Can this Let's Play of Eternal Sonata truly be just a dream?

Glossary of Musical Terms

Cabasa – A percussion instrument of African origin, typically constructed nowadays with loops of steel ball chain wrapped around a wide cylinder. You hold the chain with your non-dominant hand to provide pressure, and the handle with your other hand, twisting the instrument back and forth. Used a lot in Latin music.

Fermata – A symbol in musical notation used to indicate that the note it’s placed above should be held longer than its usual duration. How long exactly that is depends on the performer or conductor, but it’s pretty common to hold the note for twice as long as normal. If a fermata is placed over a bar line, it indicates the end of a phrase or section of a work; if done in a concerto, this is the point where the soloist plays a cadenza.

Jazz – A genre of music that originated in New Orleans in the late 19th and early 29th centuries that has roots in the blues and ragtime. Characterized by a strong emphasis on improvisation, the use of swing and blue notes, and the common presence of polyrhythms. Has its own musical theory that’s separate from the classical tradition and can get quite complex, and a long history that’s too much to get into here.

Claves – A percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small dowels that are traditionally made of wood. When struck together they make a bright clicking sound; sometimes the claves will be hollow and carved in the middle to amplify this sound. They’re important instruments in Cuban music, used to play a repeating rhythmic figure called the clave, which is also important in African and Brazilian music.

Falsetto – A vocal register just above the modal voice; it is also more commonly used to refer to a vocal technique that lets one sing notes beyond their normal vocal range. There’s a lot of technical stuff in the link that I don’t feel qualified to talk about, but it’s pretty easy to hear once you know what to look for - Staying Alive is sung almost entirely in falsetto, for example.

Hanon – One of the only times in the game a place or character is named after a real person, rather than a musical concept. Charles-Louis Hanon was a French piano pedagogue and composer from the Romantic Era; he’s primarily known for his work The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises, which is still sometimes used today for modern piano teaching.

I'm pretty sure jazz would be unknown to Chopin.

There's no mention of that fact in the game, though.

Well obviously since it's from the 29th century.

That's kind of an interesting thing to be referenced by a video game.

Hear are some link if you want to read / watch more about it:
https://www.martinez-destreza.com/pr...-chateigneraie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Chabot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uerj0iKdDgc

Wow, I'm really bummed I stopped right before such a change of pace with this fortress. Neat stuff!

Well, yes, there are several musical anachronisms in this game - things that definitely do exist but which Chopin himself would be unlikely to have known about. I don't think it's a huge deal, personally.

Interesting! I had no idea this was an actual thing.

Glad you enjoyed it! Fort Fermata's kind of the big dungeon of Chapter 2, but there's a few more cool things later on as well.

In the meantime, time for some more music:

Chopin: étude in C Sharp Minor, Op. 10 No. 4
étude in F Major, Op. 10 No. 8

The étude No. 4 is nicknamed "Torrent", probably for the relentless barrage of sixteenth-notes that pass back and forth between the left and right hands; No. 8 is nicknamed "Sunshine", and the main difficulty of this piece is articulating the right-hand accompaniment clearly while playing the melody in the left hand.

Francis Poulenc - Concerto for Organ, Timpani and Strings in G Minor
Inti Figgis-Vizueta - a bridge between starshine and clay

Francis Poulenc was a 20th-century French composer and pianist, known both for the wide variety of style within his music and for being a member of Les Six, a loose group of French composers whose music is often seen as a reaction against both the ever-prevalent influences of Richard Wagner at the time, and the "impressionist" music of Debussy and Ravel. Poulenc himself was also openly gay; music scholars debate if the diversity of style within his music is reflective of some inner turmoil at his sexuality, but (and I am not a musical scholar nor an expert, just a bi dude who likes classical music a lot) that just sounds like hot nonsense to me.

Inti Figgis-Vizueta is a transgender American composer based in New York. In addition to having been commissioned and performed by a bunch of people (full list here), she also curates for Score Follower, an online archive that focuses on finding and featuring queer and poc artists.

It occurred to me while I was doing some research for this post that there aren't very many trans classical composers being talked about, either as part of the repertoire or like, in general. This article is a good place to start, but if anyone out there has more examples I would love to hear them.

Hello and welcome back to Eternal Sonata! Last time the party crossed a big ol’ bridge and then made their way through an old fortress on their way to Forte. The journey continues today.



♪♪~ A Wall With No Front or Back

Just going to take care of this before we leave. It’ll save a bit of time later.



Over by the exit we find our second Score Piece; more on those later this update. Before we continue on, let’s look at what reaching Party Level 3 has changed for us, since we can see most of the changes without having to get into a fight.



For starters, we can now equip two light and dark specials per character! The top special is what appears by default in battle; to use the other one you have to hold down the R2 button. Pretty simple to get used to, and very handy.



Our Item Set capacity has also increased to 20 points! This gives us much more leeway in terms of backup healing items, and I go ahead and put a couple more Angel Trumpets into the set.



Alright, let’s get out of here.



♪♪~ Breeze the Conductor





I gotta say, after the stuffy, ruined atmosphere of Fort Fermata, a trek through the lovely countryside is a nice change of pace.



Gotta hit up that save point before we move on in earnest, of course.



There are several little curls in the path throughout Hanon Hills; a few are empty like this one, but most of them have items for us to grab.



I’m guessing that huge tower in the distance is connected to it. Let’s go introduce ourselves to that Earth Shaker before we go any further; you can’t see it here, but it’s guarding a chest, and it’ll also give us a chance to go over the other changes that Party Level 3 brought on.



♪♪~ Leap the Precipice

The battlefield here is a bit special; the shadows at the top right come from the nearby rock formation, but the big shadow at the top left is actually from a cloud that slowly moves across the arena. This is the first time we’ve had to deal with the light/dark ratio of the battlefield actively changing on us throughout a given fight, and it won’t be the last.



The Earth Shakers here change into Dark Bats in shadows and vice versa; once transformed, Dark Bats gain higher attack and defense at the cost of less HP. If they stay as Earth Shakers, they have the same stats they did on the Chorus Plains, making them the easier opponent of its two forms.



As for us, our Tactical Time has been reduced to 3 seconds, and we now only get 4 seconds on the Action Gauge instead of 5. This gives us overall less time to think and act during our turn, but it doesn’t affect damage output as much as you might think; we can still build Echoes pretty reliably, and we’re getting strong enough to not really need the one extra combo we could perform before.



