I've been considering getting into the Atelier series for a while since I like games with a day-based rhythm and social aspects. Now I finally have the time to put into a JRPG, but I'm not sure where to start. There are over a dozen games in the series and a few have remakes on top of that. What would you recommend, is there anything I should know before starting too?
Please feel free to talk about the series in general and other more relaxed JRPGs too.
You are allowed to say persona.
I was thinking more of Harvest Moon, but I do like Persona as well.
Start with the Arland trilogy, Rorona, Totori, then Meruru.
There's a timer on everything that you do but don't let it get to you. There's plenty of time to accomplish all of your tasks.
There's a nice infographic that goes into which versions of the games to play but I don't have it. Maybe someone else will post it
PS3 versions of Totori, Meruru and Rorona+ are best if you don't care about the extras in the Vita+ versions of Totori and Meruru.
Thanks, I don't own a vita, so I'll stick with the console versions.
So there's nothing wrong with playing Ronora+ and then Totori on the PS3, despite the fact that the former came out later?
How does Ronora+ compare with the original? I noticed that there is a pack on PS3 containing all the Arland games, but if the enhanced version makes a big difference I'll get them separately.
The trilogy does not include Rorona+ so get them seperately. Rorona+ has vastly improved graphics, extra content featuring Totori and Meruru and is designed to be played after Meruru but you could skip the extra content until after you've finished Totori and Meruru and then play it. The stories are esentially self contained so you could play Rorona+ like a prequel but it's up to your preference.
Fug
Then how are you supposed to play games featuring cute girls doing cute things?
They're porting Firis to PC. The newer Atelier are hit and miss though.
Yes, that will work fine. Just don't play NG+ on Rorona until after you've beaten Totori and Meruru.
I think some of the older Atelier games had PC ports, you could try out those. You could also emulate the Iris and Mana Khemia games on PS2, those have english releases.
I loved Iris a lot when I was younger, though it might be nostalgia goggles, and just recently began emulating PS2. I tried Atelier Iris 2 and 3, and they both sucked. 3 didn't even have a world map, the games got smaller and more condensed as the seres when on. Now I just started Mana Khemia, and it looks like I'm going to be tied to an academy for the entire game. Should I switch to Ar Tonelico, or jump to a different JRPG boat altogether?
PC release when?
Also, are they going to rerelease trilogies?
Not exactly sure if they count as "relaxed" JRPGs without having played them yet, but I figure I might as well ask here on the off-chance anyone knows. I finally got my PS2 hard drive set up to play downloaded games, and in addition to downloading and installing fan-translated stuff (hard drive bypasses region locking), I have made it a priority to install otherwise horribly expensive games, namely both .hack subseries. Now, from what I've heard, there's non-game entries in the .hack series that take place earlier than IMOQ, namely .hack//AI Buster and .hack//SIGN. Is it worth trying to find and read/watch both of those prior to playing IMOQ, and do either end up spoiling parts of IMOQ (the way I hear some of the late series .hack//Roots episodes spoil G.U.).
Some of the older ones do indeed have PC ports, but it's not going to help unless one knows moon and could get them working. None of the games prior to Iris are in English in any form, and there's not even any complete English fan-translation for any game in the series either (I do hear that the PS2 release of Marie and Elie is getting a French fan-translation though).
Would probably depend on if the PC version of Firis does well.
If the new ones sells well on PC they might consider, hopefully.
Atelier is probably the only series that actually looks good on the PS3
Are atelier games on ps3/4 good?
If you're going with the PS3 version, get them used, don't give NISA any money.
I'll also add to this not to be tempted to buy that "three-in-one" PS3 pack of the Arland games. That was pretty much just NISA trying to further milk the entries they have the rights to, meaning it only includes the basic version of Rorona and not its remake, Rorona Plus (which TK has the rights to).
I've thought Tales looked pretty decent on the PS3, at least the entries that had been originally made with 720 output in mind (Graces was originally 480 on the Wii if memory serves, and Symphonia Chronicles being "HD" ports of games originally on the PS2 and Wii, being that Symphonia HD is based on the prior JP only PS2 extended port). I will say though that Xillia and Xillia 2 seemed to lose some of the vibrance Vesperia had.
am i the only person that played the atelier iris games?
You could at least read some of the thread.
Everyone's recommending Arland but I would start with Ayesha and decide were you want to go based on which aspects you liked. If you start with Arland you may be put off by the inconsistent and often substandard visual design.
Why didn't they package the Iris into a collection and release it on PS3 like they did with the Arland games? You'd think that would have been a no brainer since the Iris games were some of the most popular entries in the series.
Also, how does Mana Khemia 2 compare to the first game?
Does Mana Khemia take place entirely in the academy? If anything happens outside the academy, is it going to be those cramped as fuck portal world's from Iris 3?
No, but they're certainly not the most popular Atelier games among anons from what I've seen (or at least aren't discussed nearly as much as the Arland/Dusk entries). Probably since they're not exactly the best representatives of how the series is supposed to handle (at least from what I've heard; I'll admit the trio are still in my backlog).
Not sure. But do you mean as an "HD" collection, PSN rereleases, or some sort of all-in-one like the Arland games eventually saw?
Does make me a bit curious as well as to why Gust never did some sort of dual pack for the PSP, PS3, and/or Vita of Ar Tonelico I and II as well. Could have been a good chance for the games, especially AT2, to have gotten a better official translation (depending of course on when a bundle like that could have happened). Oh well, at least AT2 has a fan retranslation effort.
Which atelier would you fug?