Atelier series discussion thread

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I just have started with this series for real (Sophie and Lulua) and I know some other people from this forum, so I thought it would be a good place for sharing gamimg experiences, recommemdations and questions.

Since I am new to this series, I have the one or other question mainly regarding Alchemy.

Would be cool to see some conversations here.

[ciphertul]

I would like to help more but, I’ve only played Iris and truth be told I loved it still do but I guess it’s considered an outlier. I just love the characters and the mana system.

[Dinar87]

What is this series? Does it have a good story and characters like fire emblem and xenoblade chronicles 1+2?

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

15 hours ago, Dinar87 said:

What is this series? Does it have a good story and characters like fire emblem and xenoblade chronicles 1+2?

I really have not played enough to be able giving a qualitative sufficient answer, but I share what I have figured our on my own.

First of all each game of the series features a female protagonist who's an alchemist. Alchemy is a major part of the game. You have to synthesize drinks which give status boosts or inflict status ailemts or other things have to be made constantly by gathering items or fulfilling quests. Synthesizing has a level system. The more synthesizes, the better the drinks will become.

The atmosphere of this series is very bright. The design and the personality of the protagonists is really natural. I consider to describe them as "cute" without being sexualized in any regard. Ryza is the only exception from what I know and have seen. It can understand if people might consider the atmosphere and Backround as too happy, but I do not mind. I expect it will change during the game because there cannot be a character in a JRPG without character development.

Gameplaywise it is a standard round based static JRPG, so not comparable to Xenoblade.

The outstanding things of this series are the character design and the Alchemy mechanic.

It also features a day and night shedule system, but I cannot explain it accurately enough yet.

Some Atelier games are connected and also exist as a set like the Artland triology.

I guess @DragonFlames can give a much better answer than I have done. 

 

Btw some Atelier parts are on sale in the PS Store worldwide right now.

Edited February 22, 2020 by Falcom Knight

[DragonFlames]

4 hours ago, Falcom Knight said:

I guess @DragonFlames can give a much better answer than I have done.

Your description is actually rather spot on.

@Dinar87

A thing to add would be that some games feature a time limit, usually connected to the in-game calendar system. The Arland trilogy (Rorona, Totori, and Meruru) for example give you a time limit of three in-game years to accomplish a certain objective. Starting with Atelier Shallie, this has been mostly abolished, which is good, because Totori and Meruru really suffered from their time limit mechanic.
Most games tend to have multiple endings, as well.

The stories are rather light-hearted in nature. There are some that get more serious than others (Ryza most prominently), but for the most part, this game series is something to play when you want to immerse yourself in a friendly, colorful world. They never get all too complicated, either. Some games don't even feature a final boss or villain. They usually focus on the personal goals of the titular protagonist, which makes their stories usually more down to earth than some other JRPGs.
And the games can get really funny when they want to, with some rather meme-tastic lines from the protagonists especially. And there is a certain running joke permeating through all of the games:

Whenever a character sees a barrel, they feel the need to point out that it is indeed a barrel. The PS4 version of Atelier Sophie even gives you a trophy for it.

Another thing to note is that these games, even the older ones, are very nice to look at. The art style and graphics are very soft, so to speak, which fits the light-hearted nature of the series as a whole. Here is a CG from Atelier Sophie as an example of what I mean (of course, no spoilers, because this happens right at the beginning of the game):

[ciphertul]

19 hours ago, Falcom Knight said:

First of all each game of the series features a female protagonist who's an alchemist

Well this doesn't hold entirely true, Iris for example as a Male Lead named Klein, but Iris is the odd one out.

[Quillmonger]

I have been playing Ryza and it's pretty amazing. 

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I still grabbed Ryza.

The game is 25% off in PS Store till 8th March.

Edited March 2, 2020 by Falcom Knight

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I have played Ryza for a bit.

It's quite different than to Lulua from the gameplay.

The battle system is similar to Final Fantasy where the non controlled characters act automatically.

Also alchemy seems to be more complicated.

I have to get used to it.

Otherwise it is nice: The characters and overworld are very bright.

[Benice]

Is this series avaliable in NA?

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

10 hours ago, Benice said:

Is this series avaliable in NA?

Why shouldn't it?

It's available for pretty much all the latest systems aside of Xbox.

[Benice]

6 hours ago, Falcom Knight said:

Why shouldn't it?

It's available for pretty much all the latest systems aside of Xbox.

I'll assume that Wii U doesn't count as recent. I have a wii, wii u and a very old computer. Of those consoles, which of them has the best Atelier game to start with?

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Atelier games on sale on Steam

 

5 hours ago, Benice said:

I'll assume that Wii U doesn't count as recent. I have a wii, wii u and a very old computer. Of those consoles, which of them has the best Atelier game to start with?

Atelier originally came out for Sony consoles (PS2 and PS3), so no Nintendo consoles unfortunately.

Atelier games have not the highest technical requirements, but I can't give an exact answer to a very old computer.

Just click on the link on top of my post and check the requirements.

