The Atelier Series - Addictive alchemy RPG

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

Given that a new Atelier game is coming out at the end of the month, I was curious if there are any other fans of the series. For those of you who don't know, the Atelier series comes in sets of threes and focuses on the player making their own items and weapons (called Alchemy). For me, I find the alchemy system to be fun and addictive and since Atelier Shallie, you can now go at your own pace instead of worrying about a time limit.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

I've heard quite a bit about the Atelier series, but I never got a chance to play them, despite owning a PS3. Also, the Dreamcast game came bundled with the Kriz virus. I'll probably buy the re-releases though.

 

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

I've heard quite a bit about the Atelier series, but I never got a chance to play them, despite owning a PS3. Also, the Dreamcast game came bundled with the Kriz virus. I'll probably buy the re-releases though.

The re-releases of the trilogies are a good way to get into them.

 

[Arm Pit Cream]

The only reason why people have interest in the Atelier Ryza is the main girl has fatty, exposed thighs. Sex sells, I call it Dragon's Crown syndrome.

 

[Equivocal_Iki]

Rorona and Totori are still on my backlog. Is 40hrs/each typical to breeze through them?

 

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

The only reason why people have interest in the Atelier Ryza is the main girl has fatty, exposed thighs. Sex sells, I call it Dragon's Crown syndrome.

Also, there's that other character with the big tits and the fact (from what I know), they're not going to censor anything like the SJWs want them to.

Rorona and Totori are still on my backlog. Is 40hrs/each typical to breeze through them?

I haven't played Rorona and Totori, but I'd say 40 hrs is a fair estimate.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Rorona and Totori require a guide because the Time Management is punishing for the whole Arland Trilogy if you want to unlock all 12+ endings at the end.

Dusk Trilogy it's not as bad, it lessens up with Escha and Lodgy but Ayesha still needs you to time manage shit. The third game in the Dusk trilogy you need to play through essentially twice with both characters in order to get through all the endings but it's short as hell for each campaign.

Sophie and Firis did away with time management so it's far more easy going and you can breeze through them. The third game in the trilogy with the twins is complete ass though you need to final the final bosses like 20 times in total for the true ending and the whole game is just lacking. Sophie and Firis at least had interesting areas to explore and tied them in with the overall story. Atelier games in the past had a limited budget so sometimes they would just create gathering areas that served no real purpose to the overall game and just felt kinda out of place. if you play through the Arland and Dusk trilogies you'll see what I mean.

Then afterwards came Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists which was a piss poor town building game(but very easy to complete) and Return to Arland which was complete piss. Ryza has sold 150,000 copies within it's first week which is unheard of for the series. You don't pull numbers like that with just meaty thighs. They apparently ironed out the mechanics and have given you a vast world to explore. Granted I see re-use of Mysterious Trilogy assets but the game apparently plays incredibly well and is a new height for the series.

If you want a starting point I would say play Sophie and see how you like it. If you want to go further play Firis. If you want something more difficult go back and play Dusk or Arland.

If you go back further you're going to need a Playstation 2 for Atelier Iris Trilogy and a Saturn for the earlier games.

If you want to compare the game series to an equivalent of other media I would say it's "The Secret Garden" of RPG games. Nowhere near close to Citizen Kane, but an interesting series that has a history of being what you play in between big games. It's certainly not Xenoblade quality but Ryza is apparently raising the bar so it's entirely possible that it could eventually get there.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Scion of Arland any good?

 

[A Hot Potato]

I just like jerking off to all the under age girls.

 

[BananaSplit]

Rorona and Totori require a guide because the Time Management is punishing for the whole Arland Trilogy if you want to unlock all 12+ endings at the end.

Dusk Trilogy it's not as bad, it lessens up with Escha and Lodgy but Ayesha still needs you to time manage shit. The third game in the Dusk trilogy you need to play through essentially twice with both characters in order to get through all the endings but it's short as hell for each campaign.

Sophie and Firis did away with time management so it's far more easy going and you can breeze through them. The third game in the trilogy with the twins is complete ass though you need to final the final bosses like 20 times in total for the true ending and the whole game is just lacking. Sophie and Firis at least had interesting areas to explore and tied them in with the overall story. Atelier games in the past had a limited budget so sometimes they would just create gathering areas that served no real purpose to the overall game and just felt kinda out of place. if you play through the Arland and Dusk trilogies you'll see what I mean.

Then afterwards came Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists which was a piss poor town building game(but very easy to complete) and Return to Arland which was complete piss. Ryza has sold 150,000 copies within it's first week which is unheard of for the series. You don't pull numbers like that with just meaty thighs. They apparently ironed out the mechanics and have given you a vast world to explore. Granted I see re-use of Mysterious Trilogy assets but the game apparently plays incredibly well and is a new height for the series.

If you want a starting point I would say play Sophie and see how you like it. If you want to go further play Firis. If you want something more difficult go back and play Dusk or Arland.

If you go back further you're going to need a Playstation 2 for Atelier Iris Trilogy and a Saturn for the earlier games.

