Let’s Blog: Ar Tonelico III – #3: Wild SOMA appeared!

This entry covers the rest of the cutscene at the end of Blue Heaven Road, as well as the cave area leading to Tokoshie Canopy afterwards.

Spoilers, as usual.

Aoto leaps up, awoken by the sound of the unexpected visitor crashing through the while Tatsumi shouts “It’s… it’s Soma!” Aoto doesn’t recognize the name, however Soma approaches, looking them over without a word, though he is not making a move yet. Tatsumi continues “Run! We can’t win against this guy!” Aoto asks if Tatsumi knows who it is, and Tatsumi replies “He’s Clusternia’s greatest assassin!”

Aoto asks, “What would that person be doing here?” and Tatsumi says, “Hell if I know! But there’s no way we can win! We’ve got to escape!”

Go! SAKI!

What will SAKI do?

SAKI used PRAY!

SOMA fled! No SOMA, come back!… Actually, don’t.

Saki is confused by this turn of events, since she didn’t even finish her prayer. The owner of the house arrives, and they explain to him what happened. He is not upset by the loss of his window, but suggests that they move on swiftly as their enemies clearly know where they are. This time it’s Aoto who apologizes for causing the old man inconvenience.

The three of them continue onward into a cave. Tatsumi wonders some more about why Soma ran off when Saki began praying. Saki says that when she prays, the stars fill her with power. Before the menfolk have a chance to be skeptical, a monster drops down behind them. Tatsumi says that since it looks like it has a hard shell, they’ll have to rely on Saki’s song magic to take it out.

After this, you see a tutorial on purging, for which you have to attack the boss in tune with a graph on the bottom of the screen, similar to AT2′s Defense phase. After you’ve done this enough, you’ll be able to shake the controller to make Saki purge, which makes your attacks actually do damage to the miniboss.

After defeating the monster, Aoto asks Saki why she stripped. Saki blathers some more about stars and also reveals “The more skin a Reyvateil is showing, the more powerful her Song Magic is. It really is embarrassing, though…” Tatsumi says it’s not a problem as long as Aoto’s not having any dirty thoughts, which causes Aoto to get irritated.

Eventually, control returns to the player and you get to run through the cave.

After going a short distance, Aoto pauses, having heard a voice from somewhere. The three of them spot a girl trapped on a precarious ledge up ahead, being buffeted by the wind…

“We’ve got to hurry and help her!” Actually, you don’t, so I went to the save point up ahead and rested, revealing several new talk topics with Saki. None of them were particularly interesting enough to translate in full, concerning things like me having let her die in battle earlier, her embarrassment over stripping, etc. After a good night’s rest, I felt up to the task of rescuing the girl, which required climbing a ladder and running a short way to view another cutscene.

Aoto’s background as a construction worker evidently trained him in ninja jumping techniques, allowing him to join the girl on the ledge with ease. Somehow this leads to her off-screen rescue, rather than trapping him as well.

After Saki gushes over Aoto’s moves, Aoto asks the girl how she managed to end up there. Stammering, she explains she was taking a walk and got lost. The rest of them decide to leave it at that. Saki introduces herself, and asks the girl’s name. She says her name is Finnel, and she lives in Tokoshie Canopy.

Saki remarks that they’re headed there as well, and suggests they go together. She expresses her delight at being able to travel with a girl about the same age, and hopes she can be good friends with Finnel. Things go smoothly until Saki begins insisting on calling her ‘Firurun’. Aoto remarks that the name suits a dolt like Finnel, and when Finnel takes offense points out that only a dolt would get stuck on an inaccessible ledge like that.

Saki informs Aoto he is being rude. She corrects him; Finnel is not a dolt, just careless and clumsy. After a bit more bickering, they reach a truce and settle on ‘Firu-chan’ as her nickname. Tatsumi suggests they move on, but suddenly, a light shines from Finnel’s chest, and she turns away with a shriek.

Aoto, genius that he is, mistakes the light for some kind of accessory. Finnel is only too eager to agree, and hurries onward on her own; Saki runs after her.

Left behind, Aoto remarks that Tatsumi’s been acting kind of cold. Tatsumi says he felt an unpleasant omen when they first saw her, but Aoto tells him an unpleasant omen is no reason not to save someone’s life. Tatsumi replies that he’s too trusting, and walks away.

Finnel joins the party, and control returns to the player.

You can go back and rest again to have a nighttime chat with Finnel. Finnel thanks him for rescuing her, and says it must have been scary, but Aoto replies he climbs sheer cliff faces all the time for his job. Finnel is extremely impressed, and would like to talk to him more… After this you have access to another talk topic with each of the girls.

The video stops after showing those, so I will too. Managed a shorter write-up this time, mainly due to skipping over the talk topics. >_>

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