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Ar Tonelico Qoga |OT| - Singing the Song that Ends the World

luka

Loves Robotech S1
Hcoregamer00 said:
Wow, I am in the middle of phase 3 right now. The whole plot twist with Tastumi was expected,
I knew that Tatsumi was a girl by the fact that he was so distant with Aono and Finnel's advances. What was the huge plot twist was that Tastumi was Cocona from Ar Tonelico 2.
I am still shocked by that.
Wow, that really caught you off guard? They must have altered or made it a little more subtle because even with my admittedly meager command of the Japanese language could pick up all the blaringly obvious hints (even more obvious because Jakuri sent her to go to Sol Cluster at the end of AT2). Her obsession with geroggo, the way he had basically the same objective, the voice altering medicine, the similar way of speaking (buu~), the fact that he just just happened to have something that could nullify a reyvateil's signal and make them look like normal girls... There's probably a ton more but it's been months since I've played it.
 

RurouniZel

Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
Hcoregamer00 said:
Wow, I am in the middle of phase 3 right now. The whole plot twist with Tastumi was expected,
I knew that Tatsumi was a girl by the fact that he was so distant with Aono and Finnel's advances. What was the huge plot twist was that Tastumi was Cocona from Ar Tonelico 2.
I am still shocked by that.

Yeah, that was pretty cool. Though I had just finished AT2 a couple of weeks prior to importing the Japanese one so I saw it coming a little sooner. So awesome! ^_^
 

Makoto

Member
Okay, so I'm really lost to point of frustration on the objective, "I'm worried about
Akane
. Let's hurry on over to the Executive District." I know the Clustania District is the Executive District. I know that. I've scoured through the awful series of transparent floors and elevators several times now. What I need to now is where in the district she is and how to get there. Does anyone who has completed this objective know the exact directions when navigating through the district?

Edit: Shortened.
 

RurouniZel

Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
vidal said:
Okay, so I'm really lost to point of frustration on the objective, "I'm worried about
Akane
. Let's hurry on over to the Executive District." I know the Clustania District is the Executive District. I know that. I've scoured through the awful series of transparent floors and elevators several times now. What I need to now is where in the district she is and how to get there. Does anyone who has completed this objective know the exact directions when navigating through the district?

Edit: Shortened.

I forget exactly where she is in this part of the game, but she's either in one of two directions: The Havestasha module, or Tower A.

Directions to Havestasha Module:
1) From Entrance, go straight up to elevator.
2) Run down to where it forces you either left or right. Turn right and go up elevator.
3) Go straight down and up elevator.
4) Path forks left or right. Take the left fork and continue left. When you see the path up leading to elevator, go up and take elevator.
5) Down, then right, then up, and you'll see the save point.

To Tower A:
1) From Entrance, go straight up to elevator.
2) Run down to where it forces you either left or right. Turn left and go up elevator.
3) Go up all the way through the door.

I suffered through this in Japanese, that's the only reason I know this bloody building like the back of my hand now. Not sure if I should be proud of that. ^^

EDIT: Now that I think of it, I think she's in the Havestasha module, if memory serves.
 

luka

Loves Robotech S1
vidal said:
Okay, so I'm really lost to point of frustration on the objective, "I'm worried about
Akane
. Let's hurry on over to the Executive District." I know the Clustania District is the Executive District. I know that. I've scoured through the awful series of transparent floors and elevators several times now. What I need to now is where in the district she is and how to get there. Does anyone who has completed this objective know the exact directions when navigating through the district?

Edit: Shortened.
Ahahaha the Clusternia Governorate. Welcome to my nightmare. :)
 

Makoto

Member
RurouniZel said:
I forget exactly where she is in this part of the game, but she's either in one of two directions: The Havestasha module, or Tower A.

Directions to Havestasha Module:
1) From Entrance, go straight up to elevator.
2) Run down to where it forces you either left or right. Turn right and go up elevator.
3) Go straight down and up elevator.
4) Path forks left or right. Take the left fork and continue left. When you see the path up leading to elevator, go up and take elevator.
5) Down, then right, then up, and you'll see the save point.

I suffered through this in Japanese, that's the only reason I know this bloody building like the back of my hand now. Not sure if I should be proud of that. ^^

EDIT: Now that I think of it, I think she's in the Havestasha module, if memory serves.

