What single Atelier should I get to get into the series? Was thinking Rorona, but is there a better one?

just look up the mc's and pick which one is the cutest

rorona is the best place to start

>>712800572 (OP)
ps2 ateliers, removing common skills is a mistake.

So it's between
>rorona
>sophie
>ayesha
At least to begin with
I have zero problem with cute girls or fanservice but I'd like the game to be substantial

>>712800572 (OP)
I think Meruru is better than Rorona, but Rorona is a good place to start

>>712800572 (OP)
Rorona is definitely the best starting point.

if you start with ryza you dont have to waste your time on the other ones

>>712800572 (OP)
Rorona is the best one.

>>712801124
brahs?

>>712800572 (OP)
play the Arland trilogy, then ignore every other game in the series

>>712800572 (OP)
Rorona's my second favorite next to Totori, but I'd say Rorona is a better starting point

>>712800572 (OP)
Ryza 1, and only 1, the other games are shit

>>712800572 (OP)
Rorona let you start the Arland trilogy, the most sovlfull series Gust ever did. Can't go wrong with that.

I know to avoid Ryza and anything after because they sold out, but what's the best before that?

>>712803852
Arland Trilogy and Ayesha.

>>712804345
Why do people recommend Ayesha but never the rest of the trilogy

Steam you're drunk

Alright bros I did it

>>712804437
Ayesha is like a blend of Totori and Meruru. Starting from Escha & Logy they started making some significant changes, first of all making the time limit so long it's irrelevant in E&L and then removing it entirely in Shallie, throwing the pacing out of whack. I still enjoy them but they're much more flawed games.

>>712800572 (OP)
There's a billion atelier games, the one on PS2 are normal traditional RPG, they are clunky but enjoyable if you like the genre
Out of them the best is probably Mana Khemia which is a spinoff but it's honestly one of my most favorite games ever
The actual atelier games though only took a foothold in the English market with the PS3 (somehow) starting with the Arland Trilogy, the picture you posted is the first game of Arland Trilogy, these games have art by Kishida Mel and have a bit of fan service which gave them an unfair reputation because "anime bad", they are comfy game with good music so Rorona is a good starting point, do note that character from Rorona appears in Totori and Meruru so you'll enjoy it more as a whole if you start from Rorona
After the Arland Trilogy there's the dusk trilogy, these are a bit more serious and sad, they have AMAZING music, but the quality here kinda started to wane so by the time this trilogy ended, I was done with it, then you have the Ryza games (which don't even have a turn based battle system) and the Sophie games (which do are turn based) they all kinda mash into a blur at this point
Lastly you could try starting from the original, Atelier Marie which got a remake, it's generally considered way harder than the modern ones

OH MY SWEET SCIENCE

>>712804437
E&L has fun gameplay, but the characters and world are really bland compared to Ayesha. And Shallie just blows all around, only good thing about it is green Shallie

>>712805117
>only good thing about it is green Shallie
To be fair she's really good.

>>712805191
Didn't you have to spam this like 100 times for one of the events?

>>712805095
>australian government post
>>712805117
The problem with E&L is the fun gameplay is boss fights. So you farm boss fights with the meter you charge up that lets you manually spawn them because it's fun, but then you become incredibly overlevelled so the entire rest of the game is boring. It's pretty badly designed.
A lot of things in that game are badly designed I guess.

>>712805117
>>712805543
Are any of the game after Shallie worth bothering with? What I saw of Ryza was aggressively boring between the fights playing itself and the party literally consisting of the brain guy and the muscle guy

>>712805839
Sophie 2.

>>712805839
I liked Lydie and Suelle a lot, personally

This is Cabbage Girl please treat her well

The best Gust games are Mana Khemia and Ar Tonelico 2. Ignore Atelier. Everything after Totori plays the same way.
If you have a modded Vita, there's a full fantranslation for Ciel no Surge, which is mostly a visual novel but it's Gust's most interesting game.

>>712806437
but I already bought Rorona...

>>712806437
Ar tonelico is good but Mana Khemia is pretty average.
If you think every Atelier after Totori is the same you have brain damage.

Goddamn bros this shit is comfy to the max

>>712800572 (OP)
Only Ryza is good

>>712807314
I'm sorry OP, this will get stuck in your head forever: https://youtu.be/_5DLRiTfRXg