History VideoGame / ExaPico

Strictly speaking, the three games are all [[RolePlayingGame Role-Playing Game]]s, though the exact specifics vary between them. They were jointly developed by Gust and Creator/{{Banpresto}}, prior to the latter's absorption into Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment; all three were also localized into English by NISA.

** 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.

** Reversed in the third ''Ar tonelico'' game, where Reyvateils from Clustania see humans as "impure" and do their best to Cleanse (wipe out) or Purify (brainwash) them. [[spoiler: It helps 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.]]
** In ''Ciel nosurge'', [[spoiler: [[BigBad Revelt]] hates the Genom and pushes the Cielnotron's use in hopes they will die out]]. It gets worse when [[spoiler: humans start wrongly believing that the Genom caused the world-ending earthquakes when it was really Revelt's fault]]. In ''Ar Nosurge'', the humans and Sharl have misguided ideas about each other.

** 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'.]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* 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 MagicalGirl love story was not an avatar, but rather the real one 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.]]

* ImMelting: [[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.]]

** Misha; the Star Singer has a crappy life [[spoiler: stuck singing for years on end in a dark room.]]

* LostTechnology: Since the stories of Ar tonelico takes place AfterTheEnd, the Towers and their administrators are essentially relics from the First Era. And the plot of the series themselves of leads to the rediscovery of these technologies, culminating in [[spoiler: the revival of the planet itself]].
** {{Invoked|Trope}} in the second game with [[spoiler: Infel intentionally sealing off any knowledge regarding to]] the Infel Phira, the Song Server that has the vital role in the creation of Metafalica, to avoid the knowledge about [[spoiler: the [[KillSat Replakia]] and [[HiveMind Messela]] Mode which won her the war against the Goddess]] from getting leaked out. This doesn't stop the technology itself from being rediscovered by Alfman and Cloche getting the administrative privilege over the Infel Phira, [[spoiler:since Infel reluctantly gave her a chance and granted said privilege while her own mind was uploaded into the Infel Phira itself]].

* TheMagicGoesAway: The temporal shutdown of Ar Tonelico in the first game has severe implications for the next one's plot: [[spoiler: Namely, Metafalss, the FloatingContinent which also doubles as the setting of the second ''Ar tonelico'' game, ''requires'' Song Magic to stay afloat, and shutting down Ar Tonelico forces Frelia to draw from her own reserves, which was why she was so powerless in the second game, despite being an Origin.]]

** This trope isn't played straight until II with [[spoiler: Cocona, a Reyvateil who is also a front-line fighter]], although you can't actually have her use Song Magic in battle and she doesn't end up performing a song proper until the third game.

* RousseauWasRight: With perhaps one exception per game, 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.]]

** Casty counts as VictoriousChildhoodFriend for Delta. [[spoiler: Unless if you [[WhatTheHellPlayer forcibly pair him off]] with Shurelia, that is.]]

* 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.

Developed by Gust of ''VideoGame/{{Atelier}}'' series fame as the brainchild of the studio's sound team head Akira Tsuchiya, the series is known for its ''incredibly'' expansive WorldBuilding and in-series mythology, its indulgent use of {{Magitek}}, and its outstanding soundtrack involving singers with their own distinctive styles that give the series its own unique touch (seriously, just look at the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKvconPM0No openings]] for the ''Ar tonelico'' games courtesy of series regular Music/AkikoShikata).

* LongTitle: The original titles are like this, and probably why the English releases are shortened.

* WordPureeTitle: The original trilogy's Japanese titles consisted of the franchise name, game number, and a [[OverlyLongTitle rather long]] subtitle giving a brief overview of what the game was about, but NISA chose to name them "Melody of Elemia", "Melody of Metafalica", and "Knell of Ar Ciel", even changing III's number to "Qoga" hoping it would deter people from thinking the first and second games were required. Conversely, this just ended up making the games look even ''more'' unapproachable, because by the time you got to the third game the only standard English word the average person would recognize would be "of". By the time ''Ar nosurge'' rolled around, Koei Tecmo more wisely chose to use a shortened translation of the Japanese title instead.

* KillEmAll: According to the myths from Sol Cluster, 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 to 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 afterward. Obviously, nobody survived.

