Ar nosurge is part of the Surge Concerto Series. Its the second one to be exact with the first being Ciel nosurge.
Ciel nosurge is s VN/Life Simulator in which you, the player, interact with Ion.
Ion is an amnesiac who turns on her terminal for the first time to come in contact with the player.
Both its the player's duty to bring her memories back.
In the end she does and she her story continues in Ar nosurge.
This game sadly never came to the west.
Ar nosurge is a standard JRPG.
Ar nosurge deals with the aftermath of what happened during Ion's time before losing her memories.
It takes place on a migration ship thats on the verge of falling apart.
About six months before the events of the game, a young man named Delta opens a gate to the Human City of Felion.
This has beings known as Sharl, come in and kidnap people and generally make a mess.
Delta himself has no recollection of this moment what so ever.
You start as Delta, who is incapable of remembering anything from his past.
After a while of playing as Delta, there is a 2 year time-skip.
During this time-skip is the events of Ciel nosurge, with Ion coming back.
During this you play as a machine created for destruction, Earthes.
Soon you can switch between both characters to progress the plot.
As for you're concern of this being a depressing game, its fairly light hearted. There are funny moments, like with Nay taking over Delta's restaurant for herself, and really any of the Synthesis parts as they usually have a little dance as they make the item along with characters discussing about the item. Yes even the murder machine, Earthes, dances during those scenes.
There's even these Purification Ceremonies where you can talk to a character on various topics ranging from further discussing an item, talking about society, about their progress so far, or even about their hobbies.
There's even a part in the Vita version that when you install these special Crystals, you can touch a part of the characters body and they do an emote.
The game is a very FEEL heavy kind of game as they have to do their best on a ship thats been in space for a long time.
This shows very quickly as you progress though it, even the optional Synthesis have events that really delve into the characters.
This is doubly so in the DIVE mechanic, where by entering the main heroines mind. You solve whats essentially amounts to a therapy session and how they feel about the world and people around them.
There are even multiple parts that can hit you in the gut, that can come from the plot naturally progressing, a Systhesis event, or even during a DIVE.
Yet by the end of the game you can get a miracle to appear.
Do I recommend this game? Yes, absolutely.
I also recommend the play through of Ciel nosurge. Its on the Youtube channel, Ciel nosurge Story in English.
There's a lot of world building that went into this series that I've come to enjoy, and I hope you do to!
