neko’s thinkbox

The best way to let go is…

nekosasu | August 28, 2009 | 4:39 am

…to either ragequit, experience an endless loop of oversaturation, or see and clear everything, such that there is no need to spend any further thought on it. And I think, the latter finally happened.

My new AT2 favorite. By Hijiri.

Over one month after I started playing Ar Tonelico, I am finally through with Ar Tonelico 2. You see, in the first game, I pretty much went straight for Aurica, and the whole bunch didn’t interest me at all. One ending and I was content.^[1] But here… no. I first went for Luca, but I knew I would be missing on a lot if I ignored Cloche and Jakuri.

But I wouldn’t have done it immediately, had I not been fueled by the comments^[2]^[3] on my AT2 clearance post. I even started the whole game anew, although not only for the Cloche’s route, but also only to experience the full Japanese audio from the precious Undub version I obtained from divine sources. I shall reiterate here that NISA totally fucked up their job with AT2, and that they should be burnt to the death.^[4] UNDUBS FOR THE FUCKING WIN. Bite me.^[5]

So, 60 (AT) + 70 (AT2-Luca) + 55 (AT2-”Loveless”) + 3 (AT2-Cloche) + 4 (AT2-Jakuri) hours later, can I say that this long and bumpy ride was worth the while? With so much time invested into this game, need I even say it?

Hell, yeah.

I was hoping all along to see an image like this in-game. But no. I’ve been let down by Nagi and Gust.
Just hugging, no kissing? Makes neko sad. Q_Q Anyway, this image by 犬森サヤカ. Props to you Jakuri lover. <3

I’m so glad I got Jakuri’s route last, she’s just awesome. Awesome. AWESOME! Although her Cosmosphere lv 9 was a little… meh. But still, awesome ending.^[6] Even more awesome than the default, uncommitted, “loveless” ending, which got me craving madly for AT3. OMG. I thought Croix would be eloping with Cynthia or the likes, but this… TOTALLY RELEVANT TO MY INTERESTS.

Jokes aside, it is important for the player to experience both major routes in Ar Tonelico 2 - not only because you have only limited access to the cosmospheres - but because of the interesting plot and interaction of feelings that are at stake within the Infelsphere.^[7] However, there is quite a criticism that I’ve thought of while playing the second route, and here is a neat spoiler tag you must click on if you have played the game. See if my thoughts make sense or so. »Show me dat spoiler!«

You see, there is a critical flaw to the concept of the Infelsphere. Either route is very interesting, and I fully enjoyed both of them; however in the end, only one side of the medal was revealed. There is only one victim at a time.
As far as I understood it, the Infelsphere is all about the two Maidens understanding and accepting each other as they are, but it’s only one-sided - there is no mutual understanding in any of those routes.

Sure, both of them do have legitimate reasons to express their hate and anxiety from their own imperfect lives and miserable pasts:

killed

- Cloche forcing Luca to acknowledge her unbearable lonely lifestyle as a Maiden and poster girl of the Grand Bell, her powerlessness, her atrocious past in the labs, etc. while reproaching Luca for being two-faced and indecent

But in either Infelsphere, there is always one who cannot make the counterpart experience her own hardships. Especially in Cloche’s route, I felt bad for Luca because she never really could express her loneliness and despair from the past, and the hate towards Cloche for having killed Leyka, for making the I.P.D. population suffer with her irrational leadership, and for swaying Croix with her commands. On the other hand, if I was to play Luca’s route now, I’d feel bad for Cloche, since she could never really make clear that she was only the avatar, the scapegoat of the Grand Bell, that she never tried to abuse of her status, and that she had a difficult past herself. (I have to admit that I find Cloche’s reproaches/arguments a little petty, but perhaps that’s just in direct comparison to Luca’s accusation of murder…)

While I agree that further revelations, as they happen throughout the Infelsphere, might attenuate each heroine’s own accusations towards the victimized person (eg. Luca finding out that Cloche never had a say in politics and decisions, so the “killing Leyka” argument would have been choked), I just cannot believe that this whole chain of correlated hate can be swept off with the simple epiphany that Cloche is Leyka, that Luca and Cloche are actually sisters. They both managed to forgive each other because they found out they were family, but isn’t that just too easy of a concession to kinship sympathy? Does forgiveness, errare humanum est apply only to family members? It might, even in real life, but it feels unfair. Because it is not the whole truth.

