Eternal Sonata demo livens up Japanese PSN

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Eternal Sonata demo livens up Japanese PSN :: PlayStation Universe (PSU)

A demo of Namco Bandai's luminous JRPG Eternal Sonata has appeared on the Japanese PlayStation Network. Appeared, we say, like a scintillating videogaming butterfly wafting its way out of the digital moonlight.

Once you're done sobbing at the splendour of that last image, you might want to pull some account-related trickery and get downloading. The demo clocks in at a mere 622MB - but be wary, there's no English language support.

Originally developed by tri-Crescendo for Xbox 360, Eternal Sonata is set in a fictional world dreamed by the dying pianist Frederic Chopin. Wandering monsters are visible (and hence avoidable) and the battle system is a weird mix of turn-based and real-time systems: each character's turn has a time limit, and during that turn you can move and attack as you would in an action RPG.

The soundtrack features many remixed versions of Chopin's compositions, and there are plenty of plot references to his work and to music in general. PlayStation 3 owners can also look forward to additional playable characters and a new clothing system.

Eternal Sonata blew into Japanese stores on September 18, and will flutter over to North America on October 21.