Ar Nosurge is the current final game in the Exa_Pico line of RPG’s, which is made up of Ar Tonelico 1-3 and the Nosurge games. I’m going to talk broadly about Ar Tonelico for a bit before getting into the review, since I am going to be referencing Ar Tonelico a decent amount. Note, this is going to be a long post, there’s a lot to talk about.

Ar Tonelico is a special set of RPG’s. Starting on the PS2 and ending on the PS3, they are some of the first RPG’s to insert entire visual novels into them, and I’m not talking about the little short social link kind of thing. They have entire side modes dedicated to just the relationship between the hero and the girl and both the good and bad sides of really the girl in general. From someone with some psychology interest, it’s actually really cool and there’s a lot to read into in each game about what everything means and how they chose to show different traits and issues someone can have, even things they would never admit to.

Then there’s the music, which has to be good since Song Magic is how combat works. Ar Tonelico is one of a small list of game’s I love the music from even though it sounds like nothing else I listen to. They created their own language and made some truly epic arrangements. It helps that the hymmnos play at very big plot moments which only adds to the grandness of them. So both in combat music is good and the big plot moments get some great stuff.

Last of course is how adult some of it is. There’s the innuendos of course. The above bit of stuff about visual novels is part of a mechanic called diving, which is often likened to sex in world. It is necessary for Reivyateils(I think that’s the spelling) to have a partner dive into them to craft stronger song magic. It’s basically as intimate as sex and as important as therapy. The actual VN bits are called Cosmospheres, which is what I’m going to refer to Ar Nosurges as because Gemnimetrics is less cool sounding and harder to spell for some reason. They are not exactly the same thing, but the core concept is the same.

There’s other stuff to that is adult focused, though visually not incredibly adult. There’s a big cosplay focus, as along with song magic you unlock costumes for the Revyateils which boost there stats. It’s to me, a tasteful RPG series that is honest and doesn’t hide lewd stuff out of shame nor does it avoid talking about it. It’s an important part of relationships after all and the series would lose out if it hid all of it.

Finally there’s the talk topics and crafting storylines. Basically there’s a lot of side content that just has characters talk about things other then the imminent threat that more RPGs from that era needed. It gives the characters more time to show who they are and offers takes on events from the story from both sides without stopping the actual story scene to have everyone explain their thoughts, or offers really silly world building. Then there’s the extra’s menu, which for a PS2 set of games was better then most Vn’s. Music player, talk topics replayer, art gallery, the entire Cosmoshperes for replay, costume viewer(I think) and more. Of course it is also this series the killed my completionist side for like 7 years… but I’ll get into that when that game comes up.

Okay, so I played the Vita version of this game. It includes all the dlc, which includes more talk scenes with swimsuits, some extra costumes, an extra cosmosphere, and one that apparently adds jiggle to a character model. Beyond that, the only other version available in English, PS3, apparently still has some major bugs on it to this day, main of which is the costume menu is just broke which kills some rewards late game and a clear game bonus. At some point I will play that version if the more recent releases are not brought to the English market. Note that the Steam release is a no either way, as it has been censored do to demands by Steam. To many lewd loli’s.