1145: Metafalica

I’ve been continuing to play Ar Tonelico II and it’s really rather good. One thing I’ve found particularly endearing about it is the fact that just when you think you’ve got a handle on the way it does things, it goes and does something else interesting just to throw you off a bit. And yet even despite all these mechanics that get added over time, it still feels like a coherent experience as a whole.

Let’s take the stage I’ve got up to now — “Phase 2” in game terms. In the first Ar Tonelico, the change from Phase 1 to Phase 2 marked the point where you were out of the “exposition” chapter and into the plot proper. Phase 2 was also the point where you had to choose between the two heroines, and then had two completely separate (but related) storylines to follow along with. The paths then reconverged towards the end of Phase 2 and remained together for the (completely optional) Phase 3, which offered the “true” ending of the game.

Phase 2 in Ar Tonelico II is a bit different. Rather than, like the first one, being set in the same locations and simply branching off in two different directions, Phase 2 of Ar Tonelico II takes place in a completely different area that works completely differently to the environment you’ve spent the previous 12 hours in. The early part of the game is, aside from its many and varied peculiar gameplay systems, relatively conventional — you visit towns and do stuff in them, then you go to dungeons. Then you go back to towns. And so on. The linear plotline is broken up by an optional “hunting” sidequest in which you can track down various “I.P.D.”-infected Reyvateils to add to your “Girl Power” arsenal (I’m not even going to get started explaining that, I’ll be here all day) but for the most part, you’re doing the usual JRPG business.

Phase 2, meanwhile, takes place in an environment that changes according to your choices. Early in the Phase, you’re introduced to a new mechanic known as the Infelsphere. This virtual world works in a similar way to the “cosmospheres” found inside the heroines’ minds, but rather than reflecting their inner turmoil and anxieties, the Infelsphere represents the relationship between the two heroines and how they understand each other. Events unfold in the Infelsphere in which you have to make choices as to how to respond, and the choices you make in the Infelsphere subsequently affect what parts of the “real world” open and close to you. Your eventual goal is to get to a specific location by navigating your way through a maze of these pathways that open and close according to how the Infelsphere events unfold, with each point on the path containing some sort of “trial” to overcome. This might be as simple as defeating a monster, or it might be a challenge such as successfully smuggling biscuits past the penguin-like “Pippen” creatures.

Thematically, in each of these trials, you’re “proving your love” to one of the heroines, which subsequently provides you with keys to unlock new events in the Infelsphere, and so it continues. It’s a really peculiar, really interesting structure that not only offers some unconventional JRPG gameplay in the “real world” sections, but also provides some intriguing insights into the characters and the way they respond to various situations in the Infelsphere component.

You’ll notice I haven’t really mentioned the plot in this description, and that’s deliberate, as discussing the plot surrounding all this would be a massive spoiler, so I’ll spare you that — for now, anyway. What I am finding particularly pleasing about Ar Tonelico II as a whole, though, is that even if it didn’t have a compelling plot and awesome characters — which it does — it would still have rock-solid gameplay with an absolute bucketload of things to do. It is just one of the many, many examples out there that prove JRPGs are far more than the “ATTACK, MAGIC, ITEM”-fests that ill-informed detractors of the genre assume these games still are.

They haven’t been that way for a long time, people. So if you haven’t played a JRPG since Final Fantasy VII I strongly recommend you check out what the genre has done since then — you might just be very pleasantly surprised by what you find.