The Atelier series

[GamerCat_]

Playing some Iris. Neat that it's a JRPG working in so many eccentric domestic systems and ideas. Making stuff, collaborating with stores, collecting things, but the central JRPG framing element is of less interest to me. Does the series kind of go back and forth on this or aspire to be more of a JRPG than a management game after the first titles?

And of course, Iris is a beautiful game.



Stock popular fashion elements in disposable pop-media of the time absolutely blow anything we're doing now out of the water. It's so idyllic and dreamy and clean and nice. It moves me to yearning. I might keep playing this. Probably a spiritually healthier way to fill time than most other video games.

 

[Polvo]

Playing some Iris. Neat that it's a JRPG working in so many eccentric domestic systems and ideas. Making stuff, collaborating with stores, collecting things, but the central JRPG framing element is of less interest to me. Does the series kind of go back and forth on this or aspire to be more of a JRPG than a management game after the first titles?

In its immediate successors it unfortunately leans way more into being a bog-standard JRPG. Was especially disappointed to see they didn't keep store synthesis in 2, for example. No experience with later entries, though. For the record, Iris 1 is my favorite Atelier (of the few I've played), and one of my favorite JRPGs, too. Only real knock against it is nothing in the game itself, but with the piss-poor NISA "localization", buggy and disrespectful to the source material (as all NISA releases are).

 

[GamerCat_]

Playing some Iris. Neat that it's a JRPG working in so many eccentric domestic systems and ideas. Making stuff, collaborating with stores, collecting things, but the central JRPG framing element is of less interest to me. Does the series kind of go back and forth on this or aspire to be more of a JRPG than a management game after the first titles?

In its immediate successors it unfortunately leans way more into being a bog-standard JRPG. Was especially disappointed to see they didn't keep store synthesis in 2, for example. No experience with later entries, though. For the record, Iris 1 is my favorite Atelier (of the few I've played), and one of my favorite JRPGs, too. Only real knock against it is nothing in the game itself, but with the piss-poor NISA "localization", buggy and disrespectful to the source material (as all NISA releases are).

Maybe I'm just easy to please but I've really enjoyed the script and acting so far. Feels exactly like I think it ought to. The tone is what I feel looking at the anime OP they made for the game. The spirit of that kind of anime. Lightness, humour, mischief, world full of promise. The kind of vaguely adolescent cast are balanced in their performances, pleasingly young and apart from the older cast, but without becoming obnoxious or puerile.

I feel like a lot maybe could go wrong in adapting something like this, but nothing has actually bothered me yet. So far I'm very, very pleased.