Review: Ar tonelico III

Ar tonelico III: Sekai Shuuen no Hikigane wa Shoujo no Uta ga Hiku
Platform: PS3
Genre: RPG
Playtime: 35:35 on True End path, add on ~3 hours for Bad/Normal ends
Blew through this in just over a week...

Gameplay: 7/10 Even though it's the same rating, I feel as if it's a step down from AT2's system. Jumping has returned, but field magic is still gone. Well, lots of things are gone. Each RT only has one spell per personality, and those personalities also replace the costumes that up stats. Hymma are added to the songs to give buffs to the vanguard, but aren't as special as the IPDs from 2. Item creation is like AT1's system, but costs DP to do, which gets annoying early on when you're short on DP (endgame it's fine because you have too much AGAIN).
Battle is a step down -- it's mostly mashing square until you can purge your RT to level up her magic. Vanguards do pathetic damage -- I was just breaking 300 a hit on weaker enemies at endgame, so get used to seeing the magic casting spells over and over and over again. And enemies themselves...weren't that interesting. Poms are only at the start of the game very briefly, and then it's generic robots and other plant things. Each area doesn't really have it's own set of enemies, once you're in phase 4 you'll be seeing the same pear-vine and robot things in every area.
Dunno where else to put this, but the world felt really small compared to the other games.

Story: null No rating due to me not being fluent in Japanese. It's not the same if I rated it based on other people's opinions/writings of what happens anyway.

Characters: 9/10 Even though the party was dropped from 8 people to 6, this gives every character a chance to have plot based around them. The most useless character seemed to be Hikari Gojyou, but only really because Aoto is the main character, and Cocona is special already. We finally get a playable Origin back in Tilia, and I have to say, she has the most personality out of the three Origins. Saki and Finnel hold their own in the end, but by the end game, it's mostly about helping Tilia with her project (at least, from what I could get)

Graphics: 7.5/10 Well...they LOOK nice, but they could do so much more. The "2D images over a background while people talk with textboxes" from pretty much every other Gust game is back, but falls flat here due to the background images not changing when characters leave, enter, or move in the scene. There could've been so much more done with the 3D models, and some parts scream laziness (like when Aoto is thinking to himself at the end of Phase 2, his mouth loops through an animation over and over) Also, lots of clipping with sleeves and heads into shoulders.
Song magic and EX attacks, which are usually nice to watch, get boring fast because each girl only has one, and each level is just a slight variation on the animation. The Flipsphere attacks are also boring to see because EVERY girl has the same forumla -- small things drop, girl poses, larger thing drops.

Music: 9/10 As usual, Gust delivers with a stellar OST and vocal songs. Favorites are Z, Cosmoflips, and Harmonics Tilia. As for OST songs, the world map theme, the menu/dive shop theme, and a couple of the town themes were good (not Clusternia town theme argh)

Overall Rating: 8/10
Recommendation: If you know Japanese well or are a big enough fan of the series to play through without understanding, go ahead and import this. Otherwise, wait a year and see if we get an English version.

Early Opinions on Ar tonelico III

9 hours in and at the end of Phase 1, let's go!

-Since it's in moonspeak I've pretty much been skipping the text...there have been some funny scenes, though
-Okay, purging was a nice gimmick at first, but I'm tired of seeing the scenes and fake boobs now.
-The battle system is mash buttan, die anyway. I'm only on normal and I'm still having trouble with things
-Don't like how item synthing uses precious DP
-The first song you hear after starting the game is Cutypump. The next is Ep=Nova. It's like they want your ears to be raw and bleeding before you get to the good shit
-Hearing Tatsumi use "boku" makes me laugh
-Some dungons have an overhead camera that zooms in and out and makes me dizzy

Review: Valkyria Chronicles

Valkyria Chronicles
Platform: PS3
Genre: SRPG
Playtime: 32:31
Stupid January class made me take forever on this, but it still lasted only a month.

Gameplay: 8/10 Like most SRPGs, there's no fancy world map. What we do have is a book as a framing device, and you pick scenes/battles from the book. It gets annoying at times as not all scenes are linked together, and you have to always confirm before you play the scene.
Battle wise, it combines a lot of different views together. Top down map view to choose a unit, third person view to run around with a unit, and then a closer, near first person view when you're shooting things. The camera gets screwy sometimes, which blows when you're trying to move a unit as best as possible with the limited AP (basically running power) that they have.
It gets points knocked off for some tough enemy AI early on, especially with snipers, and endgame, when a scout rush is the solution to nearly every battle.

Story: 9/10 Hoo boy, I'm a sucker for this story. It's very much an anime plot (not like the anime got it right though), but I loved it. Love, hatred, wins, losses...yeah, okay. Son of a hero Welkin, his sister Isara, and their new friend Alicia end up drafted into the Gallian militia to fight in the Second Europan War against the Empire. Mix in some magical girls and you've got the basic plot of the game. The story is pretty well paced, with each chapter in the book being a major event. It gives you a couple plot twists in the middle, leaving enough time for it all to be resolved in the end.

Characters: 9/10 There's two "types" of characters in this game, the important playable characters the story revolves around, and the LPCs, or lesser playable characters. The LPCs are the units that join your squad who can permadie. Now, in most SRPGs, you take a blank slate and use them and they stay a blank slate. VC is different because each unit has their own backstory and personality. You really get attached to the characters and end up using favorites, sometimes even if their skills are bad. I personally got real attached to Lynn and Nadine (and of course cameo characters Vyse and Aika!)
As for the main characters, they're all quite unique with strengths and flaws. I'd go into more detail but going into TOO much detail would be major spoilers for a good number of characters. My favorite overall turned out to be Isara >>

Graphics: 9/10 Sega's first use of the CANVAS engine is a good one, giving semi-realistic graphics, but still able to keep a sketchy anime-style look. Shame that the sequel is more styled after the anime, but eh.

Music: 8/10 The first OST by Hitoshi Sakimoto that I've heard, and it was enjoyable. Some of the tracks sound alike, especially the battle themes, though. Also, you'll pretty much hear the same few tracks throughout the game, since you spend more time in certain places than in others. I'd comment about the OP/ED song "No Matter The Distance" but it was cut for the US version...

Localization: 10/10 Probably one of the strongest localizations I've played in a while (though that's not saying much). The JP voice track is included, though the subtitles for scenes match the English track which throws off some lines at points, but I played with English voices so I don't really care that much.

Overall Rating: 8.8 rounded up to a 9/10
Recommendation: One of the PS3 must-buy games, I highly recommend this to any SRPG or JRPG fan, or even someone wanting to try something new. It's only $20 now if you can find it, so why not?

Early Opinions on Valkyria Chronicles

Can you call it early when I'm halfway through the game? Oh well.

-This is proving how much I suck at strategy. I just can't see ahead as to what I should do turns from now sometimes.
-Also, objectives can be a little unclear, and the maps hard to read.
-Isara is mai waifu!
-Rosie is mai other waifu! And Aika, Lynn, Nadine, Cherry, Ramona, Alicia, Ellet, Varrot...
-Hans is still cute, mooink.
-Everything is less moe than the anime.
-Just because they were in the anime doesn't mean they're a good character to use.
-Orders are broken.
-Selvie's PEW PEW PEW noise scares me ;A;
-I'm on chapter 11. NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO THE END OF THIS ONE ;AAAA;

Stuff from the last post until now

Beaten:
Disgaea DS
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team
Knights in the Nightmare
Um Jammer Lammy
Elite Beat Agents

So yeah, I've been busy with portables. On the console front...lol.
I got Skies of Arcadia Legends, got to the first save point.
Ar tonelico III was announced, I'm getting that.
Valkyria Chronicles II was announced and isn't a console game, getting that too.
Mom bought my PS3 but I can't play it until Christmas :(
Still on that topic, the Valkyria Chronicles anime finished and I gave it a 6/10. Now watching Tatakau Shisho and Tales of the Abyss...the former is a really confusing show, maybe a 7/10 right now, and the latter is awesome, probably a 8/10 now.

School sucks.

Review: Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis

Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis
Platform: PS2
Genre: RPG
Playtime: 42:12
Beat it exactly one week before MK2's release. Let's go.

