The Seven-Dimensional Let's Play [Ar Nosurge]

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > The Seven-Dimensional Let's Play [Ar Nosurge]

AstraSage: May 13, 2013

Thankfully not as :japan:

as Qoga. Even though it does still have a few eyebrow-raising moments...

FrantzX posted:

While knowledge of the prequel, Ciel nosurge, is not necessary, I think that it does help alot. If you have a couple of hours to spare, you can get a comprehensive writeup of Ciel nosurge at the following link:

http://www.unit03.net/view/Ciel_nosurge/Summary

Actually, the guy that made up the writeup went a step further and is currently making (Up to Chapter 2's end at the time of this post) a Video Playthrough of the what you need to know from the game.

# ¿ Apr 7, 2015 00:07

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 11:52

AstraSage: May 13, 2013

Omobono posted:

Object-oriented language? Do Ra Cielans use (a local variant of) Hymnos too or is their magical language different? Looking forward to it, the songs are the selling point of the Tonelico & co. games

REON is kinda more Query-based, but it does rely in a bit of class definition to represent a sentence subject besides the singer.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2015 15:52

AstraSage: May 13, 2013

mastersord posted:

Can you actually program in this game or is this just based on dialogue and side-materials? Cause if you could, that would be REALLY interesting.

The latter, but under all that :japan:

cover both the Surge Concerto and Ar Tonelico series still remain as a fun pool of references for a Computing Studies Major like me.

That said, I can't really go deep into what quirks I find interesting in REON, other than, while for some things it might (and it did) require an advanced enough interpreter that could achieve something close to natural language processing, it could be as parseable as PHP in average.

Likewise, despite being the obvious breather episode with the perfect mood to introduce Shirotaka (more on that in the below reply), I have a soft spot for Ciel Nosurge's Third Chapter and its allusion to the differences between using an "easy to approach by any kind of user yet inefficient in its task processing" OS like Windows and the "great payoff despite being quite hard to master" attitude of being able to program in something not so different to a Unix-based Environment.

SyntheticPolygon posted:

The power of Moe, really? What the hell is with this game.

Well, Shirotaka's deal is that he's basically the personification of the classic facets of the Ar Tonelico fandom: both the side that goes gaga for its usual brand of fanservice and the side that's :spergin:

enough to have attempted to create a HymmnOS at least once.

AstraSage fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Apr 22, 2015

# ¿ Apr 22, 2015 03:12

AstraSage: May 13, 2013

It's totally a mistranslation: the alternative could've been more akin to Delta being called Ta-boy way back when he was younger (with Ta-geezer being the equivalent for an specific gag in Ciel Nosurge).

Stabbey_the_Clown posted:

Interesting that they're expanding the population of possible song users to include males this time. That's a change. I wonder if it is related to do with Delta being able to have a Thought Gem hammered into his cranium.

Actually, it's more of what makes Ra Ciela different from Ar Ciel: Song Magic was available to anyone with vocal chords as long as they either A) were bonded to a Genom that could work well with the vocal range of said chords or B) had access to a Magitech-parsing device to emulate the Genom-bond without the pickiness towards a person's skills as a singer.

And given the Ship was made by people who advocated for option B), it's not surprising it can turn into a giant song server for a society that's (well, was, hence the rift between Ancients and Moderns) used to basically Reyvateil-less Song Magic.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2015 06:51

AstraSage: May 13, 2013

Stabbey_the_Clown posted:

It's surprisingly catchy. What I don't get is how "{TzW};" is apparently pronounced "pata".

It's because the "->" in the Query closure is also pronounced, making it sound like "Exec (->)pas ({TzW})Tu ".

Then there's also the REON Chorus.

code:

QuelI->EXiV[obe]->ExeC->{TzW};

QuelI->EXiV[sep]->ExeC->{TzW};

QuelI->EXiV[obe]->ExeC->{TzW};

QuelI->EXiV[sep]->EX[obe]->ExeC->{TzW};

Which It's a straightforward "Through the Energy-ruling Waves, I [The Singer] command You [ Machines] to {Obey | Stop | Obey | Stop and then Obey}", and it shows a nice wind-up effect as Cass has to assert her will over Zill's.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2015 14:00

AstraSage: May 13, 2013

As easy and unchallenging as it got with Girl Power and Replakia, AT2 was a pleasure when it comes to go ahead and pull out the big guns during battle...

