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Ar Tonelico 2

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Ar Tonelico 2
Developer(s)Gust
SeriesAr tonelico
Platform(s)PlayStation 2
Genre(s)RPG
Mode(s)Single-player

Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica, known in Japan as Ar tonelico II Sekai ni Hibiku Shōjo-tachi no Metafalica (アルトネリコ２　世界に響く少女たちの創造詩（メタファリカ）, Aru toneriko Tsū Sekai ni Hibiku Shōjo-tachi no Metafarika, literally "Ar tonelico 2: The Girls' Metafalica that Echoes to the World", with "Metafalica" meaning "song of creation") is a video game, developed by Gust for the Sony PlayStation 2 which was released in Japan on October 25, 2007, in North America on January 20, 2009[1], and was set to be released in the EU on 29 May 2009, however a problem with the barcode delayed it by a week[2][3][4]. It is the sequel to Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia and takes place roughly one and a half years after that game's canonical ending.

Note that the PAL-version of the game does not work on the 60GB-version of the PlayStation 3.

Gameplay

Though superficially similar to Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia in both aesthetics and style, the core game play mechanics of Ar tonelico II have undergone huge changes from those of its predecessor, most notably in regards to the battle system and the fact that actions within an Infelsphere may now directly affect the storyline.

Battle System

Though superficially similar to the battle system of Ar tonelico, the battle system of Ar tonelico II has undergone many changes.

In Ar tonelico II there are two phases when fighting the enemy. Phase one is the Attack Phase. Characters can attack until the time gauge runs out as well as choose which magic for the Reyvateils to cast or decide when they should release it. Phase two is the Defend Phase. This is the enemies chance to attack your Reyvateil, you must protect her by timing defensive moves properly.

Other Systems

Dive - The Dive System is a system in the Ar tonelico series to let the player (Croix) look inside a Reyvateil's mind (Cosmosphere) and see her deep emotions, feelings and other things. It is also through this system that new Song Magic is crafted. Only β pure-blood Reyvateils and Third Generation Reyvateils will have a Cosmosphere. Some Reyvateils are strong enough to impact the storyline in their first Level Cosmospheres.

Replakia - Available after the Replekia event in Phase 1. The player must defeat the I.P.D.s and cure them via Dive Therapy in the Dive Shop. After fulfilling some additional requirements they will join Cloche's battalion making them available for use through Replekia. Replekia will increase the Burst gauge by a multiple of the total number of I.P.D.s that have joined Cloche, by way of allowing all these I.P.D.s to synchronize their hearts with Cloche.

Dualstall - Dualstall is a way the player can control the growth of Reyvateil's abilities. It is utilized by placing Dualithnode crystals in a bath. The position of the crystals is important in determining the outcome. The Reyvateils will then enter the bath alongside the crystals and various effects will occur depending on the crystal and position chosen.

Girl Power - Available after defeating an I.P.D. and completing the Luca Recovery Event in Phase 1, this is a method of customization somewhat like the Grathnode system from Ar tonelico. It is utilized by equipping an I.P.D. to a vanguard character on the equipment screen.

Synchronity Chain - Reyvateil's dual cast song magic which is significantly more powerful than normal song magic. After Phase two you will have this system, but you can not use it until Phase three (and until two Reyvateils of the party have 20% Sync Rate or better, this can be acquired through the Synchronization Talk Matters). This gives you unlimited time to charge up a song and attack with the front line characters, however the charged song will be released once the synchronization ends, and after that, the battle phases will return to normal .

Plot

Setting

The setting for the game is the same as the previous game: the planet of Ar Ciel, albeit centered on a different region this time. The Tower of Ar tonelico from Metafalss is different from the tower in the first game since it doesn't look like a tower initially, but still has some of the same essential facilities (Rinkernator, Plasma Bell (represented as the Lift Generators) and Musical Corridor). The Song Magics are still used like programs, but in this tower there are two Song Magic servers: the Sol Marta server and the Infel Phira Server. The Sol Marta server is located in the upper zone of the tower, acting like a stationary satellite. It is collocated with the S. P. U. and Rinkernator and is the main server for the tower. The Infel Phira server is located in a satellite that orbits the sky around the tower and shares its name with said server. The Sol Marta satellite is a relay station used to increase the range of Song Magic usage of the first tower, so it works with the same kind of hymmnos and executes the EXEC variety of hymns. Plus, it also has the function of receiving energy from the first tower and sending it to the second tower. On the other hand, the Infel Phira server works with another kind of hymmnos called the Pastalia hymmnos, and executes the METHOD variety of hymns.

