Any tips for managing the time limit

[Alice]

So I just unlocked harry's house and was crafting everything i could at least once i'd also picked up all the gathering spots i could find and backtracked to the grave to check for gather spots just in case. I noticed my time was going up rather quickly I'm already on month 5 day 4 year 1. At this point I'm worried my grab everything philosophy will make it so I don't make the 3 year time limit. I played Sophie on another platform, and since there was no time limit I just picked up everything, crafted everything, and experimented with different combinations. Perhaps my habits from then are showing. So can I get tips for handling time a bit better. Please and thank you.

[Ogami]

You have plenty of time. The time limit in Ayesha is VERY generous in comparison to other games in the series. ( cough* Rororona cough*)
If you follow the story normally ( prioritize goals with a * in your notebook) you will finish the main story at around 2 years, +/- a few months.
With a guide you can finish in around 16 months but just take your time.

As long as you dont run from one side of the map to the other all the time and grind harvest spots ( always a bad idea in time limit Atelier games) you are fine.
Clear a dungeon once, kill all monsters, harvest all spots and then move on and you will have enough time for everything.
Most shops also sell a lot of the ingredients you need for alchemy so just stock up that way.
And of course register your own creations for wholesale in the stores.

Honestly the only time ( hah) the time limit is a concern is if you go for a " one playthrough - all achievements" run. In that case you need a guide to get the most out of everything.
If you just want to play normally through the game then dont worry.

[Alice]

Ogami の投稿を引用：

You have plenty of time. The time limit in Ayesha is VERY generous in comparison to other games in the series. ( cough* Rororona cough*)
If you follow the story normally ( prioritize goals with a * in your notebook) you will finish the main story at around 2 years, +/- a few months.
With a guide you can finish in around 16 months but just take your time.

As long as you dont run from one side of the map to the other all the time and grind harvest spots ( always a bad idea in time limit Atelier games) you are fine.
Clear a dungeon once, kill all monsters, harvest all spots and then move on and you will have enough time for everything.
Most shops also sell a lot of the ingredients you need for alchemy so just stock up that way.
And of course register your own creations for wholesale in the stores.

Honestly the only time ( hah) the time limit is a concern is if you go for a " one playthrough - all achievements" run. In that case you need a guide to get the most out of everything.
If you just want to play normally through the game then dont worry.

Thank you for the quickly reply I generally prefer to play blind unless i'm really stumped so i'm very glad I don't have to rely on a guide.

[Tiasmoon]

Its important to focus on the story progress first tho. While the time limit is generous, its not ''very'' generous and if you ignore the story too much you might run out of time.

Completing the story wont end the game. In fact a bunch of events are only available afterwards.

Ogami の投稿を引用：

You have plenty of time. The time limit in Ayesha is VERY generous in comparison to other games in the series. ( cough* Rororona cough*)

Rorona has one of the easiest time limit if you dont try to do everything. It also has the most managable time limit since its 12 short time limits so its easy to stay on track with time.

Its only difficult to manage if you want to do it all in the first playthrough~

[Jeffer'son Airship]

As long as you don't waste a lot of time resting, you'll likely have the main plot finished with a year to spare.

The big thing you will likely miss your first time through is winning the festivals
. You have to win all of them for the true ending but tbh it's not worth doing as the first few require extremely specific steps to do.

[Tiasmoon]

You can fail the time limit just by doing a lot of the optional things and alchemy if you dont focus on the main quest as there's a good amount of travelling required plus certain story objectives have periods of time in which they can be obtained.

Mokinokaro の投稿を引用：

As long as you don't waste a lot of time resting, you'll likely have the main plot finished with a year to spare.

You only have that much time left on a NG+ when you have all the -minus items from the start or if you rush.

While its important to focus on the main plot first in this game, I still wouldnt advice anyone to just rush the game.


The true ending in Ayesha doesnt require that many things to be done.
Keith ending is the true end, not the other one

[The Head Pirate]

Make shoes as soon as you can. Make corrective lens as soon as you can. At that point, you would basically have to be trying to run out of time.

[Bill]

It is possible to also craft all recipes at least once before you beat the final story boss. The difficulty is you might not have more than 1 or 2 of certain ingredients. If you followed a good guide then you could get them ahead of time hopefully. There are several miss-ables though such as the 11/11 flower and of course the contest which require you to be in the city on certain dates.

[Tiasmoon]

The Head Pirate の投稿を引用：

Make shoes as soon as you can. Make corrective lens as soon as you can. At that point, you would basically have to be trying to run out of time.

For reference, the recipe for the lens can be found in the Glass Ruins, and the recipe for the Shoes in Halos village (the scale needed is dropped by faerie dragons in the swamps south of it)

Remember to equip them after you make them!

[Hexed]

Time limits ruin these games.

[Ogami]

Hexed の投稿を引用：

Time limits ruin these games.

If you are so annoyed by it, just turn it off. There is already a cheat engine table for the game that has a freeze time option.
Can turn it on/off at will. Just do dungeons/harvesting/alchemy with time frozen and unfreeze it to reach certain story dates.

Its a single player RPG, play it however you want.