Now, as I missed the first trivia update:

Feinne posted:

Mute Tier (1 Point):

This song was used to confront an infinitely-regenerating Guardian in Ar Tonelico 2.

This airship engineer traveled across the world of Ar Ciel in search of her lost boyfriend.

This singer provided the voice of General Akane in Ar Tonelico Qoga�s Hymmnos Concert.

Ar Tonelico 2�s Croix used this sort of weapon.

Misha Tier (3 Points):

A terrible �disease� ravaged the land surrounding the Tower of Frelia known as IPD. What did that mean?

This forgotten Will of Ar Ciel represents song.

Mir Tier (5 Points):

What song does this segment of Hymmnos come from? Who sings it and what was its purpose?

Fou ki ra hyear presia reen
Was zweie ra na stel yorra zueig manaf
Ma zweie ra irs mana chyet oz omnis

Mute Tier (1 Point):

The key phrase is "infinitely-regenerating", so it's probably speaking about EXEC_HARMONIOUS_FUSION used against Zodom.

Krusche.

yoko.

In simplified terms, Rocket-propelled Machine Gun Spear.

Misha Tier (3 Points):

Infel Phira Dependency

Suzunomia.

Mir Tier (5 Points):

That's pretty much the main stanza for EXEC_COSMOFLIPS, which allowed Tyria to fuse with the Will Ar Ru and which also doubles as a prelude to REBIRTHIA=PROTOCOL.

# ¿ May 3, 2015 06:23

AstraSage: May 13, 2013

Excuse me, but isn't the Heteromycin in question more of a Hidra?

That said, I like that song: It's not what you usually expect from Shimotsuki.

# ¿ May 13, 2015 23:52

AstraSage: May 13, 2013

AweStriker posted:

The other thing about Class::EXPAJA is that you can tell there's a choir in there that is Definitely Not Cass' Singer.

That''s because EXPAJA was composed by Kenji Kawai and he brought the Tokyo Philharmonic with him. It also helps to understand that in context it was not just sung by Cass, but rather her leading everyone trapped in the Flask Sea.

That said, I still think the song feels a lot stronger if you take the time to hear it on its own but it can't denied it's underplayed in-game by having to deal with EXSPHERE_NOSURGE (and by extension, Mitose being Mitose) stealing the show: there are few things that could outdo the latter, like getting the Philharmonic to do a cover of REPLAKIA or SUBLIMATION...

# ¿ Jun 10, 2015 13:25

AstraSage: May 13, 2013

Feinne posted:

Managed to record last night, so ideally update should be tomorrow. Here's some trivia, this time just some random questions.

What was the subtitle of AT1 Side Blue?

What was the subtitle of AT2 Side Blue?

And to continue the trend, what was the subtitle of AT3 Side Blue?

Speaking of Side Blue, whose side actually IS that anyway (as in which of the principle performers is always on Side Blue)?

By logical extension, which of our heroines is on Ar Nosurge Side Blue?

In order, we got AT1's HOSHIYOMI (Star Singer, as in Misha's role), AT2's MIO (Waterway, related to Cloche being the Maiden of Aqua), AT3' SAKIYA=RUMEI ("Blooming Night, Lapis Life", with the reading being given only for the sake of keeping a pattern as this subtitle is just a case of transliterating Sakia Lumei's name in a very Lyrical Style of Japanese).

But the common thing is that Side Blue is always the Akiko Shikata's Spotlight Disk of the Vocal Soundtracks, as it usually holds all of her songs along with those of one or two singers outside the AkiHaruNori Triumvirate like Yuko Ishibashi (AT1 and AT2), yoko (AT3) and KOKIA (AT3), so of course Ar Nosurge's Iteration is centered around Ion's Songs along with the ones of Kanon as sung by the late ORIGA. It also makes the place Ion was held up into a nice yet obvious callback to AT1.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2015 19:15

AstraSage: May 13, 2013

Feinne posted:

With such a comprehensive answer provided, I feel the need for a BONUS QUESTION:

What's odd about Ar Nosurge Side Red?

