Ar Tonelico 3

The third game in the JRPG series by Gust is called Ar tonelico III: Sekai Shuuen no Hikigane wa Shoujo no Uta ga Hiku (The Song of the Girl that Pulls the Trigger of the End of the World) in Japan. This time around, the protagonist is a male named Aoto, and the two Reyvateils he meets are Finnel and Saki. The setting is the third tower, Sol Cluster, where Reyvateils hold high importance over the second-class humans.

Nippon Ichi released this game under the name of Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel in North America on March 15, 2011, with Qoga meaning End in Hymmnos.

Being as this is the page for the third installment, more general series tropes go on the Ar tonelico page.

This game contains examples of:
"Aoto:"You know, since we've gone this far, let's go all the way...""
 * A-Cup Angst: Finnel most of the time. Cocona gets defensive about her size at times as well.
 * Finnel is very vocal about it. She even says she doesn't want to wear a certain item because she doesn't have the bust for it. Aoto immediately offers to make her some pads.
 * All Men Are Perverts: You have the option of invoking this when programming Hyumas. After purging to the final level, the player can ask the girl to stip again. Depending on the girl being programmed, she may not object to the idea...

"Akane:"
 * Saki's 3rd Cosmosphere level lives by this.
 * Amazing Technicolor Battlefield
 * Apologises a Lot: Saki.
 * Ax Crazy: Soma. Don't worry, she's a professional murderer.
 * Badass Preacher: Reverend Gengai. A one-eyed, pony-tailed, air-surfing, fist-fighting, hard-drinkin' priest. The other characters constantly question exactly HOW holy he can possibly be.
 * Baleful Polymorph: Saki has the power to turn humans into cake.
 * Bandage Babe: Filament.
 * Beam Spam:
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension: Aoto and Finnel, though they're probably just playing around more than anything.
 * The Big Guy: The military instructor Mute, as seen here.
 * Bilingual Bonus: The story EXEC_FLIP_FUSIONSPHERE/. tells in its Hymmnos lyrics is arguably more interesting than the song's context in the game.
 * It's at the same time the most beautiful and the most depressing thing you'll hear. Song here, Lyrics here.
 * Bokukko: Soma uses the pronoun 'boku'.
 * Bodyguard Crush: Inverted at first as Saki and Finnel show signs of affection to Aoto before the player chooses a specific girl's ending route, thus choosing Aoto's specific romantic interest.
 * Also plays a huge role in Tyria's Binary Field, where you essentially get to play through a Visual Novel with yourself taking on the role of the Bodyguard. Exactly how crushy it gets depends on your choices, but for the Best Ending... it'll need to get VERY crushy.
 * Breast Plate: Sakia Lumei's armor can become this.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Many characters occasionally become very aware that they exist inside a JRPG, typically during synthesis. Cocona seems to be perpetually aware of this fact
 * But Thou Must!: If you pick the wrong choices in Tyria's Binary Field, it actually sends you back through the levels.
 * Also in Finnel's RPG-style Cosmosphere level, if you choose not to help Finnel, she'll keep asking until you choose to help her.
 * Captain Ersatz: Soma's costume looks like some sort of demon Nightmaren.
 * Cast From Hit Points:
 * Catgirl: Filament.
 * Clothing Damage: Exaggerated to the point that you can't do a powerful special attack (especially when purging) unless one of you has been stripped down, even to the point of bearing your underwear!
 * Literal in Filament's case. The more that she is purged, the more tattered her clothes get.
 * Combat Stilettos: Pretty much every female in the game wears something with high heels.
 * Conveniently an Orphan: Aoto, Cocona. Maybe Gojo as well. And, of course, the Reyvateils couldn't have parents to begin with.
 * Creepy Good: Even after makes a Heel Face Turn and start helping the heroes, she's still creepy as hell, due in no small part to her spectacular Slasher Smile. Her Limit Break in particular is disturbing. Of course, it helps that she's a.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Aoto sometimes, but mostly Tatsumi
 * Death From Above: All of the Flipsphere attacks are some variant of this. Depending on what Reyvateil and Persona you're using, the thing raining Death From Above can be anything from cake, to words, to cats, to energy-beams, to plain, old, boring meteors.
 * Desperation Attack: Saki's Miracle power works like this.
 * Detached Sleeves: Finnel, Akane if you squint.
 * The Dulcinea Effect: Aoto to Saki in the first 5 minutes of the game.
 * The End of the World as We Know It:
 * Evolution Power-Up: The Mind Guardians, each Personae in the party has one, they have three stages of evolution, evolving each time a Purge is done; of course not only they change physically but their attack range and power increases too.
 * Expy: Richa. Dressed from head to toe in pink? Check. Infatuated with someone who doesn't return her feelings ? Check. Very hyperactive whenever that person is in sight, usually charging towards them? Check. She's pretty much a human Amy Rose.
 * Eyepatch of Power: Gengai.
 * At least we think it gives him power. Funny that the player never sees him actually fight.
 * Fan Service: Undoubtedly the most blatant in the series. Which is saying a lot considering the series. Also, there's a trophy that's literally titled "What's wrong with being a pervert!?"
 * Changed in the English version to "Return to Innocence"
 * Fantastic Racism
 * Fashionable Asymmetry: Finnel's stockings don't match.
 * Finishing Move: Ultra Supermoves and Flipspheres.
 * Foreshadowing: When you Dive into Saki, you'll see her Hymn Code is written: . Guess what it means?
 * Flat Character: and 's Mind Guardians, they don't appear in any Cosmophere, so unlike other Mind Guardians who had some participation in Saki and Finnel's Binary Fields, we don't get to know their personalities.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation:
 * The player can also "learn" (if you didn't notice Saki's Hymn Code)  from the Cosmosphere before it is revealed in the plot. Aoto seems surprised by the information he already knew.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: If the "purge" feature, in which Reyvateils literally strip to make themselves more powerful, is any indication, then either the radar no longer exists or the developers stopped caring about it. Or maybe some countries are just lax on the topic of nudity, which would explain why this game got an M rating in the United States and an equivalent of a T rating everywhere else.
 * They could be just taking Refuge in Audacity.
 * Gratuitous English: EXEC_CUTYPUMP/. includes a few English words and phrases.
 * Tyria uses this a lot too and ciao anyone?
 * Gratuitous French: Used by Aoto when trying to teach Akane about love.
 * Heel Face Turn:, but if you're Genre Savvy then you should have seen this coming a mile away.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Not the first time Maaya Sakamoto has voiced a short-haired Deadpan Snarker who's secretly the origin of the world.
 * Or Noriaki Sugiyama a young Hot-Blooded idiot whose great at making weapons and has spiky hair that's going prematurely white.
 * Homoerotic Subtext
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Not the first time Maaya Sakamoto has voiced a short-haired Deadpan Snarker who's secretly the origin of the world.
 * Or Noriaki Sugiyama a young Hot-Blooded idiot whose great at making weapons and has spiky hair that's going prematurely white.
 * Homoerotic Subtext

