It's only an issue on the third disc apparently, because it's riddled with cut scenes they couldn't fit the game world on the disc - so if you've progressed in the main story to the third disc you only have to swap discs for incomplete side quests, that you may have brushed past.

Ok everyone. i got the game and have put in 5 plus hours. My observations.

The minuses: the cutscenes are a bit choppy. they are extended but when they transition within the scenes there is always a brief load time that blackens out the screen until the next part of the scene comes up. they can be a as frequent as 3 or 4 a minute. And this while running the game off the Xbox. Its a bit annoying.

Next the graphics are not all that. The stills may look nice and colorful, but in motion its a little disappointing. the character models arent that great either, but thats a matter of preference.

The story is also campy. Its like a bunch of kids talking, but thats to be expected from a JRPG.

the pluses: the environments are well done. And they are big. At least from what I have seen.

The combat is solid. Just like the previous games.

The menus are in depth with a lot of customization, in game dictionary, weapon and item details, and so on.

While campy the game has a unique feel to it. Its more sci-fi than fantasy. And it works.

Thats just my two cents. Again I have only played the very first part of the game.

Thanks for that! Please keep us up to date.

The cutscene issues sound bad though. 

Chrono Trigger say hello so does Persona 4.

Um...I disagree, of all the JRPG I played so far Eternal Sonata is probably the worst of them all well may be a tad bit better than Infinite Undiscover but then again that's not saying much...

 I think he meant for this gen. Valkyria Chronicles almost made it.

Weird that the cutscenes are choppy. Visual Works made them and they make FF CGI cutscenes which are high pedigree. Unless this is only the case with in-game cutscenes.

Visual Works only did the CGI. In game cutscenes were done by tri-Ace themselves.  Unfortunately, tri-Ace have never heard of the words "motion capture" before.  How did you think MGS4 and Uncharted got its impressive looking cutscenes?  By hand?

You are cherrypicking, and doing it wrong on top. Xenosaga 3 has a metascore of 81, SO3 has a metascore of 80, etc. Remember gamerankings isn't available. By the way, you own Disgaea 3. It averaged 78. So much for demanding quality.

Only 3 ps2 rpg's got an AAA metascore. It is a fact western reviewers are crappy jRPG reviewers. As you noted, the high metascore of Eternal Sonata just makes my argument stronger: you cannot trust western reviewers when it comes jRPG's. Unless it's an exclusive 360 jRPG, of course - then it's either 90+ or bust (something only three ps2 RPG's managed to do, and two had Final Fantasy in the title). It's disgusting.

This is just a sour grapes issue. Too many people bet on the wrong horse.

@bengabenga: yeah, the current situation is ridicolous. The most prolific system is a handheld device and it's biggest titles are remakes of old FF's and DQ's.

@riachu: mocap is expensive =) japanese game budgets are tight.

MGS4 was a Japanese developed game.  It even cost 50-60 million to develop.  Beside, I'm sure mocap is expensive but it can't be prohibitly expensive.