From what little I've played so far, the vita version has absolutely no disadvantage to it. Runs fine, native res, etc. Plus there's the added content, easy choice.
Atelier Ayesha Plus: The Alchemist Of Arland |OT| Now With Dual Audio
- Thread starter Vylash
- Start date
From what little I've played so far, the vita version has absolutely no disadvantage to it. Runs fine, native res, etc. Plus there's the added content, easy choice.
I'm new to the Atelier series as well and just started with Rorona Plus on the Vita. I thought I start there since it's the first one from the Arland games.
I don't know if there's any advantage to playing them in or out of order, but so far (finished the first 6 months) it feels pretty newcomer-friendly. The game explains the gameplay features relatively well and at least so far the time limits were very generous.
i basically tell people to start with Totori since it's the oldest game in terms of mechanics, so going from Rorona Plus to Totori and back to Meruru might feel a bit weird for some people, especially since Totori's structure is kinda lame
Lee Chaolan
Member
My Rorona Plus will already be here tomorrow. Buying me time for the 10% coupon to come out for this, I can be patient to save a few bucks. 
Like people have mentioned here before, yes it's a good starting point.
Sorry should've checked before I'm about to leave for work. Thanks for answering.
10% off code from Sony this weekend, I'm in for Ayesha Plus with bonus costumes for $36.
KojiKnight
Member
It's only for 1 weekend? Lame, I bought Danganronpa with the goal of buying Atelier with my first paycheck of the next month... now I may have to shuffle some funds to save the 10% on it... Or just say 'screw it' since it's only 4 dollars saved.
As for starting with Totori? Yeah it's not a bad place to start. While the Arland series is a trilogy, each 'episode' is still very self contained and you can treat playing an older game like you would any time you play a prequel to a game you already own.
As for starting with Totori? Yeah it's not a bad place to start. While the Arland series is a trilogy, each 'episode' is still very self contained and you can treat playing an older game like you would any time you play a prequel to a game you already own.
Oh I didn't know that. Thanks. I hope it's not too weird for me then. I probably won't switch now that I'm already several hours into Rorona Plus.
KojiKnight
Member
Totori was already an improvement on what the original Rorona was like, it's not a major downgrade, but it does play different for sure.
The difference isn't all that jarring. It's not like going from Assassin's Creed 2 to Assassin's Creed and feeling like the older game was simply a glorified tech demo.
I'm going to guess, using the above poster's example, that it's more like if AC1 was remade in a fashion that made it more like ACIV or something for where that's relevant, and so ACII's a MILD step back but hardly a big enough one to justify breaking sequence order for.
KojiKnight
Member
Having only played a little of Rorona, I can tell you the sequence break from playing Totori is pretty miniscule. You don't immediately know the cameo characters but they are all introduced well and since the primary plot is self contained you really don't miss out much.
There is less overarching plot as there are simply 'old friends' who meet up from time to time while the main protag is just having a slice of life adventure.
In other words: Don't feel bad about sequence breaking, but also don't worry too much about degraded gameplay if you play in order. Nothing about Rorona+ will ruin Totori+.
ThanksDoes playing Totori Plus make a difference in this regard? I bought all games on the Vita, so it's not from Rorona Plus back to the original Totori.
Haven't played the original Totori, so I can't speak there. I have Totori and Meruru plus on Vita, I played the original Rorona on PS3, still haven't bought + for Vita yet (waiting for a sale). I know Rorona+ plays a lot closer to Meruru+, but I also know I've gone back and forth between Totori and Meruru without issue even if it's clear Totori's gameplay is slightly less refined.
Good to hear, thanks
Huh?
Incidentally, that probably matches up pretty nicely with that hypothetical AC remake situation anyway in that you could safely skip AC1. Xenosaga or the first parts of a Telltale graphic adventure series that sure as hell isn't, and that's admittedly doubly true for Atelier far as I can tell.
EDIT: Actually, how IS the performance on average compared to the PS3 version? I guess being an RPG that had erratic performance in the first place it's not really a big deal, but still it'd be nice to know if it actually dips below the PS3 version at its very worst, and inversely if it can still hit 60 fps every so often.
terrisus
Member
Sorry >.>
KojiKnight
Member
Again, haven't played any of the series on PS3 that I've also played on Vita... but I can tell you the performance on Vita for the two I have (Totori and Meruru) is fairly inconsistent. Hovering around 30 in towns most of the time with some light drops. Battles are where it gets really inconsistent though, jumping from 60fps on close up character shots to sub-15 when huge spells are used (looking at you boss from that one Crystal Cave in Totori!!)
I'm a pretty huge framerate snob... but the action of the game is generally slow enough where it doesn't really matter. It never got so bad I wanted to stop playing, but it was never the less a niggle when it dropped really low with some of those spells I mentioned.
