Eternal Sonata is currently leading the way when it comes to Japanese RPG's on the next generation of consoles. One of the main men behind the success, Hiroya Hatsushiba (Scenario Creator and Director at Tri-Crescendo), kindly takes time out to answer some of my probing questions.
The game has a lot of underlining morals throughout its dialogue, what message is it trying to give the players?
The story starts 3 hours before Chopin’s death. Also Polka herself has to face her fate, which is death. We would like players to think about meaning of life by facing death. What a player can learn from this game is dependant upon the individual.
Which games do you consider your inspiration for this title?
I don’t think we took inspiration from any particular game but we have tried to create a game based on traditional Japanese RPGs but also tried to give a fresh impression by using the full capability of Xbox360.
The battle system is highly intuitive and works incredibly well, how did you come up with the correct formula?
The most important aim of this game was for players to understand the battle system immediately as soon as they grab a controller and also for it to feel fun. We feel we have achieved this aim.
We wanted to add variations in battle without making things too complex. I think employing the light and dark strategy in battles has led to a good result.
There are a number of slideshows which detail the life and works of Chopin, what was the reason for the inclusion of this?
Chopin’s music in this game was played by an acclaimed pianist, Mr Bunin.
We wanted players to listen to Chopin’s fantastic music properly so we deliberately included these slideshows.
If a player becomes interested in Chopin or his music through this, it would make me really happy. This was also a challenge for us to bring a documentary factor into a fantasy game world. We are always tempted by this kind of little challenge when we create a new game.
The release of the PS3 version will include a number of extra features over the Xbox 360 title, why have you decided to do this?
It has been a while since we released the Xbox360 version, so naturally we wanted to add new ideas on the PS3 version.
Why did you decide to use the graphical style that has been chosen?
We made a few samples, particularly graphic styles for the characters, until we finally decided upon this style.
We thought a realistic approach might be better for the Western market but we eventually decided upon this style as we thought this is the best compromise.
We feel that the graphical style is cartoon-like but also has a realistic feeling to it.
How long do you expect this game to last players?
30 hours is enough to finish this game. However, the difficulty level will change for the second playthrough so you will be able to enjoy exciting battles twice as much.
Any news on the next project you are working on?
We value the European and US market. I think the European market especially will grow much further, so we would like to make a game suited for these markets.
Many thanks to Hiroya Hatsushiba for providing us with his thoughts, and to Roxana from Atari for her help, it is greatly appreciated. Eternal Sonata is in stores now for the Xbox 360, and is out on the PS3 later next year.
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