Ar tonelico - hands-on

As with the Iris games before this, there's a fair amount of mixing ingredients for new items. Called Grathmelding, it's yet another way to change up the battles with crazy items. Early on in the game you run into enemies that can't be hurt by traditional weapons, but will fall when struck by specially crafted items that have elemental attributes attached to them. The quality of new items is directly related to the quality of the ingredients - skimp on the basics and your fancy healing potion won't amount to squat.

As with the Iris games before this, there's a fair amount of mixing ingredients for new items. Called Grathmelding, it's yet another way to change up the battles with crazy items. Early on in the game you run into enemies that can't be hurt by traditional weapons, but will fall when struck by specially crafted items that have elemental attributes attached to them. The quality of new items is directly related to the quality of the ingredients - skimp on the basics and your fancy healing potion won't amount to squat.

On top of that, each weapon, piece of armor and accessory in the game can be enhanced with various crystals that cover the globe (think material slots from Final Fantasy VII). These range from dual attacks to increased elemental damage to tweaks in defense... all in all, a vast plethora of options await your heroes.

On top of that, each weapon, piece of armor and accessory in the game can be enhanced with various crystals that cover the globe (think material slots from Final Fantasy VII). These range from dual attacks to increased elemental damage to tweaks in defense... all in all, a vast plethora of options await your heroes.

Brett Elston

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE.