Ar tonelico II English Trailer is LIVE

Talk about a nice thing to wake up to in the morning! Caught it through a topic on GameFAQs that I almost read before watching the trailer for myself. Now, about the voices in general...I LIKE THEM. They're GOOD. Not horrible in the least. I'm judging them on the short lines given in the trailer, but still. GOOD. Detailed comments in spoilers:

Croix: Hearing this first made me squee almost, because it fits near perfectly. I like it a lot, I will be able to stand hearing him the whole game. Definitely not Yuri Lowenthal, but I'm hearing a twang of Derek Stephen Prince in him.

Luca: 95% sure she's Karen Strassman, making my guess correct. Misha! Hehe. I like it, it fits her fine. I want to take her path again!

Cloche: In the trailer, she really sounds near exactly like Luca...with a bit of an accent. It's not Mela Lee, for sure.

Cocona: Only one line, but I like it. I had Sandy Fox as a guess, but I couldn't tell you what her voice sounds like. Sounds young enough for a cute loli like Cocona.

Leglius: 80% sure that he's Steven Jay Blum, I can hear the Arlin (Atelier Iris) in him, making my guess correct. A bit higher than I expected, but it's rough and manly, hee.

Amarie: Only one line, can't tell who it is at all. It's fine.

Of course I'm going to need to listen to them a LOT more when playing the game. These are just my first impressions. At least they're good first impressions, right?
General notes about the trailer, also in spoilers:

Cloche is one syllable, something I didn't expect. That's the way I was saying it in my head and I thought it was wrong, but it was right.
Also...Jakuri is totally revealed in that trailer. In the Japanese trailer, she's in shadow with the name ???. She's SUPPOSED to be a secret character, the special third RT! So they just ruined the surprise...
The one cutscene they showed, the one after the characters...Luca's voice was a bit off there, and the line was translated from "Don't destroy this world" to "No!" A bit of emotional impact lost, but I didn't know because I didn't know the translation of the Japanese line.

I'm all hyped again for the game now...

My Ar tonelico Collection Part 2

Just got some new stuff today :3 I'm really surprised at how BIG the AT2 artbook is! So much stuff in there, and I can't read a word of it. The perfect guide is also nice - I wish more games in the US got guides that detailed. As usual, click on the thumbnails for a larger view:

Because I love making lists

Before I posted about the games I own on the Backloggery. Now I've got a list of the anime/manga I've seen/own/want to watch/etc.

Check it out.

Early Opinions on Atelier Iris 3

-This quest system is going to get annoying fast.
-Nell is going to get annoying faster. Edge is a stick in the mud, and Yula is PMSing.
-Loving the battle system for some reason, maybe because I can avoid enemies when I want to, auto-win battles by slashing low-level enemies, and the Burst system is really cool.
-I understand why Iris has to get "ideas" to learn new recipes, but it means even more dungeon backtracking...
-Yay Pamela!

Hoping to beat this before January so I can have all three AI games beaten this year :3

Ar tonelico speedrun!

First save- 0:04
After learning how to Grathmeld- 0:12 0:11
Tenba Labs- 0:24
Terraced Fields- 0:42 0:41
Taking Aurica's path to avoid an evil boss in Misha's.

Am I insane? Probably, but I've been thinking about this for a while now.
Problems/list of stuff:
-Lag. Ohhhh the lag.
-When to Dive, who to Dive into, how far to go? (Probably Aurica, though Misha has a mandatory Lv1)
-What items to get/make? Definitely Peeka (RC Pig), but what about attack or healing items?
-If/when to levelgrind?
-How possible IS a low level game, because a speedrun is that, just with the added "bonus" of having to rush through everywhere. Usually with LLGs you still get all the items, so you're equipped fine, but low level...
-Lots of other things that I can't remember right now.

Wish me luck?

Ar tonelico II is going to kill me

I don't think I've anticipated a game this much since Golden Sun: The Lost Age. That was even the last one where I played the Japanese version before the English release and got rather far. I'm not even looking that forward to playing it, I've done that already, I just want to have it on my shelf and hear the voices.

And I pretty much kept forgetting about Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World and Chrono Trigger DS. Both games snuck up on me, and I didn't preorder either since I don't expect any shortages.