This isn’t related to our Party Level, but it is important to consider. Some enemies, like the Dark Bat, have high enough defenses to take 0 damage from certain hits in a character’s combo, and 0-damage hits do not build Echoes. Viola can get around this by shooting at an enemy from far enough away, and Beat’s rapid-fire shots can always deal at least 1 damage.



Right, all that over with we’ll gladly take this Club Clover and move on.



Further down the path, there’s a fork in the road that seems like it leads somewhere important. Let’s take care of that enemy first.



Heal Arrow is the first multi-target healing special we’ve learned, and it’s pretty good! It heals every party member, and if it’s fully powered up it’s almost a full-party heal in our current state. It’ll fall off in usefulness later on since Viola’s MAG isn’t the greatest, but right now it’s very good at keeping us from dipping into our supply of Club Clovers unless absolutely necessary. However, keep in mind that it’s slow to use at 3.5 seconds, and unless you do nothing else that turn it’s very difficult to use more than once at a time.



The Dark Bat’s normal attack is this weird sonic wave. It comes out pretty fast but the rhythm of it is easy to pick up on.



You uh, really don’t want to mess up the guard input on Tail Dive though. That’s almost half of Polka’s HP in one go!



Anyway, let’s see what’s over here on this conspicuous side path.



Well that’s a weird symbol. Let’s take a closer look…



Click here to watch the (very short) cutscene

♪♪~ No music



*Allegretto puts his head closer to the rock and listens.*



Huh, that’s odd. Can we take a closer look?



Guess not. Oh well, I’m sure this won’t come up again. Moving on!

Another new enemy awaits us shortly afterwards. Let’s go say hello.



♪♪~ Leap the Precipice

Eternal Greens behave almost exactly like Angel Goats do and have most of the same attacks, although Ride of Three Hundred has been upgraded to Ride of Six Hundred, which of course deals more damage.



Apart from the increased stats, Eternal Greens do have two new moves: an annoying heal they can use on each other if you don’t get rid of one quick enough, and a hind-kick that’s pretty easy to guard against and doesn’t see much use.



♪♪~ Breeze the Conductor

Hey, we’re halfway through Hanon Hills already! At this rate we’ll be in Forte in no time.



♪♪~ Well-Done

Polka: “*giggles*”

After fighting some more Eternal Greens, Polka gains this very important level. Trust me when I say that Earth Heal is really good.



You can just barely see it, but there’s a chest off at the end of that little curl in the road. But before we can get that…



We need to take care of this situation.



♪♪~ Rapid Fire

*Panicked whinny*



This shall not stand!



You know, it’s a real pity those Earth Shakers spawned right next to each other.



A real pity for them, that is.



*He looks at his horse.*
Item Merchant: “I thought I’d give this fella a rest so I stopped my cart, but then those monsters showed up and caught me by surprise. I’m so glad my merchandise is okay. Oh, that’s right, I forgot to mention that I’m a merchant. I pack all my goods on my cart and sell my wares wherever I go.”



This is sadly not actually reflected in his prices, but it’s a nice thought I guess. =V



*whinny*

You’re welcome!



We can rest here for free if we want, and I think I’ll do that.



That sounds real nice, not gonna lie. But anyway, it’s time to do some shopping.



Not bad, considering we didn’t have any photos above C-rank! That last photo hurts to look at, though. 1 Gold? Ouch.



I consider buying this new umbrella for Polka, but I decide not to for now. I do take the opportunity to stock up on some items, though.



I also buy some Fancy Clothes for Polka and Beat, as well as the Coachman’s Coat for Frederic, which is a substantial DEF boost over what he’s currently wearing. The increase in Tactical Time from the Clothes is a nice bonus, as well.



Newly prepared for the road ahead, we’ll head over to that chest we saw earlier before setting off once more.



Oh hey, there’s a man at the top of this hill. Let’s see what he has to say.

“You climbed that hill in this weather? I’m dripping with sweat. Phew. Oh! That’s goat’s milk, isn’t it? Do you think I could have some?”
*Handed over Goat’s Milk*
“Ah, that was refreshing. Thank you very much. This is something I bought in Count Waltz’s town. I’ll give it to you in exchange.”



“So, where are you all headed? I’m on my way to Ritardando.”
“Leaving so soon? Well, take care. I’m gonna rest my feet here a little longer.”

Thanks for the piggy bank! I don’t think we can fit all the money we’re carrying inside of it, but maybe someone else in Forte will have a use for it.



Almost there! Just a little bit farther.



I really like the different camera angles you get in this section of the game; they show off the surrounding countryside quite well.



I’ll take that, thanks.

This is the last section of Hanon Hills; it’s also the shortest, which is nice.



At this point there’s not much separating us from Forte besides a winding path and a few more enemies. Speaking of which, this is a good time to look at Earth Heal before we leave this place.



♪♪~ Leap the Precipice

Earth Heal is a powerful healing special; those numbers you see haven’t been boosted with Echoes at all. If you do save up your Echoes it’s practically a guaranteed full-party heal. But there’s a catch: Earth Heal with heal everyone in range except Polka. For that reason you should still keep some backup healing in your Item Set, since Orange Glow is starting to fall off in usefulness.



♪♪~ Breeze the Conductor

Forte is just around this bend.



Before we get there, though, we should pick up this very interesting item. Hell Mustard is a battle-only item that costs 2 points to put into the Item Set, and temporarily puts the user into Burst status. Burst is sort of a buff and a debuff at the same time; it doubles the affected character’s ATK while also cutting their DEF in half. This, in effect, turns a given character into a glass cannon for a few turns, letting them chew through tougher enemies while becoming much easier to KO. I don’t tend to make use of Burst very often, but I’ll hold onto this anyway in case I decide to try it out against a tough boss.



The last enemy between here and Forte decided to give me a piece of its mind before I leave the Hanon Hills entirely. As you can see here, Flutter kinda hurts!



But enough about that, we’re finally here!



Click to watch the cutscene

♪♪~ Trembling Homefront





Finally, we’ve arrived at last. Feels like it took weeks to get here. =V



Polka: “Yes, you’re right. All of today’s public audiences with the Count must be over by now.”
Allegretto: “Huh. Guess we’ll have to give up on it for today.”



