downloaded earlier, amazing looking tales-ish graphics. definitely will pick up now.

Oh god, I would kill to have a Japanese Live account right now.

Yeah, I though the demo was great.

Beautiful visuals, charming music, interesting battle system. Good stuff. The end boss tore me to pieces though. But I only got to have one crack at him since I was on my lunch break. Round two, he'll be mine!

Oh, and did anyone figure out that music session thing? I'm not sure if I was doing it right or not.

I picked up as well after a tip from another blog, and I was pleasantly surprised by the English text and dialogue! I was totally expecting to fudge my way through it to get a general gist of the game, too. Overall, I'm enthused and looking forward to a release!

Awsome game.. This is a must have for me once it gets out.
IF it gets a europe release, if not i hope it will be region free.. :)

No need for a demo. To quote family guy, "Sir here is a blank check with my name on it, write whatever ammount you want and I will gladly pay it."

For those who want to know how to make a Japanese Account

http://www.gamersreports.com/article/19/

Microsoft's new region lockout plan applies only to stuff from the Video marketplace items it seems.

@nem:
you can hope for region-free but it won't...

sorry to burst your bubbles but i'm more of realist that way...

and my eyes were going overdrive with all the pallettes...

i can't wait to get full version of the game when it comes out in US in September...

finally a great JRPG for 360!!!

Omg Fahey is insane. Has to be, his colour commentary is just bloody atrocious that is perfect. "Orange Glow! Get your dishes clean!" Damn man. You should be kotaku's video guy from now on!

So, wait. Eternal Sonata has a demo on Live in Japan with full English text and voice acting?

Isn't it called Trusty Bell over there to begin with? Is it possible that this was a demo meant for NA Live users but got accidentally uploaded to the Japanese Live servers?

If not, I'm going to need to find out how to get me a Japanese Live account...

ORANGE SLASH.

Now, how do I go about making a japanese account again?

That was some damn good color commentary.

The game looks like it could be fun, but I'd want to play it first. I hope the demo shows up for US accounts.

But I still have to wonder what the hell this thing has to do with Chopin.

How to make a Japanese account:
http://www.gamersreports.com/article/19/

just finished it... i wish they kept the japanese voices, my god was that girl's voice annoying

any info if this game is actually Multiplatform? Been hearing stuff about a PS3 version

haha, you sshould do more movies, you're like Grannie hardcore.

I love the commentary, I play the same way.

time to set up a japanese account.

WTF Michael Fahey, did you just say Buttsecks?! I swear I heard the words Butt and Secks somewhere in that video, and I'm disturbed.

@Hitokiri151: If it is then the 360 version will probably be better, judging from other releases.

@Hitokiri151: any info if this game is actually Multiplatform?

Yes, it's Multiplatform.

It's ridiculous that it's only for Japan. Thank god MS didn't actually fix the region locking and I managed to download it for my European 360. I was quite suprised to see the ESRB logo and everything in English.

I liked the demo, though. Hopefully Europe gets the game too =/

I'm going to make myself a Japanese account when I get home, but considering M$ was cracking down on users doing this trick to do videos, I'm somewhat worried.

Will they ban me for doing this? I'm a paying Gold member, so I don't see why they would - but paranoia still ensues.

lol @ "I don't want to fight any more onions."

Sorry but that looks like crap!!!

I just finished the demo, but I couldn't figure out how to switch the language in the demo to English. I searched the menus but couldn't find an option... how'd you do it??

Oh, Onion butt sex. Lol!

I thought MS had stopped people having multiple regioned Live accounts with the new update. You're saying they haven't?

My day has been made. I've been looking forward to this :D

@Kuraudo: Only on video downloads.

This and Blue Dragon, they might actually make me want to buy an Xbox 360. IF they ever release them in Europe...

Sweet, I love MS for not disabling my Japanese account.

Looks cool, hopefully won't be bad.

@NeoNess: Thanks for the link NeoNess! i'm downloading it atm. ^_^

Orange Glow makes me thirsty. Thirsty for JRPG.

Nice color commentary, you talk as much as I do. Congratulations.

Hmm, I wonder just how 'multi-platform' this is? Most of the other multi-platform games are rather equal at this point, but some that are more ports seem to be superior on the Xbox360. Have both 360 and PS3 so I really wanna know if one is better. Eh, might go with PS3 just cause it doesn't break as often...

