“Lagging Behind” is going to be my final thoughts on a game that I haven’t got around to playing. For the game to qualify for this segment, It has to have been available to the public for at least 6 months.
I was never really interested in playing any Japanese RPG, but Eternal Sonata seemed like it would be a perfect game to get me interested. Since most turned based games I have played have put me to sleep; Eternal Sonata’s blend of real time and turned based combat seemed like something I could adhere to. When I wrote my Now Playing article, I was impressed with how unique Eternal Sonata was as a whole, but my experience quickly turned sour. After investing 14 hours into the story, I was annoyed because it felt like the developers didn’t have enough faith in me. At one point I made a connection between two plot points, but the characters felt the need to point it out to me as if I was oblivious to what was happening. After hearing a lot of lame and cheesy dialog, I didn’t know whether I should be lenient since this is common in most Japanese games, or if I should be disappointed.
There are a lot of things that I appreciate about Eternal Sonata such as; a colorful and vibrant world, clever references to music, and its interesting battle system. Now my reason for stopping around the 14 hour mark — which is more than half way through the game — is simply because I was bored. What seemed like an interesting story at the beginning quickly became an empty hole that needed to be filled. Sections were starting to feel longer than they should have lasted, and it seemed to follow the same layout of getting through the forest to fight the boss waiting at the end. After the feeling of progressing through the story was lost, so was my interest in the game entirely. As another failed attempt to get me interested into Japanese RPGs, I am once again back to looking for a game that I will be able can carry all the way to the end.