[Sephilar]

Ogami の投稿を引用：

Hexed の投稿を引用：

Time limits ruin these games.

If you are so annoyed by it, just turn it off. There is already a cheat engine table for the game that has a freeze time option.
Can turn it on/off at will. Just do dungeons/harvesting/alchemy with time frozen and unfreeze it to reach certain story dates.

Its a single player RPG, play it however you want.

Don't encourage him to do something as stupid as that. The Atelier series have always been since the first game about learning how to manage time and synthesize correctly, if some people like him are so annoyed by that, instead of complaining they have many other games they can play then.

[Tiasmoon]

Time management doesnt have to include time limits. Time limits arent a core aspect of Atelier games, just something tackled onto a bunch of them.

It is stupid that games like these are all about relaxing and enjoying the game, when time limits provide the opposite experience.

[Sephilar]

Tiasmoon の投稿を引用：

Time management doesnt have to include time limits. Time limits arent a core aspect of Atelier games, just something tackled onto a bunch of them.

It is stupid that games like these are all about relaxing and enjoying the game, when time limits provide the opposite experience.

Time is a concept of measure created by humans once we realized there's a time limit when it comes to our time left living, that's why when someone talks about managing time they refer to managing their time left correctly. If a game doesn't have time limit, then there's nothing to manage to begin with as far as time goes, because you can just do whatever you want. If we want to talk about you managing your free time correctly or not, that's another story.

Again, Atelier was about that since the series started being a thing. Yes, they started experimenting making games without time limit starting with Iris, and unfortunately those experiments resulted in bad sales because that's not what the community wanted (before any hater of time limit says it, yes, the Iris triogy are also good games, but it doesn't change the fact they were not successful because they diverted from the purpose of playing these games).

Atelier nowadays don't have time limit? Yeah, but funnily enough this started happening since Koei bought Gust and although they will never admit of course, it's obvious they are doing it to appease casual players in playing these games by not including tme limit anymore, instead of giving to the old players what they want when they played these games. Unfortunately, this is happening not only with Atelier but also with many other games in the game industry, like also with fighting games.

With all that said, no one is asking (at least not me) to have hardcore time limits back, old fans just want to play again what they loved when they played these games, if you're playing them just for the fanservice I'm afraid that was never the intention when Gust started making these games, and as I said before there are many other games you can play if you want to play a fanservice or relaxing game or whatever you want. People have different tastes of course, so everyone should be able to choose what they want, but doing something like cheating and playing a game not the way is meant for is disrespectful towards the creators of the games, and as far as me goes it never had any negative effect playing these games with time limit. On the contrary, with Ayesha in fact the first time I played I got the bad ending but instead of being frustated it gave me even more of a reason to replay the game again, and that's what I did. If anyone has really a problem with that then it just goes to show that your personality is most likely of someone being too impatient and unbending, and the game doesn't have any fault just because you don't like that.

[Ogami]

If you want to play with time limits then no one is stopping you.
If he or others want to use cheats to disable the time limit that is equally 100% FINE.
Its not "stupid" or "wrong".
EVERYONE is free to play the games they payed money for the way they want and the way they enjoy it the most.
If that means cheating then that is again, 100% FINE.

Its a single player RPG , its has ZERO bearing on yourself if someone wants to cheat in his/her game.
I hate this elitist attitude with a passion. "No you have to play these games THIS or THAT way or its not right".
♥♥♥♥ off with that crap.

I played Atelier since the first one on Sega Saturn in the mid 90s and i dont give a crap if someone wants to remove the time limit with cheats.
Hell, that was the most used Action Replay code for the game in that time.

[Tiasmoon]

Clousephinat の投稿を引用：

If anyone has really a problem with that then it just goes to show that your personality is most likely of someone being too impatient and unbending, and the game doesn't have any fault just because you don't like that.

Being attached to something to the point you are willing to excuse the issues it has is something quite common. However, that doesnt make said something less flawed.

Clousephinat の投稿を引用：

unbending

Applies more to a hardliner that feels something ''HAS to be part of a game!''.
I've enjoyed many games. I've also enjoyed many different Atelier titles. Being different isnt something inherently good or bad, and I dont judge a game worse just for being different.
However, your mindset seems to be ''time limits HAVE to be part of Atelier'', which to me seems like a truly unbending stance.

Clousephinat の投稿を引用：

impatient

Impatient? Time limits in Atelier games result in rushing the games. Less time spend, instead of being able to relax and spend more time on the game.

How are those that dont enjoy time limits impatient? In fact, they are the exact opposite: they dont want to be impatient and rush games. They dont enjoy that.

Clousephinat の投稿を引用：

Again, Atelier was about that since the series started being a thing.

Atelier at its core was about management. Time was simply a method to add depth to that mangement. Again, time limits arent even the only way to add time management.

For example having materials that would only grow on certain days, or even in certain seasons; would also add a requirement for time management without limiting the player in a more permanent way. Having materials decay (Totori does this) and having to find ways to make the most out of the materials you have also provides management. Having limited materials (via story,quest, area, monster progress) also adds the requirement for management.

