Hi, my name is wolfing, I'm an Atelier-holic.
What are the Atelier games? It's a (long) series of games made mostly for the Playstation consoles. They're focused on crafting, and that's where my addiction comes. This is not your everyday 'gather components, click to craft'. In these games you have hundreds of materials you gather when you're out adventuring, each material has a certain quality and properties that you can use to your advantage when crafting items with them. When creating a bomb, you may need a [sand], a [combustible] and sulfur for example. The sulfur is set, but for sand you could use the abundant 'beach sand' or the less common 'volcanic sand', same with combustible. The resulting bomb's effectiveness and side effects depend on your components. But not only the components matter, but your level in alchemy will give you special actions that can shift/add/modify the results. In all it's the most involved crafting system I've played.
They're also JRPGs, so you have your list of companions to take on adventuring, combat is typically turn based, usually with a front line of up to three characters and a support line of 3 more, each character with different skills and abilities. The protagonist normal doesn't have any special abilities, except for the fact he/she can use items, so this is where the previously mentioned crafting comes to play. Sure your protagonist can't cast fireballs or have melee skills, but by using items she can do that and more, using items you crafted.
As for the stories, these games come in trilogies typically. Each game with a storyline, and an extra story connecting the trilogy. In game 1 you may be 'Joe the apprentice alchemist', in game 2 you're 'Mary the herbalist' and you get to meet Joe as your mentor. In game 3 you're 'Sandor the crafter' and you get to meet Mary and Joe is some sort of legendary figure.
Then we have the world, usually you are an alchemist in some town, you do quests for different people in town, some quests are the typical 'kill 5 wolves', but others are more involved, like 'I need a belt with the characteristic "large"', so you need to use your crafting skills to figure out how to make a 'large' belt.
Another aspect of these games is time-restriction. In most of these games, you live your life day by day, in each day you can decide to go adventuring, or crafting. Each item crafted can take 1 or more days to finish, and adventuring to far away places takes longer than adventuring near town, so you need to manage your time as each chapter gives you a limited time to do whatever you want. Usually this is not an issue, probably made to restrict people to not just go gathering materials back and forth… material management is part of the game (should I use the common sand or the volcanic sand which is better, but I only have 3 of those?).
Just finished Atelier Shallie, and I'm in withdrawal. Next game in the series doesn't come out in at least 6 months. I need help.
What are the Atelier games? It's a (long) series of games made mostly for the Playstation consoles. They're focused on crafting, and that's where my addiction comes. This is not your everyday 'gather components, click to craft'. In these games you have hundreds of materials you gather when you're out adventuring, each material has a certain quality and properties that you can use to your advantage when crafting items with them. When creating a bomb, you may need a [sand], a [combustible] and sulfur for example. The sulfur is set, but for sand you could use the abundant 'beach sand' or the less common 'volcanic sand', same with combustible. The resulting bomb's effectiveness and side effects depend on your components. But not only the components matter, but your level in alchemy will give you special actions that can shift/add/modify the results. In all it's the most involved crafting system I've played.
They're also JRPGs, so you have your list of companions to take on adventuring, combat is typically turn based, usually with a front line of up to three characters and a support line of 3 more, each character with different skills and abilities. The protagonist normal doesn't have any special abilities, except for the fact he/she can use items, so this is where the previously mentioned crafting comes to play. Sure your protagonist can't cast fireballs or have melee skills, but by using items she can do that and more, using items you crafted.
As for the stories, these games come in trilogies typically. Each game with a storyline, and an extra story connecting the trilogy. In game 1 you may be 'Joe the apprentice alchemist', in game 2 you're 'Mary the herbalist' and you get to meet Joe as your mentor. In game 3 you're 'Sandor the crafter' and you get to meet Mary and Joe is some sort of legendary figure.
Then we have the world, usually you are an alchemist in some town, you do quests for different people in town, some quests are the typical 'kill 5 wolves', but others are more involved, like 'I need a belt with the characteristic "large"', so you need to use your crafting skills to figure out how to make a 'large' belt.
Another aspect of these games is time-restriction. In most of these games, you live your life day by day, in each day you can decide to go adventuring, or crafting. Each item crafted can take 1 or more days to finish, and adventuring to far away places takes longer than adventuring near town, so you need to manage your time as each chapter gives you a limited time to do whatever you want. Usually this is not an issue, probably made to restrict people to not just go gathering materials back and forth… material management is part of the game (should I use the common sand or the volcanic sand which is better, but I only have 3 of those?).
Just finished Atelier Shallie, and I'm in withdrawal. Next game in the series doesn't come out in at least 6 months. I need help.
