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Atelier Community Thread: Punis, Barrels, and Alchemy! Oh my!
- Thread starter chrominance
- Start date
making my way through lydie and suelle and the alchemy system has me hooked, it works very similar to how fusing for better demons with the best skills worked in smt/persona games except there seems to be more stuff given a larger number of traits that can combine for a higher tier.
A bit of a shame for the story though it's a bit too fluffy puffy for me to really pay attention, that said it seems if they ever decide to focus more on on world building(as in having more interesting lore to all the places the town where lydie and suelle live is kinda bland so far) and the like atelier could be a more interesting interconnected type of series given that they already seem to use plenty of cameos from prior games in it.
Maybe prior series have handled this better? Not that I really know just I think dusk and arland seems to be a kind of arc/world distinction?
A bit of a shame for the story though it's a bit too fluffy puffy for me to really pay attention, that said it seems if they ever decide to focus more on on world building(as in having more interesting lore to all the places the town where lydie and suelle live is kinda bland so far) and the like atelier could be a more interesting interconnected type of series given that they already seem to use plenty of cameos from prior games in it.
Maybe prior series have handled this better? Not that I really know just I think dusk and arland seems to be a kind of arc/world distinction?
Pretty much, the Dusk and Arland series form their own self-contained story arcs; both Trilogies but the Arland games do have a new game coming up.
There are alot of tonal differences between the games though; Lydie and Suelle is a pretty fluffy slice-of-life kind of game, no real high stakes or tension or anything and pretty much all Atelier games have this sort of overall relaxing tone.
None of the games focus too much on large amounts of world building, but I think the Dusk trilogy is the strongest on terms of actual plot. Still lighthearted but with some actual drama here and there, and the locations have a better sense of setting than just "fantasy town" vibe that Lydie and Suelle has. FYI the Atelier series also tends to do alot of reinventing of the wheel; the alchemy systems of each "series" of Atelier games have alot of differences between each other, newer Atelier games are by no means better than old ones. I'd actually put the Dusk games as the strongest trilogy since I think the Alchemy is more interesting in the Dusk games, the combat is loads better, and I like the setting and characters alot more.
Arland is also pretty different, for one it's more straight up comedy than either of the other trilogies. The Arland trilogies also have the previously notorious Atelier staple of hard time limits, which is a real love it or hate it aspect of the genre. The Alchemy and the Battle system is simpler than the newer Atelier games, but the events are less tedious, and I think the overall characters are more endearing. Lydie and Suelle has a bit TOO much just random banter scenes that go nowhere.
That's cool to hear as maybe it's worth either checking other story arcs out or hoping a future story arc maybe gets just a bit of trails influence and maybe tries to do 2-3 games with a larger story happening in the background.
And yeah I really feel the slice of life vibe from the game I think in certain ways I just wish it wasn't that which is maybe unfair if that's a trademark quality of the games. I just tired very quick on all the characters so far given that they don't feel very meaty or interesting although I think the way they bring back characters from the other games could be a cool thing but it's hard to judge without having the background in how well they do the whole avengers meetup type of thing.
I'm in chapter 7 now and am just looking forward to reach endgame to finally start making really really op gear given that I've been holding back on diving too deep into the systems until I can fully utilize them(I basically just found out in chapter 6 by chance that traits can merge to make better traits)
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Funny sidenote, people been eyeing me weirdly whenever I mention that I've been prioritizing Atelier over playing red dead 2 (got them both cause of good deals).
Reason is cause Atelier is just way nicer to play in 1-2 hour chunks right before sleep than Red Dead 2(I stopped like 2 hours in). Looking forward to doing Red Dead when I can lose 4-7 hours in one session to lose myself in the world but Atelier is a really comfortable JRPG which has been just what I needed.
And yeah I really feel the slice of life vibe from the game I think in certain ways I just wish it wasn't that which is maybe unfair if that's a trademark quality of the games. I just tired very quick on all the characters so far given that they don't feel very meaty or interesting although I think the way they bring back characters from the other games could be a cool thing but it's hard to judge without having the background in how well they do the whole avengers meetup type of thing.
I'm in chapter 7 now and am just looking forward to reach endgame to finally start making really really op gear given that I've been holding back on diving too deep into the systems until I can fully utilize them(I basically just found out in chapter 6 by chance that traits can merge to make better traits)
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Funny sidenote, people been eyeing me weirdly whenever I mention that I've been prioritizing Atelier over playing red dead 2 (got them both cause of good deals).
Reason is cause Atelier is just way nicer to play in 1-2 hour chunks right before sleep than Red Dead 2(I stopped like 2 hours in). Looking forward to doing Red Dead when I can lose 4-7 hours in one session to lose myself in the world but Atelier is a really comfortable JRPG which has been just what I needed.
