The "Atelier" series

These games have some nice art and a lot of qts, but
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atelier_(series)
FUCK me where should I start?

Who here's played these games?

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nichegamer.com/2016/09/08/atelier-firis-the-alchemist-and-the-mysterious-journey-comes-west/
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You shouldn't

You dont.

The games are shit.

there's barely any continuity going on so start with whatever you have closest access to

Escha & Logy is a nice starting point, pretty comfy if you pick Escha

Nobody, user. Nobody here has played a single atelier game, or any videogame at all.

Oh

Haven't played them myself, so take this as you will, but from I've seen and read, you've got some different opinions on them. The Iris games handle more like standard JRPGs compared to how the series handled prior, or would later, with less emphasis on time management. Probably why they were the first any company would take the risk on brining over, if the prior games were considered too niche. The Mana Khemia games afterward are alchemy school (thus bringing more of the time management and crafting back to the forefront) and I've heard in the past the combat for them's pretty damn fun. The Arland games are supposedly more in line with the way the series had been prior to Iris, and the Dusk games are similar to my knowledge, though the emphasis on time management reduces again as you go down the trilogy. Haven't heard enough about Sophie and Firis isn't out in Japan yet.

I suppose if you want to see the series from its earliest English versions, you can go for the Iris and Mana Khemia games while keeping in mind that they're not the best representatives of the way the series handles, or Rorona Plus (Plus version specifically is a remake that I've heard is much better than the original version) for the Arland games or Ayesha for Dusk games, as both of those are the chronological starts for their own trilogies. And even with their being eighteen main games and fifteen side games, for English speakers you only have twelve to worry about as of now, and only one side game (Atelier Annie, a resort management game, I think) is in English.

Take these and this as they might help, but bear in mind that the two I have have some errors on them, and that other one only covers the Arland and Dusk games.

I really need to actually sit down and play some of these, given I've lurked these sort of threads for a while and they've piqued my own interest. Shame actual discussion on them seems few and far between compared to "wich Atelier wud you fug" tier posting.

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if you're just some neptunia degenerate that's only in it for the 'impegrnate rorona xDDD' cute girls aspect just play dusk trilogy, i.e. ayesha - eschatology - shallie.
Preferably don't play the series at all though.

This

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Yeah, I'm not fond of how the type is used in those; I think I once spoke to the user that originally made them and he noted the issues that had been found, but has apparently been too lazy to actually get around to fixing them. Combined with the errors, misspellings, missing games (it doesn't even mention Mana Khemia 1 or 2, which Gust does indeed consider main series as far as I'm aware) and typos, I've had half a mind to try to revamp them myself into something better, but again, I haven't played the games myself just yet. As of now the most I really feel comfortable doing with it has been copying the script and fixing the spelling and typos and shit (if other anons that have actually played and enjoy the series wanted to help out with fixing/adding to them, it would likely save some time).

Atelier Rorona Plus is really fun, I love making stuff and making that cash money filling requests and getting wholesale going.

Playing Atelier Sophie at the moment and Sophie is really cute, I wish I had her coat. I'm glad this seems to be more of a return to just straight alchemy over the drama of the Dusk series.

The Arland games are the best to start I believe, get Rorona Plus.

Play the plus starting with Rorona+ on vita

Depends on what your taste in artstyle is. The Arland series is about just colorful adventures and whacky hijinks with no real overarching plotline, these games have a time limit which makes them require planning in order to get the good endings. While the Dusk series has a common theme of healing the land of a post apocalyptic world and is way more casual as there is no time limit.

All the games are very light on the story and mostly about character interactions. However if you are to derive enjoyment from them you better like crafting shit and min-maxing as the crafting gets really crazy when you progress through the game. We're talking about items that could make you unkillable but it requires a lot of planning ahead.

You don't.

They're shit board hogging cancer like Nepgear is.

Playing them just leaves you empty and unfulfilled, because they're games that play and feel like what you'd expect on the cover art, shallow bland super bright colour anime games that are definitive of what I can only describe as that moment when you watch a western TV show, and you get to that episode where they parody Japanese culture and it's all Sailormoon or fucking Astro boy references that are so out of date it isn't even funny.

The gameplay's fun factor derives from the mechanics and what you do, but to be honest there's not really much involvement, as it has that unsatisfactory feeling where you feel that no matter what, the Devs intentionally boxed you in to your character and the named NPCs, rather than the world at large, with monsters that exist to die and nothing more that are generic as they come.

People gather round this crap because it's got the same appeal KON! did in that it's one of those Is so dull you'd rather play and talk about it with others because you want to be engrossed in them rather than the game.

Are you retarded?!

These games are for people to fap to.

My favourite kind of game. The music is always good and Atelier comes with dual audio now. Games are entertainment and supposed to be fun after all.

These games are very niche though, only play if you're a "weeb". I dropped out of mainstream gaming a few years ago and only play JRPGs and the occasional VN nowadays. I don't get the hate for them. I don't see how they're inferior to COD or Skyrim or whatever people play nowadays.