"Aoto: Hey, there are treasure chests in the Tower right?
 * If you install the DLC Tsundere personality for Harvestasha, it turns in to a Love Triangle.
 * Hospital Hottie: Yurisica.
 * Hot Chick with a Sword: Akane.
 * Hypocritical Heartwarming: Aoto, pretty much constantly in Finnel's cosmosphere.
 * Implausible Fencing Powers: Don't mess with commander Akane!
 * Improbable Weapon User: Almost everyone
 * Aoto's weapon is...a combination of sword, giant drill and a giant scissor with beams around it. Even Tilia lampshades that Aoto's weapon is illogical.
 * Tatsumi's weapon is called a V-Board, some kind of skateboard with a motor and a beam edge around it.
 * Hikari Gojo is the biggest offender this time. Well officially it's a doctor bag, well not just a doctor bag. It's a doctor bag that can... let's see: Shoot laser beams, transform into a shield, bazooka, stun enemies with electric, a beam saber installed inside it, DRAGOON beam cannon pods, and a Wave Motion Gun. I tell you a doctor bag never been this Badass before.
 * Cocona's weapon is a . But she's a bigger offender than Tatsumi, her   can seperate into two beam tonfas. The tonfas can generate a beam wave and beam twister, and by the way it can also float too considering it's originally was supposed to be a  . And when she uses her EX-Move she takes her original weapon: her hair clips, her beam sword generating hair clips. Yes, you read it right Beam Hair Clips! Only in Ar Tonelico...
 * Inexplicable Treasure Chests: amusingly deconstructed.

