Ar Nosurge

Field Exploration

In the fields, the players can explore the areas and collect items in a way akin to that of Gust's Atelier series, as well as talking with other characters, interacting with some elements of the scenery and activating events. They can also talk with the other characters that form their party in order to get their viewpoints on the current area or the objective they have to accomplish. The player will have a bar that constantly changes colors, alerting them to the possibility of entering a battle the closer it gets to a red color and the faster it flashes.

Battles

During battles, the player will control two characters: the protagonist and his corresponding heroine, while they battle multiple enemy waves, so once an enemy group is defeated, other group will take their place until the player defeats them all, they run away, are defeated, or the turn limit is reached. The protagonist has the purpose of actively attacking the enemies and protecting the heroine, while the heroine stands behind the protagonist singing a Song Magic chosen by the player. Turns are divided in Player's Turn and Enemy's Turn, of which the Player's Turn is used for the protagonist to attack the enemies a set number of times while the heroine charges up her Song Magic. For attacking, the player can use four attacks that are mapped to the four face buttons in the PlayStation 3's controller, as well as also being able to bring up a menu where they can use items, activate Friend Skills, run away from the battle or activate the Heroine's Song Magic whenever they wish to. The better the player battles, the faster their Harmo Level will rise, which in turn will speed up the Burst Gauge, which is the representation of the strength for the heroine's Song Magic. However, received attacks as well as the usage of the bonus actions triggered with the L1 and R1 buttons can reduce the Harmo Level, so the player must be careful. Additionally, the heroine may use weaker Song Magic blasts of variable intensity against the enemies to support the protagonist during the Player's Turn, which also depend on how high the player has the Harmo Level and the type of Song Magic she is charging. Once the player has used up all the attacks the protagonist can use during that turn, the battle will move over to the Enemy's Turn, during which the player will have to watch for the timing of the enemies' attacks and press the Circle button in order to block them and protect the heroine. Successful guards reduce damage taken and increase the Burst Gauge, while failed guards result in a loss of Burst and greater damage to the Heroine. It must be mentioned that the protagonist can't die, as he doesn't even have an HP bar, but the heroine does have an HP bar at the side of her portrait, and if she falls during battle, the game will count it as a defeat and it'll be a Game Over for the player.

Battles have a time limit, as if they aren't finished in a certain number of turns, the game will consider the battle as finished and send the player to the results screen, where they will receive experience, Dive Points, money and dropped items depending on the types and number of enemies defeated. After this, they will be taken back to the field and the encounter gauge will be reduced depending on the number of encounters for the area and the number of waves the player managed to defeat. However, if the player manages to defeat all the waves before the turn limit expires, the encounter gauge will be emptied upon returning to the field, allowing the player to explore the field without worrying about enemies. This gives more importance to Song Magic due to the fact that once it has reached a certain Burst threshold, it can deal damage to all of the enemy waves currently present in battle at once, allowing the player to clear the area of enemies with a single attack. This is denoted in the wave indicator at the top of the screen by marking in red the waves that the currently charged Burst level can destroy at the moment, as well as indicating the percentage of damage the current Burst charge will deal to the wave that follows the leftmost one highlighted in red with a small notice below the wave indicator: when the percentage reaches a 100% and begins blinking, that means that the Song Magic can annihilate all enemies in the field. Additionally, the player can gain additional turns by attacking the enemies marked with a ! enough to fill a yellow bar below their HP, which when it gets filled, it will Break that enemy and leave it stunned; as well as killing enemies that don't have the previously mentioned mark. Additionally, event and boss battles are exempt from the turn limit.

When the player has reached the max Harmo Level (Lv. 4) and completed the Heroine's Genometrics up to the point of the Completion Ceremony, the option for activating the Song Magic is replaced by other called the HarmoBurst, in which the protagonist will be able to attack enemies continuously until the Harmo Level gauge gets completely emptied. Additionally, this will allow the protagonist and heroine to activate a more powerful attack, in which the protagonist launches a super move followed by the Song Magic of the Heroine with amplified power, after a while of using the HarmoBurst, though it should be mentioned that using the super move or letting the Harmo Level gauge run out will result in the automatic activation of the Song Magic and the end of the battle.

