Tag Archives: RPG

New Game Plus: Cabbage Girl – Atelier Rorona DX #6

“It’ll be a short episode,” he says, then proceeding to play for an hour and a half. I was having fun, though!

Yes, this week’s episode of New Game Plus runs a little longer than intended, but, well, there were important things to do. Very important things. Like the cabbage competition in the annual festival!

Hit the jump to see just why everyone is calling Rorona “Cabbage Girl”…

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New Game Plus: Replicating Ancient Tool – Atelier Rorona DX #5

Get out your ancient tool, boys and girls, because Rorolina Frixell is most certainly going to replicate it good and proper!

Yes, in today’s episode of New Game Plus, in which we are presently enjoying a second playthrough of Atelier Rorona DX on Nintendo Switch, we take on the poor overworked girl’s third assignment, which is somewhat vague on the specifics but nonetheless proves not to be too much of a problem for her.

Hit the jump to see how we got on today!

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New Game Plus: Time On Our Hands – Atelier Rorona DX #4

Whew! Even with the chaotic week I’ve had (including a brief period of complete computer failure last weekend) I managed to get all my usual videos out on time. Go me.

As always (well, usually, anyway), Friday plays host to New Game Plus, our weekly exploration of post-game content and New Game Plus modes. Currently, we’re doing a second playthrough of Atelier Rorona DX, part of the Atelier Arland trilogy we’ve recently explored here on MoeGamer.

Hit the jump to find out how today’s alchemical efforts went!

Continue reading New Game Plus: Time On Our Hands – Atelier Rorona DX #4

New Game Plus: Furaipan Da Yo – Atelier Rorona DX #2

Our (re)adventures in Atelier Rorona DX continue! Now we’ve finished the first assignment in this New Game Plus run, what’s next?

Well, there are plenty of options. Complete some quests, go out exploring, craft some items, make some materials and turn them into weapons and armour, fill out a bingo card, buy some beehives…

Hit the jump and see what Rorona got up to while waiting for her first deadline to hit.

Continue reading New Game Plus: Furaipan Da Yo – Atelier Rorona DX #2

New Game Plus: Producing Sundries – Atelier Rorona DX #1

It’s time for a new series of New Game Plus, in which I take a game I’ve already beaten and explore its postgame content and/or New Game Plus modes.

With the Atelier Arland Cover Game feature now done and dusted, that would seem like an ideal time to immediately revisit those games and see what happens on a second playthrough, right?

We get underway today with a new beginning for Atelier Rorona DX: The Alchemist of Arland on Nintendo Switch.

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Waifu Wednesday: Mimi Houllier von Schwarzlang

Continuing Atelier’s proud tradition of having a number of characters with delightfully flamboyant, somewhat Germanic names, I give to you Mimi Houllier von Schwarzlang.

First introduced in Atelier Totori and subsequently explored further in Atelier Meruru, Mimi is a delightful character to be around. She’s also a great example of how the Arland trilogy as a whole makes good use of established character tropes as a basis, and develops those characters over time in various ways.

Let’s take a closer look at this little firecracker, then.

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Atelier Meruru: Arland Comes Together

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Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland, the thirteenth mainline Atelier game and the third in the Arland series, first released in 2011.

It is a longstanding favourite of many enthusiasts of the series with good reason, and absolutely a suitable high point for the whole trilogy to wrap up on… that is, until Atelier Lulua comes along and confuses everyone by turning it into a quadrilogy! But more on that another time.

Providing some of the most refined mechanics in the Arland subseries along with a satisfying and enjoyable narrative to follow, Atelier Meruru combines elements of classic and more modern Atelier games. The result is a really great game featuring one of the series’ most appealing protagonists. So let’s dive in and take a look!

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Atelier Totori: Arland’s Middle Child

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Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland, the second installment in Atelier’s Arland trilogy, is in that unenviable position that all “middle children” end up in — perhaps more so than most.

Originally offering considerable improvements over Atelier Rorona’s first incarnation — particularly in the graphical and mechanical departments — Gust’s tendency to put out “Plus” versions for its Atelier games means that Totori has ended up, in some respects, now being the most dated of the Arland trilogy even once it, in turn, got its own “Plus” and “DX” rereleases, the most recent of which is on PlayStation 4, Switch and PC.

This isn’t to say Totori is a bad game, mind you — far from it. Just… don’t take anything for granted! Let’s have a closer look.

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Magical Diary: Wolf Hall – A Wolf in Wizard’s Clothing

Those of you who have been following my work for a while may recall a good few years back now I was rather enthusiastic about a game called Magical Diary: Horse Hall.

This unusual game, developed by Hanako Games and Spiky Caterpillar, blended elements of visual novel, life sim and first-person dungeon crawler to create something very interesting indeed — and something that was clearly intended to be the start of a series.

That was back in 2012. Now, in 2019, we’re finally getting a follow-up — so let’s take a first look at what the sequel, Magical Diary: Wolf Hall, has to offer, and how Hanako Games and Spiky Caterpillar will be making use of crowdfunding to realise their goals.

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Atelier Rorona: Arland’s New Beginning

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As we’ve previously explored, the Atelier series is no stranger to rereleases and remakes — and at the time of writing, Arland trilogy debut Atelier Rorona has had more than most.

Initially releasing in Japan in 2009 as Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland before being localised by NIS America for North America, Europe and Australasia in 2010, the game was subsequently completely rebuilt in 2013 under its new worldwide publisher Koei Tecmo as Atelier Rorona Plus in an attempt to bring it more in line with the subsequent releases in the series. In 2015, Japan got a unique 3DS version of the game. And in 2018, Gust and Koei Tecmo brought Atelier Rorona DX — pretty much a port of Atelier Rorona Plus — to Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Windows PC.

Keeping one game relevant for nine full years and counting is no mean feat. So let’s take a closer look at some of the reasons this game might have stuck around for quite as long as it has!

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