History VideoGame / ArTonelico

[[redirect:VideoGame/ArTonelicoMelodyOfElemia]]

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Ar_tonelico_9297.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:From left to right: Aurica, Lyner, Misha.]]

The ''Ar tonelico'' series consists of a trilogy of [[EasternRPG JRPGs]] for the {{PS2}} (the first two games) and {{PS3}} (the third game), developed by Gust Corporation of Japan, best known for their AtelierSeries of video games, and localized in English by NipponIchi Software. The games (which are largely independent of each other in plot and characters) take place in a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] world of Ar Ciel, in which the ground was swallowed hundreds of years ago by a mysterious ''Sea of Death''. Humanity clings to life only on [[FloatingContinent Floating Continents]] surrounding three great towers, each of which serves as the setting for a game. Humanity's engineering ability has regressed to a SteamPunk level, and their only interface with the fantastic technology of the towers are the Reyvateils - [[OneGenderRace an all-female race]] of artificial beings capable of [[MagicMusic singing songs to conjure]] MagicFromTechnology.

The first game, ''Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia,'' originally titled ''Ar tonelico: Sekai no Owari de Utaitsudzukeru Shoujo'' (''The Girl who Continues to Sing at the End of the World'') takes place in and around the first tower, in the region of Sol Ciel. This is where the series gets its name: Ar tonelico is the name of that tower. The story starts in the city of Platina, during an outbreak of enemy creatures called Viruses. The protagonist, a Knight of Elemia named Lyner Barsett, goes to investigate with fellow knight Ayatane, and the tower administrator, Shurelia. Unfortunately, they rapidly discover that the Viruses are able to turn intangible, rendering normal defeat impossible. Shurelia therefore sends Lyner on a quest for the only thing that can help them: the [[MineralMacGuffin Hymn Crystal Purger]]. Taking an airship, he travels down to the Wings of Horus, the FloatingContinent that surrounds the tower. More accurately, he crashes thanks to an attack from a dragon, which complicates matters extremely.

In the process of searching for the crystal and a way to repair his airship, he meets and teams up with a number of people, including two Reyvateils. First is the shy Aurica, who healed his injuries after his crash. Second is the more outspoken Misha, actually his ForgottenChildhoodFriend. But there's one problem - Misha [[OlderThanTheyLook looks much younger than she should be]]. Aside from those two are the wanderer Jack, the local [[ChurchMilitant church knight]] Radolf, and the [[WrenchWench airship grathmelder]] Krusche. As the story progresses, Lyner and his comrades not only try to find the Hymn Crystal and fix Lyner's airship, but discover the reason for Misha's youthful appearance, and the source of the recent Virus outbreak.

The first game also has a single-episode {{OVA}} [[TheAnimeOfTheGame adaptation]], which focuses on Lyner's crash and desire to return to Platina. Due to time constraints, the details of the plot are largely [[CompressedAdaptation condensed and simplified]], with other elements left out entirely.

Tropes about the sequel, ''[[VideoGame/ArTonelico2 Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica]]'' can be found on its page. Ditto for ''[[ArTonelico3 Ar tonelico III]]''.

All the games have a number of drama [=CDs=] devoted to the heroine Reyvateils (and some other people besides). Some of the cast went on to have parts in the crossover game ''VideoGame/CrossEdge''. There also exists a {{manga}}, set in Sol Ciel, titled ''Ar tonelico: Arpeggio''.

Aside from ''Elemia''-specific tropes, examples provided by the series as a whole can be found here, as well.
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!!The ''Ar tonelico'' games and related media provide examples of:

* AllThereInTheManual: Much of the history of the world of Ar Ciel is explained in supplemental material that is only available in Japanese.
** Yay [[http://artonelico.isisview.org/wiki/index.php/Ar_tonelico for]] [[http://artonelico.wikia.com/wiki/The_Ar_tonelico_Wiki wikis]]. Also, a GeniusBonus as a lot of the technology in the series is blatantly based off computers.
* AmplifierArtifact: Grathnode crystals increase a Reyvateil's power.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Not that this is a bad thing for going through Cosmospheres because it works like armor upgrades for Reyvateils.
* ApocalypseHow: Ar Tonelico just loves these.
** The first age ends with a Class 4, with everything retreating to artificial [[FloatingContinent Floating Continents]].
** The second age ends with a Class 1, that would have been Class 3 had Mir succeeded.
** [[spoiler: And the third age is about to end with a Class X unless you do something about it]].
* ArtificialHuman: Beta and Origin Reyvateils.
* ArtificialLimbs: Jack has a mechanical arm. With a [[GatlingGood gatling gun]].
* AwesomeButImpractical: Or rather, awesome but suicidal. Lyner's final creation, the "Ar Tonelico??" is a pocket-sized version of the reactor that powers their third of the remaining world. It is meant to be used as a hand grenade. The typical gamer reaction is to expect it to be a regular Slap On The Wrist Nuke. Unfortunately, the game decides to turn logical on you all of a sudden, and using your pocket WMD results in exactly what the description suggests should happen: Your party, and presumably everything else in miles, is instantly decimated and you get and game over.
** DeathByGenreSavvy for the player.
* BareYourMidriff: Krusche, Aurica's Skuwat costume.
* BarrierMaiden: Misha and the rest of the Lune Clan were created to seal the source of the viruses [[spoiler: by spending a good part of their lives singing Chronicle Key.]]
* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' mess with Reyvateils around Lyner; he will beat your ass so badly his teammates will call him on it. Also averted by Lyner: despite the fact that according to his in-game character bio the two things he hates most are viruses and traitors [[spoiler:instead of seeking revenge on Ayatane for what he's put Platina and various reyvateils through, he works to understand Ayatane's reasons and eventually causes Ayatane to see that the real way to help his mother is to help Lyner.]]
* BeyondTheImpossible: Justified. Technically speaking, a reyvateil ''can'' craft a song outside of her cosmosphere and without the aid of a hymn crystal but it's so difficult and happens so rarely that anyone who sees it happen will says it's impossible.
* BigBad: Mir, the "Mother Virus". All of the first game's conflict begins and ends with her.
* BigGood: Shurelia, the tower administrator. She is Lyner's boss and his inspiration.
* BilingualBonus: Having some knowledge of Hymmnos makes the Hymns that much better and show how they fit in the story, even hinting at things that haven't been revealed yet. Alternately, finding the lyrics online works just as well.
** In a particularly nifty piece of foreshadowing that hints at a character's motives in Metafalica, [[spoiler:the hymn EXEC_HARMONIUS/. from the first game has the word Metafalica in it repeatedly. In this instance and, so far, only in this instance, Metafalica means 'Song of Hope.' Given what Jakuri hopes to accomplish in the second game... Let's just say that the writers thought ahead.]]
* {{Bishounen}}: A lot of the guys count, but Flute also counts under his hat and mask (he's ''very'' pretty).
* BittersweetEnding: The normal ending [[spoiler:where you choose to never awaken Shurelia [[HeroicSacrifice after she sings Suspend]]. The villain is sealed, the world is saved and the hero lives happily ever after with one of his love interests, except that Shurelia is effectively dead and song magic doesn't work anymore. That's without saying anything about the fact that everyone will die when the Planet dies in a few years.]]
* BlessedWithSuck: Third Generation Reyvateils get nifty song magic and all, but after coming into their powers, they have to take a substance called Diquility every three months just to ''continue living''. Oh, and the Diquility is expensive and the Installation is equivalent to a first time. Averted with Origin and Beta type Reyvateils, who get ''Stronger'' song magic and ''very'' extended lifespans (Betas have about 150 years and the Origins are over 700 years old each, implied to be immortal for as long as their tower exist).
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Happens to either Aurica or Misha, depending on who you chose to sing Purger, when Mir invades their Cosmosphere. They recover.
* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:Poor Mir; created without emotions but developed them anyway only to be abused. Her first song, Harmonium, is called trash, and she's sealed away for trying to improve the lot of Reyvateils.]]
* BrokenAesop: At one point Lyner defends Claire from two guys trying to harass her out of her job by beating the muscular one up. Claire is a bit unhappy, telling him that he shouldn't have solved it with violence. Later on Lyner learns the lesson that "violence is bad", and continues using his sword against his enemies. [[spoiler: This is justified by the ending. Killing anything in one's way without thinking, as Lyner did earlier, nets you the Bad Ending because while the threat is averted the conditions that led to it still exist. The Good Ending doesn't require SheatheYourSword but a certain understanding and mercy.]]
* BullyingADragon: [[spoiler:Mir's]] treatment during the second age; one does not abuse a pure blood Beta type whose power is on the same scale as the Origins. Eventually she had enough.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Shurelia, the administrator of the titular Babylonian tower, has NoSenseOfDirection is a {{Dojikko}} ''and'' she likes bunnies.
* CaptainCrash: While Lyner isn't really at fault for what happened at the start of the game, a special mention should be made about his OVA incarnation. To be more specific: He crashes the same ship three times, on ''the same day''.
* CatGirl: Hama.
* ChainsawGood: Krusche uses one.
* CharacterDevelopment: The whole point of the Cosmospheres, though characters aside from the Reyvateils get development, too.
* ChurchMilitant: That's some spear you got there, Radolf. Justified: [[spoiler: Bishop Falss intended to use the Church as a military group to invade Platina. [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs Which he does]].]]
* CliffHanger: All of the "episodes" in Shurelia's Cosmosphere involve this except for the last one.
* CombatStilettos: Shurelia's Linkage costume takes the cake (granted, she avoids the practical problems by floating everywhere in it...) Misha's default costume and a few others have impractically tall shoes, too. Then again, this is a moot point because the Reyvateils don't actually DO any fighting aside from standing and singing magic.
* CompressedAdaptation: The {{OVA}} cuts out a ton of the plot. Even Misha only appears briefly. Granted, for a game so long and involved, it's pretty much impossible to pack everything in there without turning it into a long series.
* {{Conlang}}: [[http://conlang.wikia.com/wiki/Hymmnos Hymmnos]]. There are even different vocabulary words depending on region, and vastly different grammatical structures for Central Standard Note/Metafalss Note and New Testament of Pastalie Hymmnos. And yes, half of that page is dedicated to being a dictionary. [[ShownTheirWork A lot of thought was put into making the language]].
* CostumePorn: Each Revyateil has eight costumes.
* CuttingOffTheBranches: The second game rules out the bad and normal endings.
* DataCrystal: The Hymn Crystals contain the information for songs.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Lyner's general goal in the true ending: [[spoiler: Bring Ayatane to his way of thinking and then pacify Mir without killing her.]]
* DetachedSleeves: Aurica.
* DistressedDamsel: Every Reyvateil, at one point or another.
* TheDogBitesBack: Bourd is a man who considered Reyvateil expendable weapons and whose subordinates constantly abuse and berate them. And he actually thought it was a good idea to use a partially strong Reyvanteil that he recently kidnapped as backup in a fight [[TooDumbToLive against her love interest.]] [[spoiler: For extra irony points he did it to make sure Lyner felt the bitter sting of Misha betraying him.]] Yea, most everyone can predict what happened next.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Diving, Installing and most other interactions between the main characters and their harem of Reyvateils are played up as... intimate affairs.
** The Diquility installation can only be called "a PG-13 cherry popping sequence." There is an doujinshi that makes this reference in reverse context.
* {{Dojikko}}: Shurelia will occasionally lose her balance when she fires off a spell, falling flat on her face.
* DoubleEntendre: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoODv8LVib8 Oh Aurica.]] That's among many others.
* DragonWithAnAgenda: [[spoiler:Bourd and Bishop Falss, in their own ways. Both to Mir, and Bourd to Falss as well.]]
* DualAgeModes: [[spoiler:Misha is has a child and adult forms.]]
* EarthShatteringKaboom: The reason the sea of death is there in the first place.
** Also, [[spoiler: dropping some of what little land there is down there.]]
** Mir destroyed half of the land on one of the towers during her rebelion.
* EmotionlessGirl: [[spoiler:Mir originally, which was what her creators wanted, but she grew out of it. Later, Bourd tried to find a way to make Reyvateils into this.]]
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: It's happened twice in the past- the first being the Grathnode Inferia, the second when Reyvateils on Ar tonelico revolted against humans and destroyed about half of the floating continent as well as the civilization on it.
** [[spoiler:Part three makes all ends where Mir is not freed an InferredHolocaust: Without her involvement in the second game, the Heart of Gaea wouldn't have reached the third tower (at least not in time), thus dooming the entire planet.]]
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: [[spoiler:Ayatane's in things so his mother, Mir, can finally be happy. Though it should be noted that he's more like LoveMakesYouEvil than a real bad guy.]]
* EvilPlan: Three villains acting more like convenient allies than a single group means there are three of these.
** Mir wants to wipe out humanity [[spoiler: to create a world just for reyvateils because she believes that HumansAreTheRealMonsters.]]
** Bourd wants to continue the kind of research that's based on the 'Reyvateils are replacable dolls' idea and believes Mir to be its greatest fruit.
** [[spoiler: Bishop Falss, AKA Kyle Clancy]] wants to ressurrect Mir and take over Platina as the first step to taking over the world and returning it to the prosperity of the first age.
* HairDecorations: [[spoiler: older]] Misha wears mini drums.
* FacialMarkings: Ayatane [[spoiler:who is a Virus]].
* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Bishop Falss, then known by his real name Kyle Clancy, faked suicide in order to flee Platina.]]
* {{Fanservice}}: It's ''everywhere''. For starters, you can force every Reyvateil in to fight wearing bath towels, pajamas, or a variety of other costumes. Of course, they will call you out on it once you get to a town, but expect them to be [[{{Tsundere}} embarrassed and gushy]] while doing so.
** The second game features taking baths to power up. 'nuff said.
** The third game takes it to a logical extreme: All the Reyvateils power up by stripping off their clothes. To top it all off, there are technically more than three, each with different personalities, clothes, and body types...sort of.
* FantasticRacism: In ''Elemia'', Reyvateils are often treated as second class citizens, to the extent that Lyner is depicted as standing out for treating them like he would any normal human. Justified in the first game, since aside from the portion of Tenba that Bourd is running, most of the racism is aimed at Reyvateils without a partner, such as Claire. This makes sense, seeing as [[spoiler:Reyvateils on the Wings of Horus had destroyed a good half of a continent when Mir rebelled.]]
