Atelier (franchise): Difference between revisions

[[File:atelier_group.jpg|frame|The intrepid heroines of the "classic" Atelier games ([[No Export for You|that haven't come to North America yet]]). Clockwise from upper right: Lilie, Marie, Violet, Elie, and Judie.]]

 

This game is about '''''her'''''.|[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=953050&topic=52080680 Anonymous Internet poster], succinctly summing up the spirit of the entire franchise.}}

 

* '''''[[Atelier Iris 3|Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm]]''''' PS2 (2006/'''2007''')

* ''Atelier <s>Lise</s> Liese: The Alchemist of Orde'' NDS (2007)

* '''''[[Mana-Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy]]''''' PS2/PSP (2008/'''2009''')

* '''''[[Atelier Annie|Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island]]''''' NDS ('''2009''')

* '''''[[Atelier Totori|Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland]]''''' PS3 (2010/'''2011''')

* '''''[[Atelier Meruru|Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland]]''''' PS3 (2011/'''2012''')

 

It's worth mentioning that the first two Salburg games, ''Marie'' in particular, have been re-released and re-made on more platforms than we can list here. [[No Export for You|Some of those platforms aren't even available outside Japan]]. Yeah, this series is more than merely popular there.

* [[Alpha Bitch]]: Brigitt from ''Atelier Violet''. But she's also [[Vitriolic Best Buds]] with the eponymous character.

* [[Alternate Continuity]]: A few. Not too hard to keep track of, but beginning with ''Atelier Iris'', Gust decided to not maintain just one continuity.

** The most recent games are difficult to place. ''Atelier Liese'' and ''Atelier Annie'' are clearly in continuity with each other, and at first glance the Arland games (''Atelier Rorona'' thru ''Meruru'') also appear to form their own continuity. However, there are ''vague'' hints that ''Liese/Annie'' may well take place in the "Salburg" continuity and that the Arland games may be in continuity with ''them''; Gust is being very cagey about all this currently. (Meanwhile, ''Atelier Lina'' [[Black Sheep|seems to sit all by its lonesome]] like ''Iris 3'' does.)

* [[Ambiguously Gay]]: Not who you might initially expect. Of all people, {{spoiler|Elie Traum, the ''heroine'' of the second game, has an ending that raises a ''lot'' of eyebrows. She can sort-of flirt with several of the male characters during the course of the game, but she also develops quite a relationship with Romauge the dancer. Romauge is one of two characters in ''Atelier Elie'' to have a fully-cinematic ending devoted exclusively to her, and in it... Elie abandons alchemy to run off and be a traveling dancer with Romauge and "pursue her heart". The overall tone of the ending is ''intensely'' romantic and more importantly ''is the only "romantic" ending available in the game''. And then there's the fact that Elie desperately wishes to contact Marie and "thank" Marie for saving her life and, well, you end up with a lot of speculation}}. Gust has never come out directly and said that the character is gay, however, so strictly speaking it remains speculative.

* [[Bag of Sharing]]: Explained in the context of ''Atelier Iris 2''; Felt and Viese possess a pair of rings which essentially allow them to teleport items to each other, so that Viese can make things out of all the crazy stuff Felt finds in the larger world, while remaining safe in their hometown until the very end of the game. The other games avert this trope by simply never taking control of the protagonist away from the player and making characters who aren't in the current party inaccessible for equipment purposes.

* [[Bash Brothers|Bash]] [[Brother-Sister Team]]: Violet and Bartolomaus from ''Atelier Violet''. [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|Their quarrelling is a combination attack that hits all enemies.]]

** Bart, Violet's brother in ''Atelier Violet'', works as a send-up of the concept. He also favors very large two-handed swords... and at the start of the game is ''hilariously'' inept with them, as they're too large and heavy to swing properly!

* [[Boarding School]]: The main setting for ''Mana Khemia''. The first few games also feature a school, but the protagonists don't live there (even if they can have friends that do.) The third game stars the woman who ''founded'' the school and details her adventures in getting it established.

** Funnily enough, the lead character of ''Atelier Annie'' is very much a [[Bifauxnen]]; most people's first reactions on seeing her was "That's supposed to be a ''girl''?!" She gets this reaction quite a bit ''in-game'' too, much to her chagrin.

* [[Dungeon Shop]]: That would be you (to varying degrees). Most obvious in ''Atelier Violet'', where you actually have some degree of control over the shop.

* [[Empathic Weapon]]: The Azure Azoth from ''Atelier Iris 2'', and Sulpher from ''Mana Khemia''.

** One of Witos' skills from ''Atelier Judie''.

* [[Exposition Fairy]]: Hilariously enough, the series uses '''actual''' fairies for this purpose. You often get a single fairy in the early games who explains how fairies can be "rented" to help around the atelier; ''Atelier Iris 1'' and ''Atelier Annie'' feature Popo and Pepe, respectively, who exist purely to explain game mechanics to the player.

** Popo in [[Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana]] has other qualities (he heals the party at save points for instance).

