No review copies?! D: Didn't hear about that. . . KT Europe sort of tried to do a little PR, but yeah it's pretty sad.
It wasn't too over my head, but it might have helped I was preempted with prior world building from Ar Tonelico. Try to make it through, its a wonderful read.
I'm really not sure re how to handle this boss battle with Zill. She hits for way more than I can dish out, and since she attacks three times per turn I can't defend against both her and the robots she has. Cass' Song Magic charges so slowly too. Do I just have to grind until I get enough dive points to complete Sarly's first Genometrics to stand a chance?
Maybe I'm not getting it, but I'm not really liking the battle system overall. It just feels like there aren't enough options.
I'm a big fan of GUST, and I really like this game so far, but this game has such bizarre event pacing I just watched what I swear were a dozen back to back events in the restaurant. I get this vague sense that these events are supposed to pop up every time I go to the restaurant as a kind of subplot, but you can just breeze through all of these events at once so it's a tad jarring. I'm beginning to realize the sheer volume of text in this game. There's conversations in synthesis, talk events, the genometrics, and an absurd amount of conversations that occur as you walk around the maps. It's like a 1:4 ratio of gameplay to dialogue at this point.
I'm a big fan of GUST, and I really like this game so far, but this game has such bizarre event pacing I just watched what I swear were a dozen back to back events in the restaurant. I get this vague sense that these events are supposed to pop up every time I go to the restaurant as a kind of subplot, but you can just breeze through all of these events at once so it's a tad jarring. I'm beginning to realize the sheer volume of text in this game. There's conversations in synthesis, talk events, the genometrics, and an absurd amount of conversations that occur as you walk around the maps. It's like a 1:4 ratio of gameplay to dialogue at this point.
The pacing could use a bit of work, but personally I love all the reading. Then again, see my avatar.I'm a big fan of GUST, and I really like this game so far, but this game has such bizarre event pacing I just watched what I swear were a dozen back to back events in the restaurant. I get this vague sense that these events are supposed to pop up every time I go to the restaurant as a kind of subplot, but you can just breeze through all of these events at once so it's a tad jarring. I'm beginning to realize the sheer volume of text in this game. There's conversations in synthesis, talk events, the genometrics, and an absurd amount of conversations that occur as you walk around the maps. It's like a 1:4 ratio of gameplay to dialogue at this point.
They are like talk topics in AT games. You can discuss them during purification to unlock more slots. (You get access a bit further into the game if you haven't got it yet)what are these talk things I keep getting? are they optional events?
Can anyone tell me what a '7th Dimension RPG' is?
Please someone explain ES45 Cathode and Interdimend... Or this chapter entirely:
http://www.unit03.net/view/Ciel_nosurge/Summary/Chapter7-14
So really why did they decide to bring someone from another dimension? Scientific curiosity?
I must have missed or forgot something but how is Cas able to do song magic in Ar again? In Ciel I remember she tuned withbut now?Sarly or Nay since they're both "genom-like"
Nope, not at all. It'd be a spoiler if I explained what the genre meant. Play it for yourself and find outThe meaning was probably lost in translation.
Just received my copy from PlayAsia.
A question for Ar Tonelico fans - how much will i be missing if i've never played a single game in the series?
You'll miss more not having read Ciel before hand.
Got it, so only Ciel is essential then. Any word from KT regarding Ciel's localisation?
Got it, so only Ciel is essential then. Any word from KT regarding Ciel's localisation?
Got it, so only Ciel is essential then. Any word from KT regarding Ciel's localisation?
I captured some videos so I'd be able to enjoy synthesis in high quality everywhere:
The whole "reading Ciel suggested before playing" situation has one upside: if you enjoy reading it you're much more likely to enjoy Ar, and vice versa. So it's a bit of a targeted pre-selection
I'm really not sure how to handle this boss battle with Zill. She hits for way more than I can dish out, and since she attacks three times per turn I can't defend against both her and the robots she has. Cass' Song Magic charges so slowly too. Do I just have to grind until I get enough dive points to complete Sarly's first Genometrics to stand a chance?
Maybe I'm not getting it, but I'm not really liking the battle system overall. It just feels like there aren't enough options.
Random fights are a joke on Vet, bosses on the other hand are tough and challenging.
Healing items are a MUST, as a fail defense can easily take 80% of your whole HP away.
It is a good idea to get at least Lv3 "Barrier Recovery" (the one that allows you to refill your Gauge, not your HP since it only fills that gauge portion only).
All bosses on Vet are tough unless you know how to fight them correctly.
