Cross Edge boxart and trailer

Seriously, NISA, stop releasing so much info about this game so quickly! You're making me WANT it.

Boxart popped up at Amazon. It's essentially the same as the JP boxart but Miko(to) was moved and someone was taken off to make room for her. I like it, though.

Watch the trailer here. Yes, I'm pretty sure that Yuri Lowenthal is voicing three characters. Miko(to) is a bit high, the AT1 girls don't have their old voices, and Etna and Prinny are the same as usual.

Um...that's about it. I'll have to hear more of course to get a better judgment of what they'll be like. But it seems...tolerable? Also, the font they're using for text seems to be the same used in AT1 and 2. Random observation.

Next thing you'll know is Rosenqueen will put up preorders with epic swag and I'll drop $70 (since swag costs extra) on a game I don't have the system for. Then I'll drop over $400 for a 60GB PS3, and then money for Eternal Sonata and Valkyria Chronicles :X

Cross Edge interview

Sure a lot of info coming out about this game recently.

An interview with Nao Zook...

Is there going to be lots of voice acting in Cross Edge? If you need someone to voice a Southerner, I do a mean Hank Hill impression. You could fly me out and I'll record some lines for free. What I'm really trying to ask is will there be Japanese and English language options?
Nao: Haha, I wish you would've told me that before! I am sure you'd do a great job on it. But unfortunately, all the voice recording is done, and there is quite a lot of it in this game. All of the original Japanese voices are included, and we also recorded over half of the total voiced lines into English.

From that last sentence, I wonder if they meant "all the dialogue" when they said "all the voices" or if "all the voices" just means that everyone who had a voice in the JP version has at least one voiced line? Confusing. I hope that they really had enough localization and debugging time. Debugging time, mostly.

Also, at the end of the interview, they essentially announced that we're getting Atelier Annie, which is the newest Atelier game released on DS. It just came out this month, in fact. That'd make it the first traditional Atelier game to come over to the US! I wonder if we'll be getting Rorona too?

Cross Edge site launched

http://nisamerica.com/games/crossedge/

I have nothing to say on name changes for Mana Khemia 2, as long as they carry over into that game if/when it's localized. Marie (Atelier Marie) didn't get changed, for some reason I was afraid they'd screw up on her. Same with the other characters that have established names (Darkstalkers and AT girls)

My only beef is with "Reyvatail". Come ON guys, you at least got that right in your mess you called Ar tonelico II. Don't let that get in the game. Besides, your rep is SERIOUSLY hanging on this game, NISA. If it sucks, that's three in a row (1 is Rhapsody, 2 is AT2).

Raki Battle Video and Early Opinions on Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

First off, here's my battle with Raki from AT2 on the retail NA version of the game. So no patching to make it go past Defense Phase 3. Apologies for the blocking, I had massive lag from my setup, I'm really a TON better, especially with Raki.

Now, for some Early Opinions!
-Emil, please grow a pair.
-Marta, please stop being so tsundere/cliche clingy girl.
-Tenebrae and Colette? DON'T CHANGE I LOVE YOU BOTH.
-I'm not used to 90% of scenes being voiced! Also, getting tired of Laura Bailey...
-The waggle shortcuts for techs are FUN. Though I set the most useful one to Down on the D-pad cause it's easier...

Review: Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica

Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica
Platform: PS2
Genre: RPG
Playtime: 65:07
This only took a month longer than it should have.

Gameplay: 7/10 Still very much like the first AT game, minus some mechanics like Green field magic and jumping. Maps are also the same select an area that you can run through type of thing. Diving is also the same, though you can only go all the way (heh) with one girl, which makes it a lot more realistic.
Dualstall is an interesting level up system, even if in the end it makes your Reyvateils very overpowered (mine were level 96). It can be annoying redoing it to get the effects you want, since the movement in the bath is random.
Battles were changed too, of course, to a more action-oriented style like Valkyrie Profile. It kept me awake during those long IPD hunting sections, but again, it gets too easy by end game when you have Guard ++++ equipped and are firing off dual magic.
I probably forgot something here that's not important XD

Story: 8/10 Taking a break from the typical "save the world from a bad guy" plot, this time we're saving the world by trying to make new land. Of course there's a zillion obstacles in the way. The story isn't about Croix, the player character, but Cloche and Luca, two of the girls that travel with him. More and more RPGs seem to be doing this recently, FF12 being one that sticks out in memory. Even the final bosses are very different, following in the footsteps of AT1.

Characters: 8/10 Speaking of following AT1, Jakuri is THE best character in the game, nearly as complex, if not more so than Cloche and Luca. Croix is there as your main guy and the guy who holds up the girls. Cloche is stuck up and tsundere, Luca is the childhood dorodere friend, and Cocona is the cute little sister. Add in the cool Jakuri and we've got every cliche covered. The other playables, Amarie, Leglius, and Shun fall to the wayside, though they've got more story than Krusche, Jack, and Radolf from AT1.
As for NPCs, the shopkeepers are all very funny, especially Spica and Skycat. For a goddess, Frelia is pretty useless, but freaking adorable. Everyone else is pretty typical...except Reisha. Poor Reisha.
Relationships between characters run quite deep. There's the clusterwtf between Reisha, Cloche, and Luca, Croix's protection of Cocona, Amarie's relationship with Sonia and Chester...it's all good, and everyone gets some sort of development.
And voices! For what little there are, they're all pretty decent. Jakuri, Luca, and Infel are probably my favorites, with the weakest being Targana, Alfman, and sometimes Croix and Reisha (but Reisha's VA pulled off the end of Phase 4 VERY well).

Graphics: 8/10 Typical pretty Gust 2D graphics, with more anime scenes thrown into the mix this time.

Music: 9.5/10 The strongest point of the series, the background music is a bit weaker than AT1, but the Hymmnos is stronger. EXEC_over.METHOD_SUBLIMATION/. is one of the best final boss themes ever. I like Phantasmagoria more than EXEC_with.METHOD_METAFALICA/., but both are beautiful.

Localization: 2/10 It sucks. It's horrible. It's on the same level as Suikoden I or II, so it's like it pushed localization back 10 years by existing. It's not as bad as Chaos Wars or anything, but skipping translations, confusing homonyns, bad typos, and ADDING A GLITCH TO A BOSS is just...horrible. This is why I'm not preordering any NISA games now.

Overall rating: 7/10 (The JP version is easily a 9/10, btw)
Recommendation: If you've played the first Ar tonelico, play this, even if you didn't really like it. It's improved enough over AT1 that it's worth a shot. If you've played any other Gust game, play this. If you're offended by innuendo, skip.

Ugh...

I'm sooooo unmotivated. Don't feel like doing anything.