• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Ar nosurge |OT| – Class__EXPAJA;

matmanx1

Member
Almost done with chapter 8 on the Ciel summary. The story has taken a very dramatic turn and is far heavier than I would have thought!
 
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.

Review copies did go out in some capacity. I got one out of nowhere today.
 

kiryogi

Banned
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.

Are you using healing items every turn? Really Just focus on breaking the frontal mobs to minimize damage from them. But also try to burn to Zill ASAP so you can put her into hold state, it's straight forward after that. You could also just drop difficulty
 
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.

Yeah, I think this is my complaint as well. I'd like to play my game instead of reading a half-hour conversation about every new item I synthesize.
 

kiryogi

Banned
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.

Yeah as much as I love the character development and interactions. It's overkill. But yeah, every time you synth something that has event next to it, expect a cutscenes afterwards.
 

BluWacky

Member
I ended up having to drop Zill down to normal to beat her, at which point it became trivial to do so. I suppose the lesson is "buy lots of healing items", but I was playing like a normal JRPG where you barely ever need to do that, which I guess was my mistake.

Briefly started Ion's first bit. This is somewhere where I'm very glad to have skimmed the Ciel summary...
 

lonely

Member
I preordered this at my local Game but my copy didn't come. I'm going to blame FIFA and hope I can pick it up before work today. :(
 

Durante

Member
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.
 

galvenize

Member
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 with
Sarly or Nay since they're both "genom-like"
but now?
 

OceanBlue

Member
Damn, the more I go through Ion's Genometrics, the sadder I get about not having been able to play Ciel nosurge. (Spoilers for Nelico's Genometrics)
When they start mentioning the person who unlocked Ion's memories, Ion says she doesn't remember him. Nelico even outright says, "Someone unlocked her memories. Not you," or something like that, which stopped me for a bit. Not only does it suck to miss out on some dialogue (and I heard there's an ending CG you miss too? does that mean that you miss out on an entire scene?), it's more depressing as someone who read the spoilers to know about the huge impact the Ciel nosurge player had on Ion, only to end up with a different person on the Earthes terminal and the Ciel nosurge player forgotten ;_; . It'd be so satisfying and romantic if they were both the same person. I think I'm more emotional because I read the indepth summary :(.

Also holy shit, the final scene in the Ciel nosurge roleplay was too real.
 
I need to check this out eventually. Don't have the money for it right now and I still want to get Xillia 2 first.
The PS3 just keeps on giving me reasons to use it.
 

kiryogi

Banned
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?

Interdimend isn't fully explained as its a major Ar nosurge plot point, but essentially "From the quote, "He tells Nay about a technology that allows people from different worlds to remotely manipulate things in their world." The ES45 is a major component to working it, it's essentially what's in the Avatar/Earthes

And yes, it was really scientific curiosity that brought Nelo and Ion to Ra Ciela. Brilliant right? But as you can see, Nay scolds him for it.

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 with
Sarly or Nay since they're both "genom-like"
but now?

At the end of Ciel, you see little Casty grab one of the ampules that Zill uses to become an incarnate. Although it seems like Casty doesn't go through this process until Ar nosurge, as seems as she's at least a teenager here, while Sarly remains as little as she was in Ciel almost. I'm not completely sure either as I'm not far enough, but Sarly's genometrics sort of hint that Sarly forced it on Casty actually, I could be wrong however on that note.

The meaning was probably lost in translation.
Nope, not at all. It'd be a spoiler if I explained what the genre meant. Play it for yourself and find out :eek:
 

Ravage

Member
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?
 
This game is pretty awesome. I remember selecting "New Game" and DAT MUSIC started playing. Is that Origa? That was awesome!

I'm playing on Veteran. I had to do a lot of grinding at the beginning of Chapter 2 with Earthes and Ion. Now things are going smoothly. If only I can figure out what Kano values most and what Nay is hiding. I can't seem to pass the 3rd exam in Ion's cosmosphere and I feel I've picked all the choices. :( Maybe I need to advance through the story some more. Still early in chapter two and at level 20.

And yeah, there is a ton of text in this game. I like the character development and stuff, but chill Gust. At least the text is a lot more interesting to read than in some of the Atelier games.

Oh yeah, and Earthes >>>>>>Delta. I'm like both Ion and Casty. If Ion keeps her language clean for the whole game, I might like her more. I don't need a mary sue, but I prefer dudes and gals who don't cuss. :)

Got it, so only Ciel is essential then. Any word from KT regarding Ciel's localisation?

If this game somehow sells really well, we might get it.
 
Got it, so only Ciel is essential then. Any word from KT regarding Ciel's localisation?

I wouldn't wait on playing Ar Nosurge until a Ciel localization happens- if it does, it won't be for a while. Just read the long summary in the OP and you'll be okay (or the short one if you're impatient.)
 

Durante

Member
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 :p
 

Einbroch

Banned
My God...so much text. I'm to the point where I'm just skipping all the side stuff and just reading the main storyline. It's just way too much. Also, the battle system seems super easy and spammy? Even bumping up the difficulty I'm just spamming and timing my defense.

So far I'm just entertained enough to keep pushing through. That said, I'm only like 3 hours in and this could all change.
 

Shingro

Member
(the side text is the best part, it is the texture that makes this game unique XD)

Anywho, has jumping actually mattered for anyone yet? It feels like it's in there for tradition's sake more then anything else.
 

kiryogi

Banned
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 :p

And I don't think anyone that's read it has not liked it :D All have actually really enjoyed it and were surprised.

Also. . . A Ciel localization is very unlikely, unless this does absolutely amazing numbers. So waiting for it isn't going to help the situation unfortunately.

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.

A little crossforum posting here, saw BluWacky on Gfaqs too discussing this.

From MasterLL on Gamefaqs with some localization editing:

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.
 

Durante

Member
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. The
Zill
boss 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.

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.
 

Shingro

Member
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, is there a timing component to that too? Sometimes it seems I get repeated single shots and sometimes it seems to transform.
 

kiryogi

Banned
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. The
Zill
boss 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.

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.

X, Circle + X, and R1 + X deal the most break damage actually. And I don't recall, did you get to the end of Phase 1 for Ion yet? That's probably worse. If you watch MasterLL's fight, it's one hell of a struggle.

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.

The glossary explains all effects for both battle and genometrica crystals if I recall correctly.

Also regarding Ion's "Heart of Light", although I don't know if it's explained in game yet or not, but I can't help but think it's like Ion's cute gearhead representation of Telefunken. It's also really well animated! I want one D:

Also further Gamefaqs crossposting, some boss strat from Setsuei, about the importance of knowing when and who to break:

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. The
Zill
boss 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.

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.
 

kiryogi

Banned
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.

It was probably designed more around normal or something, as normal is mostly trivial in challenge, with hard and veteran being an after thought or something they expect you to try on 2nd playthrough. I've only suggested hard or veteran because normal is really too easy.
 

Durante

Member
X, Circle + X, and R1 + X deal the most break damage actually.
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 work :p

Anyway, I found that I could still get a few more recipes at Sarly's place, so I'll retry with some new equipment.
 
Zill/Jill/Whatever
took me 4 retries but I finally beat her on Vet. For those of you having trouble this fight is BS anyways, but level up enough to get Delay Burst, which does quite a large amount of damage if you use it at the start of a turn.

Try to unlock the synthesis events till you get the Satellite Launcher and Chicken/Egg Bowl from Sarly. The "Lyrical Hitman" item from Nay can also be helpful, but you need to work through like a million scenes for it. This item is one that can randomly force enemy position changes, so you can use it to pull the boss to the front (attach it to the square so you can use it a bunch of times).

My basic strategy was to open with the Satellite Launcher item (gives you instant Harmonics bar, letting you use Delay Burst), and attack the line that the boss is on. Then every turn after that spam Barrier Recovery items (Chicken/Egg Bowl).

Once the boss is exposed, I found R1+X to be more useful than R1+O, since R1+X does a ton of break damage. You can't stunlock the boss every turn, but it makes it so that the boss only attacks every three turns. If you have enough healing items you can tank her to death.
 

RurouniZel

Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
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. The
Zill
boss 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.

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.

The battle system is the best one since Ar Tonelico 2 in my opinion. So much fun! :D
 

Cindered

Neo Member
So I figured out what's going on with the TxBIOS slots: All of the equip slots are out of order, level 2 activates when you reach 1 in battle, level 3 at 2, and so on. I haven't gotten far enough in the game to see if the level 1 slots will activate at level 4, I really hope they do.

So, yeah, shift all your BIOS equips down a level, especially anything equipped to level one if you want to actually use those early on.
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?

I don't think when they activate matters, the harmoheal effect always healed for the same amount regardless of where it was placed.
 

Shingro

Member
So, I hit Ion's first Genometric's sphere,
and I've been 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.
 

kiryogi

Banned
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~

Clearly you are not worthy of Ion Sama. Actually real answer is you cannot clear her Genometric until you are dive level 3 and are in phase 2


Freak: actually Final Fantasy bosses don't give XP from what I recall
 

bigninja

Member
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.
 

Shingro

Member
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.

I can back you on the music, nothing's really blown my socks off like the Hymnos used to.

Also I do think Qoga gets a little toooo much hate for the fanservice, but different people different taste you know?

Qoga battle system was a tremendous idea, make music a fundamental part of battle is very AT in theme even if I sorta wish the execution was better.

I also like how Qoga caps the themes of the series (Reyvateils subjected AT1 -> Reyvateils tolerated/hunted/partners? AT2 -> Reyvateils dominant AT3)

That being said I'm not going to judge until the game is over, so much of Ar Tonelico is in the scenarios and way they twist the scenarios to make the resultant song/emotion push that much more powerful.
 

kiryogi

Banned
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.

You might be the only person I know that not only praises qoga, but put it above the AR nosurge. But opinions will be opinions. Now not to discount it. It's great to find someone that did enjoy it. Despite its flaws I enjoyed it as its still AR tonelico. In fact, Tilia is the best origin. That said when I have people whose first Ar Tonelico game was Qoga and telling me how it's traumatized them on the series, then having to convince them it was a one off, I think there was a massive problem with Qoga.
 
I love the clarity of the "help" section of the encyclopedia.

Burst Bonus: Increases rate at which Burst Gauge rises.
Burst Enhance: Increases the rate at which the Burst Gauge rises.
 
Top Bottom