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Ar Tonelico III: Knell of Ar Ciel [PS3] - they still be crazy.

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Posts

  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    The only RPG I know of that actually lets a love interest become a relationship in-game is The Witcher.
    (I'm sure there's more, but it's significant there.)

    Mass Effect too, yes? As long as you aren't male and gay I mean.

    Magic Pink on
  • SyphyreSyphyre A Dangerous Pastime Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    I've pre-ordered this too from NIS store...stupid bonuses and additional things they add that made me spend the extra money. Oh well, I'm guilty of being...whatever I am.

    I do hope the game is better than AT2 though. While AT2 had some cool cosmospheres, and crazy bitches, and the battle system was good, the exploration/landmass/everything else was -terrible- compared to AT1. (And Aurica still >> anyone else).

    That being said, the premise of the game is intriguing. Role reversal of AT1. Looking at the official website it looks like most of the (main? side?) characters in the game are Revys. Battle system is "whatever" as long as it's functional. Just give me more crazy insanity from the girls.

    Syphyre on
  • Gaming-FreakGaming-Freak Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    Wait, what? I liked Croix. At least he had a spine.

    AT1's, now he was a bore.

    He was also clueless as fuck.
    Croix: "Man, it really is getting late."

    Cloche: "...Well, maybe you can sleep in here for tonight (smile)"

    Croix: "What are you, crazy?! We can't do something like that!"

    Cloche: "...Dammit."

    Gaming-Freak on
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    XBL: GamingFreak5514
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  • cj iwakuracj iwakura The Rhythm Regent Bears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
    edited February 2011
    Well yeah, that too. But what AT protagonist isn't?

    cj iwakura on
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  • Gaming-FreakGaming-Freak Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    Well yeah, that too. But what AT protagonist isn't?

    Yeah, but...
    That conversation happens only if you've gotten to like, her level 9 cosmosphere, or something. And by then, they're definitely a couple... You would think he could take a couple hints.

    Gaming-Freak on
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  • DragkoniasDragkonias That Guy Who Does Stuff You Know, There. Registered User regular
    edited February 2011
    ...It's a JRPG...the protagonist almost never knows how to take a hint.

    One of the reasons Xenogears surprised me so much when I was a wee lad.

    Dragkonias on
  • KainyKainy Pimpin' and righteous Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    With this drawing nearer, I'm trying to settle back into the setting.

    I had forgotten just how much wave theory was involved in properly understanding these games, and how VERY MUCH history was in them, probably because a lot of that was barely touched on in AT2.

    I've been studying for two days and my brain just hurts.

    Seriously, there's like a bachelor's course and a master's in this shit.

    Also, I just started brain trusting a friend through AT1, and I had forgotten just how much better the crafting was in the first game.

    Kainy on
    IcyLiquid wrote: »
    There's anti-fuckery code in there now :) Sorry :)
  • SyphyreSyphyre A Dangerous Pastime Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Problem is, AT1 is a superior game in all ways except for the battle system. The only thing that made me able to finish AT2 was wanting to see what Jacqli's ending was like. When I got to the end
    And saw the final boss is Infel
    I didn't even care at that point. The game was disjointed. That could be due to a rather crappy translation though :/
    Here's hoping that AT3 has people and plot more like 1 than 2.
    But I'm enough of a liker of these games that I pre ordered it. Next week!

    Syphyre on
  • KainyKainy Pimpin' and righteous Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Syphyre wrote: »
    Problem is, AT1 is a superior game in all ways except for the battle system. The only thing that made me able to finish AT2 was wanting to see what Jacqli's ending was like. When I got to the end
    And saw the final boss is Infel
    I didn't even care at that point. The game was disjointed. That could be due to a rather crappy translation though :/
    Here's hoping that AT3 has people and plot more like 1 than 2.
    But I'm enough of a liker of these games that I pre ordered it. Next week!

