Ar Tonelico ~Melody of Elemia~

[HayashiTakara]

Honestly I don't think they wouldn;t mind, The average consumer can't even tell the difference, hell I can't. Only people who are extremely analytical about sound can tell the difference, even then I wonder. The human ear can only pick up so much information. If its crisp and clean and audiable, thats what matters in the end. Somehow I highly doubt a small company like Gust/Banpresto would be willing to spend double or triple the development cost just to please that tiny percentage. In the end, its about generating income.

[mandarb916]

I don't see how it would cost double or triple the dev cost just to stay on PS2 since it can actually decode true 5.1...add to that, their next title is for PS2 so /shrug. It would be more on the PS3, but probably not by a significant amount considering the caliber of graphics in the AT series.

While it's only anecdotal evidence, quite a few people actually upgraded their audio system for AT1/AT2, myself included. People have said this on Toukousphere, and it's a recurring comment on 2ch as well. Considering interviews that Tsuchiya Akira has done, and the importance he's mentioned about AT's aural aspects (as well as Shimotsuki and...i think it was Shikata...or was it Mitose...it was a while back), while Gust/Banpresto might not care, I think Tsuchiya would.

And Banpresto is completely under the BanNam flag now, if I'm not mistaken (ie, their budget comes from BanNam) as of a few months ago so I wouldn't exactly call Banpresto small anymore...not a multinational company obviously, but it should have significantly more resources than before.

anyhow...sleep calls...night

[HayashiTakara]

PS2? No no, I'm talking about PS3, XD I'm content with them bringing it out on the PS2 as well, since it'll be cheaper overall, lol. But, eventually they'll have to make the jump to the current gen.

Niche games tend to go to the most popular system as they have a better chance of making sells overall. Putting a niche game where theres a much lower user base is a risk, and japanese companies don't like taking risks.

I'm almost certain that if/when they decide to make a game for the current gen, it's 75% certain it'll be on the Wii out of sheer user base.

[Flame-X]

just finished the game.

Overall, I give this a 6/10. It had an interesting concept for turn based gameplay with the revytail standing in the back powering up stuff while the others protect and fight. Storywise, it was decent, nothing amazing or terribly bad, just predictable as people mentioned above. One thing that really bothered me is the missing bishop. His existence just went poof without any leads.

The 2 things i liked about the game is the characters and the music. Out of the 3 revytails, i would prefer Aurica, however i chosed Misha's path without knowing what was gonna happen next (shit!! >_<). The music is the one thing that stood out the most for me in this game. Many of the BGMs sounds very like cybernetic and atmospheric while some of the vocal tracks had a Yuki Kajuira feel.

I heard there's more than 4 endings but I don't think its worth the time to replay it.

[Elvin]

If you don't mind, can you write what happened in the Misha ending under a spoiler tag? You can get 2 endings in one run easily (Shurelia + one other) but it'd be a pain to start over from the first Aurica/Misha branch

[MeganeShounen]

Originally Posted by Clamp-X

One thing that really bothered me is the missing bishop. His existence just went poof without any leads.

Spoiler for endings:

If you haven't played them...

Spoiler for those who haven't played Aurica's story/gotten the Aurica ending:

The Bishop is actually an high ranking official from Platina, just like Leard Barsett and Shurelia. After the split... Aurica and Radolf (plus Lyner, if you chose to accompany them)go off to look for the Linker Hymn Crystal to herald the coming of the new Goddesses, which was actually a ploy by the Bishop to take over Platina.

It's been a while since I played the game, so I'm not so sure on the next few plot points...

His true intentions was to revive the most powerful Beta-Type Revateil in existence, Mir, by using the Linker to "download" her into Aurica's consciousness, but subsequently fails due to Lyner's intervention. The Bishop then somehow gets "infected" by Mir and turns into a large boss monster, which the party defeats.

Spoiler for the Misha ending:

After the split, Misha, Jack and Krushe (plus Lyner, if you chose to accompany them) go back to Hexagonal Plate and Tenba HQ to continue the search for the Chronicle Key Hymn Crystal.

They eventually find a secret facility created by Bourd Rade, who was secretly experimenting on Revateils (Misha, specifically) on how to extract certain Songs from their singers. They defeat Bourd and it's revealed that he's actually doing all the horrid experiments without the Tenba Conglomerate President's permission. After which, the party also finds the machine that was able to extract the Hymn Crystal from Misha in the first place, which also made her look like a kid.

They decide to re-upload the Chronicle Key into loli Misha... and voila, sweet sweet adult Misha GET.

If I'm not mistaken, Bourd Rade and the Bishop were in cahoots with each other. They were also the reason why Aurica's town got razed in the first place...

Multi-storyline games FTW. It's also what makes Ar Tonelico 2 great as well.

[mandarb916]

Originally Posted by Elvin

If you don't mind, can you write what happened in the Misha ending under a spoiler tag? You can get 2 endings in one run easily (Shurelia + one other) but it'd be a pain to start over from the first Aurica/Misha branch

3 endings in 1 route

a)heroine ending
b)eolia/shurelia ending
c)Tastiella ending

though a&b are more or less the same lol

[Elvin]

I never saw C cuz it was pretty much a bad end. If you want to get critical then technically there are 4 endings in a route; the early aurica or misha ending at the end of chapter 2 too.

[Hemisphere]

Looks like you English players finally get your wish!

The translations of some names and terms make me shudder inside though.

[HayashiTakara]

OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woot! December!

[MeganeShounen]

Kuroa == Croix?
Makes sense to me. (Try saying "Kuroa" fast enough, and there's a similiarity. )

I just hope that they'd retain the Dual Audio, and most of the "jokes" we loved in the first game....

Almost forgot.. since they got Luca's name (sortof) right, I wonder about Croche-sama?

BTW, the caption alongside the picture of Croche in the magazine article seems fitting.

[HayashiTakara]

From my understanding the jokes are still just as dirty. I hear some is even worse! Too bad we won't get anymore lolicon jokes from Misha though.

[DragoonKain3]

Originally Posted by RPGfan interview

NIS America also discussed with us two upcoming titles seeing American shores that we can't tell you about quite yet. However, we can say that one will be announced sometime before the end of July and is an iteration in a series that NIS fans are familiar with.

Yes! My hopes did come true; it was one of the two games NISAmerica has slated to release this year. Just too bad it's going to be competing with Persona 4, since it's also slated to be released in the same month.

Now I just hope that the second title is a PS3 title, but then again, looking up the usual suspects in Gust's and NIS JP's release list in Japan, I can't see anything that looks to be a good candidate. Maybe considering Banpresto co-developed Ar Tonelico II, maybe it's something they made, ala Super Robot Wars: Original Generation for the Ps2? XD

The second won't even be announced until September or October, but Jack says that, "a lot of the hardcore RPG fans will [enjoy the announcement]," and that the series has been around in Japan for a couple of generations.

[HayashiTakara]

I'll take Ar Tonelico over Persona any day of the week. The music is simply too epic.

[DragoonKain3]

In all honesty, I'm vastly lowering my expectations of this game, as I don't think anyone can match up to Misha. Which in all honesty, was the main reason why I loved the first game. Sure there's another childhood friend in this game, but that enhances my point even more: she is NOT Misha. T_T

As such, I'll be playing P4 first. And if it counts, I'm currently addicted to the P4 battle theme, and I'm trying my hardest to avoid listening to it since I'll be hearing it countless times come december. XD

[Hemisphere]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

In all honesty, I'm vastly lowering my expectations of this game, as I don't think anyone can match up to Misha. Which in all honesty, was the main reason why I loved the first game. Sure there's another childhood friend in this game, but that enhances my point even more: she is NOT Misha. T_T

As such, I'll be playing P4 first. And if it counts, I'm currently addicted to the P4 battle theme, and I'm trying my hardest to avoid listening to it since I'll be hearing it countless times come december. XD

You do get to meet Misha again. Though it's way late into the game, and requires you diving into a Cosmosphere that's purely optional.

[cranston]

Originally Posted by Erhjegel

Looks like you English players finally get your wish!

The translations of some names and terms make me shudder inside though.

At the bottom left of that page. It says Sep 2008. What does that mean?

[Elvin]

Maybe it's an advance (September) copy of the magazine?

[HayashiTakara]

People who subscribe to gaming magazines always get their copies extremely early. I know I did.

[Hemisphere]

Originally Posted by cranston

At the bottom left of that page. It says Sep 2008. What does that mean?

That it's an early advance copy.