What if they had never remembered that crucial fact that they were sisters? They would have remained strangers. They would have not been able to forgive each other’s actions and pasts, and the Infelsphere would have been a failure. …unless they swapped roles, and were forced to travel through the counterparts’ Gaea themselves. So that they would be able to fully empty their rant bags onto each other, and finally reach a true, mutual understanding of each other.

I think that would have been the best way for the Infelsphere to succeed as a concept. The order of the Gaeas would then have been influenced by the one obvious decision before EXEC_METAFALICA/. And yeah, why not, the sisterhood revelation could have come after the two sides of the medal had been shown.

But perhaps I’m just saying this because I felt compelled to waste yet another 50 hours only to see this part of the story…

CHECK DIS OUT YO. I freaking S’d her! Talk topics are also all cleared. So there is no need to play the game again for that.

Sigh. Akira Tsuchiya’s plan went fully according to keikaku. Not only have these games taken so much of my time, but they’ve gotten me interested way beyond the mere games and the endless food for thought they already provide. These days, I’m flooding my brain with Hymmnos songs and Drama CDs, I’m uttering random Hymmnos sentences during TF2 scrims, heck, even my mum has to put up with METHOD_REPLEKIA/. in the car. Plus, there’s over 70 Toukouspheres I have yet to catch up to, and many other stuff related to the AT franchise… Not to mention the fact that AT3 has yet to be announced…

Did I say in the beginning that I’ve finally managed to let go? Heh, guess I was heading for the oversaturation path all along…

The only thing that can distract me now would be a massive dose of anime. And hell, I’ve got a metric crapton and a half to catch up to. It’s even too late for a mid-season review now, so I guess you can expect a batch of end reviews soon, if I am as lazy as I expect myself to be for the next few days. It goes without saying, though, that I will microblog on every episode during this backblogging game. Please refer to my melative stream for those updates ;)

Footnotes (As if there wasn't enough text above already...)

Probably because I was able to see all the cosmospheres, no matter the route I chose. [↩]
http://natsuneko.animeblogger.net/2009/08/15/cleared-ar-tonelico-2/comment-page-1/#comment-17159 by meganeshounen [↩]
http://natsuneko.animeblogger.net/2009/08/15/cleared-ar-tonelico-2/comment-page-1/#comment-17198 by Rinne [↩]
Not my fault! [↩]
The only drawback though was that it was an NTSC version, so it wouldn’t work with my PAL savegame - Luca’s extra data is missing in the new savegame. T_T [↩]
Although I had a hunch it was the song from the second Hymmnos concert album… Plus, with meganeshounen’s input, the surprise factor was greatly reduced. [↩]
And this advice coming from the same guy who completely ignored Misha in Ar Tonelico 1. I’m a bloody hypocrite, I know. [↩]

Categories: Games, Musings & Afterwords, Second Opinion
Tags: Ar Tonelico
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5 Responses to “The best way to let go is…”

GR says:

August 28, 2009 at 5:35 am

lol, ragequit? hell, u must be playing frickin l4d :/

Reply
- nekosasu says:
  
  August 28, 2009 at 5:42 am
  
  No I don’t?
  
  Reply
X10A_Freedom says:

August 28, 2009 at 5:44 am

And you still manage to squeeze in some TF2 into your life. woot. :D

Reply
- nekosasu says:
  
  August 28, 2009 at 10:29 pm
  
  Well, only the usual training/scrims we set on fixed days. As soon as the matches were over though, I returned to my PS2 immediately. D:
  
  And to prove that I’ve finally let go of this franchise, I ordered the Ar Tonelico manga earlier today. AT Arpeggio 1-3, ATII 1-3, plus one doujin anthology for each series.
  
  So not only am I falling deeper into this hole, but I’m also getting poorer… At least I didn’t order any Hymmnos soundtracks… yet.
  
  Reply
  - X10A_Freedom says:
    
    August 29, 2009 at 6:52 am
    
    LOL!
    
    Well, I dug myself into a deep enough hole completing my Aria manga collection!
    
    I waste enough time on Magical Battle Arena myself.
    
    Reply