Friday at the earliest, and only if I can convince my wife that the $4 saved is worth allowing me to have my allowance a week early.
Well it looks like it still isn't up this week for Asia. We will be getting Escha & Logy Plus in Japanese tomorrow though...
But my Japanese still isn't good enough
Dammit KT.
Edit: Escha & Logy Plus is up, and no sign of Ayesha Plus English.
Suzushiiro
Banned
Thanks
The only "plus" Atelier that's a significant change from the original is Rorona- all the others are basically straight ports of the PS3 version with all DLC included and maybe a few minor changes (the most notable being an additional ending for Meruru, which I believe was actually patched in to the Japanese PS3 version.)
Probably talking about how it's basically an achievement point grind for the first few in-game years- where you easily hit the requirement and thus have no solid goals until a certain game time when you rank to whatever the second-to-last rank was and can start building the boat, no less. Compare that to the other modern Ateliers where the time-based things are either more spread out (Rorona, Escha&Logy) or don't exist and you can pretty much complete all objectives as fast as you can do what's necessary to unlock them (Meruru, Ayesha.)
KojiKnight
Member
Just got word from my boss that my promotion will be put through by the beginning of next month... Hoping that news will be enough to let my wife give me my allowance today <_< She's too busy sleeping right now. I had planned to plow through Meruru leading up till when I can buy the other since I still haven't beaten it (and I do want to eventually platinum Totori as well) but life got in the way.
Atelier games are both my guilty pleasure and my secret hate -_-
Atelier games are both my guilty pleasure and my secret hate -_-
waifu night confirmed?
my main issue is that it's just "here's a list of things, you have 3 years, good luck!" which is kinda blah, still a great game but i wish the structure was more focused like Rorona and Meruru
if I hold everyone to their word, it'll be waifu night with around 5-6 people
D
Deleted member 20920
Unconfirmed Member
Just got the game. Ayesha's Japanese voice is quite pleasant. I usually played with English voices as I couldn't stand the Japanese voices of Rorona and Totori. Only complaint so far would be that the text is too small in some instances. I'm not getting any younger so neither are my eyes.
KojiKnight
Member
Juris, you swag motherfucker. Optional bosses done on Hard so I don't have to make a second run. woot
Marina Inoue is pretty darn great, yep
alright
Marina Inoue is pretty darn great, yep
Wife still hasn't gotten off work. I assure you, I'm going to try my best
alright
Hikami
Member
Finally bought this with the 10% off.
First time playing an Atelier game so, hoping I enjoy it.
Only like an hour in but, can't believe I've been pronouncing Ayesha wrong this whole time..
Not sure if I want to go with English or Japanese voices, they both sound great to me.
Also, do I have to play on Hard mode to platinum the game?
First time playing an Atelier game so, hoping I enjoy it.
Only like an hour in but, can't believe I've been pronouncing Ayesha wrong this whole time..
Not sure if I want to go with English or Japanese voices, they both sound great to me.
Also, do I have to play on Hard mode to platinum the game?
yeah, you gotta
there's only one trophy in the set that requires you to be on Hard mode. difficulty is locked in. everything else can be done on Normal.
hard mode is standalone. while there's a NG+, there's no way to carry new equipment and shit to hard mode
basically hard -> normal and normal -> normal is all for carry overs
KojiKnight
Member
.... It has been done.
Sadly I don't think it'll finish downloading before I have to go into work T_T
Sadly I don't think it'll finish downloading before I have to go into work T_T
wtf
sis, I got you
when you start writing down memories and dropping some knowledge, getting less items become a nonissue
Instead of getting 2 or 3 items for a synth, you'll get 1 or 2. You get plenty of bonuses from reaching memories though.
I just NEARLY 100%'d the game about an hour ago. Didn't realize I had to play it on hard mode for one of the new trophies. .___.
since the game ain't leaving my memory card, I'm gonna do a NG+ run one day and see how easier the optional bosses are
Gust fucked up. Could have added a page in the album and include a hard mode only set that included those bosses for another trophy. It's mean but yeah, fun.
D
Deleted member 20920
Unconfirmed Member
She does have her high pitch moments but much more tolerable than Rorona's and Totori's. Not a dig at the voice actresses of the two but there's only so much of that high pitch, quivering sort of voice that I can stomach.
I love Mai Kadowaki but I couldn't play Atelier Rorona in Japanese longer than an hour because of that. Everything was fucking voiced and with that voice? Hell no. Haven't played an Atelier game with Japanese voices since. And when the hell was that? Like 2010? Half a decade ago and I still won't change my stance.