You are an absolute genius. You were correct, it was the Harvestasha Module I needed to go to and it was exactly where you described it. Thank you.



luka said:
Ahahaha the Clusternia Governorate. Welcome to my nightmare. :)

The place is torture. The encounters don't help even if I do escape immediately because then I forget which floor I'm on, then I start sweating bullets trying to gain some ground before the next encounter.
 

cyclenut

Member
Did anyone else have japanese audio issues being out of sync with the subtitles in:

The ending conversation in Tyria's level 3 dive (good ending).

The Japanese audio was out of sync with the subtitles.
 

RurouniZel

Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
cyclenut said:
Did anyone else have japanese audio issues being out of sync with the subtitles in:

The ending conversation in Tyria's level 3 dive (good ending).

The Japanese audio was out of sync with the subtitles.

Yes, this happened to me as well. I thought maybe it was because my PS3 was dying (and did die), but if others are having this issue, then it's clearly a mess up. :/

vidal said:
You are an absolute genius. You were correct, it was the Harvestasha Module I needed to go to and it was exactly where you described it. Thank you.

You're welcome, glad I could help. ^_^
 

cyclenut

Member
RurouniZel said:
Yes, this happened to me as well. I thought maybe it was because my PS3 was dying (and did die), but if others are having this issue, then it's clearly a mess up. :/

Okay thanks, i'm glad it wasnt just me.

Also, EX-COSMOFLIPS hymnos. is WIN! Definitely the highlight in the music for me so far.
 

lljride

Member
I didn't have much going on this weekend, so I got to make a ton of progress which was nice. Got all the endings except Saki's Normal/True endings. Just have to get her remaining CG trophies and 100% CS, and the Level 99 trophy and I'm done...

Except for the 100 hour trophy. I guess I was too efficient with branching saves, because I only have 47 hours logged so far. I should have everything else done completely in about 10 more hours tops. We'll see if I'm enough of a trophy whore to leave my PS3 on for hours at a time getting the remaining time for that trophy
(I am)
.
 

Durante

Member
FINALLY!
When people are posting their final thoughts on the game I receive my order. And I got a report deadline tomorrow so I can't even really get into it today. Or tomorrow.
Anyway, get ready for some horrible taken-at-night cell phone pictures:

Unexpectedly HUEG box:
28032011421ja9v.jpg


First run pack-in artbook comparison between JP and US version:
28032011422o9ds.jpg


Table of Contents:
28032011423xay2.jpg


Looking through the content, the only thing that seems to be missing from the US book is this page, some kind of historic timeline:
28032011424xy67.jpg


The other 6 pages of background information (mostly on Reyvateils, the gamma sublimator, aviation and the sol cluster tower) actually seem to be fully translated. Great job by NISA, but they could have gone all the way.

Edit: actually, the lyrics page for ~Harmonics TILIA~ is missing as well. but that's not such a big loss, you can get them + music + english translation on youtube.
 

Durante

Member
Got to play a bit now, really enjoying it. As expected, the battle system seems to be a step back from AT2, but everything else is great. Really loving the clean and smooth graphics, a huge improvement.

I added some screenshots from various parts of the game (all very early, so no danger of spoilers) to the OP to give an impression of what the game looks like. Basically it varies between full 3D in dungeons and battles and 3D characters on 2D backgrounds in towns and special locations.

In order: cutscene, dungeon exploration, city map, cosmosphere diving, battle, inn.
2011-03-29_23-21-20jyzx.jpg

2011-03-29_23-05-54eaz8.jpg

2011-03-29_23-55-40f994.jpg

2011-03-30_00-33-03w9el.jpg

2011-03-29_23-47-40xzrd.jpg

2011-03-29_23-56-37o9bj.jpg


That image quality.
 

matmanx1

Member
I absolutely agree about the image quality. Even if the onscreen images aren't very complex the IQ is very, very good. I wish more games went with clean, colorful 1080p graphics even if it meant sacrificing some of the complexity. I know it's a personal choice but I think it looks fantastic.

I'm not very far in to phase 2 but I'm still enjoying the game very much. This week has been pretty nutty at work with the 3DS launch so I've spent very little time on my PS3 but I'll get back in to it later this week.
 

