The most surprising news to come out today is Namco Bandai released an English demo of Trusty Bell: Chopin’s Dream (aka Eternal Sonata) on Xbox Live today… for Japan. Thankfully, cross region downloading hasn’t been blocked yet and you can make a Japanese Xbox Live Silver account to gain access to the demo. Don’t fret about language differences since the demo is entirely in English, including the voice acting. In the demo you get a chance to try out the battle system, which is sort of like Radiata Stories or Star Ocean. When it’s Allegretto’s turn the action gauge on the left hand side of the screen fills up. During this time you can run around, attack by pressing A and use a special attack by pressing Y. The meter depletes with each action, but it won’t start to drain until you make a move so if you want to stand plan your attack you can. Eternal Sonata also has an interesting special attack system that changes characters attacks if they are in light or shadow. When Allegretto is out in the sunlight he can use Sun Slash, a close up attack. If he is covered in the veil of a shadow Allgeretto uses Phantom Wave, a long range blast of energy. Like Allgretto, Beat has a long range attack special attack when he is hiding in the shadows and a close range special when he is out in the open. Past the break are screenshots from the demo version of Eternal Sonata.
