10 hours into the game and Eternal Sonata still hasn’t won me over yet. I’m hoping things will turn around, but it’s hard to stay excited for a game that moves so slowly. Here's what I think about Eternal Sonata.

Animation and artwork wise, this game is gorgeous. I really like the characters: they are all so cute in a fairy-tale style that it’s hard to resist. Even Mr. Chopin looks so dashing with his feminine features. I love the cell shaded animations, the background, the special effects, Beat and his camera, and Polka’s dress. Seriously, after many hours of watching dear husband playing Fallout 3, this game’s cheerful and colorful design feels like a badly needed rain after a long drought. Plus, the music is everything the developers promised: catchy, beautiful, yet grand when it needs to be. This JRPG has one of the best game music around hands down.

Eternal Sonata screens on GamePro.com

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I like RPGs, but to be honest, I don't really play them for the story. First and foremost I need engaging gameplay, and I can tolerate quite a lot of bland, trite, and stupid if the game is otherwise good at what it does.

There are some games, though, that have a way of capturing the imagination and inhabiting your brain regardless of software limitations, objective storytelling flaws, or primitive game design. In fact, perhaps they capture your imagination because they aren't polished or sophisticated. When you played these retro RPGs, you could only really get into it if you were capable of imagining voices, cooler-looking battles, and better dialogue than what was actually in the goofy translations.

For these retro games, almost everything in the game that really mattered was ultimately provided by the player's own ability to imagine more than what was represented on the screen. These were games where you could really feel like part of the action, from an era where "press button jump mans forward shoot shoot pow" was really all most console games even tried to accomplish.

Thursday RPG fans will be able to get their hands on Fallout direct from GameTap. Now, this is a personal victory because I am a huge fan of replaying a series in order to prepare myself for upcoming releases, and if you're like me, you'll be logging into GameTap tomorrow to download your copy. I expect we'll see Fallout 2 and possibly even *crosses fingers* Wasteland in future months, which means those who haven't had the chance to experience RPG gaming post apocalypse will now get the chance.

[via Joystiq]

Destructoid has an amusing list of the 10 Golden Rules of Japanese RPG's. Though I'd say they left out "pointless side quests where you have to locate items for children or old women," it's still a pretty strong list.

A few entries that particularly ring true:

1: Always make your main character brooding, tortured and thoroughly unlikeable:

I always feel this way about halfway through "Final Fantasy" games. Like, yes, it's weird that you don't know your parents or were magically whisked away from your homeworld or the princess you have a crush on is engaged to a guy from another galaxy, but just bottle that stuff up and go back to fighting monsters, okay?

Also, anyone who remembers "Phantasy Star 2" will recall hero Rolf's dour, flat demeanor. He embarks on an outer space adventure with the same level of enthusiasm and verve as a trip to the bank and the cleaners.

3: Your main party of heroes must include at least three (preferably all) of the following: B. A self-styled lady's man who has a weakness for drink and women. He is always hilarious. E. A female who is intent on proving she is just as tough as men. Is in love with the main character.

I'm hoping that "hilarious" was used ironically in item B.



What's with developers who title their games with 2 or more words, and then inexplicably mush them together to form one mega-word? Oh well, the truth is that the awesome NES action-rpg StarTropics hit the Wii's Virtual Console on Monday.



Not this guy.

Not this guy.

Remember the story? Mike Jones (not the rapper) travels to C-Island to visit his Archaeologist uncle Dr. Jones (not the Harrison Ford one), but upon discovering that he's gone missing, sets out on quest which will lead him across the archipelago with his trusty Yo-Yo and a pretty sweet hairdo.

Not this guy either.

Not this guy either.


As the Wii's Virtual Console library grows, it's becoming more and more apparent that it's becoming the destination for downloadable classic RPGs. It's already seen the likes of Shining Force, the original Legend of Zelda (as well as A Link to The Past), ActRaiser, Breath of Fire II along with a slew of others. Keep 'em coming, Nintendo!