Frederic Chopin is one of music’s greatest composer’s and has had several video games based on him. Frederic: Resurrection of Music is no different.
My biggest knowledge of Chopin’s work comes from Eternal Sonata. Having played that game on both the PS3 and 360, I dare say I also quite enjoyed it. With this knowledge, I decided to give Frederic: Resurrection of Music a shot. It’s a rhythm game featuring remixes of Chopin’s work. Hey, a rhythm game makes sense at least!
The story involves Chopin being revived into the modern day and age. Of course, music has changed drastically since the 1800’s. After his initial horrible confusion, the story drops off the deep end. He has these mythical Greek muses who have a magical grand piano and carriage for him that he can carry around in a suit case. Okay, sure. He starts facing off against these music folks in an attempt to find out who revived him, leading to an around-the-world adventure.
The core gameplay is very much like Guitar Hero. You are shown a “piano” and have to hit the notes at the right time. The keys are bound to keys on your keyboard, though the game is also touch pad enabled. You aren’t really given any sort of tutorial on how to actually play, you’re sort of just thrown into the deep end. Peachy.
The difficulty balance seems a bit off as well. Normal punishes you pretty hard for missing notes, often leading to playing the song over and over until you don’t mess up horribly and can pass. Too Easy may as well be called “Auto Win: The Game”. I didn’t try the ones over Normal, though I assume they are even MORE punishing… somehow.
The key bindings feel extremely… awkward. And there’s no real good way to rebind them, especially since certain keys can’t even be used for bindings. You also can’t bind to a controller. I imagine on a touch pad it’s much easier. I was having some terrible finger fumbling happening which also lead into many of my failures before I finally gave in and went down to Too Easy.
Coming in at only a couple hours long, most of that (for me at least) being replaying songs after failing them a long, Frederic: Resurrection of Music does and doesn’t leave you wanting more. The humor they try and go for leaves you more facepalmed instead of laughing. Of course, should you find a funny moment you want to screenshot… you can’t. Because it seems pressing any key skips the cutscene. Not to mention if you go to the main menu after a level and then choose continue, you miss a cutscene. That’s… not great programming to say the least. It’s not what I think when I see “Continue” anyways.
The song remixes are pretty decent at least. They’re typically based on a style mix of the area you’re located in, which leads to some interesting combinations. Thankfully, the song I love from Eternal Sonata (Revolution) is included as one of the remixes, and I may have put it on for a bit after I finished the game.
Is it worth it? Perhaps. If you’re really into rhythm games and don’t mind the poor humor and lack of good key binding then check it out. There are better Chopin-based games out there though, so if that’s why you’re interested then just give it a pass.
Frederic: Resurrection of Music
3/5
