Ar Tonelico - The closest thing rpg nerds will ever get to a girlfriend
 

Just a heads up, NIS America has started taking preorders (sort of) for "Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia" for the PlayStation 2. This is the first deluxe box package by NIS America and comes with a hardcover art book and soundtrack (NIS America Online Store-exclusive).


http://www.onfulfillment.com/estore/...rT_pre_w_t.jpg

Yep. Pre-ordered this sucker the second I got the email. NIS America is getting good at this pre-order bonus stuff.

I've been waiting for this game for what seems like forever now, and I'm glad to see valid confirmation that it's coming to the USA. Even if it doesn't come to PAL, I've always got my swap magic...:beer:

Wonder if this'll apply to in-store preorders, such as those at GameStop/EB Games.

Doubt it. Their Disgaea preordering didn't work like that.

Fuck, they dropped the r. That's going to be hard to get used to. I'll probably pass, just because I was never a big fan of the Atelier games and they (Gust) co-developed. Makes me a skeptic.

Damn, that's an awesome preorder bonus. Wasn't this the game that was essentially a dating sim with battles being nothing more than an escort mission (protect the ladies so they can destroy the enemies)? Also, the game where the VAs or characters hate the protagonist?

Hopefully it isn't, since I don't like the idea of having most of my characters being nothing more than guards, and I'd love that artbook.

Jumped on that immediately. I was going to buy the game anyway, and this makes it all the better. Always love getting artbooks + soundtracks or other collectables when I buy a game.

Hopefully they don't charge too high for shipping.

Nope. From what I've read you can only get the soundtrack by ordering through the NIS America online store. I never buy NIS games anywhere else just because you won't get the bonus.

Definitely good news...I was worried this one wouldn't make it across the pond after it basically fell off the radar. Awesome news. The modern locales from screenshots (but done in the Atelier storybook-prerendered style) has caught my eye already and I can definitely vouch for the music being awesome.

Now how about some AI: Grand Fantasm love to top it off?

Well, now I'll have to cancel my pre-order at EB.

I guess the NIS site doesn't do international orders huh?

God fucking damnit.

Hehe, I jumped on this too. Also those bonus goodies make it all the more intriguing for a game I'd get at some point anyway. :p

I've been really waiting for this game. I fucking adore their sprite work in previous games, and this one looks like a blast.

What is this game like? I'm tempted to order, but is it as good as the hype claims?

http://www.nisamerica.com/games/artonelico/

Official website is up now. I'm not sure if the game is as good as it's hyped out to be, but I'll buy it either way just because I support unique titles like this getting localized. Gust games are usually fun too.

Well, I just wrote this, if it helps: http://www.rpgland.com/games/artonelico/preview.html

It's a pretty excellent game. My Nostradomous-like prognostication tells me it will be a consideration/nominee for some RPG of the Year awards in '07.

Silly, random question at this point but it is relevant to my interests:

Anyone happen to know a general play-through time for this one?

I heard the game is about 30 hours long. If you go for all the extra stuff it could go a bit beyond 40.

Pre-orders have opened. That is, you can use your pre-order code to actually pay for a copy now. I just took care of that so I don't spend the money on anything else.

It's scary how "well" the preorder works the first time you shop on NIS America online store. I mean, I don't see any protection sign telling me the transaction is well secured. It kept tellling me to enter an billing address, which I did.... Anyway, really odd way this store works. I'm glad I'll get the bonuses.

Ah... pre-order completed, just so I don't forget to later.

I wish the site was better-looking. It just seemed so shady. =p

I've shopped on NIS before and had no problems. They're fully legit, children. Relax.

I've never had problems either. I know skills has with his Disgaea 2 pre-order. But he did get an extra game out of it. :3

Oh, they fucked up one of my orders. They sent me the wrong guide. But they fixed it super quick at no charge. Good company.

As well, any of those planning on picking this up, I'd highly recommend this pre-order so you can get the bonus soundtrack. The game's music is quite good.

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).

Miles, from here on out it's probably best to let other people confirm games before you play them in the PS3.

