Hello, my name is Stephanie Fernandez and I worked as the Localization Producer on Eternal Sonata for the PLAYSTATION 3. Eternal Sonata will be shipping tomorrow, October 21st, and it will include new features and extras that can only be found on the PLAYSTATION 3 platform. In preparation for the game’s release, I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts and insights from working on the game and give you a few more details about the new exclusive content.
When I started working on Eternal Sonata for the PS3, I was pleased to find out there would be additional story material incorporated into the game that is unique to the platform. I had always felt there were some aspects of the story which might be a little too vague for anyone who didn’t have the advantage of the background knowledge that I had about the story. But now there are scenes that give the game player a little more insight; scenes that reveal a bit more general information about the concept behind the story and more specific details regarding character motivations.
Not that everything is spelled out point-by-point–you still have to figure things out for yourself–the player is at least given a few more clues as to what is going on. And the new scenes fit into the story extremely well. It almost seems as if they are parts of the story that have always been there, but you’re only just now getting the chance to see them. Also, some of the old scenes have been modified slightly, again, in order to add more depth to the story. From beginning to end, there is new exclusive material, and I think it will really add to people’s enjoyment of the game.
Of course, a good part of the new material involves the two new playable characters in the game, Serenade and Crescendo, who are only available on the PS3. It’s very exciting to finally have the chance to play these characters in the game. I have always thought that Crescendo and Serenade were intriguing characters and now we get to see them play an expanded role in the game. And they have some very useful abilities that can really be an asset in battle. There are also new items that can only be used by Crescendo and Serenade that make them even more valuable.
It was a lot of fun being present for the recording of the battle voices for Crescendo and Serenade because it was all new material for the characters. Unfortunately, since we weren’t able to see the characters fighting in the game before we recorded, we had to make some guesses about the way in which lines would be used in battle situations. Sometimes we got it right, but sometimes we didn’t. So, in the end, it was necessary to edit some lines slightly. But, overall, I think it came out sounding pretty good. And now we get to see a prince and princess fighting for what they believe in!
And there are lots of other new things to be found in the game that are exclusive to the PLAYSTATION 3. There are new quests that add even more excitement to the game, and new dungeons that are very nicely designed and a lot of fun to explore. The dungeon that can only be accessed on your second play-through of the game is especially challenging! And the new enemies and bosses found in the new dungeons will definitely test your battle skills. Also, both of the new dungeons include brand new music written by Motoi Sakuraba.
There are also three new Chopin compositions featured in the game, performed again by Stanislav Bunin. In addition, there are fun new costumes for Polka, Allegretto, and Beat, but you’ll have to find them first. They’re scattered throughout the game, so make sure you leave no stone unturned, and no treasure chest unopened! The game also offers some ending variations this time around.
All in all, there is quite a lot of new material to be found in the world of Eternal Sonata. So whether you’re visiting for the first time or making a return trip, I’m sure everyone will find something to enjoy on this unique journey into Frederic Chopin’s dream world.
Be sure to check out the Eternal Sonata demo currently available on the PlayStation Store, and don’t miss the full game when it ships tomorrow.
NAMCO BANDAI SHOULD SUPPORT PS3 LIKE 360 .
I’ll buy the game .
but we need more GAMES -_-
sweetness, been needing some RPG some action. I’ve been waiting some time for this release also glad about the extras.
The voice acting is pretty horrible. Took a year for the game to be released on PS3 and you could use the time to add some actually worthwhile extras like including the Japanese voice track (lots of space with blu-ray). And no trophies? Very lazy developers there. I’m going to pass. Hope everyone else does the same.
I’m sorry but I’m mad at you people from Namco, why? I simply don’t understand why you treat us like second class importance, while for years we as PlayStation fans have supported your guts??!! Don’t get me wrong I’m getting Eternal Sonata, I was planning to import the US version until I heard they postponed it in Europe until February because that version will contain more extras. So I’ll wait until then. Why not releasing those damn RPG’s at the same time on the PS3 as well as on the 360? Why do you keep us waiting? Because MS is paying you? What’s the nonsense about Tales of Vesperia, are we or aren’t we getting the game as well?
Plus did someone forget to mention Ace Combat 6? Oh no, they didn’t… PlayStation exclusive for years and look where it winded, on the 360??!!