The player can also call upon the characters that have established a friendship with the party in order to attack the enemies or provide support to the pair after certain conditions are met. However, only one of these skills can be used per battle. Both pairs have each four possible Friend Skills, all different from each other.

Synthesis

At shops, the player has the option of using the items and recipes they have collected to make newer items, always with the assistance of the shopkeeper of the place they are at. Aside of this allowing the player to gain items they wouldn't be able to in any other way, this also triggers scenes in which the characters involved in the creation of the item discuss it and give it a name the first time a specific item is made, as well as also having humorous sequences of dancing and singing at the end of the synthesis process. It's in this way that the items for strengthening specific parts of equipment of the party can be made: TxBIOS increase the power of Song Magic, Cathodes increase the power of weapons, and RNAs increase the power of armors.

To acquire new recipes, the player must trigger events at the synthesis shops, which is done by talking to the shopkeeper and leaving the shop menu.

Genometrics

Carrying over the Dive system from the Ar tonelico series, the player can also Dive into the Soulspace (mental world) of the characters, which receives the name Genometrics here, and have adventures through them. During this time, the gameplay changes to be more like that of a visual novel, where the player only has to read through the events taking place, move the protagonist through the Genometrics map and take decisions when prompted. Entering each point in the map requires the player to spend a set amount of the DP they have gained from battles, as well as taking some of the decisions in the events, so if the player doesn't have enough DP, they will fail to complete the events and get expelled from the Genometrics they are exploring. Unlike the Ar tonelico series, however, this isn't limited to the heroines: the player can instead Dive into the Genometrics of several of the characters they meet, and the decisions taken in each individual Genometrics will have some impact in the other, by changing the friendly disposition of these characters towards the current party as well as their introverted, extroverted, masochistic and sadistic tendencies. This is also the only way in which the Heroines can gain new Song Magic for use in battle.

Each of the events of the Genometrics can be repeated after they have been completed in order to make different choices, as obtaining Genometrica Crystals and CGs is entirely dependent on the choices the player makes, being possible to miss out on obtaining several of them if the appropriate options aren't chosen while advancing.

Purification

This gameplay element consists of the heroines and the protagonists taking a bath in a hot spring together. During this, they will change from their normal clothes to swimsuits and have conversations to know each other more deeply. Additionally, during the Purification, the player can Install Genometrica Crystals they have received from the Genometrics in order to increase their powers. It's possible to Install them into anyone of the playable party members (Earthes, Ion, Cas and Delta), and while there are five possible spots where the crystals can be Installed (legs, torso, abdomen, arms and head), not all of these will be available from the beginning: the player will be allowed to Install on them when both the protagonist and the heroine have gotten a deep enough relationship.

SekaiLink

Players that have a PlayStation Vita and a copy of Ciel Nosurge or Ciel Nosurge RE:incarnation can connect them to Ar nosurge on the PS3 to unlock the following features:

Additionally, this will change the conversations with Ion in Ar nosurge, making her talk about the events from Ciel Nosurge depending on how many of its chapters the player has cleared, and the responses the player gave to Ion's questions.

None of these functions are available in the localized version, as the menu that gave access to them was completely removed, while the scenes that allowed to fight the special boss can't be triggered even after fulfilling the conditions for it. The special boss however, is available in the PlayStation Vita port Ar nosurge Plus using the set HP amount model the Japanese versions currently use.

Setting

The themes of the game are "human bonds" and "the inner surface of the heart". On a fictional planet named Ra Ciela, humans and a spiritual lifeform known as Genoms previously co-existed, but after the planet was destroyed, humans began to travel through space in a colony ship called Soreil, searching for other planets they could inhabit. After 5000 years of travel, they were suddenly attacked by a hostile life-form known as the Sharls, which abducted the people living in the residential areas of Soreil, Orei; and the human were powerless to stop the Sharls due to them possessing the power of Song Magic. However, the Felion Wall suddenly opened and from inside emerged the Ancients, people with the ability to use the same Song Magic as the Sharl and knowledge about technologies that were long lost, as they lived from the time Ra Ciela was destroyed.

