by Shane Lewis
Japanese role-playing games have come a long way since their golden days around the turn of the century, and if Ar nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star is any indication, it’s been a long way down the wrong path. Cliche and mostly shallow, the game is a towering monument to a stagnant design culture that is hardly worth any of your time… much less your money.
To begin, Ar nosurge’s most immediate problem is its story. A bizarre patchwork of ideas and elements lifted from other, better games, I had little clue what was happening or why I was supposed to care for at least the first three hours of playtime. Lost to the meaning of anything I was doing, I was instead treated to an endless deluge of conversations between characters I knew nothing about and cared for even less. Eventually, I did manage to start to understand what was going on, but it hardly did the experience of playing any favors.
Players take control of Delta, an amnesiac ex-SOLDI---I mean...former PLASMA employee who has since left the mysterious force and opened a restaurant for no discernible reason, since it’s made apparent through at least a dozen conversations in the first hour that he has no idea how to cook. Delta is joined by Cass, a childhood friend who is able to harness and weave a powerful force known as Song Magic. Together they set off on a very flimsy adventure to rescue another character who will mean very little to first-time players from a predictably evil church group. The whole affair feels very insignificant, and there are next to zero (interesting) twists or turns for about the first eight hours. In place of an actual story, developer Gust has decided to fill those long, arduous hours with what can feel like endless conversations between the principal characters about anything and everything that crosses their minds.
This is not an exaggeration. Everyone is always talking. Always. Several early dungeons refuse to let you take three steps before another meaningless conversation breaks out, and every visit to a shop run by named characters results in a whole new wordy affair as soon as you exit the shop menu. It feels more like playing a novel with a controller than embarking on a grand adventure.
Now, make no mistake, any decent role-playing game needs dialogue. I understand that. Persona 4 was similarly dialogue-heavy early on. The difference here, however, is that none of the dialogue feels meaningful in any way. What’s more, the conversations can become painfully repetitive, as mentioned above with the comments about Delta’s sub-par cooking skills. Halfway funny jokes quickly become increasingly stale upon repetition.
Not that the characters are exactly unlikeable--quite the contrary, really. Delta is surprisingly precocious and funny for a leading man, tackling his unique situation with a positive attitude and taking most of the good lines for himself. Cass can be equally endearing, and her strained relationship with Delta proves to be one of the strongest elements of the game’s story. The supporting cast are all serviceable anime stereotypes, though I was horribly dismayed when, not even two hours in, I discovered that Delta and Cass had produced a magical fairy lovechild through their thoughts. The “child”, Prim, proceeded to address the pair as “Daddy” and “Mommy” respectively. Great, I thought, now I’m Kirito-kun.
One of the game’s most grievous offenses occurs several hours in (around ten for me, though I made very slow progress) when the focus abruptly shifts away from Delta and Cass onto a new pair of heroes, Ion (from prequel game Ciel Nosurge) and Earthes, a big ol’ robot with guns. Throughout the rest of the game, players will jump back and forth between the two parties in an effort to bring their stories together and reach some sort of conclusion.
While dual protagonists can work (Final Fantasy VIII), the shift here feels immediately awful, and feels like starting an entirely new game after playing another for hours and hours. When I first gained control of Ion, I felt as if everything up until then had been a waste of time. Back to level one, back to redoing several boring tasks that were alarmingly similar to things I had already seen and done. Ion and Earthes are also nowhere near as likeable as Delta and Cass, feeling more like walking tropes than real characters. Perhaps fans of Ciel nosurge may feel different, but…
Speaking of the gameplay, there IS something resembling it when players aren’t drowning in dialogue, though sadly the experience leaves even more to be desired. Instead of wandering sprawling, grandiose science-fiction cities, towns are mostly navigated via a map with various points of interest, mostly amounting to the same sets of shops and services no matter where you find yourself. There’s little to see or do in town, and dungeons are so empty that they hardly warrant exploration.
When you finally wander through the forest of words to reach a battle, you’ll note that they are surprisingly sparse and almost insultingly easy. Instead of numerous random encounters, each area has a set amount of enemies stocked up for you, and you can defeat every one of them in a single battle. While it’s nice to not be stopped by fights every four steps, things feel very dull once the enemies are gone. Of course, the characters will continue to quip and comment to you as you explore, so things never get too quiet.
