I got this teaser from the offical Ar tonelico 3 site. It doesn’t really show much though. Maybe Namco Bandi is saving the good stuff for the announcement(s) that it will be making on the 19th…
Mây Lãng Du over at Ar tonelico fan site A Reyvateil’s Melody has translated the AR3 magazine scans that have been floating around. Check it out!
After two years of waiting, the latest installment in the famous RPG series based on songs of Love and Bonds have been announced!
アルトネリコ3 世界終焉の引鉄は少女の詩が弾く
Ar tonelico III: The Girl’s Song that Pulls the Trigger of World’s Demise
Release date: 2010/1/28
Platform: PlayStation3Deep inside the heroines’ spiritual worlds, by crafting songs, tremendous power can be achieved. Revolving around that, the RPG series Ar tonelico has gone through two installments. And the third game, moving onto PlayStation3 system, once again a magnificent story of intertwining love and hatred is given birth. In this article, we shed light to the main characters and systems of the game.
Ar tonelico series
Soaring above the Sea of Death, three gigantic towers without continents form a planet named Ar Ciel, the main setting of the series. The first game took place in Sol Ciel, the second in Meta Falss, where the people living there stood up to fight against the dangers threatening their existences. In Ar Ciel, there exists a third tower, and the third installment of the game shall reveal the truth about that tower.
Two Reyvateils shall be crafting the songs of Love and Bonds
The key to the game’s story and battles are the Songs, formed upon the language known as “Hymmnos.” The two heroines introduced in the third game are called “Reyvateil,” girls who are capable of entrusting their feelings to the Songs to unleash tremendous powers. By supporting the two heroines, our protagonist can stand up against destiny.
The third game takes place in the world of Sol Cluster
A world where Reyvateils take control. The country of Clusternia, dominated by β-type Reyvateils, is a society where only Reyvateils and “purified human” (slaves) could live, an ideal place without opposition. The rest of the human live in a land called 大牙 (Great Fang) that surrounds the tower.
Protagonist: 蒼都 (Aoto)
Stupid! You call yourself a man when you rely on girls and just run away?A human boy, discipline of a construction worker. Has a reckless personality, but also carry out things with a sense of responsibility. He hated the way Clusternia was, and had been embracing antipathy, until he met Saki when things began to clear up for him.
Heroine: 咲 (Saki)
S-sorry! Saki caused you troubles again… I’ll just sit down quietly.Saki is a Reyvateil born in a research institute, for the sake of a great project that will cause great influence to the world. But she escaped right before the project was executed, and after several years of unknown whereabouts, she met Aoto. Upon reaching the state of extreme emotional tension, she can execute a power known as 奇跡 (Miracle).
Heroine: フィンネル (Finnel)
Welcome welcome~ Welcome to “Yokkora”!Born in Clusternia, the country of Reyvateils, she is a pure-blooded β-type Reyvateil. A clumsy girl who works in Yokkora, a restaurant established on the Eternal Road. She seems to have a significant connection to the very existence of Clusternia.
By diving into a heroine, you’ll meet her another personality
“Dive” is the action in which one enters a Reyvateil’s spiritual world. Similar to the first two games, in the third game, through diving deep into a girl’s spiritual world, the protagonist can create powerful magics known as 詩魔法 (Song Magic). However, in this game, upon diving into a heroine, you’ll run into a different personality of hers, whose appearance and personality are totally different. How shall you strengthen your bonds with charming girls having multiple personalities?
A girl’s true feelings can only be revealed inside her spiritual world
Upon diving, you’ll witness a different face of a girl, which is even more embarrassing than appearing naked. However, the trust she places on the protagonist should be deep enough for her to open herself to him. It’s through this process that Song Magics are crafted, as well as the process known as ムスメ調合 (Musume Compounding?)
The Tower is a vertical world
(This part is too blurry to be read, but the two big titles say 蒼谷の郷 (Blue Valley Village) and クラスタニア (Clusternia) respectively)
As the Bond grows further, the heart and body shall be released
The bond between you and a heroine has significant meaning to battles. The Song Magics you crafted in her Cosmosphere is the key deciding victory or loss in a fight. As the bond grows further, her clothes will also be “released” and her attack power will increase. Before battles, by setting, you can also have the girl fight in her other personality’s shape. That difference in appearance is also a type of “releasing.”
R.A.H. System
In this game, the heroines won’t just simply sing Song Magics. By acquiring and combining pieces of Song Magics through Musume Compounding, player can create their own Song Magics! In battles, the background music will change in real time depending on the player’s actions. By crafting powerful Songs and having the heroines sing them for you, as you can see in the right pictures, combat power will be sharply boosted.
Together, people shall weave another story
RPGFan and Canned Dogs are reporting that Namco Bandai is hard at work on Ar tonelico III: Sekai Shuuen no Intetsu ha Shounen no Uta ga hiku for the PS3. As with the previous games in the series, the story takes place in the same world but on a different tower, this time on one called Sol Cluster. It will star a young man named Aoto and two Reyvateils named Saki and Finnel. Ar tonelico veterans can expect updates to the dive and battle systems, background music that changes in real-time, and 3D graphics. And, if it’s anything like Ar tonelico II, we can expect references to the previous games, and maybe an appearance by one or two characters in particular. The game will be released next year in Japan on January 28.
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