The demo is in english if you play it using an english account. You only need the japanese account to download it. Switch afterwards.

I played this morning and loved it. The town I didn't like so much, but the combat I'm completely in love with. The dark/light system, and equiping the strategically different special moves makes me think this game is going to be very worthwhile in the long run.

I'm definitely picking it up.

Ugh, no Japanese account, I want to PLAY THIS~!

Okay, patience Wolven, if it's in english N-America will get it soon enough.

You should make more videos of yourself playing games. Hillarious!

@WolvenOne: It only takes five minutes to set one up. Patience be damned.

Ok, here is what it seems to be as far as english is concerned on this demo. I have it downloaded on my japanese account and it was in japanese, I played it on my US account and it was still in japanese. Seems its locked to the region of the console, so im guessing this vid was taken on a EU or US console.

Personally im gonna try downloading it on my US console later and try running it on my US live account from there.I hope its not IP based as well, but thats illogical and impractical if you ask me.(im in japan, which is why I say I hope it isnt.)

I finished the demo, I didn't really understand how to switch the special moves in combat but it was still a fun combat system. It's a bit like the tales series, which I love(TOS FTW).

The demo will be in Japanese if you start it up under your Japanese account. Sheesh.

Erm forgot this in my comment but is there other demos or XBLA games the japanese have and we don't?

@RuneX21:

Are you sure? On my japanese account, it was calling itself Trusty Bell, with japanese description and the like, but on my english account, it had Eternal Sonata, ESRB, english description, etcetera.

I changed my Xbox's Locale in the settings, to and from japanese back to english, but I don't think that affects it at all...

@Xelotath:

You change them in your party menu, out of battle, by selecting a character, and then their currently equiped special moves.

Between light and dark, you should see your special move change when you're in shadow and when you're not.

It's actual console version that decides it. If you have a JP console, it will play entirely in Japanese. If you have a US/EU console, it plays in English. They did a dual-region demo, which is pretty sweet. It's being released on JPXBLA because it's about to come out in that region. I suspect it will show up on the US XBLA closer to September.

LOL @ Fahey. Thanks for the hilarious commentary. I almost blew diet coke out of my nose.

Rocking the Westinghouse monitor eh? Very nice. that 42" or 32"? Great panel, using 42" as my main PC monitor and for 360.

Thanks for the video.

CAT ATTACK!!!! xD

does anyone know if the US version will include both Japanese and English dialogue?

i'm fan of Aya Hirano and want to hear Japanese dialogue with subtitle when I play US release...

Played this earlier. FRIGGIN AWESOME.

@icepick314

The guys over at IGN or 1UP(cant remember which one) sayd that it would have both japanese and english voices :)

@Heliophage:

yea, im sure. I use my US account from when I lived in the US(im a US citizen, still using that account)and its still in japanese, although the title changes to Eternal Sonata. The language was still coming up in japanese though. When I use my local japanese account(since im in japan) it is called trusty bell and also in japanese.

Should be noted that it locked up 3 times when trying to play on my US account before it actually worked.

Ill try again when I get home later. My hotmail account is set to japan as my region, so my US live account does register as being in japan. That might be the issue as well.

Fahey has much more bass in his voice than I would have thought....
Show us your Cat!!

I'm somewhat shocked that you didn't get the battle system from the first few battles.

The character's skills differ when they're in either shadow or sunlight. Our healer girl is only a healer in when she's in sunlight, in shadow she becomes a spellcaster.

Likewise, the onions change into either a tiny fast one (sunlight) or a humongous slow one (shadow).

-Izaak, Lord of the Lotus Clan.

@Xelotath:

Yes, there a few other demos that have appeared only on the Japanese marketplace. The one's I remember are Tenchu Seran (Tenchu Z), Zegapain (something or other?), and Love Football. The Armored Core 4 demo came out there first as well. They also have exlusive game trailers, themes, and gamer pics.

Thanks for the vid, I loled. This has jumped up my to-buy list a bit.

VERY Nicely done.Finally a damn good true next gen Japanese rpg.Not only are the graphics very well done but the colors are absolutely amazing. The English voiceover work is head and above better than the Japanese as well.I'll have a preorder in for this game as soon as Gamestop puts one up.

Did anyone else notice that you can set your characters to different controllers for some multiplayer fighting? Pretty neat little touch.