** Origins are blessed with being practically immortal for as long as the Tower exists, but Shurelia's HD-Cellophane forces her to have a "static" personality that [[StaticCharacter can never change or develop]]. On top of that, being centuries old means that she has a number of incomplete operations that can't be repaired because all the technology was lost in the war hundreds of years ago. Tyria has it ''especially'' bad; in addition to the above, her ostensibly "better" Nuclear Triangular Loop ''does'' have a limited lifespan, and because it works off CastFromLifespan instead of a set time limit, she could drop dead at any moment (she ends ''Qoga'' with the knowledge she probably doesn't have much time left). Moreover, the fact she ''is'' the Tower means that her initial failed transformation [[AndIMustScream trapped her without a physical existence for quite a while]]. A supplementary novel [[spoiler:gives her a better fate, although it explicitly requires quite a hell of a lot of work to save her and ultimately ends in the collapse of the Tower]]. Frelia ends up the only one without any real raw deal to her status as an Origin, as she can actually have both a developing personality ''and'' proper immortality.

** Surge Concerto averts this, as its main heroine is very clearly Ion, and while in ''Ar nosurge'' Ion and Casty could be said to have the personality archetypes comparable to Betty and Veronica, there is no LoveTriangle and their partners are quite clearly Earthes (the player) and Delta respectively. However, the game does toy with the idea briefly when [[spoiler:the player's increased takeover of Delta's actions]] can optionally manifest in Delta flirting with Casty harder, and near the end the game also parodies the first ''Ar tonelico'''s LastMinuteHookUp endings by having [[spoiler:Shurelia]] abruptly ask Delta to leave the others and stay with her, just as she did in that game...[[spoiler:except this time it's a ''[[NonStandardGameOver bad]]'' ending, because everyone else immediately reacts with [[RealityEnsues shock and horror from him ditching his long-time girlfriend and planet-saving duties just to stay with some new girl he just met]]]].

* 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)

* {{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.) Metafalss and Ar tonelico have different dialects of Hymmnos (or Hymnos in the English localization).

* 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.

* KillEmAll: According to the myths from Sol Cluster, 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 to 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 afterward. Obviously, nobody survived.
* 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.

** [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in the second game with [[spoiler: Infel intentionally sealing off any knowledge regarding to]] the Infel Phira, the Song Server that has the vital role in the creation of Metafalica, to avoid the knowledge about [[spoiler: the [[KillSat Replakia]] and [[HiveMind Messela]] Mode which won her the war against the Goddess]] from getting leaked out. This doesn't stop the technology itself from being rediscovered by Alfman and Cloche getting the administrative privilege over the Infel Phira, [[spoiler:since Infel reluctantly gave her a chance and granted said privilege while her own mind was uploaded into the Infel Phira itself]].

* 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 Hymmnos. Channeling this kind of energy is not something the human body is built for, so Reyvateil/human hybrids (as in, basically majority of the Reyvateils) tend to have very short lives even with life extending drugs.
* TheMagicGoesAway: The temporal shutdown of Ar Tonelico in the first game has severe implications for the next one's plot: [[spoiler: Namely, Metafalss, the FloatingContinent which also doubles as the setting of the second ''Ar tonelico'' game, ''requires'' song magic to stay afloat, and shutting down Ar Tonelico forces Frelia to draw from her own reserves, which was why she was so powerless in the second game, despite being an Origin.]]

** While most of the MagicMusic in the franchise are of [[MagicFromTechnology technological origin]], they also features several songs that comes from nature, such as Ec Tisia (sung by the Will of the Planets). Surge Concerto series in particular have the Genoms, which allows their Synchronized partner to use [[MagicMusic Song Magic]], essentially working as a Song Server plugin into their mind.

** Conversely, [[VideoGame/ArNosurgeOdeToAnUnbornStar Ar Nosurge]] has both Cass and Ion chaining with their friends throughout the game -- Delta himself was chained with [[spoiler:Zill before the events of the game]], which is required to resolve a BrokenBridge -- but Genometrics chaining is much less romantically loaded than deep Cosmosphere levels, and in the end the game makes it absolutely clear that Casty and Delta only have feelings for each other, and ditto for Ion and Earthes.
* MultilingualSong: Many songs are sung in both Japanese and one or several of the multiple {{Conlang}}s (Standard Hymmnos, New Testament of Pastalie Hymmnos, Carmena Foreluna, Ar Ciela, Emotional Song Pact and REON-4213) used by the games set in this universe.

A prequel pair of games to the ''Ar tonelico'' trilogy, centering around the planet Ra Ciela and its fate. Although the two games follow some different rules regarding Song Magic from ''Ar tonelico'', they follow under the same overarching Wave Theory and universe. These games were developed after Gust had merged with [[Creator/{{Koei}} Koei Tecmo]].

As of this writing, ''Ciel nosurge'' has never been localized, while both versions of ''Ar nosurge'' have been localized by Koei Tecmo.