Are you sure it's past a certain point in the game or is it just a random occurance?

This sucks nuts though. How much time did you lose?

Looking at other message boards, this error is fairly common. Someone even questioned NIS about it, and they said it can only be fixed through a firmware update by Sony. I'm digging out my PS2 now.

Luckily Rogue Galaxy doesn't seem to have this problem.

Damn I wonder where is my game right now. It's been more than a week and I still don't have any clue where the package is. Last activity tracked is "Envoi du régime international arrivé au Canada" which means nothing more than they got it like MONDAY ?? They received the package, now what??? It's staying at the front door since then ?!

Damn, I really wanted to pre-order this back when it was still open on the store but had no way to do it (no CC or money in general for game buying). But now I have some money and it's too late... I'm too afraid to even check the eBay prices if anyone is still selling the pre-order packages >.<

I didn't check, but can you use PayPal at NIS online store. If yes, you just need to authentify yourself with your bank account, so you won't need any credit card to order online.

My campus mail room currently has my package, and has had it for almost two days. They're just bogged down with so many valentines day packages that nobody has gotten any package notices.

Fuck this, from now on I'm having shipped back home or to someone off-campus instead of my dorm address.

Ohh awesome. I just got an e-mail from RosenQueen and they still have Ar Tonelico to purchase with the soundtrack and it does take Pay Pal :D

My efforts were successful. After my epic struggle with the mailroom, I finally received my copy of the game. I've been playing it almost nonstop since I got it, and I'm really enjoying it. Nothing like watching the song's power go over 20000% before nuking enemies with it.

So far I'm about 9 hours in, and already have cleared Aurica's level 3 cosmosphere.

What until you learn how to install stuff. Most sexual innuendo in a video game ever.

This game has a lot of music/voice bugs, they should've debugged it before its release...

Agreed with yanxu, thats why I stayed with the Japanese voice!

Overall I think the game is quite average (quests very straight forward... does it even have sidequests?). However I will give a higher score due to the 'date-sim-like' scenerio :)

You nearly completed the game Crazy Redd?

There better be some post-game shit like Disgaea, or I'm going to frown.

Haha my friend and I got our copies and he was charged 8¢ more than me for custom duty tax. Way to go Canada !

I started with the japanese voices, then heard Lyner's voice which made me cringe. I've kept it on English since.

I always thought the voice bugs had to do with my PS2's laser probably dieing on me though due to extensive swap disk use.

Yes, it's your PS2. When I played the game on my PS3 the music and voices never skipped once. Of course it isn't worth it when the game is unable to save properly. ._.

The Installation system comes mid-way.

So apparently I'm at Phase 2 and just fooling around. Like seriously, this game gives me tremendous headaches. Everyone's like level 50 or so.

Though I like the encounter system in the game, when the bar wipes out, I have to leave the terrain which means level grinding. And with a game that freezes every 10 minutes or so (just exaggerating but it does freeze momentarily), it gets annoying.

Also I want level 6 of diving already :gonk:

6.3 at gamespot, huh? Wow, a lot of the reviews I'm seeing make this game look like shit. :(

I still need to order it myself.

I personally thought it was 6.8. Lemme check..

..Yeah. 6.3.

Personally, I felt that this game could have more potential. Still I'm enjoying it nonetheless.

So:



Would've added more but heh, that'll do.

Agree with Terminus regarding the favorite Cosmosphere XD

I am currently not far into phase 2 only, with Misha lv 8 and Aurica lv 7 cosmosphere. *sigh* when does Misha grow up >__< She got soo many cosplay costumes already but can't use them coz she is still too small...

I gotta say, the emphasis on "moe" is shown quite strongly here. I love the mature innuendos in the dialogues!

Oh how I love to get this game a CG and 3D make over...

Misha at level 9 Cosmophere now. Aurica at level 7. I'm far up to the Blast Plate as of current.

I'v been looking forward to this game for a good while now, but whenever I see any reviews on it, people say that it's so easy that there is little to no enjoyment in the game at all really. Is this true?

