Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island
August 17, 2012 in Cidz Randomly Random Stuff, Otome/BL Games
Atelier Annie: Alchemist of Sera Island is an RPG (with sim and otome elements) For the nitendo DS. You play as Annie, a lazy good for nothing boyish girl. Her grandpas had enough of her laziness and has decided to send her away to Dolphin Island, where she will compete for the mieser and maybe hand in marriage to the kings son. She does this by learning alchemy from a fairy named Pepe, and the committee member, Hans.
So Annie begins doing quests for the Committee, Making various objects using alchemy, and even gathers the materials at certain gathering spots. You can also manage different buildings as well such as hotel, theme park, market, beach, park, etc… The committee also looks at how well you managed those, plus your store so you have to be sure and fufill and take plenty of quests from them as well. If you want to raise your store level you can do quests for the Adv. Guild. (sometime to get some quick cash its easier to just turn in a few items you know you haven plent of such as ionofish, pure water, Uni, etc….)
Jobs/Quests:
One of the main things you get to do in Atelier Annie is fufill Jobs. These jobs usually require you to make what they request using Alchemy (sometimes you already have the item on hand, from gathering or you can find the items at the general store.) Alchemy is acomplished at your workshop, where you use your cauldron (and various other tools you can buy from the general market.) and recipes (you start off with a few basic recipes, but visit the library to buy books containing more.) You can always check what Jobs you have by pressing the x button and opening the menu.
Jobs are a great way to earn money, increase your resorts’ levels, and earning points with the people of Dolphin Island. To get Jobs is easy either visit the Adv. Guild (earns you money + raises your stores level), Taking a job from your resorts. (resorts will be explained to you in the game), and also sometimes random people come by your workshop and want you to make them something. Usually the resort jobs require no deadline, however the Adv. Guild and the ones people request do, so be sure and check those deadlines ok!
You also get Quests from the committee, also with a deadline tho usually allows you a few months to complete. Be sure to pay attention to when Hans tells you to be at your workshop, so you can get the next Quest. There are 6 total.
Gathering/Battle:
This game does have some battling actually but not much, and only when you visit the gather spots. When you start out in the game you get Quarry and (i think) Basin to start out with. Later on as you walk around and visit different areas, and different times throughout the game you’ll aquire more. (protip: If you overhear some guys talking about Lone Island, and you don’t see it afterwards. Check to see if you have a resort at the tail part of the dolphin, if you do, go there then exit out right away. you should be able to aquire lone island. Each time you want to visit Lone Island, you’ll have to do that.)
Gathering points, are places where you find mascots for your various resorts, gather items, and do battle. The battle system is random encounter turn base style. Also i suggest investing in some good weapons, for awhile i was loosing until i finally decided to upgrade lol! (protip: I would suggest leveling up your characters, because one of the quests from the committee later on, is to fight a boss at basin. Sadly i lost because i was lazy and didnt feel like gathering/battling much 
) You also run into various characters you can ask to join your team. (or to be a clerk for your shop)
Overall:
I really enjoyed this game a lot actually! It was very addicting, i liked it because i got to spend more time making things outta alchemy, and jobs and managing resorts, then battling. I love RPGs but often get bored if i have to grind my characters, or if im walking around and run into a monster every few secs. >_< So this was fun because i could do something else other then that, but i could also go to gather points and fight monsters too. The monsters arent too hard as long as you level up decently and have good weapons.
I also liked that it had a female protag and a bit of otome elements, im not sure if you can win the affection of any of the guys in the game, but i think you get different endings with them. I think i got a Hans ending not sure, he went back to the royal castle with me at the end lol.
So this is a fun game, even if i didnt win the contest at the end cuz i ran outta time >_< (the game is set for 3 yrs) I would defintly recomend this game. (if you dont have a DS, which i do, but cant find it atm you can just use an emulator [desume is good], and find the Rom [google is your friend!])
Oh, i forgot to mention! There’s also mini games. Sometimes the managers of your resorts ask you to help them out and you get to play mini games. also at very resort thers a man with an accordian, talk to him and you can play mini games to earn money and/or items.
Also, i think theres Atelier Annie games for the PSP/PS3 too, not sure so check that out if you are intersted.
Screenshots:
This game is pretty fun, but I really don’t like two things about it: the way time passes, and how the game doesn’t really give you any hit on how well you are doing.
You really have to make every action count, even when you feel like nothing is happening and it’s boring. That WILL screw you over, big time. Even gathering items and fighting monsters takes time – you can spend days at a site doing nothing much. Also, making anything with alchemy takes time (it would be waaaay faster to cook those dishes than to alchemy them
).
As for the ending, well, I hope you were REALLY good at managing those resorts, because that is what the game wants you to do. Except it doesn’t encourage it at all. It takes time to go to the resorts, time to make all the crap they want, money (and thus time) to upgrade them. They are just a big bother; alchemy is where the Atelier series shines, and this game is no different. You have all those alchemy contests, and there is a huge emphasis on doing good. Alchemy is where all the complexity of the game lies. Everything else in the game supports the alchemy – the gathering, the fighting, the jobs are all there so you do lots of alchemy.