    I think a lot of AT2's problems were translation related. Honestly, with how much plot there is in these games, it's pretty disappointing that they seem to have gotten such rush job translations, but oh well. You can usually tell what they mean... eventually.

    The plot in 2 definitely seemed worse. I was actually kind of losing interest by the end there, and the events don't all string together as nicely as they did in 1. AT1 has one of my favorite total plots of any RPG, because so much shit happens, and it all actually makes logical, sequential sense. There was a lot of random shit in AT2 that happened at weird times or they didn't explain properly.

    Kainy on
    IcyLiquid wrote: »
    There's anti-fuckery code in there now :) Sorry :)
  • SyphyreSyphyre A Dangerous Pastime Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Kainy wrote: »
    Syphyre wrote: »
    Problem is, AT1 is a superior game in all ways except for the battle system. The only thing that made me able to finish AT2 was wanting to see what Jacqli's ending was like. When I got to the end
    And saw the final boss is Infel
    I didn't even care at that point. The game was disjointed. That could be due to a rather crappy translation though :/
    Here's hoping that AT3 has people and plot more like 1 than 2.
    But I'm enough of a liker of these games that I pre ordered it. Next week!

    I think a lot of AT2's problems were translation related. Honestly, with how much plot there is in these games, it's pretty disappointing that they seem to have gotten such rush job translations, but oh well. You can usually tell what they mean... eventually.

    The plot in 2 definitely seemed worse. I was actually kind of losing interest by the end there, and the events don't all string together as nicely as they did in 1. AT1 has one of my favorite total plots of any RPG, because so much shit happens, and it all actually makes logical, sequential sense. There was a lot of random shit in AT2 that happened at weird times or they didn't explain properly.
    Pretty much my thoughts exactly.

    Syphyre on
  • KainyKainy Pimpin' and righteous Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Honestly, reading about events and locations in AT2 translated from the perfect works, I'm amazed at how much I've either forgotten, or was never fucking mentioned in the game.

    After I beat Ar Tonelico 1 once I knew where every Hymmnos in the game was sung, and what it did. When I got finished with AT2 and started listening to the soundtrack, I realized I didn't remember where half of the damn Hymmnos were from, in the game, even some of my favorites. The game's plot was just so damn much less memorable.

    I think part of it was the names of everything. Having the Sacred Army and Divine Army be two things in a given setting that are completely goddamn different (among the other like ten unmemorable organization names) is just a bad choice.

    Kainy on
    IcyLiquid wrote: »
    There's anti-fuckery code in there now :) Sorry :)
  • SyphyreSyphyre A Dangerous Pastime Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    I'm going to have to go through those perfect works someday...the game designers DID make a pretty incredible and thought out world (in a fantisical way of course). I agree about location of hymnos played and all that.

    I think one of the parts that helped AT1, was you were constantly walking up/up/up/up the tower. The entire world felt cohesive. And then when you could finally access the secret back tunnels in the tower (which were FAR cooler than the final stage in AT2). You had even more of a feeling of cohesiveness. I dunno.

    I think at this point I'm just rehashing what I already said so I'll stop talking for now. :P

    Syphyre on
  • GilderGilder Aw snap Macaroni PartyRegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Ahahahahahaha oh my god, I've been looking at the manual while waiting for the 3.6 update to download and oh my god ahahahahaha. You actually tell them to strip for you to power up your magic?! Aaaaaaaaahahaha. Oh no, no, you shake the controller for purging to knock off clothing?! Holy shit this is amazing. This is absolutely amazing. I can't believe this exists. I can't believe that a "Strip for Me" option exists in any non-ero game. I can't believe I shake the controller to remove clothing. This is just..... just...... hahahahahaha. I am going to hell when I die and I don't regret it one bit. Oh I am so glad I kept myself in the dark on game mechanics this whole time.

    Gilder on
  • Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    someone let me know how this game is, i vaguely want to play a jrpg. i was thinking of picking up resonance of fate or star ocean (3? whatever the ps3 one is) or eternal sonata on the cheap, but this just came out and looks kinda interesting.

