What if, upon our death, before we may go to any sort of afterlife, instead we drift off into a dream world full of magic and adventure? Now imagine that scenario, replacing yourself with the fabled composer Chopin – there lies the heart of Eternal Sonata, a breathtaking and beautiful honest to goodness RPG coming out for the Xbox 360. Recently, Killer Betties got to partake in a conference call for the game, where we got to talk with Stephanie Fernandez – a member of the Localization Department – to find out some more info on this unique game.

With such an interesting idea for a story, one has to wonder just how this story came to be. In a genre so filled with clichés, incorporating the deathbed dreaming of one of the greatest composers ever is a unique new storytelling method. So what's the story of Eternal Sonata and how did it come to be? "Both the concept for the story and idea to include Chopin came from the President – Hiroya Hapsushiea – and he's a big Chopin fan. It takes place in a dream that was had by Chopin when he was on his deathbed; he basically enters this fantastic world where he meets a girl named Polka who has an incurable disease, and because of the disease she has magical power, and she wants to use this power to help others – specifically those in her village – to help them before she dies. So she has decided to leave her village and try to speak to the count who rules the land to do something about the taxes that are making it so difficult for the lives of the people of her village. And so Chopin decides to go with her because he admires her strength of will, and as they are traveling they meet others, who for their own reasons, want to go see the count; for instance, Allegretto, he's an orphan boy who they meet along the way, and he wants to talk to the count about the taxes because there are children in his town who can't afford to eat because they can't afford to buy bread; and they meet others who are on their way to see the count and basically they gradually gather together to visit the count. Eventually you'll meet people who are also trying to prevent a war that the count is actually trying to…well I'm giving things away now and I better stop. But as you can see, it's a very in-depth story with a lot of details."

For fans who don't particularly like spending up to $60 dollars for a game that only lasts a handful of hours, Eternal Sonata is promising a ton of gameplay time for all the RPG fans out there to really get their fix. "It really depends on how you play the game, because there really are quite a few sidequests and also how you decide you want to level up, because if you want to level up quickly it's going to take you longer to go through the game; but it's about 30 hours, but seriously, if you do everything and explore everywhere, it's going to take you much longer than that. The sidequests are entirely optional, so you don't have to play them at all, but I do think you'll have more fun if you do them, because you'll get more items; there will either be collections you want to complete, or there are items that will strengthen your characters a great deal; not that you can't complete the game without them, but you can't get the whole, full story unless you finish those quests."

Also, another interesting thing about the subquests comes from the fact that you can't even fully play every single minute of the game unless you fire up the game for a second time after beating it once. "Well, they are telling one story – the story of Chopin's dream – so you are playing through that story, which is essentially liking reading a book, but there are certain aspects that can make it challenging for playing again, such as some sidequests you can't even access unless you play the game twice."

Continue On Page Two