However, even if you do excellent at the alchemy contests, getting gold in every area, even turning them in at the first opportunity, and spank your rival hard – you can still get a bad ending, very easily. In fact, it’s almost impossible to get a good ending on the first playthrough. Because, as I said, it’s the resorts that matter; or really, how much money they make. That rival who thought he was so good at alchemy, but you just wiped the floor with him every time? It turns out he’s REALLY good at managing the resorts, so he wins unless you are really focusing on them. But wait, wasn’t alchemy the focus of the game? Yah, but not the goal. Pretty silly. You really should have paid attention at the very beginning, where it was talking about how important the resorts are to the island.
Oh, and I hope while you are focused on making money and alchemy you aren’t ignoring your friends. Because their attitude towards you also affects the endings. Not only do you have to do their alchemy requests (some of which are pretty hard when they give them to you, especially Kyle), but you also have to take them out fighting (nothing brings people closer than slaughtering monsters together), which takes away from time you could be doing something else.
Really, the best way to play is just get through the game once, get the bad end, do a NG+ (you keep all your recipes and items from before, and maybe personal money), go through and make a ton of stuff, especially the stuff needed for your friends and the contests, and then do another NG+ to finally get the ending you want.
This game could be really fun, and is if you don’t worry about the deadlines too much. But part of the fun in a RPG is getting that good end you have been working so hard for, and unless you are really good at using your time effectively, you aren’t going to get it. Some people like that, as it gives the game some real difficulty (actual gameplay is pretty easy), but for me it just puts a huge weight over the game, and makes it into work, not fun.
I had a lot of fun playing the game my first playthrough, when I didn’t know about how crazy you had to be with the endings. The characters are fun, the story is pretty silly and light, and alchemy is great. Even combat is OK, even though it’s not a focus. But after I got that bad end and did a NG+, the pressure to perform really kills the enjoyment. Anne isn’t there to have fun, but to work, and thus so is the player.
Oh yeah! the stress! >_< well it wasnt towards the end (sadly) that i realized OHCRAP i need to level up my resorts more OHNOHOHNOHONO!!! and started taking on a buncha jobs, sadly i guess i didnt raise them enough/complete all my jobs and didnt get the good ending
i still had fun, even tho i didnt rly win or anything lol. plus my first time playing through anything i never expect to do very well, im just getting the feel for the game.
another thing is i couldnt get some of the items! like i needed meteor for one job? but i couldnt find it >_< it was probably at a gathering point that i didnt get. tried looking up online on tips on how to find all the gathering points, but that wasnt much help. (except the one about lone island.)
i also wonder if you need to get the max ammt of resorts or if you can get away with just a few? cuz i ended up maxing out all the resorts i could get, and things got really tough to handle and manage! if i can only get like 2 or 3 and be ok with that then i can probably manage the resorts better.
and oh yeah time went by really fast like wow O_O sometimes just standing around looking at the recipes i needed to complete a job would take awhile. >_< thats why i always tried to do the jobs with deadlines right away. took time to find the recipe, get the items, use alchemy, and deliver it.
either way, i dont mind replaying it over and over again. as soon as i get money (and find my DS >_> ) im totally gonna buy it!
I’ve been thinking of playing this game. I’ve played like one or two Atelier games for the PS2.
go for it! are the PS2 ones similar to this one? they seem fun if i had a PS2 id totally play more! i wonder if thers anymore for the DS?
The PS2 games are only similar in that they use alchemy in a similar way. They are much more combat oriented; the Atelier Iris series is pretty much just a standard JRPG with a strong crafting element. Both series (there’s the Atelier Iris series and the Mana Khemia series) also have some platforming, though moreso in the Mana Khemia games. Mana Khemia is pretty much Atelier Harry Potter.
Well, there are a few more, earlier, more traditional Atelier games for PS2, but they weren’t localized.
There are three Atelier games localized for PS3. I hear they are really good, with each game better than the one before it.
There are two other Atelier games for the DS, but only Anne was localized. Anne is the second one; Liese was actually the star of the first Atelier for DS.
I think I heard that there is an Atelier game in development for the 3DS, but I’m not 100% on that. Also, it’s pretty much a toss-up on whether it would get localized anyways: most of the more recent mainline (console) Atelier games have been localized since Atelier Iris (only one that hasn’t is Atelier Ayesha, and that just came out in Japan not even two months ago), but Anne is the only portable Atelier that has been localized.
I have the second Mana Khemia. I even forgot the two series are connected.
I always wanted to play the first one.
Sounds very intriguing. I know there are a few Atelier games on the PS2/PS3 (Iris, Mana, Rorona, Meruru, Ayesha, etc.) and I’ve been meaning to try something new so I should start checking out some of these games