This is the final game in the Ar Tonelico series. Gust, why are you ending this great series?
User Rating: 9 | Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel PS3
I just completed this game not too long ago and I thought this game was great, but unfortunetely in my opinion, Ar Tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel is the weakest, or worst in the series. There are several reasons why that this game I feel is the weakest in the series. One reason is that Gust decided to recycle some characters from the previous Ar Tonelico games. I felt that Gust was running out of ideas for an entire new cast of characters. The characters I saw that were recycled were: Cocona, Jack, Krusche and Sasha. The characters in this game are not as good as the characters from the previous two games. Aoto is brave, but too much of an idiot. Saki is kind and likable, but she doesn't have the tenacity that the similar Reyvateils like Aurica and Cloche had. Finnel is a whining butthole for most of the game, unless if you do her True End path, where she can become pretty likable. I feel the characters that are probably the most enjoyable in the party are: Tatsumi (Cocona), Dr. Hikari Gojo and Tyria. The best character cast I feel is in Melody of Elemia. Those characters are a lot more likable and can be remembered for a long. The characters in Knell of Ar Ciel however, are memorable for about a month, and then you forget about them. Another reason is the way you power up your Reyvateils. In the previous Ar Tonelico games, your Revateil purges automatically when you hit a certain percentage on her Burst Gauge. In this game, well..........well......you strip her clothes off. Uhhhh? Okay I think. I don't know which perverted Gust employees came up with this idea, but I really don't like the idea of stripping your Reyateil to make her more powerful, but the theory is, is that the Reyvateil gets her power from the planet and if she has more skin exposed, then she becomes more powerful. If you have a wife or girlfriend, you should not play this game when she's around, because she's going to think that you're getting personal enjoyment of stripping your Reyvateil's clothes off. You're definetely going to lose your wife or girlfriend and much more. In the previous Ar Tonelico games, after clearing a level in her Cosmosphere, you get a costume for your Reyvateil. In this game, you get a certain personae for your Reyvateil. These personae are pretty good, but the costume idea I felt was better. In order for your Reyvateil to get the personae, she has to perform a fusion in her Cosmosphere where they both strip their clothes off and get as much skin-to-skin contact to successfully fuse. The personae are pretty useful in battle, but have fewer HP that the original body. The battle system in this game is in real-time, where your characters can move around on the battlefield attacking enemies. Your Reyvateil does not move in battle, she is working on her Song Magic. If she gets attacked, you have to blow away the enemy from her. The battle system can be good, but it does tend boring after a while, because it's basically hit the square button over and over again. The battle system is in 3D, which is new to Ar Tonelico since the previous two games had 2D battle systems. I like the 2D battle system more than the 3D because I felt Gust isn't too good at 3D. Melody of Metafalica has the best battle system for the record. A real downside in this game that probably would outrage Ar Tonelico veterans is that you cannot create any new Song Magic in this game. Instead, you get Hyuumas. These hyuumas add effects to the song depending on which L or R button you held down to purge your Reyvateil. In the previous two Ar Tonelico games, you create new Song Magic that is elemental, healing, or super magic. You don't get any of that in this game, which really sucks because due to the unbalanced difficulty level in this game, you're going to be needing to heal your characters every so often. In Phases I-III, you can get through just fine with Normal Difficulty, but once you get to Phase IV, there is a very high chance that you're going to switch to Easy Difficulty for the rest of the game because the enemies get extremely powerful and it will force you to power level your characters to Level 99. Hard Difficulty is best left alone. Healing-wise, your characters slowly regenerate HP and the regeneration increases from each purge. Healing Song Magic is a lot more useful since it heals much more HP than regeneration does. You can also use your healing items, but just don't waste them. The humor in this game is hilarious. This game has the best humor of the Ar Tonelico games. There are a lot of funny moments in this game that you will simply laugh your head off. The soundtrack in this game is just like the previous two Ar Tonelico games, and that is a memorable masterpiece of songs. This game however, does not have the best soundtrack. Melody of Elemia has the best soundtrack for the record. Melody of Metafalica is a close second. So if you're an RPG fan and single, like myself, I would definetely recommend this game to you. It's best to play the first two games though since the storylines are continuous from one game to the other. It's sad to see this wonderful series go, because this is one of the most underrated RPG franchises out there. So here's a brief list of comparisons to the Ar Tonelico Trilogy:
Best Characters: Melody of Elemia
Best Battle System: Melody of Metafalica
Best Soundtrack: Melody of Elemia
Best Humor: Knell of Ar Ciel
Best Story: Melody of Elemia
Best Cosmosphere Events: Melody of Metafalica
Best Graphics: Melody of Elemia and Melody of Metafalica
Overall Scores:
Melody of Elemia - 9.2
Melody of Metafalica - 9.1
Knell of Ar Ciel - 8.8
