(Vita) Ar nosurge Plus review

Gust’s 7th dimension RPG provides all the crazy plot and fantastic world-building you can expect, but some gameplay stumbles let things down.

Developer	Gust
Publisher	Koei-Tecmo
Franchise	Surge Concerto
Genre	Role-playing
PSTV	Yes
Physical English	Yes – NA only (NIS Limited)

 

World-building & Story

Featuring one of the most interesting set-ups I’ve come across in modern games, Ar nosurge is set aboard a ship endlessly floating through space after the destruction of a planet – Ra Ciela – left the residents homeless. After encountering a hostile race of aliens named ‘Sharl’, the survivors split into two factions – those who worship the Sharl and see them as saviours and those that rebel, who are forced to take shelter outside city walls. Things start by following the residents of Felion, a settlement under constant attack from the Sharl.

The world-building here is second to none – there’s so much back-story here that fleshes out so many elements of the universe that it’s literally amazing. So many concepts are explored that it’s impossible to go into them all here – waves form the energy force of the planet; players can perform purification ceremonies to deepen their bonds with allies and cielnotron are artificially-created electronics that enhance lives. It’s often overwhelming at times, although a handy ‘terms’ button is there to refresh your memory.

By far the biggest concepts in Ar nosurge are Genometrics and Song Magic. The former refers to someone’s subconscious, which another character can ‘dive’ into to unlock parts of their mind and overcome fears or doubts to craft Song Magic – which is as it sounds, music that can be sung to unleash powerful spells to damage enemies. There’s also regular mentions of other dimensions and inter-stellar travel and several major plot points hinge on these elements. It’s high-concept stuff that’s executed well here – I can safely say this is a world I’d love to spend more time in.

One of the game’s biggest issues is in how the story plays out, however. See, everything is tied to a prequel game – Ciel nosurge – which was never localized into English (although a brilliant summary exists here). Ar is designed to be a standalone entry that can be played by newcomers (to the extent that a main character – Delta – is conveniently given amnesia), but it’s inevitable that knowledge of Ciel will enhance your experience. The cast is almost solely returning characters and previous events are often referenced – I certainly felt better off for having read the summary.

Yet at the same time, elements of the story are spoiled if you’ve played Ciel – a big, emotional reveal regarding Ion’s past will hold a lot less weight if you already knew it whereas it’s a really neat, clever moment if you haven’t. Ar nosurge occupies this weird middle ground between being accessible for newcomers yet trying to satisfy fans who played the previous games and never really manages to achieve either goal too well.

The actual story itself is pretty brilliant, however. Although it often lulls in sections where you need to progress Genometrics or create items, when it gets going it’s incredibly interesting – full of important messages; environmental themes and surprises around every turn (the central plot point regarding Ion and Nelo is still one of my favourite in videogames). It’s easy to see empathy with both sides of the conflict which is enhanced by the ability to ‘zap’ between two different characters – Delta and Earthes – which allows the game to cover a greater range of plot points and provides an interesting view of how one action can affect another.

It’s worth noting that the characters are a big part of Ar nosurge‘s storytelling success as well. Although you’ve got your standard archetypes – Casty is a typical tsundere while Delta plays the stereotypical childhood friend, there are plenty of others who shake things up. Ion in particular is a highlight – a morally pure yet unsure young girl who always tries to do what’s best and her journey with Earthes (a self-insert literally representing the player, who views the game through the robot’s terminal) is oftentimes sweet and touching.

And while certain characters get relegated to the background during certain stretches, they’re always given a chance to shine again later on. Kanon – the strong-willed Chinmon candidate from Ciel who seems equally driven during the early parts of the game – is relegated to the role of shopkeeper and support attacker after a certain part; although an exploration of her Genometrics highlights the reason for her insecurities. I had worried that Nay and Nelo were going through this transformation as well, although there are often deep explanations for their actions. Overall, the cast is brilliant and it’s easy to empathise with the journey they all undertake.

 

Presentation & Sound

Ar no Surge features some impressive 3D modelling and inventive environments and as such often looks a treat – although certain elements and a lot of recycling drag the whole experience down.

Character models are undoubtedly the stars of the show – while they retain the slightly-too-perfect doll look that many Gust games have, they’re detailed; expressive and brilliantly designed. Everything from Zill’s Genomirai vestments to Delta’s eccentric clothes are intricate and beautiful and conversation animations are funny and fitting, although running on the world map leaves a little to be desired due to its stiffness.

These models are also used in conversation scenes, which eschew the genre norms of featuring animated 2D. It’s actually a little jarring at first, although helps with immersion as there’s no discrepancy in visuals between the two types of gameplay. Sadly animations are a little over-used in these (I grew tired of seeing Ion point to her head or Delta whipping out his tonfas after an explosion), leading to a stale feeling during conversations. Oddly, some hideous CG stills are used for certain scenes which is jarring, but luckily these don’t occur too often.

Conversely, environments are more of a mixed bag. They’re generally creative spaces that look brilliant at first glance – Felion’s sweeping plaza and Ion’s dream world are both gorgeous, mixing in unusual elements with a fantastic use of colour. Yet, their luster wears off on closer inspection, featuring repeated elements and some poor-quality objects (water in particular looks abysmal). In addition, they’re much more cramped than they first appear featuring barriers and invisible walls everywhere, lessening the sense of scale.

Still, on the whole they look gorgeous and help weave Ar nosurge‘s primary aesthetic of a beautiful, complex alien land. You’ll run through mechanical corridors reminiscent of a scarlet-tinted horror film before strolling through grassy plains and open arid lands; yet somehow the game manages to connect these in ways that make perfect sense. Backgrounds during Genometrics are also really pretty, but suffer something that plagues the game as a whole – re-used content.

