- "I love that song...it hits me straight through the heart."
- —Ayatane—
Ayatane Michitaka (アヤタネ・ミチタカ, Ayatane Michitaka?) is the best friend of Lyner and a fellow Knight of Elemia. He is a calm, pacifistic young man who is kind and charming to everyone, prefers to approach and solve all problems with optimism, and is rarely seen without a smile on his face.
He also, rather strangely, enjoys doing domestic things such as cooking and cleaning, and dislikes crowds and fighting. Like Lyner, he fights directly under the jurisdiction of Shurelia, but unlike his friend he seems to have deep feelings for Shurelia that border on romantic love, and he constantly worries about her no matter how much he watches over her - he goes so far as to put his life in danger when he, Lyner and Shurelia are facing down the ELMA-DS at the beginning of the game, trying to hold the virus off by himself so that Lyner can help Shurelia escape, and later refuses to join the party searching for Misha's song so he can stay behind in Platina and protect Shurelia. However, his motives in getting close to Shurelia may not be as pure as they seem...
Role in Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia[]
Not much is known about Ayatane at first; he holds the role of the mysterious, effeminate character for quite a while, the mystery only increasing near the start of Phase 2 when he is shown to be able to destroy a virus simply by raising his arm to point straight forward at it (this scene continues from the beginning of the game, showing Ayatane's viewpoint when he forced Lyner and Shurelia away to confront the new virus alone; it is then later repeated when Ayatane destroys another virus to save Aurica in the Musical Corridor, saying "This is for you, Lyner. It'll be our little secret." before he performs the ability.) The others, especially Radolf, later question him on this ability when they see him use it, but he simply calls it a special occasion that should not be spoken of and the subject is, if with a bit of suspicion, dropped. Despite this suspicion and curiosity, he continues to fight alongside them for a while before leaving the party to stay with Shurelia, saying he is extremely worried about her and wants to protect her himself. However, he awakens some additional suspicions when it's revealed that he knows Bishop Falss' true name: Kyle Clancy; and while the party is resting after the Platina invasion, Ayatane uses that time to approach Shurelia at the Rinkernator. Shurelia orders him to reveal his true identity, lest her destroy him; while Ayatane simply recounts his backstory: he was found injured by Shurelia, who nursed and took him in Platina, and he later on joined the Knights of Elemia in gratitude. However, he then mentioned that this wasn't what she wanted to hear, and transformed himself into a spark of light that hit Shurelia, leaving her unconscious before a dark aura enshrouded and took control of her.
Later, the party must restore power to the shuttles and lifts in the Prism Garden to reach the top of the Tower when Lyner's father is kidnapped and taken there by Shurelia, who has been possessed by Mir. Once the power cable for the last shuttle is reconnected, Ayatane suddenly appears and inform them of his true identity - he is really a virus created by Mir, the Mother Virus, whose true purpose was to get close to Shurelia and then force Mir into possession of her body all along. He leaves directly after telling them this, leaving Lyner distraught at this betrayal from the person he considered his best friend, and an angered Jack swears never to forgive Ayatane for lying to them all that time, while Radolf gently reminds Lyner they still have a mission to complete and they can't just hang around. Though still upset, Lyner forces it down and the party continues on.
Ayatane is later encountered again when Lyner and the others are rushing to save Shurelia, after Mir has successfully possessed her body. He blocks their way and tells them he cannot allow them to pass for anything; Lyner, still upset over the earlier betrayal, tries to talk Ayatane into letting them by, but Ayatane holds firm to his orders (there is a moment of dialogue here that only serves to reinforce the fact that Lyner still considers Ayatane a friend, despite his betrayal: "So, nothing I can say will change your mind?" "And, nothing I can say will change yours." In his own way, with his reply, Ayatane shows the first signs of regret as to what he is doing, and that he, too, still cares for Lyner.) and they end up fighting. Once defeated, Ayatane says "I didn't want you to see me like this..." and disappears, once more greatly upsetting Lyner, but the party pushes on nevertheless and continues to the top of the tower to save Shurelia.
Surprisingly enough, despite being thought dead, Ayatane appears later at the Crescent Chronicle as Misha is singing the hymn Chronicle Key to keep Mir asleep within the tower. He suddenly says from nowhere, "It's wonderful" (in the Japanese version, he sings a modified verse of Chronicle Key) and causes Misha to stop singing in her surprise, dropping down in front of her after explaining, "I love that song...it hits me straight through the heart." There follows a bit of dialogue in which Misha wonders why Ayatane is there, and as he begins to explain why he's not actually dead, the scene fades to black.
Ayatane is then encountered in the Crescent Chronicle where he is holding Misha hostage, and Lyner once more tries to talk him into helping them instead of Mir, saying he still considers him a friend even despite everything. Ayatane grows angry at this and calls Lyner a "sadistic person" for making him suffer due to his insistence of their friendship, saying that even if they are still friends, his top priority will always be Mir, and that he "might not be a very good friend" thanks to that. He then walks up to the ball of light containing Mir in the center of the room and disappears again, leaving Lyner calling after him in desperation.
