I remember people stating they enjoyed Mana Khemia and Ar Tonelico but could someone give me a run through on why they're worth playing? I've seen them the last few times I've been to a Gamestop I frequent for 30 bucks used so I figure I can't argue with that.
Also I don't remember hearing much about Baroque but it looks like it could possibly be interesting.
I'd like to know how the games play, if they're overloaded with kiddy garbage, whatever. Thanks.
Full Version: Baroque, Mana Khemia, Ar Tonelico
Ar Tonelico is a dating simulation RPG. The main appeal of the game is your interaction with three of the female leads. If you're into interaction between a main character male with three females, then you'll like this game. I don't recall dating simulation style games being released in U.S. Off the top of my head, Thousand Arms was the only other one.
Anyway, Ar Tonelico isn't that challenge of a game. You should be able to play through the storyline without ever having a problem. The battle system is fun, but the game difficulty leaves much to be desire. Again, the main appeal of the game is relationship between the main character and the three main female leads he can develop relationships with.
Anyway, Ar Tonelico isn't that challenge of a game. You should be able to play through the storyline without ever having a problem. The battle system is fun, but the game difficulty leaves much to be desire. Again, the main appeal of the game is relationship between the main character and the three main female leads he can develop relationships with.
I haven't played MK enough to really give a reliable opinion on it.
TED its gonna be a long read..
Ar Tonelico on the other hand, I played that for 52 hours. It has three possible endings. I'm pretty sure this game's selling point was it's incredible music and stories inside the Reyvatails Cosmosphere. The story is about a virus outbreak that threatens to destroy the ancient tower of Ar Tonelico. It is the driving force of everything in the planet of Sol Ciel. There is no "ground level". You are on an island being suspended by power source called a Plasma Bell. The planet below is uninhabitable due to the "Grathnode Inferia" incident, in the year 3040. Not spoilers - just a little history. This game is also full of sexual innuendo, I'll go as far as to say some of it bordelines pedophelia >_>. There is some goofing off, but it is mostly serious stuff and a lot of plot twists.
The battle system works like this; Out in the field there is an "encounter meter". Similar to the one in Grandia Xtreme. The lower this gets, the closer you are to a random battle. With each win, the meter will lose a bar. You can continue depleting the bar with victories to the point where you wont get anymore encounters for that area. In some areas with tougher monsters, it will take more victories to empty the meter.
Fighting is turned based. You will have 3 attackers and 1 support/nuker. This is the easiest part of the game and I would have like for this to be a bit more challenging. Your support/nuker is an overpowered race called a Reyvatail. They have the ability to attack with music. Their music will convert into symphonic energy and create an attack. Their power can get stronger over time through what is called the burst meter. The longer you make them "wait" to use a song, the stronger it will get - however, songs will use MP during this time. Typically a song will reach its peak at about 8500%(in the case of a certain song you need 10,000%). The speed at which the song gets stronger can be increased through the Harmonics meter at the bottom of the scream. There is 4 lvls. Each level will boost the burst meter's speed to..200%, 300% 400% and I think 500%. Increasing the harmonics gauge is hard for me, I know no effective ways of raising this thing.
Songs can be powered up from progressing in a Reyvatails cosmophere. The short version of what is this is simply their mind being connected to Ar Tonelico. I'll say 50% of the story can be found in them. You can buy armor/items, but you can also craft them through Item Synthesis. The irritating part is finding the recipe cards.
A run down of the characters.. I'm letting you know what you will be dealing with.
Lyner: Main character; He isn't your typical "Squall" although he is a little stupid and loves to "shoot first, ask questions later". He can be entertaining.
Aurica: You might wanna be high/drunk/tired out of your mind, whenever she starts talking. She gives the words "emo" and "whiney" a WHOLE new meaning. She's never happy and always puts herself down. A real mood killer. You're gonna hate going into her cosmosphere. Stat wise, she is very durable, but her songs are the weakest. I stuck with her for her durability.
Misha: Easy going, thoughtful, loves to joke. As the story progresses you will prefer Misha to be around more than Aurica. She is the second strongest Reyvatail in the game but also the weakest defense wise. All her songs pack a wallop.
There is a third, but this one would be a huge spoiler. It is the strongest, fastest and most durable. However it is gained too late in the game to even matter. It's cosmosphere doesn't have to be entered for plot points or anything like that.
Some info left out because frankly, I'd be sitting here all day typing.
TED its gonna be a long read..
Ar Tonelico on the other hand, I played that for 52 hours. It has three possible endings. I'm pretty sure this game's selling point was it's incredible music and stories inside the Reyvatails Cosmosphere. The story is about a virus outbreak that threatens to destroy the ancient tower of Ar Tonelico. It is the driving force of everything in the planet of Sol Ciel. There is no "ground level". You are on an island being suspended by power source called a Plasma Bell. The planet below is uninhabitable due to the "Grathnode Inferia" incident, in the year 3040. Not spoilers - just a little history. This game is also full of sexual innuendo, I'll go as far as to say some of it bordelines pedophelia >_>. There is some goofing off, but it is mostly serious stuff and a lot of plot twists.
The battle system works like this; Out in the field there is an "encounter meter". Similar to the one in Grandia Xtreme. The lower this gets, the closer you are to a random battle. With each win, the meter will lose a bar. You can continue depleting the bar with victories to the point where you wont get anymore encounters for that area. In some areas with tougher monsters, it will take more victories to empty the meter.
Fighting is turned based. You will have 3 attackers and 1 support/nuker. This is the easiest part of the game and I would have like for this to be a bit more challenging. Your support/nuker is an overpowered race called a Reyvatail. They have the ability to attack with music. Their music will convert into symphonic energy and create an attack. Their power can get stronger over time through what is called the burst meter. The longer you make them "wait" to use a song, the stronger it will get - however, songs will use MP during this time. Typically a song will reach its peak at about 8500%(in the case of a certain song you need 10,000%). The speed at which the song gets stronger can be increased through the Harmonics meter at the bottom of the scream. There is 4 lvls. Each level will boost the burst meter's speed to..200%, 300% 400% and I think 500%. Increasing the harmonics gauge is hard for me, I know no effective ways of raising this thing.
Songs can be powered up from progressing in a Reyvatails cosmophere. The short version of what is this is simply their mind being connected to Ar Tonelico. I'll say 50% of the story can be found in them. You can buy armor/items, but you can also craft them through Item Synthesis. The irritating part is finding the recipe cards.
A run down of the characters.. I'm letting you know what you will be dealing with.
Lyner: Main character; He isn't your typical "Squall" although he is a little stupid and loves to "shoot first, ask questions later". He can be entertaining.
Aurica: You might wanna be high/drunk/tired out of your mind, whenever she starts talking. She gives the words "emo" and "whiney" a WHOLE new meaning. She's never happy and always puts herself down. A real mood killer. You're gonna hate going into her cosmosphere. Stat wise, she is very durable, but her songs are the weakest. I stuck with her for her durability.
Misha: Easy going, thoughtful, loves to joke. As the story progresses you will prefer Misha to be around more than Aurica. She is the second strongest Reyvatail in the game but also the weakest defense wise. All her songs pack a wallop.
There is a third, but this one would be a huge spoiler. It is the strongest, fastest and most durable. However it is gained too late in the game to even matter. It's cosmosphere doesn't have to be entered for plot points or anything like that.
Some info left out because frankly, I'd be sitting here all day typing.
Avoid Baroque. the game sucked. all you do is run through a tower collecting whatever you find, then when you die- you start all over, with nothing. lots of excitement.
don't bother with Baroque. I bought it, and returned it the next day.
don't bother with Baroque. I bought it, and returned it the next day.
QUOTE (Sigs Minock @ Jul 11 2008, 10:09 PM) 
Avoid Baroque. the game sucked. all you do is run through a tower collecting whatever you find, then when you die- you start all over, with nothing. lots of excitement.
don't bother with Baroque. I bought it, and returned it the next day.
don't bother with Baroque. I bought it, and returned it the next day.
I did the same thing. The only way to progress the story is to die in the tower. Apparently, you can run through the game without dying as well, so that you don't get any of the story, you just get a dungeon crawler.
It's a cool idea, but it failed horribly in execution. The gameplay isn't fun and the story wasn't that great. Stay away from it unless you're a hardcore dungeon crawler fan.
Baroque is a dungeon-crawler, so if that type of game interests you, then you might want to pick it up.
My best-friend has played both Ar Tonelico and Mana Khemia. They are both pretty enjoyable and rather fun to play. I don't think they are the deepest games in the world, but they do have multiple endings for you to get.
If you are waiting a month or two for a new game to come out, pick them both up to kill some time. You could play one or even two by the time Disgaea 3 comes if you are waiting for that game.
My best-friend has played both Ar Tonelico and Mana Khemia. They are both pretty enjoyable and rather fun to play. I don't think they are the deepest games in the world, but they do have multiple endings for you to get.
If you are waiting a month or two for a new game to come out, pick them both up to kill some time. You could play one or even two by the time Disgaea 3 comes if you are waiting for that game.
From what everyone's told me, Baroque is pretty bad. It sounds like an interesting concept, but it wasn't done right.
Mana Khemia is an excellent game though. It has a very good battle system that keeps evolving the further you get into the game. There were many times when I though "well with this upgrade, I probably have access to the full battle system now" But it keeps getting upgraded with new features, and once you're able to do tag team switches, it feels like it opens up a whole new door to the battle system.
Whatever the rest of the game has to offer, it doesn't change the fact that Mana Khemia has imo one of the best battle systems on PS2. Don't be fooled by the cute in battle sprites (I kind of was before I tried it), it has a serious battle system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLo0DWaYny8
Here's a clip of a battle. It's hard to follow what's going on unless you're familiar with the system. But if you look at the turn cards above, to the right there are three cards representing the characters on standby. Once they're fully charged (takes only one turn later in the game, like here) they can be tagged in at any time to either do a defensive action and take the blow for another member, or support an attack by coming in and finishing it off with an offensive attack.
Being on standby recharges your HP and MP (faster when you unlock new skills that increases the speed) so you'll really want to switch in and out a lot, and because characters have offensive and defensive tag skills, you're encouraged to do it more. And that's what makes the battle system really fast paced and fun.
(If you check the video, at the beginning of the battle he uses a skill that gives the main character 3 consecutive turns, but gets hit and takes a lot of damage first. Instead of using his last turn to heal, he uses it for an attack, and tags in another character to finish the attack, and the main character goes to standby where his HP and MP will refill again.)
You can switch characters without taking any action as well of course.
Each character has a different offensive/defensive skill. (And they can learn more later) For example, Muppy takes the damage for the whole team when you tag him in defensively. While Phyl will use an all targeting healing spell for free when you tag her in defensively. If you tag in Fllay offensively, he causes Def. down status on the opponent. (Always seems to work, even on bosses)
Another nice thing about the battle system that I liked is that the game has several battle themes. At least four different battle themes, not counting boss battle themes.
The game itself is a bit like Persona 3 in a few ways. It even has Social Links you can increase, but unlike P3 it's only among the main characters, and only to Level 5. And it determines the ending you get rather than boosting some battle ability.
And also unlike P3, it doesn't have randomly generated dungeons, but areas in the world you can explore.
The main focus of the game besides the story is probably the synthesizing (alchemising). The synthesizing was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. In fact, while I had yet to encounter a game where I liked to synthesize items, in Mana Khemia I actually ended up looking forward to it. It's because the alchemizing is so fleshed out in Mana Khemia. You get lots and lots of ingredients all throughout the game. But in order to create a new item, you need to find a recipe for it first.
Once you create an item, a corresponding icon of that item will appear on the "sphere grid".
And the fact that each and every item in the game, no matter how insignificant, has it's own detailed unique artwork icon only made it more fun to synthesize.
You can spend SP on that point to unlock 1-3 stat boosts or skills. So not only do you get a new armor/weapon/equipment/item, but you'll also get stronger stats and skill wise when you synthesize. There is no normal level up. You get SP from battles that you can spend on the sphere grid once you unlock new items.
And synthesizing items allows you to customize what abilities you want them to have.
The characters in the game are another plus. There are mainly comic relief characters, but they're done well.
The story is not the most complex one, but enjoyable due to the characters.
I enjoyed Mana Khemia quite a bit more than I expected. I played a bit of Atilier Iris, and couldn't get into it. So I was surprised that I got to like Mana Khemia so much.
Mana Khemia is an excellent game though. It has a very good battle system that keeps evolving the further you get into the game. There were many times when I though "well with this upgrade, I probably have access to the full battle system now" But it keeps getting upgraded with new features, and once you're able to do tag team switches, it feels like it opens up a whole new door to the battle system.
Whatever the rest of the game has to offer, it doesn't change the fact that Mana Khemia has imo one of the best battle systems on PS2. Don't be fooled by the cute in battle sprites (I kind of was before I tried it), it has a serious battle system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLo0DWaYny8
Here's a clip of a battle. It's hard to follow what's going on unless you're familiar with the system. But if you look at the turn cards above, to the right there are three cards representing the characters on standby. Once they're fully charged (takes only one turn later in the game, like here) they can be tagged in at any time to either do a defensive action and take the blow for another member, or support an attack by coming in and finishing it off with an offensive attack.
Being on standby recharges your HP and MP (faster when you unlock new skills that increases the speed) so you'll really want to switch in and out a lot, and because characters have offensive and defensive tag skills, you're encouraged to do it more. And that's what makes the battle system really fast paced and fun.
(If you check the video, at the beginning of the battle he uses a skill that gives the main character 3 consecutive turns, but gets hit and takes a lot of damage first. Instead of using his last turn to heal, he uses it for an attack, and tags in another character to finish the attack, and the main character goes to standby where his HP and MP will refill again.)
You can switch characters without taking any action as well of course.
Each character has a different offensive/defensive skill. (And they can learn more later) For example, Muppy takes the damage for the whole team when you tag him in defensively. While Phyl will use an all targeting healing spell for free when you tag her in defensively. If you tag in Fllay offensively, he causes Def. down status on the opponent. (Always seems to work, even on bosses)
Another nice thing about the battle system that I liked is that the game has several battle themes. At least four different battle themes, not counting boss battle themes.
The game itself is a bit like Persona 3 in a few ways. It even has Social Links you can increase, but unlike P3 it's only among the main characters, and only to Level 5. And it determines the ending you get rather than boosting some battle ability.
And also unlike P3, it doesn't have randomly generated dungeons, but areas in the world you can explore.
The main focus of the game besides the story is probably the synthesizing (alchemising). The synthesizing was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. In fact, while I had yet to encounter a game where I liked to synthesize items, in Mana Khemia I actually ended up looking forward to it. It's because the alchemizing is so fleshed out in Mana Khemia. You get lots and lots of ingredients all throughout the game. But in order to create a new item, you need to find a recipe for it first.
Once you create an item, a corresponding icon of that item will appear on the "sphere grid".
And the fact that each and every item in the game, no matter how insignificant, has it's own detailed unique artwork icon only made it more fun to synthesize.
You can spend SP on that point to unlock 1-3 stat boosts or skills. So not only do you get a new armor/weapon/equipment/item, but you'll also get stronger stats and skill wise when you synthesize. There is no normal level up. You get SP from battles that you can spend on the sphere grid once you unlock new items.
And synthesizing items allows you to customize what abilities you want them to have.
The characters in the game are another plus. There are mainly comic relief characters, but they're done well.
The story is not the most complex one, but enjoyable due to the characters.
I enjoyed Mana Khemia quite a bit more than I expected. I played a bit of Atilier Iris, and couldn't get into it. So I was surprised that I got to like Mana Khemia so much.
In short...
Baroque - bad game with great story and interesting overall idea. Sick intro.
Mana Khemia - some would say a rip-off Social Link P3 game, although I wouldn't call it that. This game shows what it takes to be good without a big budget.
Ar Tonelico - If you loved Atelier Iris, you should love this one too. Girl ''diving'' was interesting to me.
Baroque - bad game with great story and interesting overall idea. Sick intro.
Mana Khemia - some would say a rip-off Social Link P3 game, although I wouldn't call it that. This game shows what it takes to be good without a big budget.
Ar Tonelico - If you loved Atelier Iris, you should love this one too. Girl ''diving'' was interesting to me.
Oh and I forgot to mention, the game has the option to chose Japanese or English voice acting. Always a plus for me.
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