Replay Machine

Let's take a look back at the world of "Ar Tonelico" for a while shall we? I've recently went on a grand search for the artworks of this awesome series that often does not get the credit it deserves here in the United States. The first game of Ar Tonelico, The Melody of Elemia, was not exactly the most popular of releases out here... proves that most US fans are whipped by the mainstream of Final Fantasy or other popular games. In 2009 here when AT2, "The Melody of Metafalica", came out in the States, I admit I didn't even know it was coming out. I was at a game store and saw a clerk stocking the shelves with AT2's boxes and I flipped out!

Currently I'm unaware of how the sales of AT2 have been here but I'm sure it's going to be a repeat of what happened to AT1. Its a shame that people are missing out on the power of Song Magic and the lovely Reyvateils like "Misha Artcerc Lyune" and "Luca Truelywaath".

Can any fan of Ar Tonelico imagine the powers of a ~Synchronity Chain~ between Luca and Misha? I suppose in my honest opinion I would still use Croix & Cocona for the physical attackers in such a party cause Cocona is just amazingly powerful, at least she was in my save. Lately I've been wondering about the possibilities of the 3rd Ar Tonelico, SPOILERS COMING UP!

Ar Tonelico 2's ending teaches us well the obvious... Cocona is a Reyvateil. Since she has a mission now it seems to scream the setup to the 3rd AT. I wonder if she will still be a fighter or if she will become a total songstress, giving way for a new main character? I'd figure she would become a songstress because of the Dive System in the series. Of course we can explore to chances of a total crossover? If you were to combine the characters of both Ar Tonelico games into one, you would have an unbeatable force... However that would lack a great deal of character development through the game.


I'm sure that all Ar Tonelico fans enjoyed the Hymns sung in both games. My particular favorites come from Misha's album and Cloche's. "EXEC PAJA /Misha Extracting" and Cloche's "METHOD Metafalica" win that status of favorite. Of course I like the EXEC with METHOD version of Metafalica, but I just like the basic METHOD version a little more.

I'd like to close my little rants here with realizing this is another one of the few, not the last though, tangents I've gone on about something other than my programmings. A little tidbit of knowledge for anyone out there interested is that in the United States if you're fortunate enough to find a copy of Ar Tonelico 1, it will cost you at least 100 USD! Since I once owned Ar Tonelico 1 a few years ago and only managed to get two hours into the game before the disc stopped working, I'd LOVE to have a new copy. It's rarity is what I blame the crazy price on, but it seems when the time comes for me to finally get it back, I'll have to pay it. I feel as if I'm missing out, and I better get AT1 before there's an announcement of AT3 in the future or something. Besides, then I get to have Misha sing again and she's just an amazing star singer! Got a comment or question about Ar Tonelico or something roughly in general to it? Just leave one and let me know!

Break

Presently I'm on vacation from my programming at the moment. If you wish it however you can find me on Florensia Online! I'm the master of the guild, "Infelsphere", which any Ar Tonelico 2 fan worth their salt will understand the name. Anyways drop by sometime and visit me. This of course doesn't mean that I'm not programming anymore, its a VACATION! Lol

Back on Track

Well since the previous update I've actually have a radical change of events take place. Instead of canceling the project, "Minazuki's Treasures 2", I actually went through and completed it! It had a grand release party to the Raquiandreams faithful and seems to be going well as everyone now gets that opportunity to join Remy Hinomori on her historic adventure.

What's in works now some might wonder? Is it Minazuki's Treasures TACTICS? The simple answer to that is no. MT TACTICS is currently on the backburner for a special release... an unnumbered generation title. Raquiandreams is proud to present... "The True Story of Raquia: Memorial Anthem Wish"! This new endevor is an expansion pack to the previously released title "The True Story of Raquia". I have nothing more to report at this time except that progress on the game is going smoothly and will make more headlines later as details become avaible. All I have to announce is that since this an expansion to the original title, meaning an all new storyline after the ending credits of the original, it will be on the RPGMaker 2003 engine and not RPGMaker XP.