Gameplay: 6/10 Do you remember Atelier Iris 3? Well, the controls are exactly the same. Jump button, slashing button, dungeons that you run through multiple times to get into deeper areas that gets annoying FAST.
Instead of a quest based system, there's a class based system...which is about the same thing. You take a class, you get the assignment, you do it, and time marches on. In Free Time (if you got enoug units), you can take Jobs -- fetch quests or beat-up-monster quests -- which is the best way to get money in the game. And you'll need a lot of money to do alchemy.
Alchemy hasn't changed much either. Expect to do a lot of running back and forth between your workshop and the athanor (equipment making place) to get all the items. You get recipes from the field and boss fights, but can also do derivation to make new items (like using a different type of stone to get a different colored steel). The difference from AI3 is with the element wheel that determines the level and added effects of the item. It's easy to get down, though, even though you don't always want the level at 100. Character's stats are completely determined by alchemy by way of the Grow Book -- think of the Sphere Grid from FFX and you've got the same idea.
The battle system is 95% identical to Atelier Iris 3, save for the Finishing Bursts, Variable Strikes, and attack/defense support from the backline characters. Enemies are also on screen in the same types of blobs as AI3, and yes, I still avoided them too often.

Story: 6/10 Vayne and his mana, Sulpher, get to go to Al-Revis Academy for alchemy, and they meet lots of weird people there as they go through their three years of school. That's about it until you get about 35 hours in and learn that Vayne isn't really normal. The story is VERY slow moving, and there's no real bigbad until the very end of the game. They hide the plot points from you, trying to add mystery, but it ended up annoying me more than anything. JUST TELL ME ALREADY, ISOLDE.

Characters: 8/10 Unlike AI3, there's a lot of characters with their own personality quirks. Jess is a girl that blows up things with a sad past, Nikki is a hyperactive catgirl who wants lots of babies, Flay thinks he's a superhero and he also flunks all his classes, Roxis is the random rival, Anna is the loli with a crazy imagination, Pamela is a ghost, and Muppy is an alien. The NPCs don't get much backstory except for Isolde, so there's no problem like AI3 had with that. During free time you can also do character quests -- completing one person's is necessary for the good ending, but if you get As in every class, you'll have enough free time to have every ending available at endgame. These character quests add more personality to the characters, though there's sometimes a bit of an AT1 problem where things that happen in the character quests are never mentioned in the main story.
Voices were good all around. Hello Liam O'Brien doing someone who isn't evil and bishy, for once. Stephanie Sheh returns as Nikki, and she's not annoying and crazy high pitched! Anna's voice, whoever it was, is a bit too low for a 12-year-old...not like Anna really LOOKS 12 anyway.

Graphics: 7.5/10 2D Gust RPG, blah blah blah. I knocked off a half-point because it reuses a lot of stuff from AI3 :B

Music: 8/10 Lots of catchy songs and good battle themes. Each character even has their own theme!

Localization: 7/10 As a pre-AT2 NISA localization, it's good. There's a few awkward lines (Orgasmic bomb property?), and sometimes the text boxes get one word looking lonely on a line. I don't remember many spelling/grammar errors. The worst part is that only 60% or so of the game is voiced in English. The character quests aren't voiced at all, and many of the shopkeepers don't have voices. At least important story scenes kept their voices.

Overall Rating: 7/10
Recommendation: If you like Gust's RPGs, but want something a bit different. This is still more on the side of a typical JRPG, but the fact that alchemy/item crafting determines your stats pushes it more towards what an older Atelier game is probably like. It's also the longest out of the four Atelier games currently released in the US (though MK2 is out next week and is longer...)

Early Opinions on Mana Khemia

-Oh god dammit they reused sound effects and sprites from Atelier Iris 3. I'm sick of that enemy and sound set.
-Hooray they reused the Atelier Iris 3 battle system and "random" encounter system!
-Still running around to synth items. Buy something from the store to synth an item in the workshop to synth a weapon in the...weapon-synth-place.
-Grow Book reminds me of the Sphere Grid from FF10. Interesting system.
-I thought Vayne would be less of a pussy. At least he can JUMP.
-Vayne is also mysterious. I'M SURE THIS WON'T COME INTO PLAY LATER.

E3 2009: Microsoft vs Nintendo vs Sony

After not caring about E3 for a few years, I decided to watch the three big press conferences this year. Well, I'm quite glad I did! Here's what I thought:

Microsoft: I'm a bit biased against them because I don't and never have owned any of their consoles. But the games they showed off were quite pretty, even if they seemed to be all sequels (but that was a running trend in all three conferences, I think). So I really didn't care about the games since I won't buy any. Now, Project Natal, on the other hand, was pretty damn amazing. It'll be interesting to see if it does anything to the younger/older crowd when it's released, which I don't think it will be before next E3. This one kept me pretty interested the whole time, though I'd look away during the games