    Ah_Pook on
  • GilderGilder Aw snap Macaroni PartyRegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Even without playing this I'm pretty sure it'll be worse than Resonance, about equal with Eternal, and better than Star Ocean 4. Resonance is really good, but it's balls hard. Eternal Sonata is whatever, the Chopin music and the colors are the best part. It's okay. SO4 sucks and I should know, I beat it. It's pretty bad.

    I'm just waiting for this to install and I can give some impressions.

    Gilder on
  • SyphyreSyphyre A Dangerous Pastime Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    All I know is that once my copy arrives in the mail, my wife will likely be giving me strange looks as I play

    Syphyre on
  • GilderGilder Aw snap Macaroni PartyRegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Damn you talk topic in the doctor's office! I don't know if it showed up before I met the doctor as I'm having a real problem noticing them now, but when I finally saw it it was plot plot plot and now Saki is gone a for a bit and I can't get it. I have to remember it's there and go back for it. Luckily if it disappears it's not that bad, because there's FINALLY NG+ for this series.

    I can't really give many impressions yet, but combat is kind of slow although I have no specials, the voice acting is pretty good, I want to see more Aoto and Mute dialogue, and the character models are nice enough to look at. The non-human enemies aren't too great, but the humans (Even the males!) look nice enough. Oh and if you can't get multiple reyvatails in one go like in 2 then this is a long platinum. There's trophies for all the endings.

    Gilder on
  • cj iwakuracj iwakura The Rhythm Regent Bears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    RPGFan was not kind.


    (It also caused some serious forum drama, but that's another story.)

    cj iwakura on
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  • DragkoniasDragkonias That Guy Who Does Stuff You Know, There. Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Cons:
    Overused dungeons, tasteless sexual content, typical JRPG plot, sluggish battles, high random encounter rate

    But...the other ones had those two.

    Except for the sluggish combat...AT and AT2 were pretty fast, too fast at times.
    Saki is one of the lead female characters, she is a crux in the story, and is she by far one of the worst protagonists in an RPG. At times, it feels like the narrative is trying to convince the player to pick her over Finnel and it does an awful job at that. Saki destroys this game the same way Alfinia in Grandia III and Ryfia in Arc Rise Fantasia did for many. She looks like she's ten, talks like a baby in third person, pretends she's a cat, and is simply incapable of independent thought. I've grown more and more jaded with seeing female leads reduced to weak characters that desperately require a male's aid to "save" them.

    Like...Alfina from Grandia 3...

    The flashbacks...noooooo!

    Dragkonias on
  • SyphyreSyphyre A Dangerous Pastime Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Yeah that's the part of the review that worries me. "sluggish combat" although I thought AT2's entire "oh btw it takes 5 seconds for the females to load" was pretty damn sluggish. Hopefully my copy will get here tomorrow.

    Syphyre on
  • cj iwakuracj iwakura The Rhythm Regent Bears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    I loved AT2's combat, so yeah, that has me reluctant. It was among the few things I could stomach in AT2.

    cj iwakura on
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  • GilderGilder Aw snap Macaroni PartyRegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    The random encounter thing is a bullshit complaint. Yeah the rate is kind of high. But it follows the exact same system the last two games did, i.e. that after about 6 battles you can't into any more until you leave the area. It's perfect because if you want to grind you can, but you don't have to spend an hour looking for treasure because of the constant fights.

    Honestly I like the combat okay in this, because it's not super easy. It's still not really that hard, but listen to this. I actually had a teammate get knocked out. Oh that's right. They actually beat someone. Oh and hard mode is NG+ material. Don't try it your first run. I mean you could, but I went from doing 30 damage to wolves to 3 and they just wiped the team out. So it's a pretty big jump at the start.

    Oh and that line about Saki at the end of that quote, at the end of the day this game where you ask girls to strip for you and the more skin they show equals more power is still less offensive to women than Other M was.

