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Ar Tolenilico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel is a role-play- ing video game produced by Gust and published by Bandai Namco Games in Japan and by NIS America in North America for the Sony PlayStation 3. It is the third and final installment, taking place in the Reyvateil-ruled country of Clustania, lo- cated in an area known as Sol Cluster, and set around two and half years after the events of Ar tonelico II. Clustania is situated on the third tower in the world of Ar Ciel, which floats above the uninhabitable Sea of Death. Although it is the final game in the series, the series mythos is continued in Gust’s Surge Concerto series through the titles, Ciel Nosurge and Ar No- surge, which takes place within the same universe. The Japanese version became available for retail on January 28, 2010 and it was released in North America on March 15, 2011. It was released in Europe on April 1, 2011.

gaGm aepl ay DIVING During the game, Aoto, the protagonist, can dive into the ‘Cosmospheres’ of certain Reyvateils to craft Song Magic, which is done by witnessing their internal turmoils and traumas and helping them to find a solution for them. Various personae exist within the Cosmosphere, and the player can choose to have the Reyvateil fight in their clothing. Because the personae who wear these costumes have differing preferences in ‘Song Magic’, the costume will influence the RAH. system. Diving additionally deepens the bond between the Reyvateil and the protagonist. However, unlike the previous games, the player can only gain Hyumas in the Cosmosphere because the Song Magic used by each Reyvateil and their persona is preset and unmod- ifiable. TALK TOPICS The system for conversation is similar to those of the other games in the series, with the difference being only three Talk Topics are now required for entering the next Cosmosphere level, regardless of what number that level is. Each topic is classi- fied by color to indicate how they are found: Pink colored topics are triggered by progressing through the main storyline Green colored topics are obtained by having specific items in the inventory or meeting certain conditions Blue colored topics are found as shining orbs throughout the maps Talk Topics for the rest of the party members now exist, as opposed to the previous games. The updated Talk Topics system now includes talk topics between all members of the party, instead of topics between the party’s Reyvateils and the main character. Conversations between par- ty members are triggered after the player talks to certain non-playable characters or after certain events.

BAT TLE SYSTEMThe battle system is real-timebutton they held for executing  When an enemy enters the Purge (L1: Fire, L2: Wind, the field surrounding the Gbased, similar to those of the R1: Ice, R2: Lightning). Howev- Reyvateil, an alarm will be- er, if the Purge was performed gin sounding as the HP of Star Ocean games. Only one incorrectly, the Reyvateil will the Reyvateil begins being Reyvateil can be present in drained away while the Burst refuse to Purge and the Song Gauge begins decreasing. As battle. During a battle, the the Reyvateil can easily die in Magic will be released with these conditions, the player player controls one of three can attack the enemy to get less power than if it was used it away from her or activate Vanguard members and the Blowback skill, which normally, so the player has to will teleport the player to the is able to switch control to Reyvateil’s side and execute a be careful. blow that will send the enemy another character at will. The  Initially, Reyvateil Purge may to the opposite side of the non-player members of the battlefield. Once used, the only be used once; however, Blowback skill must recharge. party are controlled by AI. In up to four levels of Purge and battle, the player may attack a multi-level Purge may be un- RAH SYSTEM enemies with an equipped locked by advancing through The acronym stands for “Re- weapon (with successive al-time Active Hymmnetics”, the Cosmosphere of the and it refers to the fact that attacks resulting in a shot the music used during battles, Reyvateil. At the Reyvateil’s with the exception of the one combo), protect the Reyvateil fourth-level Purge, she will used in some special events, from enemy attacks by using unleash her Song Magic Flip- is variable: each playable Rey- a Blowback, or use the Song sphere, requiring the player to vateil will begin singing at the Magic of the Reyvateil. Items attack in sync with the pulsing start of battle a melody that may be used to heal party will change depending on the of the Harmograph line. De- actions taken by the player. members or damage enemies. pending on player execution, Each Reyvateil has a base  Additionally, the player can this results in additional or melody, but it can be modified make the Reyvateil Purge in by programming Hyumas into fewer attacks and may include them. The Hyumas, aside of order to increase the power modifying the instrumenta- a finishing blow. tion, pitch, and rhythm of the of her Song Magic. To do melody, also grants bonuses  Finally, some enemies can to the party members when this, the player has the attack use powerful attacks that can they are activated through the enemies whenever a red hit the entire player party but the Purge System: periodical wave makes contact with the require a charge time. When HP regeneration, resistance red line in the Harmograph lo- they are charging the attack, to status ailments, increases cated in the lower part of the they will be surrounded by of attack and defense... such screen. Doing this will trigger a blue barrier while a blue are what the Hyumas can do a Beat Up, which represents upon their activation. line appears on the Harmo- the heart of the Reyvateil graph. During this time, the becoming more excited Burst Gauge is slowed down upon seeing the party mem- and Purging is disabled, so bers fight hard for her. Once the player has to attack the enough Beat Ups have been enemy to break the barrier accumulated, a Purge Ready! and nullify the attack. If they notification will appear over don’t manage to do so before the Heart Indicator located at the blue line makes contact the right of the Harmograph. with the border of the Harmo- When this happens, the player graph, the enemy will unleash has to hold one of the shoul- the attack. der buttons (L1, R1, R2 or L2)  The Reyvateils are by and shake the controller. If themselves defenseless, so they did it correctly, the Burst they must be defended by the Gauge will increase its charge player. Therefore, if all three speed, the Song Magic will Vanguard characters fall in level up to its next stage, and battle (their HP reaches 0), the the party will gain an addition- game is over, regardless of al elemental attack and resis- whether the Reyvateil is alive tance depending on which or not.