Dante23

Member
I played today and I finally understood the battle system, it is pretty awesome. At first the maximum damage I was able to deal was 7000, but after understanding out of nowhere I started doing easily millions, that was ridiculous.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
At phase 4, here is what I did so far

-Finally beat the first level of Tyria's cosmosphere, it is hard.
-Maxed out Saki's cosmosphere
-Friendzoned Finnel :(
-The relationship between mute and the dude, so cute
-The Doctor proposing, holy crap!

Yeah, I am liking the game quite a bit, I was disappointed that I got the bad ending first, then I got Saki's normal ending. After that I used New Game+ to do all the proper things to get Phase 4.
 

RurouniZel

Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
Hcoregamer00 said:
At phase 4, here is what I did so far

-Finally beat the first level of Tyria's cosmosphere, it is hard.
-Maxed out Saki's cosmosphere
-Friendzoned Finnel :(
-The relationship between mute and the dude, so cute
-The Doctor proposing, holy crap!

Yeah, I am liking the game quite a bit, I was disappointed that I got the bad ending first, then I got Saki's normal ending. After that I used New Game+ to do all the proper things to get Phase 4.

Glad you're liking it. It's a good game ^_^
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
RurouniZel said:
Glad you're liking it. It's a good game ^_^

Yes it is, the battle system can get really addicting. I find myself just fighting battles so that I can synch my battle style with
Cocona
as lead fighting with the different songs.

I am still disappointed in the music, it is nowhere near as awesome as Ar Tonelico 2. While there are some amazing pieces, the soundtrack as a whole is a lot weaker. I love the graphics engine, it would be really cool if they can remake the first two games with something like this.

I will say this, Mute is also unexpectedly awesome. She is one of my favorite non party characters in the game.
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
Girlfriend and I played a bit today. Gave her a high five when she first got the blonde girl to get to a level 2 strip. Nice outfit! I'm having a really good time watching her progress through the game and reading the dialogue. Very funny, shameless stuff. Only got to play a few rounds of the combat, and it seemed pretty dull, but we're early on, so I'm hoping it gets fleshed out.

Game looks really nice, but the UI is a godawful memory of my PSO days. Super dated looking stuff.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Just started the game. Should I go English or Japanese Dub?

After looking at the personality changes, I completely forgot about the undressing thing lol.

Also *Character Spoilers*
Obvious girl is obvious. I don't want to use the other word commonly used on the internet since it's looked down on.
 

kiryogi

Banned
Trojita said:
Just started the game. Should I go English or Japanese Dub?

After looking at the personality changes, I completely forgot about the undressing thing lol.

Also *Character Spoilers*
Obvious girl is obvious. I don't want to use the other word commonly used on the internet since it's looked down on.

Depends on what you're looking for. There's more voiced in japanese, but the DLC is dub only.
 
Durante said:
FINALLY!
Table of Contents:
28032011423xay2.jpg


Looking through the content, the only thing that seems to be missing from the US book is this page, some kind of historic timeline:

The other 6 pages of background information (mostly on Reyvateils, the gamma sublimator, aviation and the sol cluster tower) actually seem to be fully translated. Great job by NISA, but they could have gone all the way.

Here's the PAL artbook contents if you want a further comparison.

PALContents.jpg


It's missing background info, but personally I'm just glad we actually got the damn thing.

While I'm here, what's the deal with
Cocona
in this game? Is she actually a fully fledged party member, or can you only use her for part of the game or something?

Edit: Er, never mind. Probably should've tried playing the game first.
 

Abylim

Member
I picked this up the other day, have to say I'm loving it, the dialogue kills me!
I love diving, and the topics afterwards. It helps that I am abit pervy, but this game isnt all about that. I have seen a few reviews mention that if this game had no innuendo that it wouldnt be worth noting, I disagree. I'm enjoying everything about it thus far.

I didnt quite master purging until i fluked it, and noticed I did it on a red note, and it all went smoothly! Is it true that if you hold 2 buttons instead of one, she will purge more?

Awesome thread, wish there was abit more info in the OP though!
 

Aru

Member
Will I enjoy this game if I enjoyed AT1 but didn't play AT2 (my PS2 is almost dead so I couldn't take the risk to buy the game and not finish it... and AFAIK it's not BC with the PS3) ?
 

Durante

Member
Aru said:
Will I enjoy this game if I enjoyed AT1 but didn't play AT2
Yes. The references to the previous games are nice for people who followed the series, but in no way essential to this entry.

