Review: Ar Tonelico

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Review: Ar Tonelico


Ar Tonelico is the latest release from Gust to be localized in America by Nippon Ichi.  This game follows closely in the footsteps of Gust's noteworthy Atelier Iris series in many aspects, but takes one or two extreme departures.  First and foremost this game is a largely traditional RPG, but just below the surface exists a very japanese dating simulation.  Stop and think about that for a second.  Someone in Gust's marketing department thought "dating sim + RPG = gold."  And I'll tell you what, they were pretty right about it on a conceptual level.

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[schild]

This was submitted by Phildo btw. He's taken a liking to reviewing NISA games. I have enjoyed what I've played of Ar Tonelico though and agree with roughly 90% of his claims.

[Riggswolfe]

I thought this was a DS game at first when I saw the graphics. I know graphics don't make the game, but there's not really an excuse for those kinds of subpar graphics these days, even in RPGs.

Other than that, the game sounds tempting. MuffSoul diving as a powerup mechanic sounds cool.

[schild]

DS Game? No, too much color depth. It looks just a notch above the Atelier Iris stuff. And just a notch below Disgaea 2, though it might be of a higher resolution.