[Benice]

15 minutes ago, Falcom Knight said:

Atelier games on sale on Steam

 

Atelier originally came out for Sony consoles (PS2 and PS3), so no Nintendo consoles unfortunately.

Atelier games have not the highest technical requirements, but I can't give an exact answer to a very old computer.

Just click on the link on top of my post and check the requirements.

Thanks! The artwork looks nice and the grass gives me BotW nostalgia.

But oof, 50$ Canadian is kinda rough. I know that steam's got a lot of sales throughout the yearm so I'll probaby pass on this sale and pick it up on a later one. I also am considering getting a better computer, so we'll see when I have time to get an Atelier game. Still, I hope to get into the series soon! 

Or a market crash so it becomes 2 Canadian dollars

[saja-gfl]

i'm a big fan of atelier since the original rorona (yes i played that 2 times actually) and i've finished all the games after rorona exept lulua and ryza.

i have lulua but i haven't finished it yet and i didn't get ryza i just didn't feel like spending 60$ on it.

i think my "atelier motivation" died out a little these days so i'm playing fire emblem instead.

anyway it's nice seeing other fans of atelier in a non atelier cummionity so i wanted to reply i guess.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

18 hours ago, saja-gfl said:

i have lulua but i haven't finished it yet and i didn't get ryza i just didn't feel like spending 60$ on it.

Ryza has been on sale for 40 $ recently for PS4 and PC just recently.

That's when I bought it.

I will mention once happens again.

[saja-gfl]

9 hours ago, Falcom Knight said:

Ryza has been on sale for 40 $ recently for PS4 and PC just recently.

That's when I bought it.

I will mention once happens again.

i didn't know that the sales are still going on i guess maybe i'll buy it then thanks for the info !

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

1 hour ago, saja-gfl said:

i didn't know that the sales are still going on!

They are not anymore.

Maybe for Easter Sale it could happen again. 

[saja-gfl]

4 hours ago, Falcom Knight said:

They are not anymore.

Maybe for Easter Sale it could happen again. 

yeah maybe.. or maybe in summer ? idk i think summer sales are a thing ?

well i'm not in a hurry to get it honestly and i still have lulua to finish and other games too so i can wait.

[Yukiko]

I discovered the Atelier series this summer and, after I watched a video about the various games, I really wanted to try one. I decided to wait until October to get Atelier Ryza and I'm so glad I got it. Atelier Ryza is one of the games I've enjoyed the most and it really made me fall in love with the series.

So far, I played Ryza, Rorona DX, Totori DX and I'm currently playing Meruru DX. I'd also like to try the Dusk trilogy when it goes on sale, since I've heard a lot of praise about it and Hidari's character design and style are wonderful. And also Lulua, to complete the Arland tetralogy.

[Quillmonger]

Ryza is just a delight to play, but I think that the series has some things that will turn off a lot of traditional RPG players. 

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Since Ryza is my first Atelier game, it might be the case that I will not have that much with the other parts, simply because Ryza has an easier Alchemy system imo and I enjoy the battle system for being kinda action based in combat.

Overall I absolutely enjoy this game.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Finished Atelier Ryza.

It was my first Atelier game.

I really enjoyed it.

Characters cast, plot, graphics, soundtrack and especially the game were really fun.

The alchemy system was easier to understand than Sophie's and I got really obsessed with it at time.

The battle system was new to me, but I got used to it quickly and was fond of it.

Also little side games like feeding Puni or damage training on a veasal were cool ideas.

I have to admit the main game was rather short and the simulation part in terms of doing alchemy had almost as much priority as the RPG part, but as for someone like me who likes simulations, it did not bother me at all.

 

I know Ryza got very positive criticsm, even the best of all Atelier games as far as I know, but it wouldn't stop me from playing the other parts.

For someone who want to get introduced into Atelier, I can absolutely recommend it.

It was not the best JRPG I have played yet, but a very good one overall.

8.5 / 10

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Atelier Ryza and Dusk triology are on sale right now for Switch.

[Ice Dragon]

So I just started Atelier Ryza a few days ago (despite owning the game almost since release) now that I have time, and things have been going pretty well so far, but now I'm stuck at the blue Diancies golems that consistently 3-hit kill anyone in my party, which is a huge difficulty spike from the regular enemies in the area.

I'm playing on Hard difficulty, am level 12 and alchemy level 14. As this is my first Atelier game, I have no idea what to expect of game scaling in terms of level and alchemy level, and because I'm playing in Japanese and translating as I go, my play time is massively inflated, so it's hard for me to get an actual estimate of how far I am in the game from that alone.

So questions:

• Am I just underleveled? Where should I expect to be in level and alchemy level at this point? Should I be crafting piles of things and selling them to farm alchemy level?
• Do I just suck at combat? I feel like there's a lot of stuff that hasn't been explained, like status effects and how turn order can be pushed back.
• Suggestions for how to prioritize equipment and item load-outs?

I'll admit that the combat system is throwing me around quite a bit as I've never been good at managing multiple resources simultaneously in real time. And since I'm playing in Japanese, it's possible that I might be completely blind to text that appears on screen (as in don't even realize it's there) if it doesn't stay on the screen long enough.