Ar Tonelico

is a multimedia project series made in collaboration by Gust Corporation and Banpresto consisting of video games, manga, and an OVA. The name of the series is also the name of the amplification complex composed by three monumental towers that appear in the aforementioned works. Throughout the life of the series, it was directed by Akira Tsuchiya and produced by Atsunori Kawachi. The main theme songs for all of the games were sung by Akiko Shikata. Recently, it was succeeded by the Surge Concerto series.

Games

The core part of the series is formed by three console role playing games, which are listed below in chronological order:

Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia
Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica
''Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel''
Summary

The Ar tonelico series is set in a planet called Ar Ciel, which lost its land in a great man-made catastrophe a long time ago, and it is a work of science fantasy that depicts the interaction between the protagonist and the heroines, the latter generally being members of a race called Revatail, which can use a special ability known as Song Magic. During the course of the trilogy of games, the people were forced to live on three gigantic structures they made after the land was lost, and due to the loss of communication between the regions that form Ar Ciel, the people eventually came to believe that the region where they lived was the entirety of the "world" that existed.
A constructed language known as the Hymmnos Language is also present throughout the materials that form the series, used as part of the dialogue in the games as well as part of the lyrics of the songs heard in most audio releases related to the series, and used as a decorative element in parts of the interface, visual effects and backgrounds. The meaning to these multiple messages isn't apparent in the works themselves, but the Hymmnos language has a detailed vocabulary and set of grammar rules that can be read in detail over at the official site, which can be used as a guide to translate all phrases written in said language to Japanese. And while it hasn't received an official translation, all of this information has been translated for English-speaking audiences by fans of the series. Therefore, the players can discover hidden meanings and the feelings the characters singing the songs have hidden in its lyrics upon translating them.
The first chapter in the series, released as a game for the Sony PlayStation 2, gathered quite an appreciation due to its depictions of several topics, beginning with the usage of the Hymmnos Language for its songs, followed by the union of an elaborate world setting with a charming cast of characters. The following games introduced new ideas to the formula while continuing with the established basis for the series, as well as also receiving expansions into multimedia territory with the release of material such as manga and Drama CDs, which having songs and music as their core, further expanded the already complex world setting. Therefore, several products such as CDs compiling the songs found in the games and books explaining the intricacies of the game's world were released.

Development

The setting for the first game, Sol Ciel, has its basis on the world setting that series' director Akira Tsuchiya created and used in 1995, during his college days, for a tabletop role-playing game, which also was where characters such as Shurelia were originally established and created. Ar tonelico was originally planned to be developed as an RPG that would see release in the PlayStation 2 console back in 2000, but the development was interrupted under the pretext that the "system for creating magical effects based on synthesizing bels" gave too much freedom to the player and thus, increased the difficult beyond tolerable levels. However, the project was restarted later on as a collaboration with Banpresto, in which the aforementioned bels were simplified with the introduction of the synthesis recipes, and the main concepts to the series: "Grathmeld", "Reyvateil", "Cosmosphere" and "Hymmnos", were introduced. Finally, after a development process in which there were several problems with the writing and revision of the main scenario scripts, the first game: Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia, saw release in January 2006 at Japan, which would be localized for North America by NIS America the following year.
That same year, in October, the second game in the series: Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica, was released as a PlayStation 2 RPG, and while a few characters returned for this sequel, it depicted a different region in the same planet as the first game, but a couple years after it ended. Like the first game, it was localized by NIS America in January 2009. The third and final installment in the series was released in January 2010 as a PlayStation 3 RPG titled Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel, and similarly to the second game, it depicted a different region a few years after its ending, but it also served as the conclusion for the storyline that started with the first game.

