atelier marie remake was good like really good and an especially great lesson in lesbianism and since this version of OG atelier marie was included into the game I was like ok why not just play that too it's not gonna be that bad

it wasn't that bad !

I was pretty surprised at how faithful the remake ended up being most of the games elements from the story to the events to the combat system to the entire alchemy system were translated into the modern era and I'm pretty glad they did it like this because now this version is completely obsolete and can be left to die /j

the loop is still the same marie sucks at alchemy so she gets an atelier for 5 years to do something good so go around town gather items talk to people and do side quests theres that

while most of the elements were toned down to just a click of a button which is a shame since going around the gathering spots is actually one of my fav parts in atelier I gotta say the gameplay was already strong as shit with this one it's so intoxicatingly good I think I finished it in 2 sittings and I didnt think it was this short anyway

the art style was definitely a product of its age but its soooooo charming I don't get it it has that 80s anime flair I really like it's so so good

something that I found weird was the fact that this game is actually way more difficult than the remake like I was getting my ass beaten again and again and again in the first 1 or 2 years ingame but then it smoothes out quite well I gotta say

so yeah not that intricate of a game and definitely not as good as the remake but it was cool revisiting the roots of the franchise now I'm more excited to explore the other stuff

I got the normal ending I was SOOOO bad at this version don't talk to me

While technically I played the ps2 translated release of this, I have only played Marie so far, and as such wanted to review only Marie, my understanding is this is pretty much the same thing with the ps2 having better graphics.

I had never played any game in the atelier series before, in fact I only recently learned of its existence through a tweet by Koei Tecmo. I always like to try and start a series from its beginnings, and boy am I glad I did on this one.

One very interesting thing about playing a game that never formally made it to the states is that its very hard to find any sort of guide, which I actually enjoyed, normally its too easy to find answers online, and none of my questions here were to bad.

Now for why this game didn't get 5 stars from me. There were some things about it that were a bit obtuse to me, especially the rumor system. I had (incorrectly) assumed that rumors would just be like hints I could buy, but after year 3 and still not finding quite a few materials I eventually found the answer online, I had to buy rumors. The gameplay loop itself was quite addicting I thought, especially how difficult it was to get started, and then how much the game changes once you get your foot holding and know the ins and outs.

I still am unsure what the castle was supposed to be for, or both of them for that matter, I got the ticket for the castle at the very end, went in and could only talk to the king who had nothing to say, and then the outer castle never had anything for me either.

Perhaps this is my own shortcomings as I never finished the tower.

In the end I got the Researcher ending, I think after a short break I will start atelier Ellie. I hope I enjoy it just as much as this one.

Really liked it, at first you feel like you aren't progressing and you only get beaten up. But then with time you make some money, fame and skills in both combat and alchemy and it ends up being a very fun journey.

I actually only played this Atelier and Ryza 1 before at the point of writing this review and I wouldn't have expected to like it more than Ryza, while I enjoyed Ryza plenty, I felt like the simplicity behind Atelier Marie's core loop is what attracted me the most.

You have a 5-year time limit but the game isn't pushing you to be fast, I actually finished everything I wanted to do in 4 years, so just enjoy your daily life as an alchemist, I personally had so much fun having people knock at my door for special events related to services I did previously for other people, which in return made me more famous and made more people asking for help, I feel like this is something we lost in recent games, or maybe this is because of Ryza's plot ? While she helps people in the long run, she doesn't interact much with the average person.

In the end the two flaws I could find are the bosses, while you hear about them, nothing really happen while you fight them or after, I know Atelier isn't your typical hero saving the world type of rpg, but there's not a single dialogue related to defeating them and that's a bit of a bummer.

The second flaw is related to all the secrets events : on one hand, finding these feel great but on the other, there's so many important things you can miss which will block like 1/3 of the game easily, like a secret door you have to find behind a wall that open many books of knowledge that would help you solve requests you wouldn't otherwise. I get that this is an older game made with the intention of having people play and play the game again after beating it but... Well, I rarely play the same game multiple times nowadays unfortunately. So it's your choice to play it blindly or following a guide, for my case I did a bit of both.

In the end I still had a lot of fun and I recommand it to everyone who's searching a short retro game with a lot of charm. I will also definitely try the remake coming soon.