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Best Atelier to Start With?
Posted: Apr 26, 2018 6:46 pm
by Sir Stardust
I decided to try out an Atelier game, but I'm a little stuck with where to start.
I think the Arland games sound the most intriguing, I enjoy time limits and replaying games and redoing them until I figure out the most efficient way to do stuff, and I like cute things. :> But if I start here, I'm not sure if I should start with Rorona+ since it comes first storywise, or Totori+ since it was remastered first.
The Dusk trilogy sounds more refined though, especially in combat, which also sounds nice.
Sophie's on sale, and the Mysterious trilogy would be the most accessible if I wanted to get my BF into it, too...
Research didn't help me at all, there weren't any clear favorites. D:
Also, I'd be playing on the Vita, so I'd be playing the plus versions of Arland and Dusk, if that makes a difference. Thanks in advance!
Re: Best Atelier to Start With?
Posted: Apr 26, 2018 6:55 pm
by RopeMaidenKirie
We had a conversation about this over in the backlog thread so I'm gonna post Bluie's thorough reply to the same question:
http://fogu.com/hmforum/viewtopic.php?f ... &start=135
Bluie wrote:I'd recommend Atelier Rorona Plus (Vita and PS3) or Atelier Ayesha (Regular version on PS3, Plus version on Vita) as they're kinda considered the entry points to the series. Rorona is very slice of life - you're trying to make your Atelier popular and you'll do so with your friends you already have and make. Ayesha is a little darker, you go on a journey to find your sister who's been kidnapped by some otherworldly being, and you'll be helped by those you meet on the way. Both are alchemy heavy and have time limits (iirc, it's 3-4 years to accomplish your goals).
With that being said, every game can be played without playing any of the previous entries (trilogies or not), with previous characters showing up as cameos, making references to previous game events, but they're not a super coherent story or anything. Just cute girls (and occasionally a boy) doing alchemy for various reasons/goals.
I'd say the two best games mechanics wise are Escha & Logy and Lydie and Suelle. E&L ironed out all the issues from the previous entry, has an awesome battle system (very similar to FFX where you can switch out at any time), and the narrative is probably the best in the series. L&S is the most recent game, and it's very lax, letting you do as you please for as long as you like, but also having a lot of fun with the cast and mechanics (new and old). I'd say the only downside is there's no english dub in L&S which is a deal breaker for some, but imo, only one of the JPN VA's is overdone, everyone else is fine. (I've also played all the games exclusively with JPN audio so I have a bias lol).
I wouldn't recommend Totori (my personal favourite, but hasn't aged well), Meruru (the characters and motivations are the worst in the series), and Shallie (very boring, feels rushed).
The Mysterious Trilogy (Sophie, Firis, Lydie & Suelle) are available on Steam, PS4, Vita and L&S have a Switch port instead of Vita. They're the easiest to acquire. You could start with Sophie and see how you like it, but I feel like they didn't get the feel they were going for until Lydie & Suelle.
If you have any questions about a specific Atelier, I could give you all the details you need. I'm pretty passionate about the games (LOL AS YOU CAN SEE) and GUST in general. I've played every localized entry except the PS2 titles. I never had a PS2... :p
Re: Best Atelier to Start With?
Posted: Apr 27, 2018 3:43 am
by Bluie
Pfft, i'm like the Atelier guru around here.
The last sentence still stands. If you have any questions about a specific title, feel free to ask.
Re: Best Atelier to Start With?
Posted: Apr 27, 2018 4:35 am
by Kikki
I'm pretty sure you're the only one suitable for the position. Hopefully you don't mind having been elected
It's a difficult series to figure out. Even someone like me who researches their games quite a bit before buying (unless distracted by a huge sale on a game with many high reviews, which can make me buy impulsively, oops) never really did figure out what the games were really about...what the gameplay is like and so on. It's also one of those series, like Ys, that you're never sure if you can just jump in anywhere or if you need to start at a certain point for things to make sense.
At least, not unless you ask someone who knows first hand
It seems like you should be able to get all that info just from Googling, but I've done it myself on the Atelier series and somehow the information online was never enough to figure out what sort of game I was looking at. Even walkthroughs on these games are really confusing. It takes a fan who doesn't force too many personal opinions to make sense of things...kind of like when that Ys fan made the Digital Emelas site to try to clear up all the confusion on that series. Well, that's what I think, anyway.
Re: Best Atelier to Start With?
Posted: Apr 27, 2018 6:38 am
by Bluie
Haha, well, I don't mind at all. It's a pretty niche series outside the 'weeb' side of gaming so I understand the confusion. It's not super well known and the fact that the games come in trilogies can be confusing as well. I've already said what's needed in my quoted post, but i'm gonna quickly plug
Blue Reflection as it's GUST's modern day JRPG made in the same engine as Atelier. Not a ton of people know about it and it's a very well done game. I'm hoping it gets a Switch port or it's sequel (already confirmed in development) comes to Switch.
Need my portable GUST games. >:3
Re: Best Atelier to Start With?
