New Jrpg's in general have developed the same problems all new games have imo.  As well as JRPG's have always had certain problems that most of the time they don't fix. And other genre's have their problems.

Star Ocean 4's battle system was awesome, like most/all tri-Ace games.
But, I liked everything else about eternal sonata more.

Couple of problems being The Last Story does innovate but isn't even out here so hard to count that, but between it and Xenoblade and the people that translated parts of the story I watched them play, I would say both of those games have very interesting stories much better than the standard this gen.  

I've got problems calling Demons Souls a JRPG, it's one of those games that blurs the lines between action game with RPG elements and RPG, and on top of it they use traditional western themes for the story and game design, though I do rank it up there with one of the best RPGs, it's much like Pokemon I don't really call it a JRPG just simply an RPG, cause you're a silent character that you essentially tell the story of and have full control over the stats, leveling, and way you fight, which doesn't follow the traditional differentiation of WRPG and JRPG styles WRPGs are typically about social choices, routes in dialog, lots of stat sheets, with typcial characters set in worlds filled with dragons and vampires or in the future with western sci fi themes, while JRPGs are more controlled, to tell a concise story with less stat control and often there are ways to just become over powered.

If we're just going by the definition of where the games are developed then yeah Demons Souls spanks the pants off games like Nostalgia, still I'd be hard pressed to call DQIX or Demons Souls better than the other as they are just different types of games. 

Valkyria Chronicles is just one game I admittedly haven't played enough of to judge, I own it, I've owned it since it came out, it looks pretty, the voice acting is decent enough, and the game play didn't bore me to tears.  Still similar expereinces are found on the handheld... obviously... when you have the sequel on the PSP and many said it had a lot of improvements over the original (don't know don't own it yet)

If you need more help with titles that break molds in various ways, Nostalgia has systems to boost your stat gains by how you play, while making the overworld combat completely different from dungeon combat, 4 Heroes of Light makes how you set up your party and equipment mean a lot more than just stat boosts and such, many of these titles do use SNES RPGs as a foundation but in all honesty no RPG today doesn't do that, WRPGs are deeply rooted into themes that ultima set up and you could find those on the SNES, JRPGs today are still using things like the Active Time Battle system or a variation of turn based both of which are two decades old.

Hell even SO4 takes many things from other titles in the series and that started in 1996... 

So I digress, some of the JRPGs that are innovating on consoles simply aren't here, others while being good are not always for the JRPG gamer, then most of the games that fit the style for JRPGs on home consoles are in general not that great compared to games in the genre prior to last gen, while the ones that are trying to go beyond SNES and Cloud clones are generally on the handhelds.  

That's not too surprising since Eternal Sonata is a bad game.

It looks amazing but that's where the praise really ends.  The combat probably could have been cool if it weren't ridiculously easy.

I bought Eternal Sonata a couple years ago (Xbox 360 version). Didn't like it. I even gave it a chance and forced myself to play until the end credits given all the praise it got. But nope, didn't like it. Luckily I only paid $30-ish for it at the time. You can get the game for like $20 or less these days anyway so if you are into jrpgs it's worth a try at least. Or rent it if you have a gamefly type of subscription.

I have to second Maxwell. The DS and PSP are where the jrpgs are at this gen. With the majority of jrpgs being low-budget productions, handhelds are a natural home for them.

I like the game. I'm a sucker for RPGs and while it may not be awesome, i find it enjoyable. The combat system is nice, the story is decent and the characters are IMO well done. I will say that sometimes cutscenes seem to just drag on and on. Makes me wanna tear my hair out. Overall, If you don't like it so far, chances are you won't like the rest of it, it's the same stuff from beginning to end. I'm on chapter 6 and I plan to finish it this summer.

Not to mention the ridiculously easy combat system (seriously, Viola's ranged attacks can wipe out an entire party of monsters with no sweat), boring and forgetable characters with completely vague motivations, broken money system, that one awful and badly designed dungeon which I can't remember it's damn name and I sure hope don't, pretentious as hell ending. I could go on...

God, I hated this game.

One of the reasons why Eternal Sonata was praised when it first came out on the Xbox/PS3 was because there was a lack of RPGs to play.

It's like when you go to the bar, every woman is ugly but theres one whose face looks run over by a car but shes got tits so you go talk to her.

As an ex piano teacher who also adores Chopin, I was so dissapointed in this game. I got to chapter 3.

The difficulty (PS3 version) was abit uneven, i hate that save points are so few and the story was bland as hell. The music is ok.

Eternal Sonata was nothing more than the leftovers of Tales of Vesperia. They use the same engine by similar teams. However, all of the resources to make a great game went to ToV instead of ES. ToV is superior in every fathomable way, and then some (my JRPG of the gen for consoles).

If you can, snag a copy of ToV and see what ES was supposed to be. FWIW, I own both, and bought both on launch day. ES was great when it came out, as its cell-shaded graphics were godly back in the day. However, ToV is better in every way, with a similar graphical flair. Better story, combat, characters, gameplay, the whole 9 yards. Heck, the same voice actors are in both games. Try to guess which ones are which after playing ES, then moving to ToV.

Those games were made by two different developers. And yea Vesperia is better in most every way.

Still used the Eternal Sonata engine.