Nintendo: Oooooo, Nintendo. I love Nintendo. Mostly. LOTS of stuff about Wii Fit, Wii Sports Resort...the casual things that I'm meh about. My mom likes this kind of stuff though, even though she doesn't want to spend $90 on Wii Fit. Now THEY had games I cared about! New Super Mario Bros. Wii looks fun (I've never played the DS version), especially with multiplayer available. And the Koopalings are back AND apparently the Yoshi's make SMW-style Yoshi noises :3 Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a maybe, considering that it's only 90% new levels and looks like a SMG expansion pack. Metroid: Other M looks BEAUTIFUL, and I've only played one Metroid game (Zero Mission) DS games...well, Golden Sun DS is an INSTANT preorder for me. I swore they were talking about Dragon Quest until they said "6 years" and then I was like "hmmm". ... >> << EEEEEEE YES SO EXCITED. Uh...lol vitality thing, my mom found that a bit scary, and...that's about it.

Sony: To be honest, I was falling asleep at this point (haven't been feeling well recently) and I had to leave before the end to deliever some meds to my friend. They started with boring numbers, but I was happy that they acknowledged the PS2's existence :) PSP Go wasn't anything new, but LOL $250 PRICE TAG. It's the new "five-hundred ninety-nine US dollars"! Feeling sorry for the Yerps that have to pay 250 Euros, too. Final Fantasy XIII and The Last Guardian look DAMN pretty, and I want them because it's so pretty. Final Fantasy XIV was out of left field and actually looks like a fantasy game...but it's Online. And that sucks. Wonder what'll happen to FF11 when that's released? Sony also had some new motion controller thing that I didn't catch much of, apparently it looks like a dildo? I guess motion controls are the new big thing that every company wants to do, since the Wii did it and the Wii prints money.

Overall? Tech-wise it's Microsoft > Nintendo > Sony. Game-wise it's Nintendo > Sony > Microsoft.

REALLY?!?!

HOW DID I MISS THIS. Aw man, it's already a good E3 for me with THIS announcement holy shit Lunar remake coming over by XSEED YES.
Also, Fragile. Apparently it's pretty good, and we do need more Wii RPGs.

BACK TO LUNAR. I'm already wondering about the voice actors, of course, since they'll have to redo them all. And the boat song is gonna be redone, probably. I wonder if the game's getting a new opening? And the translation! They say in the interview that they'll try to strike a balance between Working Designs' humor and correct translations, which is nice. As long as it's not like Lunar Legend or that OTHER GAME it'll be fine by me.

... >> << *waits for Lunar 2 remake*

Really?!

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3174199
http://www.imagebam.com/image/d232e035607845

Really!

(Japan only, but maybe someone will bring it over...)

hnnnnnnnnnng

Every visual novel player/fan out there should go download the demo for Katawa Shoujo, because it is awesome.

That is all.

Slow week.5

It's been about a week.5 since I last posted, right? Okay, it hasn't been slow in all meanings of the word, but in my gaming it has. I played Pokemon Platinum a lot. My Dragon team is kicking ass 6 ways to next week, even in the Ice gym.

Cross Edge site keeps getting updates, all the characters are there. I'm not following it as closely as AT2 since I don't plan on buying it. Rosenqueen's getting a new site, and that's when preorders should go up.

Other news...well. The world ended on 4/1, and that's all I'll say on that.

Time to go to the store. I really need food.

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

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.

Ignoring the blog again...

Been a week already? Whoops.

I would do a review of the recently-beaten Final Fantasy VI Advance, but I've got bad rose-colored goggles when it comes to that game, and I didn't even bother with the new additions. It's a good RPG if you like the old-style, pre-FF7 types, and if you've played it before and like longhard dungeons, the Dragon's Den is perfect. I don't feel like getting the items and equips needed to go through all those bosses, since I cheesed the final dungeon with Ultima...

Also, I showed great restraint at the mall today after dropping off my laptop (screen broke). Went in the GameStop and they had Star Ocean 1 2, Yggdra Union PSP, Tales of the Abyss, Odin Sphere, and some other things that I would've snatched up, but I didn't buy a single thing.

Review: Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?

