THE STORY
Ar Tonelico's story is very different from Atelier Iris. Whereas the Iris stories all occur on the same world, albeit during different eras, the events in Tonelico occur on an unrecognisable Earth, in the far distant future. The surface of the planet had long been devastated by warfare, first amongst humans, then by invading ET. Humans now live and land masses that have been raised up into the air, supported by gigantic pillars called Towers, by-products of a distant past utilising technology that has since been forgotten. Though the ETs were defeated, they left behind something which occasionally spawns Viruses. These Viruses corrupt computer systems and may, potentially, cause the Towers to fall. Which, as you might imagine, would be very bad for the humans.

Anyway, our story begins with a Virus attack. Unfortunately for the world at large, these Viruses appear to be a new strain and are impervious to everything thrown at them. As circumstances would have it, you, a young and foolish Knight of Elemia, are called upon to undertake a journey to retrieve a sacred artifact needed to defeat the Virus. I wasn't paying much attention to this part of the story since it was all fairly typical.

REYVATEIL
Now here comes the interesting part. There aren't any alchemists in this game. Instead, Tonelico has this character class called the Reyvateil (sp?). These girls (naturally) have the abilities to work incredible magic by singing. However, in order for them to fully develope this ability, they need to form a bond with another person. Male. At least, I haven't seen a female partner before. Does this remind you of a particular anime? There's also this particular military-political faction called Tenba, which you come across early in the game, which treats Reyvateils as mere objects, as weapons.

I get my very own Rev Majelence? Sweet!

Now, there are apparently a few Reyvateils which will join your party...

A harem? Hot damn!

...and how powerful they are depends on your relationship with them...

Love romance? Woot!

...The game said that you affect this via conversation choices...

Dating sim? Awesome!

...which is unfortunately not true. It's more a case of selecting the topic of conversation but there's no reason not to select everything.

Shoot...

As you might imagine, the Reyvateil's are quite weak physically and stay far back during battles. However, there are some enemies which can target the Reyvateil though they require two turns to do so. When that happens, one of the other members in the battle party should use the 'protect' command and put his body between the Reyvateil and harm.

MOE! MOE!

Incidentally, I've got this Reyvateil in my party, Aurica. She's kinda cute but weird. She's got low self-esteem, so at the beginning of every battle, she'll say/gasp "Iya! Kowai!"

Sounds like a hentai

THE GOOD
the story is very good!!

THE BAD
crappy ass graphics, and the sense of non-urgency. the kick off point for the story is that you have to get a crystal for some supposdly unbeatable monsters, but after that, your free to take you time and do...... whatever..



Finally, saving is a pain. I don't understand why it should be so lengthy.

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Well, that's all on this subject. Anyone else has comments?