I was thinking about getting into this series on Steam but there are a bunch of games and I'm not sure where to start...

Arland is fine to start with, so Rorona.

Start with Lulua.

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Lulua.

Dont be a nigger, play Rorona first

>Rorona

>Lulua

I'm getting mixed signals here.

People saying Lulua are idiots. Lulua is only good if you played Arland before and can appreciate the world, characters and heavy references. Play Rorona, Totori then Meruru then Lulua

Either would be fine, it depends on what you're looking for right now. Rorona is the first of the modern Atelier games and the first in the Arland sub-series. Lulua is the most recent and fourth Arland game. The gameplay is quite different (first and foremost, Rorona has a time limit and is more mission-based while Lulua doesn't and is more story-based) and obviously there's a big leap in terms of graphics. There are many returning characters from previous games in Lulua, but it's not absolutely necessary to have played them to follow along. I personally suggest starting with Rorona and playing through all of Arland, but if that's too much, you can just do Lulua to start.

I'm in it for the long haul so I guess I'll go with Rorona.

It's completely worth it if the style of the series clicks with you, they're something special.

A few questions about Rorona (and I guess Totori and Meruru, too?):
- Is it true combat is entirely optional? I.e. encounters can be skipped and all bosses are optional?
- Do the bosses offer at least a modicum of challenge if you don't craft overpowered gear? And related to that, can you absolutely crush them by going full retard and crafting the most broken equipment?
Asking to gauge what sort of playstyles I can expect to possibly pull off.

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This is a bit outdated, but here. Also don't play sophie.

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>- Is it true combat is entirely optional? I.e. encounters can be skipped and all bosses are optional?
There are tasks you have to complete within three months in Rorona to clear that quarter and move on to the next one and the next task. A few of these can require you to defeat certain enemies or craft certain items that require enemy drops as materials, and tons of optional tasks that give you all kinds of rewards require more combat (even against bosses) and more drops, so while you can mostly avoid combat if you intend to strictly stick to the main tasks only, it isn't advised. There are separate character levels for battle (which the whole party has) and alchemy (which only Rorona has), so it's not like you can grind levels just by crafting items. Generally speaking, you're going to want to fight at least semi-regularly.

>- Do the bosses offer at least a modicum of challenge if you don't craft overpowered gear? And related to that, can you absolutely crush them by going full retard and crafting the most broken equipment?
Yes and yes. You also have a choice between lots of party members (party size is three and Rorona is fixed, so you can choose the other two party members at any time once you've unlocked them), each with different skills and builds. Aside from items you can use in battle, you can craft the party's equipment too and you can make lots of broken stuff on both sides if you really get into it. There's also a post-game with several powerful optional bosses.

Totori and Meruru are slightly different so I'll describe them a little in another post.

The progression in Totori and Meruru is more free-form. Rorona has twelve quarterly tasks (each constituting a time limit) over three years, while Totori and Meruru only have two very broad checks, one after three years and another after two more years. Each one has a system where you can pick and choose a huge variety of objectives to complete from several categories (exploration, crafting, battle and miscellaneous) to gain points to improve your rank, and you only need to reach certain ranks by the end of the three/five years, plus accomplishing certain story requirements to get certain endings rather than others. This means it's also theorethically possible to focus little on battling and more on other things, though it's most efficient to dedicate some time to battling as well.

you can start basically anywhere but I recommend rorona.

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Thanks, that's exactly the info I needed.

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This thread has been made repeatedly along with threads for Atelier games none stop all week and I'm starting to think these "Are these games good/Which should I start with" threads are being made by fans trying to find whatever ploy they can to shill this shit on Yea Forums
I swear the exact same thing happens literally every time some Koei Tecmo trash gets released or announced

You're probably not wrong. Whether it's just one autist or a paid shill, or multiple people, that totally happens.
These threads come at a good time for me, though, since I was kinda interested in getting started with the series even shortly before the Ryza announcement.

Ryza when?

