Finally

So. Eternal Sonata.

I've had this game for about a year (maybe more) now and until we started this thing I've yet to really touch it. Started the game and the story started out very intriguing but now that i'm 8 hours in and the story hasn't picked up AT ALL I'm more than a tad disappointed in agame I've heard nothing but good things about. The (seemingly) main villian has this scheme to control his country using a medicine that turns them in psychotic monsters that he can control (I think?) to dominate the world. This medicine also gives them the ability to use magic. The medicine in question, mineral powder, is a rather useful cure-all that also slowly but surely mutates people who use it, eventually killing them. Beyond that the game has been nothing but pointless cinematics and mostly boring combats. Which leads me to my largest gripe about the game.

Combat.

For some unknown reason, the stronger you get, the less time you have available to fight. To explain a bit, during combat you have Tactical Time (TT) and Real Time (RT). When you start the game you have infinite Tactical Time at the start of a battle. This means that the timer you have on the side of your screen doesn't count down at all until you move. It also stops counting down when you stop moving so as long as you aren't doing anything you aren;t using that characters turn. As you progress in the game not only do your characters gain levels, but you also gain party levels. Each party level changes how combat works in some way. Once you hit party level 2, you keep infinite TT but as soon as you move your RT depletes even if you stop moving. At party level 3 you gain some more ability slots (neat) but you are suddenly limited to 3 seconds of TT before your RT starts to deplete...you also mysteriously lose 1 second of RT. I almost don't want to see the higher party levels. The idea that getting stronger causes you to lose time lke that is more that a little stupid to me.

Other than my gripes about the game though, it is rather pretty and some of the characters are enjoyable (I could deal without another monologue from Frederic though)