Koei Tecmo Officially Announces Atelier Sophie 2, Arriving On Switch Next February

Wish dead or alive was on switch

I feel like these games come out too fast. I'm sooo behind.

Now that's unexpected. Glad to go back to mysterious tho . Also does it mean no ryza 3 next year?

To be honest I found the Mystery trilogy ... dull. I would prefer Ryza 3 or a Dusk sequel where the fate of the world was left vague. I still look forward to the new game anyway.

@CowCatcher This is less a sequel of Sophie and more a prequel to Firis

I'm sure a Ryza 3 announcement will come soon

@Ryu_Niiyama I've basically given up on ever catching up with Atelier and Yakuza games, lol.

@Ralizah To be fair, the Yakuza games have half as many entries and the games are often less than half the length or even shorter. I'm not saying you have the time for it, but you could play every mainline game in under 200 hours. Still a decent chunk, but there are a lot of RPGs that are over a hundred by themselves. I've always loved that the Yakuza games are dense, awesome experiences but they also aren't so overly long that I get worn out. Though 7 is definitely much longer than the rest!

@Nephestinus which Atelier game should I start with. That isn’t Ryza?.

Also is the Atelier Sophie that is on Eshop already good? Any performance issues of some sort

@moodycat It's not an issue of laziness. It's an issue of cost. They're not big money makers and it's cheaper this way. Seems unlikely they'd change it without selling a lot more.

What is up with everyone releasing their game in February? There are other months to pick.

@anoyonmus Any of the subseries are fine, honestly. I'd just grab the first one of whichever is on the best sale on Switch or your system of preference.

@MsJubilee I imagine a lot of them were holiday games originally for 2021 but got pushed back. And January isn't usually a great month for selling a new game, so.. February and March get jam packed.

Is this game good for newcomers. Like first entry into the series

@MsJubilee February’s special

@Ralizah haha! Yeah I have to pick up Lost Judgement, still. My hope is next year to do a Yakuza/Judgement/hokuto no ken binge, since I have all of the games except the zombie one (I don't remember the english name) and I'll have access to my ps3 (which I need to play kenzan). Trying to make a more concentrated effort to hack down the backlog.

The migration to xbox will likely help as I prefer that controller (I just have to rebuy everything though...)

@anoyonmus Eh, always hard to suggest one of the Atelier games.
In older games there was a time limit to quests and assignments you get. Once you fail one it's game over.
If you wanna try your hands on the classic Atelier experience with time limits you gotta try the Arland Trilogy (start with Rorona)
If you want more of a casual approach to it try the (my favourite trilogy) the Dusk trilogy starting with Ayesha. There is a time limit to those games as well but it's barely noticeable since you have a LOT of time for it.
The Mysterious Trilogy completely removed the time limit so you could try that one as well.
Yeah I'd say the games on the eShop are pretty much complete apart from a few ones but I'm certain they'll find their way onto the Switch sooner or later.

@Nephestinus ok thanks for the help

There was an original? These games come out so fast, it makes me question their quality...

@Kimyonaakuma Have you ever played any?

I really liked Sophie and when I finished the game I felt like something is missing. Happy to see a direct sequel!

Just like Pokémon Gotta have them all. ugh......

@Would_you_kindly Xtreme 3 Scarlet is on Switch

@Kimyonaakuma Even with the slightly watered-down synthesis in Ryza, you won’t find games with better crafting systems.

I preferred Lydie & Suelle to Sophie, but Mysterious has my favorite crafting system and my second-favorite combat, so I’m really happy to see a return. I’m also hoping this means a Dusk 4 is coming in the future... I’d really like to know what happened after Atelier Shallie.

Very cool news.

I've been wavering on the Mysterious trilogy as I didn't love Lydie and Suelle, but Ryza 1 and 2 are amazing games. This is probably going to make me buy the trilogy.

Never heard of this series. Clicked the trailer. I’m clearly not the target audience 😑

Best news EVER. It's not just the game being awesome in it's own rights, but it means that the series is not going to shift completely to the heavily US influenced Ryza style. Both styles are great, so I'm happy to see they are going to continue both.