** Averted in the city of Platina. When [[spoiler: The Church Attacks]] you can see how the knights fight without backup to give their Reyvateil partners time to rest and recover. Hilariously, the [[spoiler: Church Knights]] that they were fighting act more like Tenba grunts than anything else.
** Lyner defying this trop in regards to [[spoiler:viruses, like Ayatane]] is pre-condition for the good ending.
** Reversed in the third game, where Reyvateils from Clustania see humans as "impure" and do their best to Cleanse (wipe out) or Purify (brainwash) them. [[spoiler: It doesn't help things that the main computer was hacked and had her personality changed into a genocidal maniac.]] The straight version is present in [[spoiler: Raphael who thinks like Bourd.]]
* FashionableAsymmetry: [[spoiler:Older Misha]] only needs one [[StockingFiller stocking]].
** Finnel from the third game as well. Her stockings don't match.
* {{Fictionary}}: Reyvateils (and occasionally humans) communicate with Ar tonelico in a warped creole of English, German and Sanskrit known as [[http://conlang.wikia.com/wiki/Conlang:Hymmnos Hymmnos]]. However, among themselves they speak garden-variety Japanese (or English, if you're playing the dub.) Apparently, Metafalss and Ar tonelico have different dialects of Hymmnos (or Hymnos in the English localization).
* FieryRedhead: Averted with Krusche. The only time she EVER gets fired up at all is when she's talking about or involved with high-tech airships and getting to the top of the Tower. 99% of the rest of the time she's the incredibly laid-back, droll, DeadpanSnarker type.
* FixFic: Done in-game [[spoiler:in Shurelia]]'s Cosmosphere story at the request of Lyner, who Justifies it by ([[LampshadeHanging what else]]) "the original sucks!" [[spoiler: Mir takes this [[SeriousBusiness very personally]] but then again she ''did'' infect the scenario in the first place because Lyner was 'playing next to her prison'.]]
** The completion of all cosmosphere levels could be referred to as this. Cosmosphere levels, especially the lower ones, represent a reyvateil's issues, where they act out inner conflicts and have not been able to resolve them. The job of a cosmosphere diver is essentially to act as a SelfInsertFic MartyStu character, breaking the Reyvateil out of a hopeless cycle and encouraging them to reach a good ending.
* {{Flanderization}}: Any part of a Reyvateil's problems/desires gets blown up to ''spectacular'' proportions in their Cosmosphere. Later levels don't even ''try'' to hide it via metaphor.
* FloatingContinent: The Wings of Horus, and Firefly Alley as a smaller example.
* ForgottenChildhoodFriend: Lyner, how in the ''hell'' did you forget Misha? Would be justified since [[spoiler:they were pretty young when they separated, and that never communicated again, nor Lyner ever heard of Misha again, until the start of the game.]] Except the same applies to Misha and she didn't forget.
** [[spoiler: Lyner finally remembers after he gets the part needed for the ship. Misha doesn't hold it against him sinc he's been subsonsciously fulfilling his promise to her. As far as Misha is concerned, It's all good..]]
* GagBoobs: "Misha, you grew tits!"
** [[spoiler:Shurelia]] would like to know if Lyner likes them big or small since she's stuck permanantly in-between.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Averted as Song magic is cast during various cut-scenes, with varying effects.
* GameBreakingBug: The first game had a glitch in which an item necessary to advance the plot could be acquired before activating a particular event that allows the player to progress. Though not necessarily game-breaking since it pertains to an end-game, extra-content boss, Ar Tonelico 2 had a boss that was virtually unbeatable because one of her moves would freeze the game and force a reset. The only way to prevent this was to beat her in one turn, preventing her from using it.
* GeniusDitz: Lyner is very definitely BookDumb, something he is repeatedly harassed about throughout the game. He also mastered the basics of [[ItemCrafting Grathmelding]] in less than a day and by doing nothing else than following instructions, became the main source of everything the party uses throughout the game. By the third phase, the stuff he cooks up rivals or surpasses [[LostTechnology First Era technology]], he is teaching Grathmelding to the one who created its basic principles centuries ago and his magnum opus ends up being a pocket-sized version of the gigantic building-sized power reactor that powers their entire civilization.
* GenreShift: Cosmosphere's take a shift towards more VisualNovel-type stories. Usually, each level is an OutOfGenreExperience.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The sheer amount of crap is astounding in the US release. (some other countries are more relaxed about things like sexuality, which explains it being 7+ in Europe and 12+ in Japan)
* GirlishPigtails: [[spoiler: Young]] Misha to hightlight her childishness.
* GiverOfLameNames: Aurica. Don't ask her to explain her reasoning; it only makes the names sound even worse.
* GoodShepherd: One of Radolf's first lines is reminding those under his command to take care of their Reyvateil partners and his second apperance is coming to the defense of a Tenba reyvateil being abused by her partner. At all times he's polite and helpful.
* GodivaHair: [[spoiler:Mir is naked and so her hair fills in.]]
* GogglesDoNothing: Krusche wears them and never uses them.
* GoKartingWithBowser: Happens in ''Elemia'', but you don't quite become aware of it until ''Metafalica''. [[spoiler: By Jakuri's own admission, the "Mir" inside Shurelia's corny magical girl love story was not an avatar, but rather the real one just playing along with the game, which she herself had scripted.]] So, at the time Lyner was trekking through the tower to find a way to save ominous and terrifying Mother Virus Mir, [[spoiler: Mir herself was content playing a video game with Shurelia]]. Bizarrely, it makes some sense in hindsight, as the two were friends and, most of her nefarious plots having failed completely, she wasn't doing anything at the moment. To top it off, [[spoiler: the only remaining bit of bad blood Jakuri has against Lyner is completely unrelated to him stopping her century-long plans: She's angry about him rewriting the ending to her game.]]
* GuideDangIt: Getting all the talk options with the Reyvateils, which have requirements ranging from making a certain item to going to certain places or talking to the other girls a certain number of times in a row. Made worse with the fact that a great deal of talks can be LostForever. Thankfully they can be aquired via multiple playthroughs. Otherwise, it would be impossible (not that all the topics are required to clear the game or the Cosmospheres).
* HalfHumanHybrid: Third Generations Reyvateils start as humans which change at any time during their childhoods/puberty, and can interbreed with them. The children may be either human or Reyvateils. The Origins and Betas don't count because of being completely artificial life forms.
* HauntedTechnology: [[spoiler:Infel lives on past her death via the Infel Phira server. Nenesha sort of counts, because of the integration of technology with Reyvateils' minds. Mir does something similar to Infel for a good portion of the first game, but she's not actually dead.]]
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Ayatane, Mir/Jakuri.]]
* HiddenElfVillage: The Teru tribe would like to be this and Platina plays it straight until the end of the game.
* HighAltitudeBattle: The first game features a battle with a giant dragon while riding an airship. But then, all three games are based on floating continents (and/or a massive tower) due to the Sea of Death covering the world.
* HomemadeInventions: As mentioned above, Lyner is the party's only real source of equipment, regardless of variety or technological complexity. Everything, including a pocket-version of the massive building-sized reactor built by ancient superadvanced technology that powers more than a third of the remaining civilization in the planet, is built by him, in a tent, from scraps.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: ''Elemia'', has plenty of characters, especially in Tenba, who treat Reyvateils as easily replaceable property. When one can't get his Reyvateil partner to sing new magic because his physical abuse doesn't grant her any more PowerOfLove to make new songs, his teammate suggests getting a new one. [[spoiler:Oddly, this seems to be caused by CardCarryingVillain Bourd, and his death almost ''instantly'' brings about an end to the FantasticRacism (granted, because Bourd was the one ''encouraging'' it and the president of the company known for it was ''violently against it'').]]
** This is the reason for Mir's KillAllHumans and why her listed dislikes are humans. [[spoiler: [[RestoredMyFaithInHumanity She gets over it]] thanks to Lyner who ironically is the only humans that she still hates because he has ruined her script.]]
* [[ImMelting I'm Melting]]: [[spoiler: what happens to the Beta Reyvateils when they die, and also, what happens to any Beta or Origin that dares to leave the area effect of her Song Server.]]
* HundredPercentAdorationRating: If the player asks around in Nemo during Phase 3 nearly everyone will tell you how much they love [[spoiler: Bishop]] Radolf. The rest are admittedly jealous of him because they recognize how great he is. [[spoiler: Being the head of]] a SaintlyChurch will do that for you.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The English releases so far follow the pattern of ''Melody of (X)''.
** The third game is named Ar Tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel, apparently to prevent people from thinking that they need to have played the first two, although it helps understand the overall story if they have.
* IdiotHero: Lyner.[[spoiler:Mir discusses in broad strokes how much his idiocy pissed her off in the sequel, despite being the primary beneficiary of it.]] Of course, the real reason Mir resents him is that he [[spoiler:wrote a fixit fic for Shurelia's cosmosphere due to not liking its sad original ending, giving the excuse that the story should have a happy ending because the real world had enough sadness already.]]
* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: [[spoiler:The game makes a point of this. Killing Mir nets you a bad ending. The only good endings occur when (after being asked by Tastiella), the group goes out of their way to understand Mir's position and defeat her without killing her.]]
* IJustWantToBeNormal:
** Misha; the Star Singer has a crappy life [[spoiler: stuck singing for years on end in a dark room.]]
** Shurelia also has her moments; her 'cosmosphere' is chosen specifically because she wants to experience 'normal' life.
* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: Between the knight armor and cosplay outfits it would be faster to list who doesn't qualify
* InferredHolocaust: The game's first two endings. If Aurica [[spoiler:doesn't sing Re-Nation to revive Shurelia and the Tower, without power from Ar Tonelico Frelia would eventually be forced to drop all of Metafalss, killing every character in Ar Tonelico 2 except Jacqli and Spica. Then there's the question of what would happen to Sol Ciel with both song magic and grathmelding turned off. They're lucky that the weather is run by another system, not the tower itself, but if it, like Metafalss, was using the Ar Tonelico song server as a power source, they're going to run out of drinking water before very long.]]
* InHarmsWay: Jack: "I'm glad the world is peaceful and all but I need some excitement in my life."
* InnocentInnuendo: Where do we start?!
