Is this the best atelier?

is this the best atelier?

It's the sexiest one.

It's the best in terms of story and game flow, but Rorona+ outdoes it in combat, alchemy, and general polish.

Totori is definitely the best protag.

>forced time limit

Nah. This one with the cute book (female) is better

That's not Annie.

...

I noticed this is on sale and I haven't played an Atelier since Totori and Meruru. Besides going back and emulating the ps2 ones for the past couple years (atelier iris 1 and 2, and the mana series) Should I get Sophie?

No, it's the worst Atelier game yet.

>hey lets explore and level up stuff and become a good alchemist
>oops I used up too many days
>oops game over because I wasn't conforming to strict phases that you're forced to do if you want the "good ending". you want to do things your own way at your own pace? lol fuck you game over.

This, time limits are fucking cancer. You should be able to include multiple endings without resorting to time limits in games. It's not that hard.

>being this bad at time management
The time limits are great, it makes you actually have to make due with with you got and be able to actually alchemize shit without grinding

Her game is awful so no.

You can encourage people to go deeper into your gameplay systems without saying "if you take too long doing this, it's over for good". That's just bad game design. I played Ayesha+, which actually had a pretty lax time limit, and I managed to finish it without much difficulty, but it would have been a better game if I didn't have to worry about some bullshit counter telling me "hey hurry up or else you explode".

And so, as expected, you out yourself as a retard who hasn't actually played the games. None of them bar original Rorona have a time limit that is strict in the slightest, and you can easily get a good end in any of the other games on a blind first playthrough, sans perhaps Totori if we assume you waste a tonne of time for no reason.
The time limits are not there to restrict you and they never were, they're there to pace the game and regularly give you new goals, events, and things to do, and the importance of this was clearly demonstrated by Sophie which had absolutely fucking abysmal pacing thanks to the recipe idea mechanics bringing everything to a screeching hold and forcing you to grind out enemies and synthesis until the bar fills up for the next story item and you can finally progress.

If you bitch about the time limits being restrictive in the previous games you are either an idiot or you completely missed the point. Most likely both.

>You should be able to include multiple endings without resorting to time limits in games.
What? The time limits have nothing to do with the games having multiple endings.

>defending literal artificial difficulty

Totori and Meruru had lax as fuck time limits though.

>I can't address anything that was actually said, I'll just throw out some greentext and a reaction image and pretend it's a suitable substitute for an argument

But they still had time limits, which I'm saying is bad. I don't believe that time limits actually add anything to games like these, they just become a nuisance and encourage the use of guides. That's why Gust has been moving away from the time limit design in the first place.

>No story
>Bland characters
>Dumb outfits
>Awful gameplay

Time limits are literally a non-issue compared to Sophie's problems.

>I don't believe that time limits actually add anything to games like these
You don't believe in tangible reality then. Sophie's terrible pacing is a direct result of the removal of time limits and shift to a grind-focused game flow.
>That's why Gust has been moving away from the time limit design in the first place.
No, it's because retards like you keep whining about them being restrictive and making it too hard when they don't at all, and since they work under KT's whip now they have to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Sophie sold well precisely because it appealed to a new audience by changing the mechanics, and Firis sold poorly precisely because Sophie was shit and the old fans were disappointed and the new audience wasn't impressed.

Please tell me that everyone in this thread is a female

I don't know if you're baiting but I unironically enjoyed Sophie more than Totori and Ayesha

This. Sophie is a blunder on every possible level, but Sophiefags always just try to make it about the time limit because it's the only thing they can shitpost about.

>Firis sold poorly precisely because Sophie was shit and the old fans were disappointed and the new audience wasn't impressed
Actually it sold like shit because it was coded like absolute ass and couldn't run well on PC, which is where a lot of sales would otherwise have come from.

Nice ad hominem though you big fucking dipshit. Good to know that atelierfags are constantly going to resort to attacking people who call out their shitty series. The best part is that I actually gave your shitty series a shot and looked for good parts of it, and aside from the music there were about zero redeeming factors. Keep on posting like you're superior, though, if that makes you feel better.

Time limits add many things to the gameplay and forces the player to actually learn the system. It forces players to increase efficiency and can't grind to win. The randomness of items then requires the player to actually learn the game to become good. This is to be able to create weapons/items to beat the next part instead of grinding left and right. Time limits actually beats the biggest criticism of "grinding" to win in JRPGs.

Like Dark Souls, you actually have to learn the system to get good to beat the game.

Gust moved away from the time limit design because casuals like you weren't able to handle it and complained. They do still want that sweet sweet money. There were plenty of critics that got angry at the time limits simply because they couldn't handle it.

