neko’s thinkbox

The whole shebang.

Wow. It took me way longer than I had imagined it would, and… I am blown away. It’s been almost one hour since I finished the game, and I still have goosebumps all over my body, still teary-eyed. And listening to EXEC_with.METHOD_METAFALICA/. definitely won’t help it either.

Now that I’ve cleared both Ar Tonelico and Ar Tonelico 2 in roughly 2 weeks, I know I will have a hard time letting go. A very hard time. ^[1]

I don’t even know where to start. There’s so much on my mind… Guess I’ll just skim through the good and bad points before the soundtrack I am listening to right now erodes my crying barrier.

The Likes:

1. The increased difficulty. AT1 was sadly not very challenging, but AT2 put a little more of a fight, especially with the new battle system (which is great!). Initially, at least. There is a lot I have to reproach yet. I’ll get back to this later.
2. The story. It was brilliantly written and executed, lots of suspense and humor here and there, great emotional moments which put me on the verge of tears and sometimes even beyond, and a simply impressive atmosphere exceeding that of AT1. Though I didn’t really like how the whole tension between the Grand Bell and the Sacred Army was executed. Both “organizations” were so superficial in essence, and the way the Metafalss population flip-flopped on a regular basis because of small events really seemed a little exaggerated. Then again, that probably was the desired effect, hinting towards the gullibility of society and the influence of charismatic propagandists. But still, their ambitions were sometimes a little too abstract. It only made sense once both sides joined forces.
3. The characters.
   1. The male lead impressed me. Unlike Lyner, Croix was a lot more reasonable, down-to-earth, cool-headed. Much less pathetic.
   2. OBVIOUSLY, the two main heroines. And it was not like in AT1, where I clearly only liked Aurica (Shurelia to a certain extent), no, I liked both Luca and Cloche. Cloche’s ojou attitude annoyed me at first, but then again I couldn’t blame her for that, and really got to like her a lot over time. But eventually, I went for Luca. I had to go for looks to decide between them (and 95% of the cases, it’s the other way round…).
   3. Jakuri, well yeah. Her sarcastic “tsun”-style (as mentioned in Frelia’s Binary Sphere) and her gloominess kind of disturbed me at first, but her cosmosphere won me over. But it’s probably just my curiosity to see such an eccentric character as Mir smile and experience some love too.
   4. The sidekicks. Everyone’s story was touching in its own way, but I particularly liked Cocona’s. And it’s NOT because she’s a loli.
4. The references to characters and items from AT1. Every time Lyner, Aurica, Misha or Shurelia were distantly mentioned by Spica/Jakuri, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the nostalgia it caused.
5. The Infelsphere. It’s amazing to see how Luca and Cloche’s manifold points of view clash so bluntly in here, and how they can solve all that stuff by themselves.
6. Girl Talk. It’s fun to see them discuss stuff between each other for a change. It’s boring if they only talk to the male lead, after all.
7. The interaction with shopkeepers. (Except that one from Mint Block, I always wanted to burn down his shitty store because he kept wasting my time.) Over time, each shopkeep revealed a little more of their personality, and formed a strong bond with their customer(s), until the big finale of every single story. I particularly appreciated Cynthia’s story, and I kind of wished she could travel along with me. I really liked her. She almost even made me shed a tear during her emotional scene. ^[2] Oh and Spica, I still hate her. Why’d she, out of all good people from AT1, make it to Metafalss?? Pff. I’d rather have wanted to see Krusche sell hardware, or whatever.
Winamp now playing Hartes ciel, melenas walasye. brb, humming to it. ^[3] And crying a little.
8. Synthesis. Grathmelding from AT1 was pretty fun, yes, but the number of items there was simply overwhelming, and it was impossible to keep track of the conversations that would ensue after the melding. In AT2, there are much less items to synthesize, and they are all personalized. It’s not only clearer, but also fun because of every girl’s own personality and tastes, as well as the shopkeeper’s influence. And then there were always Croix’s exhilarating interjections during and after the Synthesis. It’s so fun to experience his woes with the moody heroines and shopkeeps. “Can you please consider the feelings of those who will have to wear/wield that stuff in battle?”
9. Replakia. ^[4] The first time it was used, I almost came in my pants. I who was used to petty burst rates of 50k-150k thus far suddenly got a 300000% burst rate. It really allowed for sheer ridiculous burst rates, and it flung me into ecstasy orbit every time I broke a new milestone - 500k, 750k, 1 million, 2 million… Highest was 3.8 million fucking percent, with the whole 100 IPDs. Poor Raki had to suffer. Most damage was 8 million, but that was against 4 monsters xD The only drawback with this was, it made the fights ridiculously easy.

Have some delicious Cocona.

Have some delicious Cocona to break this wall of text.
10. I.P.D.s. And to think it all started with one girl Luca saved, in the end I had ‘em all 100. The I.P.D. century. It wasn’t that hard to contain them, but it was a lot harder to get some of them to join the club. Spent the whole night yesterday trying to find 35 Poms and 10 Demons…
    But beyond Replekia, their individual effects upon equipping were interesting at first. Eventually, it was ridiculously imbalanced. More on this further below.
11. The Hymmnos language. Heck. It was already present in the first game, but I only got to appreciate it in this one. Seeing all the lyrics in the OST/hymmnos concert booklets really triggered my interest. Thus far, I can now read hymmnos and understand the basic structure of it (was yea ra chs hymmnos mea etc) but I lack 99% of the vocabulary. Should come with time, though.
    BTW, Pastalia hymmnos is a real pain in the arse. Just look at METHOD_REPLEKIA/. Holy shit. xO rre mLYOtOyOyO giz wOsLYI du giz wat the I don’t
    In any case, the whole theory and universe created around Hymmnos is simply mindblowing, and being able to read it (and knowing that it does make sense!) kind of makes the game (and the excellent music) even more enjoyable. Creating such a fictitious language centered on emotions for a game… impressive. Original, to say the least. Good Job, Akira Tsuchiya. Was yea ra chs cest art hymmnos.
12. The length of this game. I might have let the console idle or pause for about 15 hours in total, but the clock still showed 88 hours in the end. Of course, that’s because I couldn’t help but travel hundreds of times around the small world of Metafalss to find IPDs, recipes, and conversation topics. And consult each IPD’s Girl Log. And read the tutorial 100 times. And read almost all of the NPC’s street conversations. And deciphering Hymmnos. And going to Frelia’s Cosmosphere. And beating Raki ten times. Gosh, how can I now let go…
Winamp now playing EXEC SOL=FAGE/. brb, looking up lyrics yet again. Crazy song. Rrha ki ra nha _HYMMNOS/1×01asdfgh
13. The voice actors. I only noticed late in the game that at least Cloche’s voice seemed familiar. Why, she’s voiced by Sawashiro Miyuki. And henceforth, every time she spoke, the image of Mint from Galaxy Angel popped up in my mind. Especially when Cloche wore that Pippen costume in Frelia’s sphere. Effendi.
    And Luca is voiced by Ami Koshimizu. And then I thought of Tenma Tsukamoto. Shit, that’s why I hate looking up seiyuus. Both did a wonderful job though.

1. And for some reason, the more something impresses me, the more I just start writing stuff without even conveying a clear message. Look at the wall of text below… [↩]
2. And then Croix did the right thing, hugging her from behind. Good job, mate. That was perfect. [↩]
3. That song Luca sings at Rakshek in front of the townspeople. [↩]
4. Replekia? NISA couldn’t make up their minds in-game. [↩]