01) Make sure you have "Change/Knockback" on one of your skill. This is very important for later boss fights when you want to force the minion in front of the boss to end up behind so you can attack the boss to cause Break Mode on them.
02) Delay Burst allows you to deal lots of Break/Damage overall once you rake up a huge hitting combo.
03) In the beginning of battle, try using something to boost your Harmonics asap, so you can use your R1 skills or level up your Harmonic Level faster. You'll most likely be using Barrier Healing items afterwards.
04) Know who is attacking, and cause Break on those enemies. If boss is included, ALWAYS aim for boss to Break.
05) You can see their "Break Gauge" as the small yellow line underneath their HP bar. This shows how close they are in being broken.
06) Finally, know which moves deals the most Break damage, try to equip the "+1 usage" to allow more usage to make it easier to break them.
All my Vet Boss fights I've shown shows the tactical purposes needed to beat them, until I cant progress anymore due to some bugs for me on the JP version.
I'm liking the battle system more and more. Once you have a larger variety of skills to chose from, it's about quickly choosing the right combination of skills to apply in which situation, at which location, taking into account which enemies will act, and which of them can be either broken or defeated. Sometimes even which further waves will appear in the battle.
I also love how being good at battles basically means that you will have to fight much fewer of them (unless you want to) but still get the same rewards. And the best thing is that on veteran it's actually somewhat challenging, which is where the AT games (despite amazing and interesting battle systems) often failed
All that said, I think the difficulty between boss battles and regular battles is a bit imbalanced, at least on veteran. Theboss fight is about 10 times as hard as anything else in the game so far. Maybe I'm missing something, but if I won't be able to do it even on my third try I may be tempted to drop the difficulty to hard.Zill
Edit:
Just read the above, I figured pretty much all of that out already (except 6, which I don't think I've got access to yet) -- I can kill any normal group of enemies I have access to without even being hit once by using the right breaking skills at the right time. Maybe I should check if I can get access to some stronger healing items.
I'll second that Ion is incredibly adorable "Please don't cry! D:" "I'll just use my bomb 8)"
Also: her basic song thingy is HOLY GOD cute, I want one :<
02) Delay Burst allows you to deal lots of Break/Damage overall once you rake up a huge hitting combo.
06) Finally, know which moves deals the most Break damage, try to equip the "+1 usage" to allow more usage to make it easier to break them.
^ Yeah, about that, is there some way to get some information/glossary about what means what? I see stuff like "Break Time Enhance +2 or Breat Time Bonus +2 and I'm not strictly sure what they're doing. Same with things like Delay Burst, I dropped some sort of field down but I'm not sure what it's doing, delayed bomb? burst damage is stored up and applied all at once?
I'm guessing the TxBIOS effects are applied once that level of harmonics is reached and the later they're applied the stronger they are?
the R1+buttons I'm guessing are "amplified" version of the normal hits. Do the normal square hits have a purpose beyond being combo filler? I notice they transform if used in sequence.
Each turn heal, it's funny to say that but given the way I play, i tend to go through turns relatively quick, whether from breaking the necessary enemies to using all my attacks and I forget to use items.
I didn't bother guarding against the machines or even attacking since you can only guard 3 times per defense phase at the moment, I saved all 3 guard attempts for the boss. The reason not to attack the machines in the beginning is because the boss is such a bigger threat and she summons more.
Whenever possible break the boss "only" when they're gonna attack, and keep attacking her for the duration of the turn as much as possible. Breaking them during a turn she isn't attacking is a bad move because the turn afterwards they're going to attack, and because you broke them in the previous turn, their break value is now higher and you'd have to use more of the harmonic meter to probably do an additional R1 + X, which you probably won't be able to do.
When they summons more robots, that's pretty much the only time you should be attacking one directly in the fight, because it's in the same row as they are, so it has to be destroyed to get to them, at this point I bust out my friend skill, and whatever AOE's I have, possibly song magic too, in my 5th attempt I destroyed all robots at this point.
All that said, I think the difficulty between boss battles and regular battles is a bit imbalanced, at least on veteran. Theboss fight is about 10 times as hard as anything else in the game so far. Maybe I'm missing something, but if I won't be able to do it even on my third try I may be tempted to drop the difficulty to hard.Zill
Yeah, some of the boss fights seem like they're downright impossible on veteran unless you do some ridiculous grinding or are on a new game plus, like a few fights in AT3 were (most notably the very first one.) I just went ahead and went down to hard- I may go back up to veteran if things start feeling too easy, but thus far it's been okay.