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Atelier Lydie and Suelle is the final game in the most recent trilogy of Atelier games, so some of the characters (namely the other Alchemists) are only from like one or two games back at most. Other than that there aren't any characters from other games, barring some known franchise characters (think Final Fantasy's Cid) in the form of Hagel and Pamela that appear in almost every other Atelier game.
Ironically enough there IS an upcoming Atelier game (Nelke) that is like a super-crossover that brings together like all the main characters from like 15 goddamn Atelier games together for some big crossover thingy. That's probably more for longstanding fans than anything else, though it does look really cheap looking so I'm a bit skeptical if the final product will be any good.
Some of the comedy in the later half has started to hit although there is still way too much of leaning waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay hard into a certain character gimmicks that are way overused as well (Liane *eyeroll*). Hit the part that makes me really wish that they included fast travel to specific areas of the maps cause of the backtracking that started to happen. I've also started to get frustrated with the general usability which in my opinion is a disaster for a 2018 JRPG but I guess not being smart about these little things that I do think matter a lot is part of the genre. One of my biggest usability pet peeves right now is that your last battle action is not saved between each character turn but the cursor always resets to attack.
Characters have become slightly more interesting(Alt and Plachta) although sadly the general vibes kind of undercut a lot of it. Atelier is def no Yakuza when it comes to its ability to switch up the tone as needed. I do get the feeling that my experience might have been heightened if I'd had played Sophie and Firis before this although it's fine.
Still enjoying my time with the alchemy though trucking along to reach endgame when I have the full toolset to do whatever looking forward to that.
I think my feelings on the game have settled pretty firmly despite not finishing yet but given the chapters have followed a similar structure I don't see the experience changing enough to shift my current perspective on the game. Overall I still like it, it's one of those flawed gem rpgs to me. The gameplay can keep me hooked enough but there is always this feeling of wanting things to be slightly different because it feels like with some adjustments this could be a pretty great JRPG.
Random musing:
- I wish you could change battle formations on the fly during battle or at least switch front/backline of a formation.
- The tutorial and feature drip has been stretched out a bit too much for me.
- I really like thinking up alchemy material tree routes to get certain traits.
- Refill and duplicate are really nice features
- Your storage and gathering back feels too small for my tastes as there is also no great way to sift through bad materials, it makes me wish there was a system where you could kinda recycle bad materials together to better ones(something like combining several 1 component cell materials into a material with more component cells)
- I am kinda curious about the Arland games not sure why given that the comedy angle doesn't sound immediately appealing. That said I feel I should def try to go through the trilogy this time before even considering getting the newly announced one.
- Having a glance at the wiki it seem prior Atelier games have been more serious with potentially more compelling storylines? Not sure just read a bit on an Alchemist that created a homonculus they nurtured and it ending in tragedy.
Characters have become slightly more interesting(Alt and Plachta) although sadly the general vibes kind of undercut a lot of it. Atelier is def no Yakuza when it comes to its ability to switch up the tone as needed. I do get the feeling that my experience might have been heightened if I'd had played Sophie and Firis before this although it's fine.
Still enjoying my time with the alchemy though trucking along to reach endgame when I have the full toolset to do whatever looking forward to that.
I think my feelings on the game have settled pretty firmly despite not finishing yet but given the chapters have followed a similar structure I don't see the experience changing enough to shift my current perspective on the game. Overall I still like it, it's one of those flawed gem rpgs to me. The gameplay can keep me hooked enough but there is always this feeling of wanting things to be slightly different because it feels like with some adjustments this could be a pretty great JRPG.
Random musing:
- I wish you could change battle formations on the fly during battle or at least switch front/backline of a formation.
- The tutorial and feature drip has been stretched out a bit too much for me.
- I really like thinking up alchemy material tree routes to get certain traits.
- Refill and duplicate are really nice features
- Your storage and gathering back feels too small for my tastes as there is also no great way to sift through bad materials, it makes me wish there was a system where you could kinda recycle bad materials together to better ones(something like combining several 1 component cell materials into a material with more component cells)
- I am kinda curious about the Arland games not sure why given that the comedy angle doesn't sound immediately appealing. That said I feel I should def try to go through the trilogy this time before even considering getting the newly announced one.
- Having a glance at the wiki it seem prior Atelier games have been more serious with potentially more compelling storylines? Not sure just read a bit on an Alchemist that created a homonculus they nurtured and it ending in tragedy.
I'd say no, honestly. Atelier Ayesha sets up a potentially interesting post-apocalyptic world and story arc, but it's stuffed pretty far into the background and its two sequels really don't do much to expand on those ideas. And the Arland games are almost entirely about playing characters off of each other for shenanigans.
That's too bad. Not sure then I feel all my story/character issues probably just go against what they intend these games to be regarding their target audience.
