Current Events > Best Atelier game for a newcomer?

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Which Atelier game is the best one to try out?

Sophie 2

Irony posted...

Sophie 2

What about Sophie 1
or release order

In a 23 game series, it's completely understandable to not know where to start. I'm here to break it down for you. We usually pretend the first ten games don't even exist when talking about what to recommend, and that still leaves a staggering amount of "modern" games left to talk about.

Overview
An adorable girl pursues alchemy to fulfill her dreams. Instead chasing a great evil to the ends of the universe, shes casually bending space to give herself a better place to sleep when shes on the road. The laws of physics and plain common sense mean nothing to a master alchemist; even the legendary philosophers stone isnt so precious that it cant be made into a tasty snack. Maybe the world is in danger, maybe it isnt, but Atelier is a simpler, more slice of life tale than your typical fare.
Atelier is basically the original item making RPG series. Everything else is a shameful imposter. Probably. More seriously, the series is known for incredibly deep item crafting systems, and the games from exploration to monster drops revolve around this aspect. If item crafting makes you groan, I guarantee you, Atelier is better than what you're thinking. Furthermore, it is not grindy; you won't fight things more than a few times to get the rarest of drops.

Outside of crafting, the games feature standard turn based battle systems (except Ryza's ATB). The game progression varies significantly; many have time limits and involve mild resource management, and the rest dont have time limits at all but still vary a lot. You'll find more detailed summaries further down the page. The more recent games are further known for cute girls doing cute things. You will have opinions on Cutest Alchemy Girl and if you say it isnt Totori you are factually wrong.
The primary thing the series is generally known other than crafting is the 'comfy' or 'down to earth' feel, as well as just being cute games. These ideas are not universal to the entire series, but if those sound like things you like, there are multiple games for you.

The only games that are related are those within the same subseries. So Mysterious has no ties to Dusk, Dusk has no ties to Iris, and so on. You will see characters like Pamela, Logy, Escha, and Hagel appear in several subseries, but these are different characters between each subseries.

Where to Start: The Simple Answer
There are two answers that will work for most anyone: Ryza or Sophie. These games completely lack time limits, making them rather casual friendly.

Ryza
The Atelier series is always on a spectrum between comfy and RPG; Ryza probably leans more toward RPG compared to most others in the series, but it's still more grounded than the usual RPG for much of it. Those of you less certain about the series will probably find it a bit easier to get into. Ryza features a fairly casual friendly crafting system, ATB combat (unique to this subseries), and a pretty standard JRPG style story progression. Ryza is, frankly, a 'low investment' point as you aren't strong-armed into buying three games at once.

Sophie
Sophie is the comfy to Ryza's RPG. It is peak comfort. Kiss that plot goodbye, say hello to everyone in town... and a talking book. The game is very concerned with letting you go at your own pace, smelling the roses. Sophie's crafting system is significantly deeper than Ryza's, but worry not; you don't have to be a crafting god to get through it. If the item crafting really appeals to you, you will find more to enjoy in Sophie.

With the release of Mysterious DX, you are encouraged to get the full Mysterious series at once. The following games are, perhaps, less chill, but you should find much of the same comfy feel in them regardless.

Sophie 2
If you just want to jump into a more modern game without worrying about a trilogy package, Sophie 2 is also a good game to start.
There are two returning characters, Sophie and Plachta, with their motivations explained clearly at the beginning. As it is a sequel, they do talk about the events and end of Sophie 1, so take that into consideration, but everything is clear enough for a newcomer to dive in. On top of that, Sophie 2 comes with a video that explains the story so far.

What about starting with Ryza 3?
Ryza 3's story is easy to follow without prior knowledge; you can start with it if you want. However, you will absolutely get more out of it by playing Ryza 1 first. It's really up to your personal feelings on how much the writing matters.

Sophie has a recap of the first game and the game barely brings up 1 anyways. 2 is just a massive improvement over the first.

Sophie 2 is a downgrade as it doesn't have Monika

Monika is trash though

Always start with the start of the trilogy (quadrilogy in some cases). Even if the games tend to be pretty playable without the knowledge of what came before it all of them are games that heavily build on the character progression of what came prior and thus you pretty much lose out on anything that relates to that development.

Otherwise Dakimakura largely says what I would want to say beyond the idea that you should always start the furthest back you are willing to go. If you want to eventually play Solphie 2, start with Sophie at the latest. If you don't plan on doing that, starting with Ryza is fine. The Dusk trilogy is also a good starting point (with Ayesha) as it has an excellent story. However, it is still from the era where there is a time limit and by and large that is a pretty heavy sticking point for people wanting to get into Atelier. Because of that, and its general lack of polish due to age, it is a pretty notable change up from what comes afterwards.