** Noin from ''[[Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny]]'' also fits the trope nearly to a T.

* [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]]: How the eponymous character of ''Atelier Judie'' starts her adventure, due to a freak alchemy lab incident. Well, apparently [[Medieval Stasis|nothing much changed]] between the 7th century and the 9th century.

* [[Game Breaking Bug]]: ''Atelier Liese'' initially shipped with an absolutely stupefying number of fatal errors that would wipe your save data or cause the game to hard lock; while a corrected version was eventually shipped out (and produced for hopeful localization), the press had already taken the game and company to the cleaners over the issues, which were by far the most serious defects an Atelier game had ever seen.

* [[Gratuitous German]]: Used a lot in the earlier ''Atelier'' games, since the setting is meant to be a version of Renaissance Germany; it's meant to be breaking [[Translation Convention]] since the characters seem to ostensibly speak German. This has essentially disappeared as of the ''Atelier Iris'' games.

* [[Large Ham]]: Vayne's dark-side's [[Liam O'Brien|English VA]] in ''Mana Khemia'' deserves a special mention for this. Beggur of ''Iris 1'' is also noted for this in the best way possible, especially in English.

* [[Lady of War]]: A '''lot''' of supporting characters across various games. Kyrielich from ''Marie'', Yurika from ''Elie'' (sort of), Katarina from ''Violet'', Fee from ''Iris 2''...

** The truly great irony is that, in the original design document (as revealed in the Atelier Series Official Chronicle), the Salburg setting ''was'' going to be very dark, gritty fantasy in the vein of ''[[Berserk]]''. The early visual concepts thrown around for Marie and crew didn't really line up with such a dark setting, however, and so the rough edges were filed off to turn it into the optimistic, hopeful concept seen in the final game. A few remnants of the old "dark" concept survive, though, such as the plague that struck Elie's hometown (though crucially, it was Marie who ''saved'' it).

* [[Mana]]: In the ''Iris'' and ''[[Mana Khemia]]'' games, anyway.

* [[Nice Hat]]: This seems to be a requirement for being a heroine of a "main" Atelier game; every heroine has some bit of headwear that is prominent to varying degrees. Liese and Annie have particularly notable hats; Liese's is doubly notable as it disappears once she's no longer the main character in ''Atelier Annie''.

* [[Nintendo Hard]]: The third game of the series, ''Atelier Lilie'', has a reputation for being hellishly difficult to complete with any kind of satisfactory ending without a lot of planning beforehand and knowledge of how the game works. The optional material in many of the latter games tends not to slouch, either.

* [[No Fourth Wall]]: Popo's amusing tutorials in ''Atelier Iris''.

** Also, during one scene in ''AI1'', Norn the Catgirl gets frightened by all the monsters in the woods, and asks to sleep in the same bag as Klein. She thinks it's innocent, but Klein gets the entirely ''wrong'' idea and says "[[Media Watchdog|No way! The ESRB would go nuts!]]"

* [[Schizo-Tech]]: Assiduously averted in the first five games (''Marie'' to ''Violet'') as all of them maintained a more or less realistic technology level for [[The Renaissance|their settings]]. Some of this began to creep into the games with the advent of the ''Iris'' sub-series, however (although it never got as bad as in [[Ar tonelico]]).

** This is all ''[[Lampshade Hanging|poked fun at and lampshaded]]'' in ''Atelier Rorona'', where a previously Renaissance-level civilization has discovered the ruins of a [[Precursors|more advanced culture]] and is slowly integrating technology as it is understood. By and large they have so far advanced to [[Victorian Britain|the steam age]] and firearms are becoming increasingly common, but a few more advanced pieces of technology appear throughout town, like ''a computerized bulletin board, complete with touchscreen'' in the town square.

* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: Pretty much every single entry into the franchise is deliberately slammed just about the ''entire way'' toward idealism. There is '''''no''''' problem that cannot be solved with the proper application of science, logic, and faith, and the life of your fellow man can ''always'' be made more pleasant. Even in the few games where the situation can look dark and grim, the protagonists do not lose hope because they ''know'' that the world can be made a better place, [[Determinator|though the work of their own hands, however small]]. The games are relentlessly optimistic in tone - practically to the point of some accusing them of being [[Tastes Like Diabetes|rather too sweet]].

* [[Smug Snake]]: Many of the villains. (This makes punching their faces in highly satisfying.)

* [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]: Violet and Brigitt from ''Atelier Violet''. [[Les Yay|Brigitt even has her own ending]].

* [[Widget Series]]: A lot of debate as to whether or not this even applies. Many in the industry certainly seem to think so, given the obstinance with which they refuse to bring over the earlier games; however, those very earlier games especially were meant to be as ''Western'' as possible to Japanese audiences what with the [[Low Fantasy|down-to-earth plotlines and characters]] and conspicuous [[Gratuitous German|non-Japanese language]] and all. The ''Iris'' games and ''Mana Khemia'' tend to be a little weirder, but not confoundingly so by any measure.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Eastern RPG]]