For me it's a lot of feeling like everything could be just a little more intriguing(even in the context of just your usual JRPG story) and characters could feel a bit less samey by not having almost everyone act so fluffy puffy.
But I guess that is probably at the same time just part of the appeal to others.
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I would say that Mysterious is especially bad at having its characters all get along in the blandest way possible. Dusk and Arland tend to be better about not making their entire cast a mutual admiration society.
Yeah, I wouldn't call any of the PS3 onwards Atelier games hard hitting or anything. There are some attempts at serious storylines with the Dusk series, but even that Trilogy is extremely light-hearted compared to the typical JRPG storyline. Interestingly enough if you go back to the PS2 era games, you get alot more serious Atelier games that play more like traditional JRPGs. Mana Khemia 1 actually has a pretty strong dramatic storyline with comedy as a side feature instead of what feels like the main feature in most of these games.
There's actually something to be said about unintentional tone whiplash with the Arland games. It's not like Yakuza where it's deliberate, but kinda an accident of game design. Something that is unique to that trilogy is the inherent disconnect between the super-light hearted storyline and the balls-hard time management system that makes Persona social link scheduling look easy. The Arland games (and Atelier Ayesha) have these almost easter-egg like "true endings" that have ABSURD requirements (ie, see all events, beat all bosses, fulfill all other ending requirements) all within very strict timelimits. Like, imagine playing Lydie and Suelle but EVERY time you synthesized anything or traveled anywhere or even picked something off the ground you lost time on an ever dwindling schedule. And you needed to end to essentially 100% the game on a time limit in order to see the best ending. It's actually a pretty fun experience in a masochistic kind of way in that it constantly forces you to make actual decisions as you play, it's definitely worth a try if you sound into it especially cause the Arland games are being re-released on modern platforms.
Yeah this is true. Meruru in particular has the strangest blend of low narrative stakes, gentle/cute presentation, and just nightmarishly elaborate time management gameplay, it's fantastic. I don't know if I've ever played another game that so consistently forces you to make interesting decisions about where to go and how to spend your time/resources.
Time management sounds like a good way to have some tension at least in the gameplay. Although I'd say the only way I'd enjoy it is if the goals that need to be accomplished are laid out clearly. If there is a lot of things you need to accomplish you just wouldn't be able to know you had to do them without a prior playthrough not sure on that. I guess at that point I'd just use a guide.
I reached post game and unlocked very hard. Anyone any tips on what traits I should gun for to start farming the two goddess bosses. I don't have the dlc though.
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Atelier I think has one of the better endgames in JRPGs. It's really cool out the very last bosses require you to engage with the systems on a deeper level but also do it in a scaling way.
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I spend 6-7 hours in endgame now and beat all the rest of the bosses on normal with a high burst firis follow up setup(not the most original I assume). I really enjoyed this part of the game the most where you farm up traits and tinker out transfer routes and continuously improve your stuff. Sadly this part also kinda exposes additional usability short comings not sure how to feel on having to manually craft the same piece of armor despite having all the mats to do it 6 times at once.
All in all I did enjoy my time with it after musing about the whole experience I think I can get enough out of the gameplay to try 1-2 more atelier games. If the Arland remasters are cheap enough(30-40 bucks) maybe I'll go for that.
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Atelier I think has one of the better endgames in JRPGs. It's really cool out the very last bosses require you to engage with the systems on a deeper level but also do it in a scaling way.
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I spend 6-7 hours in endgame now and beat all the rest of the bosses on normal with a high burst firis follow up setup(not the most original I assume). I really enjoyed this part of the game the most where you farm up traits and tinker out transfer routes and continuously improve your stuff. Sadly this part also kinda exposes additional usability short comings not sure how to feel on having to manually craft the same piece of armor despite having all the mats to do it 6 times at once.
All in all I did enjoy my time with it after musing about the whole experience I think I can get enough out of the gameplay to try 1-2 more atelier games. If the Arland remasters are cheap enough(30-40 bucks) maybe I'll go for that.
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Wait, I'm well behind the news. They are making 4th Arland game? Rorona looks great, just need battle hardened adventurer Totori.
Send help, I'm only just about to start Shallie....lol
Send help, I'm only just about to start Shallie....lol
I finally managed to get my hands on a complete, near mint condition copy of Annie. I was testing it out and it's pretty amusing so far. It was the only game missing from my collection... though I have a strange urge to buy the JP games since they're fairly cheap...
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Man. I visited Japan a few years ago and was astounded by how easily you could pick up used LEs of many of the Atelier games. Pretty sure I even saw some PS2-era games in the mix. I was already planning to bring back a bunch of stuff so I didn't really consider buying any of it but I might be tempted if I ever go back.
