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Ar Tonelico
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Ar Tonelico
Ar tonelico is a multimedia project series made in collaboration by Gust Corporation and Banpresto (currently subsidiaries of Tecmo Koei and Namco Bandai Games respectively) consisting of video games, manga, and an OVA. The name of the series is also the name of the amplification complex composed by three monumental towers that appear in the aforementioned works. Throughout the life of the series, it was directed by Akira Tsuchiya (Gust) and produced by Atsunori Kawachi (Banpresto). The main theme songs for all of the games were sung by Akiko Shikata. Recently, it was succeeded by the Surge Concerto series.
The core part of the series is formed by three console role playing games, which are listed below in chronological order:
The Ar tonelico series is set in a planet called Ar Ciel, which lost its land in a great man-made catastrophe a long time ago, and it is a work of science fantasy that depicts the interaction between the protagonist and the heroines, the latter generally being members of a race called Revatail (romanized as Reyvateil in the English-localized versions of the games and related material), which can use a special ability known as Song Magic. During the course of the trilogy of games, the people were forced to live on three gigantic structures they made after the land was lost, and due to the loss of communication between the regions that form Ar Ciel, the people eventually came to believe that the region where they lived was the entirety of the "world" that existed.
A constructed language known as the Hymmnos Language (called Hymnos in English-language releases) is also present throughout the materials that form the series, used as part of the dialogue in the games as well as part of the lyrics of the songs heard in most audio releases related to the series, and used as a decorative element in parts of the interface, visual effects and backgrounds. The meaning to these multiple messages isn't apparent in the works themselves, but the Hymmnos language has a detailed vocabulary and set of grammar rules that can be read in detail over at the official site, which can be used as a guide to translate all phrases written in said language to Japanese. And while it hasn't received an official translation, all of this information has been translated for English-speaking audiences by fans of the series. Therefore, the players can discover hidden meanings and the feelings the characters singing the songs have hidden in its lyrics upon translating them.
The first chapter in the series, released as a game for the Sony PlayStation 2, gathered quite an appreciation due to its depictions of several topics, beginning with the usage of the Hymmnos Language for its songs, followed by the union of an elaborate world setting with a charming cast of characters. The following games introduced new ideas to the formula while continuing with the established basis for the series, as well as also receiving expansions into multimedia territory with the release of material such as manga and Drama CDs, which having songs and music as their core, further expanded the already complex world setting. Therefore, several products such as CDs compiling the songs found in the games and books explaining the intricacies of the game's world were released.
The setting for the first game, Sol Ciel, has its basis on the world setting that series' director Akira Tsuchiya created and used in 1995, during his college days, for a tabletop role-playing game, which also was where characters such as Shurelia were originally established and created. Ar tonelico was originally planned to be developed as an RPG that would see release in the PlayStation 2 console back in 2000, but the development was interrupted under the pretext that the "system for creating magical effects based on synthesizing bels" gave too much freedom to the player and thus, increased the difficult beyond tolerable levels. However, the project was restarted later on as a collaboration with Banpresto, in which the aforementioned bels were simplified with the introduction of the synthesis recipes, and the main concepts to the series: "Grathmeld", "Reyvateil", "Cosmosphere" and "Hymmnos", were introduced. Finally, after a development process in which there were several problems with the writing and revision of the main scenario scripts, the first game: Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia, saw release in January 2006 at Japan, which would be localized for North America by NIS America the following year.
That same year, in October, the second game in the series: Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica, was released as a PlayStation 2 RPG, and while a few characters returned for this sequel, it depicted a different region in the same planet as the first game, but a couple years after it ended. Like the first game, it was localized by NIS America in January 2009. The third and final installment in the series was released in January 2010 as a PlayStation 3 RPG titled Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel, and similarly to the second game, it depicted a different region a few years after its ending, but it also served as the conclusion for the storyline that started with the first game.
The games introduce the usage of Song Magic in battle that has become unique to the Ar tonelico series, and even though the depiction of its usage varies greatly from a game to other, it has a few common elements throughout the series: the party is composed by Vanguards and heroines, and the Vanguards must protect the heroines as they sing their Song Magic and until they can activate it, as Song Magic displays stronger effects the longer the heroines sing it. Additionally, there are times when either ally or enemy Reyvateils will be singing Hymmnos songs, which will become the BGM for that particular battle, demonstrating the importance the Songs have in this series.
