Gust making a spiritual successor to Ar Tonelico: Ar no Surge

[raisel]

Very well. I'll try to keep my mouth (or fingers, in this case) from running off too much.

[Dice]

If being anal is trying to abide by what the creators of the game themselves wrote in the liner notes of the Hymmnos Concerts, then, yes, I am.

It's exactly as Dice says.  There's nothing wrong with having such a passion about Ar tonelico (I own just about every book that exists on it, for example), but being anal enough to correct every little thing on a casual forum like this makes you come off rather pretentious.  Perhaps try to tone it down a bit.

I'm actually kinda sad we didn't see the old Ar Tone artist back.

I like Ar No Surge's artist well enough, but the Ar Tone one had a certain "panache" that felt a-typical to what's usually seen.  

Very well. I'll try to keep my mouth (or fingers, in this case) from running off too much.

I'm kinda speaking from experience myself (I sometimes often type waaay too much)

HOWEVER, if it's something I also dig, then you can bet I'll be responding with blatantly lengthy and thorough posts (as I do in Tales, Zelda, Final Fantasy, and a few other topics non-gaming topics)

[Cyril]

I really miss NAGI as well.  There's nothing wrong with the new artist, though I just find his style isn't as appealing.  NAGI had some really interesting coloring and texturing methods that made his art unique in the first game, though I find he didn't use them as much in the art for the second.  Apparently for the third, he didn't even color half the images himself.

And hey, we all have our moments.  I'm incredibly anal (and probably have annoyed someone on this site) over Atelier.

[raisel]

Well, Nagi isn't completely absent here: he was the designer for one of the Song Magic spells Ion is capable of using. It's this one: http://i3.minus.com/ibytK6HNusNubO.jpg Similarly, most of the Song Magic designs were given to different artists so they could do whatever they wanted with them. However, the character designer this time around is ntny, who also had this same role in Ciel nosurge and was the character modeller for Ar tonelico 3, as well as the world map modeller for both AT2 and AT3.

[Ranadiel]

Not sure if these have been posted yet, but because my hype level is rising, I feel the need to share the snippets of music that have been released:

Green Lands remix.  Ar tonelico 1's map theme in Ar No Surge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY97gFpHH1o

Two samples of the new hymnos.

From the new singer, ORIGA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bOcOHu7LqM

Haruka Shimotsuki's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqr6erKwvxA

Whee! Love the new songs. Really looking forward to the Hymnos Concert CDs (or w/e they are called this time).

[Dice]

I really miss NAGI as well.  There's nothing wrong with the new artist, though I just find his style isn't as appealing.  NAGI had some really interesting coloring and texturing methods that made his art unique in the first game, though I find he didn't use them as much in the art for the second.  Apparently for the third, he didn't even color half the images himself.

And hey, we all have our moments.  I'm incredibly anal (and probably have annoyed someone on this site) over Atelier.

I hate phrasing it this way, but whoever the artist for Surge is, feels too much like "typical anime", nothing really unique stands out.  It kinda looks like what's "in" these days for light novel adaptions.  S/he's talented, most definitely, I just feel like I've seen it before.

Also, between AT1 and 2, Nagi could have just "gotten better" between the first and second game.  I love the first game's art, but there's a certain "muddiness" to it.  It's not bad, just slightly less refined, and something that's a bit cleared up.  I like both though, a lot.
The third game and a change of their colourist makes....so much sense. I wonder why it looked so different.

I *love*love*love* the hell out of Hidari doing the new Atelier series.  I love the colours, and the soft texture over the art.
I liked Kashida Mel too, but after a while I got tired with how pretty they all were, Hidari felt a bit more "cartoon-y", which I think works a bit better for the relatively light-hearted series.

Well, Nagi isn't completely absent here: he was the designer for one of the Song Magic spells Ion is capable of using. It's this one: http://i3.minus.com/ibytK6HNusNubO.jpg Similarly, most of the Song Magic designs were given to different artists so they could do whatever they wanted with them. However, the character designer this time around is ntny, who also had this same role in Ciel nosurge and was the character modeller for Ar tonelico 3, as well as the world map modeller for both AT2 and AT3.

Yaay!  So song magic will look interesting then. Love that one pic.

[Zendervai]

The one issue I had with NAGI's art was the occasional side character with an outfit that was just WTF. Like Tenba President Ayano from AT1. That outfit just looked extremely uncomfortable and seconds away from a bizarre and painful malfunction.

