History VideoGame / CielNosurge

''Ciel nosurge: Ushinawareta Hoshi e Sasagu Uta'' is a 2012 simulation/visual-novel game for the UsefulNotes/PlaystationVita, and the first game in Gust Corporation's ''Surge Concerto'' series. This series serves as a distant prequel to Gust's ''[[VideoGame/ExaPico Ar tonelico]]'' games, though direct connections are not evident right away. Together, the two series make up the EXA PICO universe.

* PlayerCrueltyPotential: The game occasionally gives the player to act cold or indifferent toward Ion, and she also becomes extremely sad in the original Online version if you spend too much time without seeing her, both of which affect her mood negatively. But the worst thing is that [[spoiler: the game allows the player to divorce Ion after they married her if they pester her enough for her mood to hit rock bottom. The game actually asks the player to confirm if they truly want to go through with the divorce, but needless to say, actually doing it will only make the player feel like a monster, especially if they choose at the end the option saying "I'm never checking the terminal again". But the game also [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment punishes]] the player if they do this: once they have carried out the divorce, they can never return to being married or even as lovers with Ion, and they automatically lock themselves out from multiple events. The game also permanently changes their relationship status with Ion to "Incombustible Trash".]]

* AssimilationPlot: [[spoiler: The purpose of the Save Bezel Project and Zill's main goal : to use the souls of the humans as energy to restore the planet while Genoms inhabit the the now-empty bodies in order to reclaim their rule over Ra Ciela.]] [[spoiler:Zill and Nero attempt to enact it in Chapter 12 but with different goals in mind, the former tries to convert the people of Ra Ciela for energy in order to power Nay's song to repopen the window to the new planet while later tries to create a being called the Overseer in order to guide Nero back to her original dimension.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The ending can be changed to a sweeter tone provided you did a Sekai Link with Ar nosurge to get her default costume in it and gotten the Church date spot card. If you fulfill both requirements, you get to go on an extended date with Ion where she reaffirms the bonds she built with you as well as her resolution to stop Nero, and she gains a strong belief in the fact you'll meet again soon. Then you get a very emotive farewell with her before the sequence where she breaks down in tears while the terminal shuts down.]]

''Ciel nosurge: Ushinawareta Hoshi e Sasagu Uta'' is a 2012 simulation/visual-novel game for the UsefulNotes/PlaystationVita, and the first game in Gust Corporation's ''Surge Concerto'' series. This series serves as a distant prequel to Gust's ''[[VideoGame/ExaPico Ar tonelico]]'' games, though direct connections are not evident right away. Together, the two series make up the ExaPico universe.

''Ciel nosurge: Ushinawareta Hoshi e Sasagu Uta'' is a 2012 simulation/visual-novel game for the UsefulNotes/PlaystationVita, and the first game in Gust Corporation's ''Surge Concerto'' series. This series serves as a distant prequel to Gust's ''[[VideoGame/ExaPico Ar tonelico]]'' games, though direct connections are not evident right away. Together, the two series make up the Franchise/ExaPico universe.

* AssimilationPlot: [[spoiler: The purpose of the Save Bezel Project and Zill's main goal : to use the souls of the humans as energy to restore the planet while living their now-empty bodies for the Genom to inhabit.]] [[spoiler:Zill and Nero attempt to enact it in Chapter 12 but with different goals in mind, the former tries to convert the people of Ra Ciela for energy in order to power Nay's song to repopen the window to the new planet while later tries to create a being called the Overseer in order to guide Nero back to her original dimension.]]

** AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler: This is the goal of Quantize for both Ion and Nero, an offshoot organization founded by Clacket specifically for returning both of them to their original universe. Unfortunately, the method to return them dies with Clacket himself near the end of the story, and most of the facilities for that was destroyed along with Ra Ciela by the Grand Phoenix plan, leaving the bloody [[AssimilationPlot EXSPHERE_NOSURGE]][[labelnote:*]]A song that creates a transdimensional being by sublimating people's souls, effectively killing them and transforming them into a spiritual equivalent of a Microquazar[[/labelnote]] as the only way back. Needless to say, Ion would have none of that.]]

%% * [[spoiler:AkashicRecords: The Oversight Ability allows an extradimensional being like Ion and Nero to observe the world from the 7th dimensional perspective. On paper the ability of overlooking the 6th Dimensional (Collectivity) axis[[labelnote:*]]which contains the collective recollection of every possibilities throughout the entire epoch of the universe[[/labelnote]] would effectively makes its user virtually omniscient in any universe besides their own, however in practice it works like a DeuxExMachina that allows the user to utilize the information beyond their own that could lead to her desired future.]]

* [[spoiler: DespairEventHorizon: Ion's depression after completing Chapter 7. Seeing how she got killed at the last memory of that chapter, and how she's effectively imprisoned in a small world where none of her friends exist, she comes to think she's no more than a fake Ion and that most likely she isn't even alive anymore. It takes a good deal of effort from the player to get her back to normal.]]
* [[spoiler: DownerEnding: Oh boy. Nero attempts once again to possess Ion, and when thwarted by Nay she instead steals the energy of the microquasar to fling herself and Ion into the future, depriving the Ra Cielans of their power source, their link to another planet, their empress, the use of Cielnotrons and by extension their main way of using Song Magic. Nay has to take over as empress despite nobody outside of her friends acknowledging her, they are forced to launch the Soreil early (with Shirotaka staying behind on the Hymnesphere) and the main cast put themselves into hibernation pods, hoping to catch up with Ion 5000 years later. Back in the present Ion found out that there's a very strong chance she'll be unable to reconnect to you after transferring the dimensional link to Earthes's cathode and ends up [[SadisticChoice having to choose between her friends and her love]]. You persuade her to go to them; the last shot of the game is of her crying in front of the shutting down monitor. Thank god for [[EarnYourHappyEnding the sequel.]]]]
** And fortunately, [[spoiler: it can be changed to a BittersweetEnding provided you did a Sekai Link with Ar nosurge to get her default costume in it and gotten the Church date spot card. If you fulfill both requirements, you get to go on an extended date with Ion where she reaffirms the bonds she built with you as well as her resolution to stop Nero, and she gains a strong belief in the fact you'll meet again soon. Then you get a very emotive farewell with her before the sequence where she breaks down in tears while the terminal shuts down.]]

