I am Confused

[Chenni]

There's a lot of Atelier games on Steam. I'm confused what the heck to get.

Are they related to each other or no? And which came first and on which platforms were they originally ported from?

I mean, I don't play the FF series, but I can tell that FF VIII came before FF XV and that most of them aren't related to each other. Also that FFVII-FFIX came on the PSX. Or HDN RB1 came before Megadimension VIIR.

[Xerain]

The games do have numbers, they're just not part of the official title. Ryza is Atelier 21. This game was officially called A21 by the developers prior to the official title reveal.

They use the subtitles to group related games. For example, the 4 Arland games are all titled "X of Arland." So those would be "Atelier Rorona: Alchemist of Arland," "Atelier Totori: Adventurer of Arland," "Atelier Meruru: Princess of Arland," and "Atleier Lulua: Scion of Arland." That being said, they English titles don't contain any indication of what order the games within a subseries are to be played. The Japanese titles, which are quite long, sometimes do, but not always.

The 3 Dusk series games (releasing soon) will all have Dusk in the subtitle, the 3 Mysterious games all have Mysterious in their subtitle.

Atelier Ryza is the first game in a new subseries, so it's not related to the previous games other than series wide references. (e.g. There's always a Pamela, though it's a different Pamela, like Cid in FF games.)

Just speculation, but Ryza will likely be the first game in what will be called the "Ever Darkness" series.

[Razgriz]

in short all atelier are stand alone you can play and understood the entire game

[Etheral]

Atelier games usually come in trilogies and the trilogy should be played in order.

For example:

Arland Trilogy
- Atelier Rorona (2009) <- Trilogy starts with this one. Play this game first.
- Atelier Totori (2010)
- Atelier Meruru (2011)
- Atelier Lulua (2019) (This came out recently so I guess it's not a trilogy anymore.)

Dusk Trilogy
- Atelier Ayesha (2012) <- Trilogy starts with this one. Play this game first.
- Atelier Escha & Logy (2013)
- Atelier Shallie (2014)

Mysterious Trilogy
- Atelier Sophie (2015) <- Trilogy starts with this one. Play this game first.
- Atelier Firis (2016)
- Atelier Lydie & Suelle (2017)

Playing a trilogy in the correct order is important as they share various overarching plots and subplots where later games can offer closure to stories of characters from previous games. Anybody who tells you that they are standalone and order doesn't matter is WRONG and is simply trying to justify their own bad decision for having played them out of order. Don't listen to these people.

[Chenni]

Thanks guys, it's much clearer now.

[Moga CMDR]

putting WRONG in all caps doesn't make it any more correct. ^_^

[Tiasmoon]

Indeed. You can just say it without caps when you are actually right.

Originally posted by Etheral:

Playing a trilogy in the correct order is important as they share various overarching plots and subplots where later games can offer closure to stories of characters from previous games. Anybody who tells you that they are standalone and order doesn't matter is WRONG and is simply trying to justify their own bad decision for having played them out of order. Don't listen to these people.

You are wrong.

Playing the trilogy in different orders has no genuine effect on ones enjoyment of the games when it comes to story or characters.

While the second and third games in a series feature earlier characters and have a lot of references, they are still fairly well explained and defined on their own and playing an earlier game in the series later will also add references of their own. Essentially like playing a prequel game would.

However gameplay and QOL wise there is a good reason to play some games in a certain orders that are not chronological in terms of story. Assuming you play the enhanced (Plus/DX) versions, the Arland games are best played Totori->Meruru-> Rorona in terms of QOL and UI improvements, as Totori is far rougher with less QOL improvements.

In terms of gameplay difficulty it is better to play them in Rorona->Meruru->Totori order, as in Totori it is far more difficult to get any kind of good ending/result on a first playthrough whereas Rorona is pretty easygoing for an Atelier with a timelimit. (it will very clearly tell you what to do and how much time you have)

For the most enjoyable gameplay experience I'd never advise anyone to play the Arland games in their release order because thats just really poor advice.

