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

---

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.

---

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.
Wild				○	Iksel's student. Runs his restaurant in Lulua.

---

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.

---

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 2012) 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.

---

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

---

Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the 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.

---

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.

---

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.

[nocturnal YL]

Getting so excited over this. I was just scrolling through Twitter to catch up missed posts as usual, and…



Mysterious DX is coming soon! It'll release on 22 April (simultaneously worldwide this time) on PS4, Switch and Steam.

I'm really looking forward to re-buying Lydie & Suelle. I knew this would happen, I held off buying the original Sophie and Firis, and doing any second playthrough preparation in Lydie & Suelle, in anticipation of a potential deluxe version.

I hope Lydie & Suelle DX will improve upon the resolution on the Switch version. The original came out in 2017 when the system was new, but later entries saw better graphics and the PS3-based games ran at 1080p30 just fine.

[nocturnal YL]

Atelier Sophie 2 is officially announced! Coming 24 February, 2022.

This game was leaked a while ago, and I was quite worried about the game system not feeling like an entry for the Mysterious series or that the story would contradict from the original trilogy. But according to the Famitsu interview, Gust went out of the way to avoid this by having the dream theme and keeping the more advanced synthesis and battle systems.

Known info so far:
- The story takes place between Sophie and Firis. The adventure takes place in a dream world, and the events there have no timeline placement in terms of the real world. (Slight spoiler: this reminds me of how the extra painting in the DX version of Lydie & Suelle is explained.)
- Sophie and Plachta are the only returning characters. Everyone else is new.
- New characters include dream versions of Ramizel (Sophie's late grandmother), who is less experienced as an alchemist at this point, and a younger Plachta who does not recognise Sophie.
- The front-and-back-rows battle system from Lydie & Suelle and Lulua is back. It's turn-based.
- The panel-based synthesis system is back, this time with the panels in two difficulties, with the more difficult one aiming at returning players.

From the interview:
- Why Sophie? She's popular.
- Why 2? Some players want to see returning main characters. Ryza 2 was well-received in that aspect, and some people want to see the return of Rorona as a main character too.
- Why dream? Both to avoid contradiction with the original trilogy and to allow for the kind of fantasy locations similar to those seen in Lydie & Suelle.
- No grown-up Firis or the twins? Timeline placement, and also to avoid losing focus in the story, so no.
- Will there be a Ryza 3? "The summer adventure has yet to end. That's all I'll say."

[nocturnal YL]

I've finally finished the Mysterious Trilogy DX games! That means I still have Dusk DX, Ryza 2 and Sophie 2 to go. Yay.

Going through the ending parts of these games is quite a lot of work, which is the main reason why it took me so long to finish these games. Since the DX games are re-releases with all DLC, 100% collection actually seems possible, and I wanted to give it a try.

The DX versions, as usual, contain most of the DLC. Non-Gust crossover DLC (Sophie with Little Noah and Chain Chronicle / Lydie & Suelle with New Everybody's Golf) are unavailable, naturally. But unlike Arland DX and Dusk DX, this time there are actually new contents added in, perhaps because there were no Plus versions (the original PS Vita versions released along with the original, not after).

---

Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX
ソフィーのアトリエ 〜不思議な本の錬金術士〜 DX

Background information

Atelier Sophie is a relatively orthodox Atelier title. While it is easy to draw comparisons with Atelier Rorona because of this, Sophie has a more personal goal than getting through a certification process, and the main story (the plot surrounding Plachta) is obviously written with sequels in mind. Both Sophie herself and Atelier Sophie were among the most popular in the series.

Sophie and Plachta are playable in Warriors All-Stars as heroes summoned by Tamaki.

Atelier Sophie DX added extra cutscenes on her quest to live up to the example of Ramizel, her late grandmother, with Ramizel's clothes. It also added a few new cauldrons to make advanced synthesis easier, although unlocking those requires beating some of the harder bosses in the fist place.

Characters

★ = party member

	Sophie Neuenmuller ★ An alchemist living in Kirchen Bell who has lost her parents and her grandmother. She sets to restore Plachta's body once she learns her origin.
	Monika Ellmenreich ★ Sophie's childhood friend. She looks after Kirchen Bell's church. She also enjoys singing, having joined the church's choir and eventually becomes a professional singer.
	Horst Basler A bartender who runs a café that serves as a bar at night. He also hosts the guild since patrons started passing requests among themselves.
	Plachta ★ The titular mysterious book who awakened with no memories when Sophie wrote notes on her. She would later get a puppet form thanks to Sophie and other townspeople. SPOILER: Click to show She is actually an excellent alchemist who sealed Luard into the artificial bodies Meklet and Atomina, and herself into the book, after the fallout between the two 500 years ago. She gradually lost memories and consciousness over time until Sophie rediscovered her.
	Marguerite Behlmer Oskar's mother. A greengrocer in Kirchen Bell who is often upset with Oskar for running away when he is supposed to be working, but she is otherwise caring.
	Oskar Behlmer ★ Sophie's childhood friend who is able to talk to plants. He is very passionate and knowledgeable about plants, to the point that he skips work to visit them.
	Pamela Ibis A nun who works in the church. She doesn't seem to age, and churchgoers remember being in her care for as long as they remember. She is concerned about having to leave to attend the mandatory lecture for all nuns.
	Elise Phulie A book store owner who Sophie looked up to due to her vast knowledge. She later wrote a children's book based on Sophie and Plachta's adventures to encourage reading.
	Tess Heitzmann A cheerful but somewhat troublemaking waitress who works in Horst's café. Her goal is for her family to open their own shop, and she succeeded as of Atelier Lydie & Suelle.
	Logix A travelling blacksmith who Sophie has known for a while. He is knowledgeable about other cultures. Looks the same as the Logy from Atelier Escha & Logy, but they're not the same person.
	Meklet / Atomina A pair of travellers shrouded in mystery. They seem to be interested in Sophie's rapid progression in learning alchemy. SPOILER: Click to show They're actually Luard, an alchemist who practiced alchemy with Plachta until his interest in Ablation Alchemy turned him power-hungry. Plachta sealed him into Meklet and Atomina, and they lost the ability to perform alchemy. Luard is the final boss of this game.
	Harol Simens ★ A clock maker who inherited the business from his father, but has lost interest as he often gets compared with his much better father. He has turned to making guns instead. Sophie restored his motivation.
	Julio Sebald Leidenschaft ★ A knight from Adalet who seeks Ramizel. Upon learning that she has passed away, he instead decided to travel with Sophie, waiting for her to become more skilled in alchemy.
	Corneria ★ An alchemist who lives in Kirchen Bell. She can copy items at the cost of temporarily losing height, although she is not tall to begin with. She is searching for her father, who she has no memory of and her mother wouldn't talk about.
	Leon ★ A travelling tailor who opens shop in Kirchen Bell. Though excellent at her hob, something seems to be bothering her, although she gets better and her fashion brand becomes a household name in later games. SPOILER: Click to show It's the fact that she feels no satisfaction at winning Adalet's tailor contest. Leon is an alias; her full name is Amelia Leonmeyer.
	Fritz Weissberg ★ A travelling puppeteer who used to do mercenary work. He is seen without his family, as his wife Grace left the family some time ago and his daughter Drossel has absolutely no sense of direction.
	Nazarus The reason Julio is looking for an alchemist. Nazarus has an infection from battling a monster, which leaves him with a mutated left arm and makes him involuntarily transform at times.