* FreudianExcuse: The game is really good at this, as most of the antagonists have their own reasons revealed at one point while keeping their KickTheDog moments remained inexcusable.
** [[spoiler: Neptool made a deal with Zill to build the Neptron Tower in exchange for the gRNA Virus in order to cure her daughter Sarly from an otherwise incurable genetic disease. To that end, he's willing to cut off the power to Kanon's residence sector and frame Ion for the alleged assassination attempt, and then kidnapping Casty in an attempt to releasing Reon and make her perform a GrandTheftMe on Ion.]]

** [[spoiler: Nero was used to teleport the humans to Ra Ciela 5000 years ago and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness was killed immediately afterwards]]. Her soul being trapped and used to [[PoweredByAForsakenChild power the Cielnotron Server]] is the latest of the chain of events that fuels her desperation to return to her original world, regardless of the consequences she may inflict to this one.]]
** [[spoiler: While Revelt [[SlowlySlippingIntoEvil has been atrocious]] since before the events of the game even began, Revelt have running straight into JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope upon [[MoralityChain Renall]]'s betrayal and the rising popularity of the Empress candidates at his expense.]]
* FromBeyondTheFourthWall: An essential part of the premise is that the player has a direct connection to the EXA_PICO universe, and is really communicating with Ion through a terminal represented by their Playstation Vita. [[spoiler: In ''Ar nosurge'', the protagonists are directly controlled by the player. And the player isn't the only one with this power...]]

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Ion. Your goal is to help her get better.
** Delta in the sequel gets this about six months before the game starts proper, and a number of Sarly's experiments involve trying to restore his lost memories. [[spoiler:This is a side effect of being connected with Interdimend.]]

* LuddWasRight: Chimon's stance against the Cielnotrons and the proliferation their rival faction, Tenmon, is doing of them. Sadly enough, it's justified, as the Cielnotrons caused people to lose interest in Synchronizing with the Genoms, and since Genoms need forcibly to Synchronize with a human in order to mate, this caused their numbers to sharply decrease. [[spoiler: Plus, Renall states during a confrontation with Revelt that he propagated the Cielnotrons in order to exterminate the Genoms due to the great hatred he holds toward them. Additionally, the fact that they are entirely PoweredByAForsakenChild greatly puts a damper on them actually being considered benevolent technology.]]

* MagicMusic: A staple of the games' universe.
* OffingTheOffspring: Revelt had attempted this [[spoiler:on both Ionasal and Renall, with the former had her soul removed as explained above prior to the game, while the latter was to be sacrificed in his own migration to another planet out of spite at her betrayal]].

* RedEyesTakeWarning: What happened to Ion when she was [[spoiler:[[GrandTheftMe taken over]] by Reon]].
* RippleEffectProofMemory: [[spoiler:Part of Ion's Oversight ability which allows her to remember the discomfort caused by Nero's 6th Axis shift back in Chapter 7, allowing her to pinpoint the destination coordinates to undo it.]]

* {{Synchronization}}: What humans have to do to use Song Magic with the help of a Genom or using a Cielnotron.
* SolarCPR: Ra Ciela's sun, Bezel, is dying. The Save Bezel Project hopes to fix that. [[spoiler:Except that the only time it was pursued with any real chance of success won't absolve the distortions that was already caused by Nero, not to mention that the flawed transmigration would've thrown Ion's soul beyond the party's reach, preventing them from returning back in time to undo the distortions.]]
* StealthPrequel: To the ''[[VideoGame/ExaPico Ar tonelico]]'' series. [[spoiler:The only connection the Ciel Nosurge has with the predecessor series is that Ar Ciel was the supposed destination for the Grand Phoenix plan 5770 years[[labelnote:*]]around 2000 years before the epoch of [[AlternativeCalendar Ammue Dius]][[/labelnote]] before the stories from ''Ar tonelico'' series began, with the expedition team that are sent there eventually becoming the Teru Tribe.]]

* TheSocialDarwinist: Revelt, natch. As if [[FantasticRacism his hatred towards Genoms]] weren't obvious enough, [[spoiler: he went ahead and proceed with the Grand Phoenix plan on his own with this as his NewEraSpeech, intending to take his [[ANaziByAnyOtherName chosen 1% of humanity]] and leaving the rest to their ill-fated planet.]]
* TimeCrash: Happens in chapter eight. [[spoiler: Due to Nero causing grave interference in Ra Ciela's timeline just to get Zill to send her back to her world prior to Ion and forcing Clacket to proceed with the sending, the Seven Axis that form the world get distorted, and two years later, reality itself begins breaking down, leading the entire world to an apocalypse that requires Nay to sing a Song Magic to return time to two years prior and undo everything Nero did.]]
* TitleDrop: Or rather, subtitle drop. The event where Ion sings [[spoiler: Ra Ciel Fuser to destroy Ra Ciela and convert it into energy is called "The Song Offered to the Planet", and the song itself is called "The Song Offered to the Lost Planet" by the Genometric Concert trailer corresponding to its album.]]