And another thing, why in earth don’t you localize games like Tales of Destiny 2 (PSP), Tales of Phantasia (PSP) and Tales of Rebirth (PSP). Everyone who played Tales of Eternia on the PSP here in Europe consider it the most amazing RPG on the hand-held that no other game can match. I play those games in Japanese versions and they simply match with Eternia. And to talk about localizing, lot of people are disappointed why the Tales of games on the DS aren’t being localized either.
For the type of games, class of games and style of games, mostly RPG’s you’re supposed to be in my top 3 of favorite developers / publishers, but ever since the butt kicking treatment, you’ve been kicked out of the top 3. Hope you’ll get back there again, by treating us PlayStation fans, as you used to be, with respect.
Nevertheless, I’ll most definitely buy Eternal Sonata as one of my most anticipated games, I just hope more will follow from you guys and not as second choice…
Thanks!
@Wavesln, erm, the PS3 version DOES have Japanese voices, just like the 360 has!
Why is no one responding to one of the many trophy questions on here?
Yeah, after playing on the box, its really not worth playing it again on the ps3. Ace combat was one of my favorite titles. I done with that now haven’t played Ace Combat on 360 and never will. I am sure HAWK will prove to be a great title that will replace, Ace Combat. They should have never taken the game of the PS brand.
@Onna76_NL, my mistake then. Still not buying it. :)
Wait I thought this game was coming out in Feb ’09? Sweet maybe I’ll get it but I just bought SOCOM (and it sucks right now with server issues and bugs, once they patch it im sure it’ll be way better though)
Good job Sony, I’m glad to see a year old Xbox RPG, now how about some new RPGs. You used to be known for these kinda games
Props to Stephanie for answering so many posts. I’m a harsh critic of Namco for their treatment of Playstation 3 fans this Gen, Sorry so much of the anger came off directed at you….It’s not! Hopefully you can pass some of our feelings up to the folks at Namco.
Wows Stephanie must have been tired of all you kids complaining
After reading some of
+ Posted by Stephanie Fernandez // Localization Producer at NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.
You have got to be kidding me, buy more Namco Bandi games and they’ll release more. Release more PS3 games day and date and we’ll buy them. You’re condescending responses are extremely rude, you’re working to earn our dollars, we’re not spending money to earn the possibility of getting more namco products.
The people who make the decisions on where games go made some bad decisions, seeing as the PS3 install base has grown despite their poor decisions and I’m putting my money anywhere but Namcrap. Thank Good Day
Sorry that you get the brunt of all this Stephanie, maybe you can convey to the uppers over at Namco how upset the PS3 user-base is right now.
With that said…
With all of the support that Playstation owners throughout the years have given to Namco, I think it’s unbelievably weak over 3 1/2 months of Sony announcing Trophies, that the people over there can’t find it in their development time to patch it into this year old port from the other console.
I also consider it insulting that you suggest that we should support Namco if Namco is to support us. Remember, it’s you who want our money, we can do without your games, there are plenty of other developers who would gladly take our money and that I would gladly spend my time playing.
Furthermore, if Namco thinks I’m going to buy inferior, $60.00 year old ports, that don’t provided an equal experience both visually and in content, then Namco has another thing coming. With all of the fantastic games coming out, looks like my pocket book won’t have the extra cash for this one.
I will pick this game up though, when it’s in the $20 dollar bin or used… probably used.
Idont get it so if idont buy this game there wll be no more rpg game from namco but this game to me is bad ididnt like in the day of ps2 iwll never think of paying it
I look forward to seeing how the rest of the game feels. A guarenteed must have, thank you for the time you put into this project.
I don’t know why everyone’s being so negative.
At least we are getting it.
If we buy it, it’s gonna show Namcobandai that we will buy their games.
Of course you know who will still be forking over money to keep us PS3 fans from getting it.
@ saintfighteraqua
As far as I’m concerned, it also shows Namco/Bandai that Playstation 3 owners are content with buying full priced, year old ports (without Trophies).
Will definitely be picking this one up. I don’t mind that it doesn’t have trophy support, as I understand about the development process. Hopefully, this will sell well enough to warrant future PS3 RPG’s.
I must say I miss the old-school turn-based RPG’s, but it seems no one makes them anymore, so this will do.
I have it prepaid, so I will pick it up tomorrow, although I must admit, I probably won’t be able to actually play it until late November/December, with all the other games coming out at the same time.