Posted: Apr 27, 2018 7:32 am
by Kikki
That actually looks really cute, though I watched a review (the person liked it quite a bit) and from what I saw, it seems like many relationships in the game are a often low-key lust-laden, which isn't my thing except in limited quantity (it's nice as a seasoning but has a weird taste as a main ingredient, for me). It could just have been that one reviewer's viewpoint but the footage shown did seem to back that up. In itself it's not enough to put me off, though.
The art style reminds me of Atelier with some of the model style of Cold Steel, but gameplay similarities to Persona. And throw in some Sailor Moon for that magical-girl element.
The dialogue and goals and so on seem super shoujo and yet the fanservice seems more shonen, lol. (Transparent wet shirts and semi-nude transformations and glisteny bath-taking and so on. I have never been able to decide whom magical girl transformations are targeted at, either.) At first I'm inclined to say that Gust's target market is young women, but the more I watch the more I wonder if they're not targeting men. Or are they trying to bag everybody at once?
Re: Best Atelier to Start With?
Posted: Apr 27, 2018 8:00 am
by Bluie
I think Gust's main target audience is males, but their games aren't so over the top that they're off putting like Senran Kagura. There's nothing like clothing ripping, but there's plenty of cleavage when they want it to be there. I'd say of their 3 series, Atelier is the tamest (sexy costumes, nothing else), Blue Reflection is mild (Bath and underwear scenes, see through wet clothes), and Nights of Azure is 'lewd' (jiggle physics, obvious boob and butt shots, sexual undertones, also lesbians, lesbians everywhere).
It's almost like a slider lol. Also, Blue Reflection's art is done by the same artist who did Atelier Rorona, Totori, and Meruru. That's why it's similar.
Re: Best Atelier to Start With?
Posted: Apr 27, 2018 9:58 pm
by Sir Stardust
Thanks everyone! ^o^
I'm looking at Totori+ now. I know I want to try it, but I think it might be harder to go back to after playing more streamlined games... So that seems like a good place to start.
Either that, or Rorona+. It's a tough choice. >.>"
Re: Best Atelier to Start With?
Posted: Apr 28, 2018 4:02 am
by Bluie
If you want to start with Totori, i'd say go for it. It was the first release on the Vita (they went a bit backwards because the Rorona+ was redone from the ground up. Original PS3 Rorona is kinda ugly, was GUST's first try at 3D).
I started with Totori and then went back to Rorona after it. They share a good chunk of the same cast, but you can think of Rorona as a prequel to Totori if you want. Rorona's story doesn't go outside of her town and it's surrounds, but Totori is traveling the world. So, you'll eventually visit Rorona's town and gain some party members there, but the main focus is Totori on a journey to find her missing mother. Totori and Rorona can pretty much be played interchangeably, but Totori's mechanics are more archaic.
Oh, also, I didn't mention this before, but there's another Atelier game available on the PSP (and subsequently, the Vita) called Mana Khemia. It's a port of one of the last PS2 era games. It's a school setting where you have to attend classes, make friends, do assignments, and has a main plot to follow as well. It had some loading issues on the PSP, but it's pretty much fixed on the PSN version. It's technically the first Atelier I played (unbeknownst to me at the time) and it's a ton of fun. It's also dirt cheap last I checked, so if you don't want to spend too much and get a feel on the series, it may be a good starting point as well.
Re: Best Atelier to Start With?
Posted: Apr 28, 2018 11:17 am
by Sir Stardust
Oooh, I think I'll try that out. I've read good things about Mana Khemia, too. I was eyeing the Arland+ bundle, but wasn't sure if I wanted to spend that much. This might help me answer that. :3
I got to borrow/play a little of Annie, one time. I enjoyed the gathering/battling and the alchemy, but I found it vaguely off-putting. It was probably the big heads on the sprites reminding me of how I couldn't get anything to work like I wanted it to in RPG Maker. ;o;
I kinda like the way the old one looks, epsecially the weird faces you get sometimes. I wouldn't wanna give up the QoL improvements, though, especially the MP. I know I'd never want to sacrifice HP for special moves, lol.
Re: Best Atelier to Start With?
Posted: Apr 28, 2018 1:07 pm
by Bluie
Annie is very eeeeeh. I have no idea why they decided to localize it tbh (there was a trilogy on the DS, and Annie was the second one) as they sold horribly in Japan. I think they were part of GUST's experimental era. There was also an Atelier otome PSP game back in those days and i'm still salty it never got localized. It was made by otomate and everything...!
I love Annie's Atelier theme though. I use it a lot in Lydie & Suelle (free DLC BGM packs let you change the music).
Re: Best Atelier to Start With?
Posted: Apr 29, 2018 12:54 pm
by Sir Stardust
I got MK, and so far...
I love exploring!
I love finding recipes!
I love gathering ingredients!
I love making new stuff!
I love the characters!
I love the music!
I love the battling!
I love Nikki's monster skills the best!
Why didn't I try it out sooner? This is so much fun! \( ﾟヮﾟ)/
Re: Best Atelier to Start With?
Posted: Apr 29, 2018 1:56 pm
by Bluie
Glad you're enjoying it! Welcome to the Atelier series!