A quick shout-out to the various song magics in the game that manage to be universally the best part of the presentation. These custom-built spells feature various characters, effects and explosions – each one unique and impressive. They only manage to get better as the game goes on, ranging from dragons made up from toys to a gambling dominatrix who creates seemingly random objects – they’re always a joy to discover and watch.

And for a title that centres around magic activated by songs, Ar nosurge certainly doesn’t disappoint in the sound department. Music is a hypnotic music of vocal-led tracks that are universally gorgeous and more traditional JRPG tracks in the overworld that still manage to be memorable and catchy. Voice acting is also good, although sparse which somewhat breaks immersion.

Soundtrack highlight – em-pyei-n vari-fen jang

 

Gameplay & Content

Ar nosurge runs the same visual-novel-with-gameplay design of things like the Hyperdimension Neptunia series which certainly isn’t for everyone, although if you’re a fan of storytelling and character development there’s plenty here to love. Certain gameplay elements don’t hold up as well, although there’s such a variety here it’s difficult not to be impressed.

Throughout the game, you’ll play as two sets of characters – Delta & Cass and Earthes & Ion. Once unlocked you’ll be able to ‘zap’ between the pairs at any save point and this is used for some very unique storytelling – at certain points you’ll need to progress the other group’s story to figure out how to overcome an obstacle in your own, which means both pairs are constantly pushing forward. With that said, it can get a little confusing to keep up with both plots when you’re spending large amounts of time away from the characters.

Basic gameplay has you running through locations chosen from a menu-style world map in traditional JRPG fashion. Fields are sadly fairly small – made to look bigger with impressive graphical elements, but once you run around them you’ll find yourself constantly penned in by barriers and walls. Thankfully fields and towns are interactive – you’ll always have companions with you who will often input to your surroundings and there are plenty of gather points to collect materials.

These materials are used in alchemy (item creation), which is fun but nowhere near as in-depth as Gust’s other series Atelier. After gathering the requisite components the characters will perform a bizarre little dance and then the item is made – that’s literally all there is to it. What’s frustrating about this is that every new item is accompanied by a conversation about what it is and what it should be called and you’ll spend so much time with these inane chats that you’ll quickly get bored.

Of course, all this alchemy is technically optional – but it makes up such a big portion of the game that things would feel sparse without it. Also optional is purification ceremonies, where Delta or Earthes sit in pools of water with various companions and talk about recent events. These conversations are much more engaging – often revealing interesting elements of each character and allowing you to really feel a bond with them, meaning they’re well worth seeing.

If you really want to figure out the motives and thoughts of the rest of the cast then you’re going to need to go through Genometrics – literally diving into their mind and helping to unravel their subconscious. This takes the form of a visual novel where you travel from location to location in their mind and make minor conversation choices that will send you down slightly different paths. It’s a fairly hands-off experience although discovering suppressed secrets is always enjoyable and you’re rewarded with a new song magic upon reaching the end.

Song magic is used in battles, which is the final element of Ar nosurge’s gameplay and is both its best and worst aspect. Coming closer to a beat ’em up than traditional JRPG, each battle starts with the heroine (Cass or Ion) at the back channelling song magic and it’s up to the defender (Delta or Earthes) to keep foes at bay until the song is at full strength. This is done by using attacks – each of which has a set number of uses – in the three lanes enemies appear in until they’re all used up, after which enemies will attack.

The hybrid of action and turn-based combat is pretty smart, forcing you to plan moves for maximum efficiency (‘breaking’ certain foes resets your turn and allows a full charge for each move) yet still giving an enjoyably real-time feel once attacks are unleashed. In an interesting twist on genre norms, all enemies appear in battle at once and you fight them in waves – reaching a fully powered song magic will eliminate all the waves in an area meaning you won’t have to fight again as long as you’re there, incentivising you to keep fighting to allow uninterrupted exploration afterwards. The actual are universally gorgeous, each representing a particular theme or character seen in Genometrics.

There’s plenty more than this – harmonics builds up between the singer and defender allowing special attacks and small bursts of song magic; enemy attacks require perfect timing to defend against to reduce damage; friend skills can be used as a one-off to give you the upper hand against a particular set of foes etc. It’s a fascinating system, which is why it’s a shame it’s let down in a major way by one thing – difficulty.

On normal difficulty, the game is far too easy – it becomes an exercise in just mashing buttons and little else. Bumping up to hard provides much greater challenge, but at this point bosses become able to kill you almost instantly requiring you to switch back down again. The constant flip-flopping is extremely frustrating and makes me question why a better job wasn’t done in balancing the game in the first place. At least the bosses themselves are brilliant, capable of spectacular-looking and unique abilities that are a joy to take on.

Other annoyances exist too – each zone you visit doesn’t include a list of the items there, making hunting for things to use in the item creation quite difficult without Google search. Speaking of alchemy, far too much time is spent on this aspect and it feels like it was used to pad out the length of the game from 15 hours to 30 with pointless chatter in between each item made.

Overall though, Ar nosurge is an enjoyable RPG with a layered, complex story; some fantastic combat and a beautiful world to explore. It’s let down by the aforementioned issues but still offers a brilliant time – just make sure you know what you’re getting into before you play.

 

Conclusion

Had they been given more budget, I am certain that Gust would have created a modern classic in Ar nosurge. As it stands, they’ve still created a brilliant game – a fascinating sci-fi world hosts an enjoyable combat system; likeable characters and an overall plot unlike any I’ve experienced. It’s an audiovisual treat and well worth playing, but issues with tedious item creation conversations and a wonky difficulty drag the whole thing down. Still, if you’re searching for a great story on Vita and can look past its flaws, you’ll have a brilliant time.

8.5/10