Atelier series

Hi, my name is wolfing, I'm an Atelier-holic.
What are the Atelier games? It's a (long) series of games made mostly for the Playstation consoles. They're focused on crafting, and that's where my addiction comes. This is not your everyday 'gather components, click to craft'. In these games you have hundreds of materials you gather when you're out adventuring, each material has a certain quality and properties that you can use to your advantage when crafting items with them. When creating a bomb, you may need a [sand], a [combustible] and sulfur for example. The sulfur is set, but for sand you could use the abundant 'beach sand' or the less common 'volcanic sand', same with combustible. The resulting bomb's effectiveness and side effects depend on your components. But not only the components matter, but your level in alchemy will give you special actions that can shift/add/modify the results. In all it's the most involved crafting system I've played.

They're also JRPGs, so you have your list of companions to take on adventuring, combat is typically turn based, usually with a front line of up to three characters and a support line of 3 more, each character with different skills and abilities. The protagonist normal doesn't have any special abilities, except for the fact he/she can use items, so this is where the previously mentioned crafting comes to play. Sure your protagonist can't cast fireballs or have melee skills, but by using items she can do that and more, using items you crafted.

As for the stories, these games come in trilogies typically. Each game with a storyline, and an extra story connecting the trilogy. In game 1 you may be 'Joe the apprentice alchemist', in game 2 you're 'Mary the herbalist' and you get to meet Joe as your mentor. In game 3 you're 'Sandor the crafter' and you get to meet Mary and Joe is some sort of legendary figure.

Then we have the world, usually you are an alchemist in some town, you do quests for different people in town, some quests are the typical 'kill 5 wolves', but others are more involved, like 'I need a belt with the characteristic "large"', so you need to use your crafting skills to figure out how to make a 'large' belt.

Another aspect of these games is time-restriction. In most of these games, you live your life day by day, in each day you can decide to go adventuring, or crafting. Each item crafted can take 1 or more days to finish, and adventuring to far away places takes longer than adventuring near town, so you need to manage your time as each chapter gives you a limited time to do whatever you want. Usually this is not an issue, probably made to restrict people to not just go gathering materials back and forth… material management is part of the game (should I use the common sand or the volcanic sand which is better, but I only have 3 of those?).

Just finished Atelier Shallie, and I'm in withdrawal. Next game in the series doesn't come out in at least 6 months. I need help.

I played a few on the PS2 but that was years ago. Have they changed much?

We have…let's see…Atelier Rorona (deluxe edition thingy) and Atelier Totori, both for PS3. I wish we had them for Vita, but…they're twice as expensive, for some reason. >.>;; Compared to Wolfing, I've played very, very little. I loved the lesbian subtext in Totori but I found Rorona prettier, more colorful, and I liked crafting better, for some reason, even though it was probably identical to Totori. I think I just liked Rorona's environments better.

Maybe I should go back and play…

Isnt the Atelier series the one where you shred clothing off one piece at a time as you try to get closer to the girls?

Originally Posted by Damian
Isnt the Atelier series the one where you shred clothing off one piece at a time as you try to get closer to the girls?

No that would be Ar Tonelico

Originally Posted by Aubrielle
We have…let's see…Atelier Rorona (deluxe edition thingy) and Atelier Totori, both for PS3. I wish we had them for Vita, but…they're twice as expensive, for some reason. >.>;; Compared to Wolfing, I've played very, very little. I loved the lesbian subtext in Totori but I found Rorona prettier, more colorful, and I liked crafting better, for some reason, even though it was probably identical to Totori. I think I just liked Rorona's environments better.

Maybe I should go back and play…

I've only played the ones in the PS3:
The Alchemist of Arland trilogy: Rorona, Totori and Meruru
The Alchemist of Dusk trilogy: Ayesha, Escha and Shallie
The next trilogy (I'm guessing it'll be a trilogy) is The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book, first game is Atelier Sophie, already released in Japan, I'm guessing it'll be released in NA around June.
To me it's not expensive because I use Gamefly, for like $18/month (first month free) I get one game, play it, return it, get the next one. Takes me about 10 days to finish each game, plus turn-around time, I played 2 per month, so about $9 each and then you cancel the subscription (or continue with lots of other games there).

Originally Posted by wolfing
No that would be Ar Tonelico

I still own the first two Ar Tonelico games, and I never bought the third game. What made them different was how they used singing magic, and mind merging.

Originally Posted by wolfing
I've only played the ones in the PS3:
The Alchemist of Arland trilogy: Rorona, Totori and Meruru
The Alchemist of Dusk trilogy: Ayesha, Escha and Shallie
The next trilogy (I'm guessing it'll be a trilogy) is The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book, first game is Atelier Sophie, already released in Japan, I'm guessing it'll be released in NA around June.

Can't believe I've missed that many games since I took a hiatus from console gaming.