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| - The Atelier series is a series of fourteen (or twenty, depending on how you count them) RPGs developed by Gust Corporation of Japan, with some localized by Nippon Ichi Software. The franchise had been exclusive to Japan (with Atelier Marie, Elie, Lilie, Judie, and Violet) until the release of the first game in the Iris trilogy in the United States in 2005. Its most recent North America-released iteration is Atelier Meruru. The series also possesses a brief manga depicting some Alternate Universe adventures between the first two heroines, brought to America courtesy of Tokyopop.
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| abstract
| - The Atelier series is a series of fourteen (or twenty, depending on how you count them) RPGs developed by Gust Corporation of Japan, with some localized by Nippon Ichi Software. The franchise had been exclusive to Japan (with Atelier Marie, Elie, Lilie, Judie, and Violet) until the release of the first game in the Iris trilogy in the United States in 2005. Its most recent North America-released iteration is Atelier Meruru. The series also possesses a brief manga depicting some Alternate Universe adventures between the first two heroines, brought to America courtesy of Tokyopop. Based around the concept of the "atelier", or "artist's workshop", the main character in the games is usually an alchemist looking to be the greatest in her field (or his, for the Atelier Iris and Mana Khemia sub-series). Item Crafting is a major component of every game in the series, as the player is tasked with finding ingredients and recipes to create new items/spells. The earlier games are rather famous in Japan for being very different from other RPGs of the day, with the item crafting and single-city-interaction focus. These differences, however, kept them out of the Western eye during the 90s and early 2000s, and after a few not-as-great sequels and after the rest of the industry began to judiciously "borrow" certain gameplay elements from it, the series' fortunes fell somewhat. The PSX-era games are still fondly remembered in Japan, however, and are often held up as an example that the Japanese game industry is still capable of innovation. (Though, granted, at 15 years old there's a debate to be had about just how valid a "recent" example the series is now...) The series' fairly impressive release list is as follows, in release order, with U.S. releases bolded:
* Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg PSX/Saturn/PC/PS2/PSN (1997)
* Atelier Elie: The Alchemist of Salburg 2 PSX/PC/PS2/PSN (late 1998)
* Atelier Lilie: The Alchemist of Salburg 3 PS2 (2001)
* Marie & Elie: Our Atelier Wonderswan Color (2001)
* Not to be confused with the compilation of the first two games under a similar name (Atelier Marie & Elie) on the Dreamcast, released in 2000
* Helmina & Culus: Atelier Lilie Another Story PS2 (2001)
* Atelier Judie: The Alchemist of Gramnad PS2/PSP (2002/2010)
* Atelier Viorate Violet: The Alchemist of Gramnad 2 PS2/PSP (2003/2011)
* Atelier Marie, Elie & Anise: Message On The Breeze GBA (2003)
* Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana PS2 (2004/2005)
* Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth Of Destiny PS2 (2005/2006)
* Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm PS2 (2006/2007)
* Atelier Lise Liese: The Alchemist of Orde NDS (2007)
* Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis PS2/PSP (2007/2008)
* Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy PS2/PSP (2008/2009)
* Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island NDS (2009)
* Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland PS3 (2009/2010)
* Atelier Lina: The Alchemist of Schtrole NDS (2009)
* Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland PS3 (2010/2011)
* Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland PS3 (2011/2012)
* Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of the Ground of Dusk PS3 (Release pending, June 2012) It's worth mentioning that the first two Salburg games, Marie in particular, have been re-released and re-made on more platforms than we can list here. Some of those platforms aren't even available outside Japan. Yeah, this series is more than merely popular there.
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