Let’s Blog: Ar Tonelico III – #21: Stop All The Downloadin’

This entry covers the long cutscene in the middle part of Mebius Factory dungeon.

Spoilers, as usual.

After being rescued, Saki gushes about that she knew Aoto would come for her, and how grateful she is that he did. Aoto just says her name rather than come up with a manly response, and Finnel watches silently, unimpressed. Katena interrupts that there’s no need to linger here and they should escape.

As they exit the room, an alarm sounds. Aoto mutters they were careless, and Finnel wonders if it’s still possible to escape. Katena says not to worry, and asks if Saki will lend him a bit of her power. They begin running down the hallway, but are intercepted by a pair of Clusternian soldiers, whom you have to defeat in combat. Afterwards, they continue onwards, hiding inside what looks like a storeroom.

Katena says they should be safe in here, and that he’ll explain his plan now. He says that he wants Saki to download a Hymn Crystal and sing the song contained within it. Hikari asks what the Hymn Crystal is, and Katena replies that it’s his secret weapon to annihilate the Clusternian occupation; the “key to operating the DFP.” Finnel reacts with shock at the mention of this. Tatsumi inquires whether he’s got it right that DFP stands for “D-Wave Flare Pulse Emission Device.”

Aoto is clueless, and Katena explains that it will emit a huge burst of symphonic power and overload anything which make use of it in the vicinity- such as airships and Reyvateils. Aoto asks if that will overload Saki as well, and Katena explains he’ll equip Saki with a silencer so she’ll be immune to her own Hymn’s effects. (Presumably Finnel will get one, too.) Aoto still thinks this all sounds a little unsafe, but Saki agrees to do it, saying that she wants to atone for the suffering the people of the Great Fang have experienced because of her.

Katena proceeds to download the crystal into Saki, with the chant “Was yea ra chs hymmnos yor, en chsee fwal fwal yor, exec drone hymmnos EP=NOVA, enter SAKIA_FEHU_TILIA_HARVESTASYA” (fairly similar to the chant used in Ar Tonelico 2, also reveals Saki’s Hymn Code.) Saki says excitedly that she feels a great power entering her.

Suddenly, a robot bursts into the room, followed by other robots. Katena says their movements must have been detected, and Aoto leaps into battle with them. After the battle, even more robots arrive, and they decide to run. Out of the hallways and some distance away, they seem to have lost their pursuers, and Katena says if they go to the upper level it should be a good place to trigger the DFP device.

Saki rejoins the party and you’re given control very briefly; once you run ahead, Aoto will stop in wonder and ask Katena about the surroundings. Katena says that the Mebius Factory is the largest power plant in the world and generates the most symphonic power of any such plant. He takes pride in the huge disc before them, the “Wide-Area Symphonic Power Absorption Disc”, being its key component. Historically, Mursyeriel has had a greater power output, but this disc…

Hikari tells him that’s enough of an explanation, and they need to hurry onwards. Katena apologizes, he just gets a thrill talking about that sort of thing. Instead of hurrying, the PV goes to the nearby save point and spends the rest of the duration (nearly ten minutes) catching up on Saki’s Talk Topics.

Short PV, short write-up. Sorry, midterms are this week and next.

Tags: ar tonelico, ar tonelico 3, gust, jrpg