KojiKnight
Member
I've actually always adored the dub cast for the Atelier series, competent translation, competent writing, competent voice artists, and competent voice direction is sadly still all too rare of a thing. There are obviously still 'awkward' moments due to how heavy handed the original Japanese was, but it's one of the few series I feel I completely prefer dub to original. (not a snob that prefers sub, most times I'm pretty indifferent).
Just got off work, torn between going to bed and putting in an hour or two first. Probably the former since everyone at home is still asleep (damn day walkers!).
I guess I still have some big questions to ask of myself before I want to start... like if I want to try and 100% it in as few tries as possible (IE starting on hard mode and using a guide), or if I just want to wing it like Totori (which, embarassingly, took me 3 playthroughs to get the normal ending and several weeks of additional time in breaks because the count down clock, while generous, stressed me out).
I promised Totori I'd return one day and platinum her... It'd be my first platinum and I can't think of a better game to do it on... and poor Meruru is still neglected... ahh such is the price of progress/lack of free time.
Just got off work, torn between going to bed and putting in an hour or two first. Probably the former since everyone at home is still asleep (damn day walkers!).
I guess I still have some big questions to ask of myself before I want to start... like if I want to try and 100% it in as few tries as possible (IE starting on hard mode and using a guide), or if I just want to wing it like Totori (which, embarassingly, took me 3 playthroughs to get the normal ending and several weeks of additional time in breaks because the count down clock, while generous, stressed me out).
I promised Totori I'd return one day and platinum her... It'd be my first platinum and I can't think of a better game to do it on... and poor Meruru is still neglected... ahh such is the price of progress/lack of free time.
you can't follow a PS3 guide and expect to follow it day by day because of the whole get less items making stuff drawback. you will always fall behind because you can't hand in requests in time as the guide tells you.
say you're supposed to hand in 3 Ayesha body pillows as a request from a stalker (I'm just making this up) in Vierzeberg in Y2 8/10. That won't happen because you've been handing in requests already and those have been handed in late as well. If it took 2 days to make three things on Normal then you're taking at least 3 days to make at least three on Hard. I suspect that when a guide tells you to go to X and finish the travel task (beat all enemies and gather Y times to unlock a new area), you can't kill mobs because they're way too strong. You might have to ignore doing that goal until way later. Item prices are also a killer. You might not be able to buy all recipe books at once since you'd be broke otherwise. Maybe the Ayesha body pillow recipe is found on a book worth 7k but you only have 8k on you. Will you spend nearly all your money on Ayesha body pillows? Tune in. All the changes for Hard affect time in a way so I wouldn't be surprised to see you follow a guide and be off by a month or two.
So here's what I'd do. Don't follow a guide. That's really boring anyway as nodes on the world map and travel shortcut lists have an exclamation mark denoting events. Only Wilbell, Regina and Linca require 80 friendship, Juris at 15 and Keith at 0. Switch your party around to get their events done. You might wanna look up at Keith's events because you can lock yourself out of his ending completely if you're hasty and you progess through near endgame without doing his pre-Y3 events first. Linca's 2nd set of events is closely tied to Juris' final events so that's another note.
Make those gloves, boots and I guess basket right away. Definitely the first two as they directly save gathering and travelling time.
You can get the Plat on the first run. It's possible since I did it. If not, at least two runs. First on Hard and since you can NG+, your normal run should be much faster.
say you're supposed to hand in 3 Ayesha body pillows as a request from a stalker (I'm just making this up) in Vierzeberg in Y2 8/10. That won't happen because you've been handing in requests already and those have been handed in late as well. If it took 2 days to make three things on Normal then you're taking at least 3 days to make at least three on Hard. I suspect that when a guide tells you to go to X and finish the travel task (beat all enemies and gather Y times to unlock a new area), you can't kill mobs because they're way too strong. You might have to ignore doing that goal until way later. Item prices are also a killer. You might not be able to buy all recipe books at once since you'd be broke otherwise. Maybe the Ayesha body pillow recipe is found on a book worth 7k but you only have 8k on you. Will you spend nearly all your money on Ayesha body pillows? Tune in. All the changes for Hard affect time in a way so I wouldn't be surprised to see you follow a guide and be off by a month or two.
So here's what I'd do. Don't follow a guide. That's really boring anyway as nodes on the world map and travel shortcut lists have an exclamation mark denoting events. Only Wilbell, Regina and Linca require 80 friendship, Juris at 15 and Keith at 0. Switch your party around to get their events done. You might wanna look up at Keith's events because you can lock yourself out of his ending completely if you're hasty and you progess through near endgame without doing his pre-Y3 events first. Linca's 2nd set of events is closely tied to Juris' final events so that's another note.
Make those gloves, boots and I guess basket right away. Definitely the first two as they directly save gathering and travelling time.
You can get the Plat on the first run. It's possible since I did it. If not, at least two runs. First on Hard and since you can NG+, your normal run should be much faster.