Glitches
From The Ar Tonelico Wiki
With the release of Melody of Metafalica in the US, several errors on the part of NIS America have come to light - including ones that previously existed as well in Melody of Elemia without most players' knowledge. As most people probably have absolutely no idea what's going on when they encounter the glitches caused by these errors, a need for this page has come into being.
This page is now under the jurisdiction of Drache. Any additions to this page MUST first be confirmed through and added only by Drache, or else the protection is going to have to go back on this page and make everything a LOT harder for everyone. Please don't force me to go into heavy-handed admin mode. Enoki 10:12, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
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[edit] Melody of Elemia
[edit] Soleil Stone
There is a glitch present in Misha's route at the Tail of Reminiscence, when the Soleil Stone can be obtained. A cutscene with Misha will show before you can approach the rock from which you take the Soleil Stone; it is then possible to bypass a second cutscene needed to finish the game if the player takes the Stone too quickly. If the second cutscene is bypassed, Krusche will disappear from the Viola Forest, preventing the advancement of the plot and in turn making it impossible to win the game. This glitch is also present in the Japanese version of the game, and can be bypassed by making sure to view both cutscenes before getting the Soleil Stone. This is done by approaching the rock very slowly and carefully after the first scene - DO NOT JUMP while approaching, as that too will bypass the trigger. (Confirmed by Aquagon 07.)
On Aurica's path, acquiring the Soleil Stone will erase the Skuwat Metal from the inventory, which is necessary to make the Flipper. However, it is possible to go back to Skuwat Village and pick up another one.
In the beginning of Phase 3, when Lyner searches for his party members, avoid going in the Tenba facilities in Hoshinosi.Ave, Lyner will simply state that there is no need to go there and jump back up only to get stuck at the wooden pillar at the entrance.
[edit] ELMA-DS
While fighting ELMA-DS at the S.P.U. in Phase 2, there is a glitch that occurs after an unknown amount of time (several turns, and the player must be fairly underleveled in order for the battle to drag out long enough, so most players do not see this glitch) that will cause the game to freeze. The reason for this glitch is currently unknown, but it is speculated it may happen when ELMA-DS calls in reinforcements after that unknown amount of time has passed. It can be bypassed by defeating ELMA-DS before enough time has passed for the glitch to occur. (Confirmed by Enoki - five times in a row, in fact...)
[edit] Melody of Metafalica
[edit] Hibernation
After leaving Lakra's facility for the first time and confronting her after breaking through Cocona's Boundary Gate, there is a chance the game will freeze when Luca stops Frelia from singing "Hibernation" and the scene shifts back to Lakra in the Binary Field. The reason for this glitch is unknown, but it's likely a memory spike caused by the scene switch that can happen on other transitions as well. It can be bypassed by resetting the game and trying again. (Confirmed by Enoki.)
[edit] Raki
During Phase 5, very near the end of the game, there is a mandatory boss battle with the tower guard robot Raki (and later optional battles with her as well) which can be impossible to beat. On the third Defense Phase of the battle (though sometimes it can happen on the second, or even (rarely) delay until the fourth if Raki's HP is depleted enough), Raki will use an attack called "Fractal Change" which freezes the game. The reason for this glitch is a buffer overflow caused by a coding mistake in the localization, though some players had speculated it was because the actual attack was removed from the game in localization while the code to trigger it was not (which has been proven false through inspection of the code.) It can be bypassed through several methods, listed below in order of success. (Confirmed by Enoki and various other players who have gotten to Phase 5.)
- Defeat Raki before the third Defense Phase. Success rate: very low.
- While this may easily be done for the mandatory boss fight, the chances of this succeeding get lower with every optional battle, as her stats continue to rise. For the mandatory boss fight, the player is recommended to be at least in the 50s in level AND have recruited at least 15% of the I.P.D. Reyvateils into Cloche's fan club. For optional fights, the player should be highly overleveled in addition to having several I.P.D. Reyvateils in Cloche's fan club. Lowering the difficulty to easy is also strongly recommended. There is also a chance Raki will use the attack in the second Defense Phase.