It's just newfags roped in by Ryza's thighs.

why the hell would you give that cretin any credit for bitching about discussing games on Yea Forums

Rorona actually looks sexy here.

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Rorona at the time of Atelier Totori is pretty sexy.

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Because that Blue Reflection shill exists (and those threads don't really try to stimulate genuine discussion), I guess.
But you're right, best not to bother whether user's right or not.

Is that unusual?

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When did they start making terrible PC ports? I remember the first 2 or 3 atelier games to ever be ported to PC were terrible with broken graphics, shaders, ambient occlusion, etc.

Cute feet

>When did they start making terrible PC ports?
Mistype, I mean when did they STOP.

Actually, did they ever stop? Are the newer games decent port-wise?

Koei Tecmo shills its games on Yea Forums, everything the company does is handled via head office in Japan, I've spoken to an employee of the company in the US who confirmed this. Which is why Koei Tecmo's advertisement campaigns are shit to none existent. You ever wonder why all the English Steam/PS4 pages for their games are filled with Japanese words?
The Japanese employees tasked with trying to advertise games think that shilling on Yea Forums makes them money by some absurd belief that because their games still make money it must be working

Which is weird to say because I'm pretty sure the first 2 or 3 atelier games are the Mysterious series.

The first two games for ps2 were translated fairly recently

now if only the others got translations

Honestly never noticed how stacked Rorona was.

>rorona
I chucked that shit in the trash after day 5.

Who's the 2nd sexiest Gust Heroine? I'll play her game.

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You're literally looking right at her because Sophie is number 1.

I've heard bad things about her game though

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Arland is absolute shit and Lulua doesnt fix it even though it's the best from the series. Dusk is the best series by far, mysterious is shitty like arland but it has better QoL to the series and is ultimately the easiest to get into.

Emulating Iris 1-3 on the ps2 is loads of fun as well.

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I have played every Atelier and Gust game, ask me anything and I shall provide my autism.

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They never stopped. PC's got better while the games stayed the same so the ports run better now but they're still the absolute bare minimum. Not a single graphical setting, forced v-sync, wildly fluctuating fps, limited resolution, no AA. The only good thing is they're pretty bug free and just werk. Still it's retarded that I can play Assassin's Creed or DMCV in Ultra at 4k 60-ish fps but these games struggle to reach 30.

Is Lilie better than the first two games? How so?

I live with the 20-30 fps because the only thing that can make the game look better is throwing resolution at it and it makes the game look fantastic.

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It's disgusting, really. Instead of just fucking off to their own general, they just spam their shit here.

What are the items you need to put in the shrine at the White Fog Forest in Firis?

There are no good discussions on Atelier threads. Only bitching and waifuposting.

none of them are good, they are on the same level as Nepshit and Serans

Blue Reflection and Nights of Azure are very different but similarly middling. The former's a slice of life/magical girl JRPG and the latter's a gothic yuri action RPG with familiars, but both of them suffer from dodgy technical polish, underwhelming side content and generally low difficulty until near the very end despite both of them also excelling in artstyle and music because they're Gust games. Haven't played NoA2 yet but I hear the reception's not much different.

And spoonfeeding newfags.

Nah, Atelier's alchemy systems and time limits put it above those series and I say this as someone who likes Senrans.

>you got into Atelier two years ago
>marathoned the entire series from Rorona to Nelke
>but now you can't be bothered to play Lulua

Why bother when you already know the story from watching Japanese playthroughs? The only remaining thing is busywork.

Nep is grind with fun interactions, Senran is just fun. Atelier actually has something going for it.

It's mostly more of the same as the other 2, Elie is still my favorite from Salburg.

idk its been years since i played firis, go to gamefags or some place to find a guide.

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>Atelier actually has something going for it.

Not anymore.

Is Rorona cute?

>new Digimon Survive news surfaced
>all the threads are chill and comfy

Why can't Atelier threads be like this?

No one is bitching here except people like you and people shouting shills. This has been a very comfy thread so far with actual discussion about the games.