Good idea. But before we do that, I don’t think it would hurt to look around first.



It’s worth noting that entering Forte City for the first time is the point of no return for Chapter 2. If you missed a step in the trading quest or forgot to pick up some items along the way, be sure to take care of that before you arrive here (and yes, you can backtrack all the way to Ritardando if you want, although I don’t think you can go to Tenuto Village if memory serves).



“He thought I’d never be able to finish them all. Made me so mad! I wouldn’t let him beat me though. I gave it my all and finished everything in one day. That’ll show him! Ha! I feel great!”
“Now it’s time for a well-deserved break!”

I hope for your sake your boss wasn’t just manipulating you into doing more work…



“What do you think I should do about it? Do you think I need to work out?”
“Should I start jogging? Maybe squats would help.”

Sorry dude but you’re asking the wrong guy; I don’t exercise as much as I should, personally.



Allegretto: “Yikes! Better mind our manners in this town.”

Wow that doesn’t send a great message at all. Maybe you should look into changing that particular rule, Forte City, just sayin’.



“’Are you prepared to back up that statement? You’d better be serious when you tell a lady you’re gonna make her the happiest woman in the world!’ After that, he looked sort of ill and took off running.”
“You can’t say that kind of thing unless you mean it.”

True enough, I suppose.



“No way, you’re kidding! My Darling will be home any minute! I’ve got to go and get dinner ready!”



That is totally okay. Some people just don’t want that kind of relationship.



“The scoundrels! They use the cover of darkness to hide their fiendish deeds.”
“We can’t let things like that disrupt the lives of the people. This is when we guards are put to the test.”
“Hmm. That guy looks shady.”

How do you even see out of that helmet? Looks like you’ve got kind of an Exdeath situation going on.



Allegretto: “Gross! I got something slimy on my hand!”

I don’t mean to be rude but that’s kind of 100% your fault, dude.



Er, sorry to bother you. We’ll see ourselves out.



“I’m also taking it more than I should. No matter how good it is, I guess I shouldn’t over do it.”
“I’ve already gone through five bottles of medicine today.”

Yikes! Trust us, you should really stop taking that mineral powder, as soon as possible.



“As I recall, it was a young boy and his sickly mother living on their own. Then one day, they just weren’t there anymore. Where could they have gone?”
“He was such a good son, that boy. He took care of everything for his poor mother. Did the cooking, and everything else, too. But then the two of them just up and vanished. I wonder whatever happened to them?”

I hope they just moved out of town and it wasn’t anything worse than that…



A tavern, you say? We’ll check this out a little later.



Guess we can’t shop for the time being. Maybe we’ll do that after we’ve spent the night at an inn.

Always watch where you’re going, kids.



Let’s check this out real quick.



Darling’s Brother: “Hold on one second. I’ll just move that one there….”
Darling: “When I finish this bit, we’ll be all done for the day.”



Alright, guess we can’t look around this area right now. Back to town.



I was about to describe this tavern as “cozy”, but I realized that I’ve been using that word a lot already throughout this thread. Do that much more and I’d have to keep track of a separate counter!



Heartbroken Man: “No, no, it’s not that she turned me down. More than anything, I want her to be happy, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen. It’s just that something she said suddenly made this huge wave of doubt come crashing down on me. I felt so pathetic when I realized I’d ended up coming here. I can’t forgive myself for running away.”
“It’s just no use. Who would ever want a pathetic guy like me?”

Sounds like a rough situation. Try not to drown your sorrows too much, man.



Tipsy Old Man: “It’s my dream to fly like a bird some day. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make it happen for eighty years now.”

That’s an impressive work ethic if nothing else.



Proprietress: “This man is really depressed about something. I wonder what happened.”
“You really shouldn’t drink when your spirits are low.”

I mean, I don’t see you refusing him a drink… anyway, let’s head upstairs.



Hey, a piano! We’ll mess with that in a bit.



Uh, right. Sorry. We’ll be taking our leave now.



Somebody’s had a bit too much to drink.



“That’s right. I can tell that everything’s looking up for you.”



“Why won’t they give me a chance?”



“There’s just nothing finer! Beer is the greatest. It’s no exaggeration to say I live for my first taste of beer every day.”

Can’t say I share the same enthusiasm for alcohol, but you do you.



“A lot of mining goes on at Mt. Rock. And I’ve heard they’re mining what I think are called ‘mineral stones’ on the Forte side, too.”
“Not long ago one of the men working at the mine told me that the excavation work is pretty brutal.”
“That reminds me, the miners staged a rebellion some time back. It was stamped out pretty quickly by the army though. What was the name of the leader of the miners? Hmm. No, I’ve forgotten what it was. I’m bound to remember sooner or later. Come back and ask me again sometime.”

Some interesting backstory on the actual mining of mineral powder here. I wonder who staged the rebellion? Maybe we’ll find out later.



So this is cool – there are a couple places in the game where you can listen to a Chopin piece that isn’t part of one of the chapter-specific history lessons. I wish there were more of them, but the fact that they exist at all is pretty rad.



♪♪~ Mazurka in B Minor, Op. 33 No. 4 (recommended listening)

Once you press X to confirm, the piece will play start to finish, provided you don’t press anything else (which will stop the piece) until it’s done. You don’t get anything afterwards, it’s just a cool thing you can do if you want. You can listen to it as many times as you want, but once is enough I think.



♪♪~ Trembling Homefront

We might not be able to see Count Waltz today, but we can at least poke around the castle courtyard a little.



Polka: “Are you all right?!”
“M-my chest….”
Polka: “Your chest hurts? I’ll use my magic to--”



Allegretto: “Hey!”
Polka: “It’s okay, Allegretto. I’m used to it. Let’s just go.”
*She walks off.*



Don’t say we didn’t try to help, jerkwad.



“Why’s it so hard to save money? Just when you think you’re almost there, it disappears right away. Why is that? My dad said I’d find happiness if I could save up my money.
*Handed over Piggy Bank*
“What? You’re giving this to me? Yay! Thanks a lot! If I put my money in here right away, it won’t go anywhere. These shoes are too big for me, so I’ll give them to you.”



“I’m saving up happiness bit by bit in this piggy bank.”