Projects & News

Well I'm going to officially begin a countdown on the cancellation of project "Minazuki's Treasures 2: The Fate of Karaceltia". I haven't been able to find CG at all for the remaining characters when I need them, despite their minor role in the story. I'm afraid that if I just have a blank CG spot and say their name in the dialog, it might lose the overall appeal of what MT2 worked with. However I will leave this to vote eventually before I push the red button to stop the project and dust it.

Of course there are no, and no future problems with the other project... "Minazuki's Treasures TACTICS". This is still in work, but traveling at a snails pace thanks to the continuing distractions of the following games I've been playing. Ar Tonelico 2, Shin Megami Tensei ONLINE, and Persona 4. However this time has been better served to help build the storyline and further the character personalities... which is overall going well.

Quick on a side note, I'd like to mention that in Ar Tonelico 2 I think I'm one of the rare people that like Luca Truelywaath (Truelyworth in the American Release). I'll not go into spoilers but trust me, it's TOUGH to stand with that girl as the story went on.

More announcements and information will be coming along soon enough.

More Delays

Project MT2 as well as MTT (Minazukis Treasures TACTICS) are on further delays. While I can blame the work on the new gains of mine including "Persona4" as well as "Ar Tenelico2"... You can actually blame a bit of the delay of MT2 on CG issues. I'll have more to say later on.

Minazuki's Treasures TACTICS: Delayed

That's right, sadly enough, project "Minazuki's Treasures TACTICS" is on delay for its demo release set for the 15th. There's a series of things we can blame this on, with number one being that I was terribly sick last week when I planned on completing it. Number two is my new infatuation with "Shin Megami Tensei Online: Imagine"... This new MMORPG is all about one of my favorite game series, SMT of course.

So I know what you're all thinking, when will the demo of TACTICS be ready CK? It's simple really. I only have two and a half stories of the eight in the opening left to design. Those being Sakura Shirakawa, Akira Miyauchi, and Satoshi Sasamine. Currently I'm working on Sakura's story which wouldn't take much longer once I feel like working on it. Never fear though, the demo will not be delayed for long, I'd guess a week or so really.

Other than that, there isn't much to report at the moment. I'm busy trying to figure out how to setup the last 25% of "Minazuki's Treasures 2: The Fate of Karaceltia". I need CG for 3 characters and I don't have any that fits the specifics needed. If worse comes to worse I'll have to write around that section of the story and figure something out instead. But as of now, I can still do about 10% more work before I need that CG.

New Year & Nothing New

Well for all my fans out there the new year and holiday break yielded nothing by the way of Raquiandreams game front. I seriously was lazy for the entire time and did not put a drop of work in to any of my projects. I however am announcing that there will be a special DEMO release of "Minazuki's Treasures TACTICS" coming out sometime by mid-January. I'll be doing this to get feedback on the tactical battle system, again you've all seen such a system in games like "Final Fantasy Tactics", "Suikoden Tactics", or "Hoshigami"... to name a few.

Anyways the demo will be distroed only by special request and via MSN or AIM instant messangers. I'd imagine I'll have it ready by round-abouts the 15th, save of course for me dealing with the test plays of it myself so that it will run for everyone. So here's what's important if you want the game. You'll need to either have or get from me the "RPGMaker XP RTP Installation Pack", this will allow the game to run on your computer. Naturally like any other project done by me once you have the RTP installed, you'll be able to play any of my XP edition projects. That will include "Minazuki's Treasures 2: The Fate of Karaceltia" when I release it.

I seem to recall promising something about posting screenshots next time I talked about MT2... I really don't have much, so here's a fresh look at the status screen, featuring Remy, taken about 3 minutes ago as I thought of it. This menu system will not be used for "Minazuki's Treasures TACTICS", so don't get to thinking you'll see the same thing twice. Naturally I'll be putting up promo stuff and maybe a vote on favorite characters for TACTICS when I release that one. Anyways stay tuned...