Cheers for the pointer Terminus! Cool, Misha just evolved as I am typing this out :D

Easy? Yup it is!
No enjoyment? HECK NO! I guess it just depends on what kinda elements you are looking for in a game. As for me I like character development and plot... which is why Ar Tonelico floats in my boat and I am loving how the game is progressing. If you are looking foward to more tatical battle system or more action plot or even cool CG-isque games. Then I guess it might be a bit boring to some.

At least the fun part of this game is to see the multiple endings XD

Whoa cool. I ordered the limited edition thing with the OST from RosenQueen on the 20th and it already got here. Awesomeness, can't wait to play :rock:

Just knowing that the easiness of the game doesn't take away from the overall enjoyment brings a smile to my face. Thanks to your help it looks like I'm going to end up ordering the game, thanks for the information.

I just finished the game over the weekend. In the end I was pretty satisfied with the way it turned out. The Hymns you get to hear later on are amazingly awesome.



I wonder if Gamespot played the game completely to the end. It deserves better than a 6.3. I'd personally give it a 7.5-8.5.

corrupt save
 

Just got the game today, only problem is that the first time I went to save it failed to save. I tried to save again and than it couldn't load the card to save, so I put my other card in to try on that one same results. This happend on my PS2 slim witha max memory 16mb and the 32mb card, both disgaea and disgaea 2 save fine on these I was wondering if anyone had any idea about this. Also I can't delelte the corrupt file from the card so it seems I might be screwed. :tpg:

The saving system is VERY buggy in this game. Use nothing but the official playstation memory card (8mb one) to play this game or else it won't save properly.

Is this game very laggy for anyone, I'm playing using the ps2 component cables and it seems to have load and video problems.

I have no saving problem on my PS2 but PS3 plenty of save bugs.

As for the lagginess, yes I do have them... there are always a slight pause when entering battles and other related events! Just bear through them and you will get used to it!

Well, I beat Ar Tonelico apparently.

So apparently I finished the game too, last night. Will get more costumes. Overall, it was pretty awesome. Definitely deserved a 7.5 score.

Yep.


I actually just saw 3 endings. Sad me, but I have literally saved all 12 blocks with stuff from Phases 1-3, so I can repeat some endings if necessary.

I completed all 3 third phase endings, still missing Misha's second phase ending.
I love the dialogues in the game *sigh* no one is doing the game script for this awesome game -____-""

Eh I got this game last week but the disc has a scratch on it(same with Xeno III >_>) but I got it to work. There's some lag but I don't care, I liked what I saw(intro and the first "invincible-boss" battle). I'll be playing it seriously tommorow.

Ok so I've made it to phase 2 with 32hrs in the game. Point of this post though is about my dissappointment in Aurica. I've reached level E of her cosmosphere, I devoted so much time away from the plot just to dive in her mind endlessly so I can help her through her insecurities and put downs. And when it was all said and done, the girl is still extremely hard on herself. Lyner does all of that for her and she is still blind to her potential..

A Class-D Reyvateil
Now of course the actual battle has no effect on how shes programmed to work, but still, she is powerful for her class. All I have to say is, it makes no sense that Angel Aurica and especiallu Devilish Aurica are much better than the Real Aurica. I was very interested in that character and hoped she found some enlightenment. I DO understand her position though having live a somewhat outcast-ish life during my teen years. Well, thankfully Misha doesn't have this problem and I can't wait to continue diving in her mind.

IMO Aurica's lvl8 cosmosphere was better than lvl6.

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/3642/at2qs9.th.jpg

One can only hope the first game did well enough for NIS America to pick this one up as well.

I'm pretty sure they will. I can feel it hit off well in america.

I am also not suprized, the game always had that "unfinished business" feeling.

Well if it don't port over, I'm importing lol.

Oh I do wish that if they ever make the sequel to this brilliant game, then they should put 'fixing bugs' as their first priority >_<

Looking forward to ArT2 release ^ ^

Ar Tonelico 2? I'm there. I just hope the second game doesn't take quite as long to pick up in terms of pacing. That and they need to fix those sound issues all of Gust's games seem to have when brought stateside.

