Let's get some facts straight about this game shall we?
We start this game out with the youngest hero of the Ar Tonelico series, the 17 year old Aoto. He's an apprentice in high elevation construction and one day happens to run across one of the main girl's in the story, Saki, who is 16, as she's been on the run.
The first thing I notice that causes an uproar on this game is the whole purge system, where the girls must strip their clothes to power up. Something about the fact that the girls are under aged (Saki is again 16 and Finnel is 17)
The funny fact is that the game explains why they need to strip, and also the fact that in the options menu, you can turn off the whole sequence if you so wished, which for some reason is never explained in any reviews that the players have to option to do this, making it sound like they force you to watch these girls strip.
Another problem people seem to have is the new battle system. Some people say this battle system is broken, is all based off of luck, and is annoying. It is indeed a huge jump from the battle systems in both the first and second game, but the battle system doesn't feel broken or based off of luck. It's just a bit different then the other two games, and if you know what you're doing, you can easily win a fight. I found the battle system can be easily figured out with strategy and understanding on what you need to do. Granted it does get annoying when you have to keep fighting over and over again, but then again in any game where you fight over and over again going through dungeons you're going to get annoyed.
Now some reviewers have said that the story is stupid and makes no sense. Yes, sometimes the story can get a bit silly. It's more silly then the other two games. But there is a very interesting plot surrounding this game that ties in with the other two games before it, and it would make sense if people are extremely confused if they jump into this game first instead of playing through the first two games, but other then that, the plot for this game does make sense if you played the first two games, and is interesting. Another problem seems to be in the diving as well, but trust me, the dive stories are really interesting except... Well I'll explain at the end of this.
Anyways, this game also has interesting thing that haven't been explained all the way. In the battle system, your Reyvateils can only craft one song magic per Persona (since, all the girls have different personas as you will find out later in the game), but the very interesting thing is that you can customize how your song sounds, and it does actually sound different. This is a very interesting small feature.
Now these are all the good things about this game. I really liked this game and though it was a nice note to end on for this series. But I only had one problem with it.
This problem. Is the character Saki herself.
Considering all the other Reyvateils you meet throughout the game series (Misha, Aurica, Shurelia, Luca, Cloche, Jacqli, Finnel, and finally Tyria) Saki is just... There are no words to describe her other then it was really, really hard to get through her story for me. Compared to the Reyvateils before her, and the two other ones with her in the game, she is... A disappointment. Almost a disgrace. I didn't even think about her like this when I first started the game. But by the end of her storyline, I did.
And that's all I have to say.