Ar Tonelico ~Melody of Elemia~
 

2006 RPG from Gust, published by Nippon Ichi. A full description of the game can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ar_tonelico. Plus a sequel came out in Japan in 2007 and will probably be heading stateside soon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ar_tone..._no_Metafalica.

So let's get on to the actual discussion. I'm about 10 hours in and it feels like it should be called Atelier Iris 4 instead, but with more talking and a different (and easier) battle system. Same-looking dungeon design, same-looking monsters, same-sounding music, plus alchemy under the name Grathmelding. Of course this is a good thing for those of us suffering from Atelier withdrawal symptoms, but I wish they'd tried a bit harder to create a new experience.

The Song Magic battle system is...different, in both good and bad ways. First off, they call it "singing" but I don't actually hear the Reyvateils sing anything. Unless of course whining about how tired you are counts as music. Secondly it's really, really powerful, which makes all game battles really, really easy. Plus the attack animation is super-repetitive. Having to watch that fireball come crashing down every single time has gotten old already, and since they refill your MP after ever battle it's super-broken. Still, maybe it will grow on me.

The jury is still out on Diving. Idiotic sexual innuendo aside ("Please be gentle, it's my first time! :rolleyes:) diving is basically spending points to get new magic. I can think of several other RPGs with the same mechanic. Ar Tonelico has added a feature where you need talk to your Reyvateils and help them through whatever cheesy, corny crisis they're currently going through before they craft new magic, but it's pretty much just a formality. The diving sequences, like the game itself, are completely on rails - go here, do this, go here, do this - so it's hard to get excited about them, but we'll see. Bonus points for a good idea, though.

Given the ease of the game and my previous record with Gust stuff, I'll probably blaze through the game in a couple of days and then I'll be able to give a final opinion.

I really enjoyed the game. The "true" endings sucked though.

I've been looking for this game, but haven't had much luck tracking it down. I'll find a copy eventually though. :heh:

Urgh...can't keep going. Too much backtracking. Too much talking. Too much predictability. Way, way too much dragging on. And the story is dull, dull, dull. I'll put this away for a while and come back to it later. -_-

the story is a bit stupid....
Two things I like from this game is the Cosmosphere and Misha Arsellec Lune......

I prefered Aurica :heh: but yeah the game is pretty corny and cheesy, but I still enjoyed it, also being able to dive into them and figure out their little problems was fun. :) I'm waiting for Ar Tonelico 2 to come out now.(And hopefully get released over here :heh: )

Guess you're waiting for the localization, then, since AT2's been out for over a month and a half.

Any chance of this getting into North America? sorry but i can't play japanese games, not much knowledge on the language yet.

I have a question regarding on one of the characters from the games.

Q. Who is that girl with the blue and white clothing? i believe she is one of the main characters but i don't know her name, can anyone help me out on this please?

That would be Croche (クローシェ), one of the four heroines.

I haven't played the first Ar Tonelico, but seeing how awesome the second one is i'll probably pick up the first one as well. I'm currently playing the second one now, just finished one route. So far it's been really fun, I would say it's on the same level as Persona 3. I've heard people who liked the first game love the second. Everything mentioned in the first post is still in the second, diving, song magic etc... even the sexual innuendos :rolleyes: (some of them are so blatantly obvious that i don't think they can be even called innuendos, especially the SM ones :heh:)

As for localization, nothing has been said but a whole bunch of people on gamefaqs are praying for it.

What is the same as Persona 3? You mean AT2?
Because if AT1 is not really like Persona3 because the gameplay's so...... easy....
Well..... I dont know about AT2 though..... I hope it'll be translated soon....

Beware, people who love the first will love the second, but it's not vice versa. AT2 is just a huge improvement compare to AT1. I know it has some problem at the story, but nothing is big, and it's still pretty much enjoyable .

I'm in the group of people who has enjoy the first, and playing the second right now.
I have no hope for the localization, seeing the merging of Banpresto and Bandai-Namco <_<.

Phew, just finished the game. It's not exactly terrible, but it wasn't as much fun as I'd hoped for. The backtracking really dragged this game down for me. There were only about 5 or 6 small towns in the game, everything else was mostly Tower and some dungeons.

Easy final boss was EASY! I was kinda overpowered from fighting Kanade all those times so it took hardly any time at all. Plus I had lots of S-crystals to recrystallize with after that. A little challenge would be have been better, at least for the final dungeon.

Diving was kinda fun, though, especially Shurelia's path. I scrolled through some of the scenes, others made me go WHOA, I'm not old enough for this! The ending wasn't too bad either

Overall it was a fairly satisfying experience and I'm definitely looking forward to AT2 now. Also listening to [Chronicle Key] over and over again because it's awesome.

Oh, something weird. If you choose Aurica's path, you get to or so I heard, but if you choose Misha's path

We can always hope for the best. Who knows, GUST might pull something out that'll make AT2's localization possible.

You can always make infinate S grade crystals, fun fun.......

Oh... Is that so? When I want to play Aurica's path I just can't do it because of Misha....
So.... when I play the game the second one.... I chose Misha again... that's why I don't know anything about Aurica's path

I picked up the game a week ago, I heard so much about it so I was extremely lucky to find this used... and I just beat it... theres one word I have to say about this game... EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Omg, this is literally hands down the best RPG ever made for the PS2, great voice acting (japanese), awesome dialogue, epic music, tons of customization, unique battle system thats actually fun, multiple branches... omg... why can't there be more games like this? And this is the first time that I've played a game that didn't have one character I didn't like. Loved the Dive System, and omg... I simply love Misha... I actually almost broke a tear a few times, lol.

Oh.. and Great Art Work, too!

Bump from the grave? XP I had to say something... this game was too good... man, I hope part 2 gets released here in the states...

Speaking of which, thanks Hayashi for reminding me about the reprints. To others interested in a future purchase, I found them available at playasia

One question to those who have the U.S. version, so there's an option to pick which audio track - English or Japanese - right? If so, I'd probably pick up a copy sooner. I only remembered about the reprint after your bump Hayashi.

Yeah, the localized version has dual audio, which is peachy keen cause the english is very meh.

Isn't there a rumor floating around that AT2 will get localized? I thought I read something about it, but when I googled it, it was only on that one forum, whichever it was.

I took a break about 2 months ago from Ar Tonelico 1 and decided to get back into Digital Devil Saga, and man... After all that boring begining part of the story, it gets really fun :p. Final boss was too easy, currently about 1/2 way into DDS2.

The difficulty of this game didn't bother me, It saves me from grinding... oh god I hate grinding... but yeah, I heard the rumors too... I don't like believing in rumors, so I'll wait for an official announcment... since the AT2 only came out late last year, it might be awhile before it come here to the states.