See below.

[raisel]

I can at least say that ntny isn't deviating too much from one of Nagi's original designs for Shurelia: here's how she looks in one of her memories from the AT1 light novel, and here's how she will look in Ar nosurge, which from all the information that's been revealed so far, will take place in more or less the same time these memories are from.

And on other topic, here's the music box that the JP collector's edition includes. It plays a rendition of Ciel nosurge's opening theme "To the Songless Hill".

[Kevadu]

Battle system trailer

And since I went and posted this on Gematsu I might as well put it here too.  I translated the info in that trailer:

0:24
When the battle starts choose one kind of song magic to start with. There are cases in which you can't use a song again for a while after using it once. The kinds of songs vary in terms of their "effect" and "power".

0:40
Battle Skills
Attack by pressing the (triangle)(circle)(square)(x) buttons
You can only use each attack the number of times indicated
The (circle) button powers up the (triangle)(square)(x) attacks

0:53
Press the (circle) button in time with the enemy attacks to defend
The number of times you are able to guard is limited just like your attacks

1:03
Heroine's endurance level
There is a 4 level barrier that decreases every time they receive an attack.
If all of the barriers are destroyed then it's game over.

1:13
Harmonics
Actions during combat increase the gauge.
You can use powerful skills that consume the gauge.

1:24
Harmonics
When the gauge has gone up a certain amount the level increases,
and there are various benefits.

1:40
Enemy break
When enemies are attacked their break gauge increases
When it reaches its maximum the enemy is unable to act

1:51
Enemy break
When all enemies with a "!" symbol are defeated or broken there is a "break bonus" and the player gets another action turn.

2:05
Wave Window
This indicates all of the enemies that exist in the field.
The red part indicates the range of effect of song magic.
If all waves are defeated there are no more encounters.

Wave
The right-most part indicates the enemies on the screen.
When they are defeated the next enemies are waiting to appear.

2:27
Burst Level
"Song magic" charge quantity.
The higher it is the more enemy waves you can annihilate.

2:40
Burst Level
The burst level is increased in response to the actions of the protagonist during combat.

2:57
Support by Heroines
As the harmonics level increases the heroines will back you up via "song magic".

3:07
Support by Heroines
The type of support attack will differ according to the kind of "song magic".

3:19
Friend Skills
Comrades in the game whose trust you've earned can also support you.

[Kevadu]

Because I clearly have too much time on my hands...

I went and stuck my translation in an actual video.  My first time doing that.  So...there it is.

In case you can't tell I'm psyched for this game ;)

[Cyril]

I appreciate the effort, but I'm trying to avoid all videos to keep the experience as fresh as possible. 

I'm totally hyped, too.  I ordered my Agent Pack a few weeks ago.

[Dice]

Battle system trailer

And since I went and posted this on Gematsu I might as well put it here too.  I translated the info in that trailer:

0:24
When the battle starts choose one kind of song magic to start with. There are cases in which you can't use a song again for a while after using it once. The kinds of songs vary in terms of their "effect" and "power".

[etc]

Thank you so so so much for this I've always wanted this sort of look into Japanese gameplay and especially for a game that would rely on a lot of unique systems.  Thanks Kevadu!

[Kevadu]

So this game came out March 6th in Japan and I had it pre-ordered on Play-Asia.  It's March 12th over in that part of the world now and it hasn't even shipped yet.  I'm a little ticked off at Play-Asia now.  I even decided to pay for relatively quick shipping because I didn't feel like waiting (the cheapest shipping can take like a month), but now I'm wondering why I bothered if they're not even going to ship it for a whole week...

[Andrew]

So this game came out March 6th in Japan and I had it pre-ordered on Play-Asia.  It's March 12th over in that part of the world now and it hasn't even shipped yet.  I'm a little ticked off at Play-Asia now.  I even decided to pay for relatively quick shipping because I didn't feel like waiting (the cheapest shipping can take like a month), but now I'm wondering why I bothered if they're not even going to ship it for a whole week...

That's quite interesting, because I had problems with PlayAsia very recently as well. I ordered a different game at the start of Feb and it still hasn't arrived (should have taken 2 weeks). I sent them an email, and they did a run-around on me for a few weeks. Apparently they are now "investigating" as to where it went. >.>

[Dice]

they are now "investigating" as to where it went. >.>

Obviously what's happening: