Oh hey, that's neat.

They've taken a piece of their traditionally styled art (this piece here) and replaced the characters for their cel-shaded versions. I think it's pretty good box art.

God this game looks so good. I can't believe this is one of the reasons I'm putting money away for a 360, and.. pretty much one of my most anticipated games since forever. An RPG! How awful. This is destroying my internet tough guy act of not caring about them. Next thing you know I'll be globbing on some lipstick and writing fan-fiction.

You're not fooling anyone Infernal. I know you're soft like jelly turtle :V

Anyway, the game looks great. I just hope that it'll get a European release. The X360 really needs proper RPGs. Because Enchanted Arms sucked a bit:(

I like the name Trusty Bell better for some reason.

So this game comes out in 3 months. They should probably put the demo on the US marketplace sometime soon so more people know about this game. Namco should also release it sooner. Putting it out so close to Halo 3 isn't a good idea even though both games are completely different from each other. ;_;

I read on Kotaku that a PS3 version will come later, and the 360 version comes first.

Love the cell shaded version of the original art, very nice.

It actually looks decent. The voices will take some getting used to, but they sound a lot better than the ones on Enchanted Arms. Same goes for the music, most definitely. (The sounding better part, not getting used to it.)

The battles remind me a lot of Star Ocean, which is awesome. Star Ocean's battle system is one of my favorites, up there with the traditional turn-based system. It seems like it mixes the two, so that should be great fun.

I really wish JRPGs would stop using children/teenagers as main characters though. I'd like more than the one adult who is almost always 4 times as old as the rest of the party.

So I have mixed feels about this one after playing the demo. I don't like the battle system much as it is just a mind numbing button masher. Basically take the Tales system, remove all of the combos, remove enemies attacking you while attacking and you have the Eternal Sonata system. The light-dark system is interesting, but would have worked out FAR better if the battle system was actually real-time. It could get a bit more complex later in the game, but having to pound that A button as many times as you can in a time limit gets old pretty quick. Oh and the guard system is friggen annoying having to time a 'B' press over and over. I'm hoping some of the later party levels not available in the demo will offer some battle types that are a bit more to my liking.

Graphically the game is sharp in texture quality but the environments and models are a bit too simplistic and last gen. I'm honestly not seeing the stunning and jaw dropping visual experience many others are claiming. They aren't bad by any means but nothing fantastic either.

Overall? Well its a classic jRPG on a next gen system, but it isn't the greatest start in my opinion. The game is a bit rough in many aspects but it does have its appeal in areas as well.

It's just a demo, the only real enemy you faced was the boss. Which did attack you. The thing with the battle system is that, real time battles feel more suited for this game over turn based or sRPG style. Sure they aren't NEW or anything, but it's practically the same as Abyss, which was a good game.

Stop playing it on a 21" CRT.

It's nothing like Abyss. It's a turn based button masher not a real-time combo system found in the Tales games. I mean seriously, most of the game revolves around smashing the A button as fast as you can and the enemies just stand there and take it. There really isn't any strategy involved. To me this game feels like an extremely dumbed down real-time system. I give them credit for trying to mix things up, but in the end the battle system just gets very dull very quickly.

Okay, but I'm playing it on a 55-inch Bravia but whatever. The environments and models are primitive. The explorable paths are highly restricted and the overall polygon count is really low for a next gen game. Now perhaps this was done on purpose for style but it highly reminds me of the extremely simple modeling found in Tales of the Abyss. It doesn't look bad but it's not very impressive either. The shadowing system is also really basic static shadows too which is a real shame considering how important shadow and light are to this game. A more dynamic and modern shadow system should have been developed.

Overall this game shows that Tri-Cresendo is still very much a developing talent and add in the fact that this game most likely didn't get a reasonably high budget. It's rare for me to not find high value in jRPGs but this one just isn't clicking well with me for various reasons.

Most RPGs have button mashing though. I mean, if you don't like pressing A, just don't bother with RPGs at all.

Uh hello, it's cel shaded. Blue Dragon has even less detail in characters compared to Eternal Sonata. I'm not sure what you're expecting from an RPG, but Tales of the Abyss was restricted in it's exploration paths too. If you want to explore open-end areas forever, go play Oblivion.

I think the game looks really well. There isn't many RPGs on the 360 right now to compare it with, but I'd say that it's more interesting than Blue Dragon. Not saying that Blue Dragon isn't great (it is), but still. You should be thankful it isn't Enchanted Arms.

Oh well, I guess people find nit-picking more fun instead of variety coming out.

Most likely because it isn't on a Japanese made console. I generally don't agree with lix, but he made alot of valid points.

Interview with developer

http://au.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/t...=1&sid=6176358

FUCK YES! I was praying that this would be the case, since after seeing Lucky Star and Haruhi Suzumiya, I wanted to hear Aya Hirano's voice as Polka.

God I wish I can play this ASAP, but I can't, not untill I head back to LA... sometime next year...

Awesome news. This month, Persona 3.. next month, Eternal Sonata. Very satisfying. Oh and Polka's by far my favorite character. It's nice that they're doing this.. much like how Blue Dragon is, I guess.

I haven't pre-ordered this yet(I'm pre-ordering in order of release dates right now) but I fully expect to have ordered this within two weeks. It's a great time for RPG(and strategy RPG) fans for August and September. I've already pre-ordered Blue Dragon, Wild Arms 5, Persona 3, and Growlanser: Heritage of War. I'll be pre-ordering this and Soul Nomad soon. And if I have the money left I might get .Hack: Redemption. I don't think much of it but I've got all the other .Hack games so I guess I want to just finish the series. But Persona 3, Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata, and Soul Nomad are definately the ones I'm most looking forward to(in that order).

Well and Bioshock, but that's not a RPG.

I'm actually getting quite excited about this game and it's probably one of the RPGs I'm most looking forward to, certainly the remainder of this year. It seems it's out here in September so I might leave it a little before picking up a copy.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/endless-noc...hed-290826.php

Anyone who wants a free OST should sign up now, along with the other goodies like the autographed stuff.

So Namco just posted this on their site as being a TBA PS3 game.

Eternal Sonata™ - NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.

So uh, if you own a PS3 or something and were planning on getting a Xbox 360 just for this game, I'd hold out for an official word.

Will these endless multi-platform game rumours never cease to end?!

Man...

I'm pretty sure Eternal Sonata was always a timed exclusive.

I dunno, I never heard of any official confirmation regarding that, when asked the companies they all deflect the question by saying they have not heard of the ES being developed for PS3 etc.

That's how it generally is with timed exclusives.

A bit 'o solid evidence for the PS3 version:

Famitsu Scan

And according to RPGamer the PS3 version will include Crescendo and Serenade as playable characters and provide the player with a costume change system.

This info was originally posted by a credible member of NeoGAF, so yeah.

I think it was pretty obvious this wasn't going to stay 360 exclusive since it wasn't published by Microsoft... and the fact that Namco won't make a profit off it being 360 exclusive in Japan.

Oh GODDAMIT!

This could mean I might drop the 360 version and wait for the PS3 version instead!

New playable characters is probaly my main reason. Looks like I have to get the PS3 version in the far future then. Assuming I can even afford a PS3 at that point in time...