Story Overview

The region of Metafalss (メタ ファルス, Meta Farusu) surrounds the second Tower of Ar tonelico, which is said to represent the Goddess Frelia of the Trio of Elemia. Reyvateil in this region have been succumbing to a raging Reyvateil-exclusive epidemic called the Infel Phira Dependency (I.P.D.). Croix, a Knight under the Grand Bell Church of Pastalia, is sent to find the source of the problem and contain the epidemic. There is more transpiring in this region than just the epidemic, however, and one mission will throw him into an adventure to unravel the mysteries of the planet Ar Ciel and seek out a legend handed down by the people of Metafalss: the lost Hymn of Metafalica.

Characters

Main article: List of characters in Ar tonelico II

As with Ar tonelico, Ar tonelico II features eight playable characters and many more who are important to the story. Croix Bartel is the main protagonist, whose life is changed when a routine mission goes awry. He becomes involved with two Reyvateils named Cloche Leythal Pastalia and Luca Trulyworth.

Development

Music

Main article: List of Ar tonelico II media releases

The Gust sound team of Akira Tsuchiya, Ken Nakagawa and Daisuke Achiwa returned from the first game to compose the music for this game, as did Haruka Shimotsuki, Takashige Inagaki and Akiko Shikata for the composition of several of the songs and Hymns.

Like the soundtrack for Ar tonelico, the music of the game was released across three albums: a two-disc Original Soundtrack and two Hymnnos Concert CDs which contain all but one of the songs and Hymns that were absent from the OST. Tha missing song (titled "Emptiness") was later on released in one of Akiko Shikata's albums.

All four singers from the first game returned to sing the songs and Hymns of this game's Reyvateils: Luca - Haruka Shimotsuki, Cloche - Akiko Shikata, Jacqli - Noriko Mitose, Reisha and Frelia - Yuuko Ishibashi.

Errors and bugs in the US version

In the third-to-last boss battle of the American version, there is a bug which causes the game to freeze after the 3rd player defense phase. When the enemy Raki uses the skill "Fractal Change" the game freezes due to memory usage exceeding the system's capabilities. The same problem goes for the optional battles against the same enemy too. The only way to avoid the crash is to inflict over half of said enemy's HP (40,000 points, increasing by a factor of 1.5 each defeat) before the player's third defense phase or even defeat the enemy before that point.

This problem does not happen with some (but not all) early backwards-compatible models of the PlayStation 3, and it was fixed in the PAL-version.

There are also various translation errors, such as changing the gender of Jean Ishikawa in Cloche's cosmosphere from female to male, or the fate of Croix's parents, telling them Leyka killed them when actually they just perished in an IPD outbreak that didn't have relation to Leyka. In addition, there are various grammatical errors throughout the game.

Also of note are the changes to hymmnos terms, such as Infel Phira to Infel Pira, Truelywaath to Trulyworth, and many others, though one must have the resources to understand hymmnos to know how the meanings of these words have been changed.

Bugs in the PAL version

During Phase 2 at level 1 of Gaea left path, there is a bug which causes the game to freeze as the last "bath garbage" is being destroyed. One way to avoid the crash is to avoid completing this level after picking up the discussion event. Finishing this level is not necessary to go further in the story

Reception

The game was praised in Japan. The US release was also well-received, but some fans have criticized its localization. The third-to-last boss has a glitch that causes the game to freeze if it tries to use a certain attack; the attack will trigger during the third turn defense phase unless 40,000 damage hasn't been dealt (a 40th level party should have little problem doing this.) A similar glitch also affects the optional battles with the same boss. The text has some grammar errors; issues include misspellings, commas, name mix-ups (e.g. "You will not be able to rescue Luca..." on the Cloche route), improper capitalization, gender inconsistencies ("He'll lead your way..." followed by "She will offer to show you..."). There were also several like problems with the I.P.D.s that join Cloche's fan club, namely how they greet the party with Japanese text (『クローシェ様!』 lit: "Kuroshe-sama!").

The accuracy of some aspects of the translation is also debated. Approximately half of the Japanese voice overs were removed to make room for the English dubbing.

References

  1. ^ a b http://nisamerica.com/news/20081024_2.html
  2. ^ a b http://www.mcvuk.com/press-releases/46730/KoeiNIS-America-deal
  3. ^ http://www.koei.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=809&page=5
  4. ^ http://www.game.co.uk/PS2/RolePlaying/~r329368/Ar-Tonelico-2-Melody-of-the-Metafalica/

External links

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