I don't know why there is so much Eternal Sonata hatred on the part of Zen. I mean it wasn't great (it wouldn't be anywhere near a top 20 RPG on the PS2) but it was easily the 2nd best JRPG after Tales. Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey were unplayably bad.
Blue dragon because of the archaic battle system, the childish even compared to Eternal Sonata visuals and the truly crap story and characters....that main character was the most annoying kid this side of Dragon Ball Z. Lost Odyssey because of the stilted character animation, the strong sense of been there done that throughout (and in the case of the FF games, done a lot better) and most notably the god awful combat system. The only good thing about that game was the well written text interludes, I am 100% sure I would have enjoyed a book of those text interludes more then the game itself.
Infinate Undiscovery had a great deal of design flaws, bad slow down and mindless button mashing combat. It was also incredibly short and man do I want my 7 bucks for the rental back. It was almost as bad as Too Human was from chapter 2 on (somehow Too human was fun in the first chapter then headed towards suckvile at warp speed in 2 and beyond....there is a ranged only class and they start tossing in mobs that are range immune in huge packs, great choice!)
Really the only 360 RPG that was worth a damn until Tales a month ago WAS Eternal Sonata. Maybe it gets worse after the first 5-10 hours but it wasn't bad at all until that point. I just stopped playing it in order to wait on the PS3 version since I found out it would have added content and other bonuses.
It is sad that a mediocre PS2 game is the best the next gen has to offer, but nevertheless it is the way the world seems to work at all console launches. Anyone remember Ephemeral Fantasia, one of the first PS2 RPGs, or Beyond the Beyond on the PS1? For some reason there is a rule that for the first 2 years of a consoles life any and all non action based RPGs must be crap.
Thank god for the PS2, the PSP and the PC these last 2 years as far as RPGs go.
PSN ID: ChosenOne feel free to add me