Heck yes! The Speed Shoes are one of the best accessories in the game; they increase the wearer’s movement speed in battle. I like to put them on Viola so she can get into prime archery position faster, but they’re good on any character. This isn’t the end of the trading quest like you might think it would be, so we’ll have to give these up at some point, but we’ll get another pair down the line to replace them so it’s no big deal.



Allegretto: “Nah, it’s not worth it.”

I actually agree; we need every bit of Gold we can get our hands on!



Gentlemanly Pop: “Surely this is some kind of sign! Won’t you play a session with my score piece?”

Click here to watch the Score Piece tutorial

At last we can get into one of the game’s meatier sidequests. The game gives a good explanation of how it works; I’ll explain it here, but you can also watch it in the link above if you want.



Score Pieces are essentially small fragments of music you find all throughout the game; you can bring these fragments to certain NPC’s to perform them together. Pop’s Score Piece is at the top, while our collection is at the bottom.



The idea is to try and match your Score Piece with the other person’s, and if they’re a close match musically, you’re rewarded with items.



There are four ranks you can earn for a given session, depending on how well the two Score Pieces match: F, B, A, and S. An F-rank is a total failure and doesn’t get you anything; B-ranks generally get you healing items, while A-ranks grant you a unique item you can’t get anywhere else. S-ranks are special cases for unusual combinations of Score Pieces that match in surprising ways; these get you unique items as well, including pieces of equipment in a few cases.

In this case, playing our Score Piece #1 with Pop’s gets us a B-rank, which gives us…



Not bad, but we can do better.

Gentlemanly Pop: “Oh, you again? Want to play a session? Think you’ll do better this time?”



As a matter of fact, I do. Thanks to our second Score Piece, we get an A-rank.



This is also where the EZI sidequest starts in earnest. Throughout the game we’ll come across these unique EZI items, mostly through playing Score Pieces with the right people, although there are one or two exceptions. They’re all joke items; some of them are mildly beneficial, some have strange effects not found anywhere else, and a few are outright harmful. The number 321 tends to appear where these items are concerned, for some reason.



In the EZI Cracker’s case, it costs 20 points to put into the Item Set, and heals the user for all of 1 HP (although the game doesn’t tell you this). Collecting every EZI item would give you an achievement in the Xbox 360 version of the game, but the PS3 port doesn’t have trophies for whatever reason. There is, however, one EZI item exclusive to this version of the game that does something very special indeed. We’ll look into that much, much later; in the meantime we’ll keep an eye out for more EZI items.



“You don’t think I’d let you into Count Waltz’s castle, do you? Now scram!”
“Go away!”

Alright alright, we get it. I’d like to see you try and stop us tomorrow, though!



Yeah, about that… uh, let’s just say you don’t have to worry about it anymore.



Alright, this is the only building in town we haven’t looked at yet; this has gotta be an inn.



Click to watch the cutscene

♪♪~ No music



For ease of transcription, this girl’s name is Koto.

Koto: “If he gets caught goofing off again, he’s gonna be in big trouble!”
Allegretto: “Hey, what’s the matter?”
Koto: “Oh, did you want to stay the night? My friend Phil is supposed to be watching the front desk right now, but I can’t find him anywhere. Knowing him, he’s probably run off to play somewhere in the city.”



♪♪~ DANTOTSU! (the all-caps are important, you see)

Koto: “He’s practically risking his life by wandering off like this.”
Allegretto: “Aren’t you overreacting? Being punished is just a part of learning how to behave.”
Koto: “It’s not that simple. You don’t know what Phil’s mom is like! It’ll be terrible if she finds out.”



Clearly Beat is the only one who understands the gravity of the situation.



Allegretto: “Huh? Why us?”
Koto: “Don’t you feel sorry for poor Phil? Please go find him. You’ll be saving his life! Literally!”



Okay then, I guess we’re stuck finding this kid since no one else is at the front desk right now. Commence Operation: Find The Missing Kid!



♪♪~ Trembling Homefront

Koto: “That Phil! I wonder where he’s gotten to.”

That’s a great question… Anyway, before we go look for Phil, there’s a couple things we can look at while we’re in the inn.





Right, that’s everything here. Let’s go ask around about Phil outside.



“After that? The man chased him away when he woke up.”
“He knows his mother would scold him for playing pranks, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s hiding out somewhere.”

We have a lead now, albeit a small one; if we can find the guy who Phil drew on he might be able to point us in the right direction.



That must be a pain to scrub off the helmet.



“What’s that? You want to know if I’ve seen him? Hmm, can’t really say without a better description of him.”
“I haven’t really been paying attention so I don’t know. Sorry.”



Darling: “I don’t think he came near the cliffs.”



I guess we can cross that off the list, at least.

Allegretto: “’One meal per person, per day! More than that, and the Iron Mask will cry.’ The Iron Mask is a wimp.”

Missed this my first time in here. The search continues!



Shopkeeper: “I told you before, I’m not giving you a cent!”
Moocher: “It won’t be pretty if I turn into a wolf! I might go nuts and trash this whole town!”
Shopkeeper: “Go right ahead! I need money more than I need this town anyway!”
Moocher: Whoa, how heartless! You’re terrible, you hypocrite!”
Shopkeeper: “Hmph, call me whatever you want!”
Moocher: “Drat! Huh?”



Aw man, and we just found some at the inn. Fine, if it’ll get you to leave the shopkeeper alone.

Moocher: “Huh? Really? This is my lucky day! I guess it doesn’t hurt to ask. All right! I’m going to the tavern with this money! I can drink tonight, baby!”
*He walks off.*



Well, we can buy stuff now, but that doesn’t help us find Phil. Let’s check the tavern.



Proprietress: “Phil played a prank on him and he was very upset. I’ll bet he knows something.”

Another lead! Back outside, then.



Tipsy Old Man: “Buurrp! Ph… il?”
“Oh! I remember now! That’s the little brat who drew all over my face! He ruined my beauty sleep. But I have a black belt in judo! Just as he was painting on the finishing touches, my sixth sense tingled, and I opened my eyes! He must have been frightened by my fierce gaze. He took off so fast, he forgot his brush.”
“Huh? Phil? Oh, right. I took off after him, thinking I’d teach him a lesson. But he’s a fast one, I’ll give him that.”



