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[GUST] Games. Atelier Ryza is now out, post your opinions here.
Quiotu
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
New discussion thread about GUST games, which means almost strictly Atelier and Exa Pico games. Since Ar Nosurge comes out in a week, let's start with an in-depth look at the game, mostly from AT's Wiki page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6egQT8AQg34&index=5&list=PLVV9QZaXHBubjbRo2pRDHyYDR4zHpE9_q
Setting
The themes of the game are "human bonds" and "the inner surface of the heart". On a fictional planet named Ra Ciela, humans and a spiritual lifeform known as Genoms previously co-existed, however after Ra Ciela was destroyed in a failed ceremony that sought to convert it into energy for long-distance interstellar travel, humans began to travel in search of other planets to inhabit using special spaceships. Following contact with a hostile life-form known as the Sharl, the people of Orei were abducted; humankind was technologically incapable of fighting against the Sharl, who utilize a power known as "song magic". Thousands of years later, the Felion Wall opens, and from inside emerge the Ancients, people with the ability to use the same song magic powers.
Story
Hidden in case you want zero information about it until you play.
Field Exploration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lyxof2iytM
In the fields, the players can explore the areas and collect items in a way akin to that of Gust's Atelier series, as well as talking with other characters, interacting with some elements of the scenery and activating events. They can also talk with the other characters that form their party in order to get their viewpoints on the current area or the objective they have to accomplish.
If there is more than one character accompanying the main party, they can be switched for conversation with the L1 and R1 buttons, and the conversation scrolled by pressing the Square button. The player will have a bar that constantly changes colors, alerting them to the possibility of entering a battle the closer it gets to a red color and the faster it flashes. The bar will have at its side the number of enemy waves that can be encountered in that area.
Zapping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2xG9UsWgak
As the player is given control over two pairs of characters: Delta & Casty, and Earthes and Ion, the player is given the ability of changing which party they are in control at any point in the game after a certain point in Phase 1, which is done by examining a Save Point and selecting the Zapping option. However, there are certain points in which the Zapping is forced by story reasons.
Additionally, if the player advances too much with one of the two parties, at a point they won't be able to proceed any further with the storyline despite being free to do anything else they want. They will be notified of this by either a large 'Episode Reached!' or 'Episode Locked!' notice displayed at the top of the screen, and the Episode Online mark on the main menu will be replaced by either of these notices, depending on which one appears on the screen. When this happens, they will have to Zap to the other party and proceed further in their side of the story in order to continue advancing in the game.
Battles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUl55P5z5_M
During battles, the player will control two characters: the protagonist and his corresponding heroine, while they battle multiple enemy waves, so once an enemy group is defeated, other group will take their place until the player defeats them all, they run away, are defeated, or the turn limit is reached. The protagonist has the purpose of actively attacking the enemies and protecting the heroine, while the heroine stands behind the protagonist singing a Song Magic chosen by the player.
Turns are divided in Player's Turn and Enemy's Turn, of which the Player's Turn is used for the protagonist to attack the enemies a set number of times while the heroine charges up her Song Magic. For attacking, the player can use four attacks that are mapped to the four face buttons in the PlayStation 3's controller, as well as also being able to bring up a menu by pressing Start where they can use items, activate Friend Skills, run away from the battle or activate the Heroine's Song Magic whenever they wish to.
The better the player battles, the faster their Harmo Level will rise, which in turn will speed up the Burst Gauge, which is the representation of the strength for the heroine's Song Magic. However, received attacks as well as the usage of the bonus actions triggered with the L1 and R1 buttons can reduce the Harmo Level, so the player must be careful. Additionally, the heroine may use weaker Song Magic blasts of variable intensity against the enemies to support the protagonist during the Player's Turn, which also depend on how high the player has the Harmo Level and the type of Song Magic she is charging.
Once the player has used up all the attacks the protagonist can use during that turn, the battle will move over to the Enemy's Turn, during which the player will have to watch for the timing of the enemies' attacks and press the Circle button in order to block them and protect the heroine. Successful guards reduce damage taken and increase the Burst Gauge, while failed guards result in a loss of Burst and greater damage to the Heroine. The number of times the player can guard during the enemy's turn is limited, so they should be wise about which attacks to block during boss battles, as many bosses summon minions that don't deal much damage while the boss itself can easily defeat the pair if their attacks aren't blocked.