Overall impression

I started playing expecting a standard game like Rorona, and I was half-wrong. It is relatively unflavoured compared to Firis and Lydie & Suelle, and the main story does have a simple, "meet this goal to unveil the next" structure, but Sophie's goal is of a more personal nature, as she sets to settle Plachta's conflict in the past and restore her human body. With her family gone and her friends only being able to accompany her for so long, it's not hard to imagine why is Plachta so important for her.

The other part that's unusual about Sophie is the various game mechanics. During battles, moves aren't executed until everyone's moves are determined; player level only goes up to 20 with subsequent experience points going to custom character builds; advanced synthesis sometimes requires preparing the cauldron first… Even now, I don't really understand some aspects of the game well. It certainly doesn't help me in fighting the DLC bosses, which ended up making me move on to Firis before getting everything in Sophie.

And speaking of the DLC, I ended up not making optimal equipment besides armor because some of the traits are locked behind tough post-game bosses. I suppose I can make intermediate versions of the equipment to see if I can take down the bosses, but I ended up giving up.

The story is more commendable. Although the individual character plotlines can feel isolated from the main story (see note below), the events themselves are quite engaging. Seeing events of individual characters like Harol or Julio/Nazarus would leave me wanting to see how they continue.

(Note) In Lydie & Suelle and later games, the main story cutscenes know exactly which characters are in the party, and can therefore work them in. In the earlier games, it's not unusual to see only the few main characters in the cutscenes while other party members get excluded, much like the Fire Emblem games prior to Three Houses.

Story

Sophie is an alchemist who lives alone off the town centre of Kirchen Bell. One day, after she writes notes on a seemingly ordinary book, the book comes to life. The book introduces herself as Plachta, but she has no memory of what she even is. The only thing she knows is knowledge in alchemy. Sophie then goes on a quest to learn more alchemy and write more recipes on the book to restore Plachta's memory.

As Plachta regains more memory of her past a human alchemist, it has reached a point where the effectiveness of this method is diminishing. Sophie's initial goal of restoring Plachta's body has proved to be too difficult. But then, she gets the idea of using a puppet as a temporary solution, inspired by Fritz. She and her friends in the town work hard to the goal, and eventually, Plachta got a puppet body and regained more memory.

Plachta remembers the circumstance of her becoming a book, and just at the same time, someone from her past has started to threaten the world.

Story impression

With the exception of Tess (and… some parts of Plachta), the whole story has a serious tone. The overall story seems like it's trying to both work as a standalone story and set up the story background for subsequent entries. Most of Sophie's attempts to help other people have satisfactory endings, except that it's still a long way before Plachta can get a human body, and both Fritz and Corneria have yet to meet their families. It's like the scenario writers know exactly what the story of the next two games will be.

Sophie herself has a rather straightforward personality. She has her quirks, like her interest in alcohol and fear of ghosts, but she's otherwise a normal good person who likes to help others. She also has a slightly weird naming sense, giving verbose operation names and naming snacks after herself, but that's pretty mild compared to some of the other alchemists.

The new events added to the original's DLC (which sees Sophie preparing for her journey) and the DX version (which shows more of her interaction with Monika and Corneria) fit the overall story well. It explains why doesn't Corneria seem to be aware of the existence Corneria doll in Firis when she and Sophie meet again, and why doesn't Monkia travel with Sophie despite them being close friends.

If I have to pick, my favourite parts of the story are the shocking reveal of Nazarus's arm (after playing the Arland games, I already know that the monsters are no joke story-wise, but Nazarus is a more explicit showcase of what they can do), Sophie showing Leon how her tailored outfits are appreciated by using the same method to gift her custom-made accessories, and Sophie insisting on convincing the final boss to change his ways rather than outright killing him.

Oh, and there's this minor character, a boy who takes part in single-person hide-and-seek.

Graphics

It should be rather obvious, but Sophie uses a different version of rendering engine than Firis and Lydie & Suelle. The 3D model outlines are thicker here, and the aliased parts are more pronounced. And as is the case with Switch games in general, the resolution drop in handheld mode is very visible. Not that it matters; graphics aren't the selling point here.

In the earlier versions of the game, Sophie's atelier has a set of boxes that clip inside a barrel. Astonishingly, it actually got corrected in the 1.03 update.

Synthesis

The synthesis system takes a bit to get used to, but it's actually quite fun. In the Mysterious series, there's this system called panel synthesis, where the player has to put various shapes on a grid in specific ways to get higher-level effects.

First, select the materials as usual.

Then, pick the cauldron to use. Each cauldron has different effects, which may be changed by re-synthesising the cauldron itself.

Put the materials into the cauldron. In Atelier Sophie, putting in materials will light up adjacent cells (up to 3 levels), and covering lit-up cells will raise the effect bars further. Matching colour with the cells and the percentage shown on top (which is the portion of cells already covered) will raise the bars even further. Putting materials on already-covered cells will remove the whole of the old material, not just on the specific cells.

