Atelier (video game series)

 is a franchise of role-playing video games developed by the Gust Corporation since 1997, primarily for the PlayStation line of consoles (PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4); portable versions for the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita and WonderSwan Color have also been made. Two of the games in the series were ported to the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast. The series has been primarily released in Japan, though recent titles have been localized for other markets. The franchise centers around the concept of an atelier specialising in alchemy; the gameplay involves finding, collecting, and combining items in recipes to create better items, which allows the player to advance further in the game. A manga adaptation by Yoshihiko Ochi has also been published. As of November 2017, the series has shipped more than 4 million copies worldwide.
Common elements.
Alchemy is the distinguishing theme of the "Atelier" series. Players control the game's character, roaming the game world to collect objects to use in alchemy recipes to create new objects, including cooking ingredients, recovery items, tools, weapons, armor, and accessories. Synthesized objects are commonly required in order to create more powerful or potent objects through alchemy. Many of the games feature a method of transferring properties of one item from the recipe to the synthesized item. Recipes also often allow the substitution of items, which can either lend better properties to the final synthesized item, or can lead to the character thinking of a completely new recipe.
The games generally feature a turn-based combat system, in which the items made through alchemy come into play, either to boost the character's abilities, or for offensive, defensive, or support items.
The games' stories are typically light-hearted and humorous, often deriving conflict from a source other than an antagonist and the player ends up with a large group of characters to explore the world with. In most games of the series, the player has a limited in-game time to accomplish one or more main objectives and actions like gathering items, traveling or synthesizing spend a portion of that time. Failure to accomplish the game's main tasks in time may cause the game to end abruptly or lead to a bad end, though these time limits tend to be rather lenient. The first entry in the "Mysterious" "Atelier" series ' does away with the time limit system, but the second entry ' has a time limit for completing the game's first story objective, after which players can play at their leisure.
Games.
There have been 22 main games in the "Atelier" franchise which are subdivided into seven sub-series. There are three games in the Salburg series, two games in Gramnad series, three games in the Iris series, two games in the Mana-Khemia series, four games in the Arland series, three games in the Dusk series, three games in the Mysterious series, and two games in the Secret series.
Side games.
In addition to the main games, several side games have been released.
Remakes and ports.
Several of the series' titles were remade or ported, mostly for portable devices.
Anime and manga adaptations.
 by Yoshihiko Ochi is a five volume manga adaptation first published in Japan by Enterbrain, published in German by Egmont, published in French by Ki-oon, and four of the volumes were published in English by Tokyopop. The series was later re-edited and re-released in two "tankōbon" volumes on July 25, 2007. The manga later received a sequel titled , as of February 2018 Enterbrain released eight "tankōbon" volumes. In 2005 Enterbrain also released a one-shot manga titled .
"Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky" was adapted into a manga series by Chako Abeno. It features some arrangements to the story in order to let supporting characters play a bigger role. As of January 2015 two "tankōbon" volumes was released. It has also been adapted into a 12-episode television anime series, produced by Studio Gokumi and directed by Yoshiaki Iwasaki, aired on Tokyo MX between April 10, 2014 and 26 June 2014.
A manga adaptation of "Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout", written and illustrated by Riichu was started serialization in "Shūkan Famitsū" on September 17, 2020.