Later, after Lyner's battle with the Child of Light in the Plasma Bell, Ayatane performs what can be considered his true betrayal - when the Child of Light is about to destroy the party with a large energy blast after being defeated, Ayatane suddenly leaps in front of Lyner to shield him with his own body, taking the hit for him and appearing heavily wounded afterward. Shocked, Lyner asks him why he would do such a thing, and Ayatane explains that despite the purpose he had been created to fulfill, he had truly grown to think of Lyner as a friend, and didn't want anything to happen to him. He says he is certain he will be killed for his betrayal to Mir, and Lyner promptly invites him to fight alongside them and save Mir from her own hatred of humanity; this brings a smile to Ayatane's face, and he comments to Lyner, "In the end, it appears you're not as dumb as I thought." He then has a small monologue that is easily one of the most touching in the game:
"That must be why you have so many friends willing to risk their lives for you. I...want to be one of them. I don't know how many more days...no, how many more seconds I have to live..."
Lyner thanks Ayatane and promises they won't let anyone eliminate him, then asks him if they can be friends again, at which point Ayatane joins the party for the rest of the game.
When the party goes to the Silver Horn to find the first song Mir ever crafted for the humans, Ayatane temporarily slips under Mir's control once they enter the Princess Room deep inside - which used to be Mir's prison - and attacks the others, summoning a guardian only to be promptly knocked unconscious by a lightning strike from Mir. After the guardian is defeated, Ayatane regains consciousness and wonders why Mir only knocked him out instead of killing him, and Lyner suggests that it's because not many parents would actually harm their children; Ayatane seems to accept this, and the party progresses onward to the next room, where Ayatane breaks the seal holding Mir's song to allow it to be downloaded and sung for her, a task which Misha undertakes due to her guilt at having to seal Mir away for so long with the Chronicle Key.
Before the final battle with Mir in the Crescent Chronicle, Ayatane speaks to Lyner about how though he is a virus, Lyner never held that against him, and in treating him as an equal with everyone else, Lyner made him realize that all lives - even his own and Mir's - are something precious and deserve to be protected. He then tells Lyner "Please, take good care of my mother...Mir..." (a sentiment he later repeats if he is in the party when fighting Mir's true form to destroy the barrier of hatred and anger around her). Ayatane also helped Shurelia and Lyner during a Dive they had shortly after Mir was defeated, as Mir's song of hatred was leaving after-echoes that were driving the Reyvateils crazy and making them attack the humans.
He later gathers Mir's feelings and thoughts to help Shurelia, Aurica and Misha craft the Phantasmagoria hymn, and his final scene shows him (presumably, as the scene contains no dialogue) saying goodbye to Lyner and Shurelia at the Symphonic Reactor, then stepping onto the altar where all the viruses were born and disappearing for the final time, most likely to become one with Mir again.
Post-Ar tonelico 1[]
However, he simply returned to the Binary Field, and simply waited there until Mir needed him in the real world again. That time came several years later: as the Third Tower of Ar tonelico was on the border of collapse and its Origin, Tyria, about to die; Mir, now known as Jacqli, went to Sol Cluster in order to see what she could do for a fellow Reyvateil alongside Shurelia, who wanted to save her little sister in any way she could.
Due to being so far away from the First Tower, she summoned Ayatane back to the real world and ordered him to head to the Observatory, where he could be of more help. There, he and Meimei received a party formed by Lyner, Croix Bartel, Misha, Aoto and Lakra, all of which had come to use the Dive Machine that was in the Observatory. Since the main problem the Third Tower was having happened to be a lack of Symphonic Power, they needed to send a large amount of it to Sol Cluster in order to keep the Tower existing while they found a way to save Tyria herself. However, the controls for the Symphonic Power systems had been lost since long ago and Shurelia was never given the authority to handle them, so they would have to break through the security systems of the Tower and reroute part of the Tower's Symphonic Power to a relay satelite that would send the energy to Sol Cluster. Ayatane greeted Aoto, who at first was wary of him due to his resemblance to a certain other person that caused Aoto's party a lot of trouble back in Sol Cluster, but he then noticed how gentle Ayatane was, which left him surprised. Aoto also asked if Ayatane had any siblings, which he denied. Ayatane was in charge of making the preparations for the Data Dive into the Tower's systems alongside Meimei, and once the Dive began, they both monitored it in case anything happened, going as far as sending a digital copy of Kanade to help the party in their battle against the Tower's security systems.
Although the party was succesful in their mission, they came out from it so badly wounded that Ayatane had to rush them off to a hospital in Platina in order to keep them alive.
Skills and Abilities[]
Ayatane is the fastest character in the game, and he is also endowed with the highest probability of dealing critical hits, not to mention his high attack power, making him quite a useful ally. He might lack multi-target attacks, but like Lyner, this doesn't hinder his effectiveness at all, with this being offset by the fact that he only joins in Aurica's versio of Phase 2, and at the very end of the game, just right before entering the Silver Horn.