(May contain spoilers, dood)

Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?
Platform: PSP
Genre: Action/Platformer
Playtime: 10:31
Mode: Standard

Gameplay: 7/10 I'm not much of a platforman gamer, so this was a bit of a refreshing game to play. It's standard go from left to right while dodging/defeating enemies, and not falling to your death in the multiple bottomless pits. The gimmick this game has is the time system. You can do levels in any order, but the later you wait in the day to do them, the harder they get. For example, one level had a jumping section with floating carpets. When I went back an hour later, there were no carpets, and you had to hip-pound your way up statues.
Prinny has one attack -- his swords. He can do some rapid slashing on the ground, or a rapid air slash when you jump. You get another attack if you lose all 1000 lives on a playthrough, but I didn't do that. Get used to button mashing in this game.

Control: 5/10 The worst thing about this game is the jump mechanics. You can't change direction after you jump, if you went straight up, you're staying straight up. You have a double jump, which can give a change in direction, but you can't change after that. Expect to launch yourself into pits often. The hip-pound can be a bit tough to use and aim, and there's a bit of a pause after you land, so if you barely miss an enemy, expect to get hit. The sword moves speed depends on how fast you can mash Square, which leads to lots of wrist and arm pain. After the final boss (who can't be stunned for more damage!), my entire body was in pain from button mashing. Also, I never used the dash, but I'm a careful platformer.

Graphics: 8/10 Very pretty 2D graphics, the usual from Nippon Ichi. There's some bits of 3D in there, and it looks smooth. The characters all have great expressions as well.

Music: 7/10 Also pretty good, though you'll be sick of hearing the same songs over and over as you keep dying. The voice acting is also good, I'm used to Michelle Ruff as Etna now, and the Prinnies are adorable. There is no Japanese voice option, so if you're one of them purists, go import. However, some of the enemies (the flying dolls and archers come to mind) have Japanese voices, so I guess they weren't dubbed.

Localization: 9/10 What you say? Nine out of ten on a NISA localization? Well, it's Disgaea, and they never screw up Disgaea. I'm sure there's some missed grammar bit or something in the game, but everything I saw looked fine. I didn't check who the translator was, though. I was curious too...

Overall: 7.2/10
Recommendation: If you grew up on NES platformers, this'll be familiar to you. It's difficult even on Standard mode, I lost over 400 lives. But I had a blast playing it after getting used to the unwieldy controls and memorization of stages and boss patterns. Play this if you'd like a challenging non-RPG.

Early Opinions on Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?

-Holy hell is this game hard! I didn't have an NES growing up, so I don't really have the concept of "Nintendo Hard" in my head, but I think this is close.
-I've lost 93 Prinnies so far on Standard difficulty. I spent an hour on the last stage...
-Speaking of stages I've beaten four out of the six available, but I think a seventh stage opens up. Maybe I can beat it this week if I keep at it...then it's just completion stuff (finding secret items, etc.)

NISA vs Atlus USA vs Time

Bet you can't guess who's winning right now.

Early Opinions on Ar tonelico 2

Might be spoilers if you haven't started the game yet. I'm 5 hours in, at the Ironplate Desert.

-Voices: So far the English track is quite enjoyable! I was surprised to find out that Amarie's VA is the same VA who did Margaret in Persona 4, one of the weaker links in a very good track. She's better doing Amarie's higher voice. Also, Infel is love.
-The cut voices aren't affecting me as much as I thought they would. I have a few moments of "Was this voiced? This should've been voiced. I wanna hear [character]'s voice, when is there a scene with them voiced?"
-Laura Bailey + voiced hymmnos = oh yesssss
-What IS bugging me are the grammar mistakes, mistranslations, and missed translations. Is it Pombleton, Bomberton, or Bon Beltan?! Those corrupted lines of text where they forgot to take out kana is annoying, too.
-"But...doing it with the Holy Maiden...I just can't believe it." "If you hurt me...I'll never forgive you. Slide it in, slowly...carefully." "You came again? You really like it, don't you..." If you can't tell, I love the innuendo. A lot. Even if it's not really innuendo, but just taking lines out of context. I've been laughing a lot so far.
-Also text related, I'm glad I'm able to play it in English, since I'm picking up on little side notes that I missed out just reading about the main plot. Example: Amarie saying that the lullaby Reisha sings is the same song that Sonya would sing

Overall, I'm still enjoying the game, despite all the flaws. The flaws were a bit...I dunno, I can't think of a word. I won't be preordering NISA games from now on because of them. There's an undub floating out there, I'm downloading it just because I can. If I feel like playing through one of the routes with the Japanese track on, I might use it, but right now I'm pretty much content with the official NA version.