Can't wait for more Arland :D
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Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland coming to PS4, Steam and Switch, 24th May (EU)/21st May (NA)
- Thread starter Stuart444
- Start date
Can't wait for more Arland :D
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Surprised it's got such a quick turnaround but no English VA.
I wonder how the Switch version will look/run. This looks like a giant step up and all the other Atelier games on Switch have been hit with the ugly stick. The Arland trilogy even have downgrades compared to the PS3 versions.
I wonder how the Switch version will look/run. This looks like a giant step up and all the other Atelier games on Switch have been hit with the ugly stick. The Arland trilogy even have downgrades compared to the PS3 versions.
OP
OP
Yeah, as much as I hoped, I could tell right away when they announced it being released near the JP release.
Also sad that it seems like no 2D Portraits like the Arland games had :(
That said I love the characters and Arland so I'm looking forward to this
I actually figured with the game looking like a visual step up, and getting such a quick localisation turnaround that it might have been a stronger push for the west, and a English VA might have been part of that. I guess not...
As someone who loved Cassandra Morris' Totori (among other Arland actors) the lack of an English dub is super disappointing to the point where I might skip out on it because I'm not sure if I could handle hearing Totori being voiced by anyone else.
Probably Totori.
It has the best balance of the trilogy (and series since it shifted to 3D). It also runs the best on PC in 4K if you're into that.
OP
OP
It's a sequel to Atelier Rorona/Totori/Meruru as the 4th Arland game.
The mashup one is:
https://atelier.fandom.com/wiki/Nelke_&_the_Legendary_Alchemists:_Ateliers_of_the_New_World
From the ones I've played, I'd describe them like this:
Rorona: The first one on the PS3, and the first one in the Arland trilogy, and generally a pretty good introduction to the formula. It has time limits, and does a decent job of making them feel relevant without being too strict. I'd say it's a decent entry point. It does most things pretty well, but doesn't really stand out one way or the other.
Totori: The second game in the Arland trilogy, a sort of sequel to Rorona (you don't have to play Rorona first, but there are some references). As far as gameplay goes, this one is pretty great. You basically just get an open world to explore, and basically everything you do gets you points that are then used to grade you at the end of a three year time limit. It's very open ended, which great, particularly as most other Ateliers are pretty rigid and linear in their structure. This sort of gameplay also helps fix one of the franchises biggest flaws (the super easy difficulty), as you can just skip ahead to the harder areas.
But there is a big problem with the game. It's filled with the sort of anime pandering garbage that makes it very hard to actually recommend, and usually isn't even part of the franchise. For example, one of the first party members you get basically does just one thing: sexually assaults everyone around her, including the protagonist (who is 14 according to the wiki, but looks and acts closer to something like 10). Constantly. And the game tries to present it like it's supposed to be funny. There's also a couple of event images that would probably give me a ban if I posted them here. In the grand scheme of things, it isn't really any worse than what you'd find in a lot of anime and anime video games these days, but it's enough that I can't give it a recommendation. Particularly since the rest of the franchise is generally free of this sort of garbage. I've also only played the PC remake of it, which from what I understand was originally a Vita game, so it's possible the original PS3 version isn't as bad.
Escha & Logy: This is one of the most polished one I've played. Atelier games in general feel sort of like budget games, but this one does less so. I can't really recommend it though, because it's just way too easy. The combat is a joke, and the time limits are super lenient. You'll probably solve all the missions the game gives you in every evaluation period in a couple of weeks, then spend the rest of the time just sleeping to pass the time. And still get all of the endings on the first try.
Sophie: Since the time limits in the previous couple of games were such a joke, the first PS4 game in the series just decided to get rid of them. And it benefited the game greatly. What you get here is just a freeform world to explore at your leisure. It's also the first game to introduce difficulty levels, and it's actually decently challenging at the higher levels, which is rare for the franchise. If you want something challenging and combat focused, this is the one to get.
On the other hand, the removal of time limits does mean that the time management aspect that previously defined the series is gone now, so this is a very different game to the rest of the franchise.
Firis: This could have been such a good game. It gives you a large open world to explore (that isn't just segmented into super small areas like other Atelier games), there's a ton of content, and the difficulty levels from Sophie are back. It had so much going for it.
Unfortunately, it's just super broken conceptually. The game is basically split into two parts. First, you have a 3 year time limit in order to complete an alchemy exam. During this time, you can explore the entire world, but a lot of story and events are just locked out to you for no reason. After you complete the exam, you are returned back to the start, and only then things like quests for your party members get unlocked. So basically you have to complete the entire game once just to get the full experience. And the actual time limit is once again a joke. I took as long as I could and explored everything, and was still done with the exam in 6 months out of 3 years.
The game also really struggles with the open world aspects. This is the first time the franchise actually gave you large open maps, and it can't quite handle them. So there's plenty of bugs and performance issues. It just feels rushed and rough around the edges. I wouldn't really recommend it.
Lydie & Suelle: This one is a lot more linear and story focused then the rest, and as a result I just feel like it's missing most of what made the franchise special and just turns it into a standard JRPG but with some crafting.
Mana Khemia 1 and 2: So this two aren't technically called Atelier, but they're still a part of the franchise according to the way the official developers number the games in the franchise. If you can handle going back to the PS2, they have a lot going for them. I'd say they're the most well rounded of them all, and also don't feel quite so much like budget titles due to the fact that they aren't 3D.
They are, however, also pretty linear and don't really have strict time limits. So like Lydie & Suelle they feel closer to a standard JRPG, just not quite as much.
So basically, I'd say:
If you want a gameplay focused on crafting and time limits: Rorona
If you want something focused on challenging combat: Sophie
If you don't mind a super easy difficulty: Escha & Logy
If you want something all around polished and don't mind going back to the PS2: Mana Khemia
For anyone that is new to Atelier I just recommend "Escha & Logy" or Totori, by far the best games in the series.
Anyways, I'm going to wait and see before I buy this one, but I really really hope it ends up being good. I hope they didn't press "the Arland button" for no reason.
Anyways, I'm going to wait and see before I buy this one, but I really really hope it ends up being good. I hope they didn't press "the Arland button" for no reason.
We already assumed so, but apparently an official said on KT's discord that the game won't be dubbed.
Hope this is good, i thought Lydie & Sue was something of a return to form and had really fun mechanics. Hope they don't go super simple with the combat just to match the old Arland games.
Depends on what systems you have access to. Quick and dirty recommendations:
Atelier Escha and Logy - VITA/PS3: The best game in the franchise imo.
Atelier Sophie - PS4/PC/VITA: The start of the most recently concluded trilogy, and a strong entry overall.
Atelier Lydie and Suelle - PS4/PC/Switch: The end of the most recent trilogy, but still an easy one to start with.
Arland Trilogy - PS4/PS3/VITA/PC/Switch: The start of 'modern' Atelier, and the setting the new game will take place in.
There is really no bad place to jump in. 'Trilogy' in this case just means a shared world and recurring characters.
Firis is a bad place to jump in, being the one true stinker in the series. Other than that game all of the modern ones are at least decent and most are good.
I mean you can but it's not really recommended, it's a sequel to the previous 3 Arland games so you should probably play those first, they're all amazing games
Eeeh, I think it's perfectly fine to jump into these whenever. Meruru was my first Atelier, and you can infer all the relationships by how the characters interact.
Yeah that's what I'm planning to do. I never played the other ones but I'm buying Lulua.