Tipsy Old Man: “I wouldn’t think he’d go out to the cliffs though. Why don’t you ask one of the guys building the fence out there?”

Oh man, this is bad; there’s a chance Phil could have fallen off the cliffs, and we don’t know how far down they go. I have a bad feeling about this…

Next time: Investigating the cliffs near Forte.

Glossary of Musical Terms

Mazurka – A Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually in a lively tempo, with strong accents placed on the second or third beat of a given bar. It became popular in ballrooms throughout Europe in the 19th century, partially due to Chopin himself, who wrote at least 59 of them between 1825 and his death in 1849, although his mazurkas differ from the traditional dance in some ways.

Maestro – An honorific title of respect, most commonly used in addressing or referring to conductors, but can also refer to other respected musical figures. Also used in Italian opera to refer to specific musicians who have important positions within the production.

Popular/Pop music – Apparently these two terms are not interchangeable! You learn something every day. Anyway, they both refer to music that is uh, popular with general audiences and is the stuff you tend to hear on the radio, although the latter term is a subset of the former.

Koto – A Japanese stringed instrument. Has 13 strings that are strung over an equal number of movable bridges; you change the pitch of the strings by adjusting the bridges before playing. You play a koto by plucking the strings with three fingerpicks worn on the thumb, index, and middle fingers. There’s a cool fight scene in Kung Fu Hustle involving a koto if you want to look it up (slight nsfw warning if you do though).

I’m also pretty sure that Phil is a sneaky reference to “philharmonic”, which is just another name for an orchestra.

The next update should be ready to go in a couple days. In the meantime, here's some more music:

Chopin: Four Mazurkas, Op. 33

This is the full set of mazurkas that the piece in the previous update comes from. Chopin regularly published sets of three or four (or in one case, five) throughout his life, and as far as I know wrote and published more mazurkas than any other classical composer I can think of.

Maria Szymanowska - Caprice sur la romance de Joconde

Maria Szymanowska was a Polish composer from the early Romantic Era, who has the distinction of being one of the first professional virtuoso pianists in 19th-century Europe; she was also one of the first pianists to perform memorized repertoire in public concerts, beating out people like Liszt and Clara Schumann by at least a full decade. Before Chopin came along, Szymanowska had published the largest collection of mazurkas to date, with a book of 24 such works (all of them less than a minute long, hence my linking the Caprice instead).

A capriccio, or caprice, is a piece of music free of any standard form and lively of character; it's essentially a loose framework to let the composer do what they want without getting yelled at by the musical establishment for not following genre conventions.

Hello and welcome back to Eternal Sonata! Last time the party finally arrived in Forte and found a place to stay the night, only to be stopped because nobody is actually running the front desk. We need to find a kid named Phil who’s went missing, so let’s get to it.



♪♪~ Trembling Homefront

But before we do that, let’s go shopping first. I buy this sword and the Full Plate for Allegretto (the first set of Heavy armor we’ve come across), the Wolf’s Fang for Beat, and the Pair Jacket for Viola (which reduces the wearer’s chance of getting poisoned).



Much obliged.



Click to watch the (very short) cutscene

♪♪~ No music



*He picks it up.*



*The party looks out over the cliff.*



It sure looks that way… We’ll have to make our way down to find him.



Thankfully there’s a convenient rope right by where we were standing.



♪♪~ The Posture You Do Not Despise





Assuming that Phil didn’t just climb down the ropes here…



Then he’s fallen a long way down. We’ll just have to hope he’s okay as we traverse the cliffs.



Our main method of vertical traversal is these ropes tethered to the cliffs; we’ll have to climb down a bunch of them to reach the bottom.



On the plus side, we’ll be treated to some lovely sights on the way down. For what’s essentially a filler area, the developers really went all out on the visuals for the Glissando Cliffs; the plantlife that’s growing everywhere is just gorgeous.



Huh, there isn’t a rope leading downward here. How are we supposed to keep going?



Why, by jumping off the nearby ledge, of course! We’ll be doing this a bunch, too.



The items here will often require us to climb a rope to reach otherwise inaccessible platforms. Not too big a deal.



After hopping back down to where we were, we press onward, or downward as it were...



Around this tree…



And over to the first enemy of the area. Let’s go say hi.



♪♪~ Leap the Precipice

The battlefield for Glissando Cliffs is mostly in light, save for a thin strip of darkness at the top and a small patch being cast by that rock. It’s also much smaller than the past couple battlefields we’ve had to fight on, making it easier for both sides of the battle to close in on each other.



Sweet Whispers are the main enemy here, and they’re actually weaker than the Dark Bats we encountered on the Chorus Plains (which is good because those were a pain to deal with), but to compensate they have a couple different status-effect attacks. I manage to block them all here – it’s worth noting that blocking a status attack guarantees protection from its effects – so I’ll show them off later.



Their basic attack is the same as the Dark Bat’s, so no worries there.



Moving on from there, we’ll hop down a couple ledges…



And meet this man just kinda chillin’ here.

Wiseman Maracas: “Wait, what’s this? Those eyes are filled with doubt. This will never do, the youth of today are so jaded. You’ve got to be more open-minded. Here, let’s rehabilitate your heart by playing a session.”



Unfortunately, neither of our Score Pieces are a match for his; we’ll have to come back later once we’ve found some more.



Wiseman Maracas: “It’s going to take quite some time to rehabilitate your heart.”

Yeah yeah, we know. Let’s just get going, we have a child to find.

Just a quick hop down to the next enemy.



♪♪~ Leap the Precipice

Unfortunately I flub the guard input here and get hit with a new status effect called Darkness Body.



Like the name implies, Darkness Body causes the affected character to project an aura of darkness around them, and it also prevents them from using light specials; any character standing in the aura will also only use dark specials. It’ll wear off after a few turns, or you can just win the fight, since all status effects are removed at the end of a battle.



Sweet Whispers transform into Caravan Crabs in the dark; they have much higher defenses in this form, and access to a different set of attacks. Poisonous is the one they use the most, and does what you think. For situations like this, you can either move the character with Darkness Body away from the enemies, causing them to revert back to Sweet Whispers, or you can spam specials on them (or snipe them from a distance with Viola).



♪♪~ The Posture You Do Not Despise

Now that that’s out of the way, we can move on.