ng of Clustania, located in the   The Archia Corporarchy set t i upper zones of the Tower, is the only human settlement and its army periodically goes found in the Tower of Har- Ar tonelico Qoga takes place to the Great Fang to destroy vestasha, located around its in the region of Sol Cluster of the towns that have grown to middle zone, and it is the only Planet Ar Ciel, the location of much and to take its inhabi- place in which humans can the third and final Tower of Ar tants as prisoners. Afterward live without fearing the Purifi- tonelico, two years after the executing them or subject- cation done by the Clustanians, conclusion of Ar tonelico II: ing them to a brainwashing as long as they don’t try to Melody of Metafalica. This is process known as Purification, ascend the Tower. a harsh region, comprising a in which its victims lose their  The players will take on the mountainous formation called own ego and become vegeta- role of a young steeplejack the Great Fang and the Third bles. apprentice called Aoto, who Tower of Ar tonelico, which   The Great Fang is formed upon getting awakened by also receives the name Tower by several small villages and a ruckus outside his house, of Harvestasha. towns, the largest cities being goes to investigate to find   The entire region is the underground complex out that Clustanian soldiers under the dominion known as the Eternus Shaft are attacking an old man and of the Reyvateil- and the port city of Ciela Gate. girl that looks like a sword- ruled country However, the villages see con- swoman. After managing to stant destruction as described drive them away, the swords- above, while the Eternus Shaft woman transforms into a girl is out of their reach due to its called Saki, while the old man, underground location, and Kiraha, dies from the wounds Ciela Gate is under the protec- the Clustanians caused him, tion of the Archia Corporachy. leaving Saki’s care on Aoto’s hands, while also leaving to him a pendant he asks him to take to his son.

cha racte r Aoto 蒼都 Voiced by: Noriaki Sugiyama The main character of the game and a steeplejack apprentice from Blue Canyon Hamlet. He is reckless, but always finishes what he starts. He never liked Clustania, and after meeting Saki, he starts to view Clustania as an enemy. cha s Saki 咲 Finnel フィンネル Voiced by: Mai Gotou Voiced by: Eri Kitamura Hymns voiced by: Akiko ShikataHymns voiced by: Haruka A main heroine and ReyvateilShimotsuki who was created in a researchAnother main heroine and a institute for a project thatclumsy β-type Reyvateil who would have a great impact onworks in a restaurant known the world. She escaped be-as Yokkora Bistro, which fore the project was executedis situated on the Eternus and was on the run for severalShaft. She seemingly has a years before she met Aoto.significant connection to the When she’s extremely emo-existence of Clustania. chartionally strained, she can use a power known as Miracle.

Hikari Gojō 光五条 Kukurou ククロウ Jack Hamilton ジャック・ハミ Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa Akane’s loyal pet. It takes the ルトン A doctor specialized in Rey- form of an antivirus when in vateils. He opens his business battle mode. Voiced by: Nobutoshi Canna in a place called Tokoshie 4 years ago, he departed from Canopy. He used to work at Teppo テポ Sol Ciel with Krusche and Arkia but after knowing Arkia’s Voiced by: Ayaka Saitou Jakuri. He is now at Sol Clus- great secret he decided to A plugin for the Dive Machines ter with Krusche, apparently, retire from it. made by Hikari Gojo, which al- because he is in love with her, lows him to scan a Reyvateil’s despite his flirtatious nature Tatsumi タツミ personalities. still being the same. Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga Name “TEPO” in the Japanese A fan of V-board, a sport that Ver. is an abbreviated form Krusche Elendia クルシェ・エ enables the player to freely of “Cosmosphere Analyzer, レンディア run in the air. He is currently Trans Encorder, and Program training in Blue Valley Village. Optimizer”. Voiced by: Yoshino Nanjō He respects Gengai as a 4 years ago, Krusche decided teacher, and one month before Cocona Bartel ココナ・バーテル to explore the world. She ar- the game starts he met Aoto. Voiced by: Yumi Shimura rived at Sol Cluster with Jack. Hymns Voiced by: Rekka She used to work at Tenba, Gengai ゲンガイ Katakiri but she is currently in retire- Voiced by: Tesshō Genda Now older, Cocona came to ment. The commander of the Great Sol Cluster by the request of Fang Alliance. He helps those Jacqli, along with Sasha. She Luphan ルーファン who are being oppressed by has the mission of bringing a Voiced by: Yu Kobayashi the Cleansing (Urban destruc- special crystal called the Heart A man who seems to know tion) caused by the Reyvateils. of Gaea to a person called Gengai. Always helps Aoto’s Harvestasha. party whenever they get into Raphael ラファエーレ trouble. However, he seems to Voiced by: Hideyuki Tanaka Sasha 沙亜紗（さーしゃ） hide other things... The head of Arkia Research Voiced by: Saki Yasuda Laboratory. It is his count- Now older, Sasha came to Katene カテナ er-measure that enables the Sol Cluster with Cocona. She Voiced by: Ryo Hirohashi peoples to live in peace, he is opened a synthesis store An old friend of Hikari Gojou. trusted by the townspeople. called “Nya Nya Ya” in the He was recognized as a bril- Capo Waste Oil Hot Spring. liant researcher and inventor Richaryosha リッカリョーシャ because of the many medical Voiced by: Yukana Mute ミュート artifacts for Reyvateils that he A Reyvateil that has the Voiced by: Ikue Otani developed. position of No. 2 in Arkia, she A Third Generation Reyvateil admires a love that surpasses that is constantly trying to cap- trials, kinda like a drama. She ture Saki, as she was ordered even encourages it to her to by Akane. Despite her surroundings. monstrous appearance, she is quite feminine and is greatly Akane アカネ enraged when anyone tries to Voiced by: Aya Endou say the opposite to her. A Reyvateil that is also the commander of Anti Human Tyria ティリア Troops. She is born at the Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto same time as Finnel is, she Hymns voiced by: Kokia is hard on others and views The Third Origin Reyvateil, and those who come into the posi- the Administrator of the Third tion as irregulars. Tower, located in Sol Cluster.

