Luca Truelywaath and Croche Latel Pastalie, AT2’s main Reyvtails
It’s been more than a month since it came out, and though I wanted to talk about it the moment I got a hold of it, I wasn’t able to. That’s because I was too busy playing the heck out of the game - and enjoying every second of it!
The story of Ar tonelico 2 starts off with Chroah Vatel, a young Knight who works for an organization whose purpose is to seek out and confine Reyvtails who are afflicted with I.P.D. Though he dislikes what he is doing, he has no choice but to continue doing his duty to his organization. One day, while on a routine mission with his partner Cocona Vatel, a young Reyvtail who uses martial arts for lack of song magic, he is entrusted with the task of protecting Chroche Latel Pastalie, their organization’s miko. From there on, Chroah embarks on a quest to find out the truth behind I.P.D., Meta Falls, and the lost song of Metafalica.
Like Shuugo, Chroah’s tasked with protecting a VIP, though Chroah doesn’t need to crossdress in order to do his job
Ar tonelico 2 has definitely improved a lot since the first game came out. In terms of gameplay, the game has a lot more to offer than just the newly-revamped battle system, which is definitely a welcome change over AT1’s, which was similar to the many other RPGs found in the market. You’ve got additional diving to do, not just in the girls’ individual cosmospheres, but also in the Infel Sphere (which involves a dive with two Reyvtails, to put it simply). You’ve got Song Spells that vary according to whose route you’re in, unlike AT1’s, which means that you don’t get every Song Spell unlocked on your first game. The conversations, events, dungeons and dual spells unlocked also depend on whose route you’ve chosen. This means that the Reyvtail you pick will get all her costumes and song magics available, while the unchosen girl/s will have only a few of their complete costumes and song magics available at their disposal. This is because only the chosen girl’s Cosmosphere will be unlocked up to Lv. 9, while everyone else will be locked at Lv. 5, and if you’re familiar with AT1 and how it worked, Cosmosphere Dives are the way to unlock new song magics and costumes. That’s additional reason for you to actually replay the game just to see the four different endings, either with Luca, Croche, Jakuri, or Cocona.
For their Costumes, AT2 has more available costumes than AT1. To begin with, Shurelia wasn’t able to wear any of her outfits outside of her Cosmosphere, which was a big letdown, but that doesn’t apply to Jakuri! Luca gets costumes that would be similar to Orica’s clothing lineup, as she has a miko, mahou shoujo, school uniform, witch, and even a KOS-MOS-ish battle robot attire, aside from others more, while Croche gets a samurai, school girl, mahou shoujo and Penpen costume. I went for Luca’s route, so I wasn’t able to view Croche’s complete costume list, along with Jakuri, but I’m going to go for Croche’s route next time just to see what her other costumes are, as well as her dual spell. I was laughing hard, though, at Jakuri’s cosmosphere, particularly when Chroah remarks that both Luca and Croche appear to be really enjoying their roles as mahou shoujos.
In Ar tonelico, it is every Reyvtail’s fantasy to be a mahou shoujo! Except for a certain Misha Arsellec Lune, of course…
Also, the Grathmelding system has been somewhat altered. I say “somewhat” because it still works just like in AT1: you get a recipe, you gather the necessary items, you create the item following the recipe with a Reyvtail, and end up with the final product, with the Reyvtail being the one to name the item (Orica the naming idiot always gives me a laugh or two). In AT1, though, no matter which Reyvtail you pick, you still end up with the same item. In AT2, however, choosing different Reyvtails for the same recipe results in different items. Need an example?
Say I get a recipe card: it’s for a cookie. In the restaurant, you have both Luca and Jakuri available for Grathmelding, and you first pick Luca help you make the cookie. What comes out is a deadly item that would inflict Shock on any person absolutely stupid enough to eat it (much to Luca’s dismay (?)). If you pick Jakuri to help you in making the cookie, using the same recipe, you end up with a different end result: a cookie so hard that it can actually be used as a weapon. Note that I actually don’t remember what item Luca produces with the cookie recipe, but this is how the Grathmelding system works now. Different Reyvtails, different end results, and it can be quite a fun pasttime to collect and create all the possible items. Additionally, you don’t just collect recipe cards from dungeons, bosses, or pick them up: they’re gained by speaking to the respective people who give them out, and there are four of them. They are also the ones who convert Files that you find in dungeons into recipes - so I guess recipes gained from dungeons isn’t completely out of the picture, somewhat.
Regarding the battle system, the refinements are definitely a fun addition. As shown by the Emotion Indicator, there are four things that happen whenever you attack an enemy. Harmonics involve the increase of your attack levels, Burst involves the increase of the Reyvtail’s song magic charge, Psycho helps in synchronizing your Reyvtails with one another, and Care involves slowing down the MP consumption from song magic. You now also have Attack and Defend Phases, not Turns, which means that you have a certain amount of time to do what you want to do before the enemy gets their turn.
Aside from the various attacks that your character can pull off, you can also have them execute EX attacks, or their special moves. This is done by having any character level up the emotion indicator several times, and if you’ve fulfilled the necessary condition, you’ll see the attack bar charge up from Lv. 1 to Lv. EX. You’ll then see the respective FMVs for that character’s EX attack start up if you chose to pull it off. These attacks are usually powerful, but not enough to finish off bosses unless you’ve overlevelled. The attacks are pretty fun to see,though, if only because they remind me of SRW games. What with Chroah pulling off Alt Eisen Riese’s Revolving Bunker, Cocona doing Thrudgelmir’s Hoshinagi no Tachi, Shun imitating Rein Weiss Ritter, and others more.
