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I burned plenty of hours after I first discovered the Atelier series. It has been running in Japan for a while, but the first (I think?) title of the series to make it to the States came out last September on the PS3. It's titled "Atelier Rorona: Alchemist of Arland."

The game is all about item creation through an extensive alchemy system. I hear that Rorona's item system is not as enormous as some older titles', but I still found it to be overwhelmingly huge anyway. Aside from that, it gives you a fun, tongue-in-cheek story about characters that are all too cute for their own good.

The battle system is very old school. Think FF1. Battles are difficult in that there is a very clear distinction between enemies you have a chance of defeating and enemies that will destroy your party in one blow. Reaching higher levels takes old school grinding patience, but the alchemy system mixes things up a bit, because you can create items, like sticks of dynamite, that turn otherwise impossible battles to your favor.

Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it to others. (For reference, Metacritic wasn't so generous toward the game, which surprised me.) There's a follow-up to Rorona out now, and I imagine it will go stateside in about a year.

Quote (Phoenix @ 7th December 2010 21:19)

I burned plenty of hours after I first discovered the Atelier series. It has been running in Japan for a while, but the first (I think?) title of the series to make it to the States came out last September on the PS3. It's titled "Atelier Rorona: Alchemist of Arland."

The game is all about item creation through an extensive alchemy system. I hear that Rorona's item system is not as enormous as some older titles', but I still found it to be overwhelmingly huge anyway. Aside from that, it gives you a fun, tongue-in-cheek story about characters that are all too cute for their own good.

The battle system is very old school. Think FF1. Battles are difficult in that there is a very clear distinction between enemies you have a chance of defeating and enemies that will destroy your party in one blow. Reaching higher levels takes old school grinding patience, but the alchemy system mixes things up a bit, because you can create items, like sticks of dynamite, that turn otherwise impossible battles to your favor.

Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it to others. (For reference, Metacritic wasn't so generous toward the game, which surprised me.) There's a follow-up to Rorona out now, and I imagine it will go stateside in about a year.

You know, I had a friend (ok, the term 'friend' is being used quite liberally here) who had nothing but praise for this series. Would you mind giving a bit more detail about the alchemy system? I do love myself some alchemy. Also, is there one particular game you'd recommend as the best of the series?

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Quote (Phoenix @ 7th December 2010 20:19)

I burned plenty of hours after I first discovered the Atelier series. It has been running in Japan for a while, but the first (I think?) title of the series to make it to the States came out last September on the PS3. It's titled "Atelier Rorona: Alchemist of Arland."

The game is all about item creation through an extensive alchemy system. I hear that Rorona's item system is not as enormous as some older titles', but I still found it to be overwhelmingly huge anyway. Aside from that, it gives you a fun, tongue-in-cheek story about characters that are all too cute for their own good.

The battle system is very old school. Think FF1. Battles are difficult in that there is a very clear distinction between enemies you have a chance of defeating and enemies that will destroy your party in one blow. Reaching higher levels takes old school grinding patience, but the alchemy system mixes things up a bit, because you can create items, like sticks of dynamite, that turn otherwise impossible battles to your favor.

Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it to others. (For reference, Metacritic wasn't so generous toward the game, which surprised me.) There's a follow-up to Rorona out now, and I imagine it will go stateside in about a year.

Atelier Iris came out on the PS2 in the US around 2007 or 2008. It was really, really fun. I was impressed. I think since then NIS America has localized at least a few others, including your Rorona joint.

This post has been edited by laszlow on 8th December 2010 14:58

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
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Quote (laszlow @ 8th December 2010 13:16)

Atelier Iris came out on the PS2 in the US around 2007 or 2008.  It was really, really fun.  I was impressed.  I think since then NIS America has localized at least a few others, including your Rorona joint.

Ah, I'm glad to hear Rorona hasn't been the only one. I feel like I missed out on a lot of quality titles from the PS2 era because I only briefly owned a PS2, and the PS3 I chose has no backwards compatibility. If Atelier Iris is an option (and it might be cheap now, since it's PS2), I believe I read somewhere that it is considered one of the best entries in the series. Graphics are not particularly an issue here, just story, voice acting, and depth of the item system, which I'm sure the PS2 titles did just as the current stuff. Of course, if you're like me, it's really hard to give up the creature comforts of a current gen console, like wireless controllers, auto savegames, and no memory cards.

Quote (Death Penalty @ a little while before lazlow's post)

You know, I had a friend (ok, the term 'friend' is being used quite liberally here) who had nothing but praise for this series. Would you mind giving a bit more detail about the alchemy system? I do love myself some alchemy. Also, is there one particular game you'd recommend as the best of the series?