So would adding actually hard to create item requirements to quests. (why are 99% of quest items super easy to make?)

Just because Atelier games had time limits that doesnt make they were a core aspect of the games. Core aspects are parts of a game that when taken away would change the games into something vastly different. Time limits is not one for Atelier games. Ryza, Lulua, etc dont have a time limit. They still feel and play like Atelier games.

Clousephinat の投稿を引用：

and unfortunately those experiments resulted in bad sales because that's not what the community wanted (before any hater of time limit says it, yes, the Iris triogy are also good games, but it doesn't change the fact they were not successful because they diverted from the purpose of playing these games).

Ryza was very succesful. It has no time limit.
If Iris sold poorly it was not because it lacked a timelimit, but because Alchemy wasnt as big and the game wasnt as much about ''cute girls and more relaxed things'' as the other games.

Clousephinat の投稿を引用：

Atelier nowadays don't have time limit? Yeah, but funnily enough this started happening since Koei bought Gust

Remove the third, final time limit in Totori and it would objectively make the game better.
Remove the time limit in Ayesha if you manage to save Nio and it would objectively make the game better.

You might shout Koei's name like removing time limits is the devils work, but that doesnt fool someone like me. Regardless of who or what is responsible, theres no denying that Ateliers could be better with less time limits, or even without having them at all.

The fact that 2 of the most appreciated Atelier titles can have time limits removed and it would objectively make them better shows this.

Time limits can still have a purpose. Totori's second time limit has a purpose, even if its not an amazing one. However, the reason many were up in arms about time limits in Atelier games is because they limit their games TOO MUCH. Having a time limit to save your sister makes sense. Having the game just end at that time limit anyway even tho she was saved, does not. All it does is prevent players from continuing playing, which is bad design.

Clousephinat の投稿を引用：

casual players

You are talking to someone that had hundreds of hours of pure (manual!) crafting in FFXIV. I'm about as far away from a casual player as it gets. So please, dont use this strawman.

Do you know who are hurt the most by time limits? Players that want to enjoy the hell out of the game. Completionists or those that simply want to pour in hours.

If anything, I'd argue that time limits are more for casual players who are RL time-limited.
Someone for who finishing an Atelier game in 15-20 hours is considered normal, and not rushing. For someone that doesnt have much time to spend on the games it makes sense that they rush.

Clousephinat の投稿を引用：

instead of giving to the old players what they want

Old player, new player. If the player is an idiot and doesnt understand what made the games good, then I dont care if they are a new or old player. They are still an idiot either way. Both old players and new players can have a good perspective on what would make a game in a series good.

However, an idiot player does not.

Clousephinat の投稿を引用：

old fans just want to play again what they loved when they played these games, if you're playing them just for the fanservice I'm afraid that was never the intention when Gust started making these games

What fanservice? You mean the cute girls? Or do you mean the character interactions? The Alchemy? People call everything they want fanservice these days, so youll have to clarify what exactly you mean when you say that.

I always have to seriously question how much someone like yourself even knows about these games. How much time did you actually spend on the Alchemy if you approve of rushing through it. (which often means ignoring most of the Alchemy, because duh -it takes time)

How many of the events did you actually see? Did you even appreciate the characters? Did you listen to the music? Or was ''My Hardcore Planning Sim'' all you experienced?

Clousephinat の投稿を引用：

but doing something like cheating and playing a game not the way is meant for is disrespectful towards the creators of the games

It matters more how the person who is playing enjoys the game. That is my perspective as someone with a great deal of wisdom. The creators view is important, and it is also often clouded by believing skewed perspectives like yours are an important part of the target audience.

If someone doesnt enjoy the end result of creator- ''fan'' -feedback, but they still want to play...then I definatly advise cheating/modding the game. It means they will still buy and get to enjoy most of that intended creators view, after all.

Clousephinat の投稿を引用：

On the contrary, with Ayesha in fact the first time I played I got the bad ending but instead of being frustated it gave me even more of a reason to replay the game again, and that's what I did.

The issue with Ayeshas time limit isnt the bad ending if you fail to save Nio. Its the fact that the time limit isnt abolished is you DO save her.
Saving her only for the game to suddenly end is poor design. The fact that you still enjoyed the game despite, doesnt make it less poor design.

I enjoyed Totori and Ayesha a lot. They are still my favorite Atelier games. However, there's no denying that they could be improved by lessening their time limits.

Clousephinat の投稿を引用：

Time is a concept of measure created by humans once we realized there's a time limit when it comes to our time left living, that's why when someone talks about managing time they refer to managing their time left correctly.

No, time management has to do with the flow of time. Not a ''time limit'' or ''how much is left'', but how much is available in 'periods'.

There is no inherent, final ''limit'' or deadline to time management. Time management didnt come to exist so we could manage the time left in our lives....who the hell is even capable of management that?

Time management came to exist because the sun only shines during the day. Food only grows during some seasons, and not others. In other words, not because of a limit.

Clousephinat の投稿を引用：

If we want to talk about you managing your free time correctly or not, that's another story.

All time is free time. Deadlines are a concept created by humans.