Director Hiroya Hatsushiba hopes Eternal Sonata will teach gamers about the life and music of composer Frédéric Chopin. And the game succeeds, in a loose, Yellow Submarine kinda way. In this Japanese RPG, Chopin has retreated into a dream world while lying on his deathbed: In his head, he joins a band of intrepid orphans and lace-clad rebels who must battle the power corrupting the land. The story includes touching allusions to Chopin's short, sickly life, and an annoying habit of naming almost everything in the game with a musical term—like the Glissando Cliffs, Baroque City, or the handsome resistance leader Jazz, whose name wouldn't make sense until decades after Chopin's 1849 death.
Setting aside the Chopinomania, Eternal Sonata tells a pensive, sometimes exciting story. The strikingly detailed backdrops—which look like amethyst crystals, organic vegetables, and ground-up pixies—light up every scene, while the timers and increasingly difficult tactics add a twist to the turn-based combat. There's just enough fighting to get the twitches out before the introspective cutscenes, which are the game's most honest tribute to the Impressionist composer.