Last night I grabbed a demo of upcoming RPG for Xbox 360 - Eternal Sonata or Trusty Bell (I think the latter is the lame Western title.) It was a bit of a rigmarole, having to set up a Japanese Passport user so I could log on to the Japanese Xbox Live Marketplace, but now it's set up, it's done for good. My alter-ego lives in Hokkaido University's admissions office. Apparently.It now appears as a demo for all my logins, so I don't have to switch to play. It's totally in English, without changing any settings.
As I understand it the main portion of the game is set in composer Chopin's dreams as he lies in a coma. The game therefore has a strong musical theme throughout.
It looks lovely.. bright, vibrant and clean. Your party is made up of two boys and a girl, drawn in a pretty, clean, almost anime style, carrying various weapons some of which look to be modified musical instruments (in keeping with the musical theme of the game,) and the girl carries an umbrella. The demo consists of going somewhere north of a village and doing something, but I skipped it by accident so I can't be sure. It ended when I killed some giant Lion / Manticore thing so I'm guessing that was the objective. Whilst moving around the game world there are various people to interact with who give you the rough idea of the game, how to fight etc. and there are also chests to open which yield mostly Peach Cookies, but sometimes pieces of a score (not explained) and magical items.
Play is simple and key presses are well designated on the screen. The attack / defend system is easy to understand and works well, promoting a bit of tactical play once you get used to it. Random encounters are a bit boring (as always) but avoidable as you can see the mobs roaming before you get to them, you're rarely surprised unless you're not paying attention, and sneaking around behind them and attacking from behind gives you the advantage you'd expect.
The battle system is not something I've seen before, but then I'm not a huge RPG player outside of Zelda which has a very fixed system, and doesn't really handle random encounters. At the start of your group's attack you're presented with the battlefield... your three guys (two guys and a girl actually) and the bad guys. The action is paused, and you can toggle views with the left trigger and work out what you're going to do. The current attacker is highlighted and the next attacker is also signified. Each attacker has an alloted time - typically 5 seconds in the demo - to make his/her attacks or moves, and the time starts running the second you move or press a button, so you need to work out whether you're going to make a ranged or melee attack (be it physical or magical) and where you're going to do it from (see Dark / Light magic below). Once you're in position you can hammer the attack / magic buttons to your heart's content until your time limit is up. You have to be careful not to keep hammering into the next character's go or you'll start the timer. Each succesfull hit builds a combo meter which then improves magical attacks for the next of your party who chooses to use one.
There's a nifty dark / light element to the magical attacks. Each character has a slot for a dark attack and a light attack that can be assigned in menu, and where you stand on the battle area (in sun or shade) designates which is used. The Light attacks generally seemed more powerful in the demo, and were many times more effective than physical attacks especially when boosted with the hit combo counter.
In battle you can also use a number of pre-assigned items like Peach Cookies (made from mashed peaches and used to boost HP) and an Angel Trumpet which did much the same as Peach Cookies.
Once you've used your attacks the mobs get a go and there's a timed B-button defense to their attacks which reduces damage and in some cases allows a parry (I think.)
There didn't appear to be anything as spectacular as the FFXI-style summons but I guess this part of the adventure is early days for the party.
I found the fighting got a bit monotonous in the end, but it was often avoidable, and will probably be spiced up a bit with magical items and attacks in the full game.
Based on the demo I'd want to see some full reviews before shelling out, but if the final gameplay lives up to the looks it'll be a winner.
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