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Ar Tonelico
Ar tonelico is a multimedia project series made in collaboration by Gust Corporation and Banpresto (currently subsidiaries of Tecmo Koei and Namco Bandai Games respectively) consisting of video games, manga, and an OVA. The name of the series is also the name of the amplification complex composed by three monumental towers that appear in the aforementioned works. Throughout the life of the series, it was directed by Akira Tsuchiya (Gust) and produced by Atsunori Kawachi (Banpresto). The main theme songs for all of the games were sung by Akiko Shikata. Recently, it was succeeded by the Surge Concerto series.
The core part of the series is formed by three console role playing games, which are listed below in chronological order:
The Ar tonelico series is set in a planet called Ar Ciel, which lost its land in a great man-made catastrophe a long time ago, and it is a work of science fantasy that depicts the interaction between the protagonist and the heroines, the latter generally being members of a race called Revatail (romanized as Reyvateil in the English-localized versions of the games and related material), which can use a special ability known as Song Magic. During the course of the trilogy of games, the people were forced to live on three gigantic structures they made after the land was lost, and due to the loss of communication between the regions that form Ar Ciel, the people eventually came to believe that the region where they lived was the entirety of the "world" that existed.
A constructed language known as the Hymmnos Language (called Hymnos in English-language releases) is also present throughout the materials that form the series, used as part of the dialogue in the games as well as part of the lyrics of the songs heard in most audio releases related to the series, and used as a decorative element in parts of the interface, visual effects and backgrounds. The meaning to these multiple messages isn't apparent in the works themselves, but the Hymmnos language has a detailed vocabulary and set of grammar rules that can be read in detail over at the official site, which can be used as a guide to translate all phrases written in said language to Japanese. And while it hasn't received an official translation, all of this information has been translated for English-speaking audiences by fans of the series. Therefore, the players can discover hidden meanings and the feelings the characters singing the songs have hidden in its lyrics upon translating them.
The first chapter in the series, released as a game for the Sony PlayStation 2, gathered quite an appreciation due to its depictions of several topics, beginning with the usage of the Hymmnos Language for its songs, followed by the union of an elaborate world setting with a charming cast of characters. The following games introduced new ideas to the formula while continuing with the established basis for the series, as well as also receiving expansions into multimedia territory with the release of material such as manga and Drama CDs, which having songs and music as their core, further expanded the already complex world setting. Therefore, several products such as CDs compiling the songs found in the games and books explaining the intricacies of the game's world were released.
The setting for the first game, Sol Ciel, has its basis on the world setting that series' director Akira Tsuchiya created and used in 1995, during his college days, for a tabletop role-playing game, which also was where characters such as Shurelia were originally established and created. Ar tonelico was originally planned to be developed as an RPG that would see release in the PlayStation 2 console back in 2000, but the development was interrupted under the pretext that the "system for creating magical effects based on synthesizing bels" gave too much freedom to the player and thus, increased the difficult beyond tolerable levels. However, the project was restarted later on as a collaboration with Banpresto, in which the aforementioned bels were simplified with the introduction of the synthesis recipes, and the main concepts to the series: "Grathmeld", "Reyvateil", "Cosmosphere" and "Hymmnos", were introduced. Finally, after a development process in which there were several problems with the writing and revision of the main scenario scripts, the first game: Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia, saw release in January 2006 at Japan, which would be localized for North America by NIS America the following year.
That same year, in October, the second game in the series: Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica, was released as a PlayStation 2 RPG, and while a few characters returned for this sequel, it depicted a different region in the same planet as the first game, but a couple years after it ended. Like the first game, it was localized by NIS America in January 2009. The third and final installment in the series was released in January 2010 as a PlayStation 3 RPG titled Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel, and similarly to the second game, it depicted a different region a few years after its ending, but it also served as the conclusion for the storyline that started with the first game.
The games introduce the usage of Song Magic in battle that has become unique to the Ar tonelico series, and even though the depiction of its usage varies greatly from a game to other, it has a few common elements throughout the series: the party is composed by Vanguards and heroines, and the Vanguards must protect the heroines as they sing their Song Magic and until they can activate it, as Song Magic displays stronger effects the longer the heroines sing it. Additionally, there are times when either ally or enemy Reyvateils will be singing Hymmnos songs, which will become the BGM for that particular battle, demonstrating the importance the Songs have in this series.