>and couldn't run well on PC
PC is not Atelier's main market you fucking moron.
>ad hominem
You don't know what that means. I didn't insult you in place of an argument, I insulted you along with presenting an argument. Dumbass. Ironically, you have done nothing of the sort in your post, only insulting instead of arguing.

Well I guess this convinces me to either pirate it or wait till it's cheaper. What about firis or whatever the newer one is called?

You are shit though, the time limit was one of the best things about these games. It forces the player to actually learn the game instead of just grinding that plagues the genre in general.

>Mfw have never, ever timed out before
>Finished Ayesha with over one entire year to spare and didn't know what to do with all the free time

The only time I ever felt threatened by the limit was Totori.

>What about firis or whatever the newer one is called?
Not as bad as Sophie, and it unfucked the battle system, but it's still nowhere near as good as Arland or Ayesha.

>which is where a lot of sales would otherwise have come from

U wot m8

PC sales make up for pretty small portions of JRPGs.

> PC
> for a series that barely enter the PC market and was established on console

PCfag isn't this delusional right. Now I think of it, Sophie apologist are probably all PCfags who will defend the game no matter what solely because it was released on Steam.

>Mfw EschaLogy is my favourite but everyone hates it

Neptunia sells better on PC than console in the west, idiots assume everything works like that.

>Sophie apologist are probably all PCfags who will defend the game no matter what solely because it was released on Steam.
Pretty much. Sophiefags are all people who played it as their entry into the series and either never played the others or only played them afterwards. As expected, after Sophie released on PC, what followed was months of "Sophie was always good and liked, you guys just hate it now that it's on PC!" as a defence.

And for good reason. I honestly have to ask how you could consider E&L your favourite with how many things it does wrong, and what other games you've played.

Are there any games with an atelier (male)?

Well since it's 40 dollars, I'll wait for the winter sale and see how it's priced then.

Don't they sell NepNep for like half price or even less?

The only JRPGs that sold well on Steam were sold at a pittance.

E&L, Mana Khemia, Iris.

I was thinking of picking it up in this sale, but not with that fucking DLC on top of it.

Rorona to Sophie. I cannot understand the sheer hatred it gets. It's really easy, I agree with that, I don't like how easy it is either.

She looks retarded

>Don't they sell NepNep for like half price or even less?
Yes, of course. They typically sell for sub-$20 at launch on PC.

What's the best Atelier game of them all and is it worth getting into as a JRPG fan?

No it didn't. Nep Nep PS4 outsold PC version

Best is Totori, Meruru and Ronona Plus.

Yes the Arland series is better than the Mana series.

>best Atelier game
Rorona Plus.
>is it worth getting into
Sure. It has the standard JRPG combat but most of the fun comes from making powerful items and equipment.

Rorona+, Totori+, or Ayesha+, depending on what you want out of them.
Rorona+ is the most polished and well-rounded game and is probably the quintessential Atelier experience in what it offers. It has a light-hearted story about stopping your shop from getting shut down and great characters with lots of content, and a surprisingly in-depth battle system, along with the best item creation in video games.
Totori+ is much rougher in some areas, some love it, others hate it, I personally love it for having great game flow in terms of exploration and item creation to access new areas. The characters are weaker than Rorona and it probably isn't a great first entry.
Ayesha+ borrows Totori's game flow while having a more serious setting, but still has good characterisation and writing, and a decent story. The item creation in Ayesha is significantly dumbed down and is the biggest issue with it, but the combat is still great and + has a bunch of bonus bosses.

Rorona+ and Ayesha+ are generally considered the two best and they're both fine entry points for the series, go with whichever you want based on whether you prefer plot or slice of life. Either way they both have phenomenal soundtracks.
Also, these are all specifically for the + versions. Rorona+ is a complete remake of the original Rorona, which wasn't great. Original Ayesha was dub-only while + is dual-audio, and Atelier dubs are always awful and also only partial dubs. Both Totori+ and Ayesha+ have extra content compared to the vanilla versions and include all the base DLC. Totor and Ayesha+ are Vita only, Rorona+ is on Vita and PS3.