To all the people being negative, I don’t think they quite get how business works. If one system sells a certain amount of copies of a game and another sells considerably less copies of the same game, when it comes time to make a decision as to what system(s) to bring your next game too, you’d be less likely to put it on the lesser selling system.
There is nothing insulting about that. It’s called business. This game is a test run, basically, to see if there is a market for PS3 RPG’s. Now, that we’ve got one coming our way, you people are complaining. Oh, it’s a port (a port of a game I haven’t played, as I don’t have a 360, so that doesn’t bother me). It’s full-price (as most new releases are. And as I said, if you don’t have a 360. it’s a new game to you. If you do have a 360, if you can afford to buy the same game twice, why are you complaining about price?). It doesn’t have trophies (I can understand the gripe on this, but still, a lot of games these days don’t. As time goes on, eventually, all PS3 games will have them. We just have to deal for now).
So, to everybody complaining about Tekken 6 going to the 360 or there being no RPG’s on the PS3, this is your chance. You can have your own silly logic that the business end of the company won’t see and not buy it (what they will see is, “oh, PS3 owners are not buying our games, while 360 owners are. More 360 please.”) or you can do something instead of complaining. 360 games sell. If you want more PS3 games, support the PS3 with your wallet, port or not.
I apologize, Stephanie, for the negativity and I hope it won’t effect your returning to answer further questions.
For me, no trophies = no game purchase.
It is sad because I have really enjoyed the demo but on the other side, the PS3 is overwhelmed with excellent games that have trophy support. In fact, there is much more good games with trophy support (Far Cry 2, Dead Space, LBP, BioShock) that I can afford to play with my limited spare time so I’ll just skip the ones that do not have trophies.
I hope that Namco will reconsider their decision and offer a patch eventually but I will be waiting for the patch before buying the game as I didn’t like to restart games from scratch because the patch was not retroactive (Uncharted and Burnout).
Also I do not buy Namco explanation that Sony announced trophies too late in their development process to include trophies in the game. PS3 trophies are public since july. Someone could guess that trophy support have been available to developpers at least 1 or 2 months ahead in the PS3 SDK so that games supporting trophies start to appear not too long after the feature introduction (same principle used for launch titles). In my book, a couple of months is a lot of time to port an existing simple feature such as achievements or trophies.
In my opinion, Namco management took the bet that not supporting trophies would not affect much the sales number hence not worth the effort.
I want to vote with my money by not buying the game and I hope that a lot of other gamers will do the same so that Namco listen what their customers wants in their games.
Jeez louise you’re all a bunch of whiny babies. You should be glad that this is the PS3 AT ALL.
Who the f*** cares if it’s a year old port from another system? It’s an RPG, a genre that’s seriously lacking on this system and a good one at that.
Unlike the 360 version, it’s also loaded with extras such as more characters, endings, and dungeons so it’s the definitive version. The Xbox owners are complaining since they’re not getting it.
Don’t buy this game then. You whiners don’t even deserve anything, especially after you spewed your hateful garbage. We’ll see if Namco Bandai gives the PS3 any more RPGs after seeing this display of your s****y attitudes. I’ll tell you what, you’re all part of the problem.
If you’re not buying this for stupid console war fanboy reasons, you f**kers better at least buy Valkyria. Otherwise, I guess the Xbox owners can enjoy ‘sloppy seconds’ of that a year from now.
I think someone needs a nap.
*sigh* little late it seems to hit stephany up with a response.
However I’m happy we are finally getting an RPG for PS3 and I will be getting this game.
Honestly I agree with her that we need to support Namco to continue to get their support. They aren’t a fledgling company anymore and they had to endure some hard times to be apart of this generation. They gave us series like Xenosaga and gave us a (shortened version) completed story. We got games like tales and the made Soul Calibur 3 a PS2 exclusive. They were forced to merge with Bandai which may have not have been a move many of us agree with, but better games did come of it.
I support Namco with the series I’ve enjoyed and titles I’d like to have. Soul Calibur 4, Tekken 5 DRO, and I’m getting this game and Naurto.
For anyone saying this is just a cheap port I really do suggest you guys take a look at the game. There is nothing cheap or poor about this port. That added content and to the best of my ability have appeared to maintain if not enhance the original presentation of the game. There are X360 owners that are pissed about the two new playable characters alone and are considering the PS3 just for that. This game is a worthy by and I’m shelfing a few experiences just to play it. 60+ hour RPG is far more rewarding than a 25 hour experience that I’ve had multiple times this generation.
