System: PS3
Bought: May 17th 2012
Started: First Time: May 17th 2012
Second Time: Feb. 28th 2013
Beat: March 28th 2013
Trophies: 29 of 29
My Third Platinum!
Idea: It's 5 Years after the End of Rorona. You are Totori, Rorona's first "student". Apparently Rorona went out wandering and ended up starving at Totori's doorstep. While Totori and her older sister Ceci took care of Rorona she attempted to teach Totori Alchemy... and it worked!
Now armed with Alchemy and a desire to find out what happened to her Adventurer Mother Totori sets off{with her friend Gino} to obtain an Adventurer's License. Throughout the game you make stuff, fight monsters and explore to get points, Points that will raise your Adventurer Rank. If you don't get enough points before a certain time your License is revoked.
Thoughts: This was actually the first Atelier game I bought, Finding it at GameStop used for a decent price and just jumped in. Never actually playing through the entire game until now though, I am really happy that I went through Rorona before seriously going after Totori.
Now.... Many game mechanics were a vast improvement over Rorona, like not having to have items in your basket to turn in for Quests. The game itself was dead boring till about the third year....the third year out of six. Character wise, Most of the "new" characters were not that great... Totori herself and her sister Ceci were probably the best two characters in the game. Oh... Totori's mother was also great but you really don't see much of her. Too bad too since I bet a game based around her would be pretty damn amusing.
The End: I got them all, My favorite had to be the True Ending followed by the Chim Ending. Like Rorona when you "die" you don't really die you just loose time, If you don't meet the rank reqs for your time limit you get your license taken away and the game ends on the bad ending.
Characters...
Totooria Helmold - 13 years old in the beginning, Quiet.... Timid.... Quite young to be setting off to fight monsters but it was sort of Gino's idea at first. Of course she needed an Adventurers License to go find her mother, Her mother who was known as one of the Greatest Adventurers but suddenly stopped coming home 2 years ago. Her sister and father have pretty much accepted that Gisela was dead but... Totori couldn't quite accept that.
In ways Totori is a bit of a carbon copy of Rorona but then... in other ways she's not. She seems a little more mature really and possibly even smarter. Even during this game Rorona's a bit of a flake...
Gino Knab - An irritating 14 year old boy, Totori's childhood friend and fellow adventurer. It's a bit obvious that Gino has a liking for Totori but... of course... she is oblivious to this. He practically worships Sterk from the first time he sees how strong he is, Eventually he basically begs Sterk to train him.
Big Mistake on Sterks part, He accepts.
The events leading up to Gino's ending is rather amusing... extremely amusing.. He talks Totori into sparring him and she ends up beating him with one whack with her staff. The head shot and loss causes Gino to run away crying, Sterk goes after him and the two leave a bewildered Totori behind.
About two, maybe three weeks later. Sterk and Rorona devise a plan for Gino to get his Manhood back. While Sterk is attempting to teach Gino his "Special" move, Rorona lures Totori out into the open and sets a giant, adorable, flower-shape covered puni monster after her. Totori Screams, Gino hears it and to the Rescue he goes!!
Gino's ending is a little boring, He scolds her for renewing her license without him and complains about Sterk... Then the two of them go out adventuring with one another with Sterk and Rorona in the background watching.
Mimi Houllier von Schwarzlang - 14 Years old, She's the "Cordy" of this game. A loud, obnoxious aristocrat. The first time you see her is in Arland, At the Adventurers Guild arguing with Cordelia about getting an Adventurers License, Denied at first a few weeks later Mimi shows up at Totoris house to show that she finally got her License. {Not sure why Totori should care}
Anyways, It ends up that Mimi aids Totori in her adventures and by the end of the game they are basically best friends. It's also revealed that Mimi was a weak child that the other children would pick up, She would go crying to her mother that would tell her to be proud of who she was. After her mother died she really seems to be starved for attention/love, Getting jealous of Totori's relationship with Ceci and all.
Her ending was so-so, She and Totori run off together and make their names known across the globe!
Melvia Siebel - Mel for short, She is an 18 year old childhood friend of Ceci's and current adventurer. A bit on the lazy side she does has some seriously supernatural strength going on where Ceci couldn't even pick her battleaxe off the ground.
I thought she was going to end up as a better character but, Even with the background I learned on her it was a bit dull. She's best friends with Ceci and thinks Peter is a coward for not telling Ceci how he feels.. Her ending? I saw it but I don't remember it. haha, Ah well.
Marc McBrine - The Exceedingly Exceptional Genius Super Scientist Professor McBrine or the extremely disturbing goofy guy who skinned a cat to put the fur on a robot cat. I just hated this guy from the get-go, No love here at all. He made the carriage and the boat go faster sure but... other then that... useless.
