Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the RPG series Atelier next May, Koei Tecmo and Gust have launched a special website.
The series first started out with Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg on the original PlayStation in May 1997. To celebrate 25 years, the website will reveal a total of six projects.
"As a gift to you for all your love and support, we are planning various Atelier-related projects throughout 2022, including the soon-to-be announced 25th anniversary title. Information will be announced sequentially, so please stay tuned!”
While at least some of these projects will be games, not all of them are necessarily expected to be this. The first announcement will take place next month on 2nd October and the rest are "coming soon".
One game that's already been "leaked" ahead of schedule was Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream via the Australian Classification Board. The reveal of this could potentially line up with this year's Tokyo Game Show.
[source koeitecmoamerica.com, via gematsu.com]
Comments 16
Even without the leak, Sophie is in a new outfit and super prominent there and they've had a pretty big push of her with merchandise, so it's not too surprising.
I really hope we a game that's not that or Ryza 3 as well announced. I just finished Ryza 1 again, after what I felt was not a great attempt at it the first time I played through, and I I enjoyed it even less and it's easily my least favorite in the franchise. While some QoL features are nice, and it's great they look nice compared to older games, the story and characters are extremely flat and bland in both Ryza games, and the synthing is so braindead due to changes that there is no fun for me there.
Like I joked elsewhere, one monkey paw announcement would be to bring Marie to Switch... and leave it in Japan yet again.😅 But I'm curious about these anyway.
Everything seems to have an anniversary this year.
I just finished Lydie & Suelle the other day so now I'm all caught up with all the Atelier games currently out on Switch. Would be keen for more.
I've been eyeing these games lately, what are they?
@dluxxx Half RPG half item management/crafting games, generally with cute(?) girl lead going off on some sort of adventure and becoming an alchemist to make items, which is the really short answer. It's a pretty hit or miss franchise, to be honest. I love... some of them, but at the same time I am very aware of why they wouldn't be appealing to a lot of people.
@Bakfug that's a great reply, thanks. I'm a big SMT and Etrian Odyssey fan and I love SRPG's. I think I'll try one of these but where to start?
Minor note for those of us who were unable to buy Japanese Playstation games in 1997. The first North American Atelier game was Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, for the Playstation 2. Alchemy has always been a prominent feature of all Atelier games. The first five games were never released outside of Japan.
After 3 Atelier Iris games, Gust did a few Mana Khemia games where the setting was similar to Harry Potter and took place in a school for Alchemists, for the Playstation 2 (later ported to the Playstation Portable).
After that, Gust changed the series drastically when they went to Playstation 3. While the focus was still alchemy, the main characters were girls and ... well, um, frilly. Before that, the stories were more like other Playstation RPGs. Very different in tone.
I really wish they would bring back Atelier Iris 1 and 2 (the third in the series wasn't as good as the first two, and even the second wasn't as good as the first). Atelier Iris 1 had a fair amount of comedy and a stunningly beautiful soundtrack.
However, Atelier Iris has "mixed reviews" and when Gust switched to Playstation 3 and a new tone, sales were good and subsequent "frilly" Atelier games continued and continued and continued, featuring a dozen main games, all for world-wide distribution, and 16 more side games, mostly Japan-only. And of course lots of ports to Switch!
I apologize for using the term "frilly" and there may be a better way to describe the post-Iris/Mana Khemia games. The characters are girls and they wear skirts with frilly petticoats. I don't think they qualify for "fan service" and seem pretty clean. Please correct me because I'm pretty ignorant about Japanese games except for a few that I love, such as Atelier Iris, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Skies of Arcadia, and some of the Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Tales of ... series.
This message was produced with help from PoPo.
give us an atelier fighting game, you cowards
@deluxxx
Probably the best place to start on the Switch is Atelier Rorona: The Alchemists of Arland DX. This was the first Western Atelier to be released for the Playstation 3 and subsequently for the Vita, 3DS, Switch, Playstation 4, and Microsoft Windows.
If you like it, you can get the first three packaged together as Atelier Arland series Deluxe Pack, Of course that means you are buying Rorona over again. In general, Gust likes to produce three related Atelier games about a character and then go on to create three new related games about a new character. Someone else can compare and contrast the whole Atelier series. I've only played the first three (Atelier Iris for the Playstation 2).
@dluxxx Rorona, Ayesha, and Sophie are all good choices since they start their respective trilogy (but actually 4 games for some now hahaha).
Rorona is fairly strict time limits and heavy item management, Ayesha is open ended with an overall timelimit in which the game just kinda throws you into doing whatever you think you should to advance, while still giving you some guidance here and there, and Sophie has no time limits and a more straightforward, guided game.
My personal favorite is Rorona, which is generally not a popular opinion hahahaha. But the follow up game, Totori (which is structured like Ayesha) is super popular. All the games here have time limits which I know is a divisive mechanic.
Ayesha is generally regarded as one of the most popular as well. Escha and Logy, the follow up to Ayesha, eases on time limit stuff and Shallie drops it completely and subsequently, so even if time limits aren't your thing, it might be worthwhile still as I think it is a better trilogy than the Sophie games.
Absolutely would recommend Sophie if time limits just aren't your thing, though. It is still one of the better games I think.
I guess there is Ryza, as well. Some people absolutely love it, so my opinion here isn't absolute by any means, but I hated it. The series is about character interaction, multiple endings, and continuously crafting better items to help progress, and all of that was removed or simplified to the point where it just feels bad if you've been playing the games for 20 years hahahaha. Even that aside, the story and characters themselves were so shallow, and the pacing was so bad. I dunno. Maybe it's worth playing before all the others and then going back? It's too hard for me to say.
Or you could go way back and get Iris 1 on PS2 which is heavier on normal RPG stuff, but its super good. Mana Khemia 1 is somewhat similar and real good too.
Also dont even consider Nelke, as it's just a city building sim that relies heavily on "remember this character?!?"
Sorry if this isn't helpful at all hahahahaha
@Thulfram I don't agree with this absolute choice whatsoever. Rorona is structured very uniquely next to every other game, which I personally love, but the constant barrage of strict time limits is a huge turnoff to a lot of people, and not knowing that going in really burns many people attempting to try the games when there are plenty of other options to choose from thatbwould be more suitable.
@SwitchVogel can you imagine a roster of 16 staff weilding girls who throw items. I need this just to see what they'd do hahahaha
@Bakfug Sounds like you know better. I have tried the various Atelier post-Playstation 2 games and give up easily. So my recommendation wasn't a good idea.
@Bakfug that's incredibly helpful, thank you very much! I'm going with Sophie!
@Thulfram no need to aapologize! It's actually a pretty common suggestion from people that play the games because it's the "first" game in English that goes with the original style of gameplay, so ignoring Iris and Mana Khemia. It's just one i don't agree with because so many people quit them early because of the time limit
@dluxxx hopefully you enjoy it! It's pretty nice they seem to all be on sale this week too!
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