Here's a little more detail about Rorona: (I can't vouch for how completely this represents other Atelier titles, but I suspect they're similar)

The world map and the overall town map are set up as a bunch of icons, like an old school RPG. (If that description doesn't ring a bell, think about how the airship in FFX works: You don't fly places yourself, but instead pick a location to fly to.) Once you are in a local map, you can move your character around freely in usual RPG style.

Anything outside of town is an adventure map with items and enemy sprites. Items are randomly scattered on the ground, along with occasional chests which have fixed spawn locations. The adventure map layouts and enemies never significantly change, but the item spawns are always random. Rorona has a limited inventory space, and there are generally more items on an adventure map than you can carry back home.

When you find an item, you can immediately see everything about it. (There's no "take this back to town to identify it" crap.) Since the game is all about items, every item in the game has stats and attributes. At first, the amount of information is overwhelming, but after about a "month" of game time (a few hours of play), you start to get a feel for items and can select which ones to take with you and which ones to leave behind. Usually the items you find on an adventure map are basic materials, like water, mushrooms, wood, fruit, stones, etc. You take these home and combine them according to certain recipes to create medicines, potions, explosives, salves, equipment, etc.

The most important item stat is quality, because high quality ingredients yield high quality products. But, each item also has a personality to it, which is expressed in its attributes. For example, an item can be "unusually large," "smelly," or "oddly shaped." Attributes carry through to products as well, and combining certain attributes creates new, more meaningful attributes, like "extra damage" or "extra range of effect" on an explosive weapon, or "easier to transmute," which increases your chance of success in future alchemy. The early part of the game is all about building up a library of basic potions with high quality and strong attributes so that you can carry those attributes through to the higher tiers of items.

Anyway, the difficulty of the game comes from a persistent time limit. Rorona's alchemist shop is in constant danger of getting shut down by the authorities (this happens in like the first cutscene, so don't worry that I've spoiled anything for you); to keep her shop open, she has to complete a special task each month, or year, or financial quarter, or something like that. And, everything Rorona does, from traveling between the town and an adventure map, to mixing ingredients in her lab, takes precious time.

I thought it would be kind of terrible when the game first explained how things would work, but in the end I felt I was able to enjoy and explore plenty of what the game had to offer even within this time frame. Once you get the hang of the game down, it's actually pretty easy to finish any of the required tasks within about two weeks of game time, leaving the rest of Rorona's life open for exploring, adventuring, and building up a huge alchemist's library. When every dungeon and every recipe costs time, you think very carefully about items' relative value and your strategy for success.

That about covers it, I think...
If you have anything else you want to ask, please feel free.

Quote (Phoenix @ 9th December 2010 02:09)

Quote (laszlow @ 8th December 2010 13:16)

Atelier Iris came out on the PS2 in the US around 2007 or 2008.  It was really, really fun.  I was impressed.  I think since then NIS America has localized at least a few others, including your Rorona joint.

Ah, I'm glad to hear Rorona hasn't been the only one. I feel like I missed out on a lot of quality titles from the PS2 era because I only briefly owned a PS2, and the PS3 I chose has no backwards compatibility. If Atelier Iris is an option (and it might be cheap now, since it's PS2), I believe I read somewhere that it is considered one of the best entries in the series. Graphics are not particularly an issue here, just story, voice acting, and depth of the item system, which I'm sure the PS2 titles did just as the current stuff. Of course, if you're like me, it's really hard to give up the creature comforts of a current gen console, like wireless controllers, auto savegames, and no memory cards.

Hm, I guess it makes sense that it was one of the best in the series. It could get a little same-y if every game in the series was structured like Iris, and when I saw others coming out and learned that it had been going on since the PS1 era (I can't help but research the **** out of any game I play), I figured that I could make it one and done and not miss out on a lot.

And seriously, man, the PS2 is one of the best consoles of all time. The entire PS1 and PS2 library available, it's just stunning. Worlds better than the GameCube or the first XBox.

This post has been edited by laszlow on 9th December 2010 16:49

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
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I agree with the final statement. I have a ps2 simply for that reason. The other 2 systems to me that are untouchable are the master system and probably the final game boy. I see that the DS is going to beat that but I have been resistant to buying one.

^I'd say get the DS right now, but with the backwards compatible 3DS on the horizon, just get that instead. The DS is THE best system this generation.

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"When we think there's no hope left, we keep looking until we find some!" - Claire Farron

I agree, I've spent way more time on my DS than any other console. It's my loyal travelling companion.

There's a lot of great JRPGs on it.