Man, I do not vibe with the story as of yet.

[Taigane]

I was super excited about the new atelier game, but after trying out, it really goes hard on certain themes I very much dislike. Have spent a bit more of an hour now, and frankly been just feeling miserable playing through it, don't think I can make myself play through it on the full release. Hope others like the story themes more than me though.

[larcek]

doesn't feel very dark so far though. we had previous entries like the dusk trilogy where the world was actually heading to ruin. we've only seen some tidbits here and there, so i feel it's too early to give a final impression on the story. but comparing to other titles in the atelier series as a whole, i won't expect some very deep or dark plot overall.

[Tasty]

It really doesnt feel like atelier does it?

[Taigane]

Originally posted by larcek:

doesn't feel very dark so far though. we had previous entries like the dusk trilogy where the world was actually heading to ruin. we've only seen some tidbits here and there, so i feel it's too early to give a final impression on the story. but comparing to other titles in the atelier series as a whole, i won't expect some very deep or dark plot overall.

Honestly was proilly a bit vague with the initial statement due to not wanting to spoil stuff too hard, I wouldn't honestly have minded if that was really the case but, I think just the hard heavy discrimination from the get go even from the one of the initial party members, when the main character is really tries her hard to help people. just really doesn't want to make me want to interact with the people of the world as much. I understand people enjoying that kind of story line, but I can't vibe with it.

[Visi]

Originally posted by Taigane:

Originally posted by larcek:

doesn't feel very dark so far though. we had previous entries like the dusk trilogy where the world was actually heading to ruin. we've only seen some tidbits here and there, so i feel it's too early to give a final impression on the story. but comparing to other titles in the atelier series as a whole, i won't expect some very deep or dark plot overall.

Honestly was proilly a bit vague with the initial statement due to not wanting to spoil stuff too hard, I wouldn't honestly have minded if that was really the case but, I think just the hard heavy discrimination from the get go even from the one of the initial party members, when the main character is really tries her hard to help people. just really doesn't want to make me want to interact with the people of the world as much. I understand people enjoying that kind of story line, but I can't vibe with it.

Totally fair take, but I couldn't disagree more lol. The beauty of different opinions. Shame though, maybe you'll like the next one more.

[Moga CMDR]

I appreciate they spun things around. While I understand that some may not like it, I am not against it.

I'm sure you will change some NPC's views as you progress through the game, and even very early on, you have one friendly person. That's all I need.

Personally, I wouldn't be so down and out so quickly. RPGs take some time to brew.

[Taigane]

Totally fair take, but I couldn't disagree more lol. The beauty of different opinions. Shame though, maybe you'll like the next one more.

Completely understandable, I know that the payoff for that kind of storyline can be super satisfying for a lot of people, I just don't think I can enjoy the route until that point.

And not sure if I can justify spending 70 euro when the first impression just made me feel depressed, and unsure if I'd enjoy the game long term. At least I can enjoy the fanart of some great character designs for a long time to come LMAO.

[Taigane]

Originally posted by Moga CMDR:

I appreciate they spun things around. While I understand that some may not like it, I am not against it.

I'm sure you will change some NPC's views as you progress through the game, and even very early on, you have one friendly person. That's all I need.

Personally, I wouldn't be so down and out so quickly. RPGs take some time to brew.

Yeah I don't think everyone against it, it's just some themes that hits me rather hard in a bad way, so I just think this particular game won't be for me, but honestly it has gotten me in the mood to play Ryza again LMAO.

[Ryuukaze]

Yeah, being an outcast that's being put up with because they want something from you... Feels bad.

But I'm sure that changes by the end of the game, and I'm here for the crafting first and foremost, so I'll just deal with it.

It definitely feels different, with everyone hating alchemy, unlike the rest of the Atelier series.

[Taigane]

Originally posted by Ryuukaze:

Yeah, being an outcast that's being put up with because they want something from you... Feels bad.

But I'm sure that changes by the end of the game, and I'm here for the crafting first and foremost, so I'll just deal with it.

It definitely feels different, with everyone hating alchemy, unlike the rest of the Atelier series.

Yeeaaah, It's definitely a different feel, I think the problem while it might be very different for a atelier game, it ends up going into one of the most overused tropes used in manga recently, the whole "This certain thing is hated/bad that protag is, but proves everyone wrong" which let's be honest, IS EVERYWHERE, and I hate that trope sooo ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ much LMAO, but that's just my opinion on it, there are plenty of people that likes that kind of storyline, else it wouldn't be as popular as it is.

[Cat]

I'm right there with you right now, I am gonna try progressing the demo more but the part where you get trashed for helping people left me feeling miserable, like why do I even help you then? And if the theme is gonna be "you'll be yelled at for existing until you prove useful and everyone wrong will like you now" tropes then I'm not down for that either. It's not only so old by now but actually miserable to play. Atelier games are fun and often very wholesome, I'd rather not it turn into yet another miserable game for the sake of being more dark and mature or whatever it is people attach to these types of stories.

