Ar nosurge Plus: Ode to an Unborn Star (PS Vita) Review

In a galaxy far from our own, a world exists where new planets can be weaved through the magic of songs, and the spirits of nature come alive. However, the home planet of its inhabitants is destroyed, and only a single spaceship remains of the once-prospering people. Now they are fencing off against the reincarnated nature spirits, who have sworn revenge against humankind for destroying the planet.

Few genres have such an almost sacred style and tradition of deep storytelling as JRPGs. There are special rules that can only be successfully pulled off within this genre because of how its gameplay and worldbuilding are built around the storytelling aspects, which would otherwise be seen as vile or a sign of bad writing if used elsewhere. Ar nosurge Plus: Ode to an Unborn Star does not leave anything left to wish for when it comes to the subjects of depth and mass.

The most important ingredient in the JRPG tradition of storytelling is the characters. They have to be both colourful and emotionally deep to make the player able to sit through the entire 50+ hour experience. In this area Ar nosurge Plus performs a lot better than many other games in the genre, accomplished via a visual novel-like gameplay mechanic called Genometrics.

In the Genometrics the player gets to discover hidden parts of most of the main cast’s inner workings to both advance the story and unlock new special attacks and stat-increasing gems, which will help very much in combat. The stories in here focus on characters’emotional weaknesses that they want to hide from the world in a sometimes ingenious and often very beautiful and artistic way, often using extremely well thought-out props to highlight the inner insanity and spiritual unhealthiness of the character in question. This helps give deep emotions to characters who might at first appear one-dimensional, but after a quick visit in the Genometrics, most things about them become crystal clear. It adds variation to the gameplay, but also brings in an emotional connection, which helps make the player care more for the characters.

The Genometrics also helps highlight what Ar nosurge Plus: Ode to an Unborn Star does best in its story: to truly capture the hearts of gamers, how the characters interact with the world, and why. While too many games resort to a simple “this character is evil, that’s why they do this” argument, Ode to an Unborn Star goes far to give the characters a great reason why they have chosen to either destroy or protect the world. It adds beauty and meaning to the story and elicits sympathy with the characters in ways that are uncommon even within the JRPG genre.

All of this would be futile if the presentation was not appealing, but Ar nosurge Plus: Ode to an Unborn Star handles this with a high mark. The world is a classic sci-fi environment (also known as grey with shades of gray and a sprinkle of grey) for the most part. This canvas does nothing but highlight how colourful and beautiful the character models are, and partway through the storye, when entering the surface of the world, greenery is seen. Never before has nature felt as welcome.

Also present is great voice acting starring several well-known voice actors, and music beyond what is commonly found within gaming, which is great, as the story and fighting are built around songs. Anything less would have been disappointing, considering the setting. Despite this, some of the tracks are certainly going to catch several gamers off guard.

While Ar nosurge Plus: Ode to an Unborn Star uses the traditional tools of JRPGs in a beautiful way, it does use one powerful yet dangerous tool very clumsily: breaking the fourth wall. As the story progresses it becomes clear that the player is basically playing the game in-game and that the characters know about it.

Around this point the campaign gets split into two separate storylines: one with Ion and Earthes (which is literally the player avatar), and one with Cass and Delta. In the Ion and Earthes side, the fourth wall-leaning becomes what it can and should be, a way to help immerse the player in the experience of actually being in the game and therefore increasing the emotional strength of the bond between them and the gameworld. This is done by very subtle and simple tricks, like letting the player choose how to answer some questions and set the nature of the emotional bond between them and Ion.

On the Cass and Delta side, however, this tool almost ruins all that immersion. While on the Ion and Earthes side it was used to make the player connect with Ion, on the Cass and Delta side it detaches Cass and Delta from one another in forced ways. It’s painful to have one-third of the story circle around how horrible it makes Delta and Cass feel to have Delta be controlled by the player. It makes the player feel more like a plot device, as there are basically no options, which was what made the Ion and Earthes part feel so powerful. It seems to exist mostly to justify the main character knowing things they shouldn’t know to progress in the story, or to cover up plot holes. It feels cheap and is used unskillfully in this department, which is sad in a game that has so much focus on its great story.

Even with this flaw, the story is fundamentally good and well thought through. The same cannot be said about the difficulty curve of combat on the higher levels. At the beginning the combat is good and well-balanced, offering every single tool needed to win the battles ahead of them and highlighting how well-developed the combat system is. This first areas play exactly like the combat of a turn-based JRPG should, requiring min-maxing and the use of proper tactics to win. It’s a little bit too much trial-and-error, but this is only apparent on the highest difficulty level, which exists for those who enjoy developing the winning strategy this way.

However, somewhere one-third through the game, a difficulty spike of the worst kind appears. All of a sudden a couple of bosses appear that are far beyond anything the player will face for the next third of the adventure. This is highly problematic in a turn-based JRPG; to beat these bosses, level grinding is required, to a degree that every other boss afterwards will become too easy. To make matters worse, these bosses appear in places where boss fights are not expected, which makes it possible to lose hours of progression due to not saving or going back to the town to gear up.

After this point, the difficulty curve slopes downwards, as the player is too highly leveled and geared for the challenges ahead. This stands true until the very end, where a similar spike appears, but at this point the characters should be geared in a way that makes them basically immortal. The defensive stats of the enemies skyrocket into levels seldom seen even in the most sadistic games, and this turns the final boss into a giant wall fight. It’s almost impossible to lose against it, but it takes a very, very long time to kill. Even at the level cap and with the best gear, the boss can take well over an hour of just standing there and hitting it. This creates one of the most boring final boss battles to ever witness the light of day, and highlights exactly how bad the balancing after the initial first third of the game is.

The mechanics outside of combat are wonderful. It’s clear Ar nosurge Plus: Ode to an Unborn Star is made by the same studio that makes the Atelier series just by taking a look at the vast crafting system. A lot of focus was put here, and while it’s not as interactive as the one found Atelier, just as much time will be spent here.

There are four different crafting shops, each with their own recipes and colourful and charming owners and stories. As different crafts are made, more and more of the story of that specific shop is uncovered. Crafting is never a dull experience, as the tales are at times emotional but mostly whimsical in the true sense of JRPG side quests.

Overall this is a mixed yet positive experience. The story is mostly exceptional and breathes life into the characters, and all of the surrounding mechanics highlight the well-developed characterization. The combat mechanics allow for a fun experience that makes combat more than just combat. Unfortunately, the difficulty curve after the initial third of the game is completely destroyed by a sudden spike. It’s unclear if a specific boss was accidentally given the stats of a later one, but either way it’s an almost unforgivable issue as it risks throwing the pace of the experience off. It does, however, almost get away with this because it’s only apparent on the highest difficulty setting, which very few will play on, and is avoidable by lowering the difficulty on that specific fight.

A good experience waits for fans of great JRPGs with a focus on character development, but for people looking for a challenge, after the first third of the game not much is found here. More focus could have been put on balancing the difficulty at the highest level, and instead of just giving all enemies a bigger life bar, they could’ve used more offensive output, making the fights into the adrenaline-pumping experiences they were during the earlier sections.