Atelier series thread

[nocturnal YL]

Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings
リディー＆スールのアトリエ ～不思議な絵画の錬金術士～

I'd like to talk about Atelier Lydie & Suelle. I'm 120% certain this is the wrong forum for such discussion, as it's a PlayStation-centric RPG that falls flatly into the Japanese-as-ever territory. Still, it doesn't hurt to write a piece about this game either.

This post is extremely long. Feel free to ignore it; the main thing here is that I love this game.

FULL SPOILERS AHEAD: I don't think anyone in this forum has played or will ever think about playing this game, so I'm not holding back on spoilers.

Some basic information about the game and the series.

• The developer, Gust, was founded in 1993, and became famous with Atelier Marie in 1997, the first game in the series. They became a subsidiary of KOEI TECMO in 2011 because the latter wanted to make Atelier-themed mobile games, and were absorbed by them in 2014. Gust remains the branding used for the games they develop. Nintnedo Switch fans probably remember them for Night of Azure 2. Having access to KOEI TECMO's technology allowed them to greatly shorten the loading time of their games.


• Atelier is a series of RPGs that puts emphasis on the items. You collect materials, make your own unique items, and use them in battles or use them as materials for synthesizing other items.


• The Atelier series is subdivided into story arcs that are not connected to each other, with each story spanning over 2 or 3 games.


• Atelier Lydie & Suelle is the 19th main series entry (the game's title is thus abbreviated as A19) and the last of the Mysterious trilogy, after Atelier Sophie (A17) and Atelier Firis (A18). As such, its story brings proper closure to the previous two games' subplot.


• Atelier Lydie & Suelle is available on PS4, PS Vita (Japan only), Switch and PC. It's the first Atelier game (spinoffs included) on a Nintendo home console. It's undubbed for overseas releases, unlike the previous games.


• Atelier is pronounced Att-li-eh, in line with the word's French pronunciation.

Preface

I have mentioned this before, but I bought this game as a token of thanks to KOEI TECMO GAMES, both for making Fire Emblem Warriors and for generally being so supportive of Nintendo's platforms (even the Wii U). Following this logic, I should have bought something from ω-Force or Team Ninja, but another Warriors is the last thing I want. This also happened before I borrowed my cousin's PS4. I'd have picked the Switch version anyway, just for the portability.

We're going to have some new Atelier announcement on 14 June.

Atelier in general is known for not telling a standard hero-saving-the-world kind of story. Rather, each game follows a small group of alchemists' quests to reach their personal goals, be it saving a specific friend, seeing the world, or honing skills in alchemy itself.

Lydie & Suelle is promoted as a slice-of-life RPG, following the lives of a pair of twin alchemists. The twins' goal is to raise the ranking of their shop to the national best as a promise to their late mother, and if you think they're going to eventually save the world, well, no. They did save their city once, so I guess that counts?

This game revolves around the painting worlds they can venture into and collect materials from. Said materials will help the twins make better items, which in turn helps their atelier rank up. Repeat the process until the end — the story isn't as boring as this makes it sound, but this premise is used all the way to the end.


Characters



Lydie: The older twin. Good at studying and theories, but nota good fighter. Appears to be more delicate, although she can come off as being rude and mischievous from time to time. Likes reading romance novels. The two sisters aren't forced (in terms of writing) to be similar or different, making them one of my favourite twin characters.

Suelle: The younger twin. Outwardly energetic and mischievous, gives an impression of having more brawn than brain. She is the one to come up with ideas to raise the atelier's renown, though. Not good at reading, and doesn't read kanji very well. Fears bugs and ghosts. Called just "Sue" by herself, most other characters, and even the system menu.

Mathias: A bodyguard assigned to the twins by the castle receptionist / princess, Mireille. Later revealed to be Mireille's brother, and even later, the next king. The twins, especially Sue, made fun of him for his womanizing ways and appearing to be not working, but they eventually understood him better. The only non-alchemist in the party.

Firis: The last game's protagonist, and Sophie's student. A happy, easygoing hunter / alchemist who has set up a tent in Merveille (Adalet's captial city and this game's base of operation) while travelling. She was tasked with investigating the paintings with the twins, and stayed ever since. Loves meat.

Alt: A mysterious boy who appeared out of nowhere. As it turns out, he is actually a 500-year-old alchemist who went mad in pursit of power. He gained a normal human's form after a series of events. Has a sharp, direct mannerism. Cautious about repeating his past mistakes.

Sophie: The protagonist from two games piror. She is basically the best alchemist there is, as far as this story is concerned. She was on a pursit of getting her friend and teacher Plachta a human body after she was sealed away 500 years ago, which did eventually happen. Though powerful as an alchemist, she is not good at taking care of herself.

Lucia: The twins' rival and, as we later find out, cousin. She's a typical tsundere character, complete with the red outfit and twintails. Despite appearance, she really cares about the twins, who didn't realise this until they pulled a prank on her and read her logbook. Playable as a DLC character.

Ilmeria: The twins' teacher, and something of a tsundere (yeah, well, there are two others in this game, as NPCs). Likes cute stuff, but refuses to admit so. Also hates to be reminded she's short. Good friends with Firis, although they practise different styles of alchemy. Playable through DLC.


General impressions

I absolutely love this game. …Again. There seems to be something about RPGs that few people have played that attracted me. I wonder why is that the case?

It's not my favourite game ever, and I think I still like Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE better, generally speaking. But Atelier Lydie & Suelle also had most of what I'd ever have wanted to see in an RPG: An easy way to keep track of subplots, being able to review the story so far (in a limited way), adjustable difficulties that either makes tough bosses manageable or makes grinding easier, and most importantly, the story. The game is also fairly balanced (if you don't count the extra quests added in the 1.04 patch), requiring only little grinding if you simply want to make it to the end. It's generally very friendly to players new to Atelier, although it does expect you to know how to play RPGs in general.

One thing I do like is how it gives experience points. Everyone gets full experience (except when you're fighting Firis), even for characters who aren't participating or are down when the battle ends. Experience-raising items raise the experience points of the whole party, not just the user. I have always been hoping to see an RPG with a shared experience counter, and this is the closest thing I can find. Oh, you also don't lose progress if your party is wiped out. The worst thing that can happen is that you get sent back home and lose some of the collected items. Very user-friendly (well, me-friendly?) indeed.

But the best part has to be the story. It's really just me, but I generally like positive-sounding stories. Well, I also like sad stories, but I think they can be easily botched. Just look at Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates. I also like to see character-based events (as I did with ♯FE), as these really give out a feeling of the characters helping and getting to know each other over time. And this game is so full of them. Oh, and (spoilers) I really love how the story ended up with a negative (human) death count. Again, it's just me, but this is one of my favourite RPG stories, even more than ♯FE.

There are a few things that general RPG players may not like about Atelier. Because of the game's emphasis on synthesizing items, dungeons are short and they really exist to just host the story events, monsters and materials. You also only get a single town, because you make items at home. I personally don't mind this, and hey, I've seen worse. These simple towns and dungeons are at least 100 times better than those in Puyo Puyo Chronicle.

There are other areas that are criticized about, including the graphics (PS3- or Vita+ grade on Switch, PS3+ grade on PS4, and it's really awful on Vita), the price (base game costs about 7800 yen, DLC cost 9000 yen, the total price can be spent on three cheap games), and if you're playing in English, the localisation (spelling inconsistency between Sophie/Firis and Lydie & Suelle, and there's no dubbed voice despite the previous games did). None of them bother me too much (I spent more on the full version of FE Echoes, so this is nothing).


Random comments

I'll talk about various stuff. It won't be a full play impression, which is something you can find everywhere online (here's one, here's another, here's a short impression in English, Switch version guide). It's also very chaotic.

Again, full spoilers ahead.


The first thing that caught my attention was this:

Yep. That's Sue. With guns. That's not what I expect from a game like this, although I later found out (in-game) that Ilmeria used to use a gun too.

I don't have many images from the early game, partly because I was too immersed in the game itself.

One thing I noticed early on is that the characters here are either Japanese people who have adopted German names, or German people who have throughly adopted Japanese culture. They write in Japanese, talk about language features unique to Japanese (honourifics, first-person pronouns, furigana), make puns in Japanese, start drinking when they turn 20, and adopt an S rank above A that's characteristic of Japanese games. The only things that aren't Japanese are the character names (which are mostly German with some French) and place names (which are French). Of course, this is the case with a lot of medieval fantasy works, but this game is one of the biggest examples I know of.

