Introduction to the Atelier series

Play any JRPG, or most RPGs in general, and chances are you end up saving something massive. You equip a sword that’s bigger than yourself that you bought from a merchant in an advanced part of the world, put on your endgame armor you found in a hidden chest, and stock up on nice healing items that only drop once from high level dragons. You’ve grinded to level 99, maxed out all your skills, and are now ready to fight the final boss and save the universe.

But what if you don’t want to save the world? What if there isn’t some character wanting to destroy the universe or invade your kingdom? A few years ago, I found the Atelier series which does exactly this. Sure, the final boss still climaxes to saving something, but it’s never as big or epic. It’s smaller, more relaxing, and a series that has a lot of unique charm.

Introduction and traits

The word ‘atelier’ is a French word for ‘workshop’. The Atelier series is a lighthearted JRPG series developed by Gust and published by Koei Tecmo. The series is 25 years old, starting from the original Playstation back in 1997, and released the 23rd entry this February. The games are currently being published on PS4/5, Switch, and PC. All the games emphasize item crafting as a core mechanic for progressing with less serious stories that aren’t focused on saving the world. Lots of the game’s cutscenes and events focus on character-to-character interactions resembling a slife-of-life anime. The item crafting mechanic is known as alchemy within the games.

Alchemy is king

Alchemy is the series’ most unique attribute and I’ve never seen it anywhere else. In most games that have some sort of equipment (weapon, armour, acessories) and item upgrade path, you either acquire these naturally as the game progresses, farm materials to build them, or find them as loot hidden in the game’s world.

In the Atelier series, you make every one of them. And I’m not talking about the ‘gather 5 iron ore and assemble’ type of crafting, I’m talking about mechanics that use significantly more brain power and will determine if you can beat the game or not. The quality of your weapon, armour, accessories, damage-dealing items like bombs, healing items, and everything else is completely up to you. The game is so dependent on this system that levels virtually don’t matter at all. You can be level 99 with bad gear and be less effective than a level 20 character with good gear and items. This results in the removal of any grind that most JRPGs have, since exp grinding is meaningless. If other games have a crafting system that resembles this, those are generally far less developed and complicated, likely having crafting as a minor mechanic rather than a fundamental one.

Additionally, the alchemy system (how you make your gear) changes every game so it never feels stale. I’ve played 7 titles so far and haven’t gotten tired yet, nor do I think it’ll become tiring any time soon. The systems are complex enough that not only does it determine if you’ll clear the game or not, but also determines whether you’ll struggle against the final boss or be able to one-shot it. It’s complex, fun, and rewarding for using your brain.

Series and changing protagonists

The protagonist of every game is a different girl and the games are divided into smaller subseries that are often released in trilogies, with some exceptions. Every subseries’ art is handled by different artists, which is why the games and art have distinct visual styles. All subseries are self-contained, so the events of one subseries is completely independent from others. Even the games within subseries are mostly self-contained; you don’t have to play titles in a subseries consecutively but you should. The title of the games follows this naming scheme: “Atelier __ - The Alchemist __”. The first blank is filled by the protagonist’s name, and the second blank relates to the series that the game is part of. For example, look at this:

The protagonist is Sophie and the subseries her game was released in is the Mysterious series. Because of how many games there are, there’s a lot of protagonists and subseries. For anyone new to Atelier, an easy way to categorize all the subseries is to organize them like this: old, modern, and new.

Series Evolution

Old

Up to the Mana Khemia series, Atelier games were 2D sprite games with 3D illusions for depth, which serves as a clear border to separate old from modern. These games aren’t really recommended for new players since the newer games make better entry points and acquiring the older titles are more difficult. Some of these were Japan exclusive titles too, and I’m not sure what the fanslation scene looks like for these games. Most games here have a time limit, which is a traditional gameplay mechanic of Atelier. Beyond this, I don’t know much about these subseries so I can’t explain any more about them.

Modern

Starting with the Arland series, all Atelier games were rendered in 3D space. Around here is when fans would be comfortable with recommending new players to get in, and where you want to start depends on what playstyle you prefer. Veteran players tend to say that the Arland series had the best story and characters, but the time limits in some of the Arland games are known to be a bit tough, Totori in particular. Both the time limit and character development changed as the games came out. By the end of the Dusk series, the time limit was gone and there’s a lenient one for just one of the Mysterious games, Firis. All games in this category have had re-releases, except for Lulua, suffixed by ‘DX’ which includes all DLC and some extra content. Lulua was the game that broke the consistent trilogy rule, being the fourth game in the Arland series.

*Rorona Plus was a remake of the original Rorona

New

The Secret series marked the beginning of increasing popularity, recognition, and production quality for Atelier games. This is why I distinguish titles from here on as ’new’ games. Not that the previous games had anything wrong with them, but starting from here the games began to become to gain more awareness from the masses and personally feel like better products. The Secret series is also the easiest and probably the most recommended place to start from. Ryza 2 was the game that broke the one protagonist per game rule due to popularity and then Sophie 2 followed. The Secret series will be getting another game (not confirmed, but very safe to assume) probably early 2023. Gust has an incredibly brutal development cycle and they don’t just make Atelier games.

So where do I start?