Characters

Story

The story of the game is told through the viewpoints of two character pairs: Cass and Delta, and Earthes and Ion. Initially, Cass and Delta are tasked to rescuing their friend Sarly after she disappeared during a mission in enemy territory. After the rescue, they discover she had in her possession a powerful Song called Ciel N Protecta, but it was stolen and it supposedly is the cause for the ship's guardian robots attacking Felion, as their enemy, the Archbishop of the Genomirai Church, Zill is controlling them through it. During their searches for it, they are captured by the Genomirai Church, and as they escape from them, they discover Zill is planning to set up and sing a very dangerous kind of Song Magic called Class::CIEL_NOSURGE;. On the other hand, Ion is trapped in the sealed world through which the player interacted with her in Ciel Nosurge, and having recovered her memories and having Earthes as her helper, she decides to escape from it. After escaping from the sealed world, they both reach the city of Tenryosara, where they meet with Tattoria and Kanon. And from there, both pairs continue their journey in search of the truth about this world.

Development

The game was first announced in September 2013, as a continuation of Ciel Nosurge, and a prequel to the Ar tonelico series.

The game is directed by Akira Tsuchiya, who previously served as the director of the Ciel Nosurge life simulation game, as well as the entirety of the Ar tonelico series. The character design is by NTNY, and the game models are produced by Flight Unit. The game will feature music by the singers Akiko Shikata, Haruka Shimotsuki, Noriko Mitose, Origa and Yoshino Nanjo. Shikata is also in charge of the opening theme, To the Songless Hill -Harmonics Pre=Ciel- (詩無き丘へ-Harmonics Pre=Ciel-).

During the initial development phase, various gameplay ideas were conceived however were later omitted from the game plans; these include a type of enemy capable of deleting the player's save data, and enemies that can never be defeated unless the player followed a specific rule. These ideas were removed, citing concerns that they would cause significant frustration amongst players.

The game's music is composed by Daisuke Achiwa and Kazuki Yanagawa, and it also features several pieces from Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia that were originally composed by Ken Nakagawa. A total of fifteen vocal songs sung by Akiko Shikata, Haruka Shimotsuki, Noriko Mitose, Origa and Yoshino Nanjo, several of which make use of the Emotional Song Pact and REON-4213 languages that were made for the Surge Concerto games. Unlike the Ar tonelico series, the songs featured on this game don't receive the name Hymmnos: they are instead classified in two categories called Cielns and Hymmns.

Release

Ar Nosurge launched on March 6, 2014 in Japan. The game was released in North America on September 23, 2014 and in Europe on September 26, 2014, under the title Ar nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star. A limited edition was available, exclusively on NIS America's online store. The limited edition included a copy of the game, the soundtrack, a hardcover art book, and a poster, and sold out before the game released. Additionally, some of the game's Downloadable content (DLC) was given out by various retails as a bonus for reserving a copy.

A series of music CDs featuring tracks from the game have been released. The original soundtrack was released in March 2014, and features 81 individual tracks, three of them being rearrangement from Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia pieces. The same day, two mini-albums titled Ar nosurge Genometric Concert side.Blue Tokikagura and Ar nosurge Genometric Concert side.Red Tentōki were released, containing the game's vocal songs. The game's numerous vocal tracks are performed by Origa, Akiko Shikata, Yoshino Nanjō, Haruka Shimotsuki and Noriko Mitose.

A manga prequel began serialisation within the Monthly Shōnen Sirius on February 26, 2014.

So far, Gust has given additional support to the game with the following downloadable content packs:

Ar nosurge Plus

Ar Nosurge Plus is an enhanced port of the game for the PlayStation Vita platform. Additional content added to the game include a greater number of costumes, touchscreen interaction compatibility for purification ceremonies, three additional characters available for purification ceremony with each having over 50 conversation events, a new tutorial mode, and all post-release DLC from the original PlayStation 3 version. It was released on October 2, 2014 in Japan, and July 2015 in North America and Europe.

Reception

The PlayStation 3 version of Ar nosurge sold 27,037 physical retail copies within the first week of release in Japan, placing fifth within the Japanese software sales rankings for that particular week. Famitsu gave the game a review score of 32/40. Lee Cooper of Hardcore Gamer gave the game 3.5/5, stating that while it was disjointed and confusing, it was also "brilliant, cavernously deep and emotionally charging."