It's related to the fact Casty is the Face of the Album:

The Side Red albums tend to be the only place in the Vocal Soundtracks where anything sung by Haruka Shimotsuki or Noriko Mitose is found (The only exception is one Battle Hymmn that has yet to be unlocked in this LP), so they hold a pattern of having for a subtitle something that could be linked to the Character with the Shimotsuki-performed Songs.

Ar Nosurge is not an exception with TENTOUKI (Divine Empress), but it makes it feels awkward when the largest bulk of the songs in the disk has "Casty featuring Yoshino Nanjo" filled in their performer field.

AstraSage fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Jul 19, 2015

# ¿ Jul 19, 2015 01:55

AstraSage: May 13, 2013

Feinne posted:

Feinne�s Notes:
On a somber note I do want to one last time remember the sad passing of Origa, who performed Kanon�s songs. Her body of work is quite impressive and I cannot recommend you look into it enough.

Adding to the note, I can't help but admit em-pyei-n vari-fen jang ended up being a really good Swan Song for Origa even though her career featured a lot of strong songs.

Especially if you take the time look up for its lyrics' translations from the usual sources...

# ¿ Aug 25, 2015 02:57

AstraSage: May 13, 2013

FractalSandwich posted:

I may or may not have listened to Lxa ti-cia like 50 times over the past couple of days, and there's something about it that's been driving me crazy: there are bits of it that certainly sound very much like real Japanese words, but I can't make out any full phrases, and a lot of it is definitely not Japanese at all. What's going on? Is it only mostly written in Hymmnos, or is it written entirely in Hymmnos and my ears are playing tricks on me?

There's are a few short stanzas in lyrical Japanese, but outside them "Lxa ti-cia" is pretty much a Cameo song for the Ar Ciela dialect in the same manner "METHOD_HYMMELI/." was one for Pastallian back in Qoga.

AstraSage fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Oct 10, 2015

# ¿ Oct 10, 2015 18:25

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 11:52

AstraSage: May 13, 2013

Feinne posted:

So funny thing, Amarie is actually I think part of how Luca is balanced in 2. Luca has worse Song Magic than Mir and doesn't have Replakia, but she's also the only way you can get Great affinity with Amarie and Amarie is kinda broken. Her level 3 Pysch attack is basically a full heal for the party, her level 2 is the only Vanguard attack I'm aware of that hits the entire enemy party (it also causes Pain), and Drill Rain Arrow is one of the more damaging EX attacks. So basically you bring Luca entirely because it lets you not even give a gently caress about Blue Magic thanks to Amarie.

Cocona owns in Qoga of course, once she reveals herself you should always switch from Aoto to her in battle because she's WAY more fun to play as once she switches to her real weapons (which to be fair is still the hoverboard, just split into two).

I agree Amarie's skills are the best trade-offs of using Luca in the Active Party, even though I must admit I still had fun using her Blue Magic despite being stuck with said Vanguard in my Cloche Run: that Softly Feminine bath powder made her Flag-bearing Girl Song Magic into a Frelia-authorized Mir-Tier Swiss Knife...

That said, I may not be a good judge for the AT1's Vanguards (I can't deny they're a strong cast, though) and AT3 has this thing where aside of its instance of Cocona there's no interesting Vanguards besides the characters that are hinted to be scrapped options (like Godai, Akane or the AT1 returnees); but I can comment that even if everyone in AT2's party had their merits, I liked how Amarie & Leglius worked off each other both as the Active Battle Party and during their brief side-plots and in the few times the Jaqli route is not pursued, Shun's responses to Mir's actions made it fun to have him stuck as her Vanguard (especially because he gets a really Good affinity with Mir once he realizes her Beta status around the time DESPEDIA needs to be sung).

# ¿ Jan 20, 2016 06:25

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