    Gilder on
  • SyphyreSyphyre A Dangerous Pastime Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    The sad part is so many reviews are "the game isn't the way I wanted it to be so it gets docked". And that may have slid across that reviewer. I choose to pass judgement myself.

    Glad to hear, Glider, your thoughts on it though. Makes me feel better.

    Edit: Hah, I saw your note about forum drama and (I didn't even realize RPGFan had forums) slipped over there just to peruse, and from the reviewer: "...I'd just like to say that the sexual content was not the reason for my score. Gust made a lot of changes to this entry and I disliked a lot of them..." Sooo my guess was spot on.

    JRPGs are such a weird acquired taste though

    Syphyre on
  • DragkoniasDragkonias That Guy Who Does Stuff You Know, There. Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    But...Alfina...

    nightmares...

    Dragkonias on
  • GilderGilder Aw snap Macaroni PartyRegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    So far my biggest complaint is actually the item crafting. There doesn't seem to be different things for different characters. You'll still get skits for the items and they name it whatever, but a potion is a potion is a potion it seems. No BBQ Soda for one person and a Flamethrower for the other as of yet.

    Gilder on
  • SyphyreSyphyre A Dangerous Pastime Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    That sounds more like AT1...didn't it have the same item for all?

    Ok more amusement: I just looked at gamerankings. RPGfan and RPGamer are the -lowest- scores of all of them. Dunno if that means anything but it's funny

    Syphyre on
  • KainyKainy Pimpin' and righteous Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    RPGFan was not kind.


    (It also caused some serious forum drama, but that's another story.)

    That doesn't actually seem that harsh, it just seems honest. That's about what I expect.

    Also, yes, that crafting system sounds like the one from AT1, which was infinitely fucking better than the system in 2. I'm a-fucking-ok with not having 800 useless food items that restore completely meaningless amounts of HP, if it means I don't have to trek to 4 different shops around the world to craft a single item.

    It's good to hear that the combat is decently difficult, Gilder. That's something that these games have woefully lacked. The battle systems in 1 and 2 were really interesting, but it was really sad to never actually have to use their potential. Hell, the difficulty in 1 was not killing enemies.

    Kainy on
    IcyLiquid wrote: »
    There's anti-fuckery code in there now :) Sorry :)
  • GilderGilder Aw snap Macaroni PartyRegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    The only thing is I'm afraid that the combat might be in the middle ground of normal won't let you use enough specials because you'll kill too fast outside of bosses, but hard is too difficult to actually survive at this point. So I might try switching between them to see if once I get more skills hard mode becomes the mode to play. Otherwise I think special stuff will just rely on enemies. I got an encounter with two wolves and a zombie once and I actually got to use the purge system and a strong spell the way it was meant to be used. When I'm fighting 3 slimes.... not so much. Not sure when I'll get to use the game's Replakia equivalent either. You need to purge 3 times and be at 30,000% for the song. So I imagine that like Replakia it's the "You Win" attack.

    Gilder on
  • KainyKainy Pimpin' and righteous Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    I just hope that you can use the Replakia equivalent without having a giant bitch in your party.

    Speaking of which I need to finish beating AT2 and getting the morally correct (3rd reyvateil) ending.

    Kainy on
    IcyLiquid wrote: »
    There's anti-fuckery code in there now :) Sorry :)
  • blaze_zeroblaze_zero Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    I still can't believe you got that game and are playing it.

    blaze_zero on
  • GilderGilder Aw snap Macaroni PartyRegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    It's already better than Neptunia, because this isn't as repetitive.

    Gilder on
  • BeltaineBeltaine BOO BOO DOO DE DOORegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Are the first two games a prerequisite?

    I have them but haven't played them yet.

    Beltaine on
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    PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Gilder wrote: »
    SO4 sucks and I should know, I beat it. It's pretty bad.

    Dood, you make me cry. I loved SO4 although I couldn't really tell you why. Never beat it tho; I just got to where the big robot guy joins you.

    Beltaine: I've heard there are some references to AT1 and 2 but it's not a continuation of an ongoing story or anything.

    Magic Pink on
  • KainyKainy Pimpin' and righteous Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    If you don't at least play AT1, a lot of the wave theory stuff will be impossible to understand, but honestly they didn't talk too much about that in AT2, so it's probably not necessary.

    I'd play at least AT1 first just because it's an awesome game, but it's like 50 hours for one playthrough, so it depends a lot on how raring to play AT3 you are.

    Kainy on
    IcyLiquid wrote: »
    There's anti-fuckery code in there now :) Sorry :)
  • YggiDeeYggiDee The World Ends With You Shill Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    The most important thing in any Ar Tonelico game is how ballin' the soundtrack is. Those bastards put a lot of work into their crazy music language.

    YggiDee on
  • GilderGilder Aw snap Macaroni PartyRegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    I'm a little confused by Saki's question to Aoto of "Are you alright?" and his response of "Am I alright?! Feel these nipples!". So.... was he alright or not? I'm getting mixed signals here Aoto. I'm not a nipple doctor, I don't know all the statuses of bad to okay the nipple can show.

    Anyway, in case anyone else is playing this and they've been making some progress let me just go ahead and tell you something: Yes, Finnel's purge level 3 is broken. Basically she goes from 1 to 3 purges per battle. Level 3 is supposed to let you do 2, but I was never able to do it. When it said she could do 3 it all of a sudden worked.

    Oh and the english voicing is good enough, but like AT2 only about half of the dialogue is voiced in english. I imagine in japanese it's fine since Blu-Ray has the space for it. If you check the log there's a lot of dialogue with a speaker next to it for voices, but there's nothing there in english. So that's pretty lame. Not everything is supposed to be voiced, but a lot of story cutscenes are supposed to be.

    Gilder on
  • SyphyreSyphyre A Dangerous Pastime Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Just got it today, played for about an hour/hour and a half before my sick head told me to stop.
    - Battles are just FINE in my opinion, thus far I consider them faster than AT2's. (of course that could change)
    - I'm not completely put off by Saki. I don't like how Saki talks about Saki in the third person, but other than that, she's quite bearable.
    - The Introduction opening movie + music is great.
    - So is ambiance music.

    Just got to where you see Finnel for the first time but thus far, enjoying the game.

    I agree with Gilder. English VA is just fine.

    Syphyre on
  • ReynoldsReynolds Gone Fishin'Registered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Gilder wrote: »
    I'm a little confused by Saki's question to Aoto of "Are you alright?" and his response of "Am I alright?! Feel these nipples!". So.... was he alright or not? I'm getting mixed signals here Aoto. I'm not a nipple doctor, I don't know all the statuses of bad to okay the nipple can show.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KEvS-t-MDg

    Reynolds on
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  • GilderGilder Aw snap Macaroni PartyRegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    Well see it works in that context, because excitement can be shown through the nipple. But health from an injury? Can that be tested by nipple firmness? If I come across a bleeding man on the sidewalk can I feel his nipples to know if his injury is fatal or not? Why didn't you make things clearer Aoto?!

    Yeah I guess they just wanted a Baseketball reference.

    Gilder on
  • GilderGilder Aw snap Macaroni PartyRegistered User regular
    edited March 2011
    So I think Phase 2 is around the time it's safe to switch to hard mode. I'm going to experiment a bit later, but I didn't die instantly in some sewers like I did back in Phase 1. I just want fights to be decently challenging so I can actually use song magic before it's over! The problem is Tatsumi. His defense is fucking atrocious so hard mode has just been wiping him out. While everyone else has 160+ he's down at 110. He doesn't get any freaking armor to use at the rate the others do. You have to use accessories to buff him up. Now that I got a helmet for an extra 30 defense he can survive.

    Gilder on
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