** The insertion of "Diquility," a substance in the form of a large crystal that must be inserted into a Third Generation Reyvateil every three months through a place called their "Installer Port." Croix must do this twice during the story (Lyner can do it once if he goes on Aurica's path), and it's always TheirFirstTime. Aoto gets it the worst - none of the ally Reyvateils are Third Gen, but he does have to ''un''install an item from a heroine, with similar results.
*** Seriously, it's one gigantic scene of ''nothing'' but innuendo. [[http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/288112.html It MUST be seen to be believed]]. Or heard. If you listen to the audio without looking at the video, you will feel like some sort of voyeur.
*** In fact, there's so much InnocentInnuendo that you can't really blame Lyner for being a literal AccidentalPervert. He always reacts like how you would expect a normal person to react, so the girls ''assume'' he's thinking something dirty... correctly.
* InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja: Misha's shinobi costume. There's a giant kunai.
* InterspeciesRomance: Human/Reyvateil romance is nothing anyone bats an eye at (they're fully capable of interbreeding), but there's also [[spoiler:the human Krusche and the Teru Jack/Harmonica, at the end of ''Elemia''.]]
* InTheNameOfTheMoon: Shurelia says something similar to this during the second level of her "Cosmosphere".
* InvisibleBackupBand: Whenever one of the Reyvateils sings.
* ItemCrafting: Grathmelding
* {{Joshikousei}}: All the heroine Reyvateils have a school uniform costume.
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Diving into a Reyvateil's Cosmosphere both helps them craft new song magic and is an excellent form of psychotherapy. Unfortunately, it can be hazardous to the diver's health.
* KillAllHumans: [[spoiler:Mir's goal. Of course, she's just doing it for her fellow Reyvateils' sake.]]
* KillEmAll: According to the myths, Sieryek, son of an El nemesys sovereign, killed the King of his own kingdom and some other ruling sovereigns which included his own father. However, he couldn't kill Princess Liarsha due to his love for her, instead telling her go free. In the end, the love that she had once shared with Sieryek turned to hatred and she eventually killed him and then herself immediately afterwards. Obviously, nobody survived.
* LadyOfWar: Shurelia until [[spoiler: she sings EXEC_SUSPEND/. and finally reveals what she really looks like under that armor. When she eventually joins the party, she also begins to act more like her age. Well, [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld at least whatever age she looks like considering she's as old as the Tower itself.]]]]
* LanguageOfMagic: Hymmnos is a constructed language that is instantly comprehensible to any Reyvateil due to their connection to the Towers, and thus to the libraries that contain all the information about the language. Only a few non Reyvateils like Laude or Croix bother to learn it.
* TheLeader: Leard is the governor of Platina and his conflict with Lyner is based on him wanting his son to succeed him when Lyner doesn't want to. Over the course of the game, Lyner becomes this for his group.
** There is a point in the game where Lyner realizes that he has become the highest authority in Platina [[spoiler: because Shurelia has been hacked by Mir and used by her to abduct Leard.]] Radolf discusses with Aurica that he isn't used to giving orders instead of taking them.
* LethalChef: Averted with Aurica; although her creations look terrible, they taste good. [[spoiler:Shurelia's]] look odd, but also taste great.
* LevelUpAtIntimacy5: Diving into a Reyvateil's Cosmosphere (which involves playing through scenarios that are a cross between dating and psychotherapy) will result in the Reyvateil crafting powerful new songs which she can use in battle. In addition, to unlock new Cosmosphere levels, you must first invite them into your room at night and... have an intimate chat with them, with topics ranging from scenic observations to expressing jealousy.
* LikeASonToMe: Inverted. [[spoiler:Shurelia]] repeatedly tells Lyner that he reminds her of her father, probably due to Lyner's grathmelding genius & the fact that he's one of the few people to ever see [[spoiler:the goddess]] as a person who needs help sometimes, just like anyone else.
* LimitBreak: In the first game, these can be activated after guarding a Reyvateil.
* LimitedWardrobe: Reyvateils get costume changes, but, except for Croix out of ''Metafalica'', who has a civilian set of clothes (with glasses), none of the other front-liners ever change clothes. While characters like Krusche or Amarie might get away with it, due to their "[[{{Stripperific}} armor]]" essentially being bulletproof clothes, Leglius in particular is never seen outside of his full plate armor, which practically looks like its breastplate was made by welding the bow of a battleship to his chest.
* LongHairIsFeminine: There are four playable female characters in this game and the only one with short hair is the {{tomboy}} mechnic and she had long hair pre-series when she was still a GirlyGirl.
* LongTitle: The original titles are like this, and probably why the English releases are shortened.
* LoveHurts: Hmm, Lyner can get raped and killed in the Cosmospheres.
* LoveMakesYouCrazy: The lower levels of the Cosmosphere do this to everyone. Justified in that the lower levels (starting at level 5) are said to be closer to the Reyvateil's subconscious/unconscious levels, meaning they're a lot less restrained in expressing their emotions and...ahem..."desires."
* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Ayatane, though he [[HeelFaceTurn gets better]].]]
* LoveTriangle: In all three games there is one between TheProtagonist and two Reyvateils. In this game it is Lyner, Aurica and Misha.
* MachineWorship: A far more benign version than usual, but everyone outright worships or at least acknowledges the [[ArtificialHuman Revytail Origins]] as gods.
* MagicFromTechnology: Reyvateil songs are referred to as magic, but it's actually tapping into the shared power source of the local tower and forming it based on commands in Hymnos. Channeling this kind of energy is not something the human body is built for, so reyvateil/human hybrids (as in, basically every Reyvateil alive) tend to have very short lives even with life extending drugs.
* TheMagicGoesAway: During ''Elemia'', [[spoiler:the tower administrator Shurelia sings the hymn EXEC_SUSPEND/. and shuts down the magic-generating systems of Ar tonelico, putting herself and the antagonist into a coma and rendering all other Reyvateils near-powerless. Depending on the player's actions, the game may end at this point]].
** This becomes a critical issue in the sequel: [[spoiler: The reason Frelia cannot maintain Metafalss is because suspending Ar tonelico forced her to start powering the continent-generating song magic purely from force of will.]]
** TheMagicComesBack: If a player chooses to continue the game than the Tower starts up as this
* MagicalGirl: One of Misha costumes is this and Shurelia is one in her Binary Field.
* MagicKnight: Misha would like to be this: "If I could fight while singing then I'd be killing two birds with one stone." This trope isn't played straight until II with [[spoiler: Cocona.]]
* MagicMusic [[MagicFromTechnology From Technology]] describes Song Magic.
* MayflyDecemberRomance: Hello there [[spoiler: Shurelia. How's life as what is probably the oldest person alive? Is Lyner doing alright? What, he grew old and died?!]]
* {{Meido}}: One of [[spoiler:Shurelia]]'s costumes.
* MentalWorld: The Reyvateils' Cosmospheres.
* {{Miko}}: One of Aurica's costumes.
* MineralMacGuffin: Lyner searches for Hymn Crystals to save the world.
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Bishop Falss and Ayatane; the former infiltrated the Church and the later Platina]]
* MommasBoy: [[spoiler: Ayatane. Everything he does is for his mother's sake (i.e Mir's), for [[LoveRedeems better]] or [[LoveMakesYouEvil worse]]]]
* MoreFriendsMoreBenefits: Encouraged in the original - you could wind up being sexually abused in the Cosmosphere more often than you might like if you're assiduous about keeping the Cosmosphere up to date (What are you doing with that electricity, [[spoiler:Aurica]]?).
* MultipleEndings: The games allow you to choose which Reyvateil you'd like to spend the rest of your life with, as well as having a few more endings on top of that.
* MundaneUtility: In one of the radio dramas, the costume change is used as a quick way to change out of clothes.
* MusicalThemeNaming: Harmonica and Flute are Teru Tribe Members.
** ''Everything'' involving the technology. "Silver Horn," "Plasma Bell," "''Symphonic Corridor''". Justified in that it's MagicMusic [[MagicFromTechnology From Technology]].
* NeverASelfMadeWoman: Krusche says she got into engineering to be closer to her boyfriend, Luke. However it's downplayed to the point that it might as well not exist. 1.) Luke is mentioned three times and one of them is a bonus area. 2.) She was already 'grathmelding missles for fun' before she met him.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Shurelia, nice job [[spoiler:forcing Frelia to drop a lot of what arable land Metafalss had in the first place.]]
** Lyner, nice job [[spoiler: forcing Shurelia to wake up and thereby waking Mir up.]] She herself calls him on it. She's happy he did it but says it was the wrong decision.
* NoSenseOfDirection: Shurelia, considering she somehow finds herself lost easily in ''her own tower'' (on top of being over 700 years old), not to mention everywhere else.
* OfficialCouple: Averted. Despite Misha, Aurica, [[spoiler: Shurelia, Spica and Mir]] showing up in the second game, there are no hints as to which girl Lyner ends up with. However, it's known that Radolf ended marrying his old partner Fayma after the first game, who only appeared in one of the light novels, in one of the Drama [=CDs=], and in the OVA.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Misha [[spoiler:at least in the beginning.]] Also, Beta type Reyvateils age only till [[ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty they get hot]]. Then they don't age ''at all'' and they live for about 150 years, so you do the math. There are some others better covered below by ReallySevenHundredYearsOld.
* OneGenderRace: Reyvateils, since something in the Y chromosome negates Reyvateil powers.
* OneWingedAngel: Shadow Mir. [[spoiler:Eventually subverted. They're just Mir's viruses/servants that she can summon. She can summon them as song magic in ''Metafalica''.]]
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: AllThereInTheManual [[spoiler: Shurelia.]] See ReplacementGoldfish
* OrganicTechnology: Reyvateils. The Origins in particular, [[spoiler: during high-level grathmelding, Shurelia will make comments about some of them. In one case, she'll comment about one product being "her brain."]]
* PersonOfMassDestruction: [[spoiler:Mir is implied to be one, with the ability to be a major nuisance even when she's trapped in Ar Tonelico's equivalent of Cyberspace. Not to mention she's as powerful as the Goddesses of the three towers. She's noted that she could definitely beat Shurelia in a fight simply because she knows all the latter's weaknesses. It helps that the former has a stronger up-front personality so she could simply bully the latter regardless.]]
* PowersAsPrograms: The various Hymn Crystals grant songs to those who use them. The Hymns (the song sung) vary depending on the singer, but the effects do not.
* PowerOfLove: The power of a Reyvateil's song is proportional to her [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything "intensity of emotion"]]. Blue Magic, for instance, is more powerful if the Reyvateil is in love with the person she's making it for.
* PowerOfRock: In addition to powering [[MagicMusic spells]], songs are used at several points in the games to inspire the world's population.
* PowerPerversionPotential:
** Misha's "ability" to go from a pre- and post-prepubescent ages [[spoiler: by adding/removing the Chronicle Key]].
** Everything about the Binary Field. Read: it allows you to insert yourself into any story setting and do anything.
* PromotedToPlayable: [[spoiler:Mir, between AT1 and AT2. Fans rejoiced.]]
* PunnyName: You should be suspicious if your Bishop is named 'false'.
* RandomEncounters
* RapunzelHair: [[spoiler:Mir. Justified since it hasn't been cut for a few centuries.]]