The battle system itself is one of Ar nosurge’s strongest points, operating on a set of less conventional rules than many other JRPGs. Delta (or Earthes) is the only character under direct control of the player, and he must fend off the waves of enemies attacking the party while Cass (or Ion) sings to power up her Song Magic and wipe everyone out at once. The dynamic of attacking enemies and guarding Cass is an interesting one, as is the idea of “Breaking” enemies to gain an extra turn and continue your assault. There are some elements of strategy and timing, but nothing involving any great deal of thought or reflex. Most battles are resolved by attacking however you want and activating Song Magic as soon as it is strong enough to wipe out every enemy wave.
Other than “exploring” dungeons and towns, the brunt of the experience is spent on “Biometrics” and “Purification Ceremonies”, Ar nosurge’s unique systems on developing characters’ skills. Biometrics is an interesting enough idea, but its execution is hopelessly flawed. To perform Biometrics, Delta and Earthes “dive” into another character’s mind with the hope of uncovering and learning more about them, which will in turn grant access to newer, stronger forms of Song Magic. The problem is that this is done through even more conversation and nothing else. You’ll occasionally be given response choices, but choose poorly and you’ll be booted out of Biometrics and forced to start over. The entire process is rarely entertaining and often outright boring; I fell asleep a handful of times trying to complete certain levels.
Once our heroes have completed a level of Biometrics with a given character, the two can enter into a Purification Ceremony together. So, what’s that mean? It means they take their clothes off and take a bath together, and then use crystals earned through Biometrics in order to strengthen their stats. Yep. Guess what else!? You can PICK UP CONVERSATIONS while exploring, and use them during Purification in order to unlock new slots to place gems on your characters. More talking. About random, pointless things...though here it actually works, giving the player insight into smaller details about the characters’ lives. It’s also entirely voluntary to an extent, so you aren’t forced to endure them if you don’t want. Overall though, the entire Biometrics/Purification process is an overwhelming time sink, and one I very rarely enjoyed.
Perhaps more importantly, Purification (and to an extent Biometrics as well) provides the greater part of Ar nosurge’s overwhelming amount of fanservice. As should be expected of a game where a principle mechanic involves bathing with beautiful, mostly unclothed girls, you’ll spend a lot of time ogling their bodies, trying to decide which crystals to put where. The main story likes to throw you into these situations as well, and within the first two hours of the game you’ll be hit with not one but two separate instances of alarmingly young-looking girls in the bath, with Nay’s being especially gratuitous and downright creepy. Great pains are also taken to state that even though the characters appear so young, they’re actually over twenty years old! That of course makes things a-ok. There’s no doubt that some gamers out there will enjoy these elements, but I found them unnecessary and borderline disconcerting. If you have roommates or family, I’d strongly recommend playing when you’re alone to avoid any weird looks or, worse, conversations.
Adding a dash of positivity to things, the game is quite pretty on a high-definition TV or monitor, with pleasant cel-shaded character models and some gorgeous hand-drawn maps and menus. The music is similarly strong, as it should be with a game where song magic is a key element. Much of the animation comes off as incredibly lazy though, and enemies show about as much life in battle as old Super Nintendo sprites did in 1994.
Ar nosurge shows signs of promise, and some aspects of the game are strong enough to warrant praise and approval, but their presence ultimately serves only to make the rest of the product feel all the more tragic. There could have been a good game here, but Gust’s efforts ultimately fall flat through some mixture of laziness and misdirection, sinking to the bottom of a murky sea of endless conversations and tired tropes.
REVIEW ROUNDUP
+ Eye-catching cel-shaded visuals and a solid soundtrack provide plenty of enjoyment for the senses
+ Characters are likeable enough
+/- Battles are fun, even if they're a bit mindless and surprisingly sparse
+/- A plethora of fanservice and scantily-clad girls awaits around every corner
- Not much to explore or really do; gameplay rarely feels immersive or captivating
- Biometrics and Purification are poorly-designed chores, eating away your life for close to no reward
- Story is a lifeless, forgettable mash-up of tropes and ideas seen dozens of times before in much better games
- The talking... it never stops
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