(But you should still play AT2, it's really good. If you have a decent PC it's perfectly playable in PCSX2, so maybe that would be an option.)

A Huge Battleship said:
Here's the PAL artbook contents if you want a further comparison.
Interesting, I didn't expect it to differ from the US one. I wonder why they did that.
 
Alrighty, just started Phase 3. Thoughts so far:

Battle system - Probably my least favourite of the three, though it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination. Vanguards' actions don't feel developed enough, and only having effective access to one song per battle (and no blue magic) is a huge step backwards. On the plus side, the BGM variation/interaction is funky as hell, and the whole multiple personalities thing is a neat feature.
Cosmospheres - Shaping up to be the best of the series. I'm not that far through them since they actually require a decent amount of DP this time.
Characters - Saki is a strong contender for the worst character in the history of everything. Finnel's alright. The 3rd Reyvateil will probably be showing up soon to steal the show again
though she'll have to be Mir-tier to stop me going for the Cocona ending. Cocona rocks.
Cameos are all cool. Mute is cool.
Story - Don't really feel as if I've seen much so far. Most interesting moment has been the
V-Board GP
for obvious reasons.

Aesthetics are generally good. I'm enjoying it despite anything negative I've said above.
 

RurouniZel

Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
A Huge Battleship said:
Characters - Saki is a strong contender for the worst character in the history of everything. Finnel's alright.

I agree, though Hcoregamer00 will hate me for saying that. ;_;
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
RurouniZel said:
I agree, though Hcoregamer00 will hate me for saying that. ;_;

Boo!!! I don't get all the hate. Maybe her voice sucks in english or something, but I like Saki a lot. The only character I don't like is the lead character because he is too stupid and gullible.

At least we can agree that Mute is freaking awesome, she is the best example of why looks don't matter if you can make the character so memorable and so damn likable.
 

RurouniZel

Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
Hcoregamer00 said:
Boo!!! I don't get all the hate. Maybe her voice sucks in english or something, but I like Saki a lot. The only character I don't like is the lead character because he is too stupid and gullible.

At least we can agree that Mute is freaking awesome, she is the best example of why looks don't matter if you can make the character so memorable and so damn likable.

I agree, Mute is bloody awesome! XD If I had to say why I dislike Saki, its that (and again this is just my opinion), she goes way beyond goodie-too-shoes and straight into "5 year old occupying a 16 year old body", which is a turn off for me. I can deal with goodie-too-shoes (see Belldandy), but the latter is harder for me to sympathize with. And again this is just an opinion. :/

Finnel isn't a significantly better option, but she's at least a touch more realistic to me.
 

Akselziys

Aksys Games Dev.
Hcoregamer00 said:
Boo!!! I don't get all the hate. Maybe her voice sucks in english or something, but I like Saki a lot. The only character I don't like is the lead character because he is too stupid and gullible.

At least we can agree that Mute is freaking awesome, she is the best example of why looks don't matter if you can make the character so memorable and so damn likable.

Saki FTW!
First ending was her true ending of course <3
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
RurouniZel said:
I agree, Mute is bloody awesome! XD If I had to say why I dislike Saki, its that (and again this is just my opinion), she goes way beyond goodie-too-shoes and straight into "5 year old occupying a 16 year old body", which is a turn off for me. I can deal with goodie-too-shoes (see Belldandy), but the latter is harder for me to sympathize with. And again this is just an opinion. :/

Finnel isn't a significantly better option, but she's at least a touch more realistic to me.

While I could see where you are coming from, having a character like that is not a bad thing. I am probably one of the few people who LIKE Belldandy in Oh My Goddess! To be honest, Miaka in Fushigi Yugi is a lot like her and I HATE Miaka.

I guess I can swing both ways and this time I ended liking Saki in Ar Tonelico.

It isn't like Tsundere, I like all tsundere characters and Qoga is full of them, both male and female.
 

kiryogi

Banned
Yknow, there was a fun discussion on gamefaqs about the main heroes. Many agree that Aoto is probably the best of the three, with Lyner being the worst. I'm almost inclined to agree with them on that. The chemistry between the girls and Aoto is really good. Although Croix was pretty accomodating too. Then finally there's Lyner, who was either complete ass or idiot, take your pick.
 