Tyria: Well, no one would bother to come if there were no treasures.

Aoto: Actually, I think the fact that there are treasure chests inside the Tower is surprising in the first place. Who the hell put such a thing inside the tower anyway?

Tyria: Why, of course it was me. They were created at the same time as this Tower's creation."

"Momoko:."
 * Yeah, the treasure chests in this game are Really Seven Hundred Years Old.
 * Inferred Holocaust:  Word of God even went on to write a complete description for this!
 * Intertwined Fingers:
 * I Will Protect Her: Aoto says this a lot talking about Saki and Finnel.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Momoko often brutally bullies Finnel, which immediately pisses off Aoto, until you learn the truth..

"Aoto: It's just some niche character designed to appeal to hardcore fans. Just like that stupid penguin thing"
 * Also in Finnel's Level 9 Cosmosphere,  She has the best intentions in mind...
 * Jiggle Physics: They even made an extra video explaining the physics of the different character models.
 * Kindhearted Cat Lover: Saki has an entire song devoted to cats. She takes Aurica's love of them and amps it up to infinity.
 * She has a cat mask and how much she's already been shown to meow.
 * Filament. Her purge has her creating cat ears and a tail out of magic! If it's still not enough, all her magic involves cats and her mind guardian is a cat.
 * Lampshade Hanging: Aoto asked Finnel why Clustenia has Dive Shops because... you know, they have no humans in their town, right? So why bother having dive machines? Even better, why install one in every house? Finnel only says that it's one of Clustenia's seven mysteries, leaving Aoto to wonder about the other six.
 * Synthesis discussions are pretty much made of this trope as well, as the character's regularly point out the improbability of wearing dresses as armor, discuss why you'd ever want to build a flame thrower (is there a better way to Kill It with Fire?), and so on.
 * Large Ham: Mute. Constantly. Aoto, too, whenever the protection of Reyvateils is concerned.
 * Looped Lyrics: EXEC_COSMOFLIPS/.
 * Luminescent Blush: Pretty much all the girls do this when Purging.
 * This is especially hilarious in the case of Tyria, since when she's fully purged she's wearing the exact same outfit she always wears when traveling with the party, having dressed up for the battle.
 * Lyrical Dissonance: Listen to  then.
 * Mad Bomber: Yurisica, who always seems to be enjoying herself way too much when she sets off explosives.
 * The Man Behind the Man: In Clustania,
 * Ms. Fanservice: Sarapatra.
 * Naked Apron:
 * Nobody Poops: Averted hard. There's actually a string of scenes involving Finnel being caught on the toilet. And though nothing explicit is shown, the dialogue makes it quite (hilariously) clear what's going on.
 * Of Corsets Sexy: Salapator seems to have one under her dress.
 * Our Mermaids Are Different: Zoi, the Pregnant Dolphin Mermaid.
 * Pettanko: Most of the main female cast.
 * Several personae mention this specifically when programming them, asking if it is Aoto's preference.
 * Pregnant Badass: Zoi, Mind Guardian, is quite a literal one, her evolution through each Purge it's just a ever increasing Gestation Period, and attacking with her babies.
 * Pretty in Mink: Several of the outfits.
 * Same Content Different Rating: The US version got a M (Mature) rating, while it got a T (Teen) equivalent in everywhere else in the world.
 * Self-Deprecation: In the English release (which was published by Nippon Ichi America) we get this bit of dialog when Aoto expresses his disgust over Gergo.