I've got to stop thinking about AT2 so much. I've got a massive backlog of other games to keep my attention, and Persona 4 is due in a month (I'm getting it for Christmas, so it's more like 1.5 months for me). And there's other things, like school projects and Thanksgiving break, and...and...I'll be insane by January. Or have a few ulcers. Or just keel over.

My Game Collection

Well, most of it anyway. I don't have my SNES, N64, or majority of my GB games with me in FL. You can view my full list of games at my Backloggery page. As usual, click on the thumbnails to see the full pic:

My Ar tonelico Collection

Tomorrow I think I’ll start posting pictures of my other collections, but I’ll start off small with my Ar tonelico stuff. Click on the thumbnails to see the pics

AT2 Comments - Character Names

Disclaimer: I’m not bitching about this, just commenting. I accept any changes NISA has decided to make when it comes to English translations of names written in Japanese. The only thing I don’t agree with is changing of hymmnos. Put in a spoiler block in case you don't want to spoil yourself on the characters.
Number of names kept the same: 5


Chroah Vatel - Croix Bartel: Like the La Pucelle character? I really don’t know how to pronounce this one, but people say it’s kinda close. It was the first name to come out, way back in July, so I’m used to it now. Has a bit of…flair to it. I’m perfectly fine with the last name.

Chroche Latel Pastalie - Cloche Leythal Pastalia: I read Cloche and I think it’s pronounced “closh”, which makes me think of galoshes (y’know, those boots you wear in the rain). It’s just a case of crazy Japanese R/L-ness, and besides, two characters starting with “Chro” might get confusing (though now I wonder what Sasha’s nicknames will be). Leythal is the same thing, but Pastalia is wrong. Quoted from aquagon: Pastalie is the name of the Metafalss lineage of Priestesses (of which Cloche is part of), and of the Hymnos dialect employed by the IPD Reyvateils for the casting of their songs (the New Testament of Pastalie).

Luca Truelywaath - Luca Truelyworth: Boo. I went over the whole Trulywaath thing in my other post, but tl;dr is that it’s hymmnos and shouldn’t be changed.

Cocona Vatel - Cocona Bartel: No problem here.

Legris Branchesca - Leglius Branchesca: I keep seeing (and saying!) this as Legilus, which makes me think of Legolas. Another case of crazy Japanese R/L-ness, it’ll just take some getting used to.

Amarie Jerhad - Amarie: No problem here…yet. Who knows what they'll do to her last name?

Shun - Shun: WE HAVE A CHARACTER WITH A MATCHING NAME WHOO!

Jakuri - Jacqli: Sorry, but this one was just revealed, and because Jakuri is my favorite character, I’m going through a bit of a Zoey Reaction right now. I’ll come back later.
*comes back* It...it's kinda...pretty. And pronounced the almost-same. There, I said it!!

Reisha Truelywaath - Reisha Trulyworth: Same as Luca.

Batz Truelywaath - Batz Trulyworth: Same as Luca and Reisha.

Soup - Soope: Ehhh. I knew this was going to change. I keep saying it as “soopy”, though.

Gengorou - Goro: Goro is a masculine Japanese name, or so I hear, and Gengorou is a cute pink haired girl (ish). But I’ve actually gotten used to this one, so…yeah.

Infel - Infel: WE HAVE ANOTHER MATCHING NAME!

Alfman Uranous - Alfman Uranus: Close enough for me!

Dr. Roudness - Dr. Laude: Actually, I think they treated this one well, because he has a bit of a weird name when brought into English.

Targana - Targana: THIS MAKES THREE!

Chestar Lu Whinoah - Chester Lou Winoah: Close enough here too.

Reionsetsu Rakura - Lakra And apparently Lakra is a naughty word in Spanish, but an NISA staffer admitted that they can’t always cross check between languages. So it’s another L/R thing.

Sincere - Cynthia: Most of the importers were calling her Cynthia anyway, so it’s perfectly fine.

Sasha - Sasha: AND THIS IS FOUR!

Soraneko/Rerena - Skycat/Lelina: Okay, so…“sora” and “neko”, which translates directly to “sky” and “cat”, so they just did a direct translation here. I actually wish they changed this, because it’s a weird name. Lelina is very pretty, though most people were expecting Relena.

Rhaki - Raki: Perfectly fine.