Namco does need to support us a little better though. Hopefully this game will convince them to give us an exclusive series and port Tales of Vesperia.
Thanks Stephanie for the insight, but please don’t get mad at people complaining, there just don’t agree with namco policy. Yes, for a couple million $$, I would do exclusive for MS too, but should we really take a year-old port as a service or something legitimate in the 1st place ?
As a PS3 owner, I feel more and more that company like Take2 (bioshock) or NamcoBandai consider me as a brainless wallet, paying full price for games that could have been way better (damn, I have a bloddy PS3, nt a PCbox !!).
Either Namco respect the ps3 fanbase and offers its game at an interesting price (at 40$, you would sell a sh**load of copies) or just don’t port the game expecting us to buy in orderto encourage future developpement. We should rather buy White Knight Chronicles and encourage new titles
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So all you supporters are glad you get shafted for 1 year and then go out and buy it to ensure they shaft you more? Sounds a bit crazy to me. I really wanted this game. But Namco knows there’s demand for these games on PS3, the whole PS3 community are PS2 owners that made the switch. Why wouldn’t we want RPGs on our system?
Now we have to be ok with Namco getting tons of $ from M$ to make us wait, then still charge us full price on a game they made tons of $ off M$ for? I don’t think I like that. Namco can keep there RPGs and M$ $.
If we buy these older games at full price, we’ll show them we want the games? GTFO. You know we want the games. But I’m not buying anymore Namco games until they 1. chill with the charge for add-ons that are on the disc (SC4, Darth/Yoda) and 2. start treating us the same as they do the other box people.
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Let’s see.
– We’re getting the game “one year later”, full price
– It seems that the game will have no support at all. No patches (trophies), no plan for other bug fixes (1080i)
– Namco does not want us to be able to enjoy the “Tales Of” series
– Namco believes the PS3 is a niche market by the number, without publishing decent/modern games on it
– We european gamers will again have to wait till 2009.
No, I’m sorry, but there are just no incentives to buy this game. I want to enjoy playing games, not buying them for the sake of your marketing department. Namco’s poor PS3 support will not encourage me to drop 70€ (90$) for this stuff.
You know, it’s funny. 360 owners are whining for a port of MGS4. I bet if they got that, they wouldn’t be going, “No thanks, Konami, for your sloppy seconds!” They’d be laughing at us, at how we lost another exclusive.
Yet, you people expect a company to give you exclusives when you haven’t proven to them that they’ll you buy them. Do you know how much games cost? Do you think a company would actually spend that money for a system where people have already proven they won’t buy your games? If the PS3 port sold twice as much as the 360 version, I guarantee you they’d start developing on the PS3.
Companies are there because they want to make money. Period. How they go about it is one thing, but all companies are there to make a profit. It isn’t that Namco/Bandai don’t want us to have a particular game. It’s that they’re not sure it’ll be profitable.
All of you people complaining and giving your elitist attitudes better damn well buy five copies each of Valkyria then, because otherwise, the 360 will be the system developers make RPG’s for. I want more RPG’s for my system. I will show that with my wallet by picking this game up. Tales of Vespera helped put the 360 over the PS3 in Japan. You don’t think Namco/Bandai and all the other RPG companies aren’t watching the sales of Eternal Sonata? If their PS3 RPG doesn’t sell, they know a 360 one will.
Get off your high horses and actually do something to bring more RPG’s our way. I’d rather not have to buy a 360 just to play my favorite genre, but with how you people are acting, it looks like we may have to.
The developers of Vespera have said they would probably port it. I bet the sales are being watched. You don’t want it or any other Namco/Bandai RPG’s, don’t buy Eternal Sonata. That simple.
Personaly i hate RPG’s, but i love my PS3 and it would be nice that RPG lovers have a good variety of games on the PS3, and keep them from going to the other “side”(XBOX) to play some good RPG games.
Don’t get angry at Namco for the lack of PS3 support, please. It’s Microsoft paying millions for it. Blame Microsoft, not Namco for being a company and wanting to make money.
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i will be picking this up this week,
loved the demo and my daughter loves it as well.
can’t wait
:)
Thank you! I really hope you and your daughter enjoy it!