His ending was at least amusing though, Leading up to it he builds a robot that rises from Arlands canal getting Cory extremely pissed off.. The End itself was him building an uber giant robot at taking Totori out to look for whatever civilization built the other robots. Of course, They are riding in the robots hand which is not fun nor comfortable...and she's latched onto him in fear of falling.
Cecilia Helmold - Totori's older sister, Mel's best friend, Peters love interest. You never really get to play as her in battle or anything but, You do take her out on a few adventures to get Mel's ending. After their mother dissapeared Ceci pretty much took on the mother role, Not that their mother really ever had the mother roll down.
With Ceci taking care of Totori she could never realize her own dream of becoming an Adventurer, A dream that you don't learn of until quite late in the game when Mel tells Totori that she and Ceci use to play adventurer together.
I really love this character, She's the motherly one and the caretaker and can hold her liquor better then everyone in town. She was dead set against Totori becoming and adventurer.... and going out on the boat but... She threw a lil tantrum and then got on board for both.
It's really cute how she latches onto Piana when you bring her back from the Frozen Village place.
Rorona Frixell - Where did her parents go? I know it's like 5 years later but...Wouldn't they still be in Arland somewhere? She's 22 now and every bit as naive and childish as she was in Atelier Rorona, She wanders around the lands looking for Astrid and her Hom... More so the Hom but yea...
She ends up being Totori's teacher after basically passing out on their doorstep, Later in the game Totori's dad ends up "catching" Rorona on his fishing line. She had fallen in a river upstream and had floated on down to the ocean.
Rorona pauses in quest to find Astrid to help Totori. The Rorona ending was "okay", She and Totori open a school with Totori being her assistant. Turns out though that Totori is a better teacher then Rorona due to Rorona's instructions being a bit too vague for the kids.
Sterkenburg Cranach - He's 33 now, Almost as old as Totori's Dad. He still has a thing for young girls too... or at least that's the vibe I get. Of course nothing is ever concrete on that matter in these games..
You first meet him when going to Arland with Gino, Peters carriage is attacked by a monster and Sterk shows up and kills it. At first glance Totori screams of course, Sterk is still scary looking...;.;
With Arland dropping the whole Royalty thing Sterk is no longer a "Knight", He seems a bit lost really... not entirely sure what to do,.Other then hunt down the old King, Who has ran off somewhere and you never see him in the game.
It took a little poke from Rorona but, Sterk ends up helping Totori with the hunt for her mother... Since he could never find the King. Sterks ending is very amusing, He's torn between being used by Rorona and Totori. They are fighting over him like a piece of pie.
Cordelia von Feurbach - She's the boss at the Adventurers guild, She's in charge of the Licenses and such and she's still a bit loud and sensitive about her height. When she sees Chim for the first time she's probably the happiest person in the game...Seeing he's like 2 feet tall.
Filly Dee - Esty's younger sister, She's scared of everything and just not very good with handling people. Her sister made her take the job at the Guild, She handles the Requests. She also gets molested by Tiffani but then so does Totori... Crazy Drunken Woman.
The most amusing scene with her was really when Totori asked her to be a part of Peters Fishing Festival Event, After hearing that there would be 7 other beautiful women there she jumped at the chance to join.
Peter - The Annoying carriage driver that has a thing for Totori's older sister.
Gerhard - The bartender at the only restaurant in Totori's hometown, She makes fish flavored liquors for him.
Hagel, Tiffani, Pam and Iksel all make a return as well, Pretty much doing what they always did in Rorona. Pam does however have a non-ghost body now that Astrid{or was it Rorona?} made for her, she has also moved to Alanya because she wants to see the ocean.
They mention Astrid, Hom, Esty, Lionela, Gio and Tantris but... You don't see them. Apparently Tantris had his head shaved by his dead as a punishment for something and he's locked himself in his room.
Gisela Helmold - Totori and Ceci's Mother, She vanished a few years before the game began and is the main reason Totori became an adventurer. Believed to be dead by most, Totori didn't remember what had happened till close to the end of the game.
Guid, Her husband had made a boat for her to go explore the sea and possible defeat the giant sea monster thing that I can't remember the name of. The sea monster got the best of her though and the ship was badly damaged.
Washing up on a distant shore, She found a village there of all women... women meant to be sacrifices to some evil demon in a not to far away tower. The demons awakening was random but, Just her luck.. It started while Gisela was there and she went to try to put an end to the monster.
Calling it a "Tie", Gisela came back to the village badly beated and insisted that she'd go die on her boat which she had just recently finished fixing. So yea, The crazy woman was thought to be dead.
Favorite Ending: True Ending, I did not see that coming. Actually cried a little when Gisela started to walk into the village, I thought for sure that Totori's mother was really dead.
"Damn That Glasses Lady. She said it'd take fifty years, I recovered in eight." Astrid... Everyone who saw her... the reactions were great.
What Now? Going to go back and Platinum Rorona.... I hope. Sitting through the ending credits over and over is just mind numbing. At least with Totori you just had to press start to skip it.
