Fulfilling, with a memorable story fit for the culmination of the series. Yet, faults prevent AT3 from being a classic.
STORY
AT3, as the name suggests, is the third Ar Tonelico game, which takes place on the world of Ar Ciel. This time, the events focus on the third tower, situated on the lands of Sol Cluster. The story generally takes place two years after the events of Ar Tonelico 2.
The main protagonist is Aoto, who calls himself a "steeplejack" or someone who works like a construction worker on the steep inclines of the countryside. His journey begins upon his rescue of a girl named Saki, who is on the run from the authorities. As his journey progresses, Aoto meets friends, enemies, and eventually becomes involved in the fulfilment of a plan that took 700 years in the making.
GRAPHICS
Being the first Ar Tonelico game in full 3D, the graphics are definitely better than its predecessors. The environment is crisper and more colourful, while retaining some of the designs that made the previous titles desirable. The 2D portraits of the characters also contained brighter colours, and had more details ingrained into them.
However, compared with other titles on the PS3, AT3 lags behind. It is not as detailed as the models and the environment of Final Fantasy XIII, nor are the explosions and other special effects equal with the ones in action games.
The movement of the characters are also far from perfect, as Aoto can be seen running even while falling from the higher ground. His figure can also be seen that his movement while going up a ladder does not match the handholds. The rendering of the characters also looks best when seen from afar; but up close, the imperfections are easy to spot.
It's also a shame that most of the enemy and NPC (aside from the plot-relevant ones) models are mostly recycled and edited from basic versions.
SOUND/MUSIC
AT3 has superb songs and music. The music here sets the stage for the scenes, and will definitely influence the mood of the player. Hilarious scenes are accompanied by happy-go-lucky tunes, while dramatic events are further made heart-rending by the deep notes and sounds. Also, the player has the capability to influence the battle's BGM using the R.A.H. battle system, which is neat.
With regards to the songs, they are all first rate. They are sung by some of the most successful game and anime singers such as Haruka Shimotsuki, Akiko Shikata, and KOKIA. Furthermore, every line of the lyrics is important, as each song represents a concept in the game since one of the central themes revolves around songs as a way to convey emotions.
Voice acting also gives the game a feeling of life. I generally play the game using the Japanese dubs, which was excellent. I respect the voice actors for their ability to use their voices in creating stunning wails of anguish to their manifestation of vocal shyness during awkward moments. I have also heard the English dubbing of the game, and it is good too. In the end, it will be a matter of preference, since both sides were well-done.
GAME PLAY
The game still retains its dating simulation and role-playing game elements. The player can freely choose to dictate the development of Aoto's relationship with one of the four heroines. The factors that can influence this area of the game include the player's choices of who Aoto thinks about during specific parts of the game, the level of cosmosphere progression, and accepting or rejecting a heroine's "confession". All in all, 8 possible endings exist: 1 bad ending, 3 normal endings, and 4 true endings.
Like previous Ar Tonelico games, the party consists of characters that can be classified into two types: the vanguards and the reyvateils. The vanguards retain their responsibility of holding off the enemy while the reyvateil charges up her song magic. Up to three vanguards and one reyvateil can take their place in combat. The burst gauge is still here, which shows how powerful the song magic's damage will be.
The difference this time is that the battles take place on a full 3d plain, and allows free movement. Oddly though, the reyvateil cannot be moved across the battlefield. Enemies not actively engaged in combat with a vanguard generally go after the reyvateil. If an enemy makes it into the blue circle around the reyvateil, the reyvateil stops singing and begins to lose health. As long as an enemy is within the circle, the burst gauge will not increase. During these times, an emergency move called "blow" can be used by pressing circle, and pushes the intruding enemy away from the circle. This move has a cool down though.
Also, each reyvateil now is limited to one song magic, unlike the previous games. Blue magic here automatically affects the party. Additional effects such as increasing the amount of automatic healing, increasing defense, etc, can be programmed into the song, which can be done via "song synthesis" at save points or at inns. This was a minus for me, as the variety of song magic dwindled to a mere 10, compared with the previous games.
One unique aspect of battles in this game is the "stripping" component called "purging." In the game, as the heroines remove their clothing, the more powerful their song becomes. The reason for this is acceptable, which will be explained by the game.
Generally, combat in AT3 is easy, but a first-time player may have difficulties at the start, as there are very few tutorials given. As the game progresses, combat becomes simple = hold out for a few seconds while the reyvateil charges the song, discharge the song, and watch the enemies go to their deaths. Status effects are a joke, with the exception of paralysis due to its characteristic of wasting your time. Poison does very little damage and curse halves the attack power of the vanguard, which was not significant in the first place.
Item synthesis has been retained in the game, but the number of recipes has also been decreased. AT3, however, offers different scenes during the creation of items, which will differ depending on which reyvateil the player chooses to do the synthesis with. Thus, each item has 3 different scenes. I stand on neutral ground here, as the number of items available via synthesis were definitely less in number compared with the previous titles, but it is balanced out by the witty and humorous conversations between characters during synthesis.
Diving into reyvateil cosmospheres are also retained. Here, dive points gained through combat are spent in order to advance within the mind of a reyvateil. At the cosmosphere, the player gets to understand the origin of the reyvateil's personality, their fears, and their likes and dislikes. The deeper the player gets in the cosmosphere, the closer Aoto gets to that reyvateil. The cosmosphere is purely story-driven, which makes it worthwhile.
REPLAY VALUE
The game itself is quite short, needing 20 to 30 hours to get a normal end, while true ends may require 25 to 35 hours on the first play through. Subsequent play throughs get easier, as the player has the option to carry over his/her money, dive points, and levels of the character.
The extras option that appears after the completion of a play through will feature the conversations of the characters, the BGM, Hymns, and other good stuff. This increases the replay value assuming that the player liked the game.
SUMMARY
All in all, Ar Tonelico Qoga is a fun, light-hearted experience. The strong point of this game is its simple yet elegant presentation. The game would not fail players seeking a good storyline. The party members are especially memorable and the voice acting brings them even closer to life. Also, the hymns or songs of the game are some of the best songs ever made.
Nevertheless, AT3 has flaws that prevent it from being perfect, such as the monotonous battles, relatively low graphic quality, and the short duration of the adventure.
If one is willing to look beyond the game's faults, one just might find a pearl hidden amidst the endless sand.