Ever since I regained my interest in Japanese Role Playing games back in 2012, besides the Tales of games (so far, I played some of Graces f and finished Hearts), I decided to give some of the Atelier games a try. When I started playing it, it differed from other Japanese RPGs not because it focuses less on combat, but rather more on the time management aspect. After playing five games from the franchise, I wonder what lessons I learned along the way in order to use the in-game time efficiently.
If you haven’t played an Atelier game, the games can be summed up as this. It’s basically a slice of life, item crafting and time management as a role-playing game. While the first few games (Atelier Marie and Ellie) were primitive at the time as the games lacked an over world, it was innovate since it didn’t follow the same old formula of saving the world, but rather on item crafting.
When I started playing Atelier Meruru for the first time, I didn’t give any regard to the important aspects and played it just like any role-playing game: craft items without giving a care in the world about the properties and effects so that I can complete a task and earn development points to build more facilities. I learned the hard way as tasks later in the game has specific requirements such as an item needing a specific quality, property or effect to finish with fewer items. As expected, I ended up wasting more time to make new items, finding ingredients and earn money to duplicate already made items. The same goes for battling. No matter how much grinding you do, you will still have a hard time defeating tougher monsters unless you have strong equipment.
Regardless of what game you play, each action (synthesizing, resting, battling, traveling, gathering ingredients) takes a certain amount of time. For instance, crafting a bomb usually take one day. Therefore, you want to save time by delivering the items all at once opposed to making multiple trips and most importantly, make the item right the first time. It’s better to focus on using the right ingredients when crafting items so that you can get the desired effects/properties. This means that you should craft items with the best properties a price down so that you can save time and money when you buy wholesale items. While coming up with the best items, especially equipment can be time-consuming, it will pay off in the long run as you won’t have to waste time making more items or struggle against a hard boss.
On the other hand, getting used to the gameplay is also important. While playing the game, I didn’t know that making and equipping adventure items such as the coveted Adventure Shoes could actually save time. Not only that, using the Homunculi and warehousing features are convenient as I can receive duplicate of items or new ingredients without having to do it on my own. In other words, your first play though or attempt is going to be rough, especially when you are trying to see all the character events. Through the experience you gain over time, the game will become more enjoyable the more you get better at it. Not only that, you will find out how many things you missed during your first play through. Eventually, you will be able to see all the events required for the endings.
While it’s sad to see the time limit removed from Atelier Shallie, I feel that this gameplay mechanic is what made these games exciting to play since one’s success is dependent on how well he/she plays the game. Sure, there are other games such as Persona and The Idolmaster, which also have time limits as well. I still feel that this aspect is more exciting in the Atelier games since there are many things the player can do to efficiently use the free time he/she has.
What are your experiences do you have with time limits in role-playing games? Do you personally find it annoying or make it more challenging?
“Regardless of what game you play”
Aside from all the ones without time management? Including the most recent one? And every localized one on the PS2?
Based on your email address, it’s clear that I’m not going to take your comment seriously. But aside from that, I haven’t played all the games so I can’t answer that question. However, Atelier Shallie does not have a time limit since it got replaced with a Life Tasks system. Not to mention, the time limit in the Dusk series are very lenient opposed to earlier games.
Generally, I don’t mind games with time limit mechanics (I.E: Harvest Moon) since for most that incorporate management sim elements it makes me go through things more methodically than usual in an RPG. If anything, I am usually worried about letting real life time slip by trying to take advantage of every little nuance, lol. The same rings true for Atelier. Even though I do try to land everything possible on my first playthrough, it is more out of enjoyment and the addictive manner than competing with the time. The Dusk duo of Ayesha and Eschalogy gave you so much time to do everything, I was glad the game didn’t give you extended time, since I was meandering to waste most of it near the end. As you said, it is a shame to see Shallie get rid of it and looking at several people on youtube playing, would prefer it opposed to the fragmented Life Task system. At least it comes with an adjustable difficult setting it seems.
I agree that time limits are more seen in simulation games like Harvest Moon and idol simulators rather than RPGs (although Shining Hearts and Reccetear are the other few games that has a time cycle). But of course I agree that these games are addicting that one lose track of time. Early this year, I spent hours in New Atelier Rorona trying to make better equipment and of course, getting the right properties were rather addicting.
I haven’t watched any videos of Atelier Shallie since I don’t want to spoil the game myself since I’m getting the game in a few more weeks (got the premium box with 5 CDs)… but I will be definitely sharing my first impressions although it’s unlikely I will finish all of it before college starts since it takes me a few minutes to look up words, although its getting better. My only concerns is that there are two nasty game breaking bugs, one causing the game to freeze and another with the request log not triggering a complete flag or something. Hopefully they will get fixed before I start playing the game in 3 weeks.
There are probably more RPG’s with the mechanic, but I just don’t know of many myself outside Atelier. Yeah, farming end game stuff for Rorona Plus was hard and serendipitously got what I needed yesterday. Just beat the two extra bosses today, so once you have what you need (Traits in equips like Time Spirit, Master Skill, Power Hitter, etc and the items) the rest is easy.
I only watched a few, so I’m that spoiled on it. However, I have heard about those bugs and many others like the Alchemy Bug (crafting too much in a row will lead to a crash or trying to save afterward). MasterLL (one of the players) composed a list up on the Gamefaqs Board, so might be worth checking out if it doesn’t get patched by then. Nothing spolier-ish, though and shame after the delay there are still issues like that. Anyway, looking forward to your first impressions on it.
I recently got into role playing games through the Final Fantasy series, and so far I’m digging it 😀 I’ve been interesting in trying out some Atelier games for a while but after reading about the time limits part, I’m not so sure anymore? It wasn’t clear from your post, but did you enjoy the games? For me, it sounds like they’re close to one of those “Farmville” type of games where you just plant something and have to wait for it. Not sure it will be anything for me.
I have reviewed several of these games in the past, so I suggest checking those out to decide for yourself. The games has a more of a slice of life feeling. But generally, the time limits are 5 years in Totori/Meruru and are very lenient in the Dusk games as you can probably finish everything with a good amount of free time left (the most recent game has no time limit). Of course, it’s nothing like Farmville. The player has to make items/weapons in battles or quests from the item he/she collected. Basically, it’s item synthesizing as seen in JRPGs like Tales, but is the main focus of the game and of course, there are hard dungeons to beat once the player reaches the post-game.