinds of markers are everywhere, from standard-looking tombstones to long, thin markers that sit in natural stone containers filled with water.  There are also these neat markers with diamond-shaped cutouts with candles in them.  Besides some subtle flowers, there are also visible floating spirits all over!  These are also present in battle, not as enemies but as mobile sources of light to give you an occasional change from dark attacks.  I found myself timing things carefully so Viola could get off a Heal Arrow or two.  The music in the area is very subdued organ music, but isn’t anything special.

I am not the biggest fan of this place. he puzzle seems long and I can never seem to locate the enemy in battle. There’s torches everywhere! I end up wasting turns just running around to find the enemy. At least nothing here is hard to kill. In other news I am slightly bored by the scenery. It’s beautiful but it also repeats everywhere so I get tired of it fast.

As a last note: I actually put the Brilliant Brooch on Viola so Heal Arrow could happen all day, everyday!

That… is a really good idea.  Sorry, Claves, I may have to borrow something…

I found an arrow in a bookshelf, and was delighted to discover it was an accessory – for Viola only!  It grants extra attack power by lighting her arrows on fire.  I hope this is the start of many accessories customized to our different characters.

Viola for life.  That woman is a TANK!

As a last note: I actually put the Brilliant Brooch on Viola so Heal Arrow could happen all day, everyday!

One of the town’s soldiers tells us that mineral powder was developed through human testing, and caused many victims.  Boy, that stuff is just the worst, though it does seem like Waltz keeps trying to make it more effective and less deadly.

It’s evil I tell you…EVIL!!!!  It’s interesting how much dark stuff they weave into listening to conversation.  I think if you blew through this game and ignored what people are saying you wouldn’t get the full effect.

The town included a completely random “quest” of sorts, following clues to search near waterfalls, stone pillars, and finally across a river, to find… “some guy’s address” and a message to go there if we’re looking for a good time.  Allegretto tears it up.  What a strange little aside.

I missed this but it doesn’t seem like I missed much.  Allegretto has a lot of interactions with things that don’t seem to go anywhere….

I think we totally blew the latest trading quest, since there was another weakened creature in the Woodblock Forest (one of those onion things), and there was nothing for us to do.  Let’s hope a new one starts up soon.

 Yes that was rather odd.  I really feel like something is up because you are pretty good at exploring every nook and cranny.  After we got booted out of Forte there was no way to go back in and no other indicator of a fetch quest.  I almost feel like we’ll need to go back at some point and aid these creatures.  We might find some wandering person who’s vet or something and is like “Hey…help the creatures of the world for me and report back”.  It just seems too strange that we missed something in the inbetween.  I don’t totally buy into it.

I definitely hope that’s the case; I don’t even know where I would have gone back to in order to start this quest.

I really enjoyed the subtle back-and-forth jabs between Viola and Allegretto.  I laughed at Viola’s line, “If there’s a cute girl involved, this guy’ll find a way to make it happen.”  Way to go, Allegretto, you’ve got an MO.

Give it to ‘im Viola.  Make him a well rounded man!  Poor Allegretto.  The guy just wants to be a gentleman.