** Sol Ciel had the Right Wing of Horus (the floating continent near the First Tower of Ar tonelico) fell apart during the Reyvateil rebellion instigated [[spoiler:by Mir]], destroying the old capital of El Elemia in the process. Likewise, in Metafalss, a significant part of the Rim (the drafter plate at the Second Tower of Ar tonelico) was dropped when the First Tower was temporarily suspended.

** Origins are blessed with being practically immortal for as long as the Tower exists, but Shurelia's D-Cellophane forces her to have a "static" personality that [[StaticCharacter can never change or develop]]. On top of that, being centuries old means that she has a number of incomplete operations that can't be repaired because all the technology was lost in the war hundreds of years ago. Tyria has it ''especially'' bad; in addition to the above, her ostensibly "better" Nuclear Triangular Loop ''does'' have a limited lifespan, and because it works off CastFromLifespan instead of a set time limit, she could drop dead at any moment (she ends ''Qoga'' with the knowledge she probably doesn't have much time left). Moreover, the fact she ''is'' the Tower means that her initial failed transformation [[AndIMustScream trapped her without a physical existence for quite a while]]. A supplementary novel [[spoiler:gives her a better fate, although it explicitly requires quite a hell of a lot of work to save her and ultimately ends in the collapse of the Tower]]. Frelia ends up the only one without any real raw deal to her status as an Origin, as she can actually have both a developing personality ''and'' proper immortality.

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

** In contrast, Song Magic users in Surge Concerto have much less of a raw deal, as REON can be used by any ordinary person in conjunction with the [=TxBIOS=], and (some government-imposed restrictions aside) is freely accessible as an effective public service. Much more powerful magic can be used by the Genoms, or by a human synchronizing with a Genom, which doesn't come with a particularly huge drawback compared to those the Reyvateils have to deal with. Casty eventually artificially turns herself into an Incarnate, meaning she can use Song Magic without a Genom, and actually gets to have a ''longer'' lifespan while she's at it too (with only some mild annoyance at being [[NotGrowingUpSucks permanently stuck in the body of a teenager]]). Granted, it's established that very few survive the process in the first place, but compared to the above examples...

** [[VideoGame/ArNosurgeOdeToAnUnbornStar Ar Nosurge]] plays this straight by having both Cass and Ion chaining with their friends throughout the game. Delta himself was chained with [[spoiler:Zill before the events of the game]], which is required to resolve a BrokenBridge.

** This trope isn't played straight until II with [[spoiler: Cocona, a Reyvateil who is also a front-line fighter.]]

** In contrast, Song Magic users in Surge Concerto have much less of a raw deal, as REON can be used by any ordinary person in conjunction with the [=TxBIOS=], and (some government-imposed restrictions aside) is freely accessible as an effective public service. Much more powerful magic can be used by the Genoms, or by a human synchronizing with a Genom, which doesn't come with a particularly huge drawback compared to those the Reyvateils have to deal with. Casty eventually artificially turns herself into an Incarnate, meaning she can use Song Magic without a Genom, and actually gets to have a ''longer'' lifespan while she's at it too (with only some mild annoyance at being [[NotAllowedToGrowUp permanently stuck in the body of a teenager]]). Granted, it's established that very few survive the process in the first place, but compared to the above examples...

** In contrast, Song Magic users in Surge Concerto have much less of a raw deal, as REON can be used by any ordinary person in conjunction with the [=TxBIOS=], and (some government-imposed restrictions aside) is freely accessible as an effective public service. Much more powerful magic can be used by the Genoms, or by a human synchronizing with a Genom, which doesn't come with a particularly huge drawback compared to those the Reyvateils have to deal with. Casty eventually artificially turns herself into an Incarnate, meaning she can use Song Magic without a Genom, and actually gets to have a ''longer'' lifespan while she's at it too (with only some mild annoyance at being [[permanently stuck in the body of a teenager NotAllowedToGrowUp]]). Granted, it's established that very few survive the process in the first place, but compared to the above examples...

** IPD Reyvateils are Third Generation Reyvateils mapped to the Infel Phira server instead of the standard Ar tonelico one, which gives them access to a more efficient and powerful dialect of Hymmnos and [[HiveMind connects them to each other on the deeper levels of their subconscious]], allowing them to use said collective power to do things like a CombinedEnergyAttack and even [[spoiler:create ''entire continents'']] that are far beyond the scope of a normal server. Unfortunately, it also means that they become susceptible to things that damage said collective consciousness, such as [[spoiler:sensing too much negativity from the HiveQueen]] making them unable to cooperate enough to use their powers, or damage to the server causing mass outbreaks of [[FreakOut sudden violent behavior]]]].