I'm willing to give the game a chance, but I'll be honest in that I wasn't expecting this when I saw a new atelier game was coming out. My excitement is dulled quite a bit.

[Ryuukaze]

By the end of the demo, it already seemed like your team and the big boss appreciated you, even if everyone else was still being awful. So it seemed like it was progressing pretty quickly.

[Moga CMDR]

Originally posted by Ryuukaze:

By the end of the demo, it already seemed like your team and the big boss appreciated you, even if everyone else was still being awful. So it seemed like it was progressing pretty quickly.

Yeah, I think some people are overstating things. This is nothing like those misery sims that people fetishize.

I get being tired of the sad panda stuff. I don't see this being the same.

[jclosed]

I honestly see nothing wrong with the story line. Yumia lives in a world that's harsh for those that practice Alchemy. So naturally she starts at the bottom and gets lots of negativity pointed to her.

But the story is not about that misery. It's about climbing out of that black hole and gain respect and acceptance for what she is. It's a story how she makes her life better by proving herself. It's about climbing from the dark into the bright light.

I personally like these kind of story's. And to be honest - Apart from the start it's about the same story as in other Atelier games. The Alchemist starts as a small limited Alchemist and starts to grow and gains recognition from the people around her. That growth will in this case lead to acceptation, better treatment, respect and friendliness. What's not to like here?

This is, of course, a personal opinion. I am looking forward to see how it all plays out.

[Taigane]

Originally posted by jclosed:

I honestly see nothing wrong with the story line. Yumia lives in a world that's harsh for those that practice Alchemy. So naturally she starts at the bottom and gets lots of negativity pointed to her.

But the story is not about that misery. It's about climbing out of that black hole and gain respect and acceptance for what she is. It's a story how she makes her life better by proving herself. It's about climbing from the dark into the bright light.

I personally like these kind of story's. And to be honest - Apart from the start it's about the same story as in other Atelier games. The Alchemist starts as a small limited Alchemist and starts to grow and gains recognition from the people around her. That growth will in this case lead to acceptation, better treatment, respect and friendliness. What's not to like here?

This is, of course, a personal opinion. I am looking forward to see how it all plays out.

I don't think anything you say is wrong, and don't think I ever said that the story itself about misery, and honestly, some misery can be good here and there (my favorite VN is Utawarerumono, holy crap that turns dark)

But it's important to consider the tools the author's use to tell this story and now I'm in the mood to touch on that.

And here comes my main problem, its how they use the general populace of the world.

So lets consider Yumia first, A genuine good person and hard worker, seemingly hasn't done anything wrong else as the boss of the expedition mentioned, she would likely already be in jail, so the main point of contention is the fact she's a alchemist, yeah fair.

Alright, so now to everyone else, so why do they dislike alchemy? The fact that it's forbidden and it caused the ruin of a kingdom, how did it do that, no one knows (main point of the whole expedition is to find out how it happened), do they understand alchemy, very much not, has yumia done anything to them, nope.

So the people of the world are extremely prejudice of the character we follow and treats her extremely badly, but tolerates making use of her cause they need her.

So me, as a player, that heavily dislikes peoples that discriminates and treats people badly due to not even trying to understand them, while thinking it's completely okay, is not encouraged to interact with the people of the world, and the game made it clear that party members are not exempt from this.

Which if we continue on this further, makes me not particularly excited about continuing the story and meeting other new characters.

People starting to treat her well after being cruel to her after they start to understand her is not satisfying either, so the carthatis I want is not there either.

So in the end, it ends up being a extremely unwelcoming world to explore.

[Ryuukaze]

I thought they made it pretty clear that everyone, including Yumia, believes that Alchemy basically ruined the world.

Enough time seems to have passed that the exact nature of that ruination is lost, and it's all just passed down by word-of-mouth, which is pretty common in chaotic societies, such as what would exist after a world-wide disaster that ruined civilization.

The trope for these stories, IMO, is usually that the verbal lore is spectacularly wrong for some reason. Often, the thing that's blamed turns out to have been working against the ruination in reality, and was given a bum rap.

I expected there to be at least a couple twists along the way in relation to that.

Anyhow, my problem is still how people are treating Yumia, and by extension, the player, since they identify with her most of all. Even though I know the story is going to take care of it eventually, I'm really not enjoying that part of the story. I feel like they probably could have toned that down quite a bit without losing the message. Maybe show anger that she's going to use alchemy, instead of the witch-hunt and constant fear that she's "going to put a curse" on people for upsetting them. Which isn't even something alchemists can do... Though that does show the incredible level of ignorance that people have about alchemy now.

Thankfully, as I said above, it seems like it's going to be pretty short-lived in the story.