These games are relaxing and fun. Plus the characters tend to be easy on the eyes. No complaints. Get us a Sophie/Ryza crossover!

Not surprising we got Koei Tecmo announcements this late. They seriously need to up their game for Western audiences. Hence the reason why no one knew that we got a brand new cutscene for Age of Calamity as well as a bit of gameplay.

@Linux7055 not played that one , I searched for dead or alive on eshop because I've downloaded doa 5 last round core fighters on Xbox One & PS4 & really enjoyed it but it's not on switch

People can get too caught up in completionism. This looks like a great game to get into the series, along with the Ryza entries. You will never be able to appreciate every single good video game or good book or good movie ever created in your lifetime. That's life.

@Would_you_kindly They should port Dimensions from the 3DS over, that game was incredible in spite of hardware limitations.

@tkdboy1889 I've only played 5 & 6 because 5 has a free version on Xbox & playstation & 6 has a free version on PS4 it's abit ridiculous with the costumes but at the same time a good fighter

@Lyricana which one is best on Switch? Other than Ryza. Is the first Atelier Sophie game good? Or is Firis good?

I want to start on the series

@Nephestinus which one from the mysterious trilogy. Do I have to play it in order?

Also does it run any good on Switch, like any of the games.

@anoyonmus All the entries are pretty good. I like Sophie quite a bit. Firis is kind of fun, but it's also fairly different from most of the other games in the series. Not to say you won't like it, but it isn't as indicative of the rest of the franchise. I'd try either Rorona, Sophie, Ayesha or Ryza. It's definitely more fun to start at the beginning of the various subseries.

They all run well on Switch as far as I've seen, though I haven't actually played Ayesha on Switch. They're PS3/Vita games though so there's no imaginable way they wouldn't unless there's some known issue.

@Lyricana Sophie had bad framerate issues

@Lyricana is Firis good to start with. other's have performance issues unfortunately.

or is ATELIER LULUA: THE SCION OF ARLAND good to start with?

@anoyonmus I guess it depends on how much you care about playing in order or seeing the series as it is. If you really want to play Firis, I'm sure it'll be fine.

As for Lulua, I actually haven't played that one but it is the fourth and final game in a four part series and I personally wouldn't want to start there.

All of them are on sale right now on Switch but only for one more day in the UK and the US so I'd grab a few that you want and enjoy yourself. Ultimately, you know what you like most and what's most important to you better than I would. Rorona is good if you want to have narrative continuity and eventually play through all the Arland games. Firis is good if you want to try the more oddball open world-ish design that one had. Sophie is good if you want to get ready for the sequel. Ryza is the newest and shows off some of the ways the series has evolved best, etc. They're all pretty fun games though and none is really a bad choice.

I love atelier games and I really like Sophie. But i don't understand why this triology needs a fourth entry. The story was finished.

A new dusk game, a third ryza game or a completely new one would make way more sense to me.

Maybe they want to make up for the lackluster third game.

Well hopefully we will see Firis, she is my favorite character in that triology.

@Geobros what did you miss? In my opinion all open ends have been resolved in Firis/Lydie and Suelle?

@tech7 I think Sophie won out on some polls as a really popular character/game, and they wanted to pander a bit since it’s the 25th anniversary this year iirc. Plus it’s also probably buying them time so they can work longer on Ryza 3. Though I’m hoping a precedent isn’t being set with Lulua/Sophie 2, as I’d rather move onto a new trilogy/series than see a Ryza 4 tbh...

Also doubt we’ll be seeing Firis unless we get some Rorona+ Overtime-style shenanigans, since this seems to take place between Sophie and Firis chronologically.

@StardusterEX Hm, I thought that Sophie and especially the whole trilogy were not famous.

I got the same impression from the trailer. But technically it could also play between Firis und Lydie/Stelle. And I mean even totori and meruru appeared in rorona DX, so everything is possible;) I also would prefer a new setting, but I wouldn't mind a Fourth dusk game.