Eternal Sonata demo thoughts.

[SHMUPGurus]

Skeeuk said:
game is same as 360 version but has more content in quests music story and chars. i played the demo and go killed by the bird things in the forest. mabey i will pick it up after xmasit should be cheap by then, either way its better than 360 version but i doubt its gonna sell very well jus as 360 version didnt sell well. i wonder if namco made thier money back on this one? the most off putting thing was the button mashing battle scenes i jus dont like it, thats why i wont get tales of vesp on 360 it has a similar battle style in that u mash buttons

You see, the difference between Eternal Sonata and Tales of Vesperia is that one requires you to think about your next moves (are you fighting a flying type, or a ground type).

In Eternal Sonata, all you have to do is run to an enemy, mash the attack button (oh yeah, they screw the button placements at one point, sooo strategic and special, it's not even funny), press the special attack button, repeat with a few characters, wait for the enemy to attack, repeat... You might want to change your position between shadow or light though, but that's the only touch of strategy you'll find in the game.

In Tales of Vesperia, everything happens in realtime. You attack (normally 3 B button press at the beginning of the game), then you chain with an Arte, then you decide which advanced Arte you want to use, then you either Guard or Backstep, repeat. Make sure you don't get hit in the process, because chaining doesn't always work good when fighting tougher enemies, especially bosses. You'll want to get in a strategic position too (behind an enemy is better, not surrounded by 3 of its friends for example), so making use of the L-trigger to run freely in the field is also important. If your enemy is a ground type, you'll want to think about using an Arte that is good for these types of enemy. Also, if it's really small, you'll want to flick the stick down while doing your combo. It's pretty intuitive if you ask me, and it requires skills more than in Eternal Sonata.

But whatever man, if you consider Tales games to have a similar combat system to Eternal Sonata, you haven't played enough of them yet! o_O