Atelier Lulua ~ The Scion of Arland ~ |OT| Generations of Arland

[Luminaire]

Developer: Gust
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platforms: PS4, Switch, PC (Steam)
Release Date: May 21st, 2019 (US) / May 24th, 2019 (EU)
Genre: Turn-based Role-Playing Game
Official Site: https://www.koeitecmoamerica.com/lulua/

Limited Edition Includes:
• Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland for PS4/Switch
• Official Hardcover Memorial Art Book
• Official Sound Archives Soundtrack
• Cloth Poster
• Set of 2 Acrylic Keychains
• Collector's Box

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Return to Arland with Lulua - the daughter of the beloved alchemist of Arland. Lulua is a story about lineage, inheritance, discovery, and the importance of familiy. In the town of Arculis, which resides just on the Arland Republic's frontiers, Lulua studies under the alchemist Piana. Each day, she pushes herself to master the art of alchemy with a clear goal in her mind - to surpass her mother.

One fateful day, Lulua is struck by a mysterious and ancient book that fell from the sky, crashing into her as if destined. Upon further inspection, Lulua learns that no other soul can read the writings within the book, thus spiking her impulsive and curious nature. With an ambition to surpass her mother and a dream to be a great alchemist, she sets forth to decipher the book and reveal all its secrets to the world. This will lead her down a road that will divulge the ancient secrets of Arculis, the Arland Republic, and the art of alchemy itself.

Exploration

Arland is a vast republic with myriad villages, ruins, and sprawling landscapes. Remnants of the past litter the land while civilization dots the map with varying degrees of progression. Throughout Arland, you'll find farms, caves, beaches, forests, hamlets, dungeons, and more.

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Synthesis

Atelier Lulua's synthesis system has been evolved even further. While it's still based on the foundation that has been built over the course of the Arland trilogy, it also ties in some newer elements from the trilogies that came after it. New elements have been added, and players are granted a new degree of freedom with their alchemy. The traits, effects, and characteristics of the items will impact the result a bit heavier than previous entries, leading to new items simply from swapping around a few components.

Additionally, Lulua will be able to user Boost Items, which are one-time-use (per synth) items that can be thrown in to drastically change the item you are creating. The end result can be completely different, or you can boost the quality or effects on the item. It's possible to create items that would not normally be created with the materials at hand, so this is another method of crafting some of the more difficult or exotic recipes.

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Combat

Atelier Lulua's battle system uses a party of five in combat. There are three attackers and two supporters, similar to the Attacker/Vanguard roles in Lydie & Suelle. However, Supporters are not bound to any Attacker in particular, and can utilize their support option once the conditions are fulfilled. New to the Arland series are Primal Arts, which are built through bonds with the characters. Primal Arts offer boosts to items, increase damage, and more. Primal Arts are passive skills that become activated based on the formation of your party once a battle begins.

Characters specialize in certain arts. Some characters can adjust the range of their attacks, while others focus on exploiting enemy weaknesses. As characters grow and level, more abilities will be unlocked that will help devastate foes and also unlock more of the mysterious Alchemy Riddle.

Also new to the Arland series is the Interrupt action, which will give characters a chance to use a pre-equipped item when it's not their turn. The item will not be consumed, so players can equip some powerful items and utilize the Interrupt Skill to break enemies, exploit weaknesses, or provide a desperately needed party-wide heal.

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Release Date Trailer


Battle Trailer

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--Forthcoming--
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Q. I've never played an Atelier game before. Can I start with this one?
A. You could start with this one, as each entry is a standalone story. However, it has links to previous games in the Arland series with many returning characters from the previous three games. The Arland series is not directly linked to other series, however.

Q. Is there a time limit in this one?
A. Not so much.

Q. Three season passes?!
A. Rather than cram everything into one season pass, Gust split it into three. All of the content can be purchase separately, but past characters such as Totori and Meruru are only playable if you purchase the individual season pass ($30~ each) or their standalone character DLC (roughly $10 each.) It's absurdly expensive and not recommended.

Q. Is there English VA?
A. No. It's safe to assume that there will be no English VA in Atelier games (or Gust releases in general) going forward, given the past three Atelier releases have not had it.

Atelier Community Thread
Arland Trilogy OT
RPG Community Thread
Atelier + Elie (PS2) Fan Translation Patch
​

 

[halcali]

dare I say Rorona has never looked so good? <3

 

[Brando]

Any missable trophies?

 

[Thoraxes]

My copy already shipped this morning, and I look forward to digging into to this one soon! Tried the Famitsu Switch demo a while back and like how improved it felt over L&S in terms of performance/resolution.

 

[Hassansan]

Wow! I completely missed everything about this till this OT.
I think I might get it, in mood for something chill and Tecmo usually have good regional pricing here.

 

[Strings]

Looking forward to impressions when folks get closer to the end. I really liked the game, but boy does it get crazy.

Any missable trophies?

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It's a typical Atelier list, so you can technically lock yourself out of the true ending route, but in practice, that's actually pretty difficult if you just save at a certain point.

 

[Tohsaka]

Nice OT, can't wait to play it tomorrow.

 

[Mudo]

I literally just preordered on PS4 and came to check ERA while it's installing. Thanks for the thread, nice OP!

By the way, the game is playable on PS4 at 2AM Central time it says, so a little under 6 hours from now :) I'm definitely staying up to play!

Also, I'm a heathen and despise time limits do heading this one does not have one makes me even more excited.