usicmusic m The soundtrack for the game was composed by the Gust Sound Team, though its config- uration changed in comparison to the previous games: only Ken Nakagawa remained, as Akira Tsuchiya was busy being the director and main cre- ator of all the aspects of the game, while Daisuke Achiwa was at the time working solo in the score for Atelier Lina. Newcomer Kazuki Yanagawa made his de- but in this game, being responsible for several event and dungeon themes, as well as the sole composer of the sam- ples used in the automatic music generation system known as the RAH System. Lifelong series singer Akiko Shikata con- tributed herself with a music box event piece as well, as also did doujin music composer HIR with a few themes.   For the Hymns, three of the singers employed so far in the series made a return: Akiko Shikata, Haruka Shimotsuki and Noriko Mitose, alongside which several new singers joined the team for the game: Kokia, Yoko Ueno, Au (from the Gusya Ningen band), Azumi Inoue, Noriko Fujimoto, Yula Yayoi, Rekka Katakiri and Haruka Togawa.   The music of the game was released in three discs: a two-disc orig- inal soundtrack alongside the usual Hymmnos Concert Side Red and Side Blue albums. Contrary to tradition, the original soundtrack contained only the opening theme alongside “best of” mixes of the RAH System sam- ples and the instrumental BGMs, while the Hymmnos Concerts contained most of the Hymns sung in the game. However, a total of four songs, all of which were used during the final battle in the game, were absent from all media releases. The fourth and final song was released as a track in the image album Singing Hill ~Ar=Ciel Ar=Dor~, but the others never received an official release. The musical style for this game runs similar to that of the previous ones, featuring orchestral, rock, electronica, ethnic, industrial, folk and choral styles.

c dia releas res Similarly to its predecessors, iit received a large amount of related merchandise in the form of music CDs, as well as gag mangacompilations, Drama CDs that told events that took place after the game’s true end- ing, a Hymmnos Musical chron- icling happenings between the events of Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica, a player’s guide, a setting materials book, and two novels that also served as an epilogue to the entire series. medmei a

cerec r e e p t io nThe game has received generally mixed re- views, with a 65% on the aggregator GameR- ankings and a 60/100 Metacritic score. Famitsu magazine awarded the game a combined score of 28/40.   The game sold over 81,000 copies in Japan in its first week and has sold over 120,000 copies in total there.   It receives praise in the same areas as its predecessors, particularly the music, strong char- acters, and engaging storyline, though its char- acters have also come under criticism due to the focus on the alternate personae of the heroines. The gameplay is its most criticized aspect due to not being an evolution of the battle system used in Ar tonelico II, and instead being what players have come to call a “half-baked attempt at a real-time combat system”, between the few attacks the play- ers can use, the absence of multiple kinds of Song Magic and the lack of variety in enemy models.   Its localization hasn’t been as severely criticized as Ar tonelico 2’s due to the script being more polished in general, although it still has some flaws, such as translating some terms inconsistently, the translators and editors not following their word of correcting all the Hym- mnos terms mistakes they had committed previous- ly, and finally, a bug that causes the final level of a Cosmosphere to have desynchronization between the voiceovers and the written text due to having intro- duced an additional text box when playing through that section with the Japanese voices on.

NOTES REFERENCES “Ar Tonelico III Ar Tonelico 3 Update Part 3 – Stripping, Japanese: アルトネリコ3 世 Sal Romano (July 15, 2010). OST and More”. The Banzai! 界終焉の引鉄は少女の詩が “Ar Tonelico 3 dated for the Effect. 弾く Hepburn: Aru Toneriko North America”. Scrawl. “Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Surī: Sekai Shūen no Hikigane Archived from the original on Ciel”. GameRankings. Re- wa Shōjo no Uta ga Hiku, 17 July 2010. Retrieved July 8, trieved 2011-05-06. lit. “Ar tonelico III: The Girl’s 2010. “Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Song that Pulls the Trigger of “Reyvateils Return, Ar toneli- Ar Ciel”. Metacritic. Retrieved World’s Demise” co III Announced”. Siliconera. 2011-05-06. “PS4 NEWS - PS4News - PS3 “Fórum UOL Jogos - Ninten- NEWS - PS3News - PlaySta- do, PlayStation, Xbox, Web- tion 4 News - PS3 CFW - PS3 games, Classificados...” Hacks - PS3 JailBreak - PS4 Sinclair, Brian (2010-02-05). Forums”. “Big in Japan Jan. 25-31: “Ar Tonelico III Ar Tonelico Dragon Quest VI DS”. Game- 3 Announced For PS3”. The Spot. Retrieved 2010-03-21. Banzai! Effect.

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