After everything is done, select traits to inherit. Unlike Arland, there are no trait points to worry about.

I do find it satisfying to be able to get high-level effects with clever manipulation, although it's difficult to plan ahead due to the sheer number of factors at play.

Battle

The battle system of Sophie has a different approach from all other modern Atelier games, being the turn system. Rather than getting to pick action whenever the character's individual turn comes, the enemy and player have to pick their action first and have their attack order determined, after which the turn will start and their moves will play out.

Each turn will see everyone on the battlefield act once before the end of the turn, provided that they're not in the Break state. This prevents a common advanced tactic in the series, where the enemy's timeline placement gets continuously delayed so that they can never attack at all.

Depending on the player characters' timeline placement and their stances (offensive or defensive), they may launch coordinated moves, the most advanced being Special Attack or Special Guard, which starts when the Chain Link gauge is at 300% and 3 party members have the same stance. Manipulating the timing of these attacks can turn the tide of the battles.

To be honest, I like the battle systems of the other games better. I'm also not very good at it, and it took me several tries to win against a post-game story boss.

The normal battle BGM, Spring Wind Skylark, is a popular pick among fans. I'd also pick Cliffhanger, the battle BGM when the player is slightly outranked, and Liela Xea, the final boss theme. (Full playlist here)

Other game mechanics

Atelier Sophie has a world map in a similar style as Totori. It also has an LP system, which fortunately doesn't have much gameplay impact. Since there is no time limit for the main story and Sophie's bag gets full easily, Sophie can just walk (or teleport) home to replenish LP (and HP and MP) every time after fulfilling quests or gathering materials.

Getting new recipes is simple. The hints for unlocking new recipes is readily available in the menu, and it usually involves making other items, visiting specific locations or finding certain materials. Some of these hints can be cryptic though, and I ended up not getting everything due to the sheer difficulty in the post-game.

There are quite a few other things unique to this game: gathering information from Horst, exchanging items from Tess, giving presents to other townspeople, and the fan favourite, Doll Making.

Doll Making is a dress-up feature for Plachta. Depending on the materials used, Plachta can change appearance and gain stats. She's already the most potent party member to begin with, and this can make her even better. Also, this is the song that plays during Doll Making.

One feature new to the DX version is the Photo Mode feature that has been present in evey Gust game since Ryza 1. It is triggered by the L stick button (L3 button), and unlike the other games, there is additional loading time when entering and exiting Photo Mode. I often trigger it accidentally and waste time when I panic from trying to escape from enemies.

The menu has a nice touch where Plachta would make comments like hints and general words of encouragement. This continues even after she joins the party, so it's possible to see her twice on this screen.

---

Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey DX
フィリスのアトリエ 〜不思議な旅の錬金術士〜 DX

Background information

Atelier Firis is a big departure from Atelier Sophie, being a much less "safe" game. It introduced huge areas with maps that have to be completed by the player, item collection missions, multiple towns, multiple weapon types per party member and twice as many named, non-enemy characters. A downside with all these big changes is that it's also the buggiest Atelier game I've seen (and this is the DX version!), beating the record set by Nelke. It does have better resolution and frame rate than Nelke though.

This game does have its fans, but all those issues have led to a common impression of it being a good, but least impressive entry of the trilogy.

It shows in the later updates too. Bugs remain unfixed, encyclopedia entries in the second DLC (Shanon) miss descriptions, and the DX version left a lot of these rather obvious defects intact.

The DX version adds new vehicles (which are rather useless since they consume item durability as fuel), a new Puni drone that makes completing the maps much easier, and a bunch of post-game bosses summoned by someone Palmyra knows (probably Termina), making her weakened. The new cutscenes in Firis DX have no voice acting, unlike those in Sophie DX and Lydie & Suelle DX. The new items do have encyclopedia entries, which makes it even weirder that they don't fix the ones from the second DLC.