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Shurelia [[spoiler:[[WordOfGod (Eoria)]]]], Frelia, and Tyria, as these three are the Origin Reyvateils, and thus, are as old as the towers they administrate. Shun's getting on in age too. [[spoiler:Mir is also coming up on her four hundredth birthday - her life presumably extended by being locked in the Binary Field for a few of those centuries.]]
* RebelPrince: Lyner is the future ruler of Platina, although not if he has anything to say about it [[spoiler: and he succeeds in every route except possibly Shurelia's.]]
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Mir, the "Mother Virus".
* RedStringOfFate: As an equipable accessory that raises DP gains after battle (the String of Binding, although supposedly raises the trust between a vanguard and the Reyvateil he's protecting at the moment). However, its effects still kick in, no matter who in the active party has it equipped.
** Lyner's ignorance to its meaning embarrassed Shurelia. His suggestion to use it to enhance Radolf and his "unity" '''''freaked her out.'''''
* RetiredBadass: Ayano used to be an adventurer but now she's content to run Tenba. She gives her old sword to Lyner.
* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler: Shurelia]] in the backstory, which is why she has that name instead of her original name.
* RobotGirl: Mei Mei, Kanade.
* RousseauWasRight: With perhaps one exception per game, absolutely everyone in the franchise is doing what they feel is best for the betterment of mankind (and Reyvateil-kind). On top of that, [[spoiler: the final boss of each game performs a HeelFaceTurn, if they weren't doing what they felt was best in the first place.]]
* SaintlyChurch: The Church of the Trio of Elemia. They are introduced as such and are consistently helpful through the game. There was a period where they [[spoiler: attacked Platina and tried to raise Mir, but only because Falss mislead them into thinking they were calling The Trio.]]
* SavePoint
* SchoolSwimsuit: One of [[spoiler:Shurelia]]'s costumes.
* SeriousBusiness:
** Lyner's love for Funbun may equal to his love for this world.
** Mir [[spoiler: takes the scripts that she writes a little bit too seriously. She can forgive humanity for all the pain they caused to her, but not Lyner's sin of ruining her script.]]
* SheCleansUpNicely: Krusche has this opinion of herself: "If I wore a dress, your (Lyner's) ass would be knocked out." However, she never changes out of her engineer clothes.
* ShortTank: Krusche, although she doesn't get much sexual tension due to not being a Reyvateil, and hence, not a romantic option. (Something she lightly pouts about at one point, asking if Lyner'd be in love with her if she ''were'' a Reyvateil. [[spoiler:She gets paired with Jack/Harmonica.]])
* ShoutOut: The end of Misha's and Aurica's Cosmospheres.
* ShrinkingViolet: Aurica.
* SinisterMinister: [[spoiler:Bishop Falss inspires the Church to invade Platina and raise Mir]].
* SmugSnake: The majority of the villains and thus making it all the more fun to slap them around. [[spoiler: Bishop Falss and Bourd Rade from the first game]] are {{egregious}} examples.
* SoundStone: Hymn Crystals contain songs.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Spellings for names were changed between the Japanese and American releases.
* SerialEscalation: Just how ''blatantly {{Fan Service}}y'' can we get the Reyvateils into next time without pushing the T rating? The third game features ''stripping to power up'' and got an M rating in the US.
* SpritePolygonMix: Each game steadily incorporates more 3D, and [=AT3=] finally makes the [[VideoGame3DLeap leap]].
* StockingFiller: [[spoiler:Older Misha]]'s standard and shinobi costumes.
* {{Stripperific}}: Misha, Claire, Shurelia, Krusche, the president of Tenba... easily two-thirds or more of the female cast of the first game is dressed ''quite'' provocatively, with Aurica being the only one who's somewhat modestly dressed... and the player has the option of making her fight in nothing but a towel.
* StylisticSuck: Shurelia's "cosmosphere" is a story instead of delving into her psyche since she does not actually have a cosmosphere. In it, Lyner and Shurelia go through a very cliche magical girl story with a completely different tone from the rest of the story. The parody nature of the story becomes even more obvious in the second game, which has several similar events.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The music track [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoBbyahBpXk Sleipnir]] resembles the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XrDr-CPHZI Pyramid Cave]] music from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''.
* TakeAThirdOption: The true endings to all three games in the trilogy are fueled by this.
* [[TalkingToHimself Talking To Herself]]: Aurica and [[spoiler:Mir]] share the same voice actress in Japanese.
* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: A TropesAreNotBad version. The language of Hymmnos places heavy emphasis on emotional state (and in fact has a whole grammar rule for them). This is needed for the Reyvateils to properly communicate their emotions to the tower to cast magic.
* TheirFirstTime: Misha and Lyner react to their first dive with shyness, awkwardness, and Misha saying it's her first time. Diving is not sex but the level of intimacy is the same.
* TitleDrop: Many of the hymns sung in the games say their title near the beginning or the end. Example, Chronicle Key and Implanta say their names within the first line of singing, and Sublimation says it's own in the chorus.
* TokenMiniMoe: Misha in ''Elemia'' [[spoiler:until she gets her adult form back]].
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Lyner and Funbuns.
* TransformationIsAFreeAction: The ladies have plenty of time to change clothes before attacking or getting attacked.
** Likewise, the ladies in the third game have plenty of time to take them off and pose during battle. Except in the one battle with time limit. Which is usually the only battle where '''each and every''' transformation sequence is shown in full length, just to taunt you.
* TransformationSequence: Though not like a typical MagicalGirl, the Reyvateils '''do''' change clothes for added power and the like.
** The third game has the reverse: they take their clothes ''off'' for added power.
* TranslationConvention: According to the creators, neither English or Japanese exist in Ar Ciel, and instead, everyone communicates through a common language called "Shell".
* TwentyFourHourArmor: Lyner and Radolf never change out of their armor-plated outfits.
%%* {{Underboobs}}: Ayano.
* UnluckyChildhoodFriend / VictoriousChildhoodFriend: Misha can wind up as either, but it's up to the player.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Mir was guilty of this, though it was a [[FantasticRacism Reyvateil-only]] utopia.
%%* VaporWear: Ayano.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential: Diving is consensual, but the Reyvateils aren't consciously aware of what goes on in their Cosmosphere. (Through dialogue, they do reveal that they feel subtle effects as you clear their mental blocks by helping them overcome fears, grudges, jealousy, and the like.) In order to progress past a certain point, you have to [[CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption force them to relive the most traumatic events in their lives]] which destabilizes their psyche irreversibly into a crisis from which only you can save them and give closure. [[FridgeLogic There is nothing stopping you]] from leaving them at the brink of mental meltdown [[OffscreenInertia indefinitely]].
* VisibleSilence: Almost every scene in the game has at least one character doing this.
%%* VisualInitiativeQueue
* WarriorPrince: Lyner is the son of the ruler of Platina but chooses to be a knight.
* WarriorTherapist: Lyner. It's not just the Cosmospheres. [[spoiler:As of the second game, Mir still doesn't know what hit her.]]
* WelcomeBackTraitor: Welcome back [[spoiler: Ayatane, the guy who was the reason why everything turns crazy in Phase 2.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: Defied by Lyner. It's not that he can't win Leard's favor, it's that he's actively refusing to do it, and doing something that makes Leard happy with him is one of the few things that actively annoys Lyner. This makes sense, given that most of the things that make Leard praise Lyner in the early game aren't very nice [[spoiler:and Lyner may resent him for what happened to Misha.]] In the scene where Leard finally says he's SoProudOfYou, it's noteworthy that the other characters are far more excited about it than Lyner is. Apparently, the extent of Lyner's CharacterDevelopment is not rejecting Leard's feelings: even when Lyner asks Leard to [[spoiler:help craft the hymn at the end of the game,]] it still feels as though Lyner is making the effort because Leard is his father, after all: their relationship is still rocky.
* WisePrince: Despite being the heir of Platina, Lyner rejects that power and prefers to be a common soldier. This may be because [[spoiler:if he becomes Leard's heir, it will be his job to train Misha's daughter and continue the cycle of useless sacrifice]], as well as tensions with Leard.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Misha and heights which is odd when you notice that (When you meet her) she lives in a man-made flying island just below a flying ''continent'', all of which are one Creative Virus away from crashing down.
* WidgetSeries: A textbook example of the trope, as the things it parodies are already a bit weird in Japan. In Americans this means the reactions tend to range from bemusement to astonishment to abhorrence.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler:Mir's first song, Harmonius, was meant to express her hope for the human race. However, since she was created with the hope of making an emotionless Reyvateil, it led to her being tortured and locked up. Nevermind that to be told "Your song's no good" would be an incredible insult all on its own, considering Reyvateils' songs are born out of their deep, heartfelt feelings. It's no wonder she started hating humans.]] It only got worse after that [[spoiler: while connected to the tower, she is keenly aware of the FantasticRacism against Reyvateils, and her inability to do anything else to stop it leads to her (understandable) declaration that HumansAreTheRealMonsters.]]
* TheWorldTree: The towers seem to be an analogue. There's also the fact that ''tonelico'' is ''toneriko'', the Japanese word for ash tree, which Yggdrasil was in Norse mythology.
* WrenchWench: Krusche, the airship engineer.
* {{Yandere}}: Most of Mir's songs are like this - you could make a bit of a leap to say her role as the BigBad of ''Elemia'' was a Yandere reaction to humanity. [[spoiler: Harmonious Fusion doesn't contain any kind of Yandere-ness in its feelings (and arguably, in the lyrics neither), and Colors is no more than an image song for her, illustrating the development of her feelings.]]
** Almost every Reyvateil attempts to kill their partner at some point in their Cosmosphere. [[spoiler: Aurica tries to kill Lyner and herself because of her self-loathing, jealousy, and fear of him abandoning her. Misha believes that Lyner's presence is complicating the struggle between her desire for freedom and her fate of becoming the [[BarrierMaiden seal for Mir]]]].
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: This game has one of the more elaborate (if still fairly obvious) fake endings out there, even going so far as including a credit roll after [[spoiler:Shurelia's HeroicSacrifice]]. You actually do have the option of ending the game there and living happily with the girl you chose to be with at the start of the game's second act (which could be called a NonstandardGameOver) but to continue on to the real end you have to choose to [[spoiler:bring Shurelia back]]. On top of that, early in the third act you're given the choice of [[spoiler:killing Mir and earning the bad end there, or going on a subquest that ends in Lyner deciding that he wants to save her, which is the game's true end.]]
* ZettaiRyouiki: [[spoiler:Shurelia]]'s [[{{meido}} Corsette]] and Monette costumes.
-----