It must be mentioned that the protagonist can't die, as he doesn't even have an HP bar, but the heroine does have an HP bar at the side of her portrait, which is segmented into four parts. Each of these four parts corresponds to a Barrier, and if her HP falls below the threshold for a specific part, the Barrier corresponding to it will get destroyed and it won't be possible to heal her HP beyond that point unless an item with the Barrier Repair property is used. If all of the four Barriers are destroyed, the Heroine will fall and the game will count it as a defeat, giving a Game Over to the player.
Battles have a time limit, as if they aren't finished in a certain number of turns, the game will consider the battle as finished and send the player to the results screen, where they will receive experience, Dive Points, money and dropped items depending on the types and number of enemies defeated. After this, they will be taken back to the field and the encounter gauge will be reduced depending on the number of encounters for the area and the number of waves the player managed to defeat.
However, if the player manages to defeat all the waves before the turn limit expires, the encounter gauge will be emptied upon returning to the field, allowing the player to explore the field without worrying about enemies. This gives more importance to Song Magic due to the fact that once it has reached a certain Burst threshold, it can deal damage to all of the enemy waves currently present in battle at once, allowing the player to clear the area of enemies with a single attack. This is denoted in the wave indicator at the top of the screen by marking in red the waves that the currently charged Burst level can destroy at the moment. Additionally, the player can gain additional turns by attacking the enemies marked with a Break mark enough to fill a yellow bar below their HP, which when it gets filled, it will Break that enemy and leave it stunned; as well as killing enemies that don't have the previously mentioned mark. Additionally, event and boss battles are exempt from the turn limit, so the player doesn't have to worry about it for particularly hard battles.
HarmoBurst
When the player has reached the max Harmo Level (Lv. 4), the option for activating the Song Magic is replaced by other called the HarmoBurst, in which the protagonist will be able to attack enemies continuously until the Harmo Level gauge gets completely emptied. Additionally, this will allow the protagonist and heroine to activate a more powerful attack, in which the protagonist launches a super move followed by the Song Magic of the Heroine with amplified power, if certain conditions are fulfilled.
Friend Skills
The player can also call upon the characters that have established a friendship with the party in order to attack the enemies or provide support to the pair after certain conditions are met. However, only one of these skills can be used per battle.
Synthesis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUI3SJj59cA
At shops, the player has the option of using the items and recipes they have collected to make newer items, always with the assistance of the shopkeeper of the place they are at. Aside of this allowing the player to gain items they wouldn't be able to in any other way, this also triggers scenes in which the characters involved in the creation of the item discuss it and give it a name the first time a specific item is made, as well as also having humorous sequences of dancing and singing at the end of the synthesis process. It's in this way that the items for strengthening specific parts of equipment of the party can be made: TxBIOS increase the power of Song Magic, Cathodes increase the power of weapons, and RNAs increase the power of armors.
Genometrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSfLliWXOcE
Carrying over the Dive system from the Ar tonelico series, the player can also Dive into the Soulspace (mental world) of the characters, which receives the name Genometrics here, and have adventures through them. During this time, the gameplay changes to be more like that of a visual novel, where the player only has to read through the events taking place, move the protagonist through the Genometrics map and take decisions when prompted. Entering each point in the map requires the player to spend a set amount of the DP they have gained from battles, as well as taking some of the decisions in the events, so if the player doesn't have enough DP, they will fail to complete the events and get expelled from the Genometrics they are exploring. Unlike the Ar tonelico series, however, this isn't limited to the heroines: the player can instead Dive into the Genometrics of several of the characters they meet, and the decisions taken in each individual Genometrics will have some impact in the other, by changing the friendly disposition of these characters towards the current party as well as their introverted, extroverted, masochistic and sadistic tendencies. This is also the only way in which the Heroines can gain new Song Magic for use in battle.
Purification
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThlymgNbCZE
This gameplay element consists of the heroines and the protagonists taking a bath in a hot spring together. During this, they will change from their normal clothes to swimsuits and have conversations to know each other more in-deeply. Additionally, during the Purification, the player can Install Genometrica Crystals they have received from Dives to increase the abilities of the party. It's possible to Install them into anyone of the playable party members (Earthes, Ion, Cas and Delta), and while there are five possible spots where the crystals can be Installed (legs, abdomen, chest, arms and head), not all of these will be available from the beginning: the player will be allowed to Install on them when both the protagonist and the heroine have gotten a deep enough relationship.
