Ar tonelico takes place in the world of Sol Ciel, where two separate disasters have destroyed every last trace of a once-great civilization, as well as the earth and sky. All that's left is the Tower of Ar tonelico, which the remaining inhabitants of Sol Ciel must cling to in order to survive. Most of the survivors live on a small floating continent that surrounds the tower, but a powerful group known as the Knights of Elemia inhabit the tower itself, and it's their job to repel attacks from creatures known as viruses in order to save the world from further calamity. As you might expect, one day the tower is attacked by an extra-powerful wave of viruses. Lyner, a young knight, is sent to the continent at the base of the tower to find a magic stone that will save the world from utter ruin.
You play the game as Lyner, and it's up to you to adventure through dungeons and towns fighting monsters, recovering treasure, and growing stronger in preparation for the obligatory final confrontation that will determine the fate of the world. You usually visit a town and talk to a few characters who inform you that you need some special item that can be found only in a secret and almost always treacherous place. Being the brave hero, you set out to find the item in question and then return to the town to get the necessary information, item, or permission to continue on your journey. You never have to wonder where you're supposed to go next because you'll receive reminders if you stray from the path, and also because the world consists of a small series of connected dots that represent the game's towns and dungeons, so you usually only ever have a handful of options of where to go anyway.
All those battles do pay off in terms of experience points, though, so your characters will quickly gain levels and become stronger and tougher as you play the game. The reyvateil in your party will also level up, but for a reyvateil to learn new songs you have to "dive" into her cosmosphere, which is essentially her subconscious. As you fight alongside a particular reyvateil she gains trust in you, which earns you dive points. When you have talked to your reyvateil enough, you can dive into her at a special shop found in most towns.
This is where the dating sim elements come into play. You have to enter the girl's cosmosphere to find out what kind of crazy stuff is going on in her head. In each level of a girl's cosmosphere you'll encounter new people and problems, and you'll resolve all of those problems by spending dive points that you've accumulated. These dive sessions aren't at all interactive beyond pressing a button to advance through the copious amounts of dialogue. There are a few times where you have to choose between a couple of responses, but usually you just read lots and lots of nonsensical conversations until you've cleared the level and can move on. This portion of the game plays like a dating sim in that your objective is to get the girls to care for you so that they'll sing better songs for you. However, there's no challenge here because there's no real game. It's more like watching a visual novel where conversations and events occur without any input from you. That makes these portions of the game rather boring, which is unfortunate because the dive sessions can last for a long time and feature page after page after page of dialogue.
My favourite character - Misha Arsellec Lune