Of course, the Reyvtails aren’t just the ones with flashy special attacks. Reyvtails can now pull off Dual Songs, which are Song Spells that are available only when the two of them are in Synchronity Chain. A Synchronity Chain occurs when the Revytails’ emotion waves have come together, and occurs much easier if your Reyvtail’s synchronity is higher than 50%. These Dual Spells, however, happen only with a Synchronity Chain, and will always be performed after the Synchronity Chain has ended - so it’s highly advisable that you charge up your preferred spell first before you go into Synchronity Chain.
So what’s the benefit of dual spells? Well, not only are these dual song spells quite flashy, they are also very powerful. The strongest spell in the game, EXEC_PHANTASMAGORIA, is available only as Jakuri’s dual spell. And for those familiar with the name, EXEC_PHANTASMAGORIA is also the ending song of Ar tonelico 1, sang by all three Reyvtails. You also get to see them in animated form, Frelia’s Cosmosphere aside.
Also, both dual spells and certain song magic now have musical cut-ins before they are launched! While it seems insignificant, this is a nice thing to add to the system, seeing as Reyvtails are supposed to be singing when harnessing the power of song magics. Now, they do! This is most obvious when using most, if not all, dual spells, particularly EXEC_PHANTASMAGORIA. If you need to see some samples for yourself, then you can check out Master LL’s videos of dual spells in action. Take note that all of these dual spells are the ones available in Luca’s route, so if you chose Croche’s route, you’d definitely see different dual spells. Personally, I like using Luca and Croche’s first dual spell: the ice miko and the fire witch are just too cute, along with the song that plays when they’re in action.
Hagaru may not know how to use song magic, but her regular attack magic hurts like hell!
As for the game’s music, it’s absolutely wonderful. For me, the BGMs are on-par with AT1’s; also, there are many memorable tracks to listen to, such as Harmonics Frelia, the dive shop music, the Cosmosphere music for both Luca and Croche, and my favorite, the DualStall music. It’s just so cute to listen to! There’s also the Hymnos songs from the game, and they are just as good, if not better, than AT1’s Hymnos. Hymnos songs like EXEC_METAFALICA, METHOD_REPLEKIA, EXEC_SPHILIA, EXEC_DESPEDIA, EXEC_HARMONIUS_FUSION, METHOD_IMPLANTA, METHOD_METAFALICA, EXEC_VIENA, EXEC_with.METHOD_METAFALICA, and others more, makes for pure listening bliss. Though I can’t help but see Misha, Orica or Shurelia in my head whenever I listen to certain Hymnos songs. Because of AT1, I had EXEC_CHRONICLE_KEY, EXEC_PURGER/.#Misha.extracting and EXEC_PHANTASMAGORIA stuck in both my playlist and my head for quite a long time. With AT2, it’s EXEC_VIENA, METHOD_IMPLANTA, METHOD_REPLEKIA, EXEC_SPHILIA, EXEC_DESPEDIA and the three METAFALICA songs: EXEC, METHOD, and EXEC_with.METHOD.
People might get bothered by the graphics at first, but it’s nothing unusual for those who are accustomed to Gust’s style of 2D. Though I have to say that I’m curious as to why the movement in the world map in AT2 is slower than in AT1. Compared to Chroah who walks around the map a bit sluggish, Lyner is able to move like a bat out of hell.
The story…well, I’d love to talk about the story here, but I feel that I’d be doing injustice to the people who have yet to play this game, who have played this game, and to the game in general. It’s theme, though, is not so much wishing for an ideal, utopic world, but realizing that this world is the only world that we have, and despite all the faults with it and with people, we have to push on and accept things for what they are. There’s more to it than that, but it would just reduce the emotional impact that the game has, so I leave it to you to decide.
Being a conductor in the Ar tonelico world must be quite a difficult job…
What made AT1 really fun for me were the conversations in the game, ranging from those involving Grathmelding, Diving to even the storyline-related ones. I loved it when the Reyvtails dropped hints about how they felt for the main character (though in Lyner’s case, it didn’t so much amuse me as it did irritate me), or when they’d poke fun at the other Reyvtail’s faults, and such. Trust me when I say that AT2 has over double the dialogue present when compared to AT1, and twice the humor. Catfights in the Infel Sphere are always amusing, especially when both Reyvtails get carried away! Not only that, but certain Talk Matters are quite hilarious, especially when they refer to AT1 characters.
An example: anytime Jakuri refers to the “Goddess of Ar tonelico who never fails to get lost within her own tower” is always a welcome laugh. Another one is when, regarding childhood promises, Jakuri compliments Chroah on remembering and upholding the childhood promise that he made with Targana, and Chroah dismisses her praise, telling her that it’s nothing particularly outstanding. She then makes a passing comment on how she knows of a guy who once made a childhood promise to a girl, and not only did he fail to uphold the promise, but he also forgot who the girl was. Chroah, completely shocked, questions how is it possible that such a guy can exist.
I was laughing for a long time thanks to that.
Regarding Reyvtail catfights: What happens in the Infel Sphere, stays in the Infel Sphere
If you liked the first Ar tonelico, then you’re going to love Ar tonelico 2. Think of the first AT as an appetizer, and AT2 as the main course, delivered by Banpresto and Gust. And if you liked the Hymnos Concert of Ar tonelico 1, then Ar tonelico 2’s own Hymnos Concert might just drive you nuts.
Oh, and if you guys are curious about the whole “Tsundere is a man’s romance!” line in the title, then worry no longer. It’s actually a line in the game, said by Croche towards Luca, in one of their many catfights. Which just adds to the awesomeness of the game. Get it now if you want to see the scene and fully understand it!
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November 8th, 2008 - 10:51 pm
Very nice info. Thanks for sharing.
November 11th, 2008 - 9:00 pm
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