If you want to compare the game series to an equivalent of other media I would say it's "The Secret Garden" of RPG games. Nowhere near close to Citizen Kane, but an interesting series that has a history of being what you play in between big games. It's certainly not Xenoblade quality but Ryza is apparently raising the bar so it's entirely possible that it could eventually get there.

I never understood why people had trouble with the time management mechanics to the point of Gust throwing away that characteristic feature since Atelier Shallie. Atelier Rorona Plus was rather simple since you had a obligatory assignment every 3 months and you only wasted those precious days when changing maps outside or synthesizing items in your atelier. Granted, Atelier Totori was the hardest of the lot because the time window between objectives was much larger, but the map world was more linear, and (tell me if I'm wrong because it's been a long time I've played this) getting into fights and collecting items waste days too unlike in Rorona. Not to mention NG+ playthroughs made things easier since you got to keep some life-changing items you synthesized beforehand.

The Atelier DX present on Steam and Switch are basically the Plus versions previously released on Vita (minus the framedrops although that was hardly a dealbreaker), which were the PS3 base game plus all the DLCs in one package.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

How is Atelier Lulua

They got the Arland trilogy too is it good?

 

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

How is Atelier Lulua

They got the Arland trilogy too is it good?

I didn't have a problem with Lulua and I'm glad that Astrid isn't in it like she was in the Arland trilogy (I played Atelier Meruru). You're going to need an FAQ or such for some of the later alchemy riddles.

 

[Marissa Moira]

I never understood why people had trouble with the time management mechanics to the point of Gust throwing away that characteristic feature since Atelier Shallie. Atelier Rorona Plus was rather simple since you had a obligatory assignment every 3 months and you only wasted those precious days when changing maps outside or synthesizing items in your atelier. Granted, Atelier Totori was the hardest of the lot because the time window between objectives was much larger, but the map world was more linear, and (tell me if I'm wrong because it's been a long time I've played this) getting into fights and collecting items waste days too unlike in Rorona. Not to mention NG+ playthroughs made things easier since you got to keep some life-changing items you synthesized beforehand.

The Atelier DX present on Steam and Switch are basically the Plus versions previously released on Vita (minus the framedrops although that was hardly a dealbreaker), which were the PS3 base game plus all the DLCs in one package.

Yeah collecting items and other small activities did waste time. Their time management really wasn't the best so I can't say that I really miss it.

Honestly if they want to bring it back they need to cut down on useless character story lines which also ate time and allow basic activities to not cause time to pass either.

The way the series is going, I would sooner opt for freedom over a time limit. They're making the main focus on exploring, alchemy crafting, and finding shit which is perfectly fine.

I've never really seen a long term time management system done well outside of the harvest moon games, Lightning Returns had a system where you could freeze time but at that point it made it kinda pointless to have a time system to begin with.

 

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

One thing I wish is that they'd go back to having English dub voices.

 

[Marissa Moira]

One thing I wish is that they'd go back to having English dub voices.

They might go back, the reason why they cut it was because Firis didn't do that well and the last 3 games sold like complete ass and it looked like they were headed for oblivion.

 

[R.E.O. Spedwagon]

If they’re going back to making dubs, I hope they’ll finally get a voice director that knows how to pronounce “atelier”.

 

[Islamic Creampie]

Are any of these games closer to a more traditional RPG? I'm not familiar with the series but I've seen people mention there's a huge focus on alchemy and min/maxing? Sounds a little tedious and grindy.

 

[ZMOT]

I never understood why people had trouble with the time management mechanics to the point of Gust throwing away that characteristic feature since Atelier Shallie.

don't think it's trouble as much knowing you got a timer ticking in the background. and as Marissa Moira said the implementation could've been better. so mostly a matter of personal preference.

One thing I wish is that they'd go back to having English dub voices.

tbh never understood the need for english voices when half of it is a VN and you're reading most of it anyway, usually at a speed slower/faster than any dub. but then I'm not native english so either way it's a foreign dub (and thank god, dubs in my language are usually max cringe).

Are any of these games closer to a more traditional RPG? I'm not familiar with the series but I've seen people mention there's a huge focus on alchemy and min/maxing? Sounds a little tedious and grindy.

cute girls doing alchemy with turn based combat. ys VIII and dragon quest 11 might be more what you're looking for. octopath traveler and ni no kuni 1 got ports recently as well. or try heartbeat

 

[AbyssStarer]

I loved Escha and Logy and Rorona, but I played Shallie and it was dogshit. I wound up loading the same area over and over to break boxes and fill the requirements. i kept playing but it just didnt work as well as the others.

I hope Ryza actually is good, these games can look so ugly and cheaply made. A lot of fun, but....horrendously ugly and laggy. They should stop with the yearly releases and see if whT they make is actually fun before pushing it out.

 

[Marissa Moira]

I loved Escha and Logy and Rorona, but I played Shallie and it was dogshit. I wound up loading the same area over and over to break boxes and fill the requirements. i kept playing but it just didnt work as well as the others.

I hope Ryza actually is good, these games can look so ugly and cheaply made. A lot of fun, but....horrendously ugly and laggy. They should stop with the yearly releases and see if whT they make is actually fun before pushing it out.

Ryza has had a two year development time, they had other people working on Nelke and return to Arland.