Eternal Sonata is up right now while Stranglehold will be up on Wednesday. OXM gave Sonata an 8/10 and IGN put up it' s impressions of the stranglehold demo here IGN. Watch the throat shot video :)

8/10 only? i wished for a 9 ,at this rate it looks like there will be many disappointments this fall.

You actually consider 8/10 to be a failure?

for a rpg that many never belived in.

not a failure but not a REAL success either , for us 360 owners who con' t have many jrpg' s on our hand , it' s a loss, first blue dragon that many think it' s not that great, then this comes , what' s next lost odyssey ? of course i will play the game but you know i wanted a bit more, a 9 would have made my day, i' ll see the other websites and i hope in gamerankings it will reach at least 88%

I never expected anything from Eternal Sonata,but from infity discovery,but its been gone now for a long time...it damn well be shown at TGS.

OXM Scale:
11/10: Perfect - Mecha Godzilla' s Choice
--The Unicorn. Will never happen. Never.

10/10: Classic - Editor' s Choice
--One of those rare and very best of games. Every Xbox gamer must buy it and play it. Whether or not they are a fan of the genre.

9/10: Awesome Editor' s Choice
--Very impressive. One of the best games around. May have a few minor problems, but they are small and very tolerable.

8/10: Great
--A great game and an A-list title, but it either has niche appeal, suffers from minor technical or design issues or has periphreal problems like a crummy interface.

7/10: Good
--Has a lot of good things going for it, but there' s a big problem or two - somthing that limits its appeal or gets downright annoying. Could also be a game that aims low but hits surprisingly high.

6/10: Decent

5/10: Mediocre

4/10: Deficient

3/10: Wounded

0-2/10: Broken

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They enjoyed the game very much just found the gameplay itself is run of the mill or average, not at all bad tho.

" just found the gameplay itself is run of the mill (i don' t understand this expression) or average " and you think that' s good, the gameplay average , so what' s soo enjoyable about it, anyway thanks for posting their method of testing.

I don' t think anything of it. I don' t really like turn-based RPG' s tho from time to time I try to give them a go. Anyways I' m saying it' s good based of the entirety of the written review.

But this is only one review. So until we see the general consensus, it dont mean much at all.

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BTW the multiplayer in Stranglehold looks like utter chaos not really a bad thing just looks funny seeing everyone doing crazy jump dives and shit and sliding down rails.

I dont really pay much attention to scores, iv enjoyed games getting 6' s as much as games getting 9' s, its personal preference.

In a game like eternal sonata, as long as it isnt the story thats halting, then it doesnt really matter (unless its extremely glitchy) Since turnbased combat is a pain in the ass!

I dont really pay much attention to scores, I' ve enjoyed games getting 6' s as much as games getting 9' s, its personal preference.

I agree. Rating a game with a simple number is an insult to the artform. You would never walk into an art gallery and rate paintings with simple numbers, you' d look like a jackass. Videogames are too abstract and contain too many variables to be given a single quantitative measurment.

Like VX said, personal preference is more important than technical merit of a game. A videogame is more than the sum of it' s parts if it can be considered any good at all.

IMO games like Sonata along with turn based RPGs in general are by their nature outdated regardless of whatever technical merit they may have. They' re like side scrollers, they were designed for 2D games and the transition to 3D made them quite worthless when superior replacements came. I much rather play in realtime, where my reflexes and skill matter. Otherwise I' d fall asleep.

That in itself could greatly impact the score of the game. Some people still enjoy turn based RPGs (beyond my comprehension as to why). If you' re one of these people you' d probably enjoy Eternal Sonata more then most. Especially since there aren' t that many on the 360.