I wish they'd put Totori on PS4 or PC

I think a big part of the reason why I couldn't stand it was the awful framerate on the vita

>I cannot understand the sheer hatred it gets.
What's not to understand? You already said that it's easy, but the time limits are so lax that I completed every assignment and extra task with at least a month to spare all but one time (in which I still had a week to spare), and then you're stuck wasting the rest of the time grinding or resting. The relic system is interesting at first but at the end-game it turns into fucking absurd RNG bullshit to get the items with the best traits. Hidari's character designs are nice as always but E&L was the turning point where the characterisation became incredibly shallow, along with most of the cast having no development at all. You spend most of the game doing nothing of note and then have to suddenly save the world at the last minute, just like with Sophie. The world map is fucking shit, it's just four lines going out from the single town that you have to walk back and forth down, which is a massive step down from Ayesha having two different towns + Ayesha's workshop as bases and a more connected world map. The environments themselves also have fuck all variety, it's all dull brown ruins and one dull red lava ruin.
The only things E&L did well were the combat system (which is largely wasted by how easy it is) and Logy's character, everything else was a massive fuck up.

Yeah, I can understand that.

Interestingly enough, I hated Ayesha for the two towns and huge world map, which is probably why I liked EschaLogy.

>I hated Ayesha for the two towns and huge world map
Explain yourself.

I found it really tedious and it used up too many days to get around.

>and it used up too many days to get around.
On my first playthrough I still had about three months to spare when I saved Nio, with all other tasks complete (except for Keith's last dungeon bit which I left until afterwards, so I fucked myself out of the true ending there), and I built the town warping item way late after I got access to it, so I don't think I can agree with that.
As for it being tedious, I can sort of agree in the sense of going to the different towns to look for events, but I was much more happy about having the different towns with their own people and events than I was annoyed with it. Kyle was my favourite character in Ayesha.

Huh, I finished Ayesha with 13 months to spare.

I really should go play Ayesha again, I never finished it when I saw the retarded requirements for the True Ending.

All the Arland and Dusk games should be on PC by now, but KT are completely incompetent. If they'd handled the series decently in the west it could easily have been a success on Neptunia's level.

>the retarded requirements for the True Ending.
What? Ayesha is the single easiest game of them all when it comes to getting the true ending.

Fuck, I meant Totori, sorry, I'm an idiot.

Sorry, user, I mixed up Ayesha and Totori.

Well really, all the same things apply. I love Ayesha and Totori both for them having multiple towns and world map design that actually makes moving around the world interesting.

I didn't mind in too much in Ayesha since you didn't have to travel between the two that much, but in Totori you travelled a lot more.

Ok, well that part makes sense. I only finished Totori with a little over a month to spare and was pretty far off getting the true ending.
To clarify about Ayesha, the deadline for saving Nio and getting the "ending" is a year before the game's actual end, remember? I certainly doubt you got Nio a full year early, I'm not sure that's even possible.

So if I fucking hated Sophie, is Firis worth playing? Or should I just wait and hope that the next one isn't shit despite still being a Mysterious entry?

Are these games worth getting for PC?

>the deadline for saving Nio and getting the "ending" is a year before the game's actual end, remember?

Wait, the deadline is 2 years? I thought the deadline was 3 years. I rescued Nio on the 23rd month.

The only games on PC are the worst entries in the franchise, so no.

>he thought time limits were difficult

Unless I'm severely misremembering, the deadline for saving Nio is in year 2, and then you have year 3 as free time for the new character events and bonus bosses.

Atelier seems like a comfy and cute series, if I want to play where should I start? There are a lot of games.

What consoles do you have?

see

I have a PS2/3.

Rorona+ for PS3
Mana Khemia I and II for PS2

>No story
>Bland characters
>Dumb outfits
>Awful gameplay

Thats every Arland game. The new Atelier series (after Iris 3) didnt have good gameplay till Dusk. In before nostalgiafaggots bawwwwwww

So should I buy sophie or firis ? consider that firis cost twice as much

>Iris has good gameplay
>Arland doesn't
Is this bizarro Earth?

You should buy neither and get a good Atelier game instead.

Cheers, I'll probably get Rorona+ first and explore the series more if I enjoy it a lot.

Buy Sophie only if you enjoy generic JRPGs. Firis isn't much better so you're better off emulating Rorona Plus.

Sophie first, Firis is direct sequel of it.

So like the tails series

meaning I'm not listening to a word you say faggot

>people debating waifu alchemist games when the peak of the franchise was reached a long time ago

>Shit character designs and art
>Shit synthesis
>Weak soundtracks
>Grindy combat-focused gameplay

Mana Khemia is the Atelier game for people who don't like Atelier.

Why are Kishida Mel's Ateliers so much cuter?

Because he's a great character designer when you put the sameface aside. Noco and Yuugen don't just have bad faces, their outfits are complete messes all around too.

>flat chested 40 year old woman
Why would anyone find this appealing?

sophie's shoes are so sexy

Nobody does, that's why she is still single

Don't bully the cake

Sophie's shoes are retarded, but at least they're not as retarded as Firis'.

Her lesbian sister on the other hand....

these are just boring

but firis does wear some awful shoes