Ar Tonelico: Melody Of Elemia Playthrough | Part 29
1Welcome back to Ar Tonelico: Melody Of Elemia! As always I hope you enjoyed the video, if you want to see more content like this then please consider subscribing.
What is Ar Tonelico: Melody Of Elemia?
Ar Tonelico: Melody Of Elemia is a role-playing video game developed by Gust Corporation for the PlayStation 2 and originally published by Banpresto in 2006.
Players may explore dungeons and other areas by moving in any direction and jumping. Depending on the abilities of the Reyvateils in the party, various spells can also be cast to light candles, remove obstacles, and trigger switches. Enemy creatures may be encountered at random as the player explores an area.
A gauge in the lower-right corner of the screen indicates the likelihood of encountering an enemy, as well as the number of random encounters remaining in the current area. Once enough battles have been fought to empty the gauge, no further random encounters will take place until the player leaves and returns to the area.
Each town presents several points of interest that may be reached by selecting their name on a menu, then navigated like a field map. Additional points of interest may become available after certain conditions are met.
The world map provides a 3D view of the world, which lists all of the locations currently accessible by the player. Most previously visited locations can be reached simply by scrolling the map to its entrance, then choosing to enter it.
Ar Tonelico features a turn-based battle system akin to those of the Atelier Iris series. The active party consists of up to three fighters in the front and one Reyvateil in the back.
An action can be chosen for each fighter as their turn arrives. An action bar at the top of the screen indicates the turn order for every character and opponent involved in the battle. Fighters may choose to strike the enemy, defend themselves, use a skill, use an item, or to protect the Reyvateil.
As long as any fighters remain alive, the Reyvateil can not be attacked directly by the enemy, and can only be targeted by charged attacks. When targeted, a number of circles are shown around her to indicate the number of fighters that must protect her (instead of attacking) before the enemy's next turn to completely block the attack. A successful defense grants the fighters an option to mount a devastating counter-attack at the cost of one harmocrystal.
Harmocrystals are activated when the Reyvateil and the rest of the party work well together, a measure of which is represented by the Harmonics bar at the bottom of the screen. Harmonics improve with each successful attack from the fighters, defense of the Reyvateil, and gradually over time, but decreases whenever an enemy lands a successful attack.
When the bar fills, the party's attacks become stronger and one harmocrystal is activated. The number of active Harmocrystals affects the number of counter-attacks the party can mount, the skills available to each fighter, as well as the types of items received at the end of a battle. A higher level of Harmonics also allows the Reyvateil to sing faster.
Unlike fighter characters, the Reyvateil does not need to wait for her turn and can be given commands at any time during the battle. Instead of attacking directly, she supports the party by using Song Magic. Her MP will decrease as long as she is singing, and stopping the Song will cause her MP to recover over time.
Red Magic can be charged for any length of time before being released onto the enemy as an attack, whereas Blue Magic immediately takes effect and continues to remain in effect as long as the singing continues. Both kinds of magic become progressively stronger as the Reyvateil continues to sing the same Song, and power up faster with each incremental level of Harmonics.
Stopping or changing the Song will cause the next spell to begin powering up from its basic level. The Reyvateils practice magic by “singing it". Hymns and Song Magic are powerful, they can be used for killing and healing. Therefore, unlike many other games, the songs form an integral part of the gameplay and story.
At the end of each battle, experience points are awarded to all party members regardless of whether they participated in battle, and extra points are granted to those who killed enemies. Dive Points are awarded to all Reyvateils currently in the party, which can then be used for Diving.
Items are awarded based on the number of activated Harmocrystals at the end of each battle. Each enemy has a potential of dropping up to 4 items, with the fourth item usually being the most desirable.
#ArTonelicoMelodyOfElemia #YoutubeGaming #LetsPlay