Ar nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star

 PlayStation 3
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 58 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 41 out of 58
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 58
  3. Negative: 7 out of 58
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. DanHazy
    Feb 29, 2016
    7
    So you will know what type of gamer is writing this review, I'll list three of my favorite games.. 
    Danganronpa 
    Fire emblem  Artelier Totori  (I'm giving this a 7 out of 10 because that is the score I would give a game that I didn't particularly enjoy playing or hate playing.)  IN DEPTH REVIEW: I'll start with the dialogue, THERE IS AN ABUNDANCE OF IT. I would say during my    So you will know what type of gamer is writing this review, I'll list three of my favorite games.. 
    Danganronpa 
    Fire emblem 
    Artelier Totori 

    (I'm giving this a 7 out of 10 because that is the score I would give a game that I didn't particularly enjoy playing or hate playing.) 

    IN DEPTH REVIEW:

    I'll start with the dialogue, THERE IS AN ABUNDANCE OF IT. I would say during my play through that I spent 80 percent if the time reading, 15 percent of the time fighting, and 5 percent of the time rolling my eyes when I was trying to back out of a shop to save it. Sometimes the dialogue will hold you up when you was just wanna call it quits for a day. 

    Why is it so much reading? Well, a big part of this game is synthesizing items and there are a lot of items to make. You get a paragraph or two to read when you make an item. It's pointless gibberish about what the characters think of it. Then when you exit the shop menu, you typically get another paragraph or two to read about the story going on with the shops owners or about new recipes. If you're a typical adult playing this game, then halfway though completion of the game, you will be skipping the characters thoughts on the new item created. It's gets old rather quick. The scenes about the store owners lives are slightly more interesting so I managed to watch those without complete boredom.
    The games main story wasn't anything special either. I found the ending disappointing as well. After I've spent about 70 hours playing through a game, I expect a ending that will stay with me awhile, but this game decided it wasn't necessary. 

    The battle system is slightly entertaining. You have moves assigned to each of the four buttons and each move has a certain amount of uses for each turn. You can increase the moves count or other various benefits can be given to the moves through equipment. Every move can have three pieces of equipment tied to it. Some moves are better at breaking the opponent while another hits a group of enemies.
    There is no clock in the battle system, meaning that if you stay still, enemies do not attack you. You also defend against enemy attacks by pressing circle at the right time to help negate some of the damage you recieve. The idea is to protect the heroine until she has gathered enough energy to unleash her song, which deals damage to all enemy waves. One thing I particularly liked about this game was the fact you could fight enough waves of enemies in an area to clear them out of it completly. No more battles so that you can explore that area in peace. The game set on normal difficulty is far to easy. I only used healing items maybe 3 times through the entire playthrough. If you are looking for any kind of challenge, set the difficulty to hard. 

    I also experienced some lag on my game at the beginning and the final boss fight. These are the only times I experienced lag so it wasn't very bothersome. 
    The music was great and the graphic was ok. One of the characters had half her rear showing through the game and the graphics really didn't work for it. Also, expect to see the same npcs on the same scene. 
    I was also surprised to see a teen rating on this game. I believe the esrb may have missed something. During a purification ceremony, which is where you can install crystals into you or the heroines arm,legs,breast,stomach,or head, there was some unexpected camel toe. There was a clear indention in the swimsuit. I know that might not technically be considered nudity but it doesnt get closer than that.Also you will see plenty of rear from the heroines and some of the other female characters in this game. 

    In my opinion, these games have steadily went down in playabilty. The first being ar tonelico for ps2. This game was great, really a perfect ps2 rpg. Ar Tonelico 2 was good too but not as great as the first, as well as Ar Tonelico 3. The new Ar Nosurge is a different direction in these games, hence the different name. If you are looking for a great RPG with about the same sexy tone as Ar Nosurge, I recommend the Ar Tonelico series over this.

    That wraps this review up, hope it helps.    … Expand
  2. Magus80
    Oct 13, 2014
    6
    Only 15 hours played so far:
    +decent story / character development
    +somewhat fun battle system and random encounters are next to nil -lazy map design, basically only 10 map areas that get reused throughout the game -bland character design / animations -this game is a sequel that was meant for players who have played 1st game which was never localized here so many players will be    Only 15 hours played so far:
    +decent story / character development
    +somewhat fun battle system and random encounters are next to nil

    -lazy map design, basically only 10 map areas that get reused throughout the game
    -bland character design / animations
    -this game is a sequel that was meant for players who have played 1st game which was never localized here so many players will be lost.
    -excessive amount of mundane dialogues to wade through    … Expand
  3. aaron5952
    Oct 1, 2014
    6
    I have only played this game for around an hour and a half---however, from the outset, there are several things that bother me with the game's presentation. For starters, I've encountered several cutscenes with NPCs in them that are standing next to each other and they look exactly the same. That being said, one can only assume the designers were lazy, short on budget, or they had anI have only played this game for around an hour and a half---however, from the outset, there are several things that bother me with the game's presentation. For starters, I've encountered several cutscenes with NPCs in them that are standing next to each other and they look exactly the same. That being said, one can only assume the designers were lazy, short on budget, or they had an evil desire to populate these towns with numerous sets of identical twins. They even wear the exact same clothing. Next, when I traveled to Quantave, the city is called by two names. In the dialog, it's referred to as Quanturv, but when I get there, it's suddenly Quantave. Which one is it? There are also numerous typoes and grammatical errors in the game's script---most of it is text-based without speech, which is not usually a problem--however, you are not really able to tell ahead of time which sections of the game are voiced over and which are not. The game also seems to have framerate issues throughout both field exploration and combat, as the game runs somewhat jerky. This could be my PS3 hardware, so I'm going to play a different game and see if it does the same thing. The music and sound effects were not spectacular or really moving in any way, but some of the Song Magic music did seem a bit better composed than the run-of-the-mill in-game background music. This game is a sequel to Ciel Nosurge, which never released in the US, so if you want to get the backstory and a framework for the story to this game, please read up on that. That being said, I spent well over 6 hours reading through Ciel Nosurge's story and was very intrigued--however, upon playing Ar Nosurge, it was very difficult for me to get into its world due to several major presentation issues, as listed above, that prevented me from feeling connected to it. Your mileage may vary.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

42
#42 Best PS3 Game of 2014
29
#29 Most Discussed PS3 Game of 2014
16
#16 Most Shared PS3 Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
67

Mixed or average reviews - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 23
  3. Negative: 2 out of 23
  1. GameCritics
    Jan 21, 2015
    30
    A highly disappointing game, no two ways about it.
    Read full review
  2. Gaming Nexus
    Dec 22, 2014
    65
    It's a very vanilla title that doesn't do much to advance the series, but is definitely going to please the die-hard fans.
    Read full review
  3. RPGamer
    Oct 30, 2014
    60
    Ar Nosurge is an interesting game that suffers from a lack of tender love and care on the localizer's part.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »