[PS2] Ar Tonelico - The closest thing rpg nerds will ever get to a girlfriend

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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

How ya doing, buddy?

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.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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.

Spoiler:

I want Misha back though ;_;

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by CuteChocobo

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

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Well, I beat Ar Tonelico apparently.

Spoiler:

What the hell.

That was the most abrupt ending since Halo 2. The game's pace was picking up, and I was really getting into the plot. I was expecting a Phase 3 or something after fighting "Shadow Mir" as the card said, but then Shurelia is all "I'm sacrificing myself!" *CREDITS!*

I got the Misha ending, and chose to live the happy life with her. At some point I'll play through it again for Aurica's ending, then remember to make a save before the final battle so I can find out what's in the "This isn't how it should be..." ending.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the game. I completed all of Aurica's soulspace, but didn't get to the end of Misha's until after I was already past the Blastline, so I didn't finish her soulspace up. However, I wasn't left with a "Wow, what a good game." kind of nice feeling after all was said and done. I felt like there should've been much more. If a direct sequel is made that'd make me happier.

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Originally Posted by Terminus

Spoiler:

Be aware that Phase 3 exists if you choose to revive Shurelia.

Spoiler:

Is that what's in the "This isn't how it should be" ending?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Spoiler:

Thank God it let me load my save file I made after the final battle. I chose the second option, and sure enough, "PHASE 3 BEGIN". It's proving to be pretty interesting, and diving Surelia is so hilarious. I love how her little virtual world thing spoofs on so many anime series.

The few battles I've fought have been exponentially harder than anything I ran into in Phase 2 though. The game might actually get challenging now.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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

Opinions:

I thought Phase 1 was just a chore to get through. It was boring as hell an nearly turned me off from the game completely. Phase 2 and 3 were excellent, though.

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.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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

Spoiler:

I was nearing the end of Phase 2 and decided to do the item collecting side quests for the higher levels of Misha's and Aurica's cosmospheres, and some of the camp conversations started talking about Shurelia, who was not yet in my party.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Winter Storm

It's bad enough the first game tries to imply that "little girls" are hot and should be sought after. @_@;;;;;;;

Welcome to the japanese moe movement.

Originally Posted by Winter Storm

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

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

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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.

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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.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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

Spoiler:

If the tower DOES play a major role, though, I wonder if we'll see Shurelia back in Phase 3?

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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.

Recurring Characters, Spoilers for Phase 3 of AT1:

Spica returns, and from what I can gather plays a rather large role in the story. Mir and Shurelia are also in the game, not sure how important they are or if they're playable. Aurica and Misha make cameo appearances, too.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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.

Who he ended up with? Humorous scene spoiler:

From what I read when you see Shurelia it's kind of a girl-next-door kind of thing, and you overhear her saying that her work sucks since she can't be with her man, assuming it's Lyner. Then again I haven't heard anything about encounter dialogue with Misha or Aurica. It'd be nice if they did actually have an OFFICIAL ending of the first game.

I was speaking idiomatically.

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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.

FELIPE NO

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.

Quote:

Speaking to an unnamed representative of Japanese game developer Gust, RPG Land asked if our boy knew anything about Ar Tonelico II going overseas. The rep noted that indeed, usual suspect NIS America picked it up. More details or a release time frame were unavailable, presumably because really, that’s not so much Gust’s department. When asked about Mana Khemia 2 also making the swim, our source was unsure, so we’ll have to wait. It’s not yet known if Ar Tonelico II will be officially unveiled at the upcoming NIS America press party or if it will wait until later.

Fuck yeah, now when are they actually going to announce the game?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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

Jam it back in, in the dark.