Just went ahead and put through my code and finalized the deal, thanks for the heads up.

Fuck the soundtrack, it's all about the artbook with this game.

Looks like these are shipping now, as I got my shipped e-mail this afternoon. Anyone that placed an order and followed up with the pre-order code should expect the same e-mail I got in due time.

I'm actually looking forward to this game, much more so than Rogue Galaxy.

Likewise, I got my shipping e-mail today. According to tracking, it'll be here in about a week.

Hope it goes faster, but oh well. Can't wait either way :D

Haven't gotten my email confirmation yet. Hopefully that doesn't mean much.

Hopefully it'll be in there by Monday. (I can't believe I'm trusting the NIS store again after what happened last time)

Ya woohoo! Got my shipping confirmation e-mail yesterday too. I didn't expect them to ship this week, but that's cool. What a good buying experience after all. :p

Just a heads up for people that missed the pre-order. Supposedly they will be selling off all of the deluxe versions which were issued a pre-order code but never redeemed. They should start going on sale at the NIS store Monday (2/05).

Looks like I get mine today.

The game arrived! I'll probably stare at the artbook while I wait for the last 3 hours to work to pass by. Now I have 2 RPGs to play. ;_;

This is pretty awesome though. Got the game a day before the shipment date.

Damn you, mine is scheduled to be delivered on the 8th. :P

Of course, I'm loaded to the core with college coursework between now and Friday anyway, so it doesn't really matter. But I don't get to balk at the artbook either.

:(

I got it so quickly because I only live like 7 hours away from NIS America. =p

Unpacking the goodies at my work desk. The soundtrack comes in a jewel case instead of a paper sleeve that other publishers put extra CDs in. The soundtrack includes 35 tracks and all the names are in English of course:

01. Singing Hill
02. Melodies of a Requiem
03. Land if Fresh Greens
04. Morning Dew, Melt Away
05. A Song of Peace
06. Counting the Past
07. Over the Hardships
08. Vidarr
09. Scars
10. Your Feelings
11. Brave Beat
12. Crimson Sunset Skies
13. Airport Paradise
14. Screaming Seagull
15. Singing Girl
16. Beyond the Memories
17. My World is My Wish
18. Beat ~Elemia Arrange~
19. Ancient Memories
20. Dokkoi 50%-Off Sale!
21. City in the Sky
22. Flowing Clouds
23. AT inside ~incident~
24. AT inside ~resonance~
25. Tower of Ar tonelico
26. Tunes of Paradox
27. Music of the Echoing Horn
28. Valhalla
29. Rumble
30. Imperatrix
31. Genetic Chronicle
32. Song of the Breeze ~Music Box~
33. Voices of Paired Lives
34. Epilogue ~Fantasy DNA~
35. Phantasmagoria

The artbook is hardcover, 52 pages, full color, and contains nice art pieces, character and location descriptions, and of course some history about everything. All of it is in English. The game is on a DVD and comes with a 32 page manual. This is one hell of a package for $49.99!

The artbook is fantastic and far exceeds my expectations. If game companies are looking for ways to make more money off of me, this is the way to do it.

I got the email monday, but since then, the tracking number on UPS isn't valid yet..... I hope there's no complication *crosses fingers*

cubed, exact same deal with me.

Now, last time this happened it took me a month of emailing and complaining before they sent me another game. This is EXACTLY how the issue from last time started, so I'm a little worried.

I'll give them until Friday to have the number enter into the system. If it's not done by then then there's been another mix up.

Anyone have a photo of the artbook? (like, size, content, etc...)

I just got my package today, and it's pretty damned nice. The artbook, Jazz, is hardcover, and the size of a PS2 case, and about as thick.

I placed a preoder for mine from dvdboxoffice last month, but now that it's released, the site has the item listed as "On order, ships in 14+ days". Obviously they had more preorders than they got stock, but since they've had my Metroid Zero Mission in that same status for well over a month now, I simply cancelled my order and I'm beginning to think with my luck their copies wouldn't come with the artbook anyway.

Typically online stores most likely won't include the special stuff unless it's described.

A few auctions on ebay will turn up with worldwide shipping for preorder items, but not always (and almost never with reasonable buy it now's).

Nippon Ichi screwed up and shipped to the wrong Zip Code (with a one number different ;_; a 5 instead of a 6), so I have to wait till monday when they'll redeliver it.

So I heard from Krizz that even if you turn the audio to japanese, the videos will still have english voices, is this true or something he missed?

I thought these kinds of things were over after Disgaea :(

'Cept that, you know, the artbook comes inside the damn box and isn't a preorder bonus?

Any place you buy it from will have the artbook. The soundtrack is the exclusive bonus for preordering at NIS's now defunct store.

I just checked back the shipping confirmation email and it wasn't shipped by UPS but USPS (www.usps.com).

"Status: International Dispatch

Your item left the United States from SAN FRANCISCO AMC at 2:37 PM on February 8, 2007."

No Ar Tonelico for me this week.

Yes. There's no dual-audio for the cut-scenes. Probably because there aren't subtitles programmed into them.

Additional Spam:

Well, they're only including the arbook in the first print of the games. Once those are gone, newer shipments will be the game only.

Yeah, I know it was shipped by the USPS. Oddly enough, the tracking number never worked for me.

But the damn thing showed up today. Hurrah.

You know as well as I do that this game isn't going to be popular enough to get more than a single small-medium print run (with a possiblilty of a second shipment from the same run down the line), much like the second Atelier Iris.

Colour me surprised if we ever see it by itself.

Additional Spam:
I ripped the OST in FLAC, if anyone's interested. PM me or post in here.

Woohoo! It came in today. I probably won't be able to get around to playing it for a weeks (as usual), but I went through the art book, and it is <3. I haven't listened to the soundtrack yet though.

Kinda sad story as well, because it was my dad who took the package and opened it. Upon seeing the pinkish box and artsy girly characters, he promptly questioned my sexuality. He told my mom, "I think something is wrong with your son." ;_;

http://images.sanemonkey.com/gff/ar_tonelico.jpg

Just a friendly warning.

DO NOT PLAY THIS FUCKING GAME ON YOUR PS3!

The game corrupts past a certain point and YOU CAN NO LONGER SAVE. It will corrupt all Ar Tonelico saves on that memory card assigned to slot one. Switching to another one doesn't help since it only saves a corrupt file there too. And it doesn't tell you either. You just get a failed to load message. I just lost a whole weeks progress today and attempted to save to 5 of my memory cards on my PS3. Each save only corrupted and thus I was forced to take the loss and shut off the game (or beat the game in one sitting without turning the console off).