Irony posted...

Monika is trash though

nah

Dakimakura posted...

In a 23 game series, it's completely understandable to not know where to start. I'm here to break it down for you. We usually pretend the first ten games don't even exist when talking about what to recommend, and that still leaves a staggering amount of "modern" games left to talk about.

Overview
An adorable girl pursues alchemy to fulfill her dreams. Instead chasing a great evil to the ends of the universe, shes casually bending space to give herself a better place to sleep when shes on the road. The laws of physics and plain common sense mean nothing to a master alchemist; even the legendary philosophers stone isnt so precious that it cant be made into a tasty snack. Maybe the world is in danger, maybe it isnt, but Atelier is a simpler, more slice of life tale than your typical fare.
Atelier is basically the original item making RPG series. Everything else is a shameful imposter. Probably. More seriously, the series is known for incredibly deep item crafting systems, and the games from exploration to monster drops revolve around this aspect. If item crafting makes you groan, I guarantee you, Atelier is better than what you're thinking. Furthermore, it is not grindy; you won't fight things more than a few times to get the rarest of drops.

Outside of crafting, the games feature standard turn based battle systems (except Ryza's ATB). The game progression varies significantly; many have time limits and involve mild resource management, and the rest dont have time limits at all but still vary a lot. You'll find more detailed summaries further down the page. The more recent games are further known for cute girls doing cute things. You will have opinions on Cutest Alchemy Girl and if you say it isnt Totori you are factually wrong.
The primary thing the series is generally known other than crafting is the 'comfy' or 'down to earth' feel, as well as just being cute games. These ideas are not universal to the entire series, but if those sound like things you like, there are multiple games for you.

The only games that are related are those within the same subseries. So Mysterious has no ties to Dusk, Dusk has no ties to Iris, and so on. You will see characters like Pamela, Logy, Escha, and Hagel appear in several subseries, but these are different characters between each subseries.

Where to Start: The Simple Answer
There are two answers that will work for most anyone: Ryza or Sophie. These games completely lack time limits, making them rather casual friendly.

Ryza
The Atelier series is always on a spectrum between comfy and RPG; Ryza probably leans more toward RPG compared to most others in the series, but it's still more grounded than the usual RPG for much of it. Those of you less certain about the series will probably find it a bit easier to get into. Ryza features a fairly casual friendly crafting system, ATB combat (unique to this subseries), and a pretty standard JRPG style story progression. Ryza is, frankly, a 'low investment' point as you aren't strong-armed into buying three games at once.

Sophie
Sophie is the comfy to Ryza's RPG. It is peak comfort. Kiss that plot goodbye, say hello to everyone in town... and a talking book. The game is very concerned with letting you go at your own pace, smelling the roses. Sophie's crafting system is significantly deeper than Ryza's, but worry not; you don't have to be a crafting god to get through it. If the item crafting really appeals to you, you will find more to enjoy in Sophie.

With the release of Mysterious DX, you are encouraged to get the full Mysterious series at once. The following games are, perhaps, less chill, but you should find much of the same comfy feel in them regardless.

Sophie 2
If you just want to jump into a more modern game without worrying about a trilogy package, Sophie 2 is also a good game to start.
There are two returning characters, Sophie and Plachta, with their motivations explained clearly at the beginning. As it is a sequel, they do talk about the events and end of Sophie 1, so take that into consideration, but everything is clear enough for a newcomer to dive in. On top of that, Sophie 2 comes with a video that explains the story so far.

What about starting with Ryza 3?
Ryza 3's story is easy to follow without prior knowledge; you can start with it if you want. However, you will absolutely get more out of it by playing Ryza 1 first. It's really up to your personal feelings on how much the writing matters.

nice, thanks for this. Are the Arland games too archaic? I dont think id mind the time limit mechanic so much

Ryza 1

solosnake posted...

nice, thanks for this. Are the Arland games too archaic? I dont think id mind the time limit mechanic so much

In a general sense: yes. While not exactly awful they are largely pretty unfulfilling experiences versus the games post their trilogy and they hit a bad spot in the series overall. If you are fine with a time limit then go with the Dusk trilogy as they have a solid story to back up the otherwise dated systems. I would go so far as to say actively skipping the Arland games as both the Iris trilogy and Mana Khemia games, both games that came out before the Arland ones, are somewhat more worth going with over the Arland ones (they just have the disadvantage of not being on Steam).