 

[noyram23]

I just wrapped up my platinums for Dusk and wrapping up Mysterious. I haven't played any of the Arland games so i'm not sure if I should jump on this one

 

[Strings]

I just wrapped up my platinums for Dusk and wrapping up Mysterious. I haven't played any of the Arland games so i'm not sure if I should jump on this one

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You can start here, but I think it would be a significantly cooler experience if you'd played the Arland trilogy (which is worthwhile, and had those recent ports, etc). The plus versions of Rorona and Meruru in particular are pretty strong games in the series overall.

 

[noyram23]

You can start here, but I think it would be a significantly cooler experience if you'd played the Arland trilogy (which is worthwhile, and had those recent ports, etc). The plus versions of Rorona and Meruru in particular are pretty strong games in the series overall.

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I want to platinum them all but I'm a bit worried on the time deadline, I hate time deadlines in game, makes me stressed out a bit

 

[chrominance]

I'd have to double-check but this might be the first time in a long time that a mainline Atelier game will actually arrive at my apartment on day one. Sorry, Days Gone, but Arland is my land.

 

[Lockon]

My LE copy actually came in the mail today, but can't play it yet. Still finishing Super Robot Wars T (2 stages left) and going for plat. Should be starting the game by Friday.

 

[Luminaire]

Mine may or may not have arrived. I have everything go to my moms house and I just grab it on my way home from work.

Can anyone tell me if the copy of the game in the LE is just a normal copy with a barcode (and no Not For Resale nonsense)?

 

[Lockon]

Mine may or may not have arrived. I have everything go to my moms house and I just grab it on my way home from work.

Can anyone tell me if the copy of the game in the LE is just a normal copy with a barcode (and no Not For Resale nonsense)?

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I opened my LE and the game box is a normal box with a barcode.

 

[Strings]

I want to platinum them all but I'm a bit worried on the time deadline, I hate time deadlines in game, makes me stressed out a bit

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Hm, then I'm not too sure. I was able to platinum Rorona in 2 runs (the second being much faster because of NG+), but I didn't get it for either Totori or Meruru. The platinum for this game in particular is pretty easy - very close to the Mysterious games.

You won't be completely lost or anything, you'll just miss out on why certain characters being the way they are is neat, why they make a big deal out of certain cutscenes, etc.

 

[Luminaire]

I opened my LE and the game box is a normal box with a barcode.

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Perfect, thank you.

 

[noyram23]

Hm, then I'm not too sure. I was able to platinum Rorona in 2 runs (the second being much faster because of NG+), but I didn't get it for either Totori or Meruru. The platinum for this game in particular is pretty easy - very close to the Mysterious games.

You won't be completely lost or anything, you'll just miss out on why certain characters being the way they are is neat, why they make a big deal out of certain cutscenes, etc.

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I think I might get into the Arland trilogy first, I might miss the Dusk combat tho

 

[RyougaSaotome]

Anybody have the over/under on the Switch version's performance compared to previous Ateliers?

 

[passing breeze]

Anybody have the over/under on the Switch version's performance compared to previous Ateliers?

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This one is on a new engine and supposedly has better performance.

 

[Yu Narukami]

Jeuxvideo.com 12/20
https://www.google.com/amp/www.jeux...and-un-retour-aux-sources-sans-conviction.htm

 

[afreaknamedpete]

I'm a huge Gust fan but putting Totori and Meruru as DLC is really scummy, I'm tempted to just wait for their release before buying but I also kind of want to play along with everyone else. Really hate that they're making the previous protagonists DLC and we won't probably get them for like half a year or something.

 

[Gunkankun]

The game is up on US eShop. The early purchase DLC is still missing though.

 

[Strings]

I'm a huge Gust fan but putting Totori and Meruru as DLC is really scummy, I'm tempted to just wait for their release before buying but I also kind of want to play along with everyone else. Really hate that they're making the previous protagonists DLC and we won't probably get them for like half a year or something.

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It is, yeah, but it's unfortunately not new for them. At the very least, they give the DLC characters their own events these days, where we'd usually have to wait until the Plus versions before.

 

[afreaknamedpete]

It is, yeah, but it's unfortunately not new for them. At the very least, they give the DLC characters their own events these days, where we'd usually have to wait until the Plus versions before.

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Yeah, but normally I didn't really care about most of the DLC characters... but they're putting in like previous MAIN characters as DLC. I think the only time I was pissed at Gust's DLC choices are when they made Wilbell DLC in Escha+Logy. And as much as I like Atelier they aren't really games I find myself replaying, so I usually only end up going through it once.

 

[Hero of Legend]

This one is on a new engine and supposedly has better performance.

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What really? They're ditching the Dynasty Warriors engine?

The game is up on US eShop. The early purchase DLC is still missing though.

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Isn't it a code you get on your receipt when you pre-purchase the game?

 

[Stuart444]

Doesn't unlock until Friday here but looking forward to it :D

 

[Kapryov]

can anybody spoil it for me and tell me if Rorona is now 30+ years old like I assume she would be?
or did they de-age her again for reasons?

I'm probably not buying this until I get around to finishing Meruru, which might take another year at the pace I'm going

 

[aspiegamer]

The previous trilogy was a dumpster fire of creepy loli tendencies where the box art alone made me want to tear my hair out, so I'll take literally any other setting and anything close to a normal-looking protagonist. Well, normal by JRPG/animeish standards at least. My expectations are low, but I'm desperate to play one of these again after a few years after I'd followed things annually going back to the PS2. These games have an obscene level of charm you can't find anywhere else.

 

[Yu Narukami]

can anybody spoil it for me and tell me if Rorona is now 30+ years old like I assume she would be?
or did they de-age her again for reasons?

I'm probably not buying this until I get around to finishing Meruru, which might take another year at the pace I'm going

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She's between 35 and 39 old.

 

[Kapryov]

She's between 35 and 39 old.

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Thanks, that's awesome!
Sucks they made her expensive DLC though...

