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My Year of Gust - February: Atelier Elie!
For the second month of the year, we have Gust's first real sequel: Atelier Elie. As near as I can tell, no other Gust title aside from Atelier Marie had made enough of a profit to even consider a second installment before this, and no other non-Atelier title would manage it until Ar tonelico, of all things.
While this is actually the first time I've ever played Atelier Elie, I'm not aiming for the best ending. A while back, I came across a mention on the Atelier TV Tropes page that went on and about the ending with Romauge the dancer, and the fact that it was the only "romantic" ending to the game. Color me curious, I want to see what that's all about.
I put a few hours into Atelier Elie this evening, and the improvements over Marie are immediately obvious. The jobs list is both friendlier to starting players in terms of difficulty and is also easier to navigate. The bodyguards aren't quite so expensive to hire, and best of all the rate of items gathered in the field has increased enormously. There's also a new type of job available that requests items of a certain type, but not a specific material.
The game has a different character artist from its predecessor, but it meshes the old and the new together well enough. I've so far met six characters who were in Marie as well, and with one exception their character art in the new style stays very true to the originals. The exception, Schia, is still recognizable, but more mature and less china doll.
Comments
My book! As discussed in Q&A Quest!
The big events so far have been Schia's wedding in June of Year 1 (with a brief appearance by Marlone) and the big exam in August. Elie's friend Nordis got the top score, her rival got the second spot, and Elie got.... seventeenth place. Better luck next year, Elie.
On the plus side, I got fairies! My rival was so jealous, she cobbled together a homunculus to do errands for her. Unfortunately, it started raiding the Academy stock for supplies... Have yet to see how this all plays out.
My book! As discussed in Q&A Quest!
I also unlocked Castanier as a location. It's the second town in the game, and it has a few new expedition points as well as a meddlesome sea serpent that I know I'm going to have to get rid of at some point. Unfortunately, I mismanaged my finances and lost four of my fairy helpers due to lack of salary. Time to work my way back up in the world!
My book! As discussed in Q&A Quest!
My book! As discussed in Q&A Quest!
Whatever I did in that last month of frantic item-making, it removed the Year 4 ending flag, so I'm actually into Year 5 now. Whew, now I have time to make all those new items I learned, once I realized I could access the secret reading room in the library (maybe six months too late).
My book! As discussed in Q&A Quest!
It's actually not quite as all over the place as Marie. Marie had a very vague goal and almost no direction, but Elie has regular tests to prepare for (every August), a stated goal (locate the alchemist who saved her life), three towns to visit and explore from, and about six years to do it in. This game was also the first Atelier to have multiple character-specific endings and event flags, though they're not as well implemented as in many later Atelier games.
I'll be getting a review together this week
My book! As discussed in Q&A Quest!