Pepen - Pippen: You mean like the LoTR guy, that was his name, right? It’s growing on me, though.

Reika - Leyka: Another L/R thing, and I actually think this fits better because they went with Luca instead of Ruka (reasons are spoilers)

Spica - Spica: THANK GOODNESS THEY KEPT THIS ONE (makes it five!). Heads would've flown if they hadn't.

Frelia - Frelia: SIX NAMES! Also thank goodness, because at this point I was expecting a Fleria or something. Keeps consistency with AT1, too.

Massive Post of Ar tonelico II Localization Changes

Alternate title:
Me Being an Ar tonelitard

Link to NISA’s official AT2 site
Spoilers might be floating about, so tread carefully. Last updated 11/25.

Characters
Chroah Vatel - Croix Bartel
Chroche Latel Pastalie - Cloche Leythal Pastalia
Luca Truelywaath - Luca Truelyworth
Cocona Vatel - Cocona Bartel
Legris Branchesca - Leglius Branchesca
Amarie Jerhad - Amarie Gelade
Shun - Shun
Jakuri - Jacqli
Reisha Truelywaath - Reisha Trulyworth
Batz Truelywaath - Batz Trulyworth
Soup - Soope
Gengorou - Goro
Infel - Infel
Nenesha -
Alfman Uranous - Alfman
Dr. Roudness - Dr. Laude
Targana - Targana
Chestar Lu Whinoah - Chester Lou Winoah
Reionsetsu Rakura - Lakra
Sincere - Cynthia
Sasha - Sasha
Soraneko (Rerena) - Skycat (Lelina)
Rhaki - Raki
Rheki -
Pepen - Pippen
Reika - Leyka
Frelia - Frelia
Tyria - Tyria
Spica - Spica
Nono -
Asche - Arshe

Locations
Pastalia - Pastalia
Rakshak - Rakshek
Ena - Enna
Mint Ward - Mint Block
Forest of Mikuri - Mikry Forest
Yumemino - Dreamy Fields
Kanakana (not sure what this was called, really) - Kanakana Pier

Other
Infel Phira - Infel Pira
Replekia - Replakia
Musume Power - Hymn Code
Funbuns - Funboons
Grathnode Inferia - Grasno Inferia

My VA guess list
Chroah: Yuri Lowenthal
Chroche: Mela Lee
Luca: Karen Strassman
Cocona: Sandy Fox
Amarie: Jessica Straus
Legris: Steven Jay Blum/Kirk Thornton (so what if I put two names?)
Shun: Dave Wittenberg
Jakuri: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn
Frelia: Michelle Ruff
Infel: Stephanie Sheh
Gengorou: Mona Marshall
Reisha: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (yeah I put her twice, so what?)
Alfman: Jamieson Price
Spica: whoever voiced her in the first game
Sasha: Lara Jill Miller

General Comments
Whew, okay. First I guess a speech about how I usually am with translations? I really don’t care most of the time. Persona 4 and changing Kuma to Teddie and adding in bear puns…I’m fine with that, it makes the game make sense to use English speaking people. Different translations from katakana are fine too (see Reika to Leyka for an example).

The major beef I and others have? The hymmnos. One of the original things about the game is this language. The hymmnos changes are near unacceptable to me, even if the katakana makes sense.

Take Truelywaath for an example. The katakana is トゥルーリーワース (Turūrīwāsu). So Trulyworth makes sense since worth would be written as wāsu anyway. BUT! “waath” means “revive/rebirth” in hymmnos, so her name translates to “true revival/rebirth” which really fits in with the fact that she’s one of the priestesses who sing Metafalica, the song of rebirth. Also, Infel Phira means “love seed”. There is no “pira” in hymmnos. And there’s no “replakia” either.

There’s the “hymn code” issue. Why call it that when the hymn code is what you use to install into a Reyvateil? The Musume Power (Girl Power) isn’t a code or anything, it’s just an IPD equipped to you. Plus on the site I believe they say hymn codes were used to augment weapons in AT1. That was called Grathmelding…

I’m sure someone out there understands all of this stuff about translations, right? Right? D: On a Sliding Scale of Game Translation Bitching, with the right side being the “If they change anything it sucks” and the left side being the “I don’t give a damn if they name Tomoyo Madison”…I’m kinda between the center and right, drifing to the right.

And it worries me.