* LanguageOfMagic: Hymmnos is apparently a constructed language that is instantly comprehensible to any reyvateil. It's more like computer code than a real language. Only a few non reyvateils like Laude or Croix bother to learn it.

* LanguageOfMagic: Hymmnos.

** The first age ends with a planetary scope species extinction, with everything retreating to artificial [[FloatingContinent Floating Continents]].
** The second age ends with a planetary societal disruption, that would have been planetary species extinction had Mir succeeded.
** [[spoiler: And the third age is about to end with a planetary physical annihilation unless you do something about it]].

* BrokenAesop: At one point Lyner defends Claire from two guys trying to harass her out of her job by beating the muscular one up. Claire is a bit unhappy, telling him that he shouldn't have solved it with violence. Later on Lyner learns the lesson that "violence is bad", and continues using his sword against his enemies. [[spoiler: Subverted in the end. Killing anything in one's way without thinking, as Lyner did earlier, nets you the Bad Ending because while the threat is averted the conditions that led to it still exist. The Good Ending doesn't require SheatheYourSword but a certain understanding and mercy.]]

* CombatStilettos: Shurelia's Linkage costume takes the cake (granted, she avoids the practical problems by floating everywhere in it...) Misha's default costume and a few others have impractically tall shoes, too. Then again, this is subverted in that the Reyvateils don't actually DO any fighting aside from standing and singing magic.

** Subverted in the city of Platina. When [[spoiler: The Church Attacks]] you can see how the knights fight without backup to give their Reyvateil partners time to rest and recover. Hilariously, the [[spoiler: Church Knights]] that they were fighting act more like Tenba grunts than anything else.
** Subverted again by Lyner in regards to [[spoiler:viruses, like Ayatane.]]

* FieryRedhead: Subverted with Krusche. The only time she EVER gets fired up at all is when she's talking about or involved with high-tech airships and getting to the top of the Tower. 99% of the rest of the time she's the incredibly laid-back, droll, DeadpanSnarker type.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Oh dear Lord, does it ever.

* NeverASelfMadeWoman: Krusche says she got into engineering to be closer to her boyfriend, Luke. However it's downplayed to the point that it might as well not exit. 1.) Luke is mentioned three times and one of them is a bonus area. 2.) She was already 'grathmelding missles for fun' before she met him.

* PowerPerversionPotential: Misha's "ability" to go from a pre- and post-prepubescent ages [[spoiler: by adding/removing the Chronicle Key]].

* RefugeInAudacity: The sheer amount of [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar crap that gets past the radar]] is astounding, in the US release. (some other countries are more relaxed about things like sexuality, which explains it being 7+ in Europe and 12+ in Japan)

* RousseauWasRight: With perhaps one exception per game, absolutely everyone in the franchise is doing what they feel is best for the betterment of mankind (and Reyvateil-kind). On top of that, [[spoiler: the final boss of each game performs a HeelFaceTurn, if they weren't just doing what they felt was best in the first place.]]

* SeriousBusiness: Lyner's love for Funbun may equal to his love for this world.
** Mir [[spoiler: takes the scripts that she writes a little bit too seriously in fact she can forgive humanity for all the pain they caused to her, but not Lyner's sin of ruining her script.]]

* {{Stripperific}}: Misha, Claire, Shurelia, Krusche, the president of Tenba... easily two-thirds or more of the female cast of the first game is dressed ''quite'' provocatively, with Aurica being the only one who's somewhat modestly dressed... and of course the player has the option of making her fight in nothing but a towel.

* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: A TropesAreNotBad version. The language of Hymmnos places heavy emphasis on emotional state (and in fact has a whole grammar rule for them). This is pretty much needed for the Reyvateils to properly communicate their emotions to the tower to cast magic.

* TransformationSequence: Though not totally like a typical MagicalGirl, the Reyvateils '''do''' change clothes for added power and the like.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Subverted by Lyner. It's not that he can't win Leard's favor, it's that he's actively refusing to do it, and doing something that makes Leard happy with him is one of the few things that actively annoys Lyner. This makes sense, given that most of the things that make Leard praise Lyner in the early game aren't very nice [[spoiler:and Lyner may resent him for what happened to Misha.]] In the scene where Leard finally says he's SoProudOfYou, it's noteworthy that the other characters are far more excited about it than Lyner is. Apparently, the extent of Lyner's CharacterDevelopment is not rejecting Leard's feelings: even when Lyner asks Leard to [[spoiler:help craft the hymn at the end of the game,]] it still feels as though Lyner is making the effort because Leard is his father, after all: their relationship is still rocky.

* WhiteHairedPrettyGirl: [[spoiler:Shurelia,]] Ayano, Spica. Some official art reveals that Tastiella counted when she was younger, too.

** Mir wants to wipe out humanity [[spoiler: to create a world just for reyvateils because she believes that HumansAreBastards.]]

* MusicalThemeNaming: Harmonica and Flute are Teru Trib Members.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Reisha to save her adoptive daughter Luka.]]

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Lyner's general goal in the true ending: [[spoiler: Bring Ayatane to his way of thinking and then pacify Mir without killing her.
%%* DetachedSleeves: Aurica.

* TheDogBitesBack: Bourd is a man who considered Reyvateil expendable weapons and whose subordinates constantly abuse and berate them. And he actually thought it was a good idea to use a partially strong Reyvanteil that he recently kidnapped as backup in a fight [[WhatAnIdiot against her love interest.]] [[spoiler: For extra irony points he did it to make sure Lyner felt the bitter sting of Misha betraying him.]] Yea, most everyone can predict what happened next.

* TheDogBitesBack: Bourd is a man who considered Reyvateil expendable weapons and whose subordinates constantly abuse and berate them. [[WhatAnIdiot And he actually thought it was a good idea to use a partially strong Reyvanteil that he recently kidnapped as backup in a fight against her love interest.]] Yea, most everyone can predict what happened next.

* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: Ayatane [[spoiler: is a mysterious knight with an unknown power over viruses. This is because he ''is'' a virus and a mole for Mir.]]

* IdiotHero: Lyner.[[spoiler:Mir discusses in broad strokes how much his idiocy pissed her off in the sequel, despite being the primary beneficiary of it.]] Of course, the real reason Mir resents him is that he [[spoiler:wrote a fixit fic for Shurelia's cosmosphere.]] While she was angered by the insult to her literary talent, it was actually a case of WrongGenreSavvy, since allowing that kind of trauma to go unresolved in a real reyvateil's cosmosphere would have left [[spoiler:Shurelia]] scarred for life.This makes him the perfect lead in a game that's based on the PowerOfLove. It's the only way he could achieve the true goal of [[spoiler: SaveTheVillain]].

* IncrediblyLamePun: You should be suspicious if your Bishop is named 'false'.

*** [[IncrediblyLamePun Rated M for Moe?]]

* TheThreeFacesOfEve: The Three Supreme Goddess of Elemia (A.K.A [[spoiler: The Three Origins]])
** Eolia([[spoiler:Shurelia]]) as The Mother
** Frelia as The Child
** Tilia as The Seductress

* BarrierMaiden: Misha and the rest of the Lune Clan were created to seal the source of the viruses [[spoiler: by spending their entire lives singing Chronicle Key.]]

* AmplifierArtifact: Grathnode crystals.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Not that this is a bad thing for going through Cosmospheres.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: ''[[LadyOfWar Shurelia]]'', you should give GUST a praise for actually creating one of the coolest names ever in VideoGame history.

