Nintendo 3DS

[Exhuminator]

Yes it's a remake of EO2, with added story and remade graphics just as Untold was.

[Tanooki]

Ive never touched an Atlier game either, the style of it just looked completely not my thing, much like how I detest and avoid streategic based RPGs. EO though looks odd, a mix of the old dungeon mapping 1st person RPG crawler mixed with rogue types and other junk. I probably should be a jerk and download one of the DS releases and fire it up in NO$GBA and see if it's something I could dig. 3DS releases are getting light with New3DS coming so it would be a good time to strike on a cheap miss of yesterday.

[alienjesus]

Mmm. Just like the Atelier games. They're solid games, but I'm not sure we need a new game (and remake!) every single year.

This is true of most everything related to Compile Heart / Gust / Idea Factory / NIS. A massive over-saturation of lackluster games.

I've only played one game in the Atelier series, but I certainly wouldn't call it lackluster.

It really isn't a series than needs annual releases though.

[Sarge]

I've only played through Atelier Iris, and it's pretty darn good. I've also got the second, but it didn't grab me in quite the same way. I haven't touched the third, it's a different game structurally from the first two.

I haven't bought a single one for PS3... I pass over a lot of the second-tier RPGs these days, after having almost kept up with all the RPGs in the PSX/PS2 era. I think I just got burned out keeping up.

[ZeroAX]

I see the Atelier games in shops but the boxart makes them seem lacking in the "epicness" factor, which is what I usually look for in a JRPG. What are the games like?

[Exhuminator]

The games may or may not be good, but the naming system is just confusing.

Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky
Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland
Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland
Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk
Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland
Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland

What game is a sequel to what game here?

Here Gust, I'll help with the next title...

Atelier Rotoruru: The Wizardess of Duskitty Arderpdoo

[BoneSnapDeez]

I see the Atelier games in shops but the boxart makes them seem lacking in the "epicness" factor, which is what I usually look for in a JRPG. What are the games like?

Hot anime girls.

I feel as if the market has been flooded with these "otaku bait" JRPGs of late. Create some sexy anime characters, make sure they're featured prominently on the box art, craft a game with dull cut-and-paste rehashed environments from previous entries, and then pad the overall length with hours of grinding and tedious "item-crafting" to create an illusion of epicness. Profit!

To be fair, I do like some of the games created by the offending developers. The first Hyperdimension Neptunia is charming and features a great "console wars" storyline. Time and Eternity, which got destroyed by the critics, is pretty as hell and quite entertaining. Even some of the Atelier entries are decent - I especially like the one on DS.

But by and large this stuff is quite dull. And we're starting to see these games intrude more and more into the handheld market.

I'd love to see these developers create something unique and creative - which I'm sure they're capable of doing - instead of rehashing this same nonsense time and again.

[Sarge]

Are the Atelier games really focused on the "hot" factor, though? They look girlish, but not the usual otaku-bait, at least from what I can tell. Not that I can give an informed opinion, having just stated I haven't played the PS3 entries...

There's definitely ones that deal in that, though, and those are the ones I generally skip. I mean, I can usually deal with it, but the quality factor is generally not there, so the pandering is used to make up for the egregious flaws.

[alienjesus]

I see the Atelier games in shops but the boxart makes them seem lacking in the "epicness" factor, which is what I usually look for in a JRPG. What are the games like?

If you're looking for epicness, these are not your game. They have way more down to earth plots based on the goals of one character (in the one I played, finding her missing mother) rather than saving the universe from a terrible cataclysm.

The games may or may not be good, but the naming system is just confusing.

Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky
Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland
Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland
Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk
Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland
Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland

What game is a sequel to what game here?

Not totally clear if this is a genuine question or not, but just in case:

Atelier Rorona, Atelier Totori and Atelier Meruru are a trilogy (although they can be played on their own). Atelier Rorona Plus is a remake of the first in that trilogy and the same goes for Totori Plus and Meruru Plus.

Atelier Ayesha is set in a different world from my understanding, and the sequel to it is Atelier Escha and Logy, followed by the upcoming Atelier Shallie(?)

The naming scheme is confusing, but is it really any worse than the likes of Tales of Phantasia/Tales of Eternia/Tales of Symphonia etc? Or even Final Fantasy - an outsider would be just as confused about the lineage and which games are sequels there too.

Hot anime girls.

To be fair, I do like some of the games created by the offending developers. The first Hyperdimension Neptunia is charming and features a great "console wars" storyline. Time and Eternity, which got destroyed by the critics, is pretty as hell and quite entertaining. Even some of the Atelier entries are decent - I especially like the one on DS.

I found that compared to most other JRPGs there's quite a lack of fanservice pandering in the Atelier game I played. The character was presented as a young girl, not a sex symbol. It doesn't even come close to the likes of Hyperdimension Neptunia, Disgaea, Trinity Universe and the likes you're talking about in how pandering it is to a ...certain demographic.

[Exhuminator]

The naming scheme is confusing, but is it really any worse than the likes of Tales of Phantasia/Tales of Eternia/Tales of Symphonia etc?

Yes, it is worse.

But I think it's just a Gust convention. I mean, Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel sure does roll off the tongue.