- Deal over 40,000 damage to Raki before the third Defense Phase Success rate: low.
- To deal that much damage on the mandatory fight, the player is recommended to be at least in the 50s in level and/or have recruited at least 15% of the I.P.D. Reyvateils into Cloche's fan club. However, there is a chance Raki will use the attack despite the HP drop, or randomly use it in the second Defense Phase instead.
- Cheat. Success rate: medium to high, depending on how it's done.
- There are various codes that will allow the player to level more quickly, which would certainly help. There is also a Codebreaker code, confirmed to work by Enoki, that will give the player an unlimited Attack Phase (phase switching can be triggered by holding Select to drain the turn bar, and this does not affect the time of the Defense Phase), but does not allow the extraction of song magic or raising of skill attacks to level 3 that phase switching triggers. It is, however, useful if the player does not mind a drawn-out battle with the use of only level 1 and 2 skills and level 1 song magic.
- Download and burn the fan-patched ISO of Melody of Metafalica. The success rate is very high, but it is only useful for players with a modded PS2.
- There is also another reported way of beating Raki using blue magic to extend the turn phase; details can be found here, but it cannot be confirmed at this point how effective it is 100% of the time.
- Get the PAL (European) version.
- The bug has been fixed in this version, but only those who have the ability to play imported games or those who have a PAL console can use this method. However, since the PAL version doesn't have the option for 60 Hz, some TVs may not display the game properly without a conversion method.
NIS America has issued a statement on the Raki glitch[1], but it has been found to be highly inaccurate and does not state any plans whatsoever to fix it. They have stated that lowering Raki's HP by at least 40,000 points and defeating her before the third Defense Phase are foolproof ways to prevent the glitch from happening (see why this is inaccurate in the list of methods above), that this glitch does not occur on backwards-compatible PS3s (an outright lie, as this has been tested by several players with PS3s and confirmed to happen), and that the freeze is caused by "heavy memory usage" (when there are in fact other areas of the game with even heavier memory usage that do not cause it to freeze, and simply looking at the code can disprove this.) Sadly, it seems NISA cannot be depended on to provide any sort of foolproof fix for their own mistake or even give us accurate information on it, and it is up to the player to find their own way of bypassing this glitch.
Later, at Anime Expo, the bug was noted as mere oversight, despite numerous tests - NISA's own testers missed it in addition to Sony's test run because they were simply much stronger than Raki.[2]
[edit] Additional bugs
- Various hymmnos text problems, such as corruption and display problems.[3]
- During Phase 1, if Cloche is chosen, Alfman will give a speech about the Infel Pira. During the speech, a clapping sound effect will go off, and upon finishing, the game will freeze. The solution to this problem is to simply go through the text quickly.
- Corrupted text. Occasionally the Japanese text will show over the English - such as when a new I.P.D. joins Cloche's fanclub, or when only one Reyvateil is in the party when fighting an I.P.D.[3]
- At one point in Frelia's Cosmosphere, the voice and the name of the person who is supposed to be talking do not match.[3]
- Even if Cloche is chosen in Phase 1, Jacqli says, "You will not be able to save Luca because I will stop you."[3] Additionally, Cloche will later say that Luca sacrificed herself and became part of Gaea.
- When the Tower is finally shown, the directions to get to it are incorrect. Instead of saying to go to Bell Strike Hall, the game says to go to Promise Hill.[3]
- Occasionally, the words run out of the text box.[3]
- Opening video in the North American video has poor syncing because a small part that displayed the logo with Japanese text was cut off.[3]
- Various other glitches can be found here.
[edit] References
- ↑ NISA's Response to the Raki glitch
- ↑ NIS America Talks About Its Upcoming Games and the Localization Process
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 List of various bugs in Ar tonelico II