Stats Progression[]
| Level | HP | Attack | Defense | Critical Rate | Speed | Elements (Set level) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 562 | 153 | 102 | 12 | 36 | Ice - 25 |
| 20 | 1092 | 303 | 202 | 19 | 59 | |
| 30 | 1622 | 453 | 302 | 26 | 83 | |
| 40 | 2152 | 603 | 402 | 33 | 106 | |
| 50 | 2682 | 753 | 502 | 40 | 129 | |
| 60 | 3212 | 903 | 602 | 47 | 153 | |
| 70 | 3742 | 1053 | 702 | 54 | 176 | |
| 80 | 4272 | 1203 | 802 | 61 | 199 | |
| 90 | 4802 | 1353 | 902 | 68 | 223 | |
| 100 | 5332 | 1503 | 1002 | 75 | 246 |
Initial Equipment[]
Weapon - Flame & Sound
Armor - Samurai Armor
Skills[]
Spark - Slashes one enemy with one blade at high speed. Normal attack from Lv. 1 to Lv. 2 Harmonics.
Breaking Strike - Slashes the enemy repeatedly with both blades in a instant. Normal attack from Lv. 3 Harmonics onwards.
Dual Slash - Deals a cross-shaped slash at the enemy with both blades, dealing large physical damage. Ayatane knows it from the start. HP consumption per use: 10%
Godspeed - Greatly increases Ayatane's own speed at the cost of slightly lowering his attack power. Learnt at Lv. 30. HP consumption per use: 20%
Roaring Blade - Sharpens both blades to the limit, allowing Ayatane to send a shockwave to an enemy that deals extremely large physical damage, and might cause instant death. Learnt at Lv. 40. HP consumption per use: 30%
Hazy Shadow (Passive) - Randomly nullifies the effects from any enemy attack. Activates randomly, having higher chances to activate the higher Ayatane's level is. When activated, Ayatane will take a blocking stance and a "Blocked!" notice will appear above him. Learnt at Lv. 20.
Illusionary Break (Super Counter) - Ayatane runs at high speeds to slash the enemies, leaving a trail of ice behind him to finally shatter it together with the enemies it had encased. Causes extremely large Ice-elemental damage to all enemies, and might cause instant death.
Battle[]
Main article: Ayatane (boss)
As described in his biography, Ayatane is fought while the party is climbing the catwalk leading to the Rinkernator, and he is pretty much identical to when he is a playable character. This also makes him a very dangerous enemy, as his attacks can pretty much instantly kill off party members, despite his lack of Stored Attacks or party-wide attacks.
Role in Ar tonelico: Melody of Metafalica[]
Ayatane reappears in Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica as Jacqli 's Mind Guardian, with a much younger, almost childish look. He still calls her "Mother", as he did in the first game.
Ayatane as he appears in Jacqli's cosmosphere.
However, he is not the same as the Ayatane from Melody of Elemia, despite the fact that both are based on the same person, although he seems to retain his memories.
At first, he acts and speaks strangely - his manner of speech consisting of rather poetic metaphors about a lot of things - whenever he encounters Croix (Kuroaki) inside of Jacqli's Cosmosphere, but he also says at one point that he depends on Croix for Jacqli's well-being.
Later, after Croix manages to clear Level 8 of the Cosmosphere, Ayatane admits that he at first doubted that Croix could manage such a complicated cosmosphere as Jacqli's; however, he also admits that he began rooting for Croix upon seeing what he was able to accomplish. He helped Croix immensely during Level 8, and was the one to preside over the "bonds" ceremony between Croix and Jacqli. He can also lend his power outside of the Cosmosphere in the form of the Combo Magic Lucid Slasher during a Synchronity Chain.
Trivia[]
Ayatane in X-Edge
- He is the only party member and opponent capable of blocking, thanks to his Hazy Shadow skill.
- Ayatane plays a role in the crossover game Cross Edge, appearing alongside Lyner Barsett, Aurica Nestmile, Misha Arsellec Lune, Shurelia and Bourd Rade. He serves as a fighter from the Fantasy world and joins the group shortly after Lyner does. Similar to his role in Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia, he acts as a double agent for the enemy and can kill a monster in a single move. Over the course of the game he begins to regret this and is killed for it. If you manage to fulfill the requirements for the True ending, he will survive. His EX Attacks are Roaring Blade, Orochi and Phantom Smash (an inconsistent translation of his Illusionary Break Super Counter).
- Ayatane's Super Counter has been the object of the largest number of different translations so far: Illusionary Break in Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia, Lucid Slasher in Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica, and as noted above, Phantom Smash in Cross Edge.
- Ayatane doesn't have a will, due to being an AI created as an extension of Mir's own will. Despite this, he still can act and think independently of her, and as shown in both of the games where he appears, he also has his own feelings.
- Ayatane is in fact based from a Teru/Necrofamily that hailed from Sol Cluster, called Ayatane Michitaka Kirinami, who was tasked with the mission of rescuing Mir back in the Second Era. However, he failed and was subsequently killed by the security officials of Neo Elemia. These events were what gave Mir the ideas about Reyvateilia, her inspiration to go to Metafalss much later on, and his death was also what caused Mir to finally snap and begin her rebellion.
Gallery[]