Pacing? I think 50hrs for and RPG is rare these days. I hope it's LONGER(and more levels of the cosmosphere).

True, I have no gripes about the games length, but



I also wouldn't mind having some more levels to cosmospheres. Among other things, here's some stuff I'd like to see in 2:

• Better japanese voice acting (Lyner's voice made me cringe)
• Either a more difficult game or an option for enemies to be harder; Over the course of AT, my Reyvateil only died twice in the final battle, and prior to that never even took damage. None of my characters ever died until Phase 3, either
• Another neat art book with the pre-orders. The one from the first game was pretty neat with all fo the explinations for stuff it included.

I hope they are able to better integrate the cosmosphere into the main storyline. I found it strange that you'd make some progress in developing one of the girls personalities only to have them regress and act like their former selves in the main story. I have no idea why they let you drill down 4 or 5 cosmosphere levels in a single sitting without requiring the advancement of the story some at each step.

^That was one of the games biggest flaws. The fact that if you dive too early and too fast the plot will be revealed, aka You will know what happens before Lyner does. Also what you said about regression - I agree. I'm sure everyone wanted to see Aurica become better, and it was a waste of time. Those who've seen the events in the Musical Corridor will know what I'm talking about. After that I just couldn't stand her anymore. I mean... "Devilish Aurica" was better than normal Aurica -.-

I also agree. Ar Tonelico is the only game I've ever played that spoiled itself.

As much as I want this to happen, many critics gave the game lukewarm reviews, which may put the second one's release on hot water too.

Still though, I want this to be picked up as well. Nevermind the easy difficulty; the story is interesting enough and the cosmosphere is fun. Just the '3 second freezing' (or whenever that time the PS2 just stops momentarily) is goddamn annoying which I hope can be fixed in the second game. Also lessen the other items for pete's sake; there are more of them then necessary in-game.

Here are the rest of the scans.

They're currently developing this game and many expect the game to be released in Japan later this year. Sadly, this means that we may have to wait until Winter or the early part of 2008. But the news of the sequel is better than no news at all!

http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...rTonelico2.jpg http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...Tonelico22.jpg http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...Tonelico23.jpg http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...Tonelico24.jpg http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...Tonelico25.jpg


Just by going on the looks of the new Reivateils alone, it seems like we have characters that give off the Misha (Reivateil in Purple) and Shurelia (Reivateil in white) feel.

Looking at the screens, they seem to have detailed the background of the fights and areas much better than the first game.

I see dive points, so we're probably diving once again. I wouldn't change much about the theme of the last game including the certain uneasy talk topics. That's what made the game fun. So hopefully they left that kind of stuff in there.

As for the characters, Misha was perfect. Easily my favorite girl character in any form of media. If anyone even comes close to her, then I'll be satisfied.

Excellent info Ced. I'm really hyped for this game now. And I bet the chick in white is going to have a lot of sexual inuendo revolving around her LOL.

Looks like the Lyner/Aurica/Misha story arc is put to rest. I can only imagine what will happen in the second installement.

Winterstorm, could you give me the whole image of your Misha Avatar? That's by far, my favorite pose of her, but I can't find it anywhere!

***

More news

According to this site some small details have been revealed.

It is not what you think. All I did was scan her page out of the "artbook"(lol) that came with the game - fliped it around and cropped it. And I had to shrink it(3400x3800 LOL).

Okay so is the purple haired knight shown Croa? And if so, is Croa actually supposed to be a guy? That has to be the worst offender ever if true.

I believe that is the main character(Croa) and that due to his charming "feminine" looks he will serve as a "bishi". Lynar wasn't close to that, so I guess this will futher compliment the scenario of having the girls all over the main character like they were with Lynar.

Errrrrrrr now that I think about it. That suit looks a lot like a dress ._..

Yeah that's what I was getting at. I've gotten used to Japanese culture enough to understand and be able to deal with bishi males where is doesn't bother me. But if that really is a male then it sets a new standard. That a 100% a female haircut even by Japanese standards and the lower half of the knight suit being a dress really makes me question if that is really the male lead.

