Sounds like the Legend of Dragoon system but in reverse. Thats some good info, I'm really looking forward to a state-side release. The battles in AT1 WERE too easy but the awesome plot made up for it very well.

Hmm... I really can't imagine it getting much better then the original, but I admit I'm glad they got rid of the rapping, that was rather annoying. How are the vocals? tons of them this time around as well? More importantly, just as good?

I guess there had to be a catch. If the Reyvateils are as overpowered as AT1 then having 2 would make it too damn easy. I guess this is to make it semi challenging. Also like the whole Valkyrie Profile approach you mentioned. Are you only able to attack once though? in VP you could attack up to 3 times which made it a lot more fun. Or is it like AT1 where basically, your normal attacks power up as the harmonics bar gets higher?

The vocal works are indeed more plentiful, and from what I've heard all sound great.

As far as battle mechanics go, in the bottom right corner of the screen you have a time gauge. Melee hits increase the gauge ever so slightly (not nearly enough to offset the decreasing time), but in that amount of time you can attack as many times as you want. Any song you have charging slowly increases in power on its own as your team's "Attack Phase" passes, increasing even more for each hit you land.

If I may ask for a slight spoiler as the curiosity is killing me, but does the plot revolve around the tower, I mean..do you get to go in it and stuff. That tower was cool to traverse lol.

I'm not nearly far enough to know that, I haven't gotten a chance to play much after the first Dive Shop scene.

Well, after browsing some GameFAQs posts and subsequently spoiling a large portion of the game for myself (oops), I've figured out that the game takes place 1.5 years after the Phase 3 (True Ending) of the first game, and seems to be the second game in a Trilogy as there are three Ar Tonelico towars, this game dealing with the second.

Really? huh...

Well, what with the mentioning of the Goddess Trio all throughout the first game, and this second tower deals with another goddess, Freya, it's reasonable to assume that there will be a third game to deal with the tower of the third.

It's not mentioned in the first game that there is three towers. Well with that info, we know what Goddess will be presented in the third game.

Hmmm - Sol Ceil is held up by the Tower of Tyria(I'll call the one from the first game that). So if there is three..I wonder why it was portrayed that if the

Hey so today at lunch I was talking to some voice actors/actresses that are doing some work in my building on a certain project. I can't say who for obvious reasons, but not one but TWO of them let it slip that they had just finished some work for Ar Tonelico II. Looks like it's coming, just a question of when.

You. Better. Not. Be. Kidding.

Seriously, that's awesome if true.

If this were true, it would be very relieving...dear god the Banpresto situation really irked me. Now I just have to hope the PS2 will last long enough for Mana Khemia 2.

I hope they make a 3rd game after this one, the first was excellent and I can only hope the second is equally as entertaining.

This is very good news indeed. Mana Khemia's been holding me over for Gust for now, but I figured it was only a matter of time before some kind of news surfaced about Ar Tonelico 2.

Here's hoping for the official announcement and another high quality artbook for the release, too.

Check out this interview RPGamer got with NISA.

RPGamer - News Bulletin - RttS 2008 - NIS America Interview

Just announce AT2 already!

It's coming fourth quarter and they'll announce it really soon. :3:

^
The above is not a fact. Or is it?

Well, it's not fact yet, but the rumour also suggests that Mana Khemia 2 would also be announced this Friday.

Something to watch for, at least.

A question dodge like that is almost a 100% certain upcoming announcement. The only way you could get more obvious than that is with Atlus' little "hints" they've been using recently.

Edit: Leave it to NISA to prove me wrong. Delays, shit we already knew was coming, and a game without any gameplay trailer. Yawn.

Ha ha. I like how I noticed this article over a month later, yet it was run the very same day I complained about the NISA conference.
Fuck yeah, now when are they actually going to announce the game?

Coming out in December apparently.

For those that don't get the emails, NIS started taking pre-orders on AT2. Seems the early pre-order bonus is an extra artbook which is limited to the first 2000 pre-orders and then an extra soundtrack that covers the rest of the songs not on the default original soundtrack.

No sooner had I gotten that e-mail I had that pre-ordered because I'm a sucker for extra artbooks and soundtracks.

Funny how the image in the email showed an E rating on the game. This is the best game to give to a 6 year old.

Taco is a bad influence on me, and I also cannot resist neat extras that involve artwork. Right when they sent the e-mail I had just pre-ordered it.

Of course now I regret not picking up the reprint when I had the opportunity.