IMO Eternal is more fun then tales but that is my bias towards games with semi active time combat vs full active time combat. I never really liked the star ocean system of just run in there, run around and whack away as much as I liked the sort of hybrid system that is used in games like Eternal Sonata.

The other think I tend to like better about Sonata is the story/music though much of that relates to my affinity for classical music (I spent a good 15 years playing classical music from 3 on growing up) I haven't played through the whole thing yet, but I found it far more playable on the PS3 then the 360 (I played about 10 hours on the 360 before I found out the PS3 was getting it too and stopped to wait). There aren't a LOT of changes, but those there are make the game better.

It's not a vast difference between sonata and tales, its more a taste thing one way or the other. Both are up there with the 5 best RPGs of the current generation.


I still don't get Zen's Sonata hate, its a really fun, bright and cheerful game. It's a nice counterpoint to the decidedly dark nature of most games. After spending the prior week with Deadspace and Bioshock Eternal Sonata and Little Big Planet have been a nice change of pace.

It isn't a 9, the only game this gen that deserves a 9 (that isn't PC only) is Mass Effect (maybe 9 even on 360, 9.8 on PC) still, but mid to high 8 seems very reasonable.

i think eternal sonata on the ps3 looks the same and except for the new characters,its the same game. still a decent rpg, and if u own a ps3 should get it. i am gonna get it again for the ps3 this time, tomorrow.

You've significantly contradicted several of your earlier posts regaurding quality, or lackthereof, of the jrpgs on the Xbox 360.

I always said I did like Eternal Sonata, my point about that one was its non exclusivity which has been public for over a year now, it was announced more or less right after Sonata's release unofficially (hence unlike LO or Blue Dragon which weren't any good, it doesn't count till the total of 360 only JRPGs). I'm 99.9% sure I said at least a few times I played Sonata, liked it for about 10 hours and stopped playing it to wait for the PS3 version.


I still maintain that Tales is the only remaining 360 exclusive JRPG that's any good.

"Gorgeous visuals look even better on the PlayStation"

as per Gamespot review

I never played the 360 version ( I made the decision to just wait for the PS3 version), but from the sounds of it,  the new cutcenes and additional story stuff is a big plus.

Also more music is always good

I don't think you're a JRPG fan...nothing wrong with that, but your idea of what a JRPG should be isn't quite right I believe. Do you enjoy the first Dragon Quests, Final Fantasies, Phantasy Stars, or Lunar games?

Oh wow. You are so wrong, it's funny.

Hm, maybe I shouldn't have canceled my pre-order. I was going to wait for a price drop, but I may just get this now.

Even though I have far too many games to play, and Valkyria Chronicles will come first...

   Because I don't like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey?  To the contrary erhaps if I hadn't played so many JRPGs over the years I would have liked them more.  They were both below mediocre examples of the most tired and true traditions in JRPGs.  Blue Dragon was juvenile to the extreme, basic beyond belief in execution...I mean I found the combat system in the first two breath of fire games to be more advanced then the blue dragon system and those are well over a decade old.  Blue Dragon was a very poorly made game and a lot of reviews said as much.  I loved the original Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior when I played them 20 years ago at 5 years old, but I like to think things have advanced a bit story and gameplay wise, but in Blue Dragon that was no the case.

   Lost Odyssey wasn't as painfully flawed as Blue Dragon, it at least didn't look like a crappy episode of Dragon Ball Z, but it was just a horridly executed rip off of Final Fantasy X.  It had the turn based system and open skill progression but it was done wrong  in just about every way possible.

   The animation was horridly done, every character looked so stilted, my wife and I couldn't help but laugh out loud at some of the animation in scenes like the councils discussions, it was just comically bad which is not what a A list RPG should be.  On top of that the story broke little to no new ground (same kind of evil empire, same kind of intrigue, it was almost identical to at least 4 or 5 Final Fantasy stories.  I kept expecting to see Keifa pop up or Cid to join my team.  The only good thing about it was the writing of the interludes you found from time to time.  Other then that it was a sub par game in every way.  It even tried to steal the action based attack activation of a shadow hearts or Legend of Dragoon and did it worse...the game was just unforgivable crap, clearly mistwalker didn't take much of the talent from the FF team.

   It's not like I'm alone in thinking these things, I didn't see a whole lot of glowing reviews for either of those rather poor JRPGs.  This gen has just been piss poor for JRPGs overall on next gen consoles, I maintain the best JRPG of the last few years is persona 3.  

   I think having played a few hundred JRPGs from the NES era to today makes me a sufficient JRPG fan though, thanks.