"Tatsumi: ...Somehow it looks like Goth Loli (Gothic Lolita) clothes.
 * Sexy Backless Outfit: Finnel's dress is rather revealing in that area.
 * She Is All Grown Up: Compare Cocona Bartel and Sasha from the previous game, to Cocona and Sasha in this game.
 * Also Krusche has grown a bit in the last 4 years.
 * Shout-Out:
 * Is it cool? Is it fashionable? Is it the real life or or is it just fantasy? -Aoto.
 * In fact, the song servers could be considered shout outs to PC technology in general.
 * On purpose? No idea. Hilarious? You bet.
 * "I've never seen a superhero in shorts, a tank top and a straw hat" - Cocona while synthesizing, as the topic was about what makes a superhero (they were talking about costumes). Aoto replies saying he'd kind of like to see that. Sounds like a reference to Luffy of One Piece!
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism : This game sends something of a Humans Are Bastards message (what with the "reyvateil supremacy", and such), but does try to balance it. Still heavily tipped towards the "cynicism" side, since what it does to try to tip it towards the "Idealism" side is rather low-detail.
 * Soft Spoken Sadist: A certain surprising someone.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": The English version gives us Sarapatra instead of Salapator.
 * Split Personality Takeover: Although the alternate personalities are kind enough to give the body back after they finish up their business... Well, maybe not for, but she got better.
 * Stocking Filler: Richa, Salapator.
 * Stripperiffic: An actual part of the game system! Not to mention the fact that Finnel's base outfit has what resembles nipple tassels.
 * Super Move Portrait Attack: Actually, make it Super Move Portrait Animation.
 * Sweet Polly Oliver:
 * Take That: When doing an Item Synthesizing a Rehearshal Frill with Tatsumi.
 * Take That: When doing an Item Synthesizing a Rehearshal Frill with Tatsumi.

Aoto: What is that? Some kind of Gokiburi (Cockroach)?

Tatsumi: Aoto, with that statement you have made an innumerable amount of enemies."


 * Teen Genius: Sasha again, only this time she can create her own personal Hymnnos and a satellite. Even Tyria commented that given another 3 years she may surpass her creator.
 * Third Person Person: Saki lives by this trope. Cocona continues her trend of third-person reference from AT2, although she uses it less frequently in this game. The trope itself is parodied inside Tyria's cosmosphere.
 * This Is a Drill: Aoto's weapon has one in it. His love for them is lampshaded when you perform image synthesis and create a couple new weapons and Supermoves for Aoto.
 * Tiny Guy, Huge Girl:
 * Timed Mission:
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Tyria has a quite a liking toward Agepan (Fried Bread in the English version); sadly it doesn't exist anymore (or so they say, even thought you can buy one from the game's special merchant) so we never get to see her eating one.
 * All the Reyvateils have one that you can give as a present when "programming" in order help make them more agreeable to stripping further.
 * Transformation Sequence: the process of Purging, by removing pieces of clothes.
 * Trick Twist: Someone's twisted wish...made out of love. Who woulda saw that coming?
 * Tsundere: Parodied with the DLC Personality Patch for Harvestasha mentioned above; installing it will turn her into a typical Type A, even breaking out the infamous "It's not like I ________ or anything." line. The whole thing is just a big Take That to the trope, as she takes hold of an Idiot Ball and goes completely against her original plans simply to protect Finnel from harm, and her actions are seen as boneheaded by pretty much everybody. There's also Cocona calling her "the booest boo I ever met!" A straighter example would be Finnel, (Type B) as she has a tendency to drop the hurt on Aoto when offended, sometimes even calling him stupid beforehand.
 * Unusual Ears: Saki's hair accessories pretty much act like this, to the point where they "prick up" when she's surprised.
 * Vapor Wear: Richa. Fitting, considering her desires (or so you can infer). Krusche even calls her "that sexy military chick", so the viewer can relate to seeing it as abnormal.
 * Variable Mix: Your Reyvateil's song has different musical effects added in depending on which Hymma you have equipped.
 * Virtual Paper Doll
 * Wet Sari Scene: The reason Soma's dress is often transparent.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Aoto, Luphan.
 * Winged Humanoid: Harvestasya, and  Except they're not really wings; they're something else gameplay-related. I think you'd find it interesting.
 * Widget Series: If the first two games didn't convince you, this one will go out of its way to leave you completely bewildered.
 * 1) You have to have your Reyvateils take their clothes off so they can become more powerful.
 * 2) Your best friend since childhood?
 * 3) The big guy that keeps trying to kill you
 * 4) One of your Revyateil companions And we haven't gotten into the battles yet. This game is so Japanese it's funny, similar to how Disgaea is.
 * Word Salad Title: "Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ceil" is 7 words long and two actual words in it, one of which is somewhat obscure. The rest of it is so obtuse that Nippon Ichi Software America released a press release explaining what the title means.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: A number of characters have this in some form or another.