Atelier (franchise)/YMMV: Difference between revisions

** As popular as Veola is, though, the absolute ''queen'' of Atelier Darkhorses is, without a doubt, Helmina of the original series. Introduced as a kind of pseudo-villain in ''Atelier Elie'', she was ''so'' well-written, so engaging, so interesting and so casually evil (she even {{spoiler|comes close to ''killing'' Elie with a narcotic potion that could stop her heart, and she applies the antidote just in time for Elie to not die; she does this out of ''curiosity''}}) that the Japanese fanbase fell in love with her immediately. Her portrayal in supplementary materials, such as various spinoff manga, only cemented her popularity further. She became so popular that she (and Ingrid, from ''Atelier Marie'') were put into ''Atelier Lilie'' as the [[Kid Sidekick|Kid Sidekicks]] to the heroine of that game, and the popularity of the more innocent Helmina portrayed here compelled Gust to release ''Helmina & Culus'', a product that is essentially an expansion to ''Lilie'' and finally features Helmina in a starring role (and portrays what would become Helmina's [[Start of Darkness]]).

*** She ''then'' shows up as a wandering alchemist party member in ''Atelier Judie'', which still takes place some time before she becomes a teacher in ''Atelier Elie''. This would be her last appearance, however, as after ''Atelier Violet'' Gust began to create continuities separate from the original "Salburg" one. Helmina still holds the record for consecutive product appearances, however, all due to fan demand.

** Flay Gunnar (AKA "Gunnar Damm") of ''[[Mana Khemia]]'' certainly qualifies as well. People identified with him quite a bit more than with the main heroes of the first game, and the response to him in both Japan ''and'' America was so overwhelmingly positive that he got a spot in ''Mana Khemia 2'' almost by force.

* [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny]] (AKA, Alchemy Is Unoriginal): Quite a few prospective fans and consumers have pooh-poohed the games that have crossed over for being unoriginal in story and for crafting and alchemy being "nothing really special". While the story criticisms for the ''Iris'' games are probably not unwarranted, the early games were the games which introduced robust crafting systems into JRPGs in the first place and were also the first ones to use alchemy as a world-framing concept in Japanese pop culture. Thanks to [[No Export for You|the sluggishness of the series]] in crossing the Pacific, however, everything influenced by the series got here first and made ''Atelier'' look like the unoriginal one.