Jealous! Someday I'll go and bring back a lot of stuff!
It's curious how the JP versions of RPGs are so cheap after a while, especially LEs. In the US, they just start to skyrocket in price.
Also, I'm not sure how I missed it but there's some battle gameplay for Nelke.
It looks pretty interesting. Snappy and quick, though I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. It seems you have basic attacks which build up AP/orbs and you use those for specific actions/specials? Not sure what Burst does yet.
I'm interested in Nelke quite a bit still, but I'm glad it's not A20/Lulua. As a spinoff/celebration, I think it's fine and I'm looking forward to it.
One of the things I noticed is the 5-character party. It looks like 3 attackers/vanguard and 2 supporters. It only caught my eye because of Lulua having 5 characters in battle. I wonder how close Lulua will be to Lydie & Suelle. I hope it's a mixture of that and Blue Reflection as I really liked both battle systems.
Is anyone picking up Nelke or just waiting for Lulua?
Uh, sorry if I'm mistaken but the Arland remakes have been released right ?
If so, I've got a super specific question : is the Rorona post-game still there and can you access it without a savegame ?
I... accidentally deleted my Rorona Vita while working on Meruru. It was a dark day.
If so, I've got a super specific question : is the Rorona post-game still there and can you access it without a savegame ?
I... accidentally deleted my Rorona Vita while working on Meruru. It was a dark day.
That's rough, saves being tied to game installs is my no.1 problem with the vita. Probably what made me stop buying games for it.
Answered you in the OT :)
I'm so-so. Trying to save money but I do like my Atelier games. Will see what people think probably before buying it while Lulua will probably be a D1 purchase.
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Nelke sounds different enough from standard Atelier games that I'll probably pick it up at launch. My expectations are quite a bit lower, though.
Honestly I've been trying not to give in to temptation and pick up the Arland trilogy on PC, mainly because a) SO EXPENSIVE and b) I love the idea of running through the whole trilogy before Lulua but that's also a recipe for Atelier burnout if I've ever heard one.
Honestly I've been trying not to give in to temptation and pick up the Arland trilogy on PC, mainly because a) SO EXPENSIVE and b) I love the idea of running through the whole trilogy before Lulua but that's also a recipe for Atelier burnout if I've ever heard one.
It actually looks better than I thought it would. Nelke as a whole still looks really cheap and a visual step back, the flat textured nondescript field with the characters that look more like they're floating than walking makes for a real ugly look. I get the feeling with this pull back on the production values that this will either be REALLY simple or SUPER complicated and I hope they make at least make the gameplay interesting.
Gust should also really retire these monster designs...
I bought them on PS4 for like $90, though I don't plan on playing through all of them again. I may start up Meruru as I never got around to finishing that one before my PS3 saves went boom. Gust is fairly small so I was ok with the price for all the Arland games and I want to support them.
I think as long as people keep their expectations for Nelke as just a spinoff that is a celebratory crossover, they won't get their expectations too high.
If we were -only- getting Nelke, I'd be bummed out. However, seeing how good Lulua looks and how much they're putting into it, it's easy to see where the budget/effort/time is going!
For monster designs, I just wish Brownie's were back with their Iris 1 voices.
I'm waiting for Nelke and I hope it's great, it sounds great on a paper, I'm a bit worried with main character being not an alchemist... That can be troublesome if we are forced to use her and she's not good at anything.
Annie is funny and fun, my favourite DS game.
Annie is funny and fun, my favourite DS game.
According to amazon both Nelke and Lulua release in March. That's not possible, is it?
Also, what are the chances of Lulua being dubbed?
Also, what are the chances of Lulua being dubbed?
Lulua is in March in Japan, Spring in the west.
I wouldn't bet on a dub, but you never know.
Lulua got announced for localization almost instantly, no chance of a dub, March is a placeholder, bet on April or may
I love the English VAs but yeah, probably no dub :(.
That said, I have been playing both Totori DX and Meruru DX in Japanese voices exclusively (I did both with Rorona DX) because the partial dub was just weird after being used to more in recent games.
Side note: Platinumed both Rorona and Totori DX, on second playthrough of Meruru DX so hopefully will plat that soon :)
That said, I have been playing both Totori DX and Meruru DX in Japanese voices exclusively (I did both with Rorona DX) because the partial dub was just weird after being used to more in recent games.
Side note: Platinumed both Rorona and Totori DX, on second playthrough of Meruru DX so hopefully will plat that soon :)
Does anybody know how the Atelier games play on PS Now? I always wanted to play Escha and Logy. Of course there's always a chance that Koei releases the trilogy on PS4.
as with all ps now games it fully depends on your internet, also no chance of a dusk trilogy ever tbh
I have a 100mb connection, do games on Now suffer from input lag? Because I hate that.