In one of those battle screens I see two characters with MP bars. Does that mean it's possible to have two Reyvateils out at once now? That'd be awesome for doing even more rediculous overkill damage.

Or maybe enemies will be harder to kill this time around.

Thanks for the scan upload. I got quite a bit of info out of it ^_^

Seriously, as most of you already stated. This main character looks too feminine for my taste. I don't want to see this game turn into a yuri game!

From Croa's history profile. It said he lost his parent at young age and had been bought up by Ruka's parents... this kinda reminds me of the similar character setting as the first game between Lyner and Misha -____-"

EDIT: Taco you are right! They will be introducing to us the Dual Revytail Combo. It mentioned that you can summon two Revs onto the battle to sing for you. Their song powers can combine to create something different (I guess its a bit like Item Alchemy).

Yep, the direction the japanese is going lately in thier gaming development is starting to worry me alittle. It's bad enough the first game tries to imply that "little girls" are hot and should be sought after. @_@;;;;;;;

That's one reason I didn't bother with Shurelia's cosmosphere. Just..don't wanna know what transpires there. lol

About the dual rayvetiel system - hopefully that suggests the battles will be harder.

Welcome to the japanese moe movement.

That's a shame, you're missing out. It was a hilarious parody of a lot of anime stereotypes.

But they are hot and they should be sought after . . . . .

My God. They got to me!


You really should play around with Shurelia's cosmosphere. I mean if the loli stuff bothers you, then I have no idea how you got past Misha's first few 2 levels. Shurelia’s stuff doesn’t even touch any of those kinds of themes. She doesn’t show signs of mental issues like Aurica and Misha. (Regardless, I still think both of them are awesome. Especially Misha.)

Shurelia's stuff doesn't really bother with her age issues. And besides, she acts like the typical anime mom personally. Although, in the latter parts of her talk levels, she starts acting more like an aunt. I can't really explain why.

Regarding Croa's manliness . . . well he's still giving off more of a manly vibe than Lyner did. He actually reminds me of Dias Flac from Star Ocean 2. The only difference is that Dias didn't wear such frilly clothing.

Two Reivateils at once, huh? Awesome! I wanted to stack my party with the girls in the last game, but we couldn't use more than one Reivateil, so that was a bust. Krusche was the only girl fighter, so I couldn't plan out my team like I wanted do.

I do see Croshe wielding a blade in her character art, so maybe she can be a fighter too?

I find something interesting in the magazine scan... in this picture does that mean the enemies can now target your summons as well?
http://the-magicbox.com/0704/artone211.jpg

Also while you are synthesizing item the two girls can linger and do something useful too. (e.g. in the picture, Ruka created some food O__O)
http://the-magicbox.com/0704/artone17.jpghttp://the-magicbox.com/0704/artone18.jpg

Heres a pic where two Revs in action
http://the-magicbox.com/0704/artone212.jpg

Haha, I had the same feeling too... it has that farmiliar design that reminds me of Dias :tpg:

^Enemies could already do that - targeting reyvatiels. However that mech boss was the only one would could absorb songs.

http://ar-tonelico.jp/at2/

When clicking enter be patient. Strong Flash site with music so the loading could take a while. It is in japanese..sorry ; ;, but the game is a go for japan!
They are hot if they like 20+ and born naturally short like 4' 11" or something @_@. And yes the first lvls of Misha's comosphere had me wondering shit about japan as a whole :P

Well the music sounds like it is going to be in top form, as expected.

Oddly I didn't think twice about it. I should probably stop exposing myself to so much Japanese culture.


Edit: Had some time to look over the site. They added an 11 year old, half naked girl to the character roster. Oh Japan......

I just took a look at the site. Wow, the music from it is awesome. With as much of an emphasis on song and music as the game has, it's certainly nice to hear that they don't skimp on it at all.

Also the half naked 11 year old makes me frownyface. I'll take a healthy Reyvateil any day.

The System page on the site looks great too. Good to see that the battles will still be filled with huge, flashy spell effects. Hopefully it'll be practical to use other spells aside from the basic one through the whole game. Again, hoping for more actual challenge in the game as well.