Characters

★ = party member

	Bernd Lederer Ertona's elder. He's concerned about the town's decreasing mineral output, and relied on Firis's ability to find ores. He has a rather mischievous side for a town elder. He's the only major NPC who cannot be added in Photo Mode.
	Firis Mistlud ★ A resident of Ertona with the special ability to listen to ores who dreams of leaving the town, which is locked due to security concerns. She eventually gets permission to leave and pass the given conditions in flying colours.
	Liane Mistlud ★ Firis's sister who travels with her as her supervisor and guardian. Hunter. Absolutely loves Firis and is very protective of her. SPOILER: Click to show They are not biological sisters; Liane's birthplace was destroyed by a monster, and her mother Aria died after taking her to Ertona.
	Lukas Mistlud Firis's father. Although secretly supportive of Firis's desire to leave, he wouldn't say this in front of Nicola. Misses the sisters when they are gone.
	Nicola Mistlud Firis's mother. Got into a fight with Firis over her desire to leave, but allowed it upon Liane and Bernt's persuasion. She actually cares about Firis a lot and made her food and clothes in secret even as Firis revolted.
	Sophie Neuenmuller ★ A travelling alchemist on her way to get recommendation letters for the license exam in Reisenberg. She taught Firis the basics in alchemy, but left so that Firis can come up with recipes on her own. She eventually joins Firis again.
	Plachta ★ Sophie's teacher and friend. Sophie's long quest to give her a human body continues. She would sometimes give Firis advice in secret, as Sophie would not want her to steal her student.
	Revy Berger ★ An adventurer who seeks powerful artefacts. He has a pretty serious case of chuunibyou and can appear intimidating. He is also good at housework and cooking.
	Heintz Freihorn ★ An adventurer on a quest to tame powerful monsters. He is from a tribe that keeps monsters as pets, but while others would only keep small monsters, he wants to stay true to his tribe's tradition and get powerful ones.
	Tiana Paschen A carefree merchant who is travelling to see what can her career options be. She was a bit inexperienced, at least at first, when she couldn't even set prices properly.
	Dion Maier The officially certified alchemist of Mechen. He just got his license after many failed attempts, and assures Firis that determination will be rewarded. He himself is prone to failures due to his anxiety.
	Ilmeria Von Leinweber ★ An alchemist on the way to get a license, who ran into Firis several times. After receiving help from Firis on several occasions, they became close friends. Something of a tsundere, a bit like what Mimi is to Totori.
	Annelies Exner The head librarian of the Observation Institute. She is very knowledgeable. The Observation Institute records the adventurers' travels, which serves as an optional collection quest in the game.
	Drossel Weissberg ★ A travelling novel and script writer with absolutely no sense of direction. Fritz's daughter. Like Fritz, she is obsessed with puppets, much to Plachta's trouble.
	Aurelie Bluch The officially certified alchemist of Dona. She is the village elder and gives off an impression of being a difficult person. She gives Firis the lesson that alchemists often get bombarded with mundane requests and she shouldn't mind those.
	Oskar Behlmer ★ A plant enthusiast who can listen to them. He has got much slimmer since Atelier Sophie, and he explains that his both gets fat and gets thin easily. He is later seen with a plant named Chelsea.
	Kald Lau ★ A historian whose goal is to record other peoples' history. However, the history of his own lineage, the Symbol People, is unrecorded. Firis, Plachta and others would help him uncover this history. SPOILER: Click to show The Symbol People started with Alt, the student of Plachta and Luard, as his curiosity led him to start writing down everything he saw.
	Logix A travelling blacksmith who has opened shop in Flussheim. Like others in the town, he would assist Firis in her quest to make and enhance an alchemy-powered ship.
	Kai Holthaus A sailor in Flussheim who works hard to keep the town attractive and competitive. He tried to keep the monster issue that prevented ships from sailing a secret, causing many travellers to get stuck. Married as of Atelier Lydie & Suelle.
	Angriff Dahlmann ★ A mercenary who seems to be obsessed over money, and gets involved in various get-rich-quick schemes. His goal is to build a school to give children the education he never had, which he still runs as of Atelier Lydie & Suelle.
	Luis Bester A troubadour who is forced to also work as a merchant because singing doesn't make much money. She loves singing and hates to be seen as a merchant first. She is seen teaching Tiana singing later.
	Mea Holthaus Kai's sister, and the one who saw through his attempt to hide the monster problem in the town. Very cheerful, and loves fishing to the point of often leaving her post as a shopkeeper to go fishing.
	Ren Breitner The officially certified alchemist of Flussheim. She is a serious person who often unintentionally startles people. She offered help for Firis in several occasions and taught her that alchemy should be done with a goal in mind.
	Escha Mea's friend who is later seen being fascinated with Logy's shop. She would later learn alchemy from Firis and use it to help Logy. Loves sweet food, just like the other Escha from a different game.
	Shanon Atkins ★ A knight-in-training who is very timid and has trouble talking to people. She has great physical strength, but her fear of interaction is preventing her from becoming a full knight.
	Meklet / Atomina Travellers from Sophie's past, who can use basic alchemy thanks to her help. They enlist the help of Firis to investigate the fate of an apprentice and friend from the past.
	Norbert Classen The officially certified alchemist of Grau Tal. He is the embodiment of laziness, although he does work when he really is needed. SPOILER: Click to show He is Liane's biological father and was separated from his wife in the monster attack. This is why he cannot bring himself to work.
	Fritz Weissberg Travelling puppeteer who has arrived at Weisslark, the headquarters of the Observation Institute. He is reunited with Drossel and is revealed to be a friend of Angriff's back in his mercenary days.
	Kirsche Litter The officially certified alchemist of Flocke. She is the youngest to pass the licensing test, and the test she gave Firis was deemed too difficult at first. She taught Firis to break difficult problems into smaller, manageable ones.
	Henrikka Asmus The hot spring manager in Flocke. She usually looks like she is half-asleep, but gets very passionate once the topic of hot spring is brought up. She used to be a singer, but has no plans to return to the stage.
	Nanna Tremmel A shop owner in Reisenberg and a friend of Edel's. She will do everything she can to make people pay her, and Firis is easily baited. This makes Liane very defensive against her.
	Pamela Ibis A nun who has finished compulsory study, but is stuck because she spent all her money on buying souvenirs. She now runs a shop to get enough fund to travel back, while still listens to confessions when people approach her.
	Edel Hangstein The mayor of Reisenberg who took the post after her father retired. She is also the examiner of the official alchemist exam and is an excellent alchemist herself. Though a good mayor, sometimes she has weird ideas on improving the town.
	Julio Sebald Leidenschaft The vice captain of the knights of Adalet. He is Shanon's commander, and approaches Firis to help with her fear of talking to others. He is promoted to captain in Atelier Lydie & Suelle while Shanon becomes vice captain.
	Palmyra A playful, powerful girl who is later revealed to be the creation goddess. She asks Firis to play (battle) with her. In the DX version, she gets unwell at the end when someone she knows summoned powerful monsters throughout the region.

Overall impression

The first thing I noticed was that this game is closer to Lydie & Suelle than Sophie, in terms of graphics style, sound effects and the basic game program. This got me excited.

The second thing I noticed is that Gust was probably trying to replicate Atelier Totori in some ways. Overprotective sister? Check. Travelling and adventure as a theme? Check. Tsundere noble best friend who once got frustrated because they fail to outperform their friends? Check. Long, tedious boat-making sequence at the middle of the main story? Super check. The last one applied to Esha & Logy too, which is also a second game. Also, while Totori has an extremely tight time limit, Firis is the only Mysterious game to require any kind of time management at all (it's not difficult, but you can still lose if you're completely clueless), so both have the strictest time limits in their respective series.

Atelier Firis has a refreshing feel to me, since quite a lot of mechanics are changed, mostly due to the travel theme. Instead of a time limit, a chapter count or the amount of main missions done, the approximate main progress is reflected by Firis's physical location. She's in Mechen? Probably early game. Flocke? Late game. There are also other differences, like how it's much harder to know what is needed to unlock recipes (online guides don't have the full answer to this), how there is no way to copy anything at all, maps not being made available from the start and have to be completed, and how some weapons are exclusive to enemy drops and cannot be made (another obstacle to 100% completion). I like how it gives a feeling that the player really is going on a long journey, but it also feels very not-Atelier in some ways. This series is known for not requiring grinding, and Firis sticks out as an exception.