Mathias is treated poorly at first. Well, maybe that's an understatement. He gets no respect whatsoever. His early attempts to hit on women also missed a lot: a failed attempt on an unnamed NPC; an attempt to ask the church's sister out, who turned out to be in her 50s and just happened to look young; and he also attempted with Sophie, which drew the ire from her friends.

This is Plachta, Sophie's teacher. This is probably the only time I can see a 520-year-old, sage-like character run into interpersonal issues and turn to a pair of 14-year-olds for help. This is actually the general tone of this game (and perhaps the Atelier series). Those who have surpassed mortal limitations still have daily lives, after all.

And this is a deity. She may be extremely powerful, but personality-wise she's just a normal girl. Lydie and Sue noticed this as well.

Firis's tent (looks like a tent outside, and a wide room created with alchemy inside) hosts character events for Firis, Sophie and Plachta, and can take a long time to clear. Towards the end of a true ending run, you'll see nothing is going on except this little tent. It can get rather boring if you truly have nothing else to do.

The event here is a meeting between masters and teachers. Ilmeria feels like she may not be a good teacher, especially for Sue. The sisters would later send her a gift of appreciation, made using their own recipe. (The blue-haired girl is Plachta in puppet form before she got a human body.)

Also, a few scenes not captured but I really liked:

There's this one point when the twins did have an argument and refused to talk to each other, but they eventually saw flaws in their own reasons to dislike each other and made up after teaming up in a battle. Generic, but I like it.

There's also the scene of Plachta finally getting a human form. Creating space? Reversing time? Making a whole human body with alchemy? Nothing is impossible for the legendary Sophie!

Oh, right. Another observation. Some of the later character events have them talk about the events in the previous games. This is unfortunately something that players new to the series (like me) wouldn't understand without an online search.

Some system stuff:

One thing I don't like about the game is the unskippable combination skills. It's not as bad as the Sessions in ♯FE (which happens after almost every attack), but it does get boring after a while.

This is the screen for making an item. It's hard to explain with a short text, but basically, you fill the guages at the bottom right so that they reach a certain level to give a certain effect to the item. You can either use no catalyst and get a 4×4 board, or use an item as the catalyst to get a wider board or add effects to it. Once you figure out how to mass-produce the Philosopher's Stone (sounds hard? To this game's alchemists, it's only an intermediate-level item), you can use 7×7 boards with multiple +5 bonuses at a low cost.

I really like the item description screens. You're presented with a mini-drama of the characters talking about the items.

Town map. This makes locating the major NPCs easy. It also shows where the next goal is at (!?) and whether there are new character events (!), although the latter is also used for the optional, infinite end-game battles. This makes it hard to tell if Firis's tent actually has a character event or if Firis is available to practice-fight the party again.

I really like Sue, both as a character in the story, and as a high-speed fighter who gets a lot of turns to fight (this is a timeline-based RPG, so speedy characters can get more than one turn for every enemy turn). As a result, I also gave the best equipment to her. Lydie and the others don't have stats nearly as high.

Post-game soundtrack commentary. It's interesting to see what the composers and voice actors think about the game, within the game itself.

This game has two BGM packs as free DLCs (one for the Atelier series, the other for a few Gust games), which take up a lot of space. There are also paid BGM packs, but I don't think I'll ever want that. Same for the outfit DLC.


And finally, true ending stuff, and a conclusion to why do I like this game's story.

Although all endings count, the true ending is basically how I want to see an RPG end.

• Firis would talk to the twins about travelling from time to time. Sophie also talked about her hometown.


• Ilmeria's events had her explain to the twins that she and Firis separated because while she wanted to run an atelier, Firis's dream was travelling and she didn't feel like she should stop Firis just because they had a promise to co-run their shop.


• During Firis's events, she made a teleporter for Ilmeria, so that they could meet while she travels without her. This solves the problem of them not being in contact while Firis is travelling.


• Firis later sent the twins a flying portable atelier that they could use if they ever decide to travel.


• After finishing all other character events, which involve mending Alt's heart, restoring Plachta's body and help her decide whether to stay with Sophie, Sophie started to discuss about the idea of permanently securing the twins' mother's existence (her soul resided in a painting after she passed).


• The twins were successful, and they also made a decision to travel far to further their goal to use alchemy to make people happy.


• In the end we get a bunch of master alchemists who is capable of just about anything, and they get to travel far with the option to teleport people from their hometown.

The whole thing is just so stupidly optimistic. I love it. I love it because it's not like any other RPG story I've seen. It doesn't end with a downer footnote, either due to the story or due to the writer's oversight.

Actually, if you think about it, there are question left behind. Those who have visited painting worlds are said to have their souls go to the paintings after they die, and this applies to most but not all of the characters. What would actually happen? Will the paintings eventually be overpopulated with dead alchemists? Interesting question, but I'm willing to let it pass. I usually only care up to the point of the story's end.



Anyway, here it goes. A rather chaotic post, I know. And I'm fairly certain that non-players may not understand everything I've written, but I don't feel like refining my writing. Feel free to ask for clarification.

And finally, it goes without saying that I do recommend this game. I don't think it has an audience in this forum, but I still do recommend it.

[nocturnal YL]

So… having completed three games thus far, I think I can start calling myself a series fan. It's going to celebrate its 22nd anniversary on 23 May 2019, by the way.

Now, where to start… I know I gave some basic information about the series before, but it may be better to list out the past games individually so that there's a reference point for what I'm talking about in the future.

The time limit in the list below refers to the in-game time limits attached to either the whole story or individual tasks. Time is consumed for almost every action — travelling (both in town and on the world map), item synthesis and battles all take time. Failing to meet the time limits (for the main plot tasks) will result in a game over.

By the way, those interested in learning about the various worlds featured in Atelier should consider trying out Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists. This game features no traditional Atelier gameplay, but the story surrounds the alchemists interacting with each other. You can get a rough understanding of what each world is like after reading through their conversations.


Generation 1
These set the basis of the series that will eventually return for the modern games.

Salburg series

(A1) Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg (1997-05-23, PS, with time limit)
Marie broke the low score record in the royal academy, so she was tasked to run an atelier for five years in order to graduate. Rather low in difficulty.
This game was ported to several sysems later, such as PS2, Dreamcast, iOS and Android.

(A2) Atelier Elie The Alchemist Of Salburg 2 (1998-12-17, PS, with time limit)
The ill, near-death Elie was saved by Marie, so she vowed to become an alchemist herself. Features more difficult battles than Atelier Marie.
This game was also ported to several systems. There are also games outside of the main series that cover and extend both Marie and Elie's story on WonderSwan and GBA.

(A3) Atelier Lilie: The Alchemist of Salburg 3 (2001-06-21, PS2, with time limit)
This game takes place before Marie and Elie, and is about the construction of the academy they go to.
Atelier Lilie is PS2-only, never ported to other systems.

Gramnad series (same world as Salburg, just different locations)

(A4) Atelier Judie: The Alchemist of Gramnad (2002-06-27, PS2, no time limit)
Judie went back 200 years in time to Lilie's period due to a mistake in making a time-travelling item. Her goal is to return to her own time. (…And then we get the (non-canon) events in Nelke. She's a dangerous time traveller.)
This game forgoes the usual time limit, but makes items deterioriate over time. It was ported to PSP later.

(A5) Atelier Viorate The Alchemist Of Gramnad 2 (2003-06-26, PS2, with time limit)
7 years since the beginning of Elie. Vio refused to move with her parents and leave her village and its signature carrots behind, so she was tasked with managing the town as a condition to stay.
Has a PSP port.


Generation 2
These are the more unusual games by Atelier standard, featuring Mana, male protagonists and darker or battle-oriented stories.

Iris series (these games put more focus on the RPG part and feature the energy force Mana, and are the first to leave Japan)

(A6) Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana (2004-05-27, PS2, no time limit)
Features a rather standard boy hero (Klein) as the lead alchemist. The story is a rather standard RPG.

(A7) Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny (2005-05-26, PS2, no time limit)
Another standard RPG, featuring two protagonists (Felt and Viese) that can be switched to freely most of the time.

(A8) Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (2006-06-29, PS2, no time limit)
Features Edge and Iris, travellers whose job is to go to alternate worlds for investigation. The last two games have NPCs named Iris, but the Iris in this game is playable.
All Iris games are for PS2 only and don't have ports.

Mana-Khemia series (these games also feaure Mana; not the same world as the Iris series)

(A9) Mana-Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis (2007-06-27, PS2, no time limit)
Alchemy student Vayne is on a journey of discovering his true origins and his late father. As it turns out at the story's end, it's actually one of the darkest stories in the Atelier series.
Has a PSP port.