Do you find retarded girls cute? Shes the kind of girl you could blindfold and push down to her knees for some taste testing.

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You can't shill with a general, user, that's why.

>Why bother when you already know the story from watching Japanese playthroughs?

Why would you watch a Japanese playthrough if you were interested in getting the game? It got localized in less than two months.

Because Digimon doesn't have a game made every couple months by a company who charge absurd prices for it with content taken out and sold for twice the price as Day 1 DLC

Koei Tecmo brought this hate on itself

BR is legit one of my favourite games but it's 99% because of the atmosphere and music. Nights of Azure 1 and 2 is a good diversion because it's a hack and slash, good to play in between some heavy rpg's or something.

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Because I'm curious and I don't trust Gust anymore to deliver a good experience.

And I was proven right.

Yeah, other than Digimon Survive, I believe they have this big Digimon game that's on production for four years or something.

Even their recent filler game was really good and made the fans happy.

And of course, no absurd DLCs.

Judging by all the praises to Habu, they trust him to deliver a good Digimon experience. We don't have that trust here. Nelke got ragged on for being a mobile game ever since it got announced and Lulua only had people arguing over Rorona's marital status

>talking about a current game makes you a shill

Bandai actually give a shit about their games unlike Koei Tecmo. SAO Fatal Bullet is still getting content released even now.
When was the last time that a Koei Tecmo game got an update released which wasn't a overprice DLC or Chinese language patch

Lulua updates all the time for free.

Making dozens of copy and paste threads for a single niche game where every thread amounts to "BUY THIS GAME NOW," does make you a shill

You know, Digimon could've had the same Atelier civil war over the classic game mechanics vs the newer ones. But other than one or two posts, I didn't see it at all. They're smart enough to have one series just for the classic raising your Digimon ala Tomogatchi series while having a different series for the newer, more standard JRPG Digimon fare. So both sides are satisfied.

No, it doesn't

Is there an inside joke regarding barrels?

Hey let's be honest here I enjoyed FB but it was a pretty fucking terrible game. The game is only getting "updates" because of how well it sold. They never fixed the online nor did they actually add any real coop mode.The season pass for FB was also pretty terrible. Literally 30 mins of content each release and they were charging money for it. The game also ended on a cliffhanger and the DLC was its own self contained story that ended on ANOTHER cliffhanger. They also released another pay expansion that was not included in the season pass.

Yep. I'm not interested in the raising games. Not for me, I believe, but I'm fine with them being made. Because my kind of games are still being made as well.

Sometimes people shitpost about mana khemia but the majority of those people haven't actually played mana khemia and are just trying to stir shit because they hate atelier fans. Likewise with neptunia posters. If you ignore the obvious shitposters the fanbase is pretty civil and friendly.

Is there any good SAO games? Just got Hollow Realization for my Switch and I didn't really like it.

I hate how you have to play as Kirito in these games.

I mean yeah that's the only redeemable quality of BR you just posted and that's a good thing!

Nothing other than alchemists have an irresistible urge that they cant explain to say Barrel when they see one. I imagine it was some weird inside joke with Gust devs when they were making Marie and it just stuck around ever since. Elie and Lili let you interact with more objects and the girls would also say what they were out loud but barrel is the only one that stuck with the newer games.

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>Sometimes people shitpost about mana khemia but the majority of those people haven't actually played mana khemia and are just trying to stir shit because they hate atelier fans.

I don't believe that. Outside at sites like Gematsu, you have the same people shouting they want MK3 over and over again at every Atelier news.

Just pretend you're not Kirito. In FB, you play as your own character anyways.

This is Ryza. Say something nice about her!

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Play Sophie. It's the first and best one to go up on Steam. If you like it go to Firis and so forth, if you don't then you probably won't enjoy the rest of the franchise.

What the fuck is this and why should i care?

HR is probably the best one. They try to capture the feeling of playing an mmo but its single player. HR has pretty crap balance but its a decent experience if you like mmo culture and the characters from SAO.

Kirito is a lot more tolerable in the games than the source material. You are still "dating" asuna but you can literally cheat on her with every other girl. Lizbeth has the best scenarios with Kirito in every game, shes literally the NTR queen.

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That's what you get for not having a clear direction for the series.

They literally said they were following popular trends with Atelier.

Is there a way to get through Re: Hollow Fragment quicker? It's like 3 hours per floor. And there's like 25 floors and who knows what else. I kind of want to just beat it to get to HR, but at the same time I want to enjoy it. Mixed feels.

Digimon's fanbase gets far more heated when you talk about the animu. Especially with the shitshow that was Tri.

Which Atelier has the most morally-questionable protagonist? I want my alchemist to have no sense of right and wrong.

Ayesha

>yet another genki girl protag

Into the trash it goes

If you are playing it on pc you can always use cheat engine to speed through it, otherwise theres not much else you can do unless you have friends online to give you op broken weapons.

You should finish it for the NTR atleast.

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Which Atelier is the most pure?

>being this gay
Oof

Unfortunately, the only game made after Arland that's worth playing is Ayesha. Some of the older games are pretty good, though, like Marie+Elie.

The character interactions are fun. Honestly, the whole game is about NTR.
>Kirito did what with another girl?
>I-it was nothing. Just a date.
>A date?!
Then there's based bro Klein who I take out, but he isn't very good because I can't find his weapons.

Kirito is a very dangerous individual in the games, it gives you a whole different perspective to the SAO franchise.

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How are they?

Hopefully Ayesha gets a port soon.

A JRPG with an intensive crafting system with said crafted item based battle.

b-but her thighs!

This. It'll definitely come into play in the game.

This time she's righteous too.

Release order: Totori->Meruru->Rorona
Chronological: Rorona->Totori->Meruru

Why is she so perfect?

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Did they seriously release it like this? What the fuck? Guess I have to play Totori first.

No Rorona came first. But because it's the oldest game, it got a re-release with improved mechanics. Don't listen to release order fools. Play it chronologically. The games aren't that dated that you can't handle taking a step back mechanically. At most you will miss the ability to sort/filter your inventory and the ability to choose your ending when you get there.

It's her smile.

Rorona in the collection is Rorona+ which is a remake of original Rorona that came after Totori and Meruru

It's her determination.

lewd thighs

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Why does she get so many fanart? Nelke literally has like five. And that's it.

Being literally perfect has a lot to do with it.

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Nelke was a dumb spinoff nobody cared about. Ryza is a mainline game.

Do the boots come with the thigh high socks or does she wear that separately which also has a toe ring on it?

Wear that separately, I think

Toe rings are god-tier desu

This, no one can draw nelke fanart since she's already perfect but there's a lot of room to improve the new girl

>Nelke
>perfect

The first Atelier game I ever played was Rorona.
I never finished because Rorona is pretty obnoxious and anyway I felt the game was boring.
A friend tried to sell me on the Dusk trilogy but I didn't feel interested.
Then I found Sophie on Steam and I said whatever, let's try another Atelier. I liked it and went for Firis, but this one it's rather bad, or tedious or something, but didn't finished either, even though I liked Firis the character. And then L&S came, and I find it perfect for me because it has the best Sophie and the perfect Firis.

Is Totori a homosexual?

Absolutely based Nelke poster.

No. She has interest in men. Gino specifically.

She's more asexual than anything. Relationship though? Sure.

She’s married to me so no

Because the hype died after it was revealed that the 20th anniversary crossover atelier would be a townbuilding sim, and when nelke was revealed as a character a few weeks later half of the fans were going "which game was this bitch from" and the other half were going "why should I care about a game that isnt atelier"

Yes, her wife Mimi in the new game should give that away

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Two females don’t constitute a couple.

>Married couple
>The only other married couple she knows is her parents
What did Lulua mean by that

>lulua
>parents
what?

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I thought they loved each other.