An opinionated but reasonable answer is one of the following, ordered from recommended to the least but still good:

1. Ryza 1 (Secret)
2. Sophie 1 or Sophie 2 (Mysterious)
3. Ayesha (Dusk)
4. Rorona Plus (not the original) (Arland)

The Secret series is the easiest to recommend since it is distinctively newer, has better polish, visuals, and QoL. It also starts a new subseries so you won’t miss anything besides easter eggs. The alchemy system is very straightforward, as the game was targeted to appeal to new players and it seemed to work (for other reasons). If you just want to get started without any questions, play Ryza 1 then 2.

The Mysterious series is the next place I’d recommend people to start. Some fans argue that Dusk is better because Mysterious characters, story, and world building is regarded as mediocre in general. I haven’t played any Dusk games yet so I can’t say anything. The big differences between Mysterious and Secret is QoL and outdated looking graphics, especially in Sophie 1. Sophie 2 is also another great starting point since it’s the most recent game as of H1 2022 and has the most polish. Sophie 2 does not need to be played after 1, you can play it as a free-standing title, though I highly recommend you start from Sophie 1.

The decreasing QoL and graphics pattern continues with the Dusk and Arland series; I remember playing Rorona Plus and you couldn’t even rotate the camera there. Additionally, these games have a time limit except for Shallie. The time limits are designed to force you to think ahead and play instead of continuously stalling until you want to, and they become more strict the further back you go in the games. They aren’t game-ruining and I personally found them to increase the games’ pacing as well as forcing the player to make plans, but the mere presence of them can stress some players who want truly relaxing gameplay. The Dusk and Arland series are known to have better characters and world building, so start here if you want that and are willing to try time limits. Trust me, the limits aren’t bad for the most part. If you’re going to play Rorona, play the Plus version because it was made to fix some problems with the original.

Pitfalls of a niche series (and bad publisher)

Atelier is undeniably a niche series, I’m safely betting there’s a 99.5% chance you never heard of it until now. The series is a niche developed by a relatively small development team and published by a stingy publisher, so some problems arise from this.

The niche premium tax

Because of the niche-ness and how Koei Tecmo likes to price their games, the games are expensive. I pay about $70 CAD per title which is a ridiculous jump compared to the original $30 CAD that I bought Sophie 1 for a few years ago. Then there’s a problem with rampant DLC and season passes that cost as much as the game itself. Gust shows some scummy behaviour by creating a couple of different physical pre-order packages that contain mutually exclusive goods, so that the most diehard collectors have to double dip to collect everything. In short, the devs and publisher know that this is a niche series that has loyal fans willing to pay a premium. And they’re right, since I’m exactly one of those fans. I’m okay with it because I find enough value in every title to buy them and don’t care about the bikini outfits and ignore DLC for any game. However, for most people the price tag is not far off from a AAA title, and it’s hard to compare overall production quality.

Poor graphics and performance

Oh how much I wish Gust could use a standard game engine instead of whatever one they’ve been using for years. Over the past few years, Atelier games have become graphically pretty. But this came at a disproportionately heavy increase of demanded video card performance. Recently, I played Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which is a very beautiful AAA title from 2018. With my RX480 and i7 6850k, I’m able to play that game at medium to slightly high settings maxed out at 60 FPS, with barely any dips in the opening jungle. When I played Ryza 2, I couldn’t get the game to hold 60 FPS on medium-high settings in some areas. That’s honestly embarassing; Atelier is a cartoon-style series, not a realistic one with tessellation and ray tracing. There’s no way a game that looks visually less impressive should be way harder to render than a AAA title designed to deliver great visuals.

I get that Gust has a tiny fraction of what Square Enix can spend, but still. It feels dumb that a nearly 6 year old video card can play the latest Tomb Raider game at perfectly acceptable settings but can’t hold 60 FPS for a game like Ryza 2. And brute forcing your way with more graphical power won’t help that much, as there are Steam reviews of people with 2080 Tis having frame drops while playing at 2160p (4K in inaccurate units). This problem has steadily been growing since the Lydie & Suelle days, and I’m not sure how far Gust will make it without being forced to make some very large changes in their code or starting from scratch with a different engine. That’s going to be rough with their nearly 1 year development cycle.

No English dubs

Atelier games used to have these, but since Lydie & Suelle they’ve been scrapped likely due to budget cuts. Even when English dubs were around they were missing large chunks of dialogue dubbed that had to be played with a JP dub. I don’t mind at all since I prefer JP dubs and generally think the VAs do a better job with that language, but the lack of EN dubs has been a deal breaker to some players which is understandable.

Summary

Ultimately, the Atelier series is a niche JRPG series that’s been around for 25 years now. They’re expensive, infested with DLC, and run rather poorly, but the games themselves are incredibly unique and fun. Gust keeps pumping them out at a very consistent pace (cough Neptunia) to stay alive, so loyal series fans ironically benefit from this struggle. And it’s not as if the devs are showing signs of wearing out, at least externally, because the games keep getting better and are gaining more attention. If you feel like relaxing to some AAA-tier music while hand crafting your gear and bombs that would OHKO the final boss in a laid-back adventure, give the series a shot. Highly recommended despite the high price tag.