(A10) Mana-Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy (2008-05-29, PS2, no time limit)
More than a decade after Mana-Khemia, this story tells the school life of Raze and Ulrika, two polar opposite students who keep arguing with each other while investigating on the gradual disappearance of Mana in their world.
Has a PSP port, and is the only PS2 Atelier to be available in PS2 Archives (downloadable PS2 games for PS3).


Generation 3
The Atelier we know and love now, with 3D graphics (finally), elements from the first games returning and the focus back to the individual alchemists' growth. All games in this generation are available on PS4, and most of these are available on Switch.

Arland series

(A11) Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland (2009-06-25, PS3, with time limit)
The first modern Atelier title. Combines systems from the various old games, and adds its own systems like inheritable item properties (in addition to item quality). The story is about Rorona trying to finish assignments required to keep her license to run an atelier.

(A12) Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland (2010-06-24, PS3, with time limit)
Adventurer and Rorona's apprentice Totori is on a journey to find her missing mother, who is an adventurer who leaves all kinds of crazy tales. Popular for its story and characters, but is very difficult on the time management side. No one posted the solution to the true ending online for a whole month since its release!

(A13) Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland (2011-06-23, PS3, with time limit)
Meruru, the ex-princess of Arls whose country was going to be merged into the Arland Republic, studied under Totori and worked on both alchemy and development of her homeland. This game is well acclaimed for its gameplay, but several out-of-character moments makes it not very well-received in story terms.

(A20) Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland (2019-03-20, PS4/Switch, no time limit)
Lulua, Rorona's daughter, received a mysterious book that only she can read. The book, the Alchemy Riddle, contains hints and guides that aids her own endeavor to become a great alchemist, and ultimately led her to change her fate.
This game mixes systems from the Arland and Mysterious series, and is bigger in scale than the previous titles. Reception on the story seems tobe mixed, though.

Dusk series (features an about-to-fall civilization, possibly inspired by dark worldbuilding in works like Fallout: NewVegas, Attack on Titan and Madoka Magica)

(A14) Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk (2012-06-28, PS3, with time limit)
Pharmacist Ayesha started learning alchemy in order to find her sister, who went missing three years ago. This game introduces multiple endings that can be fulfilled at the same time, with a dialog option at the very end to determine which ending to happen. This makes completing all endings much easier.

(A15) Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky (2013-06-23, PS3, with time limit)
The story is about the investigation of ruins… that float in the air. The game's UI is much friendlier, with features like items being replenished upon returning to town, making it one of the easier games with time limit. It also features a popular battle system.

(A16) Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea (2014-07-17, PS3, no time limit)
This game follows Shallistera who wants to learn the solution to her tribe's land getting dry and Shallotte who wants to chase her dream and "go big". It's poorly received due to tasks feeling mundane, had quite a lot of bugs pre-update (which is a problem for all modern Atelier titles), and failed to conclude many of the Dusk series' subplots.

Mysterious series (the light-hearted stories might be inspired by the nichijou-kei anime and light novel boom lately)

(A17) Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book (2015-11-19, PS4/PSVita/PS3, no time limit)
Sophie's goal is to free her late grandmother's talking book (Plachta) and give her a human body. As a stopgap solution, Plachta is given puppet forms to move freely and interact with people (which proved to be a popular system). The game is relatively free of bugs even before updates. It's very beginner-friendly, and has only one ending.
Sophie was voted the most popular Atelier character in the 20th anniversary poll held by GUST.

(A18) Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey (2016-11-02, PS4/PSVita, time limit in the first part only)
Unlike most of the Atelier series, the protagonists are not stuck in the same town. Rather, Firis gets to move her portable tent wherever she goes in open world-like fields. The pre-update version is rather buggy, and it's overall a far less newcomer-friendly game. Nevertheless, it's appreciated by seasoned fans.

(A19) Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings (2017-12-21, PS4/PSVita/Switch, almost no time limit)
Twins Lydie and Sue set out to improve their atelier's reputation to fulfil their promise with their late mother to run the country's best atelier. Well-received in terms of story, because it gives proper closure to the plot threads, unlike the other "third games" Meruru and Shalie. It's also rare in that updates did not make previous viable battle strategies useless; rather, updates made them even more effective.


Spinoffs

Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World (2019-01-31, PS4/PSVita/Switch, with time limit)
Nelke, a non-alchemist noblewoman, offers to work as Westwald's governor to help her own research on the legendary Granzweit Tree. Alchemists from multiple worlds started appearing mysteriously, and they offer Nelke their help to develop the town. A non-canon (but doesn't clash with canon) town building game that some see as surprisingly hard, partly due to the infamous time limit that scared some new players is now back in full force.

Other games
There are quite a few others, but the notable ones are Atelier Marie Elie And Anise (GBA game that extends the first two games), the DS Atelier series (3 games: Liese, Annie, Lina), Atelier Questboard (mobile game) and Atelier Online. And then we have Atelier Elkrone Dear For Otomate (an otome game) that GUST licensed out and doesn't seem to acknowledge these days.



Source 1: ねりきんextra's Atelier Lulua guide (Introduction to Atelier 1 / Introduction to Atelier 2)
Source 2: TV Tropes

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Three games in, and I think I'm starting to see what do I like in this series. It's because it feels rather relatable. Not that I run a workshop that makes both lethal poison and food from the same pot or that I throw bombs at ancient monsters, but fantasy elements aside, they're just like your usual workers with real-life concerns. They struggle to keep their business running, they have personal goals, they have problems more than "I want to get stronger", and their problems often require more brain than brawn to solve. Some of them also live in deteriorating or post-collapse worlds, because alchemy/technology abuse is a very real thing.

And their response to their hardship? Keep a positive attitude, believe something will work out for them, and help out each other if they can't do it alone. I find it admirable, even if impractical.

That aside, it just feels good seeing these people, after the hard work they go through, can get their goals fulfilled. (This is also what I like about Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE.)

The biggest draw to the series (besides the story) has to be the item system. All items you get are unique, with different qualities and attributes attached. The unique item system makes the creation of equipment and items a fun puzzle on its own, but it can also get tedious if you can't figure out how to make the best items, or know what to do but don't have enough raw materials. Ignoring item creation will make battles harder, since they contribute more than the character levels.

The music also seems to be enjoyed by a lot of players, although I find them rather low-budget, with obvious synthesizer artefacts and an overuse of (non-synth) vocal songs in certain games. Songs can also feel repetitive (by being played too frequently in the game) and nondescript at times. This problem is vastly improved in Lulua, though.

Depending on what free and paid DLC BGM packs you have, you can change the background music to songs from the previous titles. Lydie & Suelle in particular has a free music pack that covers the entire Atelier series' complete music catalog as part of the 20th anniversary campaign. It also eats up at least 6 GB of storage.

The battle systems are more or less standard RPG fare, except for the more unique ways to use items. Dungeons are not very interactive (don't expect puzzles). Towns are relatively small. Not that they really matter, since character interaction and the emphasis on items are the main selling points of Atelier.

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Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland
ルルアのアトリエ ～アーランドの錬金術士4～

Overall impression

Even before the game's release, I got the impression that Atelier Lulua feels more modern in terms of graphics and UI. The text is smaller but with better spacing, and more information can be shown at the same time. This may have to do with the discontinuation of PS Vita support, which essentially guarantees the screen is always rendered in 720p or above.

The graphics feel much cleaner too, compared to the previous games. This is especially true for the portable mode of the Switch version. Lulua's graphics on Switch look a bit better than the PS4 graphics of the previous games, though comparisons between the same game still favour the PS4 version.

The system of Atelier Lulua is a split between the Arland series and the Mysterious series. In particular, it has:
- World map similar to Atelier Totori
- Item synthesis based on the Arland series
- Portable atelier similar to the one Firis has
- Two-row battle formation based on Atelier Lydie & Suelle, but further improved

The last one may take some getting used to for Arland players, especially with the presence of the Break system that makes combatants unavailable for any move after taking enough damage.

User interface

Really, the UI is good. For starter, it's now possible to sort and delete save files. For some reason, the previous games don't allow save file deletion, which makes cleaning up redundant backups difficult.

Item duplication service, previously provided by Corneria in the Mysterious series, is handled by Lulua's teacher Piana's assistant Chim Dragon here, who conveniently works in Piana's atelier.

The mini-drama in the item and monster description screens also return from the Mysterious series. They no longer comment on locations, and only the playable cast participate (because only them have the mini character head icons this time). Here you can also see the benefit of using smaller text; the item information is no longer paginated and can be viewed in one page.

Atelier Lulua has a habit of applying a weird blur filter on characters not in focus. Unlike the rest of the graphics, these blurred characters look rather awkward.

