Colorful and charming,with enjoyable goofy/sexual humor,emotional story moments,date sim elements,creative battle system
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Story
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The main story is set in a world named 'Ar Ciel',where people are forced to live on artificial land high in the sky after a post-apocalyptic event.There is not enough artificial land for people to crow crops and to make things worse,a virus is spreading that only effects Reyvateils(Reyvateils are powerful,genetically engineered women who have an abilty to use song magic)and this virus makes the Reyvateils turn psychotic.Also,the artificial land they've created is actually sinking.
The people in their world are hoping they can move to a utopia named 'Metafalcia' which is ruled by Goddesses,but the Goddesses won't allow the people in this world to live in Metafalcia,so Ar Ciel's government(named Grand Bell) created some sort of anti-Goddess movement which gained a lot of support from the people in Ar Ciel but even within the Grand Bell there is divide and conflict which plays a major role in the story later on.
What makes the story enjoyable are it's female characters because they can be very funny and some of them will get angry easily but in a comical way or like to use sexual humor/inneundo or will say crazy stuff,such as accusing Croix (the main character in the game)of sexually harrassing them even if all the Croix wants to do is talk.Some female characters(even NPCs) will accuse Croix of flirting with them,or trying to get a date with them and one NPC even asked is Croix a gigalo.
It's funny watching the arguements between female characters or watching them hit Croix when they're mad at him.You can also make decisions that effect the story,such as deciding which girl to protect/help and which girl you want Croix to date.
Croix is a knight who was sent by Grand Bell to find out what was causing the virus that effects the Reyvateils and contain it.
My favorite characters in the game are the female characters,such as Luca,Cloche,Jacqli(who are all Reyvateils)as well as Skycat,Spica and some others.
The female characters have good distintive personalities.
Luca is the gentle,sweet type,who has her own dark secrets.
Cloche is bad-tempered and yells at everyone,but tries to involve herself politically to help the people in her world because she serves Grand Bell.
Cocona is another female character who is only 11 years old and she was adopted by Croix after...
SPOILER
her family died
END OF SPOILER
and Cocona is very energetic and wants to help Croix.
Jacqli speaks in a almost robotic way at first and she's very mysterious and doesn't show a lot of emotion until later on.
Amarie is a wanderer who has feelings for another guy but he won't get over his dead lover and you'll see her try to push him to get over her.
Reisha is Luca's attractive,busty cheerful mother.
There's other female characters who brighten up the game,but I don't want to mention them all.
As for the male or humanoid characters,there's:-
Leglius,who is the captain of the group of knights who Croix is part of and he's a brute and no nonsense type of guy who has feelings for another female party member.
Shun is a blue,wolf like creature who's hundreds of years old,seems wise and tough(I guess he's very similar to Red XIII from FFVII).
Alfman is a high ranking person within Grand Bell and he wants to fight against the Goddesses and take possesion of Metafalcia and you can't be sure whether to trust him or not.
The story can be very emotional at times,enough to make you wipe a tear and the story has love triangles too.
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Gameplay
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The battle system has offensive and defensive phases.The offensive phases allow you to perform melee attacks with your vanguards(front row characters)or cast or use song magic with your Reyvateils(who are always on the back row).The longer you make a Reyvateil cast a song(spell)the more powerful it will become but the longer you cast the song means the longer you'll need to protect the Reyvateils.However,you can use each type of song only one time per battle,so you need to be careful not to waste each song/spell,especially since they're capable of doing a lot of damage to bosses.
During defensive phases,you'll need to use your vanguards to protect the Reyvateils by pressing square or X are the right time(indicated on the screen)to block attacks from enemies.The defensive phases rank your timing when you block attacks as perfect,good,bad,terrible etc.If your timing is spot on when you block an attack,it will completely nullify an enemy attack and will boost up your song guage a lot(the song guage is the meter that fills up when your casting a song which indicates how powerful the spell will be when you cast it).A good ranking will mean your will suffer health loss but only a small amount,bad timing means your vanguard will lose a lot of health and terrible timing will mean your vanguard and the Reyvateil will lose health.
The song/spells can be attacking spells,buffs of healing spells.
Your vanguard level up the old fashioned way(through experience points earned during battle).Your Reyvateils level up by bathing in water with crystals which can be bought,found or earned.