There are both a lot of good things and bad things to say about this game, but I would say I generally really like it. The sheer amount of characters and events contribute well to the journey theme, and since it uses the same program base as Atelier Lydie & Suelle, half of the UI is done well. The other half consists of bugs and oversights, which is entertaining in its own way.

Oh yeah, bugs. This game is prone to crashing, and there's a small chance that an application error will occur whenever the player attempts to save or leave the tent. There are also other problems, like how the Corneria doll occupies a storage item slot internally even when it is moved to a furniture slot, anything from the original game's 2nd DLC wouldn't register properly on the encyclopedia (even though the DX additions are handled properly), a character event that moves Firis to (0, 0), and even the ending can crash the game. Also, when Firis takes more items than supported by the storage, the UI asks for the number of new items to be discarded rather than the excess number (for example, if Firis has 3480 items in storage and she picks 25 more, she has to discard 25 items rather than 5).

The biggest thing this game has accomplished is that it made me like Firis more. She has grown pretty tall in Lydie & Suelle, and it's easy to see her mostly as a cool senior alchemist who has already reached self-actualisation. Atelier Firis shows a more child-like, adorable side of her, and it also gives her more backstory that's hard to imagine by just playing the sequel. I like her adult design better, though.

Story

Firis lives in a mineral town, Ertona. For both the reasons of theft prevention and safety, there is a large gate at its entrance, and no one is allowed to get out or get in. Firis has always wanted to go outside, but she is not allowed to, nor can she convince her parents and village elder to let her go.

Until one day, Sophie broke into the town to look for officially certified alchemists so that she can take the exam to become one herself. Firis, having witnessed the power of alchemy, asks to learn alchemy from Sophie and use this power to protect herself so that she can go outside. She fights hard for her parents' approval, and is eventually allowed to go out with a catch: she has to become officially certified herself in one year, otherwise she has to return home. And so, Firis starts her journey to Reisenberg to attend the exam.

Story impression

In Atelier Firis, everything is branched out, with only the story in the three main towns (plus any three of the challenges from the officially certified alchemists) required for getting the certificate. Of the main parts of the story, I like the Reisenberg part the best. Maybe it's because I used to like the thrill and challenge of exams.

There are many characters and character events, and the party members also have their own conversations. So like Atelier Meruru, there's bound to be something I like. My favourite subplot is the exploration of Liane's past and her own motivation to go outside as a hunter. Like some of Firis's own backstory, this is something that has to be seen here; Atelier Lydie & Suelle and the spinoff games don't talk much about their past.

And while this is not about the story itself, the old party member system is back, where only current party members gain experience and friendship points. This makes advancing character events for characters I don't use often pretty slow. In my case, this happened to Kald and Angriff, and Kald is especially difficult since he doesn't have many other events to raise his friendship points.

Overall, I'd say the story isn't particularly impressive, although it has its high points. It's the overall atmosphere of Firis going for a journey and meeting people itself that I like, rather than any particular part of the story.

Graphics

The landscape models are large, and perhaps this is why they don't look very detailed. The camera inside Firis's tent is also weird, possibly due to the furniture being customisable. It's easy for the camera to clip through them.

This game features quite a lot of alternate costumes for the female party members (besides Plachta). Unlike other games in the series, I actually do use them over the original outfits.

Synthesis

Synthesis in each Mysterious game works differently. In Atelier Firis, materials do not contribute to just a particular row; rather, they fill up a bar at the top, and whenever it is filled up, the effect levels (seen below the bar) goes up by 1.5 if the colour matches or 0.5 if it doesn't. How much does the bar go up depends on the alchemy content of the applied material and the bonus counter (seen above the grid).

As the materials are picked, the potential effects attainable can be previewed.

Pick a catalyst to use. The catalyst used decides the lines shown in the grid, which can be filled for various bonuses. The quality and traits of the catalyst does not affect anything, so it's advisable to use something undesirable as material here.

Then fill in the materials and start the synthesis. Most of the difficulty comes from preparing the right materials (especially the size, or the number of cells they take up, adjustable via traits and line bonuses); once that is taken care of, the final puzzle isn't difficult.

Battle

Battle is a bit like in Atelier Sophie, minus the turn system. When the combination gauge is filled, the player party can link their attacks together as long as they are not interrupted by enemy turns. Do enough attacks before the gauge is depleted, and the player can launch even more powerful attacks.

The powerful attacks don't break the linkage. It can continue as long as the gauge isn't depleted.

Other game mechanics

One thing I find rather annoying is the LP system. Walking takes LP, and once Firis runs out, she is first given a warning to immediately go back to her tent, and if she does not go back on time, she will be treated as if she fell in battle, losing time and some of the acquired materials. Some maps do not allow quick warps, so it is entirely possible to be stuck in an enemy-filled area and be forced to lose this way. It actually happened to me once.

Like some of the older games, going back to tent does not immediately refill HP and MP. Fortunately in this case, item synthesis counts as passing time in the tent, and HP, MP and LP can be replenished this way. I still prefer having the home base replenish everything.

Getting new recipes is easily the single worst part about this game, even worse than the program crashes. To come up with new recipes, Firis has to fulfil some requirements, except that said requirements are never explicitly stated in the game. After the requirements are partially fulfilled, they may appear in the recipe notes, noting that what has Firis done so far, still without any explicit goal sated. At this point Firis can at least spend idea points (obtained from quests) to immediately unlock the item, but not all items can be unlocked this way. And the hidden requirements are often hideous, like defeating a certain type of enemy 50 times or making the same item 15 times. This is the worst way to unlock recipes across the whole series.

Similarly, getting the needed traits and high-quality raw materials is so time-consuming that I ended up not making optimal equipment, although it's better than Sophie's case of having rare traits locked behind difficult DLC bosses.

Not all quirks in Atelier Firis is bad, though. It records enemies in the encyclopedia after they're faced, regardless of whether they're defeated or not. This only affects the encyclopedia though; to have it count in the Observation Institute, they have to be defeated.