With long-running series which core gameplay mechanics changed only little over time, I'd recommend always starting with the newest installation, which would be Sophie.
However, there are some things you should be aware of. The newest chronicles - "Mysterious" - made quite some changes regarding time management.
In addition, Gust has the tendency to re-release titles with additional content. "Plus" versions of Arland and Dusk have been released on the Vita systems, I recommend getting these if you intend to start with something older.

The plus versions have fucking horrible framerates though for Dusk/Esca/Shallie

Considering that Sophie released on not just the PS3, but also PS4 and Vita in Japan, I have to wonder if that's even going to see a plus rerelease. I mean, for the most part, the Vita had seen only the Plus versions before, which as extended ports went were exclusive to it (barring Rorona Plus being a remake instead and on both PS3 and Vita), so how is it going to work now that the games are seeing initial releases on multiple systems? Do you just pull a Soul Sacrifice and do an extended release on the same system, and if so, given the trend towards porting their games later, do they not anticipate the issues with that? I suppose for people that owned both the PS3 and Vita, in the past they could put off the PS3 original and just wait for the Vita one, and thus the games hit two markets in a way, but if they do (non remake) Plus versions on the same system that a game originally released for, is that going to have diminished sales, especially if they ask full price?

might improve with CFW overclock
rorona on improved

Rorona>Totori>Meruru
Ayesha>Escha/Logy>Shallie
Sophie>Firis>

They are good games, don't give a fuck about weeb haters and retards that never played them ebcause they dont buy sony consoles

and what I posted is the playing order, not a > as better than

And the first 3 play them on vita since they are a re-release with more content

Why would you post that you sick fuck?

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Why do you always start these threads acting like you've never played one of them? You word it about the exact same way every time, it's obviously you. Are you afraid discussion will die too fast if you don't lead with a question? Because that's going to happen either way with a niche series like this on a niche imageboard.

And nothing of value was lost

PC port when?

Shallie is the last plus game. KT has been doing simultaneous releases for PS3/PSVita/PS4 as of the Mysterious Trilogy (Atelier Sohpie and Atelier Firis). No more GOTY-like rereleases.


First, ignore most of the >(1) posts. They're either disgruntled or trolls.

Start with the girl or game that draws you the most. I personally recommend Ayesha, but you should go for what catches your eye.

The mechanics of the franchise that I've played so far are not brutal punishment. This game series is entirely around relaxation, comfort, and learning the individual alchemy systems in order to set about utterly breaking it. Don't play it as you would other RPGs. Play it knowing you're going to get comfy music, neat (but not harrowing) monster fights, LOTS of item crafting & customizing, sidequest deadlines,and a genuinely nifty array of characters.

The neptune general really has fallen to complete shit in a year's time, hasn't it? Shame.

The nep gen had purpose back when the games were new (for the PC) and they were fixing NISA's translation. Now that that's mostly done they just do their 4AM thing all the time. At least they keep it to their own thread.

I played the original nip versions of the Arland trilogy and while I enjoyed the plot and the interactions between the characters (like an interactive anime), I could never get over the time management aspect of them. I would always get super S rank++ 120% 大変良くできました completes on all the main story alchemy quest shits, but always get the bad end because I didn't have one NPC at N reputation level and didn't beat X extra boss or such shit. Reminds me of persona games. Fuck games with a calendar. I'm not buying the strategy guide just to waifu minor character Y. Give me all of the information I need to complete the game inside the game.

git gud

i read somewhere there were 2 GBC games of the ateliers….

on Gameboy, that must be bizarre

Ok, I'll work on gitting gud at collecting those 8 pieces of dickwood in 5 days when the dickwood forest is 3 days journey away from town each way.

At lot of people got into the series with totori, expecting just some easy-going game when totori had some of the most strict time requirements out of the ps3 series, especially if you're unfamiliar with the mechanics and details of recurring items and skills in the series. The dusk series is trivial in comparison, but for someone completely unfamiliar with the mechanics it's a very pleasant game to start with.
A lot of people might say that playing eschatology/shallie before ayesha has a lot less charm to it as almost everyone from ayesha is a siginificant character in the later games, and that the later games were a lot more relaxed than ayesha. This isn't quite as pronounced in the arland series though.

Are you getting 'bad end' and 'true end' confused? They're pretty different, and just about any RPG with a hidden true end is not made to be obtained on a blind first playthrough by anyone except the most autistic obsessively thorough japanese players, if even that. It's still a legitimate complaint, but it's hardly restricted to just the atelier series, and vanilla rorona is one of the biggest perpetrators of awkward hidden character advancement requirements.

Wait, I thought Firis was out in japan I saw a shitload of people watching it on twitch.

You're right. Checking Wikipedia, it's listed as having just came out there less than a week ago. I thought it was still in the works.

Any news on a stateside release date yet?

No release date yet, but TK has indeed confirmed it will be coming over in the future.
nichegamer.com/2016/09/08/atelier-firis-the-alchemist-and-the-mysterious-journey-comes-west/