A Role Playing Game with Dating Sim? Sounds Fun.
Ar tonelico tells the story of a young man named Lyner Barsett. The story begins when a mysterious new virus infected the Tower Of Ar tonelico, where the remaining survivors of Sol Ciel lived. Member of elite group called Knights Of Elemia, Lyner and company was given the job to protect the tower from the viruses. But even with their great skills and strenght, it turns out that they are no match againts this viruses. In order to have a fighting chance, the Hymn Crystal is needed. Lyner is know given the task to go down the lower world and retrieve the crystal but an accident on your airship made a crash landing on a place called Wings of Horus. That is where the real adventure begins. As you travel, you will be meeting several other characters that will be joining your party. As you progress, the story gets more deeper and interesting if you pay attention on whats going on. There will be plenty of funny and romantic moments as well as some serious ones.
Ar tonelico's gameplay is just like any other role playing game. The battle system is semi turn based, it may not be real time turn based just like you see in Final Fantasy games but it's still worth it. When you explore a dungeon or a hot zone area, there is a bar on the right side of the screen. It indicates the encounter level of the area. When it reaches red, you will encounter some enemies. After battle, it will turn blue and the encounter level will decrease. During battle you can see images of your characters and enemies above with some blue bars. When the bar is full, that indicates your turn to attack the enemy. If you manage to beat an enemy, you will get EXP points to level up your characters. You will also obtain some cash and items or battle rewards. The main party can consist of up to four members with Lyner being on the front, 2 in the middle and a Reyvateil. Sometimes you will be in a very tight situation, even with 3 characters attacking. That's where your fourth character does her job. Reyvateils are female singers that can charge huge amount of magical powers by singing. They act on their own during battle and by pressing the triangle button a menu will appear on what song you want her to sing. Once she starts singing, a bar on her right will show how much power is being charge. The higher the percentage, the stronger the effect of the damage to the oponent will be. She can also sing healing and support spells to the other party members to aid them in battle. One thing to watch out for is that her MP is based on how you charge her attacks. She will mention that she is getting tired when her MP is low, by that time you have to release the charge energy so that she can recover some MP.
Ar tonelico also features what you call Grathmelding. Those who played the Atelier Iris games will surely be familiar with this. It's basically another term for item synthesis. All you have to do of course is combined together certain ingredients so that you can create a new item that you can use during battle. By collecting different recipe cards, you will be able to create different items as long as you have the necessary ingredients. You can Grathmeld whenever your in a camp or in a inn. But unlike in the Atelier Iris games, you wont get a new item if you combined it with an old one but instead it will enhance the level of that item so it will be more effective in battle. Another fancy feature of the game is diving. Diving takes place later in the game and is when you enter the cosmosphere of your Reyvateil and explore their own little world in a sort of a dream. You can obtain some new songs and costumes for her if you enter a right spot or after triggering an event. Also you notice when taking a rest in a camp, Reyvateils may come inside your room and have a little chat with you. This are conversations and it allows you to help your relationship with your Reyvateils to be closer. There many topics scattered in the world, by collecting them you have something to discuss with her whenever you want. Just think it's a good way to spend time with a cute girl.
Graphically speaking, the game is a real work of art. It is the same as with the Atelier Iris games and yes it is definitely very old school. Despite of that it's very colorfull and it does not hurt on your eyes. There are also plenty of anime cutscenes in the game like the opening movie for you to enjoy. The character designs has not change. They are still in 2D sprites and but still they are also on good quality even if they look old school. The sound and music is probably the strongest point of the game. The musical scores are very original and it matches every situations. You can even hear a bit of rap music during some boss battles, first time i heard in an rpg game. The voice acting is not that bad. The character voices are well presented especially the voices of the female characters. Also like in Atelier Iris, you have the option to change the voice language from Japanese to English.
Ar tonelico is a pretty good rpg. A playing time of 20-30 hours will do the job and there are alot of sidequest you can do in the game. Not to mention diving most of the time and trying to get all the songs. Some people may not like the dating sim feature of the game, but if your a person with lots of patience you got no problem dealing with it. In the end, Ar tonelico is a beautifully crafted game. I definetely recomend this to any rpg fan or for those looking for a good game to play this Valentine's Day.