Firis's goal is to get the certification, which means the task before the basic ending is a final exam. The exam is split into several parts: a written test, a practical test where candidates make the best item they can, and another practical test where they try to inflict as much damage to a Puni as they can. After the test is done, the candidates who have passed would have to battle to determine their ranking in the exam. The written test and the first practical test have time limits, making it really feel like an exam. It's one of my favourite parts of this game.

And here is some little trivia: at the loading screen, hold the L (L1) button and repeatedly tap the B (×) button to extend the Puni. This can also be done in Atelier Lydie & Suelle, which makes the alchemist stir faster and items will pop out.

---

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

Background information

Atelier Lydie & Suelle is a game that people were initially sceptical about, since at that point the series has been following a pattern: an easy and relatively simple first game that lays the groundwork for the background settings, an adventurous second game that greatly expands upon it, and a third game that doesn't quite end the story satasfactorily. Meruru is a comical take on the world of Arland that doesn't feel like (and isn't) a grand ending, and Shallie leaves too many plot threads open. So people had their reservations.

…Until the game actually came out. Early adopters played it, loved the story, and words of mouth of this game being an Atelier title that finally handles story right spread. It ended up being one of the most well-loved games in the series in the eyes of series veterans. The biggest feature of the story is that it continued and concluded many of the subplots, even if it means a lot of the cutscenes exclude Lydie and Suelle entirely to focus on the old characters. Characters with unfulfilled goals will actually achieve what they try to do. And it's not just the old characters; Lydie and Suelle themselves are met with a perfect end too.

In terms of game mechanics the new synthesis system, the front and rear row formation, and the new traits that can make the items and equipment really potent all add to the game being a fun experience at top level play, all without compromising casual play. Getting rare traits is easier (compared to Firis; both with and without DLC) too; as is copying items (which is expensive, but money can be replenished in Starlight Plain [late game / non-DLC], or Claudel Prairie [endgame / DLC]).

The DX version came less than 4 years after the original and target the same systems (minus PS Vita), and the added content is a painting world based on Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists, which focuses on the story and has little gameplay impact. It is quite a treat to see the return of Nelke as a fan though, and it finally gives players a chance to actually walk in Vestabalt, rather than just seeing the town as 3D models.

Characters

★ = party member

	Lydie Malen ★ A young alchemist who wants to run the country's best atelier with her family to fulfil their promise with their deceased mother, Honnete. Suelle's twin sister. A studious idealist who tries to be good, but sometimes takes part in Suelle's antics.
	Suelle Malen ★ Lydie's twin sister. Relies on intuition, dislikes reading, mischievous, doesn't care about minor details, but good at advertising herself and not being shy. Good at messing with tsundere characters. Likes manga and wields dual guns. Not to be confused with Sue, Sue, Sue, Sue or Sue.
	Roger Malen The twins' father. An excellent painter, but is bad with alchemy, being only able to come out with weird, impractical ideas. SPOILER: Click to show He is originally an officially certified alchemist, but the loss of his wife turned him into this.
	Grace Weissberg The head nun of Vegne Church, the largest church of Adalet. She often organises church gatherings for children. SPOILER: Click to show She was originally a puppeteer and is Fritz's missing wife, who left when he and Drossel got too passionate about puppets.
	Hagel The resident blacksmith of Merveille who makes all kinds of metal products. Likes singing and has all kinds of weird ideas. Gets oversensitive over any mention of his bald head.
	Lucia Borthayre ★ The twins' friend and rival who runs the prestigious Atelier Borthayre. Though she competes with the twins, she is also very protective of them. SPOILER: Click to show She is actually their cousin; Roger changed surname after breaking off from the family.
	Mireille Ferrier Adalet Adalet's princess who works in the castle to handle all kinds of general enquiries from the residents. She is the person responsible for the atelier rank system. She make all kinds of bad puns, which the twins react coldly to.
	Ilmeria Von Leinweber ★ An alchemist who is invited to Merveille to promote alchemy, a profession Adalet underappreciated in the past. Lydie and Sue's alchemy teacher. Got more mature personality-wise since Atelier Firis.
	Pamela Ibis A nun from Kirchen Bell who was about to go home, but took the wrong wagon and came back to Merveille instead. It has been 8 years since she left Kirchen Bell, and the children she was supposed to look after are now all grown up. Poor sister…
	Liane Mistlud A hunter who has set up shop in Merveille to collect fund for Firis's atelier. She has got even more passionate about Firis, much to the latter's annoyance. She is appreciative of the twins for befriending Firis.
	Corneria The president of a trading company. Corneria offers item duplication and item replenishment services, and her search for her father continues. SPOILER: Click to show Drossel found him. He overworked and shrunk, and her mother treated him as missing and moved to Kirchen Bell.
	Mathias Ferrier Adalet ★ Adalet's prince who works as a knight, trained by Julio and Shanon. As he is often off-duty and often hits on women, the twins make fun of him for being unemployed. He actually has good qualities to be the next king, which will surface later.
	Fritz Weissberg A puppeteer who came to Merveille to continue the quest to finish the ultimate puppet show and to reconcile with his estranged wife. SPOILER: Click to show The show is about the adventures of the alchemists themselves.
	Drossel Weissberg A novel and script writer whose works are adored by readers like Lydie and Lucia. She still has no sense of direction, as she met Fritz and the twins by coming out of Fritz's newly-rented house. How did she get in in the first place…?
	Firis Mistlud ★ An excited traveller who successfully pursuaded Lydie and Sue to travel with her group, firing deadly arrows that take down even the mightiest monsters along the way. Nothing can get in the way of her trips.
	Alt ★ A mysterious alchemist who speaks in a blunt manner. SPOILER: Click to show He is Meklet and Atomina recombined and therefore Luard with a new name. He has a lot of serious moments (especially regarding his past mistakes), but also a lot of not-serious ones.
	Fuoco An inhabitant of the painting world, The Great Cascades of Anfel. She is first seen evacuating from a fire dragon attack. At the end of the game, it turns out the dragon was attached to her, and she kept it as a pet.
	Sophie Neuenmuller ★ A master alchemist who saved Merveille's defence force of alchemists when they were about to be attacked by Falgior. She reunited with Firis and stayed with her for the remainder of the game.
	Plachta Sophie's teacher and friend, and an alchemist from 500 years ago. Sophie's quest to give her a human body finally comes to an end, and she realised that Sophie has surpassed her as an alchemist.
	Neige Chintreuil The creator of the first mysterious painting. She abhorred the adult world as she saw it as being full of betrayal, and after her death, her soul ended in her painting where she manifested as a child. She acts cold at first.
	Captain Backen An undead pirate leader with a cheerful personality who lives in the painting world Treasury At The Sea Below. He gives his visitors tasks in exchange of his treasures.
	Honnete Malen Lydie and Sue's mother, who passed away a few years prior to the story. SPOILER: Click to show Like Neige, as a deceased person who has visited painting worlds, her soul went to the painting, The Heavenly Flower Garden.
	Termina The goddess of destruction who resides in the painting world Domain of Despair to stay away from humans, fearing that her own power would destroy them. She gets an aloof personality as a result.
	Palmyra The goddess of creation who can be found in Dawn Realm. She is glad to see Firis again, offers to play (battle) with them and asks the twins to befriend Termina, who is lonely due to her destructive nature which she didn't ask for.
	Nelke Von Lestamm A noble in charge of the development of Vestabalt. She seems to know the twins even though they haven't met her before. SPOILER: Click to show It is revealed at the end that the painting version of Vestabalt is a recreation of the real one. Its implication for Nelke herself isn't stated.

