Atelier franchise?

[DragonFlames]

Hey guys! I have a question.

Has anyone here played one of the Atelier games before? They look interesting and I'll potentially try one of them out, but I first wanted to hear what you guys think about gameplay/story and other stuff (no spoilers, please). Would you recommend any of these games to a JRPG enthusiast?

[Calmy]

Hey guys! I have a question.

Has anyone here played one of the Atelier games before? They look interesting and I'll potentially try one of them out, but I first wanted to hear what you guys think about gameplay/story and other stuff (no spoilers, please). Would you recommend any of these games to a JRPG enthusiast?

Yes!, definitely, although, it depends of the game you wanna play, or in this case the sub-series, there are only 5 of them that were brought overseas, chronologically they are: Iris > Mana > Arland > Dusk > Mysterious (neither the Salburg nor the Gramnad series are available on english, so you have to start with Iris).

The games are mostly about collecting elements or items in order to craft them and make your own customs, that's what you use in the rest of the game, you also get recipes for items, stat-up items or elemental damage, etc. is so varied, these kind of games are mostly about item managing and exploring, the artwork and sprites are beautiful, very well done and unique, specially the first games, it is a very charming series of games that i would recommend.

The story varies depending on the series you first picked, in Atelier Ayesha you control a character called Ayesha (title drop) whose sole objective is

to find her lost sister

(not much of a spoiler since this is mentioned in the beginning, but still let it there), the game has systematic objectives that advances through the story, but again, given the main reason of the mc, the story will only end until you make your own choices and reach the end.

In the sequel Atelier Escha & Logy you can control two characters, who are trying to find the events that imbued "The Dusk" as you travel through the game, the rest of the games are like that, you try to find secrets and plot important details and as you progress, you will see what the world hides, each series has its own world and all the sequels are featured in the same world as the sub-series, but there are things you can find between the entries, as well references to other Gust games as well.

So. where to start?, I'd recommend Atelier Mana since i'm playing it again and is a blast to play through, and since this is the first games that was released overseas as well all the titles after this one, you will understand more the references that later series will refer to this one, but you can start with anything, just as long that it is the first entry of a series (Eternal Mana, Alchemists of Al-Revis, Rorona, Ayeshie, Sophie) so you can understand the sequels of each sub-series.

So yeah, is a series about fusing items, creating them with elements, using them in battle, so strategies are a lot for all the games, the range of difficulty is usually between easy - medium, but this depends mostly by how well you manage the stuff in your bag, and how well your characters are trained, so yeah, that's about all i can say about this.

[saisymbolic]

Yeah, it's a pretty fun series. I sort of disagree that you have to start with the first game of a series. I started with Atelier Meruru, which is the third game in the Arland trilogy, and it was generally a standalone title.

But, yeah, it has to do with alchemy, fusing items to help you with quests. Atelier Meruru actually has a time limit in game, meaning there is time management that has to be taken into account.

Despite the somewhat bright and, I suppose, shoujo like appearance to some of the games, I think they are extremely fun.

[Balcerzak]

I've only played Atelier Annie, but it was great fun. I don't have a lot of time to go into it in detail, but I ended up binging and 100% completion over the course of a few days, it hooked me that solidly.

[Calmy]

Yeah, it's a pretty fun series. I sort of disagree that you have to start with the first game of a series. I started with Atelier Meruru, which is the third game in the Arland trilogy, and it was generally a standalone title.

But, yeah, it has to do with alchemy, fusing items to help you with quests. Atelier Meruru actually has a time limit in game, meaning there is time management that has to be taken into account.

Despite the somewhat bright and, I suppose, shoujo like appearance to some of the games, I think they are extremely fun.

Oh, that is usually the way i do so, mostly to understand the world from each entry and its characters, but as i said earlier to him, he can start with any of the games in any order, all of them are essentially stand-alone titles anyway, with references to the prequels, i mostly said this to understand them better in the sequels, but is not a "must" to do so the way i do, sorry if that wasn't clear enough.

[saisymbolic]

Oh, that is usually the way i do so, mostly to understand the world from each entry and its characters, but as i said earlier to him, he can start with any of the games in any order, all of them are essentially stand-alone titles anyway, with references to the prequels, i mostly said this to understand them better in the sequels, but is not a "must" to do so the way i do, sorry if that wasn't clear enough.

Oh no problem. I think I may have misunderstood. :)

You're right, too.

[TheEnd]

Atelier Meruru actually has a time limit in game, meaning there is time management that has to be taken into account.

Doesn't every Atelier before Shallie have a time management component, actually? Which reminds me... I'm still mad they omitted plot elements and key characters from the first release on Shallie on purpose.

Would you recommend any of these games to a JRPG enthusiast?

Say no more, pick one up and go right ahead.

[saisymbolic]

Doesn't every Atelier before Shallie have a time management component, actually? Which reminds me... I'm still mad they omitted plot elements and key characters from the first release on Shallie on purpose.

You're most likely right about the time management. I just can't remember the others at the moment.

[Augestein]

Played Iris 1, 2, and 3 on the PS2 (actually, I own all of them). 1 is good, but kind of archaic. And in a strangely enjoyable way. If you've played the PS2 Ar Tonelico, it's slightly less involved than that with the item crafting. The second one is better mechanically, but its designs are strangely poor. So you'll have pretty much a stuck party despite having other people you could use. 3 is the best mechanically in terms of the battle system, but it's really, REALLY easy. There's also the "limited" times on the dungeon. It's weird, but you get used to it after awhile.

I didn't play the later ones, the series didn't hold my interest, but it wasn't bad.

[DragonFlames]

Whew, I did not expect so many replies at once! You guys are awesome!

Since my PS2 broke about 2 years ago and I don't have access to a PS1 (I've only got PS3 and Vita), I think I'll get one of the newer entries. It really does sound very interesting.

Thanky you! All of you!

[Rapier]

I always wanted to play that series but I lack a PS3 and a PSVita for that why is this series resisting Steamification so hard.

Would anyone recommend me a good PSP Atelier game to get started with? I know some recommendations were made but I don't know which games are for the PSP.

Edited October 1, 2016 by Rapier