 

[Yu Narukami]

Thanks, that's awesome!
Sucks they made her expensive DLC though...

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Rorona is playable. Totori and Meruru are DLC. 10 bucks each, I think.
Luminaire Is the free DLC costume available for everyone or only for those that preorder?

 

[afreaknamedpete]

The previous trilogy was a dumpster fire of creepy loli tendencies where the box art alone made me want to tear my hair out, so I'll take literally any other setting and anything close to a normal-looking protagonist. Well, normal by JRPG/animeish standards at least. My expectations are low, but I'm desperate to play one of these again after a few years after I'd followed things annually going back to the PS2. These games have an obscene level of charm you can't find anywhere else.

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Always thought the Arland series had the most fanservice by far of all the trilogies, with all the groping scenes and Meruru being like one steam wisp away from outright nudity. The Mysterious series is pretty tame in comparison, some questionable character design choices notwithstanding. Glad to see one back in Arland though, that trilogy certainly was alot more fun than the Mysterious trilogy where most of the cast just kind of felt one-dimensional.

 

[hjort]

I hope this doesn't come off as a whiny post that will bring the mood down for anyone, but I felt like this would be a good place to ask some questions about the series in general and how this game compares to Lydie & Suelle specifically.

I bought Lydie & Suelle (for Switch, which might not have been ideal, but it's my system of choice) a while back because I like the idea of the "slice of life" RPG stuff and something a bit more grounded as a contrast to RPG epics where a collection of troubled adventurers set out to defeat evil and save the world. However, I ended up feeling pretty disappointed in some respects and now I want to figure out if the series is simply not for me, or if Lydie & Suelle doesn't do a good job of representing it.

Like, the exploration mechanics for starters. Despite the locales differing in terms of visual presention they all felt interchangeable to me. I would come across new enemies and new materials, but I never felt like I truly explored anything. I just ran around an area, pressing a button to gather materials until I activated some cutscene or other. There didn't seem to be any depth to speak of. Maybe this isn't a big selling point for the franchise, but I feel like it affects the rest of the game as well since it affects how I go about hunting for materials and so on.

The same kind of depthlessness kind of also goes for the NPCs and plot, to me. The entire town was so lifeless that the slice of life stuff fell flat. The game doesn't convey the feeling of living in a small town at all. Granted, this isn't supposed to be Animal Crossing or whatever, but even by RPG standards it felt underdeveloped, I think. All the main characters had tons of interactions with each other, so the game had plenty of time to explore their personalities and relationships, but it felt like it just repeated the same basic ideas about them over and over. And none of the other people living in the town ever had a chance to become anything more than window dressing. I just couldn't care about what was going on, most of the time.

Are these elements done better or differently in other games, or is this just a case of the series not being for me? I enjoyed the actual crafting well enough, and the battle system ended up being totally fine despite seeming very basic at first.

 

[Pellaidh]

I hope this doesn't come off as a whiny post that will bring the mood down for anyone, but I felt like this would be a good place to ask some questions about the series in general and how this game compares to Lydie & Suelle specifically.

Click to shrink...

I haven't played Lulua yet, but have played all of the other PS3 onward Ateliers with the exception of Ayesha and Shallie

In terms of exploration, most Atelier games have incredibly small maps, so they really don't do a lot here. It sounds like Firis would be the one you want, since that one actually is focused around exploring a large open world. The only problem is that the game is kind of lacking in a lot of other elements, but it's the only Atelier game I've played that gets exploration right.

Then there's games like Rorona or Meruru that still have very small individual areas, but make up for it with a larger, more open world map. There's still not a lot of actual exploration, but Totori in particular just kind of dumps you into the map and tells you to do whatever you want, so you have a lot of freedom in how you approach it. But I don't think this really counts as exploration. Meruru also has a gimmick of the map changing as you progress through the game, which is neat even if it doesn't really do much with it.

Both of these games also have stricter time limits, which adds depth to the overall map traversal, as you have to take traveling times into account when gathering materials, which does fix the "no depth" issue you mentioned a bit. Honestly the whole reason why material gathering feels 100% pointless to me in newer Atelier games is because they removed time limits, but then didn't change the overall game structure to reflect that.

As for the characters, yeah, Atelier characters are often incredibly one note, and I don't think there's any game that's really all that different in this regard. With the Arland trilogy (well, tetralogy now), you at least get the benefit of seeing how the characters change over time, but even that really doesn't add all that much. The only game in the series that actually made me care for some of its characters was Totori, but even there there's a ton of really bad characters in the cast. I'd say character writing is the one constant in these games, so I wouldn't expect many differences here. Particularly this part basically describes every Atelier game I've played:

but it felt like it just repeated the same basic ideas about them over and over

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All that said though, I did kind of really hate Lydie & Suelle, in that it's the only Atelier game I've played where I couldn't even be bothered to finish it. I think it simply felt too linear in its structure, while I prefer Atelier games that give you more freedom. So personally I don't think it's the best indicator of the franchise.

 

[afreaknamedpete]

I hope this doesn't come off as a whiny post that will bring the mood down for anyone, but I felt like this would be a good place to ask some questions about the series in general and how this game compares to Lydie & Suelle specifically.

I bought Lydie & Suelle (for Switch, which might not have been ideal, but it's my system of choice) a while back because I like the idea of the "slice of life" RPG stuff and something a bit more grounded as a contrast to RPG epics where a collection of troubled adventurers set out to defeat evil and save the world. However, I ended up feeling pretty disappointed in some respects and now I want to figure out if the series is simply not for me, or if Lydie & Suelle doesn't do a good job of representing it.

Like, the exploration mechanics for starters. Despite the locales differing in terms of visual presention they all felt interchangeable to me. I would come across new enemies and new materials, but I never felt like I truly explored anything. I just ran around an area, pressing a button to gather materials until I activated some cutscene or other. There didn't seem to be any depth to speak of. Maybe this isn't a big selling point for the franchise, but I feel like it affects the rest of the game as well since it affects how I go about hunting for materials and so on.

The same kind of depthlessness kind of also goes for the NPCs and plot, to me. The entire town was so lifeless that the slice of life stuff fell flat. The game doesn't convey the feeling of living in a small town at all. Granted, this isn't supposed to be Animal Crossing or whatever, but even by RPG standards it felt underdeveloped, I think. All the main characters had tons of interactions with each other, so the game had plenty of time to explore their personalities and relationships, but it felt like it just repeated the same basic ideas about them over and over. And none of the other people living in the town ever had a chance to become anything more than window dressing. I just couldn't care about what was going on, most of the time.

Are these elements done better or differently in other games, or is this just a case of the series not being for me? I enjoyed the actual crafting well enough, and the battle system ended up being totally fine despite seeming very basic at first.

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People have alot of different opinions on what's considered the "best" Atelier game and which Trilogy is the best. I am of the opinion that Lydie & Suelle is a... representative Atelier game if not a rather bland representative. If you hated the game utterly it's highly unlikely that any of the other Atelier trilogies will change your mind but alot of what makes Atelier great is not really well represented in Lydie and Suelle. IMO L+S doesn't do any of the core Atelier gameplay ideas the best. The battle system is not the best, the alchemy is not the best, the characters are not the best, the exploration aspect is kinda bad, which kind of leads me to feel that L+S and the whole Mysterious Trilogy as a whole are somewhat a bit bland.

I would say that the real best way to experience the Atelier series for a newcomer is either one of two ways, either jump in the deep end with the Arland series, which is conveniently available in Trilogy format, or try the Dusk Series.

Like, I love the Arland series, but you have to know what you're getting into, and what you're getting into is time limits. I cannot stress how utterly different time limits makes the Atelier game in pretty much all aspects of gameplay. When people say Atelier games have exploration mechanics, they aren't talking about, like the piss poor dungeons. In the Arland series most of the maps are like... one or two screens at most. The Arland trilogy is probably the ONLY trilogy that does "exploration" any justice because the progression is much more freeform. It's not the map that's the exploration, you "explore" by literally charting and planning your own progression. At any given time you are working towards short term and long term goals and trying to find the most efficient way to do all of this with a limited time frame, as in Arland games like EVERYTHING from picking stuff up to traveling to Alchemy chips away at your time limit. Instead of, say, going to the Forest Zone, then the Plains zone, then the Lava zone as they are unlocked many zones are unlocked by hitting progression zones or beating bosses that aren't so much story mandated as they are gatekeepers that you beat in order to unlock the next area. There's rarely an obvious correct path forwards in the Arland games so there's alot of experimentation and exploration as you try to plan out your routes in order to minimize downtime and maximize efficiency, it really lends itself amazing well towards making the world feel real by really making you consider distance, what grows where, etc.

To give another example in L+S you're given a goal of "make a sandwich", well it's an easy enough task of going to the painting where ingredients drop, running around until you get the ingredients, then submitting it. In Arland "make a sandwich" means doing a cost benefit analysis of whether or not the compensation in terms of friend points or money is worth making the sandwich, whether or not it's worth travelling to get the ingredients, whether or not you can batch multiple goals into one travel instance... etc. That's why Arland and Atelier games feel like exploration.

The Arland series also has somewhat more simple Alchemy but still loads more complicated than any other game outside the Atelier series. It has a... passable but pretty god-honest weak battle system. You usually are equipped enough to wipe the floor with the enemy or are obviously weak, there's very little room for actual in-battle strategy.

Finally all the Atelier games have a character-event focused story, but the Arland series is decidedly a LOT sillier with tons of anime-comedy style skits. Whether or not that's a pro or a con depends on your tastes. You're not gonna get an epic story here though Atelier Totori does have probably the most fundamentally best story since it wraps up all the comedy stuff with a pretty heartfelt coming of age type story.



The other way of going is the Dusk series, specifically starting with Atelier Escha+Logy (Atelier Ayesha is kinda like Arland-lite). There's technically a time limit but it's so utterly generous as to be virtually inconsequential. This is a much more structured Atelier game, split into chapters where you lose that exploration-progression like system that Arland had.

In return you have IMO the most focused and fun alchemy system and a shockingly good combat system. Like E+L's combat is pretty amazing overall with like this barrage of flashy attacks and mechanics on top of mechanics to keep track of. It also actually incentives experimentation, as in EVERY area there are super-leveled super-mobs so that no matter where you are in the game you can always get a challenging fight and trying to beat these bosses at low levels is amazing fun since it forces you to min-max the alchemy and battle system in a way that really makes you feel clever and rewarding.

The Dusk series also bills itself as Atelier with like an actual plot, and it... sorta has one? It's still mostly character scenes and events just a little more melancholy to it, but there's no like character death or grimdark stuff. It's all still pretty happy go lucky stuff. Competent stories that aren't offensive but doesn't really stand out.

So really, the Atelier games are probably better represented outside of L+S. But that's my opinion as a fan, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[chrominance]

I hope this doesn't come off as a whiny post that will bring the mood down for anyone, but I felt like this would be a good place to ask some questions about the series in general and how this game compares to Lydie & Suelle specifically.

I bought Lydie & Suelle (for Switch, which might not have been ideal, but it's my system of choice) a while back because I like the idea of the "slice of life" RPG stuff and something a bit more grounded as a contrast to RPG epics where a collection of troubled adventurers set out to defeat evil and save the world. However, I ended up feeling pretty disappointed in some respects and now I want to figure out if the series is simply not for me, or if Lydie & Suelle doesn't do a good job of representing it.

Like, the exploration mechanics for starters. Despite the locales differing in terms of visual presention they all felt interchangeable to me. I would come across new enemies and new materials, but I never felt like I truly explored anything. I just ran around an area, pressing a button to gather materials until I activated some cutscene or other. There didn't seem to be any depth to speak of. Maybe this isn't a big selling point for the franchise, but I feel like it affects the rest of the game as well since it affects how I go about hunting for materials and so on.

The same kind of depthlessness kind of also goes for the NPCs and plot, to me. The entire town was so lifeless that the slice of life stuff fell flat. The game doesn't convey the feeling of living in a small town at all. Granted, this isn't supposed to be Animal Crossing or whatever, but even by RPG standards it felt underdeveloped, I think. All the main characters had tons of interactions with each other, so the game had plenty of time to explore their personalities and relationships, but it felt like it just repeated the same basic ideas about them over and over. And none of the other people living in the town ever had a chance to become anything more than window dressing. I just couldn't care about what was going on, most of the time.

Are these elements done better or differently in other games, or is this just a case of the series not being for me? I enjoyed the actual crafting well enough, and the battle system ended up being totally fine despite seeming very basic at first.

Click to shrink...

I liked Lydie & Suelle, but I do think of the Mysterious trilogy in general as the blandest of the games I've played. There's no hook to the world unlike Dusk, the characters all kind of get along and don't stand out much unlike Arland, and the relative lack of time limits means there isn't a ton of pressure to do anything. The Atelier magic is still there in the mechanics, so I'm not saying they're bad games, and Firis at least tries to take the series in a new direction--a direction that ultimately led nowhere, but a direction nonetheless.

All that said, everything's a matter of degrees. Exploration is never really a thing in these games, or at least not the type of exploration I think you're looking for (Firis might be an exception here, as it's overtly about an alchemist discovering the outside world for the first time and going on a journey to a distant city). The appeal of the NPCs is in seeing how they interact with the protagonist and each other, but they are kind of one-note and the towns never, ever feel lively in the way an Animal Crossing or, say, a Trails in the Sky does. If Lydie & Suelle doesn't really do it for you, you might find marginally better results with the other games, but I don't think you should expect a revelatory experience.

 

[Linkura]

Will be waiting for reviews and impressions before I even think of picking this up.

 

[Mudo]

10 minute impressions:
-music great as always
-the graphics are OMG for an Atelier game wow
-no English VO :( I already knew this
-no time limits yay
-Lulua is very cute and I love her outfit
-items are different now and each has 4 bars for the 4 elements (fire, water etc)listed with the item having certain levels of each. Also item level is listed but that's it so far. Is Quality still a thing? Certainly properties will be ?

Gonna be playing all day I will give more real impressions later.
I'm just glad we are still getting these games in the US. These games are comfort good to me!

One question: I never played the Arland games. I see Plus versions of all 3 on PS4. Are they worth it? I always want more Atelier so if they are worth the time I am buying all 3 today. I hate time limits which is why I never played them

 

[hjort]

Wow, thanks for the replies! I didn't expect to get this much info, so I'm very grateful! For the record: While I was disappointed with Lydie & Suelle I still enjoyed it enough to finish it. Not touching any of the expensive DLC or postgame stuff, though.

I haven't played Lulua yet, but have played all of the other PS3 onward Ateliers with the exception of Ayesha and Shallie

In terms of exploration, most Atelier games have incredibly small maps, so they really don't do a lot here. It sounds like Firis would be the one you want, since that one actually is focused around exploring a large open world. The only problem is that the game is kind of lacking in a lot of other elements, but it's the only Atelier game I've played that gets exploration right.

Then there's games like Rorona or Meruru that still have very small individual areas, but make up for it with a larger, more open world map. There's still not a lot of actual exploration, but Totori in particular just kind of dumps you into the map and tells you to do whatever you want, so you have a lot of freedom in how you approach it. But I don't think this really counts as exploration. Meruru also has a gimmick of the map changing as you progress through the game, which is neat even if it doesn't really do much with it.

Both of these games also have stricter time limits, which adds depth to the overall map traversal, as you have to take traveling times into account when gathering materials, which does fix the "no depth" issue you mentioned a bit. Honestly the whole reason why material gathering feels 100% pointless to me in newer Atelier games is because they removed time limits, but then didn't change the overall game structure to reflect that.

As for the characters, yeah, Atelier characters are often incredibly one note, and I don't think there's any game that's really all that different in this regard. With the Arland trilogy (well, tetralogy now), you at least get the benefit of seeing how the characters change over time, but even that really doesn't add all that much. The only game in the series that actually made me care for some of its characters was Totori, but even there there's a ton of really bad characters in the cast. I'd say character writing is the one constant in these games, so I wouldn't expect many differences here. Particularly this part basically describes every Atelier game I've played:




All that said though, I did kind of really hate Lydie & Suelle, in that it's the only Atelier game I've played where I couldn't even be bothered to finish it. I think it simply felt too linear in its structure, while I prefer Atelier games that give you more freedom. So personally I don't think it's the best indicator of the franchise.

Click to shrink...

Totori or Meruru sound pretty good to me when it comes to the exploration. A huge open world could be nice, but it's not necessarily what I expected or wanted out of the game. Just having something more than cosmetic differences would have gone a long way for me. Some more hidden areas, maybe. Risk/reward mechanics when it comes to where to go to collect stuff within the individual areas and so on. The time aspects you mention sound like they would have added some depth, yeah. The messages about travel time in Lydie & Suelle really felt like they were remnants of some previous game since it rarely mattered. Sad to hear about the characters, but it is what it is, I suppose.

People have alot of different opinions on what's considered the "best" Atelier game and which Trilogy is the best. I am of the opinion that Lydie & Suelle is a... representative Atelier game if not a rather bland representative. If you hated the game utterly it's highly unlikely that any of the other Atelier trilogies will change your mind but alot of what makes Atelier great is not really well represented in Lydie and Suelle. IMO L+S doesn't do any of the core Atelier gameplay ideas the best. The battle system is not the best, the alchemy is not the best, the characters are not the best, the exploration aspect is kinda bad, which kind of leads me to feel that L+S and the whole Mysterious Trilogy as a whole are somewhat a bit bland.

I would say that the real best way to experience the Atelier series for a newcomer is either one of two ways, either jump in the deep end with the Arland series, which is conveniently available in Trilogy format, or try the Dusk Series.

Like, I love the Arland series, but you have to know what you're getting into, and what you're getting into is time limits. I cannot stress how utterly different time limits makes the Atelier game in pretty much all aspects of gameplay. When people say Atelier games have exploration mechanics, they aren't talking about, like the piss poor dungeons. In the Arland series most of the maps are like... one or two screens at most. The Arland trilogy is probably the ONLY trilogy that does "exploration" any justice because the progression is much more freeform. It's not the map that's the exploration, you "explore" by literally charting and planning your own progression. At any given time you are working towards short term and long term goals and trying to find the most efficient way to do all of this with a limited time frame, as in Arland games like EVERYTHING from picking stuff up to traveling to Alchemy chips away at your time limit. Instead of, say, going to the Forest Zone, then the Plains zone, then the Lava zone as they are unlocked many zones are unlocked by hitting progression zones or beating bosses that aren't so much story mandated as they are gatekeepers that you beat in order to unlock the next area. There's rarely an obvious correct path forwards in the Arland games so there's alot of experimentation and exploration as you try to plan out your routes in order to minimize downtime and maximize efficiency, it really lends itself amazing well towards making the world feel real by really making you consider distance, what grows where, etc.

To give another example in L+S you're given a goal of "make a sandwich", well it's an easy enough task of going to the painting where ingredients drop, running around until you get the ingredients, then submitting it. In Arland "make a sandwich" means doing a cost benefit analysis of whether or not the compensation in terms of friend points or money is worth making the sandwich, whether or not it's worth travelling to get the ingredients, whether or not you can batch multiple goals into one travel instance... etc. That's why Arland and Atelier games feel like exploration.

The Arland series also has somewhat more simple Alchemy but still loads more complicated than any other game outside the Atelier series. It has a... passable but pretty god-honest weak battle system. You usually are equipped enough to wipe the floor with the enemy or are obviously weak, there's very little room for actual in-battle strategy.

Finally all the Atelier games have a character-event focused story, but the Arland series is decidedly a LOT sillier with tons of anime-comedy style skits. Whether or not that's a pro or a con depends on your tastes. You're not gonna get an epic story here though Atelier Totori does have probably the most fundamentally best story since it wraps up all the comedy stuff with a pretty heartfelt coming of age type story.



The other way of going is the Dusk series, specifically starting with Atelier Escha+Logy (Atelier Ayesha is kinda like Arland-lite). There's technically a time limit but it's so utterly generous as to be virtually inconsequential. This is a much more structured Atelier game, split into chapters where you lose that exploration-progression like system that Arland had.

In return you have IMO the most focused and fun alchemy system and a shockingly good combat system. Like E+L's combat is pretty amazing overall with like this barrage of flashy attacks and mechanics on top of mechanics to keep track of. It also actually incentives experimentation, as in EVERY area there are super-leveled super-mobs so that no matter where you are in the game you can always get a challenging fight and trying to beat these bosses at low levels is amazing fun since it forces you to min-max the alchemy and battle system in a way that really makes you feel clever and rewarding.

The Dusk series also bills itself as Atelier with like an actual plot, and it... sorta has one? It's still mostly character scenes and events just a little more melancholy to it, but there's no like character death or grimdark stuff. It's all still pretty happy go lucky stuff. Competent stories that aren't offensive but doesn't really stand out.

So really, the Atelier games are probably better represented outside of L+S. But that's my opinion as a fan, so take it with a grain of salt.

Click to shrink...

There's a lot to take in here! I think what you talk about in terms of Arland's exploration is something that would work for me. While I love the Xenoblade series and its sprawling exploration that's not necessarily what I wanted out of Atelier, and the more strategic aspects that you talk about sound like the kind of rewarding experience that would make me feel like I'm actually exploring something. Just to feel like I have more impact on the progression than running aimlessly around an area would be great. Silly plots and nonsense is fine by me; I'm equally into grimdark and lighthearted stuff. I just want what's there to feel like it's more than surface level character archetypes, if that makes sense. They don't have to be rich character studies, but have enough personality for me to relate to them and care about them, you know?

I liked Lydie & Suelle, but I do think of the Mysterious trilogy in general as the blandest of the games I've played. There's no hook to the world unlike Dusk, the characters all kind of get along and don't stand out much unlike Arland, and the relative lack of time limits means there isn't a ton of pressure to do anything. The Atelier magic is still there in the mechanics, so I'm not saying they're bad games, and Firis at least tries to take the series in a new direction--a direction that ultimately led nowhere, but a direction nonetheless.

All that said, everything's a matter of degrees. Exploration is never really a thing in these games, or at least not the type of exploration I think you're looking for (Firis might be an exception here, as it's overtly about an alchemist discovering the outside world for the first time and going on a journey to a distant city). The appeal of the NPCs is in seeing how they interact with the protagonist and each other, but they are kind of one-note and the towns never, ever feel lively in the way an Animal Crossing or, say, a Trails in the Sky does. If Lydie & Suelle doesn't really do it for you, you might find marginally better results with the other games, but I don't think you should expect a revelatory experience.

Click to shrink...

I've heard people elsewhere say the same thing about the Mysterious games, and I've heard some blame Koei-Tecmo for the drop in quality, but I'm not updated on...well, anything. Which is why I'm here!
Yeah, I'm not expecting a huge amount of NPC drama or interactions, but it would have been nice to see some minor changes. Like, more flavour text, maybe have NPCs switch locations after certain events to create an illusion of life going on. The major NPCs do this, but the 'regular' townsfolk are hardly different from lampposts or flower beds.

I probably won't rush to buy another Atelier games very soon, but I haven't written the series off completely. I'll take all input from this thread to heart and I'll see what happens if I come across a copy of an interesting Atelier game on the cheap in the future!

 

[Comic Obsessed]

So, how is the Switch version? The PS4 release is being reviewed decently but I don't want to buy the Switch one before checking more impressions, I don't want another Lydie and Suelle case.

 

[Alex]

IMO, Lydie and Suelle was surprisingly good, really sudden return to form. Sophie and Firis, despite some charms, were fairly lesser entries. Not bad games, just... a bit disappointing.

I just wish we could, at least optionally, perhaps with some incentive, get the time management back. I really miss that aspect.

So, how is the Switch version? The PS4 release is being reviewed decently but I don't want to buy the Switch one before checking more impressions, I don't want another Lydie and Suelle case.

Click to shrink...

It's a great port, close to the point that not many are really going to notice much without a video piling it out, but a Switch is still not a PS4 so there are going to be some reductions, the new engine seems to close the gap easier though.

Personally, I never thought L&S on Switch was at all a bad port. I feel like people have some really demanding expectations of ports lately considering the literal generational gulf of tech between some platforms.

Ports these days seem like black magic compared to multiplatform titles when I was growing up.

Anyway, I won't be able to start up until next week. Really looking forward to being back in Arland. Actually read some great write ups on the import. Sounded wonderful and quelled my fears outside of two things that irked me a bit: No Esty (?!) and playable Totori is DLC. I normally forgive the DLC in stuff like this as it's become an even larger niche and I understand that's how it is hanging on but... It's Totori. She's too important.

Heck, I still think the next game should be Arland 5: Totori & Mimi

 

[chrominance]

Is it just me or are the trophies on PS4 not up yet? I got the trophy for first synthesis, but attempting to view the trophy resulted in an error and it's not there after syncing with PSN.

Only a few days in but it seems lovely so far. Seems a little slower than usual to get started, though. Let me at them recipes already!

 

[MegaXZero]

I forgot all about this until I saw this thread. Just ordered the LE from NISA. Can't wait.

 

[Luminaire]

I'm surprised at how thick the LE box is. I'm used to flimsy shiny paper basically.

As for the game, the camera blur is a little much, so I had to turn down the camera speed some. Otherwise its quite lovely and smooth to play and look at.

 

[chrominance]

Spent a few hours today, made it to the first city outside the starting area (being intentionally vague to avoid spoilers, but it's not exactly a big surprise or anything). This feels like the first Atelier game in a long while that doesn't feel severely constrained by a low budget. The character animations are still canned, but they finally feel somewhat expressive. The cinematography in skits and cutscenes is way better, too (I shudder to remember Firis's many skits that were just two people staring into space while theoretically having a conversation with one another). And I like how the story's progressed, too. Feels a little more elaborate than the usual Atelier setup. That said, there's still the trademark el cheapo Atelier localization--I seriously caught a typo where someone replaced the word "a" with "I," and every time you dump stuff in your container after a gathering trip, the dialog says "The item were placed in the container." Nice.

Lulua's a lovely protagonist. She's not an idiot or a pushover, so she immediately jumps into the upper echelons of Atelier leads. It's also a nice change to have someone who acts a bit older, too--Lydie, Suelle and Firis all came off like little kids, as did the two Shallies. Lulua is clearly still young, but more like a teenager.

Also, in some ways this feels like a Mysterious game, but not in the way I expected:

Spoiler: Chapter 2 spoilers

Lulua finds a magical book about alchemy (Sophie) and then decides to leave home to go on a long journey to a distant city she's never been to (Firis). Next you'll tell me she has to jump into magical paintings or something.

 

[Vylash]

just gonna copypasta my twitter

only a few hours into lulua but so far it's everything I wanted, the alchemy system isn't bogged down with a ton of bs like it was in the mysterious games, but it's still complex enough to encourage and reward experimentation, you can flat out buy alchemy books again which is way better than doing vague tasks to unlock new recipes, the alchemy riddle stuff is very fun and this is the first time I've liked the introductory male character since Rorona, Lulua herself personality wise is like meruru but somehow even more entertaining, basically Arland is saving this damn franchise yet again

 

[Strings]

Glad y'all are enjoying it.

 

[Pellaidh]

Played this for about 3-4 hours yesterday, to the end of chapter 2.

So far, it has been very story focused, and almost completely linear, which aren't exactly things I'd want from an Arland sequel. But that's been the direction the series has been moving in for a while, so I'm not really surprised either. No time limits yet as well.

My initial impressions were kind of mixed. Visually, this finally feels like an actual "next gen" Atelier game, with not terrible looking visuals and actually modern looking menus. And the environments actually look great too. Some of the in engine cutscenes/conversation scenes are also surprisingly well done this time around, although there are also a bunch of them where the camera just seems super confused. Overall, it just feels super high-budget and polished compared to older Ateliers.

The only thing I really hate visually are the character models, or rather the character faces. The female characters' eyes are just way too big, and placed way too far apart. This screenshot from the Steam store illustrates this perfectly. Piana's (long green haired lady) eyes are so far apart they almost clip outside of her face. And this isn't just some bad camera angle exaggerating the issue or something - the characters just look like this all the time. If anything they look worse when the camera points directly into their faces. But every male character is fine for some reason. You might also notice that almost every character has bangs of some sort for their hairstyle. Which is necessary, because every character without them just has a gigantic forehead. Which somehow looks even worse than their eyes.

Playing on PC, the port is pretty much what you'd expect at this point. So super barebones and with terrible performance issues. I was hoping a move to a new engine (is this even a new engine?) would mean that we'd finally have a PC Atelier game that can render 2D menus without dropping to almost single digit framerates, but sadly this isn't the case. Thankfully, the game hasn't crashed on me yet, so that already makes it better than the previous two Ateliers I played (Totori and Meruru).

Story wise, I'm not far enough to say anything, but the game really likes teasing old Arland fans. Which I guess is the whole reason they made a new Atelier game, so it makes sense. Seeing some of the old places with actually good graphics is nice, and it helps that I'm coming into the game directly after playing Meruru and Totori. Even the soundtrack has callbacks to old songs. It is very slow at the start though, and it takes several hours before you're even allowed to really play the game.

Character wise, Lulua seems pretty good for an Atelier protagonist so far, and I like how characters here actually look somewhat more mature than they did in say, Totori or Meruru. Of the party members, the first male companion is actually very good by Atelier standards (not as good as Sterk though), but the female one just kind of sucks, with nothing going for her other than being the standard quiet childhood friend figure. The old characters also feel way more integrated into the world than they did in Meruru (where almost everyone from the previous two games just decided to come and live in your town with only very flimsy reasons for doing so). They actually feel somewhat like their own people now, instead of existing solely for the player's sake.

I'm also kind of not really a fan of the voice acting though. For some reason, it feels much worse than in previous games, although maybe it'll grow on me. And there's no dub obviously, but historically Atelier dubs have been so terrible that I don't think it's a big loss. Looking at the VA list, I'm actually surprised they brought back some of the old voice actors like for Piana, who's obviously much older now and also a much more major character, so they could have easily changed the VA without anyone noticing. In a way, it's kind of a neat attention to continuity, I guess. But yeah, so far no one in this game even comes close to Koyasu voicing the dad in Lydie & Suelle.

As for the gameplay, like I said so far it's been almost completely linear. Maybe it will open up so far, but up to this point it's completely straightforward: do some alchemy tasks, then fight a boss at the end of each chapter.

The alchemy system is pretty much back to the simplicity of Arland, which I don't really mind but I did prefer the more modern ones. The alchemy progression, on the other hand, feels like it borrows a lot from modern Atelier games, particularly Sophie and Firis. In that you get a bunch of vague pointers, and when you finish these vague conditions, you unlock new recipes. Which is fine in theory, but my biggest problem with it is that the interface for it just doesn't work. 2 chapters in, and I already have over forty of these vague requests, and the only way to know what they want from me is to open every single one individually and read through it. Since that isn't happening, I'm just going to play through the game naturally and hope things unlock by themselves, which doesn't exactly feel like the way they intended me to play the game. I already found Meruru's task interface to be too overwhelming, and this is ten times worse.

Also, some of the vague conditions are written in a way that is just completely deceptive, pointing you to areas that are on the completely wrong side of the map. And like the gameplay overall, the alchemy system also feels like it's going to take a while to actually get going, as the number of recipes I have is still super limited so far.

And finally, the combat. It feels like the main focus of the game. And it's actually kind of surprisingly good to the point it manages to carry the game. My biggest issue with it is that the game doesn't really bother to explain how a lot of it works, but so far it seems really focused on item usage thanks to a system that lets use items at any point in the combat without actually consuming the item. It also seems to incentivize switching your party around mid combat (sort of like Final Fantasy 10). Playing on hard, the game has actually been surprisingly challenging so far, which I like. The second chapter boss in particular was not an easy fight. Sadly, this difficulty does seem to go overboard with thrash mob hit point values, which makes normal fights kind of a slog.

So, despite being an Arland game, it very much feels like an evolution of the modern Atelier formula (particularly of L&S), with a focus on combat and a more linear structure. I think the combat seems strong enough to carry the game so far and Lulua is one of the better protagonists in the franchise, but I would really like to have way more freedom in how I progress through the game (although maybe the game will open up later on). But I'm still liking it much more than Lydie & Suelle so far, even though from a gameplay perspective it feels much closer to a sequel to that game than to an Arland sequel.

One question: I never played the Arland games. I see Plus versions of all 3 on PS4. Are they worth it? I always want more Atelier so if they are worth the time I am buying all 3 today. I hate time limits which is why I never played them

Click to shrink...

I think Arland is the best series in the franchise, but if you hate time limits it probably isn't for you. Rorona is the one that's the most lax of them all, with time requirements that are almost impossible to fail. Meruru isn't super strict but still requires you to at least somewhat actively plan your time. And Totori is very strict if you don't know what you're doing.

I guess maybe start with Rorona and see how much the time limit bothers you there, because like I said Rorona is pretty hard to actually fail because of the time limit, although actually getting all of the optional endings is kind of hard. But if you don't want any time limits whatsoever, then Arland isn't for you.

 

[King Metal Zel]

Steam Atelier Lulua u wot mate? Please tell me there's a way to at least get 1080p on Steam?

EDIT: Never mind I'm an idiot, I didn't realize you have to change it to "Full Screen" before the 1080p option makes itself available. Crisis averted.