Overall impression

One of my favourite games got even better with the addition of DLC and Nelke's painting world. The DLC introduced new items, most importantly the Spike Boots that increase running speed, which is absurdly low in the base game and is one of its few faults. The DLC also introduced new locations with better materials to pick, and painting worlds based on BLUE REFLECTION (complete with its very catchy tunes) and Night of Azure 2.

The Switch version of the base game ran at a glorious resolution of 540p (docked) with lighting that makes it look a bit drab compared to PS4, but the DX version and the 1.07 update for the base game released on the same day changed the resolution to a much more pleasing 900p (still doesn't beat Arland DX and Lulua's 1080p, but still a big improvement), and the lighting is closer to that of PS4. There's no saving the even more hopeless PS Vita version though…

Because of the inclusion of DLC, collecting all traits and making optimal items and equipment is now a much easier task to do. This makes this game the only one that I actually tried to complete everything. And taking down powerful enemies like they're nothing really does feel great.

And since the original game is my first Atelier game, playing this again with more knowledge on the series and the game mechanics right after I went through the story of Sophie and Firis allowed me to refresh my memory of Lydie & Suelle's story while giving me the context in the cutscenes that refer to the older games, as well as bringing me to attention said references in less obvious ways, like the NPC dialogs and item descriptions. I wouldn't have thought a random mention of a brand name would actually trace back to the professional artisans who travelled with Sophie long ago! In many ways, the circumstances surrounding my playthrough makes it an enhanced retelling of the story.

I kind of wish this game could read my Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists save file and arrange the town in the Vestabalt painting world accordingly. This would require much more effort to achieve, though.

Story

Lydie and Suelle are a pair of twins whose wish is to fulfil their promise to their late mother: to run the country's best atelier. But the reality they face is harsh: their father has lost all motivation to do alchemy, so they have to learn it themselves, and without anyone to guide them, they have reached the limit of how far self-study can help them.

One day, after getting tired from gathering materials and looking for requests, they went home and Lydie heard voices from a painting in their father's room. They went to the painting, and found themselves inside the painting world. They thought they were dreaming, but they found that they returned with materials found in it. Although they thought this would help them with their job, their father forbade them from getting near the painting.

Not long after, they received a notice from the kingdom: they are starting an atelier rank system, where participants will be given a rank based on their ability, regardless of their wealth or social standing. This would be their chance to rise, the twins thought. They applied for the ranking system, but they couldn't pass the initial test. And just as they were heading home, they found the very person they needed: Ilmeria, a self-proclaimed master alchemist. They asked her to become their teacher.

With Ilmeria's advice, the twins managed to pass the initial test and join the atelier rank system. As a reward of sorts, the twins are asked to explore a newly rediscovered type of painting: mysterious paintings. The twins then continue to work their way to the highest rank, alternating between fulfilling rank requirements and exploring mysterious paintings.

Story impression

Well, what more can I say? The plot lines close properly and satisfactorily, the story is a good mix between a touching tale and a slice-of-life comedy, and seeing the twins help resolving other people's and their own issues is highly satisfying.

The DLC maps don't add any story. The crossover painting worlds don't have any story at all, and Claudel Prairie has a few events of Firis introducing the place to the twins and reminiscing her past adventure with Ilmeria.

The DX part, however, does have 3 cutscenes of the twins collecting the painting fragments and a few more after they enter it and Nelke enlists their help. I was a bit worried about this addition at first, since there is no way this version of Nelke and Vestabalt can fit in the story, with the biggest issue being that in Nelke, Vestabalt is not a painting world. This does get explained at the end, and while I am not fully satisfied, I do accept it as not being a blot that ruins the otherwise-excellent overall story.

Graphics (linked images in this section are 1080p PNG files)

It runs at 900p, 30 fps, with pretty good lighting. The same applies to the Switch versions of the other Mysterious DX games. As the maps are smaller than those in Firis (except Claudel Prairie, of course), they can have more details without compromising the performance. The vast improvement in the Switch version over the pre-1.07 base game really shows that the staff working on rendering have gotten used to the system now.

Comparison: original 1.06, original 1.07, DX 1.03

I don't know if it's the fault of my capture device or the game itself, but taking a group picture of 8 all with glowing weapons in a painting world still isn't a good idea…

Synthesis

Synthesis is different from Sophie and Firis in several aspects: each item can now act as multiple alchemy ingredients, overlapping ingredients will not lead to the earlier occupant's complete removal, and effects are now dependent on the number of cells that match their colours and which bonus marks on the grid are occupied.