Systems

The games introduce the usage of Song Magic in battle that has become unique to the Ar tonelico series, and even though the depiction of its usage varies greatly from a game to other, it has a few common elements throughout the series: the party is composed by Vanguards and heroines, and the Vanguards must protect the heroines as they sing their Song Magic and until they can activate it, as Song Magic displays stronger effects the longer the heroines sing it. Additionally, there are times when either ally or enemy Reyvateils will be singing Hymmnos songs, which will become the BGM for that particular battle, demonstrating the importance the Songs have in this series.
Additionally, the games have systems that are similar to the "Alchemical Synthesis" that has a central role in Gust's famous Atelier series games: "Grathmelding" and "Synthesis", which allow the players to create a large variety of items.

Girl Synthesis RPG

The company itself has formally defined the game's genre as a "Girl Synthesis RPG". This refers to the world hidden inside the Reyvateils' mind called the [|Cosmosphere], as well as the fact that the player can earn costumes with specific themes, such as Angels, Shrine maidens and Witches; and have the Reyvateils wear them.

World Setting

While the three games have their stories set in different places and have different characters, they fundamentally share the same world. The world of Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia, Sol Ciel, is formed by an enormous Tower called "Ar tonelico" and a floating continent called the "Wings of Horus", while the world of Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica, "Metafalss", is a harsh world formed by a small tower surrounded by an artificial land called the "Rim", and finally, Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel is set in world called "Sol Cluster", in which a white tower with a unique design is surrounded by a rock formation called the "Great Fang".

The Universe of EXA_PICO

The universe that serves as the setting for the Ar tonelico series differs from our own in that it was formed by the Song interwoven out of waves by the original atomic nucleus called EXA_PICO. Therefore, this universe is structured in a form in which the planets, continents and life forms, all are created from the waves produced by the songs sung by higher-order life forms, and regardless of their position in the cosmic hierarchy, every life form sings out the waves that compose itself, allowing it to exert influence over life forms of a lower order than itself.
EXA_PICO emits a countless number of wave types, of which the planetary system to which Ar Ciel belongs only receives a very small number: in total, Ar Ciel is formed by approximately 20 wave types, of which only seven have a role in the formation of the humans.
Similarly, all of the planets that belong to the universe of EXA_PICO are formed by the waves emitted by the central stars and star clusters of which they are part, so the waves that compose their existence are structured in different ways and therefore, the people, flora and fauna found in them are formed by differing wave types.
Below is a representation of how the relationships work in the cosmic hierarchy using only nine of EXA_PICO's wave types as an example.

*	R-Waves	N-Waves	Tz-Waves	D-Waves	V-Waves	Vx-Waves	K-Waves	H-Waves	S-Waves
The Universe of EXA_PICO	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Ar Ciel's Star Cluster	×	○	○	○	○	○	×	○	○
Ar Ciel's Sun	×	×	○	○	○	○	×	○	×
Planet Ar Ciel	×	×	×	○	○	○	×	○	×
Hymmnos	×	×	×	○	×	×	×	○	×

Ar Ciel

The planet that serves as the setting for the series. Its name means "The only world" in Hymmnos Language. It also receives the name "Sol Ciel" in the Ancient Metafalss Note dialect of the Hymmnos Language, which translates to "shining world". As the result of the great disaster known as the "Grathnode Inferia", the sky was covered with a layer of plasma called the "Blast Line", while the surface of the planet was pulverized and covered by a thick layer of clouds called the "Sea of Death", so the survivors to this catastrophe barely managed to escape death by clinging to the Towers and their surrounding areas, which became the only places where life could still thrive in Ar Ciel. This planet is orbited by two natural satellites known as the "Cello Moon" and the "Viola Moon", with the "Cello Moon" being large and purple while the "Viola Moon" is small and golden. In Sol Ciel, these moons are visible in the sky at alternating intervals, while in other regions they are visible at the same time during certain occasions.
Additionally, while Ar Ciel was established as the name for the planet in the second game, an item called the "Ar Ciel Globe" made an appearance in the "Supporteil" mini-game before Ar tonelico II was released, which is described as a globe map for Ar Ciel.