Akselziys

Aksys Games Dev.
Speaking of the boys, I think my canon pairings would be
Lyner x Misha, Croix x Luca, and Aoto x Saki :D

Though, in Ar Tonelico 3, there was something that was sorely missed...
Spica!
 

kiryogi

Banned
On all the Saki hate, I'm almost willing to agree with it too. Won't deny I wasn't a fan of hers in the beginning, but she grew on me. And the circumstances behind her and more are pretty tragic.
That Saki isn't the real owner of the body but Sakia is... :eek:
On the other hand, I wasn't feeling Finnel much either. (Let's face it, both of them weren't really sellers to me from the getgo) But she was definitely a lot more tolerable than Saki.

And as someone mentioned earlier, I definitely agree that the 3rd Reyvateil is the winner. <3 Maaya Sakamoto. Agepan.

Finally a special note for the dub fans, Christina Vee (Saki) and Stephanie Sheh (Finnel) will be @ SakuraCon anime convention in 2 weeks! Gonna get my ArT3 signed by them :D
 

Durante

Member
Well, I'm not too far into the game yet, but so far I prefer Finnel by a good margin.

Anyway, I agree with whoever said that the Cosmosperes are great this time around.
From turn-based strategy to stuff like this:
2011-04-03_18-52-35znas.jpg

it's very entertaining.

Some more screenshots:
2011-04-04_23-56-419u4q.jpg

2011-04-05_00-30-47bunc.jpg

2011-04-05_00-24-189uas.jpg

That last one is my biggest WTF moment in the game so far. From the buildup you'd expect some kind of epic hymmnos. And instead you get... that.
 

atomsk

Party Pooper
It would be nice if Best Buy actually planned on carrying this damn game...

Put in my order the first day they put the page up (the 16th) and they still haven't sent me the game.

Called them up and they say "backordered from manufacturer" which means they never got it in the first place.

What the hell NISA... (also they aren't responding to my emails about this)
 

kiryogi

Banned
Saki trolled player hardcore... I knew it was coming and even seen it before, but having actually play it myself it's just. What. The Hell.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
Quixzlizx said:
I don't know whether you care about whether the book is in English or not, but everyone else in this thread might want to know about this. I have the Ar Tonelico, Atelier, and Valkyria books all pre-ordered.

Ar Tonelico Visual Book Preorder

Thanks, it has been preordered, along with the VC and Atelier artbook.

How dare you have the same great taste :)
 

Quixzlizx

Member
Hcoregamer00 said:
Thanks, it has been preordered, along with the VC and Atelier artbook.

How dare you have the same great taste :)

I'm also slowly being converted from grudging tolerance to appreciation of handheld gaming, especially with the NGP on the way. Just give me HDMI out and my transformation will be complete ;)
 
A Huge Battleship said:
Finished the game with a
Cocona end, though last minute surges from Finnel (largely due to pity; her Cosmosphere probably is the series' best) and Tyria (just plain cool) nearly changed my mind.
Final boss was well-executed and, pleasingly, impossible to OHKO.

Also this is probably the best worst idea ever.


Whoa whoa whoa! What!?

Did I fall asleep during that scene or something? I could almost PROMISE I did not see that scene during my game. Finnel and Harvy were different.... am I going crazy? lol!

So did I fall asleep, or are their requirements for that scene? I know harvy is a jerk, but my memory of Finnel during that scene was someone much more sad and emotional. I recall that scene being pretty serious, but that video showed a total joke.

I gottta look this up. Maybe I am losing it. lol!


EDIT: Oh I see now. DLC! Phew...
 

Akselziys

Aksys Games Dev.
Spirit Icana said:
Whoa whoa whoa! What!?

Did I fall asleep during that scene or something? I could almost PROMISE I did not see that scene during my game. Finnel and Harvy were different.... am I going crazy? lol!

So did I fall asleep, or are their requirements for that scene? I know harvy is a jerk, but my memory of Finnel during that scene was someone much more sad and emotional. I recall that scene being pretty serious, but that video showed a total joke.

I gottta look this up. Maybe I am losing it. lol!

That's a DLC that you can download that makes
Harvestasha's personality different throughout the game. There are ~4 diff personality DLCs you can d/l from PSN
 
Akselziys said:
That's a DLC that you can download that makes
Harvestasha's personality different throughout the game. There are ~4 diff personality DLCs you can d/l from PSN

Fast response! Yeah, gamefaqs had my answer sitting in wait too. Thanks!
 
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