And finally, as I said before, this game has a vastly improved loading speed. Loading smaller rooms don't even trigger the "Now Loading" screen.

Battle

The most obvious change is that Atelier Lulua has 5 characters participate. But this is actually a good thing, because each supporter now supports two adjacent attackers instead of having them tied in 1-to-1 pairs. The special attack guage is now shared by the whole party, and since the guage goes up slowly, it's not practical to just use special attacks at the first availability like with the combination attacks in Lydie & Suelle.

Lulua loves curry. Guess what her special attack is like?

Since pairing attackers and supporters is not as rigid as in Lydie & Suelle, it's much easier to find good, easy-to-use combinations. One way to set up the formation is to put Lulua in the middle, supported by both Piana and Eva, then have Lulua use her physical/magic hybrid attack and trigger a long chain of followup attacks.

There are also more options for healing HP, MP, status and affliction with both skills and items. Overall, battles are much easier here. You also don't need to worry about reaching level 100, since you can reach there while worrying about other things like money and fulfilling requests.

Oh, there is also a large variety of battle music depending on where the battle happens. Atelier Lydie & Suelle only has variations of the same two songs (one for each twin) for normal battles, but Atelier Lulua has multiple unique songs.

Exploration

Certain Alchemy Riddle tasks require talking to specific NPCs or looking at specific objects in various areas. The raw material discovery and battle completion rates are being kept track of, and reaching 100% will make the raw materials found come in higher qualities.

There is also a particular material that can be found in this map during the 11th month, although this material can also be obtained elsewhere.

Item synthesis

Making items is relatively more difficult compared to Atelier Lydie & Suelle. The Arland system has the player control the elemental balance of the raw items used, and in some cases a wrong balance (like having too much fire without enough earth to counter it) will turn the item into failed trash.

The maximum quality is also initially capped. Items of quality above 50 can only be made after solving certain pages of the Alchemy Riddle.

Story progression

In Nelke, the fourth wall-breaking Gust-chan talked about how the Arland tales would continue, referencing Lulua. Gust-chan also congratulated Sophie for appearing in four games in a row in a previous conversation, confusing her.

And now, where to start… I'll just say it's not very straightforward. This time, I'm not going to discuss spoilers.

First off, on the story itself: Unlike some of the games (Marie, Viorate, Sophie, Lydie & Suelle, Nelke, etc), there is no specific end goals stated at the beginning. Some think it makes Lulua's fate-changing friend look like she just shows up without much story justification, but I'm perfectly fine with this. A person's goals can change all the time, after all. And each action, however irrelevant it may seem, makes Lulua learn something that will be made relevant to the final chapter. But not in a straightforward way.

While it's mostly an Atelier-style tale, parts of it does feel like a traditional, RPG-like epic. I like the balance here, although I still prefer a pure slice-of-life story.

Lulua talked to a bunch of Punis. How could this be related?

And now she's on a mission to expel ghosts!?

And a discussion with Rorona on how the past cannot be changed. (Also, Rorona is an adorable 35-year-old woman who is fully capable as an adventurer. How often do you find game characters like this?)

Actually, at this point, I could already guess what the end was going to be like. And I was correct.

This game does a lot of not-subtle-at-all hint dropping, and then reveal the answer when I already know what it would be. It feels more reassuring than surprising when I get the final confirmation.

One exception is the true identity of Ficus, which requires some level of knowledge in Atelier Totori's plot. This is one part I wish they could do better.

There are also a lot of character events, as would be expected from an Atelier game. One particular event I like is Lulua commenting that Totori and Mimi (a very obvious pairing) look like a married couple. Mimi gets all flustered about it, but the best part is that Totori doesn't deny it at all.

Also as per Atelier standard, there are a lot of illustrations. Though given the graphics style this time and how there are a lot of new character poses and motions this time, these illustrations don't stand out as much.

One thing I would complain is how the character events are being triggered. With the playable cast, it's the same as before: raise their friendship levels to 80%. But the events for the NPCs are a bit more complicated: basically, you need to buy from the shop owners, and complete requests for the characters that handle those. But there's also another requirement for triggering the next event after completing one, being the passage of in-game time. There's no indication on whether these requirements are fulfilled, making it hard to even tell if there are any further character events for a particular NPC.

Oh, and the story's end doesn't really feel like an end at all. It appears very obvious that a sequel is being planned, and I'm already looking forward to it. Arland 5 cannot come soon enough. I'm also interested to see Dusk or Mysterious being continued, but right now I want to see Arland 5 more than those.

Resources:

A free demo (playable up to Chapter 2) is available in the Japanese Nintendo eShop (Nintendo Switch) and PlayStation Store (PlayStation 4).

Soundtrack (YouTube)

Japanese website (don't bother with the English version; it's a single-page incomplete info dump that feels like they aren't even trying to sell it in the west)

Character page of the website (Lulua, Eva, Aurel, Piana, Ficus, Niko, Rorona and Sterk are playable; Totori and Meruru are playable through DLC)

Dengeki article that has a very good impression with the game

[nocturnal YL]

A few days ago, I got anotice on Twitter saying that GUST would announce something soon. I guess it's good to see them working on some other series—

Oh wait no. It's the 21st main series Atelier and the third Atelier title to come out in 2019. Atelier Ryza: The Queen of Eternal Darkness and the Secret Hideout is set to be released in fall, and is another completely new story.

Not sure if I'll like the changes that are said to be deviate quite a lot from the series, but at least it looks good so far.

I kind of want to see it not coming so soon, actually. Atelier is probably the only series I'd want to see slow down in releases. I'm not going to get the chance to play the older games at this rate! And it's going to be as buggy as everything else in the Atelier series, I'm fairly certain.

Leaked details

Famitsu article

[Nester the Lark]

According to Nintendo Everything, the Atelier series seems to have been building up a fan base on Switch:

Despite the challenges involved, Gust feels that it’s been worth supporting Switch with the Atelier series. Hosoi told us that sales have been increasing with each successive entry in the franchise on Nintendo’s console, so they “find that this is a good platform for us to have expanded onto.”

Makes sense, I suppose. In less than two years, they've already released seven games on the Switch (with the Dusk trilogy on the way).

[nocturnal YL]

My screenshots have those vertical line artefacts. Those are the fault of the Switch screen capture function, and are not present during gameplay. I checked across my Switch system, screenshots taken with capture devices and PS4 screenshots, and those look fine.

Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout
ライザのアトリエ 〜常闇の女王と秘密の隠れ家〜

Background information

My experience with Atelier Ryza is different from the previous games in that I was approaching this game with expectation based on the series, so comparisons are unavoidable.

Not long after this game was announced, it was revealed that this was something Gust were making for a while, in parallel with Atelier Lulua. Coupled with bold statements that it would change a lot of things to the point veteran fans may not like it, and with unusually heavy advertising by the series' standard, I was cautiously optimistic about the game.

Still, at first glance, I was also rather worried whether I would like the game, especially for the new battle system and the character design. (I was quite confused when I learned Ryza earned TGS 2019's best character design award.) I got just the game, rather than the premium box, unlike Lulua.

I played the game, start-to-finish, without looking at any external source. I also didn't watch any gameplay (besides screenshots) prior to playing, so this is pretty much a blind playthrough.

Overall impression

It ended up feeling rather lightweighted in many ways. Game length, story, voice acting, battle system, menu UI and extras are all cut down by various extents. Item synthesis is is both simpler to work with and allows more potential, so it's not necessarily a bad thing.

There are parts that did improve. Graphics and maps are the more obvious improvements, and there are more map BGM this time (one for each area and with day and night versions). Design choices that make Atelier much less frustrating than other RPGs are still there: all party members get full experience even when inactive or downed, and the penalty for losing is almost nonexistent. Difficulty levels can still be freely swapped.

I won't fault the game for its shortcomings, since it really is just what it's advertised to be: the characters grow just a little, in a small adventure that lasts just a single summer; its main improvement is the graphics, and there are gameplay changes that veteran fans may not like. Still a bit disappointed in the general lack of voice acting, though.


Story

See the character pages of the official site (JP / NA / EU) to learn about them.

I didn't expect a particularly stellar story, and I didn't get that either. I like the second half of the story better, but the game emphasizes on the first half.

Ryza starts off as the daughter of a farmer family, and both her parents and other villagers are generally dismissive of her desire to adventure outside. This is quite a contrast with the last games I've played, where the lead characters lived in helpful communities and could seek support from senior alchemists. I… don't like this premise.

Roughly the first half of the game is spent earning the village's approval, preparing for the secret hideout and proving Ryza's group's power to Bos, their rival. Roughly halfway into the game, we learn the true intention of Empel and Lila's investigation, and by the time Empel joins, the story is almost over. The pacing is rather odd, glossing over the important part of the story.