* BarrierMaiden: Misha and her clan, who were created to help seal the source of the viruses [[spoiler: by spending their entire lives singing Chronicle Key.]]
* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' mess with Reyvateils around Lyner. Also averted by Lyner: despite the fact that according to his in-game character bio the two things he hates most are viruses and traitors [[spoiler:instead of seeking revenge on Ayatane for what he's put Platina and various reyvateils through, he works to understand Ayatane's reasons and eventually causes Ayatane to see that the real way to help his mother is to help Lyner.]]

* BittersweetEnding: The normal ending [[spoiler:where you choose to never awaken Shurelia [[HeroicSacrifice after she sings Suspend]]. The villain is sealed, the world is saved and the hero lives happily ever after with one of his love interests, except that Shurelia is effectively dead and song magic doesn't work anymore. And that's without saying anything about the fact that everyone will end up dying when the Planet dies in a few years.]]
* BlessedWithSuck: Third Generation Reyvateils get nifty song magic and all, but after coming into their powers, they have to take a substance called Diquility every three months just to ''continue living''. Oh, and the Diquility Installation is pretty much equivalent to a first time. Averted with Origin and Beta type Reyvateils, who get the song magic and extended lifespans on top of it.
** ''Stronger'' song magic and ''very'' extended lifespans (Betas have about 150 years and the Origins are over 700 years old each, implied to be immortal for as long as the towers exist).
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Happens to either Aurica or Misha, depending on who you chose to sing Purger, when Mir invades their Cosmosphere. They get better, though.
* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:Poor Mir.]]

* BullyingADragon: [[spoiler:Mir's]] treatment during the second age; one does not abuse a pure blood Beta type whose power is on the same scale as the originals. Eventually she had enough.

* CaptainCrash: While Lyner isn't really at fault for what happened at the start of the game, a special mention should be made about his OVA incarnation. To be more specific: He managed to crash the same ship three times, on ''the same day''.

* CharacterDevelopment: Pretty much the whole point of the Cosmospheres, though characters aside from the Reyvateils get development, too.

* CliffHanger: Almost all of the "episodes" in Shurelia's Cosmosphere involve this.

* DataCrystal
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Lyner's general goal in the true ending.
* DetachedSleeves: Aurica.

** And then there's Diquility installation, which is what can only be called "a PG-13 cherry popping sequence." There is an actual doujinshi that makes this reference in reverse context.

* DoubleEntendre: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoODv8LVib8 Oh Aurica.]]
** And that's among many others.

* DualAgeModes: [[spoiler:Misha]]

** Mir destroyed half of the land on one of the towers.

* {{Fanservice}}: It's ''everywhere''. For starters, you can force every Reyvateil in either game to fight wearing bath towels, pajamas, or a variety of other costumes.
** Of course, they will call you out on it once you get to a town, but expect them to be [[{{Tsundere}} embarrassed and gushy]] while doing so.

* FantasticRacism: In ''Elemia'', Reyvateils are often treated as second class citizens, to the extent that Lyner is depicted as standing out for treating them like he would any normal human.
** Arguably justified in the first game, since aside from the portion of Tenba that Bourd is running, most of the racism is aimed at Reyvateils without a partner, such as Claire. This makes sense, seeing as [[spoiler:Reyvateils on the Wings of Horus had destroyed a good half of a continent when Mir rebelled.]]
** Inverted in the third game, where Reyvateils hold dominance over humans.

** Reversed in the third game, where Reyvateils from Clustania see humans as "impure" and do their best to Cleanse (wipe out) or Purify (brainwash) them. [[spoiler: It doesn't help things that the main computer was hacked and had her personality changed into a genocidal maniac.]]

* [[spoiler: Lyner finally remembers after he gets the part needed for the ship. Misha doesn't hold it against him sinc he's been subsonsciously fulfilling his promise to her. As far as Misha is concerned, It's all good..]]

* GenreShift: Cosmosphere's take a shift towards more VisualNovel-type stories. And, usually, each level is an OutOfGenreExperience.

* GirlishPigtails: [[spoiler: Young]] Misha
* GiverOfLameNames: Aurica. Don't ask her to explain her reasoning, only makes the names sound even worse.
* GoodShepherd: One of Radolf's first lines is reminding those under his command to take care of their Reyvateil partners and his second apperance is coming to the defense of Tenba reyvateil being abused by her partner. At all times he's polite and helpful.
* GodivaHair: [[spoiler:Mir.]]
* GogglesDoNothing: Krusche.
* GoKartingWithBowser: Happens in ''Elemia'', but you don't quite become aware of it until ''Metafalica''. [[spoiler: By Jakuri's own admission, the "Mir" inside Shurelia's corny magical girl love story was not an avatar, but rather the real one just playing along with the game, which she herself had scripted.]] So, at the time Lyner was trekking through the entire tower to find a way to save ominous and terrifying Mother Virus Mir, [[spoiler: Mir herself was content playing a video game with Shurelia]]. Bizarrely, it actually makes some sense in hindsight, as the two were friends and, most of her nefarious plots having failed completely, she wasn't doing anything at the moment.
** To top it off, [[spoiler: the only remaining bit of bad blood Jakuri has against Lyner is completely unrelated to him stopping her century-long plans: She's angry about him rewriting the ending to her game.]]
* GuideDangIt: Getting all the talk options with the Reyvateils, which have requirements ranging from making a certain item to going to certain places or talking to the other girls a certain number of times in a row. Made worse with the fact that a great deal of talks can be LostForever.
** Which thankfully can be gotten via multiple playthroughs. Otherwise, it would be impossible (not that all the topics are required to clear the game or the Cosmospheres).
* HalfHumanHybrid: Reyvateils, although only applicable to Third Generations, since they start as humans which change at any time during their childhoods/puberty, and can interbreed with them. The children may be either human or Reyvateils. The Origins and Betas don't count because of being completely artificial life forms.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Reisha.]]

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: ''Elemia'', at least near the beginning, has plenty of characters, especially in Tenba, who treat Reyvateils as easily replaceable property. When one can't get his Reyvateil partner to sing new magic because his physical abuse doesn't seem to be granting her any more PowerOfLove to make new songs, his teammate suggests just getting a new one. [[spoiler:Oddly, this seems to be caused almost entirely by CardCarryingVillain Bourd, and his death almost ''instantly'' brings about an end to the FantasticRacism (granted, because Bourd was the one ''encouraging'' it and the president of the company known for it was ''violently against it'').]]
** This is the reason for Mir's KillAllHumans and why her listed dislikes are humans.
*** [[spoiler: [[RestoredMyFaithInHumanity She gets over it]] thanks to Lyner who ironically one of the only humans that she still hates because he has ruined her script.]]

* IdiotHero: Lyner. A thousand times Lyner. [[spoiler:Mir discusses in broad strokes how much his idiocy pissed her off in the sequel, despite being the primary beneficiary of it.]] Of course, the real reason Mir resents him is that he [[spoiler:wrote a fixit fic for Shurelia's cosmosphere.]] While she was angered by the insult to her literary talent, it was actually a case of WrongGenreSavvy, since allowing that kind of trauma to go unresolved in a real reyvateil's cosmosphere would have left [[spoiler:Shurelia]] scarred for life.
** Lyner's idiocy, however, perhaps makes him the perfect lead in a game that's based on the PowerOfLove. It's pretty much the only way he could achieve the true goal of [[spoiler: SaveTheVillain]].

* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: It would be faster to list who doesn't qualify.
* IncrediblyLamePun: You should probably be suspicious if your Bishop is named 'false'.

** Even bystanders qualify!

** We start by commenting on the insertion of "Diquility," a substance in the form of a large crystal that must be inserted into a Third Generation Reyvateil every three months through a place called their "Installer Port." Croix must do this twice during the story (Lyner can do it once if he goes on Aurica's path), and it's always TheirFirstTime. Aoto gets it the worst - none of the ally Reyvateils are Third Gen, but he does have to ''un''install an item from a heroine, with similar results.
*** Seriously, it's one gigantic scene of ''nothing'' but innuendo. [[http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/288112.html It MUST be seen to be believed]].
*** Or heard. If you listen to the audio without looking at the video, you will feel like some sort of voyeur.

* InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja: Misha's shinobi costume.

* {{Joshikousei}}: All the heroine Reyvateils (so far) have a school uniform costume.

* LadyOfWar: Shurelia. At least until [[spoiler: she sings EXEC_SUSPEND/. and finally reveals what she really looks like under that armor. When she eventually joins the party, she also begins to act more like her age. Well, [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld at least whatever age she looks like considering she's as old as the Tower itself.]]]]

* TheLeader: Leard is the governor Platina and his conflict with Lyner is based on him wanting his son to succeed him when Lyner doesn't want to. Over the course of the game, Lyner becomes this for his group.

** Until you try them in real life. BBQ soda actually tastes as bad as one would imagine ([[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial …not that this troper tested this in real life]]).

* LongHairIsFeminine: There are four playable female characters in this game and the only one with short hair is the tomboy mechnic and even she had long hair pre-series.

* LoveMakesYouCrazy: The lower levels of the Cosmosphere do this to everyone. Somewhat Justified in that the lower levels (starting at level 5) are said to be closer to the Reyvateil's subconscious/unconscious levels, meaning they're a lot less restrained in expressing their emotions and...ahem..."desires."