As for the date sim elements,you can choose to make a girl become your girlfriend and even be in a relationship with her at the end of the game(which is why the game has 4 different endings).However,to be with certain girls,you'll need to do specific things,such as choosing to protect her at the start of the game,side with her during certain times in the story when there's conflict within your own party,and talk to her enough so you can earn dive points so you can use a machine to dive into her subconscious and get to know her better(which will also unlock more powerful songs/spells for that girl plus new costumes(with better defensive attributes).When you progress to a certain level within the comosphere(from diving)she will ask you do you want to be her boyfriend? But you can only have one girlfriend.
There's also an infelsphere which focuses more on the memories of Luca and Cloche and allows them to become closer and learn strong combination spells.
There's also a replika system that cloche can initiate and if your party defeat and save many infected Reyvateils and you get enough support for Cloche's fanclub,cloche can use those Reyvateils to aid her in battle when she uses her replika attack and it can inflict massive damage to enemies.
To initiate conversations with the girls when you're trying to make them become your girlfriend or so you can learn more powerful spells,you can talk to them when you're at an inn or save point.However,there needs to be a topic available to talk to them about,and sometimes topics are automatically unlocked when you go to certain places or progress through the story,but sometimes you'll need to find certain conversation topics by exploring the world(just like in real life,sometimes people need to go out and about to discover interesting things to talk to other people about).
The gameplay does have a few flaws.A big one is the NTSC version of this game has a huge glitch which forces you to defeat one of the bosses near the end of the game within 3 attacking phases or the game will freeze.Also,even though the game gives you clues on where you need to go next,sometimes the clues are a bit useless and it can be hard to find where you need to go next.Also,sometimes you'll need to rewatch a long cutscene if you lose to a boss.
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Graphics
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The artstyle and presentation for this game is fantastic,even for today's standards(in February 2011)the artstyle and graphics still have a lot of charm and look colorful.
Luca looks cute/pretty and has nice shoulder length purple hair.She often wears an interesting style of clothing(a pinkish/purple coat that is attached to her neck and covers her arms and sides but shows off her body a lot too (including the tiny green colored tank top and skirt she wears underneath).Luca has a lovely smile too.
Cloche is blonde haired and her facial expressions match her snotty attitude.She dresses as if she's a high ranking member of some royal/religious group.
Skycat is a cute,busty maid and the way she look and dresses suits her bubbly personality.
Jacqli wears a lot of black and has black hair and a cold expression.
The Reyvateils can also wear different dresses too,for example,Luca can also wear a dress that makes her look like a witch or a schoolgirl.Cloche can wear a sophisticated outfit and glasses.Jacqli can wear a bathing suit.
I've explained how Reisha looks like an older,but attractive busty blonde haired woman.
Croix has long purple hair and often wears armor but sometimes can dress casually and wears glasses to look smarter.
Leglius is very muscular,has scars on his face.
The world looks lovely and colorful.The cities don't provide much places to explore but their background environments on the visual novel style screens will show good details such as tall buildings,flying vehicles and high tech transport systems.
This game has a lot of visual novel style screens,especially when you dive into a person,and you might see lovely flower fields,inside classrooms or various villages and it gives the environments some nice variety.
The graphics have some CGI scenes but the're nothing special,and also has some anime scenes.Some of the song effects are quite charming,such as when you can use a song to bury an enemy under a pile of junk or when you use the song that has a cute sun face and two girls that will unlesh magic on an enemy and the healing spells look quite charming such as seeing a giant medicine jar pouring medicine on your party.
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Sound
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This game has a lot of lovely music.Sometimes it can have a nice electronic flavor to it,or when you see a flower field it can have a lovely delicate feel to it.I like how you'll hear the female electronic voice that says ''Ar Tonelico'' during the load screens.The music can be charming at times to give the game a light hearted feel to it.
The english VA's are actually quite good and match the personalities of the characters quite well,but you also have the option of switching to the Japanese VA's.
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Overall
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Like I've said at the start of my review this is one of my favorite all-time RPGs because it has a story that can be very emotional,humorous(in a goofy or sexual way),blends sci-fi and religion together and has a nice colorful world and nice visual novel style elements and well created battle system and levelling up elements and wonderful music.
I spent over 80 hours playing this game and it was a pleasure to play from start to finish I still could play this game for longer to earn the different endings.