Not helping the matter is that outside of the main cutscenes, almost nothing had voice acting. It feels weird to see how each new game gets less voice acting: Lydie & Suelle had full voice acting in cutscenes, Lulua had full voice acting in the base game but not the DLC, while Ryza doesn't get voice acting in most cutscenes, putting it on par with Nelke, which is a low-budget spinoff.

And it also doesn't help that there are no character-specific side-stories and their associated endings. Atelier Ryza uses the single-ending format. NPC requests now have short stories attached, but these don't nearly make up for the shrunken main story.

Battle system

One of the bigger changes to the game is the new battle system. It's semi-real-time now, with the option to pick attacks appearing after the player's turn is reached. Additional menu selections are carried on while the battle timer is still running, although the timeline is paused while reading the character stats, during specific attack animations or in certain other situations.

The battles are generally easier to make up for the lack of time to pick moves. And it's interesting to see that they do away with the MP and item uses so commonly associated with RPGs in favour of more unique systems, even though the whole system feels more casual.

There are only 3 active characters now, just like the older games before the front/rear row mechanic was introduced. This further contributes to the casual feel of the battle system. There are other ways to chain attacks (among the three active members), but it's more limited.

Overall, the battle system is better than I initially thought when I heard it'd be real-time. But I'd still very much prefer the old system.

Maps, material gathering

Exploration is mostly unchanged from Lulua, but besides the bigger maps, there are now multiple ways to get materials besides the standard staff swing. One downside is that it is easy to miss certain material types by not remembering to gather items with all methods available, but it's mostly a good feature that encourages trying different things. There's also the new feature to generate new locations for gathering materials, although there is very little in-game use of it.

It also seems to be easier to locate certain material types now, which really helps making things less frustrating. Also, each area has its own day and night BGM tracks, and some of them sound pretty good.

Item synthesis

It's much easier to make items now, for the baseline definition of making items. Most items require only 2 materials to make.

Making the best items is more difficult thanks to the new system that allows recipes to transform to other recipes, and generally it's better to transform from a lower-level item than to just use the high-level item's recipe. The game's difficulty is nowhere enough to require this, though.

One problem I have with the new item system is the ways to find recipes. Besides recipe transformation, they are obtained from shops and quests, the latter of which can be time-consuming.

At one point, I had to make an item with a material that I did not know how to make, since the recipe for said material was two transformations behind. The game never dropped any hint on where to look for it, although it helps a bit to think like the characters do in-game and use a little bit of an alchemist's intuition. ("This item may be related to that item, so if I unlock the recipe for that item first…")

Graphics

This game uses the same way to render graphics as Lulua, and there are some shared motions. The graphics are generally improved, but it is hard to see that on Nintendo Switch, especially in handheld mode.

The character models don't seem to be much improved. It's still easy to tell the polygonal edges, and clipping still happens a lot.

And given that this is based on Lulua, that weird blur effect on things close to the camera is also still there.

Also, the illustrated scenes that the series is known for total to a measly 10 now, putting it way below all 3 other games I've played. Though one may argue that those illustrations are usually used to supplement the limited 3D assets, making them more of a practical solution than an artistic one.

User interface and system

It's worse. Not particularly bad, but it is no longer possible to find location information in the album, and I couldn't tell the overall progress of the game as easily.

The descriptions in the album and the logbook are also standard, RPG-like description now, rather than having mini dialogs and looking like the main characters wrote those themselves.

The music in the sound gallery also no longer feature the composers' comments. Voice actor commentary still remains, though.

One thing that does deserve praise is that I have never seen a system crash caused by this game, unlike Nelke, Lulua and especially Lydie & Suelle. I thought the introduction of new game systems would lead to more bugs, but apparently this is not the case.

So do I recommend this?

I have mixed, and mostly disappointed, feelings toward this game. I can kind of see why is Atelier Ryza popular, but I also think newcomers have missed a lot of what the series can offer. I expected a full-fledged game since it felt like Gust was very ambitious, but ended with a standard-ish game that's about Nelke-sized in scale.

I still wouldn't say this game should be skipped by fans, and it's still a very solid game, but the last games' quality and this game's heavy advertisement have greatly raised my expectation. I'd definitely recommend Lulua over this, especially for veteran RPG players.

Current ranking:
Lulua > Lydie & Suelle > Nelke > Ryza

[nocturnal YL]

I previously thought I'd skip talking about re-releases and spinoffs, but after playing the Arland DX games, I found that there are actually a lot to talk about.

Alchemy 101

I did not talk about this in the earlier reviews, but I thought I'd go through the basics of making items so that you don't get confused when I talk about things like quality and traits.

Items can be made by combining raw materials or other synthesized items. An item has three main kinds of property: quality, effects and traits.

The quality of an item is a number that can go up to 120 in the original Arland games or 999 in the newer games. The base quality of a synthesized item is the simple average of the materials used to make it (capped at 100 in the original Arland games), and may be further changed by other means like inheriting traits (this can raise quality to beyond 100).

An item can have various effects specific to that item, depending on what materials are used to make it.

An item can inherit traits (up to 5 in the original Arland games, or 3 traits in the newer games) from the materials used to make it. Certain traits can only be applied to specific item types, so for example, Inflict Sleep can only be added to a weapon, not an attack item. There is also a cost limit for inheriting traits that depends on what materials are used.

Making items takes time, which is where the series' difficulty comes from. The newer games don't have time limits, but they have more complex synthesis systems that make creation of ideal items much more difficult.

Basic Timeline

(Click to show full image)

Characters

Character availability list. Only speaking roles count. Player party availability based on the highest versions of the games (New Rorona/DX, Totori Plus/DX, Meruru Plus/DX, DLC-complete Lulua).

● = Can participate in battles
○ = Non-playable

Character	Rorona	Totori	Meruru	Lulua	Description
Rorona	●	●	●	●	Atelier owner in Arland. Talented, but clumsy. Loves pies.
Cordelia	●	●			Rorona's friend. Chancellor of Arland as of Lulua.
Iksel	●	●			A chef who runs a restaurant near Rorona's.
Sterk	●	●	●	●	An aspiring knight who is obviously in love with Rorona.
Lionela	●			○	A timid travelling performer. Runs a bar in Arland in Lulua.
Tantris	●				Meredith's son who does not share his views.
Gio	●		●		Former king, and best swordfighter, of Arland.
Esty	●		●		Arland official. Sterk's senior.
Astrid	●		○		Rorona's teacher. A big troublemaker, but very capable.
Pamela	○	○	●	○	Atelier series resident ghost. Runs shops.
Hagel	○	○	○		Atelier series resident blacksmith.
Ryan	○				Rorona's father. Always travelling with Laura.
Laura	○				Rorona's mother. Can get scary if angry.
Meredith	○				Politician who favoured industry over alchemy.
Tiffani	○	○			Shop owner. Widow. Attracts many middle-aged men.
Cole	○			○	Young travelling merchant. Succeeded Hagel in Lulua.
Hom	○		○		Homunculus created by Astrid to aid Rorona.
Totori	●	●	●	●	Adventurer in search of Gisela. Teaches class in Lulua.
Gino		●	●		Adventurous childhood friend of Totori's.
Melvia		●			Ceci's friend and adventurer. Has super strength.
Mimi		●	●	○	Totori's close friend. Classic tsundere.
Marc		●			Mad scientist who loves children. Makes robots.
Ceci		●			Totori's overprotective sister.
Chim		○	○	○	Homunculus created by Rorona. Totori made more later.
Filly		○	○		Timid receptionist with a wild imagination. Esty's sister.
Guid		○			Totori and Ceci's father whose presence is often unnoticed.
Gerhard		○			Bar master and Guid's drinking friend.
Peter		○	○		Carriage operator with perverted ambitions.
Piana		○		●	From the frontier village Totori saved. Lulua's teacher.
Pilca		○			Elder of the frontier village.
Gisela		○			Totori and Ceci's mother. Adventurer.
Meruru	●		●	●	Former princess of Arls. Loves mushroom.
Keina			●	○	Meruru's maid. Brings luck to those around her.
Lias			●		Meruru's childhood friend. Looks up to Rufus.
Rufus			●		Lias's brother. Capable, but feared for his high standards.
Hanna			●		Travels around and gathers materials to sell.
Dessier			○		Meruru's father. Well-liked by the people.
Lulua				●	Rorona's daughter who saved Arklys. Loves curry.
Eva				●	Lulua's friend. A cannon user with great strength.
Aurel				●	Gio's relative. Trains his sword skills in hope to best Sterk.
Nico				●	Self-titled "Pirate" who got his ship wrecked.
Ficus		○		●	Travelling magician who enjoys seeing children grow.
Mana			○	○	Orthogalaxen's operator. Machina of God.
Stia				○	Fellsgalaxen's operator. Followed Lulua since they met.
Jeltje				○	In search of her brother. Collects autographs of adventurers.
Lisa				○	Runs a bar in Arklys. Has an unfathomable appetite.
Refle				○	Runs a jewel shop in Arklys. Very knowledgeable in jewels.