The area transitions in the Glissando Cliffs are kind of abrupt; not a complaint, just an observation.



Anyway, let’s keep pressing onward. The path forward is off to the left, but we want to climb down the next rope first.



I love that this item is called Hell Mustard. It’s just so extra.



Back to the main path and straight into another enemy; encounters here are often positioned in such a way that you can’t really avoid them without some very careful maneuvering.



It’s a good thing Viola blocked that, otherwise we’d get hit with another status that I’ll go over later. It’s doubly important to block because Supersonic can hit other characters nearby if they’re close enough.



As for the Sweet Whisper’s other attacks, Night Flutter hits characters in a line (you can see Beat taking damage even though the numbers haven’t popped up yet), and Side Dive is a mildly-damaging single-target move that always manages to fake me out and guard too early.



After that fight, we need to slide down this rope behind the rock outcropping. This area has you going behind scenery a fair few times, actually; it’s pretty neat.



From here we’ll head left; both the ledge and the rope eventually meet up at the same place, but the ledge has an item waiting for us at the end of that path.



The Silver Necklace is a very slight upgrade over the Copper Necklace, increasing the wearer’s DEF by 3 instead of 2.



That obtained, we’ll hop down the ledge and climb down this rope.



At the bottom is a small tunnel that wraps around to the next rope.



”Hey that would make a pretty good desktop background” count: 11



Moving on, we’ll climb down this rope…



Hop across these ledges…



And be saddened that we can’t quite reach this chest. It’s actually kind of tricky to get to, but we’ll reach it soon enough.



For now we’ll climb down the nearby rope and move to the right.



There’s a save point to the right, but first we should stop here and examine our surroundings. This rope always trips me up; it’s long enough that at first I think I have to climb back up here from the next area, but that’s not the case.



Instead we just hop down the ledge that’s hiding in plain sight and climb up from there.



Don’t mind if I do!



From here we can jump off this nearby ledge to get back to the save point…

And then climb down the rope to reach the next area of the cliffs. We should hop down the ledge to the left before proceeding to the right.



From there we’ll go through a tunnel going through the cliffside and come out to get our second pair of Speed Shoes.



Now to get back on track, albeit very briefly.



We could climb down that rope, but instead we’ll head to the right, since the two paths eventually meet up.



Doing so lets us hop down the ledge to this free Floral Powder.



Now we’ll hop down a couple more ledges…



And head to the left to reach where the rope would have taken us.



Then it’s across another ledge, and through another tunnel after we beat up this giant bat.



♪♪~ Leap the Precipice

I actually forgot that Sweet Whispers had a heal move, but it’s not much to worry about at this point.



Much more worrisome is getting hit by Supersonic, since it inflicts the Slow status on characters. Slow reduces your movement speed to a crawl, which makes positioning your character or moving them much at all very difficult. Thankfully it doesn’t reduce your actual SPD stat, so you don’t have to worry about getting turns less often.



♪♪~ The Posture You Do Not Despise

This rope doesn’t lead to any items, but you can hop down to that platform from a ledge, which will get you down here faster. Handy if you missed an item and need to come back to the Glissando Cliffs for it.



Since we haven’t missed anything, we can keep going.



It’s ropes all the way down, y’all.



One last attack to show off; like its name implies, Pierce can go through multiple targets if unblocked, but it’s not too hard to guard against.



Before we climb down the rope we saw earlier, we’ll hop across these ledges.



Doing so lets us walk around this large tree to reach a new accessory; the Spirit Arrowhead raises its wearer’s ATK by 3 points.



Onwards and downwards.



This is the last area before reaching the bottom of the cliffs; starting to worry if Phil’s okay…



Oh cool, there’s a water basin down here. Neat!



Anyway, moving on.



Down some stairs lies another tunnel to pass through.



This leads to some ledges to hop across…



Which leads to another tunnel.



There’s another rope to climb down nearby, but before that we’ll snag this new robe for Viola.



Yeah, no kidding.

Right, back to the tunnel entrance and down the rope. We’re almost at the bottom...



Made it! Now to find Phil; he should be around here somewhere, and with any luck he’ll be okay.



Click here to watch the next two cutscenes

♪♪~ No music



*Quick fade to black*



Allegretto: “Are you sure you’re really okay? I mean, you fell down from pretty high up there kid.”
*There’s a quick aerial shot to illustrate the point; Phil gives himself a once-over in response.*
Allegretto: “Anyway, shouldn’t you be getting back home soon?”
Phil: “Oh no! You’re right! I really have to get going!”



*Phil runs off as the scene ends.*



♪♪~ Trembling Homefront

Thankfully we’re deposited back at the top of the cliff in Forte. Glad we don’t have to climb back up here manually!



Positively picturesque, even.



Before we head back to the inn, I sell off the photos I took on the cliffs first. Not a bad haul.



I also finally buy the Bat Umbrella for Polka, since her MAG stat is still higher than her ATK after equipping it. Now, back to the inn!



Phil: “Koto told me you guys are looking for a place to stay for the night.”



*Rest jingle*



Glad all that’s over with; now we can go see Count Waltz. But before we do that, let’s see if the NPC’s have anything new to say.



Phil’s Father: “I want to say a man should be the king of his castle, but my wife wears the pants around here. It’s well known around here that I’m just a henpecked husband.”
“Sigh~”

I mean you don’t seem too upset about it, so why complain?



Phil’s Mother: “Take care! Please come again!”

We appreciate the hospitality, ma’am.



“Light weapons are great against dark monsters, but weak against light monsters. And dark weapons are great against light monsters, but weak against dark monsters. Basically they’re great against the opposite element and weak against the same one.”

This is sound advice, but unfortunately there isn’t a way to tell at a glance if a particular monster is light or dark-elemental. Luckily most monsters are neutral, and I’m not sure there are many monsters outside ones that transform who fall into in one category or the other. I’m pretty sure bosses are all neutral as well, so overall you don’t have to worry about it too much.



“No matter how much others might help out, in the end, the housework gets left to the women.”
“When I look at my friends, married life doesn’t look very easy. Yeah, I think I’m better off on my own.”
“To be honest, there are times when I get lonely. And I think it would be nice to find Mr. Right.”

Not sure how to respond here, so I’ll just be on my way.



“What?! You think I should fast?! Does that mean I can only eat lunch three times a day?!”
“I could never fast! Are you trying to starve me to death?!”