[Lanosa]

In the case of Atelier series, they all take part on different places, even if they share world in the same trilogy.

• In Arland trilogy, they all take part in Arland, but Rorona takes part in the capital, Totori in a rural town, and Meruru in another rural town. We can see prior main characters there, but they just travelled there.
  
• In Mysterious trilogy, even if they share main characters from prior games, they all take part in differents places in the world.
  
• In Dusk trilogy, they all take part in a dying world, but, again, in different places. (can't say more, because I don't played it yet)

So this new Atelier is in a brand new world, with no connection to any other world, so it's no need for you to play any prior Atelier title to play this.

[EternalLoop]

well it's clear that you need to play each trilogy in correct order but what about all the trilogies, i mean, can i play dusk first then arland then mysterious or what if ijust whant to play dusk trilogy only and nothing more.

can i play this game withouth playing previous games?

[Xerain]

Originally posted by Demi-Fiend:

well it's clear that you need to play each trilogy in correct order but what about all the trilogies, i mean, can i play dusk first then arland then mysterious or what if ijust whant to play dusk trilogy only and nothing more.

can i play this game withouth playing previous games?

Yes. Otherwise we'd be screwed because half the series is on the PS1/PS2 and Japanese only*.

Each trilogy is a as separate as main number FF games are separate.

*A Fan Translation of the PS2 port of the first trilogy exists.

[Potato]

Can I just skip all previous title and play this one? I played a bit of Meruru on ps vita to know the game mechanic and that is it.

[Tiasmoon]

Yes, as the game isn't related to any of them.

[Qpax ツ]

Originally posted by Etheral:

Atelier games usually come in trilogies and the trilogy should be played in order.

For example:

Arland Trilogy
- Atelier Rorona (2009) <- Trilogy starts with this one. Play this game first.
- Atelier Totori (2010)
- Atelier Meruru (2011)
- Atelier Lulua (2019) (This came out recently so I guess it's not a trilogy anymore.)

Dusk Trilogy
- Atelier Ayesha (2012) <- Trilogy starts with this one. Play this game first.
- Atelier Escha & Logy (2013)
- Atelier Shallie (2014)

Mysterious Trilogy
- Atelier Sophie (2015) <- Trilogy starts with this one. Play this game first.
- Atelier Firis (2016)
- Atelier Lydie & Suelle (2017)

Playing a trilogy in the correct order is important as they share various overarching plots and subplots where later games can offer closure to stories of characters from previous games. Anybody who tells you that they are standalone and order doesn't matter is WRONG and is simply trying to justify their own bad decision for having played them out of order. Don't listen to these people.

Is there any way to favorite comments on Steam even? Thank you for pointing these outs.
I am big fan of Atelier series and i am gonna replay them in this order starting with Atelier Rorona to Atelier Lydie and lastly the game that will come out soon which is this game, Ryza.

Thanks man~!

[Tiasmoon]

Despite what they say, I wouldnt recommend doing them in that order. Rorona plus/DX versions got huge QOL and some UI upgrades compared to Totori (and some compared to Meruru). And Totori is super hard compared to Rorona (and somewhat harder compared to Merurur)

For example in Rorona character events show up in their location (with the icon of the character involved). In Totori they don't. You can't sort/find materials as easily either. I'd say the best order for the Arland games is:

Rorona -> Meruru -> Totori. That also saves the best character versions of Rorona and Totori for last, as well as giving you progressing difficulty and getting you used enough to the alchemy that the QOL/UI issues won't affect you as much.

[Qpax ツ]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Rorona -> Meruru -> Totori. That also saves the best character versions of Rorona and Totori for last, as well as giving you progressing difficulty and getting you used enough to the alchemy that the QOL/UI issues won't affect you as much.

I'd play in that order that when i am playing Arland games. Thanks mate for taking your time and commenting!