---

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland DX
ロロナのアトリエ ～アーランドの錬金術士～ DX

Background information

Original Atelier Rorona	Very basic game with a system simpler than Totori. Had quite a lot of issues.
New Atelier Rorona	Complete remake using Meruru's system, making it a PS3 (and PS Vita) remake of a PS3 game. Has new 3D character models, Esty and Astrid playable, UI improvements from Ayesha, sub-tasks with a bingo reward system like in Escha & Logy, an extra year featuring time-travelling Totori and Meruru, and more.
New Atelier Rorona (3DS)	New Rorona but with a grid-based battle system, deformed character models (because 3DS), Neruneru Nerune product placement, an Atelier Astrid prequel mode, and a few maps removed. None of these changes were in DX.
Atelier Rorona DX	Added features to move faster, fast-forward battle animation and better loading time. Time capsule in during overtime (4th year) no longer accepts ingots (weapon materials).

I started playing this game in January 2020 right after Atelier Ryza, and that playthrough dragged on until July 2020, mostly because I was playing the Project DIVA games. A smaller reason is that the game's structure makes it easy to get burnt out.

Overall impression

I do like the overall game, but I'd say it's the weakest among the trilogy. The pacing makes for a game that feels boring and the story premise is plain, although the execution of the story is quite good and the gameplay feels fine.

As a time management game with an overarching time (turn) limit, I wanted to make the best out of the extra time for things like money and best equipment (which can be carried to later playthroughs), optional quests and completing the item encyclopedia. The required tasks are only refreshed every three months, so I can't just sleep through everything, view the ending and load the old save file for other endings or making the best items. This problem is not as severe in other time management games (Nelke, Totori and Meruru), since there aren't as many events tied to the calendar.

Story

There was an atelier in Arland, run by the prodigal but uncooperative Astrid. The kingdom's minister proposed to shut down the atelier in favour of industrial development, and the workshop is given three year's time to prove its worth to avoid foreclosure. Astrid is unmotivated, so it's up to Rorona, her apprentice, to save the shop.

Story impression

The overall tone of the game is a comical one. The main story is rather plain; although this is understandable considering this game is all about bringing the Atelier series back to its roots.

There isn't much content in the main story, and Rorona is given mundane tasks like making home accessories, with only short dialogs to introduce the tasks. Still, some parts of the main story do dive deeper, like when Astrid explains why does she dislike the people of Arland at the end of the 3rd year. To contrast the simple main story, the character events are made more interesting.

My favourite plot thread is Lionela's, which explains why does she have two talking puppets who seemingly move on their own. She left Arland afterwards and does not appear in Totori and Meruru, and I'd have felt sorry for her… if not for her cameo in Meruru's opening and eventual return in Lulua suggesting she's fine.

I unfortunately did not collect all events, because I jumped into the game blind and missed my chance to raise friendship levels for Gio and Tantris. I submitted low-rank items for friend requests, not realising how friendship works in the original Arland series.

Graphics

The character models were updated, but I don't think that extends to the landscape models, which look like they're for systems older than PS3. The original Rorona came out more than 2 years after PS3's release, but this was the series' first 3D entry. While I didn't expect good graphics, it still feels quite jarring to jump from Ryza to this.

Game systems

The original Arland games are simple in terms of both item synthesis and battles. They lack any of the more complex systems introduced later, and the focus is on time management and getting specific endings.

For both New Rorona and Meruru, there is the Pocket Watch equipment, which revives the downed wearer when their turn comes. This means that unless all 3 characters are downed, the player cannot lose. This does not provide sufficient protection against Meruru's extra bosses, but in New Rorona, this is more than enough.

A Secret Remedy item with the effects HP Recovery L and Fall Back, and the traits All Range, Living and Spiritflower Energy can protect against KOs, revive downed members (if the protection does not work) and activates itself for the next use. This does not work 100% of the time, but usually lasts long enough even for drawn-out boss fights. The Extend Range series of traits is not available in Meruru, unfortunately.

New Rorona introduced a garden feature that allows high-quality raw materials with specific traits be obtained from specifically-crafted seeds.

Rorona is the only Arland game without a fully-featured world map. Instead, each area has many sub-areas that are unlocked by reaching exits of the previous sub-area. Visiting each sub-area has a fixed time cost and gathering/battling don't incur more, making this the easiest game in terms of time management.

Everything considered, this game is easy.

---

Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland DX
トトリのアトリエ ～アーランドの錬金術士2～ DX

Background information

Original Atelier Totori	Has a world map, very simple synthesis and battle systems, a tight time limit, and a very helpful ability to make exact copies of materials and items. Doesn't feel different from Plus and DX at all.
Atelier Totori Plus	DLC-complete version, making Ceci, Iksel and Cordelia playable. Adds Orthogalaxen and extra bosses, which makes it harder to get all adventurer points.
Atelier Totori DX	No additional changes besides faster movement, battle animation and loading time. Totori Plus came before the other two, so there's also no save data bonus to be made unconditionally available in DX.

I played a bit of Totori DX in June for the original PS3 version's 10th anniversary. I started playing it full-time in September, after fighting the extra bosses in Rorona DX. Because I know Totori is difficult, I decided to consult a walkthrough from the get-go, although it doesn't cover anything introduced in Plus.

Overall impression

The most obvious thing is that I love the story! It has the most serious tone across the three games, and it's a touching tale. The music, introduction of a world map and the adventurer rank system all set up for an atmosphere that befits Totori's quest to find her mother.

And there's its opening theme song, Pilgrimage. When I ran the game for the first time, this song from the opening movie caught my attention, and I intentionally held off listening to the full version until after finishing the game. The story gives context to its lyrics, so listening before and after game completion evoke different feelings.

The game's reputation as a difficult entry really shows. The time limit is very tight for getting all enemies, items and adventurer points, especially after the Plus additions. Making optimal items for battle proves to be difficult too. I have a single month left for free activities at the end.

It's not the most newcomer-friendly entry (something shared by fellow second game, Atelier Firis), but it's the most satisfying one.

Story

Totori became an adventurer in hope to find her long-missing mother, Gisela, thought to be dead by the rest of the village. Her search effort spanned across Arland (now a republic following king Gio's resignation), and after extending her 3-year adventurer license for 2 more years, she set sail across the sea to the eastern continent, finding a village that seemingly had the answer of her quest.

Story impression

There are just so much to like about this game. The story is an emotional, and ultimately heartwarming one. It also gives us a peek into the eastern continent, which two characters in Atelier Lulua originate from, and may serve as the stage of a potential sequel.

I'm a bit surprised to see how Totori started her career. It's easy to forget that she didn't start off as the best alchemist and teacher as a child. Especially since she doesn't seem to age visually.

There's also her relationship with Mimi. It went as one would expect, but it's good to see why she's so attached to her. Totori sometimes unintentionally offend people (although I'd say compared to others, she is a careful speaker), and Mimi has a very fragile ego due to her pride as a noble. The fallout between the two at one point let Mimi come to terms with her feelings and open up to Totori.

Other character event highlights include the ones with Ceci and Piana (and Rorona), which involve sibling rivalry-like dynamics of having their attention taken away by someone else. Ceci's big sister instinct is finally useful for something other than being overprotective.

That said, the handling of Piana is actually pretty weird. She followed Totori home after Totori left the eastern continent for the first time, and has been staying there since. Perhaps it's due to her being a late-game addition, her appearances are confined to a few events and the ending, and she doesn't appear in the illustrations. She doesn't have much of a presence and isn't seen in Atelier Meruru, despite living with Totori.

There are events I think aren't well-written, though. Gino's final character event feels a bit forced; the writer seems to want to give him a chance to shine by making him save Totori from a monster, but that's after establishing Totori as a better fighter several times. Worse if this event is viewed after Sterk (Gino's much stronger teacher) laments if his service is needed after Totori outlevels him.

I would certainly recommend following a guide for this game. The way the character events are arranged is very complicated. There's no way a normal player can gather all endings in a single playthrough without a guide; it's very easy to overshoot the requirements and miss out the endings of lower priorities.

