[h1] Extensive review of the Entire Arland-Series [/h1]
[h3] Introduction [/h3]
I like playing franchises chronologically, so I started with Atelier Marie Remake, which is the first game in the Atelier-series. But as the other games are not available on Steam, my first real experience with the Atelier-Series was with the Arland-Quatrology.
In my opinion Marie is actually a really good starting point, as it introduced the Alchemy-system, which Atelier is famous for, without making it too complicated. It was a cute little game, that can be beaten in under 20 hours.
Gameplay it was a seemless transition from Marie to Rorona, as both use the same Alchemy-system, but it was just improved and expanded upon, so there were no issues there.
[h3] Gameplay [/h3]
While playing through Rorona-Totori-Meruru was a mostly seemless experience (Totori was a small downgrade in comparison to Rorona, as Rorona was apparently a Remake and not a Remaster as the other two), but I got used to it relatively quickly, Lulua is where my problems were.
[h3] Characters [/h3]
Considering Atelier Lulua is (probably) the final game of the Arland Series, they should have brought more characters back. So many characters are missing (Gio, Cordelia, Astrid, Esty, Iksel, Hagel and many more, to many to list them all) and some characters that are in the game are not playable for whatever reason, like Mimi, Jeltje.
Another weird thing is, that they changed to the voice actor of Keina for whatever reason. It was weird booting up Lulua after Meruru and hearing her voice being different.
[h3] Plot/Story [/h3]
While earlier games had a relatively simple story, this changed with Lulua. Time travel plays a big role. They first introduced it in the DX-content of Rorona, which released in Decemeber 2018 (Lulua was 100% in development back then). Astrid played a significant role in the post-game content. She was also teased to have an important role in a sequel in the true ending of Meruru, which was also introduced with the DX-remaster.
While it's nice, that Piana is in the game, it feels like, that Astrid should have been the mentor of Lulua. It's would have fit more with the theme of the game being time travel and also her finally taking things seriously, that was teased at the end of Meruru.
Even after playing all 4 games, there are still some open questions:
[olist]
[*]Why is Astrid not in the game? Before it was revealed, I was 100% convinced, that Astrid wrote the Alchemyriddle, as she is the only truly capable Alchemist in Arland.
[*]Why is Gio not in the game? Sterk said, that he finally beat Gio, but it should have been in this game, as this was a reacuring plot-point for Sterk since Rorona.
[*]What happened to Alanya? Why is it not in this game? Totori mentioned it once, but I find it really weird, that every major location from the earlier games are present in Lulua except Alanya.
[*]Is it just me or does this game feel incomplete? Is there any more information I can find about Lulua? Basically there is so much missing content and nothing has been wrapped up, it doesn't feel like the final game of the series. The first three Arland games felt complete and had a good ending but I don't feel the same about Lulua.
[/olist]
[h3] Endword [/h3]
But unfortunately, considering I could barely find any information about Lulua on the internet (there is only one guide), the older games had a lot more information you could find, Atelier Lulua probably did not sell well.
And also despite me not having played them yet, I know, that the franchise blew up in popularity with the release of Ryza, which was the next game after Lulua, so it's very unlikely that we will ever see a return of the Arland-Series again.
But if it happens, a prequel playing as Astrid (when Sterk and Astrid worked together) would be really cool.
