Ar Nosurge Plus

The game plays as a JRPG with visual novel segments. On the role-playing side, the game does not have a traditional party setup, but rather, the game alternates between two sets of characters; Delta and Cass on one side, and Ion and Earthes on the other. In the regular game field, the game plays as most JRPGs do; the player maneuver's the character through the game environment, exploring small areas to find non-player characters to interact with or items to collect to aid them through progressing the game. In certain areas, a bar is present in the corner of the screen.

The bar indicates that random battles may occur in that area, and indicate how increasingly likely they are to occur as movement transpires on the map. Optional small talk between characters arises as the game world is explored as well.

The bulk of the game takes place on a massive space station traveling through space. Humanity has been traveling through space on it for the last 5,000 years following the destruction of their home planet, Ra Ciela, which was destroyed by its own sun. Morale is generally low for its inhabitants – they long to live on in nature again, the ship is running out of resources, and they've been unable to find a new planet to sustain them. Additionally, they're under attack by a fairy-like race of humanoids called Sharls, who, with their innocent appearances and power of "Song Magic", lure people away to abduct them.

Humanity is generally powerless against them, and must resort to sectioning off parts of the space station and hiding, and their numbers diminish. However, after thousands of years have passed, the impassable "Fellion Wall" falls, and in are people called "ancients" - people essentially cryogenically frozen from the era when humanity still lived on Ra Ciela. It appears human from this era once also possessed the ability to create "Song Magic", and thus, these people allow for the ability to fight back against the Sharl. Alternatively, there's another cult-like faction of people who believe in giving up and disappearing away with the Sharl, complicating matters.

Ar Nosurge was first announced in September 2013, as part of developer Gust's 20th anniversary plans. The game was directed by Akira Tsuchiya, who had previously directed Gust's Ar Tonelico trilogy of video games, and Ciel Nosurge. The games, along with Ar Nosurge, are all part of Gust's extended "Exa Pico" fictional universe. The events of the Ar Tonelico trilogy connect to each other, but largely just occur in the same fictional universe rather than directly overlapping into Ar Nosurge.

Ciel Nosurge, however, is considered a prequel to Ar Nosurge, and contains many common characters and settings, with the two often referred to collectively as the Surge Concerto duology. Despite this, Tsuchiya created Ar Nosurge to be an entirely self-contained story that requires no knowledge of the other game's to understand the game's story. The game was meant to mix the anime style of Gust's other main franchise, Atelier, while added a more in-depth science fiction story element to it. The game's key concept was to create a game world that felt like an "actual existing world", where the player is playing a role in the story as themselves, using the video game console to communicate as themselves to the characters in the game.

The game was generally well received by critics. Critics generally praised the game's story, albeit with the notion that it could be confusing and overwhelming at first. Hardcore Gamer praised the game's emphasis on story over common JRPG concepts like grinding, stating that although the story and scope may be overwhelming at first, that "once the stories start to intertwine, and a few startling revelations come to light, the script doesn't seem quite as bonkers. while it doesn't break the glass ceiling of video game narrative design, it certainly leaves its hand prints across the stretch."

Similarly, RPGSite said that the Plus version of the game "remains one of the better modern entries in the genre. Players will uncover some brilliant character relationships and outstanding music that will remain with you long after the credits have rolled." Famitsu gave the game a review score of 32/40.