Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica

"An entertaining game full of fun combat and drama."

Welcome to GUST Entertainments game of sexual innuendos and girl hunting all while you run around saving the planet.

Ar Tonelico 2 is several years after the first, taking place on a different part of the already destroyed planet. You play as protagonist Croix-a rookie army soldier sent to stop a I.P.D. outbreak in Reyvateils (a disease that makes them go on a rampage, Reyvateils are female machines/humans that use the singing of songs as weapons.) On your Journey you meet several different Reyvateils and other partners that help you save the world from collapsing. Once a Reyvateil has joined the crew Croix will find conversation stars around the world that he will collect and then when he rests will end up having conversations with the Reyvateils about the journey, items they have made, and about other people. Once they trust Croix they will let him dive into them. Driving into a Reyvateil takes him into their Cosmosphere (minds). In their minds he helps them overcome personal problems and helps them learn strong magic to use in combat. During the dive he converses with them on choices that will either lead to only one of them being his girlfriend while the others becomes friends.

As a sequel to the first Ar Tonelico you will run into characters from the first game but don't necessarily have any direct influence over the main story. If you're a returning fan you will be delighted with seeing characters from the first one. The only thing that feels like it's not really explained is some of the background to Ar Tonelico which was covered within the first game. Again this will not pull you out of the game or even ruin it. It will feel as if the conversation has some information that is missing but has no direct influence over the story itself.

Ar Tonelico 2 has several side quests and sub activities throughout the game. This involves the girls bathing together or diving into Gaea. The bathing is where the Reyvateils level up, by adding crystals to the bath with different abilities. When adding toys or bath ointments will help them converse between one another to strengthen the link between them for combat. Gaea is a different Cosmosphere where Reyvateils go to learn about each other. Melding or alchemy is back; Croix, one Reyvateil, and the store owner builds useful items for combat. Each time Croix revisits a shop he will have a dialog screen and is sometimes giving a recipe card to meld with. Interaction with melding is important as it will also contribute to conversations with Reyvateils when resting. The last activity are the I.P.D. Reyvateils, Croix searches for infected Reyvateils then battles them and then dives into them to cure their sickness and once cured will join later to help the song magic of the Reyvateils in his group.

The graphics are a mix of 2D still art and 3D modeling. The conversations on screen are nicely drawn still art of the characters. The 3D is mixed with 2D/3D in towns. When entering a town you are given a nicely drawn 2D image with a couple of 3D modeled buildings, this is followed up with menu options on choosing where to go within the town. Once a place is picked you're giving a 3D model area that allows you to access stores or socialize with the town folk. The levels that Croix walks around in are done in 3D. They are very short and are generic in design. Most are straight linear paths to the next part, so end up getting larger but nothing beyond that. The levels usually look blocky with some decent lighting effects in certain level. Although the graphics aren't the best seen on the PS2 they are still nicely drawn. The last type of graphics that are seen in this game are fully rendered animation which are done well and keeps the story flowing but only show up at key moments in the game - during the special attacks during battle.

The gameplay is old school RPG with a bit of a twist. Ar Tonelico 1 was a standard turn based RPG. In Ar Tonelico 2, GUST has added a timed button phase. In combat you start with your front line (standard attackers) and back line (Reyvateils). You start by choosing the song magic, while the Reyvateil sings from the back line. During this the player must push a direction and a button to perform attacks or care of the Reyvateils. Doing these commands will increase the link between fighters and Reyvateils in making song magic build faster, and help the front line build up to a special attacks. This is the first phase known as (Attack Phase) the second phase is (Defense Phase). This phase the front line jumps back to protect the Reyvateils from enemy attacks. This time the player times the button on defense to take minimum to no damage. This repeats until the enemy is dead. The combat itself is fun and the animations of stronger songs and special attacks are awesome. Most of the commands are set to one button sometimes two, which makes playing this game fun and easy. Although the first Ar Tonelico was insanely easy, the fact that your Reyvateils get attacked a lot more makes the game a little harder (not by much) but much more fun.

What makes this game rock is the music. Just like the first one, Ar Tonelico 2 has some of the most upbeat quirky J-POP sounding music you can find. The sound quality and style of music is perfect in this game. Some of the music will be very memorable from towns, levels, battle themes, and ending music. The voice acting feels good at times and then overdramatic at others, but nothing to really pull you out of the game. I just wish it had more voice acting then it does. Since at times there are areas that feel like there should be voices but there are not.

Ar tonelico 2 comes with some minor annoyances from the generic map that returns but this time instead of having it appear in the center of the screen is now on a menu screen. Also having to access the Reyvateil cannon, choosing which enemy to attack, and access items from the menu screen instead of a submenu like the first one is pretty annoying doesn't really take away from the game play. Misspellings and bad grammar return again just as in the first one. It feels like this is a repeating problem with other GUST games, but it doesn't get too annoying and will not pull you out from the experience of playing Ar Tonelico 2. The worst bug in the game comes at the end on an optional boss that you fight that will freeze the system forcing reboot. This stinks if you're trying to collect all the collectables within game. You can get around it and beat this boss but you will go through several reboots if your battle strategy fails.

All in all I loved this game with multiple different endings and very funny sexual innuendos at every turn along with faster combat and great music makes Ar Tonelico 2 a great upgrade from the first game. I recommend this game to anyone that loves JRPGs, I give it 8 Maximum Penetrations out of 10.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/09

Game Release: Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica (US, 01/20/09)