Graphics

Taking New Rorona's rehaul in consideration, Totori Plus / DX has the oldest base game, meaning that the graphics are also the most outdated. I found it a bit weird to look at the character models at first. Character faces use low-resolution texture, but the game does zoom in on them.

Game systems

Totori Plus / DX also has the oldest game system. This contributes to several differences from the other two, the most obvious ones include the lack of trait combination, the lack of ability to chain attacks and items to the extent possible in New Rorona and Meruru, and having only one equippable accessory per character instead of two. That said, while I think I'd like to make fighting easier, having to combine item traits would take more time, and time is the one thing this game severely lacks. Simpler synthesis and battle systems are actually appreciated.

This is the only game of the three that allows raw materials and synthesized items to be duplicated with all attributes intact, thanks to the little homunculi called Chims. This means there is no worries about using raw materials with rare traits. Other games have other ways to mitigate this, but Meruru doesn't.

Totori receives the fewest changes between the original and Plus versions, and between Plus and DX. The only major addition (Orthogalaxen) only makes full completion harder for an already difficult game.

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Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland DX
メルルのアトリエ ～アーランドの錬金術士3～ DX

Background information

Original Atelier Meruru	Still has a world map, and retains certain time management-related aspects of Totori, but is much more lenient. Introduced trait combination and chaining attacks to greatly increase item power.
Atelier Meruru Plus	DLC-complete version, making Hanna, Rufus and Pamela playable. Adds Makina Domain, extra bosses both inside and outside of Makina Domain, and a lot of game rebalancing.
Atelier Meruru DX	Adds faster movement, battle animation and loading time. Ending slightly modified. The opening and closing scenes to New Rorona's events, which was patched into the Japanese version of Meruru Plus, is now included in the western version as well (in Japanese voice only). Seems to have introduced a bug in PS4 where the right stick cannot be used to scroll through trait candidates while picking materials for synthesis.

I played this game right after Totori, starting in November. I went back to reading just simple Japanese wiki guides without day-to-day instructions, and I didn't really need much guidance besides the ending requirements and guides on the tougher bosses.

Atelier Meruru was a controversial entry in several ways. The biggest criticism is the depiction of certain characters. Sterk is uncharacteristically eager to become a knight upon learning Arls is still a kingdom (although this is his dream, going out of the way to convince others to create a knight squad is out of character).

And there's Rorona. She is turned into a child, both body and mind, by Astrid's potion, and the original version's endings turned her back… to a 14-year-old state from Atelier Rorona. Fans blamed this on the new writer, as the game's staff (and Astrid in-game) stated that they don't want to see a 30-year-old Rorona. Fans (and Totori and Meruru in-game), on the other hand, do, and think the treatment of Rorona is not a proper way to end this trilogy. Eventually, Gust released a calendar (Gust Calendar 2013) depicting a grown-up, 33-year-old Rorona, and this adult Rorona was added as the highest-precedence ending in both Meruru Plus and an update to the original PS3 game.

This game also received some rating-related controversy. This game was originally given a CERO rating of A, per series tradition (so far), but it was later found that there are hot spring scenes (which I think warrant at least a C) that were unsubmitted to CERO. Gust was fined, and this game (and subsequent ones) were released with a B rating. (Aside: to me, this is the opposite of Fire Emblem Warriors, which is given a C when I think a B is more sensible.)

Overall impression

There are a lot of character events! With 12 player party characters plus Filly and Hagel, and the trigger for some of them being raising friendship level by 5-10 points (up to 80 depending on character), it's easy to keep triggering them until they end (at around the later half of the 4th year). Not only this, but this game's main missions related to the country's development have event cutscenes too.

The development missions are mostly time-consuming busywork, but even with all the item-making, I have a higher adventurer level than alchemy level even before maxing out the latter (50, versus adventurer level which can go up to 99), unlike the other games. Travelling is less time-consuming than Totori, and without the need to squeeze everything into a single playthrough (there are things unavailable in the 1st run anyway), I ended up with a lot of free time.

Although initial fan reaction wasn't good, playing this game retrospectively made this a good experience. You don't have to worry about the characters' well-being, because their future selves already said they'll be fine. This is especially true regarding Rorona in this game.

Story

Arls, a kingdom bordering Arland, is set to merge into Arland in five years as agreed by the leaders of both lands. But in order to make Arls a worthy addition and to address the criticism of the opposition, the country needs to be better developed first. To help with this, Arland has sent a group of capable people to Arls, among them the alchemist Totori. Meruru, impressed upon seeing alchemy for the first time, asked to study under Totori.

King Dessier, Meruru's father, was initially opposed to her idea of her becoming an alchemist, but he eventually agreed with a condition: she has to contribute to the country's development along the way as part of her royal duties, and her progress will be checked in three years' time, upon which she has to stop if the country does not have a population of 30000.

Story impression

First off, I can't get everything! This game restricts Gio's events and availability as a player character to the 2nd playthrough onwards, meaning that there are things I can't get the first time, including the second-best ending. I can see why did they do this (to save story details, to make the second run feel fresh and to make the first run not as intimidating), but I missed out stuff as a result.

The story is otherwise so-so. Not bad by any means, but not very impressive either, especially since I played this right after Totori. Having said that, the sheer amount of character events means there's bound to be something I like. There's Lias, whose defining feature is extreme bad luck, and there's child Rorona who's just so adorable.

And of course, even more Totori and Mimi. This game has the answer to why is Mimi so insistent on destroying all Pure Truffle she can find in Atelier Lulua. It's tasty, but it makes one tell the truth.

There's also an early-game cutscene (probably the most famous in the game) where Meruru insults her father in a verbal fight, because otankonasu is certainly how you should address a king. Granted, it's an insignificant country… (otankonasu [おたんこなす], exact etymology unknown, but the most common interpretation is "short little eggplant")

Oh, there is one thing I find weird. Although this game includes many cameos and references to characters who don't appear, Piana is completely absent in any form. She doesn't have an opening movie cameo (unlike Ceci, Marc and Lionela), and she's not mentioned in any of Totori's conversations at all. Atelier Lulua mitigated this by making her playable in battles. (Image from Atelier Lulua)

Graphics

Naturally, this is the best of the bunch graphically. New Rorona updated the character graphics to match the quality of Meruru, but Meruru's terrain graphics is relatively better. One slight complaint is that Infinite Corridor looks too dark when the Switch system is not docked.

At one point, I encountered glitchy graphics. It's probably caused by problems with the game card's contacts, and is not a fault of the game itself.

Game systems

For the most part, this game has the best-developed system, with many elements taken from Atelier Totori, including the world map, the time management mechanism, and the development requests taking after Totori's adventurer point system.

In terms of battle, Meruru has the move Potentialize, which consumes a lot of the other characters' action points and item use count, but makes the item really potent. This provides a risk-and-reward dynamic where the player needs to choose between using the action points for attacking or defending Meruru (in the Arland games, protagonists shouldn't be defeated as they can use items and are needed for healing). New Rorona does this too, but Meruru has more difficult fights that encourage smart use of both options.

One thing it doesn't have is the ability to pick an ending after meeting the criteria for more than one. This is introduced in Ayesha, so for Meruru the player still needs to sleep until the end whenever one ending is fulfilled to collect them all. The thing is, in Meruru sleeping (or advancing the calendar in any way) will make the popularity level drop, and at zero it will be a game over. So to get to the end, Meruru should rest for 20 days, fulfil requests for popularity level, and repeat. Not a fun thing to do.

By the way, the DX versions are largely unchanged from the originals besides a few specific changes. That means even the glitches are the same. In Meruru DX, the music change option menu still calls Escha & Logy the new game in development.

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Impression for all three games

I approached these games with the goal to find out the past of the Arland characters after seeing them in Nelke and Lulua. And I'm glad I did; playing these game made me appreciate Atelier Lulua more as a sequel that shows what happens after everything, especially since Meruru really isn't a very good way to end the series.

I actually did not expect the item synthesis system to turn out that way. Since Atelier Lulua had a different synthesis system than Lydie & Suelle, I thought that system was indicative of the original Arland series. Turns out it's far simpler in the older games.

Battle system is less unexpected, but that's because I saw screenshots of it before. The lack of difficulty settings (Lulua has 5 difficulties; Ryza has 7 because why not) makes getting stuck at bosses a frequent occurrence, but it also means I had to take a good look at improving the characters' equipment, whereas on the new games I just lower the difficulty whenever I face bosses.

The story is perhaps the least surprising part, since the Atelier series has a tradition of making return characters talk about their own experience, spoilers and all. It's still good to see the finer details of their original tales, and there are references in Atelier Lulua that I missed that are explained in the older games (like Mimi's issue with Pure Truffles and why Sterk is so protective of Rorona).