Geez, not cool, game.



“Don’t get in our way.”

Fine by me…



“I know mineral powder is supposed to be good for you, but I couldn’t help being leary.”
“But I wanted to get rid of the headache quickly, so I took some mineral powder. It’s amazing. I was back on my feet in no time.”

Trust us, you should really listen to your original instincts and not take anymore.



Still can’t leave, unfortunately. We gotta talk to Count Waltz first!



Phil: “Hey, if you need a room for the night, stay at my family’s place. I’ll make sure you get a good price!”

Thanks, Phil! We’d appreciate it.



Tipsy Old Man: “Hic! Huh, I’m all on my lonesome?”
“Where’d those young folks go who were drinking with me?”

The tavern’s pretty empty at this hour; the only other person who’s here at the moment is the proprietress.



Proprietress: “Well, for coming in so early, I’ll give ya a little something on the house! Or rather, I’d like to, but unfortunately I don’t have anything here you kids could drink.”
“Why don’t you all come back when you’re a little bigger. It’ll be on me.”

Eh, maybe; not a particularly big fan of alcohol, myself.



This item wasn’t here last night, but it is now, and we should pick it up before seeing the Count.

This is one of a few accessories in the game that are unique to a certain character; in this case, the Lead Slug gives Beat a minor ATK boost. Helpful!



Koto: “And he never finishes anything, so I’m always cleaning up after him. It gets really annoying.”
“Without me, he’d be a hopeless wreck.”

Yeah it kinda seems that way from the sound of things…



Darling: “This sandwich may look a bit lifeless, but it’s chock-full of my Honey’s love. And we’re going to be together forever. Her cooking is only going to get better with age; like fine wine! I get a thrill just thinking about all the goodies I have to look forward to.”
“I’m always telling my brother he’s got to toughen up. That guy’s got no motivation!”
“I guess the important thing is having someone to take care of.”

I suppose; depends on one’s perspective.



Darling’s Brother: “I had no idea marriage could change a guy so much.”

Before we head back to town...



♪♪~ The Posture You Do Not Despise

I’m going to revisit the Glissando Cliffs for a bit. See, there’s an item here now that wasn’t there before and I want to go get it.



This does unfortunately mean that we’ll have to climb all the way down again (and then all the way back up on our way out), but since we’ve already gotten all the items here we’ll get there much faster this time.



♪♪~ Leap the Precipice

Do note that the battlefield is different now; the shadow cast by the cliff wall is much larger now that it’s daytime, so you’re more likely to have to fight Caravan Crabs if you get into any encounters. I’ll be avoiding/running away from them all, since we don’t need the Exp at the moment.



Anyway, way down at the bottom there’s this.

Allegretto: “’Congratulations on getting all the way here! You’ve completely wasted your time. Now, now. Don’t cry. Here, I’ll give you this.’”



This is a very good item, so it’s not entirely pointless to come down here again. The Star Clock completely refills the Action Gauge of the character who uses it, and only costs 1 point to put into the Item Set. It can be tricky to take advantage of, though; you always need at least two seconds on the Action Gauge to use an item, otherwise you won’t be able to. Star Clocks are pretty rare to come by, and you can’t ever buy them in shops, so it’s best to save them for tough fights.

That’s that taken care of; time to climb back up to Forte offscreen.



♪♪~ Trembling Homefront

“How does mineral powder taste? What does that matter? Why don’t you try it yourself?”

Uh, no thanks.



“But Koto has got him under her thumb. Ha ha!”



Honey: “But he tells me everything I make tastes good, so I’ve started to enjoy cooking. And now I’m pretty good at it.”
“Well, I’m going to get started on the cleaning and laundry while my Darling’s at work. And then I’ve got to get everything ready to make dinner.”

That’s everybody in town proper. To the palace courtyard!



You can still perform a session with Gentlemanly Pop if you need to, but we’re good.



Indeed. Before we go in, I’m just going to mess around with my party composition and Item Set a little bit. Just have a feeling is all.



Click here to watch the cutscene (recommended viewing)

♪♪~ No music



Whoa, that is a sweet mohawk/mustache/eyepatch combo. Not to mention the collar! Wonder what he’s talking about, though?



Polka: “You’re right, he does. Let’s go ask him if he can get us an audience with Count Waltz.”
*As they’re talking, Beat tries to get a view of the man from behind the rest of the group.*
Eyepatch: “Hold it. We already know all about your plan.”



Frederic: “Now just hold on. Something doesn’t appear to be quite right with this situation.”
*Beat walks over to the man.*



Yeah, I’m not sure what your deal is, but--



♪♪~ Pressure

What the hell?! Did you just backhand a child?!



What he said!



Boss fight time! (recommended viewing)

♪♪~ A Flicker Which Divides Light and Darkness



Boss: Tuba
HP: 132, 530
Exp: 7,500 (Xbox 360)/5,500 (PS3)
Gold: 0
Holy crap that’s a big mace he’s carrying: And it hurts an awful lot, as I’m sure you can guess.



Tuba: “Just stand still and give up already!”



Allegretto: “I’m ready for you! Bring it on!”

Tuba is a pretty significant difficulty spike compared to previous bosses we’ve fought; if you get caught by surprise he can and will turn your party into mincemeat with that mace of his. That cutscene earlier wasn’t just for show, either – if you have Beat in your active party he’ll be forcibly removed from it and replaced with the character in the first reserve slot.

The battlefield for this fight is pretty small and mostly in light, save for the two shadows cast by some nearby pillars cutting through the center and top right. Tuba himself has a pretty slow movement speed – he’s about as slow as a character inflicted by the Slow status, actually – but it doesn’t hinder him too much thanks to this attack:



Gigantic Slam lets Tuba close the distance with his target if he’s close enough, and it sends out an AoE shockwave that hits anyone nearby. You want to block all his attacks as much as possible, because they all hurt.



My general plan here is to keep Tuba busy with Polka and Allegretto while Viola stays as far away as possible and snipes him with arrows. It’s a good idea to have at least one character with a group heal in your party; having both is pretty safe if you’re having a hard time with the fight.



Tuba: “This is gonna be fun. Ha!”

Tuba’s movement speed might make you think his actual SPD is pretty slow, but this is not the case! Occasionally he’ll get two turns in a row, which is really bad because he’s more likely to pull stunts like this.