The game will be out September 23rd in the US and September 26th in Europe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6egQT8AQg34&index=5&list=PLVV9QZaXHBubjbRo2pRDHyYDR4zHpE9_qSetting
The themes of the game are "human bonds" and "the inner surface of the heart". On a fictional planet named Ra Ciela, humans and a spiritual lifeform known as Genoms previously co-existed, however after Ra Ciela was destroyed in a failed ceremony that sought to convert it into energy for long-distance interstellar travel, humans began to travel in search of other planets to inhabit using special spaceships. Following contact with a hostile life-form known as the Sharl, the people of Orei were abducted; humankind was technologically incapable of fighting against the Sharl, who utilize a power known as "song magic". Thousands of years later, the Felion Wall opens, and from inside emerge the Ancients, people with the ability to use the same song magic powers.
Story
Hidden in case you want zero information about it until you play.
The story of the game is told through the viewpoints of two character pairs: Cas & Delta, and Earthes & Ion. Initially, Cas and Delta are tasked to find out a song called Ciel N Protecta that their friend Sarly developed, but it was stolen and it supposedly has begun causing the machines in Felion to go haywire. During their searches for it, they are captured by the Genomirai Church led by Zir, and as they try to escape from them, they discover Zir is planning to set up and sing a very dangerous kind of Song Magic. On the other hand, Ion is trapped in the sealed world through which the player interacted with her in Ciel nosurge, and having Earthes as her helper, she decides to escape from it. After escaping from the sealed world, they both reach the city of Tenryosara, where they meet with Tattoria and Kanon. And from there, both pairs continue their journey in search of the truth about this world.
Field Exploration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lyxof2iytMIn the fields, the players can explore the areas and collect items in a way akin to that of Gust's Atelier series, as well as talking with other characters, interacting with some elements of the scenery and activating events. They can also talk with the other characters that form their party in order to get their viewpoints on the current area or the objective they have to accomplish.
If there is more than one character accompanying the main party, they can be switched for conversation with the L1 and R1 buttons, and the conversation scrolled by pressing the Square button. The player will have a bar that constantly changes colors, alerting them to the possibility of entering a battle the closer it gets to a red color and the faster it flashes. The bar will have at its side the number of enemy waves that can be encountered in that area.
Zapping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2xG9UsWgakAs the player is given control over two pairs of characters: Delta & Casty, and Earthes and Ion, the player is given the ability of changing which party they are in control at any point in the game after a certain point in Phase 1, which is done by examining a Save Point and selecting the Zapping option. However, there are certain points in which the Zapping is forced by story reasons.
Additionally, if the player advances too much with one of the two parties, at a point they won't be able to proceed any further with the storyline despite being free to do anything else they want. They will be notified of this by either a large 'Episode Reached!' or 'Episode Locked!' notice displayed at the top of the screen, and the Episode Online mark on the main menu will be replaced by either of these notices, depending on which one appears on the screen. When this happens, they will have to Zap to the other party and proceed further in their side of the story in order to continue advancing in the game.
Battles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUl55P5z5_MDuring battles, the player will control two characters: the protagonist and his corresponding heroine, while they battle multiple enemy waves, so once an enemy group is defeated, other group will take their place until the player defeats them all, they run away, are defeated, or the turn limit is reached. The protagonist has the purpose of actively attacking the enemies and protecting the heroine, while the heroine stands behind the protagonist singing a Song Magic chosen by the player.
Turns are divided in Player's Turn and Enemy's Turn, of which the Player's Turn is used for the protagonist to attack the enemies a set number of times while the heroine charges up her Song Magic. For attacking, the player can use four attacks that are mapped to the four face buttons in the PlayStation 3's controller, as well as also being able to bring up a menu by pressing Start where they can use items, activate Friend Skills, run away from the battle or activate the Heroine's Song Magic whenever they wish to.
The better the player battles, the faster their Harmo Level will rise, which in turn will speed up the Burst Gauge, which is the representation of the strength for the heroine's Song Magic. However, received attacks as well as the usage of the bonus actions triggered with the L1 and R1 buttons can reduce the Harmo Level, so the player must be careful. Additionally, the heroine may use weaker Song Magic blasts of variable intensity against the enemies to support the protagonist during the Player's Turn, which also depend on how high the player has the Harmo Level and the type of Song Magic she is charging.
Once the player has used up all the attacks the protagonist can use during that turn, the battle will move over to the Enemy's Turn, during which the player will have to watch for the timing of the enemies' attacks and press the Circle button in order to block them and protect the heroine. Successful guards reduce damage taken and increase the Burst Gauge, while failed guards result in a loss of Burst and greater damage to the Heroine. The number of times the player can guard during the enemy's turn is limited, so they should be wise about which attacks to block during boss battles, as many bosses summon minions that don't deal much damage while the boss itself can easily defeat the pair if their attacks aren't blocked.