* LoveTriangle
* MachineWorship: A far more benign version than usual, but pretty much everyone outright worships or at least acknowledges the [[ArtificialHuman Revytail Origins]] as gods.

** This becomes a critical issue in the sequel: [[spoiler: The whole reason Frelia cannot maintain Metafalss is because suspending Ar tonelico forced her to start powering the continent-generating song magic purely from force of will.]]
** TheMagicComesBack: If a player chooses to continue the game
* MagicalGirl: One of Misha costumes is this.
* MagicKnight: Misha would like to be this: "If I could fight while singing then I'd be killing two birds with one stone." But this trope isn't played straight until II with [[spoiler: Cocona.]]
* MagicMusic [[MagicFromTechnology From Technology]]

* MineralMacGuffin: Hymn Crystals
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Bishop Falss and Ayatane.]]
* MommasBoy: [[spoiler: Ayatane. Literally everything he does is for his mother's sake (i.e Mir's), for [[LoveRedeems better]] or [[LoveMakesYouEvil worse]]]]

* MusicalThemeNaming: Harmonica and Flute.
** Not just that, but pretty much ''everything'' involving the technology. "Silver Horn," "Plasma Bell," "''Symphonic Corridor''". Semi-justified in that it's MagicMusic [[MagicFromTechnology From Technology]] but ''still''...

* NoSenseOfDirection: Shurelia, considering she somehow finds herself getting lost quite easily in ''her own tower'' (on top of being over 700 years old), not to mention everywhere else.
* OfficialCouple: Averted. Despite Misha, Aurica, [[spoiler: Shurelia, Spica and Mir]] showing up in the second game, there are no hints as to which girl Lyner ends up with.
** However, it's known that Radolf ended marrying his old partner Fayma after the first game, who only appeared in one of the light novels, in one of the Drama [=CDs=], and in the OVA.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Misha [[spoiler:at least in the beginning.]] Also, Beta type Reyvateils age only till [[ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty they get, well, hot]]. Then they don't age ''at all''. And they live for about 150 years, so you do the math. There are some others better covered below by ReallySevenHundredYearsOld.
* OminousLatinChanting: It's your party's power.

* OneWingedAngel: Shadow Mir. [[spoiler:Eventually subverted. They're just Mir's viruses/servants that she can summon. She can summon them in ''Metafalica''.]]

* OrganicTechnology: Reyvateils, in a way. The Origins in particular, [[spoiler: during high-level grathmelding, Shurelia will make comments about some of them. In one case, she'll comment about one product being "her brain."]]
* PersonOfMassDestruction: [[spoiler:Mir is implied to be one, with the ability to be a major nuisance even when she's trapped in Ar Tonelico's equivalent of Cyberspace. Not to mention she's as powerful in some regards as the Goddesses of the three towers.]]
** [[spoiler: She's noted that she could definitely beat Shurelia in a fight simply because she knows all the latter's weaknesses. It helps that the former has a stronger up-front personality so she could simply bully the latter regardless.]]
* PowersAsPrograms: The various Hymn Crystals found in the two games are pretty much this. The Hymns (the song sung) vary depending on the singer, but the effects do not.

** Everything about the Binary Field. Read: it allows you to insert yourself into any story setting and pretty much do anything.

* PsychoElectro: Bourd

* RebelPrince: Lyner is the future ruler of Platina, although not if he has anything to say about it. [[spoiler:And he succeeds in every route except possibly Shurelia's.]]
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Mir

* SaintlyChurch: The Church of the Trio of Elemia. They are introduced as such and are consistentl helpful through the game. There was a period where they [[spoiler: attacked Platina and tried to raise Mir, but only because Falss mislead them into thinking they were calling The Trio.]]

* ShortTank: Krusche, although she doesn't get much sexual tension in, due to not being a Reyvateil, and hence, not a romantic option. (Something she lightly pouts about at one point, asking if Lyner'd be in love with her if she ''were'' a Reyvateil. [[spoiler:She gets paired with Jack/Harmonica.]])

* SinisterMinister: [[spoiler:Bishop Falss]].
* SmugSnake: The majority of the villains are this, making it all the more fun to slap them around. [[spoiler: Bishop Falss and Bourd Rade from the first game]] are {{egregious}} examples.
* SoundStone: Hymn Crystals

* SerialEscalation: Just how ''blatantly {{Fan Service}}y'' can we get the Reyvateils into next time without pushing the T rating? The third game features ''stripping to power up'', so god knows what's next.
** And in the end, the third game got an M rating in the US.

* SpritePolygonMix: Each game steadily incorporates more 3D, and it looks like [=AT3=] will finally make the [[VideoGame3DLeap leap]].

* {{Stripperific}}: Whooooo boy. Misha, Claire, Shurelia, Krusche, the president of Tenba... easily two-thirds or more of the female cast of the first game is dressed ''quite'' provocatively, with Aurica being the only one who's somewhat modestly dressed... and of course the player has the option of making her fight in nothing but a towel.

** Likewise, the ladies in the third game have plenty of time to take them off and pose during battle.
*** Except in the one battle with time limit. Which is usually the only battle where '''each and every''' transformation sequence is shown in full length, just to taunt you.

* {{Underboobs}}: Ayano.

* VaporWear: Ayano.

* VisualInitiativeQueue
* WarriorPrince: Lyner.

* WelcomeBackTraitor: Welcome back [[spoiler: Ayatane, the guy who technically was the reason why everything turns crazy in Phase 2.]]

* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: Ayatane.

* WisePrince: Despite being the heir of Platina, he rejects that power and prefers to be a common soldier. This may be because [[spoiler:if he becomes Leard's heir, it will be his job to train Misha's daughter and continue the cycle of useless sacrifice]], as well as tensions with Leard.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Misha and heights.
** Comes off as a Wallbanger if you notice that (When you meet her) she lives in a man-made flying island just below a flying ''continent'', all of which are one Creative Virus away from crashing down.
* WidgetSeries: A textbook example of the trope, as quite a few of the things it parodies are already a bit weird in Japan. In Americans this means the reactions tend to range from bemusement to astonishment to abhorrence.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler:Mir's first song, Harmonius, was meant to express her hope for the human race. However, since she was created with the hope of making an emotionless Reyvateil, it led to her being tortured and locked up. Nevermind that to be told "Your song's no good" would be an incredible insult all on its own, considering Reyvateils' songs are born out of their deep, heartfelt feelings. It's no wonder she started hating humans.]]
** [[spoiler: Perhaps more importantly, Mir, while connected to the tower, is keenly aware of the FantasticRacism being leveled against Reyvateils, and her inability to do anything else to stop it leads to her (understandable) declaration that HumansAreTheRealMonsters.]]

* {{Yandere}}: Most of Mir's songs are like this - you could make a bit of a leap to say her entire role as the BigBad of ''Elemia'' was a Yandere reaction to humanity.
** [[spoiler: Though actually only Despedia qualifies for that role. Harmonious Fusion doesn't contain any kind of Yandere-ness in its feelings (and arguably, in the lyrics neither), and Colors is no more than an image song for her, illustrating the development of her feelings.]]

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Where do we even begin with the impossible hair colors?

** The completion of all cosmosphere levels could be referred to as this. Cosmosphere levels, especially the lower ones, represent a reyvateil's issues, where they act out inner conflicts and have not been able to resolve them. The job of a cosmosphere diver is essentially to act as a SelfInsertFic MartyStu character, breaking the reyvateil out of a hopeless cycle and encouraging them to reach a good ending. What Lyner did [[spoiler:when Shurelia died on her fifth cosmosphere level]] was exactly what a cosmosphere diver was supposed to do, since leaving something like that unresolved would have left [[spoiler:Shurelia]] scarred for life. Of course, Lyner was WrongGenreSavvy [[spoiler:since Shurelia doesn't have a real cosmosphere, and this was just a visual novel she was using to replicate the experience.]] This becomes a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming [[spoiler:when Lyner really does treat it just like a real cosmosphere, and Shurelia like a real reyvateil.]]

** The endings where [[spoiler:Shurelia isn't revived,]] thanks to the supplementary material's ample FridgeHorror quotient. Total death toll: [[spoiler: the entire population of Metafalss once Frelia burnt herself out trying to keep them aloft. Even Metafalica wouldn't have saved them: power from Ar Tonelico is necessary for the EXEC portion of Metafalica.]]Of course, some argue there would have been NoEndorHolocaust... At least for the first tower, since at the absolute minimum, [[spoiler:all of Metafalss would have died.]]
*** [[spoiler:Part three makes all ends where Mir is not freed an InferredHolocaust: Without her involvement in the second game, the Heart of Gaea wouldn't have reached the third tower (at least not in time), thus dooming the entire planet.]]

* [[spoiler: Jack in Misha's mind on Cosmospheere lvl 6 specifically says and i quote "Human children have bad memories" end quote. In this case, you can't really hold it against Lyner if even Jack makes that statement.]]