Ar Tonelico Qoga

[abigsmurf]

Got to the bit with the first hymn. Made me lol. This game does kinda have issues with keeping the tone consistant. Kinda swerves wildly between serious and comic relief.

Mute's probably the most entertaining henchman type character I've seen in a game for a whil.

[briareos_kerensky]

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Tyria

endings get, done with the game. Nothing much to add except that

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Tyria's

conversations could have been checked at least once as during a rather important scene her dialogue exits the text box and the last line is cut in half by the screen boundary; also her last Cosmosphere level has the (Japanese) voices out-of-sync with the shown text (voices played are for two text lines after the one shown), which makes hard to follow what's going on with the audio on.
Anyway,

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Reyvateil Origin

endings are always bittersweet.
Here in AT Qoga,

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Tyria becomes the tower to regenerate the planet (Ar Ciel) but when she will do it, most of her energy will be depleted and could die any minute; the normal ending sees Aoto and Tyria go to Sol Ciel (AT1 continent) to search for a method to avoid her death, without saving the world; true ending? Aoto and Tyria live happily as a couple but there's a "for now" in Tyria's last sentence after saving the world.
So, uhm, can't the Origins live a normal and happy life after a game ends?

Well, the whole concept of Reyvateil is a bit sad,

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but at least Saki is spared from any major consequence

.

Finnel...well, I don't know how her Cosmosphere or route end, but from the levels I've seen I think that she'll never reach true happiness...at least what normal people would call "true happiness":

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not only she wants to be tortured and her mind guardian complies to her request, but she wishes to suffer along Aoto and almost kills him when he saves her; Soma is actually trying to scare people away so that they won't end like Aoto

. Way to go Finnel, please stay away from me. Really far away.

[abigsmurf]

Euch, the dungeons really get much much worse as the game goes on.

The Clustania bit is just painful. Back and forth in a maze 3 times (so far) with a high encounter rate and no maps.

Incidentally, how do you change which spells the girls use? I assume you're not stuck using the same summons for the whole game but programming doesn't seem to change anything.

[briareos_kerensky]

There is only one spell per Reyvateil persona. Basically, it is an attack spell with healing functions, elemental and stat boosting every 5 or so seconds.
Purging will add elemental damage corresponding to the shoulder button pressed and will boost stats/healing according to the programmed effect. Healing effect is always present and all characters (vanguard and Reyvateil) will be healed at the same time a stat boost is bestowed.
To change the area of effect of the sung spell you need to change Reyvateil/persona.

The Clustanian district is a painful dungeon, yes, but it is the only dungeon like that. Maybe the part above it can get a bit frustrating, but you can run from battles pretty easily and there's even a trophy for that. Once you hit level 80 (or even 75) you can beat everything (including the secret boss) pretty easily if you have high-level healing items (Soul Charger and

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Beta-good in the beer keg

)

[abigsmurf]

That's a shame, I enjoyed all the various spell animations and tunes in AT2.

Good to hear the Clustanian bit isn't a taste of things to come. I think it managed to actually be worse than the insane backtracking of the final dungeon in AT2.

[abigsmurf]

Completed it, got the bad ending (which oddly the game seems to push you towards as the best thing to do), going to get the normal ending tomorrow.

The end comes on really suddenly. I'm guessing more is explained with the better endings but you really get a "that's it?!?" type feeling.

Making the condition for the true ending

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beating a boss that is pretty much impossible for you to beat first time you play through without insane levels of grinding

is a BS move. From what I gather the game lets you play from just before that point after you complete it though.

Overall, this game has been dissapointing. Battle system is simplistic and not as fun or skillful as AT2's (although that did get drawn out towards the end), the two main girls have no depth, the only complexity they have is plot related stuff rather than that stuff about their personality and past. You do get some depth in the cosmospheres but it never shows outside of them. They finish the game with the same personality and mindset they begin with. Even considering the lack of depth they're not too interesting.

[briareos_kerensky]

Beating

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Myu within the alloted time (7 minutes) is pretty easy, even during the first playthrough. A decently charged Flipsphere (400k%) is more than enough and if you throw in a couple of supermoves, it's even less.

I don't remember at which level I fought it for the first time but there was no grinding involved.

[edit] I'm glad they switched to a turn-less battle system, though a very basic one. I've always found Gust's turn-based efforts dull and AT2 battle system was way too chaotic.

[abigsmurf]

Even the (bad end) final boss though is one shotted by a 100k full flipsphere. Did about 5 on

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Myu

of that power and he still had 25% left on him when the time ran out, maybe if you did charge one to insane levels you can beat him but to me, he's designed not to be able to beat him the first time you encounter him. Was probably about lv38 with a level 4 cosmophere.

Although the AT2 battle system became incredibly slow (normal enemies taking 2-3 rounds), it at least required some skill. AT3's is basically button mash and spam healing items.

[briareos_kerensky]

Even <snip> it at least required some skill. AT3's is basically button mash and spam healing items.

5x 100k Flipspheres are not as powerful as a single 500k Flipsphere...math might have a different opinion but that's how the game works :P Equipping a persona with high attack power (Soma or Filament, both should be available at Cosmosphere lv 4) wil make things even easier. Battles against bosses are nothing more than waiting for a decently charged Flipsphere while throwing a couple of supermoves to soften the target...exactly lke all other Ar Tonelicos.

[abigsmurf]

In AT2 though, if you waited too long when charging your song magic, it would do it automatically (and be weaker) I seem to remember.

[briareos_kerensky]

In AT2 though, if you waited too long when charging your song magic, it would do it automatically (and be weaker) I seem to remember.

Yep, and I always activated it just before the automatic release and it was usually the one and onyl charge I used during a fight. Maybe bosses would require two, but I'm a bit hazy on the details.

[abigsmurf]

Did the normal ending last night. Was still a bit underwhelming.

Doing the true ending now and I'll probably try to complete Saki's Cosmophere.

[briareos_kerensky]

Welcome to the missing 1/3rd of the game :P

[abigsmurf]

This is why I hate multiple endings. There's no way you're meant to beat that boss the first time (still took me two tries, had to do a 450K song magic followed by a tense 100k one and that was 10 or so levels above what I was the first time). There's huge amounts of story left unresolved through the rubbish endings (not to mention 18 hours is pathetically short for an RPG of this kind).

Still, it's not quite as bad as Persona 4 where the game actively tries to trick you into not doing the actions required for the true ending.

[abigsmurf]

Been playing through the true route now.

It makes it apparent just how much you get screwed over from the normal and bad endings. So many plot details left unexplored that are getting covered in this route.

The cosmosphere doesn't really work once you get to 7 (in Saki's). It blurs the line between the real Saki and cosmosphere too much, makes it seem odd it doesn't have big effects on he in the game.