My biggest gripe with this game so far is that it feels like the design team didn't realize that combat can actually be difficult in this game and plan save point placement/cutscene skippability accordingly. The first Zill fight on Delta's channel is a prime example- not only does the fight trigger when you are ten steps away from a save point, but they also won't let you go to it between that fight and the previous miniboss fight (which was also somewhat challenging,) and there are a fair amount of cutscenes in that stretch as well.
I know, the first thing I do when I get a new skill is read its full stats in the encyclopedia. That's how I workX, Circle + X, and R1 + X deal the most break damage actually.
I'm liking the battle system more and more. Once you have a larger variety of skills to chose from, it's about quickly choosing the right combination of skills to apply in which situation, at which location, taking into account which enemies will act, and which of them can be either broken or defeated. Sometimes even which further waves will appear in the battle.
I also love how being good at battles basically means that you will have to fight much fewer of them (unless you want to) but still get the same rewards. And the best thing is that on veteran it's actually somewhat challenging, which is where the AT games (despite amazing and interesting battle systems) often failed
All that said, I think the difficulty between boss battles and regular battles is a bit imbalanced, at least on veteran. Theboss fight is about 10 times as hard as anything else in the game so far. Maybe I'm missing something, but if I won't be able to do it even on my third try I may be tempted to drop the difficulty to hard.Zill
Edit:
Just read the above, I figured pretty much all of that out already (except 6, which I don't think I've got access to yet) -- I can kill any normal group of enemies I have access to without even being hit once by using the right breaking skills at the right time. Maybe I should check if I can get access to some stronger healing items.
I'm guessing the TxBIOS effects are applied once that level of harmonics is reached and the later they're applied the stronger they are?
So, I hit Ion's first Genometric's sphere,and I've Genometric til een junked over and over. The first checkpoint seemed alright, the second doesn't seem to end well regardless (though I did get a gem from it!) and the third seems unknowable unless I played Ciel (though I know enough to pick pride at the first and then tentacle at the second made the heart of light accuse me of cheating.... which should mean it's right? Fourth checkpoint just boots me back out and the Judge Gate gives me a score of 25 regardless, do I have to progress the story or is there some combination I haven't tried yet?)
Edit: Also: Thanks for the info everyone~
For all the BS Bosses on Vet give me, you'd think the game would throw me a bone and give me experience for boss battles. This is probably the only RPG I've ever played that gives you nothing for beating bosses.
So after picking up Ar Nosurge I got sentimental about the Ar Tonelico series and I grabbed my AT3 disc for a little nostalgia. I popped it in and played for an hour or so, loading my clear data and starting from the beginning.
Wow. I was floored.
Now this is just my subjective opinion here, but after about 30 hours in, I like Ar Tonelico Qoga much more than Nosurge.
Ar Tonelico Qoga has:
-better music, hands down. Seriously, pop AT3 back in for a few minutes.
-better characters, lead character especially. Delta is such a fucking wad.
-better character animation (just check the idle animations in the AT3 gallery)
-better frame rate
-better art (backgrounds, city transitions, 2d + 3d mix, picture unlocks)
-better conversations
-better bosses (except that one we shall not name)
-better anime interstitials (higher quality of AT3 is instantly apparent)
-better story setup/reveals
-deeper, more rewarding cosmospheres (so far)
-easier menus and upgrades
-better (jp) voice acting
to name a few...
Now, on the subject of the battle system. I quite like Ar Nosurge's approach. It's satisfying and can be quite strategic on higher difficulties. That said, I miss the connection to the Reyvateil that Qoga has. Running back to her to heal, blasting enemies off of her, harmonizing your attacks. It was more engaging to me.
Here's my take. Qoga was the last in the AT series. It was a labor of love and a love letter to all the AT fans. They took the fanservice over the top, sure - but the rest of the game exudes quality in almost all aspects.
Compared to AT3 (and most definitely AT1 + 2), Nosurge seems like a budget title.
I have been a huge fan of AT for many years. I have been looking forward to this game for a long time. I may change my tune after 60 hours with Nosurge, but as first impressions go, this game is the worst in the (loosely connected, thematically similar) series.
So after picking up Ar Nosurge I got sentimental about the Tonelico series and I grabbed my AT3 disc for a little nostalgia. I popped it in and played for an hour or so, loading my clear data and starting from the beginning.
Wow. I was floored.
Now this is just my subjective opinion here, but after about 30 hours in, I like Ar Tonelico Qoga much more than Nosurge.