It must be mentioned that the protagonist can't die, as he doesn't even have an HP bar, but the heroine does have an HP bar at the side of her portrait, which is segmented into four parts. Each of these four parts corresponds to a Barrier, and if her HP falls below the threshold for a specific part, the Barrier corresponding to it will get destroyed and it won't be possible to heal her HP beyond that point unless an item with the Barrier Repair property is used. If all of the four Barriers are destroyed, the Heroine will fall and the game will count it as a defeat, giving a Game Over to the player.
Battles have a time limit, as if they aren't finished in a certain number of turns, the game will consider the battle as finished and send the player to the results screen, where they will receive experience, Dive Points, money and dropped items depending on the types and number of enemies defeated. After this, they will be taken back to the field and the encounter gauge will be reduced depending on the number of encounters for the area and the number of waves the player managed to defeat.
However, if the player manages to defeat all the waves before the turn limit expires, the encounter gauge will be emptied upon returning to the field, allowing the player to explore the field without worrying about enemies. This gives more importance to Song Magic due to the fact that once it has reached a certain Burst threshold, it can deal damage to all of the enemy waves currently present in battle at once, allowing the player to clear the area of enemies with a single attack. This is denoted in the wave indicator at the top of the screen by marking in red the waves that the currently charged Burst level can destroy at the moment. Additionally, the player can gain additional turns by attacking the enemies marked with a Break mark enough to fill a yellow bar below their HP, which when it gets filled, it will Break that enemy and leave it stunned; as well as killing enemies that don't have the previously mentioned mark. Additionally, event and boss battles are exempt from the turn limit, so the player doesn't have to worry about it for particularly hard battles.
HarmoBurst
When the player has reached the max Harmo Level (Lv. 4), the option for activating the Song Magic is replaced by other called the HarmoBurst, in which the protagonist will be able to attack enemies continuously until the Harmo Level gauge gets completely emptied. Additionally, this will allow the protagonist and heroine to activate a more powerful attack, in which the protagonist launches a super move followed by the Song Magic of the Heroine with amplified power, if certain conditions are fulfilled.
Friend Skills
The player can also call upon the characters that have established a friendship with the party in order to attack the enemies or provide support to the pair after certain conditions are met. However, only one of these skills can be used per battle.
Synthesis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUI3SJj59cAAt shops, the player has the option of using the items and recipes they have collected to make newer items, always with the assistance of the shopkeeper of the place they are at. Aside of this allowing the player to gain items they wouldn't be able to in any other way, this also triggers scenes in which the characters involved in the creation of the item discuss it and give it a name the first time a specific item is made, as well as also having humorous sequences of dancing and singing at the end of the synthesis process. It's in this way that the items for strengthening specific parts of equipment of the party can be made: TxBIOS increase the power of Song Magic, Cathodes increase the power of weapons, and RNAs increase the power of armors.
Genometrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSfLliWXOcECarrying over the Dive system from the Ar tonelico series, the player can also Dive into the Soulspace (mental world) of the characters, which receives the name Genometrics here, and have adventures through them. During this time, the gameplay changes to be more like that of a visual novel, where the player only has to read through the events taking place, move the protagonist through the Genometrics map and take decisions when prompted. Entering each point in the map requires the player to spend a set amount of the DP they have gained from battles, as well as taking some of the decisions in the events, so if the player doesn't have enough DP, they will fail to complete the events and get expelled from the Genometrics they are exploring. Unlike the Ar tonelico series, however, this isn't limited to the heroines: the player can instead Dive into the Genometrics of several of the characters they meet, and the decisions taken in each individual Genometrics will have some impact in the other, by changing the friendly disposition of these characters towards the current party as well as their introverted, extroverted, masochistic and sadistic tendencies. This is also the only way in which the Heroines can gain new Song Magic for use in battle.
Purification
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThlymgNbCZEThis gameplay element consists of the heroines and the protagonists taking a bath in a hot spring together. During this, they will change from their normal clothes to swimsuits and have conversations to know each other more in-deeply. Additionally, during the Purification, the player can Install Genometrica Crystals they have received from Dives to increase the abilities of the party. It's possible to Install them into anyone of the playable party members (Earthes, Ion, Cas and Delta), and while there are five possible spots where the crystals can be Installed (legs, abdomen, chest, arms and head), not all of these will be available from the beginning: the player will be allowed to Install on them when both the protagonist and the heroine have gotten a deep enough relationship.
The game will be out September 23rd in the US and September 26th in Europe.
Quiotu on
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Sept 23rd! I didn't realize this was coming out so soon. I need to get on the ball and finish up 2 & 3!
I'm on a quest to finish AT3 one more time. Then I'll have platinum'd the game and can move on with a clear conscience.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Started up 3 and was much happier with it. The battle system was fairly weak, but the rest was much better.
No I think people agree with you, they just see a lot more wrong with AT3. AT2 has the nice battle system, but everything else is rather blah, not wrong just uninteresting. Most people really don't like either girls and end up choosing the third option (best option), and the story is really low on information until the very end, and then it kinda throws it out as something they never talked about until JUST then.
I'm almost willing to say that AT2's biggest issue is it's TOO long, information is spread too thin and it takes too long to gather all the information and know exactly what's going on. That and the girls aren't nearly as sympathetic as 1 or 3 (best girl notwithstanding).
Well, they had to make third girl best girl in AT2, to keep you from screwing up the yuri romance.
I didn't even know about Nosurge until I saw this thread, just went from zero to HYPE in record time. Ar Tonelico 2 is somewhere in my top 3 favorite games--I did my first playthrough in two sittings. Ar Tonelico games aren't objectively THAT great...but subjectively, I need another hit.
Hey, that's why I wanted to set this thread. It's been so long, and the last game wasn't even brought here (though calling it a game is stretching a bit), people need to know that this is coming out so it does okay. It's not exactly getting a lot of marketing, but we do know we have a greater chance of getting Ciel Nosurge after the fact, and maybe even Ar Nosurge Plus if it sells better than expected.
This one looks like it's going to devour my life, and I am okay with that.
There's no definitive when for a Ciel Nosurge or Ar Nosurge Plus outside Japan yet. It's simply hinted that we might get releases for those if Ar Nosurge is a big enough success.
Pfft, tied between like four.
Hiabanation is especially impressive because it tells an entire story in Hymmnos, and they sing it for fourteen fucking minutes.
EXEC_SPHILIA/. is so good.
Listen to that for a while and then remember that is FINAL BOSS music. It was a rare moment where I didn't want to win, and just wanted to keep listening to the song.
And just for you, the only other Hymmnos song I know of with guitar shredding, one of the new Ar Nosurge tracks.
In AT3, shortly after getting the third Reyvateil, she mentions Aoto being a Medley. Basically a male with reyvateilic properties, but nothing ever manifests because the properties only emerge if you're a girl. Now there's an in-game reason to why they exist on the Sol Cluster and only there, but I felt they missed out on a potentially interesting way to write off all the protagonist's abilities to fight above and beyond others.
I liked the idea of Reyvateilic powers only being provided by girls, at the cost of a limited lifespan. But having a rare case where a handful of males have those properties and then have it manifested in different or more subtle ways, like say being a natural in battle or being able to soak more damage than others or just having really good instincts, would've been an easy way at the end of the trilogy to just go 'Lyner, Croix, Aoto, and a few other exceptional males in the series had this condition'. Just a shame that it was mentioned briefly, then essentially turned into a mild plot point for a 'condition' that's only mentioned a few times in the entire game.
Since they seem to be changing the names of everything dealing with the series itself (due to copyright issues I believe), anyone else a little happy that some words will be mercifully retired? I'm talking about the names that were pretty butchered by the localization. Words like Rinkernator... seriously, who thought that was a good word? Sounds like a place where cyborgs go to roller skate (kinda sounds awesome if it WAS that). In Japanese they're saying 'rinkaaneishon'... it's literally them saying 'reincarnation' in Japan speak, it's where the Tower Administrator can manifest in a physical body again. Why they didn't just call it 'Reincarnation Chamber' is beyond me.
Anyway, THREE DAYS AND COUNTING! Keep sharing your thoughts here until it arrives, folks.
A few hours in, I can honestly say it's what I was expecting. After so many Atelier games, I can tell GUST treats this series a little differently. The budget isn't nearly on the level the Atelier series gets, which is a real shame. It really runs the gamut for the first several hours as it tutorials you on most activities in rapid succession, even moreso than other JRPGs. Battle! Field Battle! Synthesis! Genometrics! Purification! They really tried to get everything out of the way in a few hours time.
