After playing Atelier Iris 3, I started looking into the origins of the Atelier series, since most of the games were never ported over to the west. The gameplay philosophy in the Iris trilogy has shifted away from the the earlier series (Atelier Marie/Elie/Lilie/etc. and their sequels/spinoffs/sidestories), which are more like hybrid RPG/life simulation games set in a fantasy-European setting. The heroines attend alchemy academy, take alchemy exams, spend money on lab equipment and textbooks (I bet they were a ripoff even in a fictional universe), help townsfolk, gather ingredients from the countryside, and wind up with multiple possible endings based on performance over the 5 years of school. [Quick aside - does this sound a bit like Harry Potter? It turns out that the artist for the original games, Ohse Kohime, loves some Harry Potter as well.]
Another difference is that there is some continuity between some of the older titles, unlike the Iris series which consists of 3 completely independent universes. Also peculiar is that the entire Iris series doesn’t feature the titular female as the main character. Instead, Iris is a side-character (or a playable one in AI3) in each game, and the main characters are male (Klein/Felt/Edge). I think the character designer has changed too, as the art has a different style – less shoujo, I guess.
Gust actually released a combined PS2 remake of the first two games (Marie/Elie) in 2005, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like it will ever be released here. The next Atelier game, Atelier Lise, came out recently for the DS, and looks incredibly cutesy. Apparently the gameplay leans more towards the traditional games than the Iris series. No clue whether it will be ported over to the States, though.
Update: Finished AI3! As expected, the main plot line was decidedly trivial. The real lure of the game is in the sidestories and alchemy system. Completing the game unlocks an Extras menu, where the Japanese voice actors each get a lengthy voice clip talking about random stuff. Too bad I couldn’t understand half of what they were saying, since there were no subtitles. Some seiyuu would try to stay in character (lol Phenyl) while others would revert to their normal voices, which was amusing.
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Ender – who has written 219 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
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You’ve already finished AI3? Wow. I’m only at about 12 hours… and I’ve even been playing a lot these past few days.
Is this JP only? Sounds like lots of fun [for me anyways XD]!
Lol, so you like the Atelier series, too? I remember playing Atelier Marie a while back, a relative from China gave me Marie and Iris along with Summon Night (which was brand new at the time, I think). They contributed to my learning moonlanguage a fair bit (motivated me). IIRC, I think Tristia of the Deep Blue Sea is kinda similar (the people helping stuff and mix in with a visual novel).