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
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  1. deadlysilentbob
    Mar 31, 2015
    8
    text walls aho! Luckily thats what i was looking for having played ar tonelico 1 and 2 (waiting for my copy of 3 in the mail). i knew it was to be a sometimes creepy sometimes sexist and sometimes odd dating sim esq game. what i wasnt prepared for was just how much the dive system has evolved in its complexity. I really enjoyed this alot.

    possitives: game is deep in content and story,    text walls aho! Luckily thats what i was looking for having played ar tonelico 1 and 2 (waiting for my copy of 3 in the mail). i knew it was to be a sometimes creepy sometimes sexist and sometimes odd dating sim esq game. what i wasnt prepared for was just how much the dive system has evolved in its complexity. I really enjoyed this alot.

    possitives: game is deep in content and story, the characters are likeable, the music is awesome, shop synthisis is present, the pervy parts are not creepy but rather funny ans the conversations are well (but not perfectly) translated.

    negatives: the battle mechanics are waaaaaaaaaaaay too easy and the battles are too sparse.

    i do recomend it however, just be aware that you will be reading.... alot......    … Expand
  2. NexusTsunami
    Feb 17, 2018
    9
    Was soll ich sagen. Es gab in meiner Zeit als Zocker immer wieder Spiele die meinen Horizont erweiterten.
    - Tales of Vesperia: Die Liebe zu JRPG´s und einem spannenden Kampfsystem
    - Skyrim: Die Liebe zu westlichen RPG´s und einer immersiven Welt - Elder Scrolls Online: Das Wissen das MMO´s auch was für Singleplayer sein können (zumindest bei ESO) Immer dachte ich das es schon einen    Was soll ich sagen. Es gab in meiner Zeit als Zocker immer wieder Spiele die meinen Horizont erweiterten.
    - Tales of Vesperia: Die Liebe zu JRPG´s und einem spannenden Kampfsystem
    - Skyrim: Die Liebe zu westlichen RPG´s und einer immersiven Welt
    - Elder Scrolls Online: Das Wissen das MMO´s auch was für Singleplayer sein können (zumindest bei ESO)

    Immer dachte ich das es schon einen Grund haben muss, warum Spiele wie The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (vor einigen Wochen beendet) oder Ar NoSurge relativ unbekannt bei uns sind und ohnehin nur auf Enlisch lokalisiert werden. Schlechte Grafik, Körnige Steuerung und meißt, da JRPG, eine klischeehafte und stereotypische Story. Eine B Produktion.

    Wie ich mich Täuschte! Wiedereinmal wurde mein Horizont von diesem großartigem Spiel erweitert (und von TLoH: Trails of Cold Steel)!

    + Charaktere: Ernsthaft. Ein wenig Klischee gehört zu JRPG´s dazu aber davon abgesehen, einfach WOW!! (Casty ;))
    + Kampfsystem: Taktisch und dennoch explosiv. Einfach spassig!
    + Musik: Der Hammer (Höre mir gerade den OST an :D:D)!
    + Story: Braucht etwas um in Fahrt zu kommen und ist etwas verzwickt. Wer allerdings aufpasst bekommt eine Achterbahnfahrt!
    + Charakterdesign: Ist natürlich abhängig vom eigenen Geschmack aber ich fand diese durch das vorhandene Cell-Shading Hammer!

    - Grafik: Mit Ausnahme vom Charakterdesign ist dieses Spiel nicht sonderlich schön anzusehen. Grafikfetischisten sind aber ohnehin nicht dafür bekannt JRPG´s zu spielen (außer FF :D).

    Für mich 9*!    … Expand
  3. thakinggaming
    Sep 24, 2014
    10
    For those who are JRPG fans I highly recommend this title. It released yesterday and it is also the spiritual successor to one of my favorite turn-based franchises of all time Ar Tonelico. Its battle system feature a ton of depth as you assign your commands to a face button plus you can change and combo them whenever you like. The story is an improvement over the Ar tonelico series sinceFor those who are JRPG fans I highly recommend this title. It released yesterday and it is also the spiritual successor to one of my favorite turn-based franchises of all time Ar Tonelico. Its battle system feature a ton of depth as you assign your commands to a face button plus you can change and combo them whenever you like. The story is an improvement over the Ar tonelico series since Tonelico wasnt that deep but it was charming with likable characters while Nosurges storyline is much more deep and while it still has the charm and likable characters of Tonelico which is awesome. Once again if you are a JRPG fan I highly recommend checking this game out as it deserves your time.… Expand
  4. Deki81
    Jan 16, 2015
    9
    Finished the game after 80h of play. That only tells you how much i loved it. If you want true ending make sure you create every single item in all of the shops. I will not tell why but its important. To all new players, switch to VETERAN difficulty immediately at the start of the game. Difficulty should be revised, as easy, normal, hard instead of normal, hard, veteran.
  5. HeyGoatwasHere
    Aug 3, 2016
    8
    Its recommended buy if you get on amazon.com or download either way I found interesting.
    You play as Delta the goofball who lost his memory and everyone has no clue why or how it happened. Your dude surrounded with more questions then more answers but you uncover it as you go on, then you have to uncover lot events they are important you skip them you end up playing without figuring what    Its recommended buy if you get on amazon.com or download either way I found interesting.
    You play as Delta the goofball who lost his memory and everyone has no clue why or how it happened. Your dude surrounded with more questions then more answers but you uncover it as you go on, then you have to uncover lot events they are important you skip them you end up playing without figuring what happening in game or leveling up.
    Pros: gameplay
    Music
    updates your PS3 I did not know that.
    cons:
    there seemed to be not enough other characters? I mean serious Delta can't be only dude in that story to save the world.
    Empress made me worried that they could upgraded her. Her super powers could be turned into titan and attack the enemy?
    Repetiviness and fact you could not repeat it until you get good result Save often, well you couldn't do that
    they offer one safe point and then journey back to it...not really...some parts of game you have do complete do over.