The first field I really didn't have any problem at all killing the whole field in one battle. Hopefully the battles get more difficult, but the series isn't really known for its difficulty either. The NPC dialogue was done in a very weird way, almost like they're saying things in reverse order. That along with the trophies still being in Japanese (they pop up in English, so must be a small glitch) are the two big annoyances I have that'll hopefully be patched.
Not the best intro I've seen for this series, but certainly not the worst. AT3 I nearly put down after 20 minutes because of its intro. "Okay, so there's a girl being defended by a dying old man. Who's the dude in the skirt? And now we fight, and reinforcements come. The girl's praying now, and... there go her clothes, and... most of the enemies are now cake. WTF is going on?!"
The whole thing about Aoto being some sort of "medley" is explained a bit more with the Settei books. The entire Clusternia region is part of a project to create hybrid humans/reyvateils and the Outbreak? disease is a symptom or side-effect of that experiment. Basically when such a hybrid experiences a massive emotional situation, that's normally the cue for a reyvateil to create song magic. However the hybrids, not being true reyvateils, don't have a 'memory address' on a song server to create the song magic so they effectively null pointer themselves. Aoto being a "medley" isn't a special thing in Clusternia, every person afflicted by that disease is the same.
Reyvateils having a shortened lifespan is only true for the 3rd generation reyvateils, ie: those born from a reyvateil and a human father. In their case, they are missing some sort of self-regulating mechanism that regenerates damage caused by the link with an Ar tonelico tower. Otherwise, a 3rd gen reyvateil is human especially when they are taken out of range of their 'home' server.
Also I refuse to listen to any EXEC_whatevers until I can experience them in-context. Nope, not touchin' em!
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
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yet, and I'm already totally engaged.
Crafting and the new version of diving feel close enough to AT1 and 2 that it's tough to tell the difference, and the new battle system is waaaaaay better than 3, although perhaps a bit on the easy side(I've yet to have one barrier go down).
My only complaint is that there's too much moe stuff for my tastes(one gal shows off like half her butt at all times, and all the girls look too young despite insistence a that they are 21 or more), which I guess isn't really a new thing.
All Hail Nay's butt cleavage. I had to snicker at that too, then just realized they took the idea of a bikini top and used it on her ass instead. Weirdly enough it still covers more than other outfits in the game.
And yes, the combat is easy, even for the AT series. I was given the recommendation to crank the difficulty to veteran, and you're still liable to only lose with the occasional boss. Doesn't make the game bad anymore than it made Dust: An Elysian Tail bad, just makes it not that challenging.
After reading an abridged summary of the story in Ciel Nosurge, I can safely say everyone should read it before getting too far in Ar Nosurge. There is a LOT of plot there people should learn, or a lot of the later story will seem random. I'll have to see how well the game explains Ciel as I progress further.
I would be surprised if the synthesizing was that complex. It's not Atelier, it's usually just 'find the recipe, gather the ingredients, DANCE!, have a scene'. The most complex it ever was came from AT2, where the same recipe made different things with all 3 girls, and that just made a mountain of stuff where only a handful were useful.
I'm a big fan of fan service in games, but I have much the same issue. Seems hard to find one without the other though.
I'm curious to hear how far you are. Also curious if you're using something to make sure you get a true ending, and which singer you choose, if any.
Spoiler for my progress
I am using a walkthru. When I was younger and unmarried I had time to play through games over and over looking for all the bits. Don't have that kind of time anymore. I expect to go back and get all the endings and trophies, but I'm going to make the process as painless as possible.
As to girl, I chose Saki.
For 1 I went Aurica, and 2 was Cloche.
Ah, you're at Ru then. Got a ways to go still, 4 is actually the longest phase, but also one you never see unless you're on a True End route. You know the first time I went through the game I chose 'none of the above'? I chose the hidden fourth girl.
Wow, went with Aurica eh? Truthfully Lyner seemed like such a douche I didn't want him to be happy, but I did make sure he made Misha happy. And for 2 Jaqli seems the most popular choice (and mine), due partially to her link to the first game, and partially due to the other two girls just being bitter at the world for mundane reasons next to Jaqli.
Aurica had her issues, but she had the bonus of NOT being in a 10 year old body. You didn't get Misha's adult form until waaaaay to late.
I may be misunderstanding your meaning but
Harvy XP has been rebooted and now I'm fighting Harvy Vista to reset her personality
Also, the dive into Cloche in AT2 where
I'm curious if you've gone deep in Finnel's CS in AT3. You don't know uncomfortable until you dive into the realm of
That is all.