Mega Mash is Tuba’s deadliest attack; it’s a three-hit combo, and the last strike can hit characters next to him. Unguarded (like it is here), it can easily take off two-thirds of a character’s HP in one go. It also carries a chance of knockback if unguarded.



Allegretto: “You’ll taste the naked blade of death!”

I’m playing it pretty risky here; I could have healed with either Polka or Viola but I wanted to build up to at least 24 Echoes to hammer Tuba. If I can hold out till either of their next turns I should be fine.



Tuba’s basic attack is an overhead swing followed by a forward swing, the latter of which can also hit characters behind him. It’s by far the least dangerous move in his arsenal.



Success! This plus a Floral Powder for Polka puts everyone back on their feet. Unfortunately I actually screwed up big time, because using Earth Heal made Polka turn to face Allegretto, leaving her open to attack from Tuba.



He of course takes advantage of this and uses Demonic Embrace on her; it’s a two-hit ranged attack that can hit a character from pretty much anywhere on this small battlefield. It also has a chance of knockdown, and poor Polka hits the ground.



Then just to be a bigger jerk Tuba immediately uses it again before Polka can get back up to guard in time, KO’ing her. I get her back on her feet shortly afterwards, but this just goes to show that this boss fight is not messing around.



See what I mean about distance? Viola’s almost on the complete opposite side of the arena and Tuba just does not care.



The good news about this fight is that as long as you keep up the pressure on Tuba, it’s a short one; either you do that or he just stomps you into the dirt.



Thankfully I’m a pretty good shot, and Viola deals the final blow!



♪♪~ Well-Done

Viola: “Not bad at all!”

Indeed! The lack of a Gold reward stings, but Polka gains a level, and Viola is very close to doing so as well.



Click here to watch the cutscene (recommended viewing)

♪♪~ Strategy



Allegretto: “C-cut it out!”



*Cue fade to black*



♪♪~ No music



Well, at least we’re all in the same cell. And Beat seems okay, thank goodness. But who’s--



Yeah, what she said.



Viola: “Old lady?! Why, you little….”
Beat: “Now, now. Don’t fight.”
*He raises his hands between them.*
Redhead: “Oh, what’s this? Just who do you think you are, you little runt? Can’t you see I’m busy talking to this old lady right now!”
Beat: “Huh? Runt?! Hey! I’m almost the exact same height as you!”
Viola: “You called me ‘old lady’ again! You’re gonna pay for that!”



*awkward silence*
Frederic: “Unfortunately, I must admit I’m rather at a loss as to what to do next.”
Allegretto: “No problem, that’s an easy one. We’ll just have to break out of here.”
Redhead: “Huh! It’s one crazy after another with you people. If it was that easy to get out, they wouldn’t call it a dungeon.”



Salsa: “Thanks a bunch! I just never feel quite myself if I don’t have this. So then, you people met March?”



*Allegretto whispers to Beat:*
Allegretto: “Huh. I’m guessing March has all the social skills in the family.”
Beat: “No kidding.”
*He giggles as Salsa puts on her hat.*
Salsa: “By the way, how the heck did you people know that I was Salsa anyway?”
Allegretto: “Well, all we had to do was take one look at ya….”



*She points at the cell bars.*
Salsa: “And a magician can make himself disappear. So you’re going to disappear and then reappear outside the cell walls, right?”
Beat: “Yeah, well, disappearing isn’t the only thing magicians can do, y’know. The same way they can break out of handcuffs, they can unlock things like cell doors.”
*He winks, and Salsa snaps her fingers in response.*

Salsa: “Hey, you may be a little runt, but at least you’re way smarter than that old lady over there.”
*Viola glares at her.*
Allegretto: “Hey. Thanks, Beat.”
*He hunches over the cell door and picks the lock.*



Success!



Allegretto: “Oh! Uh, well… you know, I am a magician after all!”
Beat: “I get it, Retto. You just don’t want Polka to know what it is you really do, right?”



*He giggles to himself.*
Viola: “I think we can all imagine what kinds of things you were up to in Ritardando. Don’t worry about it.”
*Short pause; Polka elects not to say anything.*
Frederic: “Tight as a clam. Is that so? Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a clam that had its shell completely closed.”



Salsa has a point; we should really get out of here now that we have the chance, which we will do next update.

Next time: The great Forte prison break and the end of Chapter 2!

(By the way, in the English voice track for this game, Salsa for some reason speaks with a Southern drawl. I’m not kidding, go watch the video if you don’t believe me.)

Glossary of Musical Terms

Glissando – A musical technique where you glide from one pitch to another; also has several different names (like slide or sweep), depending on the exact method used.

Maracas – Percussion instruments used in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. Played by holding the handle and shaking them; usually played in pairs.

Tuba – The lowest-pitched instrument in the brass family. Played by producing a buzz with one’s lips into the mouthpiece. A given orchestra will usually have only one tuba player, but concert bands, brass bands, and military bands will have anywhere from two to four players.

Whoever added the hell mustard tag, bless you, I needed the laugh. Anyway, here's some music to tide y'all over till the next update:

Chopin: Three Mazurkas, Op. 59

Franz Liszt - Grandes études de Paganini, No. 3 in G Sharp Minor ("La campanella")

Franz Liszt was a Hungarian composer and pianist who is widely considered one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of all time. He was wildly popular in his time and was friends with many famous composers of the Romantic Era, including Chopin (who dedicated his first book of études to Liszt), the Schumanns, Hector Berlioz, and Camille Saint-Sa�ns, among others. Liszt wrote a bunch of music in a wide variety of genres, but he's probably most famous for his piano études - which are among the most difficult in the entire repertoire - along with his piano transcriptions of other composers' music.

"La campanella" (Italian for "the little bell") is one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the piano. It takes its melody from the finale of Niccol� Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 2 in B Minor; Liszt was in fact inspired to become a virtuoso pianist after attending a Paganini concert. I've seen it performed live twice, and y'all it is wild watching someone actually play something like this.

To anyone who might be wondering why the thread has been quiet lately, rest assured I haven't given up on it! I've just decided to postpone further updates until after TT has migrated over to the new forums. Until then, thank you all for reading along so far; I greatly appreciate it.

A good plan.