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!?

Ar two

Originally posted 2006-03-05.

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

Ar-tonelico continues to pile on the smiles. The combat is based on maintaining harmony with your Revetail, the singer who accompanies you into battle, as something of a mage-bard. That’s cool, but get this: when you craft a new item using the game’s cute little alchemy system, your current Reveteil suggests a cute name for it. Each Reveteil has her own preferences about item names, and her own way of convincing you to use her item names. You can agree with her suggestion or stick with your own name for the item. This means craftable items have several different possible names: one for each Revetail who might suggest a name, in addition to the standard name. As far as I can tell, this has no effect on the gameplay; it’s just the kind of touch that makes a solid game into an enthralling one. [](http://softlanding.metalbat.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/Picture 5.png) [](http://softlanding.metalbat.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/Picture 4.png) [](http://softlanding.metalbat.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/Picture 3.png)

Ar three

Originally posted 2006-03-29.

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

I had a nasty scare today. Ar Tonelico seemed to be wrapping up, after only 20 hours and not nearly enough fun. Just when I was afraid the final credits were about to roll, I saw PHASE 1 COMPLETE. It started me on Phase 2, which suggests that I’m not more than halfway through the game yet. That’s joyous news, because before this, I can’t remember the last time I wanted to play a game more than I had time for.

I enjoy games, but often I find myself playing them not to enjoy them, but to finish them. I just want to get my money’s worth, check the game off my list, and move on to the next game to see if that one might contain the fun I’ve been looking for since finishing Xenogears. It’s still too early to say whether this could be that game, but it sure is promising.

• Gorgeous character designs
• A variety of legendary-seeming characters
• Mysterious cities in the sky
• Mysterious, powerful masked characters
• Big clunky robot enemies
• Sleek alien robot enemies
• Hundreds of illustrated items to collect
• Extensive crafting system
• Visual-novel-esque conversation system
• Cute girls who weave magic by singing
• Costume system for aforementioned cute girls
• Isometric pixel art
• Entities whose circumstances go back to way before you met them

I could go on and on and on. Every time I try to itemize all of the things about this game that please me, I get lost in the volume of them. Each one is important, and yet none of them is as meaningful as the overall sensation of honest fun the game offers, in its own geeky and fringey way.

I ordered the USA version of Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, Gust’s other recent game, just because I want to tell them “thanks for making this kind of thing”, and I want to tell NIS America “thanks for bringing this kind of thing to my homeland”.

[](http://softlanding.metalbat.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/Picture 2.png) [](http://softlanding.metalbat.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/Picture 31.png)