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Bad Games With Good Music: Eternal Sonata

Posted by Bob Mackey

Fun fact: I'm such a video game music nerd that I'll usually slog through the worst of experiences if the tunes happen to tickle my fancy. This should serve to explain why I spend so much time with mediocre titles better left unplayed--and also why I keep the contents of my iTunes library far, far away from people who respect me. One game this past summer is a perfect example of this phenomenon: Namco's Eternal Sonata, a pretty-yet-underdeveloped JRPG with one of the more embarrassing plots I've ever had to sit through. Because I've played many Tales of games, I was familiar with composer Motoi Sakuraba's previous work; though most of the time I found his soundtracks to be a little too droning and bombastic for my tastes. I guess it shouldn't be too shocking to find out that a game about one of history greatest composers would have such a fantastic soundtrack, but I was definitely surprised and highly impressed by Sakuraba's work on Eternal Sonata. It's kind of a shame that this soundtrack might get overlooked in the future, what with it not being in Sakuraba's top-tier Tales of and Star Ocean soundtracks, but it's definitely worth a listen.

Here's a little sampler of the music from the first disc of the Eternal Sonata soundtrack. If you'd like to find more, you'll probably get more results by search for the game's Japanese name, Trusty Bell.

Related Links:

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OST: Chrono Cross
OST: Everyday Shooter

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Posted Jan 06 2009, 02:15 PM

Filed under: ost, namco bandai, jrpg, bob mackey, soundtrack, motoi sakuraba, eternal sonata

Comments

Roto13 said:

A lot of this reminds me a great deal of Baten Kaitos.

January 6, 2009 3:05 PM

Demaar said:

I still intend to pick up this game at some stage. Will almost definitely be out of the bargain bin though. Hmm, I should probably look around for it now, thinking about it.

January 7, 2009 1:02 AM

Roto13 said:

I played the demo and found the characters so completely nauseating I couldn't even bring myself to finish it. xP

January 7, 2009 2:33 AM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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