Atelier Iris 2 — The Azoth of Destiny

Finished — 2006-09-24
Started — 2006-08-20
Platform — PlayStation 2

Atelier Iris 2: Bilingual Mode

Originally posted 2006-08-25.

Offering the original Japanese voices with the translated English text is one of the greatest gifts NIS America has given gamers. They should be applauded and thanked. But this bilingual mode exposes the accuracy of the translation to judgment.

For the most part, the translation is good. Sometimes I encounter bits I would have treated differently, especially when a character’s whole demeanor or intention is obscured: Beggur in the first Atelier Iris, a melodramatically chivalrous knight, talks smack like a wiseass teenager in the English version; often, plot points are dropped on the floor beween the languages. But other times a line is simply wrong: The unnamed subject is misunderstood, or one word is mistaken for another.

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Ar tonelico 世界の終わりで詩い続ける少女

Finished — 2006-06-10
Started — 2006-02-24
Platform — PlayStation 2

Ar tonelico

Originally posted 2006-02-24.

(Cross-posted ex post facto from Soft Landing Developers’ Diary)

A friend mentioned some new CRPG whose soundtrack he’d been listening to, just at the moment I was in the mood to spend some money and get into some new geeky series. I checked the site, saw the character designs, discovered that it includes a costume system, and ran out to get a copy. The first time I went, Pink Godzilla had but one copy, and it was on order for someone else. Dejectedly, I ordered a copy of my own and commenced obsessing. A week later, I dropped in to see if my copy had arrived; it hadn’t, but the existing copy was still unclaimed, and the fine Pinky-G staff judged that I deserved it more than the guy who was so late in picking it up. So, I’m only three hours into it, but being three whole hours into a game after owning it for one night means a lot for me. I usually have to push myself to keep playing, but for once I’m back in the state of having to weigh getting enough sleep versus continuing to the next save point. I’ve already discovered the battle system, including a harmonics system based on cute girls singing, the crafting/alchemy system which involves recipe trading cards, the Materia-like equipment-enhancement system, and the conversation system in which you try to develop a close spiritual bond with the aforementioned cute girls. There are still plenty of things in the menus that I haven’t been formally introduced to yet, like the costume system and the various other kinds of collectible cards. This is going to be fun. I’ve found a pile of parallels to Xenogears, which is about the best endorsement I can give a game so early after meeting it. Xenogears meets Nippon-Ichi meets Sakura Taisen? Could this be for real? What’s the world coming to!?

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