Singing a Different Tune
Ar Tonelico is one of the most weirdly attractive RPGs to ever hit the PS2. Here's why.
Published: February 21, 2007
"Misha, you grew tits!"
It was about seven hours into the game when those words suddenly lept across the screen. Despite all the borderline pedo characters and the slightly meandering storyline, I was starting to like the game. And then a character more or less encapsulated the whole of my thought process when I was reunited with one of the characters introduced at the beginning of the game with a single sentence. I was hooked.
That should also give you a decent idea of what kind of tone the game has as a while. It's not overtly sexual, but there's tons of brazen innuendo in place here and the game doesn't try to hide it. NIS America's localization didn't shy away from it either, nor the voice actors playing the part. It's sort of like one of those Victoria's Secret commercials on TV, flaunting sexuality without ever saying "we're selling you boobs" -- except in the world of Ar Tonelico, it's all pulled off as if aimed at 14 year-olds.
I don't mean that in the sense that it's teenybopper material; the themes in the game can take dips into the frankly adult topics of abuse and emotional scars, but most of the time it's handled with so much hemming and hawing that it all just comes off like an afterschool special. An afterschool special with, yes, tits. But make no mistake, through all the Jr. High-level expository bits, there's actually a good RPG here, you just have to be willing to poke as much fun at the game as it does at itself.
It all starts with Lyner Barsett, a Knight of Elemia and protector of the Tower of Elemia he calls home being sent down to the lower world in search of a crystal. See, long ago, a huge war broke out between humans and Reyvateils, quasi-robots that could craft magic just by singing. Viruses born from those songs wreaked havoc on the world, but their master, Mir, was sealed away by three goddesses. As a result, humans stomped all over the Reyvateils, subjugating them and essentially turning them into pretty singing slaves.
None of those is actually explained from the start, of course; all you know is that viruses that normally fall under Lyner's blade are somehow resistant and Lyner needs to find the crystal and get his ass back up the tower to save everyone. Except the dude gets attacked by a dragon on the way down, crashes his rad little future tech ride and suddenly has to make do with people he's never met living decades behind technologically. Along the way, he meets up with Aurica, a sheepish girl, and Misha, the complete opposite, both Reyvateils and it's here where the game starts to get interesting (and/or creepy depending on how seriously you take things).
See, Reyvateils open themselves up to a select few people, and when they do, those people can dive into their subconscious to help them learn to craft new spells. While in their minds, though, things get a little... kinky. For one, each level of their minds is protected by a certain part of their personality. It could be their desire to protect themselves, to have fun... or it could be raw, wanton lust. The one common thing that they have is that most are dressed in cute little costumes that show a bit of skin. The later personalities are decidedly provocative in a lot of cases, but there's an upside to helping them out: you get that costume to use in the real world if you can finish off that level of her mind, and the costumes actually affect things like MP and how quickly the songs charge.
It was about seven hours into the game when those words suddenly lept across the screen. Despite all the borderline pedo characters and the slightly meandering storyline, I was starting to like the game. And then a character more or less encapsulated the whole of my thought process when I was reunited with one of the characters introduced at the beginning of the game with a single sentence. I was hooked.
That should also give you a decent idea of what kind of tone the game has as a while. It's not overtly sexual, but there's tons of brazen innuendo in place here and the game doesn't try to hide it. NIS America's localization didn't shy away from it either, nor the voice actors playing the part. It's sort of like one of those Victoria's Secret commercials on TV, flaunting sexuality without ever saying "we're selling you boobs" -- except in the world of Ar Tonelico, it's all pulled off as if aimed at 14 year-olds.
I don't mean that in the sense that it's teenybopper material; the themes in the game can take dips into the frankly adult topics of abuse and emotional scars, but most of the time it's handled with so much hemming and hawing that it all just comes off like an afterschool special. An afterschool special with, yes, tits. But make no mistake, through all the Jr. High-level expository bits, there's actually a good RPG here, you just have to be willing to poke as much fun at the game as it does at itself.
It all starts with Lyner Barsett, a Knight of Elemia and protector of the Tower of Elemia he calls home being sent down to the lower world in search of a crystal. See, long ago, a huge war broke out between humans and Reyvateils, quasi-robots that could craft magic just by singing. Viruses born from those songs wreaked havoc on the world, but their master, Mir, was sealed away by three goddesses. As a result, humans stomped all over the Reyvateils, subjugating them and essentially turning them into pretty singing slaves.
None of those is actually explained from the start, of course; all you know is that viruses that normally fall under Lyner's blade are somehow resistant and Lyner needs to find the crystal and get his ass back up the tower to save everyone. Except the dude gets attacked by a dragon on the way down, crashes his rad little future tech ride and suddenly has to make do with people he's never met living decades behind technologically. Along the way, he meets up with Aurica, a sheepish girl, and Misha, the complete opposite, both Reyvateils and it's here where the game starts to get interesting (and/or creepy depending on how seriously you take things).
See, Reyvateils open themselves up to a select few people, and when they do, those people can dive into their subconscious to help them learn to craft new spells. While in their minds, though, things get a little... kinky. For one, each level of their minds is protected by a certain part of their personality. It could be their desire to protect themselves, to have fun... or it could be raw, wanton lust. The one common thing that they have is that most are dressed in cute little costumes that show a bit of skin. The later personalities are decidedly provocative in a lot of cases, but there's an upside to helping them out: you get that costume to use in the real world if you can finish off that level of her mind, and the costumes actually affect things like MP and how quickly the songs charge.