Here's hoping when (if?) it gets a stateside release they'll have fixed the loading issues present in the first.

So my Japanese isn't the greatest, but I've gathered Install isn't around anymore instead you dissolve crystals in a bath that the girls soak in to increase parameters. Man I love the creators of this game.

LMAO >< >< >< So I finished Misha's comsophere today and ran into the funnest sexual innuendo comment ever.

"Lyner, I'm going to do this.. give me your head."

XDDDDD

Anyway, the character that really caught my eye is that older chick. Could be Spica's opposite ;p Or could be another Ayano lol.

Taco - you mean to say that you "Flare'd" your way through the whole game? XD Only ones I used was Ar Tonelico, the Cave girl thing, and Valkyrie. Nevermind my over powered healers that made my party invincible(well except Kanade, 7-0 so far, but I'm sure I'll get my ass kicked on the 10th try).

Increase what parameters?

Wow love the music on the main page of AT2 :)

@ Cetra: You are right, I think thats the evolve form of installing Crystals into the Revys. Instead of inserting into them, now you soak with them *hehe* Not only that, taking bath can also trigger events to make your Revs stronger through conversation (learn new spells?)

@ WinterS: I think Cetra's 'increase parameter' means better stats e.g. from installing crystals in AT

One thing I didn't get is the "Replekia" function. It didn't clarify what it used for, beside preventing Revy from I.P.D. Virus. by borrowing combined forces from 100 Revytails. *confused*

The official website has been updated. The dark skinned chick could be another "virus lifeform" like Ayatane was. I'm just going by her tatoos though. 2 more NORMAL looking short girls and some creature that looks like a nyo? with big ass ears. This is definitly in the past before the Grathnod Inferia and the destruction of the right Plasma Bell. The world or rather "landmass" in ATII is obviously connected to the tower too.

I just had a look at that AT2 site, and there's certainly a lot of females there. Makes you wonder if there's gonna be any guys in at all, aside from those 2 you see there.

I really hope they make another likable reyvateil like Misha. <3 Misha.

Shame on you people! How can you compare those two? Dias is pure awesomeness, and certainly doesn't look feminine like this guy. I honestly can't see the comparison. =/

He does remind me of someone...can't quite put my finger on it. I think it's a Gundam Seed Destiny character like Shinn.

More updates for AT2!

http://ar-tonelico.jp/at2/swf/main.htm

Anyone able to translate what is listed as new under the Special section? Are they making an AT2 based anime or are they showing off fully animated cutscenes for the game?

I can't wait until the soundtrack for this one is released. Whenever I go to the official site I just leave it running a while to listen to that awesome background song.

It could be another OVA like they did for the first game (Which didn't even follow the events of the beginning of the game anyway.) An anime would be nice, though, or at least animated cutscenes.

Edit: The katakana for it in the "Special" section says "Movie" and part of the first line is "Opening anime" so it could be screen shots from the opening sequence of the game.

Also I liked the site teaser song so much that I ripped it for MP3 player usage.

Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:
You can get it here.

Why does she look like Sheena from Tales of Symphonia?

Anyway, I picked up this game last week, haven't got around to playing just yet but I'm looking forward to doing so. Stupid stupid summer class. I got the game, the artbook, and the decorative box, but no soundtrack. Is there any way to acquire a copy like there was with Nocturne (go on Atlus' site and pay them $3.00 or something to have it sent to you)?

I've never played that.
You are now my favorite member on this board.

I suspect this will be the last major PS2 RPG that NIS will publish(since Disegea 3 will be on the PS3) so I know they are going to try to make this game a blast. I'm a bit interested in one of the newest characters who resembles Lyner big time. Of course it can't be him since the setting is before Mir.

Alright this going to be my last post in this thread. If the games were more popular I would have simply made a seperate topic.

Ar Tonelico II's JP release date is October 25th. It's still not known rather NIS will pick this game up for a US/EU release. Since AR was'nt all that popular, I have my doubts. The JP version will get a visual face book just like the first game. Same content as first game, character portraits, bios, etc. 2 new characters were added to the finished product.

I bought Ar tonelico a few weeks ago and I've been loving every second of it. It's ridiculously easy, but that's just how Gust games go. The characters are great (luv Jack long time), I love how the game looks, the plot isn't extremely boring, and it's fun to play. The music isn't half bad either, but some of that weird rap talking crap is annoying. >.>;

Ar Tonelico 2 hit japanese shelves as of 10/25, has anyone else given it a shot?

I can't say much for the plot as I can only understand bits and pieces of voiced dialogue, but it's got the innuendo humor that the first game had for sure; the first Dive Shop scene was hilarious. The music is far superior to the first game's, I have yet to run into any rap battle themes.

Speaking of battles, the battle system from the first one is completely changed. The game plays like a combination of Valkyrie Profile and Eternal Sonata; You have a certain amount of time to act, and in that time you can have your entire party lay into an enemy while your Reyvateil charges up (or supports). Combat itself is a lot smoother, a lot faster paced, and a ton more fun than in the original. Reyvateils can now take damage! Every enemy I've come across goes straight for the Reyvateil, and in order to guard you have to time hitting a block button (Square in my case) just right to keep her from taking any/full damage. Miss the mark and she'll either take part of the attack or all of it. This seems like it could be a lot more challenging as the game progresses in comparison to the first.

Edit: In battles when you have two Reyvateils, two characters defend them, and have two different defend buttons so you have to watch both of the defend gauges at once. This is much more challenging.

My only gripe is that the field sprites look goofy. Their arms and hands are huge and it looks a little weird. That being said, even with goofy arms the sprites are very well-animated, and Gust's seemingly first attempt at using 3D things in backgrounds doesn't look half bad either.

Tons of familliar voices in the Japanese cast, although I can't put my finger on any of them.

Overall I'm very impressed. I really, really hope this gets brought over, as it'd be a shame to miss out on this translated.

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.

So a bit of awesomeness. NIS is porting over the insanely cool original Japanese AT2 website into English rather than trying to develop their own

Ar tonelico 2: Melody of Metafalica

Sweet!

Any news on Mana Khemia 2? Will they pick that one up as well?

Well I was hearing information about NIS releasing something in January so I was getting hopeful. Turns out all they did was push back the released date of AT2 and the main reason for this is because while not quite going open platform in America like they are in Europe, Sony is cutting licensing fees of games on the PS2 by 75% starting the first of next year. I think that is a hopeful indication that they'll scoop up Mana Khemia 2 eventually.

Thread Necromancy.

My copy came in today, so I've had a little bit of time to play it. Game is fun, I know a bit more about the combat system now that I can read the info it gives you, and it's like they're not even trying to guise innuendo stuff anymore. Hilarious and awesome.

Both voice tracks are gimped, though; they cut the amount of voices from the game for the english dubbing, and also cut them from the japanese track. Space concerns? I dunno. The english dub isn't too great so far, but I'll give it a little longer before I jump ship.

Thread Necromancy indeed. Mine just came in today as well, though I have yet to pick it up from my mail room yet. Either way, might pop it in for a spin before I return back to finishing the first Ar Tonelico.

Speaking of which, did you get the Rosenqueen preorder bundle, Taco?

Wow NISA. You are getting really sloppy. How could you not catch a small string of text Japanese that comes up commonly? I don't think they playtested this shit at all.

クローシェ様～!!

**CASTS "REVIVE" ON THREAD**
I liked the game but a bloody bug on it prevents to get a few extras (not that desirable) since the game locks up on a special attack made by the pre-final boss.

The bonuses included in the preorder or the US releases are neat and worth every penny. But still it bugs me that NISA went a little too far on sloopines by letting some stuff untranslated and the lags are horrible (the japanese version didn't had too many of that).

Overall the game is good. Woth a second playtrough, only if you want to get all the endings.

I picked up the game about a week ago... I can't say that I love it, but it seems like a nice sequel. But, man... I don't know if I missed it during the first game, but the second game seems to have more localization issues (bad grammar and whatnot). I haven't run into anything too bad yet, though (I'm in Phase 2).