    Overall experience I thinking I have do over ingame.
    Skits cost me too much time -> don't have enough tv time to spend trying to play delta.
    Unless your collector and you rather spend it on your last day on earth get it.
    I feel for Delta you get fired, kicked out of your gastropub and then empress doesn't know cook but starts feeding weird food to patrons it makes you question what happened to population. It starts to feel your living in Amazon world where cats only care to get revenge on the other cats and your only dude there...What happened to parents I wonder. Just means I going back later.    … Expand
  6. NoiNorac
    Nov 19, 2014
    9
    Buy new.
    "This is also one of the few games to truly make use of the medium in both gameplay and narrative, and for that alone you have to pick this up."
    Though the translation leaves something to be desired, the voice acting (dual voice track for those who want Japanese), the narrative (extremely enthralling) and gameplay (unique, fun but a bit repetitive) culminates into a great    Buy new.
    "This is also one of the few games to truly make use of the medium in both gameplay and narrative, and for that alone you have to pick this up."

    Though the translation leaves something to be desired, the voice acting (dual voice track for those who want Japanese), the narrative (extremely enthralling) and gameplay (unique, fun but a bit repetitive) culminates into a great game. The music is SUPERB and the characters are all so human and real that you will get lost in the story. This is also one of the few games to truly make use of the medium in both gameplay and narrative, and for that alone you have to pick this up. Honestly, it will be quite some time before you experience a game as interesting as this.    … Expand
  7. ButterBallin
    Apr 1, 2017
    8
    Lets get the bad out of the way first. The first act or "Phase" is slow and there are plenty of typos in this game. NPC models are reused and not recolored and there are some odd animation gripes. The hair on characters turn with the head but not past the shoulders and also defies gravity should they lean. Character emotes during conversations are jumpy often and sometimes skip about whenLets get the bad out of the way first. The first act or "Phase" is slow and there are plenty of typos in this game. NPC models are reused and not recolored and there are some odd animation gripes. The hair on characters turn with the head but not past the shoulders and also defies gravity should they lean. Character emotes during conversations are jumpy often and sometimes skip about when going to the next line of dialogue even if you wait for one to finish. It's one thing to not change costumes if that is the player's choice but to not have the feature from the get go because of how a boss worked (and couldn't in localization) is a misstep and the feature can just be added in despite that surely. Also the intro that gives narration to events prior to the story is overpowered and lost to the game's music. It's subtitled but still a problem and it happens often throughout the game during character dialogue, at least early on.

    Now the mixed and lets start with the amount of fan service. It will make clear very early on it isn't afraid of showing skin on the female characters and if that bugs you then you are in for a rough ride at times. During the mechanic called "Purification Ceremony" the pairs of characters the player controls can talk to one another one on one, and these chats are plentiful but a fair few are mundane. The difficulty is either lacking as it is on Normal or on higher difficulties will force the player to not only use items and not hoard them like we do but to get familiar with the battle system and what it doesn't tell you, and to also get into synthesizing items and those are time sinks that must be done to get the best of a total of 5 endings. There is also the matter of this game not only piecing together the previous game's events enough to get an idea of what the hell is going on exactly but also continue it and it will be awhile before you get a solid grasp of it's story. How the story is told will also turn off a few players if they think it's something it isn't (like a dating sim or other similar accusations of that nature) and how meta it gets and stays. The 4th wall isn't surviving this one and if you don't like the humor that comes with it shattering then you probably won't appreciate it getting nuked from obit in this title

    Now the good and what better place to start than the story itself. Once you get a grasp on the story and see it for the survival struggle that it is it will probably grip you from there. The character development is done well enough outside the "Genometrics" mechanic but much more so through it and the conversations during the Purification Ceremonies and even a few during the item synthesizing. The conflicts the characters deal with are multi layered and not just external. The factions in the game have their reasons for their beliefs. Do you conquer a threat or try to work with it? That concept is explored early on. The combat is refreshing in form and fun in function. The turn based formula is refined and it is now a countdown on the turn limit you have to wipe the area of a set number of random encounters tossed at you all at once. The music is fantastic on the whole and you will be more than happy with what's played and sung.    … Expand
  8. GundamBoy
    Aug 4, 2020
    10
    Prequel to the Ar tonelico series that gives us more interesting lore to the rich world building of EXA_PICO universe. I already did a review for the Plus version before but this one is no different, it's still a great JRPG that every fans of Ar tonelico should play.
  9. Lornya
    Aug 22, 2020
    10
    Just give "em-pyei-n vari-fen jang" a listen and you will understand how great this game is

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
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