And some thought on Rorona herself: she has a rather child-like demeanor, which is pointed out by Totori a lot, and she was a child in Meruru. She does want to be treated as an adult, though; I wonder if this helped making her decide to adopt Lulua later on.

Also, I think 35-year-old Rorona is the best, and Rorona (35) > Rorona (8 [28]) > Rorona (14) > Rorona (22).

Nice experience overall, and if I am to rate these games relative to each other:
Lulua > Lydie & Suelle > Totori DX > Meruru DX > Nelke > Rorona DX > Ryza 1

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Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of a New World
ネルケと伝説の錬金術士たち ～新たな大地のアトリエ～

I may as well talk about this one to complete my set of reviews.

Background information

Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists is a spinoff town management game with a lot of game mechanics from the Atelier series carried over. The goal is to fulfil various quests given to Westwald governor Nelke so that she can keep her job and see to the end of her term.

Nelke can create farmland, ateliers and shops to make a chain of primary, secondary and tertiary production to make money. For resources that cannot be farmed, workers can be sent to outside areas to collect resources. Shops can be made to sell specific items to fulfil quests, which makes more money. Unlike the main series Atelier games, individual items cannot be customised.

The main game lasts 100 turns (can be extended after that), and there are weekday and weekend parts per turn. The weekday part deals with land development, while the weekend part deals with character conversations and exploring the outskirts and doing simple battles (which feels more like a mobile game than a traditional RPG).

This is the second Atelier game I played. It's the kind of game that targets series fans, but I got it, with no knowledge of the series, just because I can see a small bunch of characters again.

Story

Noblewoman Nelke has a personal goal of seeking the legendary Granzweit Tree. Upon hearing rumours that it is located in Westwald, she offers to become its governor and develop the place. Possessing no talent in the art of alchemy, she started by trying to find alchemists, and happened to see Marie soon after. Marie is from a different world, and is trying to find a way to return; and in the upcoming weeks many other alchemists of a similar situation appeared, each warping here after their own freak accidents. Knowing this is related to the Granzweit Tree and is too specific to be a coincidence, Nelke sets to uncover the secret of the tree while developing the town in parallel to continue staying in it.

Characters

Interestingly, while the modern game's characters are from the end of their respective stories, they use their original games' design. So we have Sophie, currently satisfied to have her ultimate goal accomplished, taking the appearance of when she has just started doing alchemy.

(Full image without character names)

Various impressions

I'll just bring up a few points to highlight.

This game is obviously low budget. Voice acting is only done for the main story, character-specific events and battles (which is still a lot). Frame rate is very choppy. The game crashes often, and at one point I got the game glitched so that I could make buildings overlap.

Nevertheless, the character interaction, which I got this game for, is good. It's good to see alchemists talk to each other, and it's good to see what happens to them after the end of their own games. And for the characters from the older games (who don't appear in the online titles), this is their only chance to resurface. Even though this game isn't canon.

There are an impressive 110+ characters, if the minor characters who don't have full portraits and voice are counted, and updates and DLC packs both free and paid feature even more. Even counting just the major characters, there are more than 30. I do wish there are more, as some playable characters from the original games (like Mathias) are missing here, but 110+ characters drawn in the style of NOCO (co-illustrator (with Yuugen) of the Mysterious series) is already a highly-appreciated feat. This also means that the old PS1 characters get modernised art. Character events also end with full-screen artwork, as per series tradition.

Individual events tend to be comical. Memorable ones include one where Lita contemplated wearing bunny ears but isn't ready for it, with a slightly disappointed Sophie wanting to see it for real; and one where Ayesha discussed eating insects, which grossed Suelle and Nelke out.

Character-focused stories extrapolate from the characters' main personalities. There are some comical stories like Viorate's love of carrots motivated her to convince vegetable-hater Firis to try some, but the more serious ones that feature character exploration (Escha and Logy, and Lydie and Suelle, both surrounding their relationship with each other) or explain the states of their worlds (Shallistera, which deals with the Dusk series's water shortage problem) are helpful on shedding some light on what their worlds are like.

There are also the main story, the research events and anything added to the game in later updates. It has been a while since I played the game, so I actually don't remember a lot of the finer details. But there's enough contents to have kept me playing for several hundred hours. Or 1000+ hours, because the Switch version has a bug that makes the game count sleep mode time. (Lydie & Suelle has this bug too, and Nelke's programming is based on it.)

[Nester the Lark]

Nice 6,000th post!

For a while, I was a little interested in trying Meruru because I heard it had town-building elements, and I like town-building side quests in RPGs. But then I also heard it wasn't the best game for a newcomer to the series. (Although, opinions on what Atelier games are or aren't good for newcomers vary a lot, and most people say it really doesn't matter.)

So, now I'm considering Ayesha for a few reasons. For one thing, it's the first in its trilogy, so if I enjoyed it, I could continue on from there. Plus, it's one of the cheaper Atelier games on the NA eShop, and the Dusk trilogy games are the most recent of the "budget-priced" games. Also, I was intrigued by the subsequent games having dual protagonists (one is even a male protagonist... which seems to be a bit controversial among fans?).

I've also heard that the time limits are very lenient in the Dusk trilogy, but I haven't really taken that into account because I honestly don't think the time limits would bother me.

I'm still unsure of how much I would ultimately enjoy it, though, so I would prefer not to pay full price, but the games are rarely ever on sale. The last time they were on sale on the eShop in NA was last Spring, and even then, it was a modest discount. It's a shame the demos are Japan-only.

But nice reviews, YL! You clearly put a lot of effort into them, and I enjoyed reading them!

[nocturnal YL]

Thanks! I shall immortalise the moment my post count reached 6000!

A little explanation on town development in Meruru. Screenshots are from different missions. Yes, I have several thousands ready just in case I need them.

First, you get requests from other people: on-site town developers, Rufus, optional bosses and more.

You show the request letter to Rufus, who will explain what needs to be done. It is also possible that the requirements are already satisfied, in which case you get the rewards immediately.

You complete the mission, which can involve giving specific items, defeating enemies, using specific items in-battle, or many other things.

Immediately after fulfilling a task, you get the reward and development points.

Development points have two uses: the accumulated development points can be used to raise the kingdom's rank, and your currently held development points can be spent on building facilities with different effects.

After waiting a number of days, the building will be complete and its effect will take place. However, visually, this is only reflected in the world map. Inside the town, only a few small areas can be visited (as is standard for Atelier games prior to Ryza), and you won't see any extra building as 3D models.

While you do deal with stats like population and popularity in Meruru, it doesn't really feel much like a full-fledged town-building game in the sense that you can't customise or explore what you built.

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Whether a particular Atelier game can be recommended to newcomers depends on what are they looking for. In terms of story, it's fine to pick up a sequel without playing the previous games. I learned about the worlds of Arland and Mysterious from the last game, and I know other people who started from Lydie & Suelle too. Not a problem. If anything, playing out-of-order gave me assurance that the story wouldn't end up disappointing.

Not knowing about the past wouldn't be a concern. Atelier generally does a good job filling you in for the missing details, because the player characters need this information too. And they still leave enough things out, in case you want to try the past games yourself.

In terms of gameplay, I'd also say it's not a problem for the most part, unless your plan is to play Totori blind and expect 100% completion in the first playthrough. Be prepared to read guides for any of the games with time limits. The ones without time limits usually don't have things that can be missed out, so those can be played completely unassisted.

And don't worry about boss difficulty. Making optimal items is much more important than any conventional RPG wisdom. And mandatory bosses don't even need particularly good items.

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I haven't played the Dusk games. Not even in a "launch the game and peek at the title screen" way. Actually, I just unboxed my copies of those games to redeem Nintendo Account Gold Points (available within one year since release, which means the deadline is less than a day away).

The Dusk series would be something I try after the other modern Atelier games, since they're farther from the Atelier image I have in mind. These games lack many Atelier symbols — no Punis, Pamela and Hagel aren't in these games, and I think no Unis too. Barrels are still there, complete with Logy trying to make that cute "Barrel!" voice clip.

Prior to playing any Atelier game, I heard the least about Ayesha compared to the rest of the modern games. It feels to me that unlike Rorona and Sophie, Ayesha gets overshadowed by the other Dusk main characters.

At any rate, I don't think I'll play Ayesha so soon, since there are other games I want to play first. But don't quote me on that; I may change my mind.

I don't think a single male co-protagonist is that controversial. They once had male protagonists five games in a row with Iris and Mana-Khemia. Having dual protagonists doesn't seem to be a popular choice though, since you need to play from both perspectives.