Like in Firis, the process starts with the selection of the catalyst.

Pick the items. In general, advanced items and equipment are reliant on synthesised items rather than raw materials, so it is much easier to attain high quality.

Start putting in the ingredients. Each item can carry multiple ingredients. Put them over bonus marks for bonuses like extra copies of the item and increased effect level cap.

Use an enhancing agent if needed. These can change the colours of the grid or the ingredients, change the grid's bonus marks, or even make spent items reusable.

Add the remaining ingredients. In most cases, the enhancing agent should apply in the middle of the application of ingredients rather than at the end.

Pick the traits to inherit. In this example we have made 3 Magic Stone Chains, which raises the gain rate of the combination gauge, increases support skill damage, adds up to 180 attack, defence and speed (if all front attackers use copies of the same accessory), and raises stats even more against high-level post-game enemies.

Battle

The battle system has changed vastly, to the point that it shares more with Atelier Lulua than the last two games. For instance, the only kind of chaining is done between the front and rear attackers of the same line, and their signature attacks, Combination Arts, are now manually initiated at any time after their combination gauge is full.

Firis deserves special mention. Her support skills are all elemental arrows triggered by the front row attacker dealing attacks in the matching element, with some also requiring the attack to target a single enemy. So an Omega Craft (or even an Uni Bag) with the traits Twin Powers and Twin Powers: Pair, which targets a single enemy and has all elements (plus the item's own physical attack), can trigger all of Firis's follow-up attacks.

I also find Sue quite useful, especially before I finished making all optimal equipment. Sue is the fastest character in the whole series, meaning that she can get a lot of turns in battle, especially with the right accessories attached. She also has an active skill Fatal Snipe, which has a small chance to instantly kill an enemy. Said chance scales with level, so a high level Sue can go back to the main story paintings and take down enemies in Starlight Plain for easy grinding if the player is not yet ready for the DLC locations. She feels more like a non-alchemist in battle.

Oh, there's one thing I don't like about the battles. The Combination Arts animations cannot be skipped, and are unaffected by the DX version's new fast-forward function, possibly because it will cause the sound effects to desynchronise. Not that it's a problem for me now; since most enemies fall before I can even use Combination Arts.

Other game mechanics

I'll start with the few things I don't like about this game: map movement is slow even with Spike Boots on, and there is still no way to delete save files as they can only be created and overwritten. I don't know if this is an oversight coming from PS4's ability to delete individual save files at the system level.

There are few bugs and oversights this time. Everything that is patched in the original game stays that way, and the game has never crashed in my playthrough. There is only one glitch that I can find, being the one that keeps the raised quality if quality traits are picked to be inherited and the menu is closed, leading to easy 999 quality. This worked in Sophie too, but due to changes in weapon crafting in Lydie & Suelle, this only applies to armours. Armours crafted this way used to crash the system, but the crash was patched while the quirk remained. The only other issue is an oversight, where the NPC who sells shop licenses is reused in Nelke's painting world, so talking to her (who is supposed to be a generic NPC here) triggers a cutscene and inexplicably brings the twins back to the castle.

Getting recipes is much easier this time, as the requirements are now easier than even the ones in Sophie. In a 180° reversal from what Firis did, requirements are explicitly stated, and the tasks are much less repetitive.

Collecting traits is much easier this time, especially with DLC. The DLC quests related to Claudel Prairie give items with rare traits, and after defeating the boss in the BLUE REFLECTION painting (and before leaving it), there are 3 rare item collection points that gives top-level rare traits, and they respawn if the player re-enter the area.

Weapons work a bit differently in this game. The weapon itself does not have any effects and traits; rather, core and sub-parts have to be made to add those to the weapon. This may appear weird at first, but this split means the player can concentrate on quality and weapon stats and not worry about traits when preparing weapon materials.

Character events are much improved compared to the previous games. Event markers are back after being absent in Sophie and Firis, and it's much easier to gain friendship points and trigger events. One downside is that recurring events (such as battles with Sophie/Firis, Palmyra and Termina) have event markers too, so it's not obvious if any place (especially Firis's tent) have non-recurring events required for the endings.

One thing I noticed while making this review is that Firis keeps disappearing in Photo Mode. I think this is done to prevent any possibility to peek into her skirt, and her skirt is short and she is the 2nd tallest female character. The game overcompensates this to the point that the camera position I used to take pictures of the characters worked for everyone except Firis. Some other games (like Project DIVA X) handle this by showing the character model as a silhouette so that the player knows where the model is, but this isn't the case here.

Finally, here's an Easter egg: In all 3 mysterious games, in the item synthesis screen, rotating the R stick will make the contents in the cauldron in the background rotate in the input direction. In Lydie & Suelle, the character will also say some lines like Sue's「まーぜーまーぜ♪」 (ma-ze-ma-ze♪) or 「ぐるぐるぐーるー」 (gurugurugu-ru-) or Lydie's 「はやすぎず、おそすぎず」 (Not too quickly, not too slowly), which is quite adorable.

---

This is quite an experience, especially towards the end. Different players may feel otherwise, but to me, this is a huge upgrade from just the Lydie & Suelle base game with just the character DLC to the entire trilogy with all extra contents plus some more, and the play time also raises accordingly from about 2 months to more than 5 months. Shedding more light on the story that I already deem the best I've seen in a game was the biggest reason for me to like this trilogy, and I really like Firis and especially Lydie & Suelle from a gameplay standpoint too. And for Lydie & Suelle, I get to get all DLC and collect everything at a lower cost than actually buying the original's DLC.

Interesting observation: the DX additions of the three games each relates to a sequel in some way.
Sophie DX has story cutscenes related to Ramizel (→ Sophie 2)
Firis DX adds endgame enemies summoned by someone Palmyra knows (probably Termina) (→ Lydie & Suelle)
Lydie & Suelle DX features a painting world based on Nelke's town (→ Nelke)

Current ranking

Credits to wikiwiki.jp and Fandom Wiki for English version names, and to NanoGames, 生臭坊主のゲームメモ, Shooting*Star, ゲームとかやろうか, h1g wiki, 表裏一体 and 壺から１G for gameplay tips.