Atelier series

[turom]

Hi all,

After hearing so much good about those games I started playing the Atelier series (Arland) with Rorona + on PSVita. I find this game very enjoyable and I'm willing to play the next episodes (Arland and Dusk series).

Though here's my dilemma, I can't decide on which platform I will play the series between the PS3 and the PSVita.

For now the Rorona "+" game is cross save and is identical on both platform so I can play on both, but it won't be the case for Totori, Meruru and so on. I'm talking about EU versions BTW.

I was thinking of doing the series on PS3:

PS3 versions pros:

• Boxes! I like having the game boxes to put on my shelf and there's no Vita physical version of those games in Europe while the PS3 versions exist.
• Games on disc are cheaper than the digital PSVita versions.
• I like playing games on my TV
• Better performance than the PSVita versions? (framerate, texture definition, etc.)

PS3 versions cons:

• The Ayesha episode on PS3 version doesn't have JP voices while the Vita version does, that's kind of a a big deal for me since I really want to play with original audio whenever possible.
• DLC and bonus features from the PSVita + versions not included on PS3
• Can't play them on the go with the PSVita but that's kinda rare, I often play Vita games at home lol

So I'm asking for those of you which may be knowledgeable about those games:

• How much do the PS3 versions improve compared to Vita versions? (framerate, texture resolution, artwork resolution, general aspect)
• How much do the "+" Vita versions improve compared to the PS3 versions? Are the DLC worth it? Are there key gameplay features that were added in the "+" versions?
• I've seen that you can import your saves from one game to another. What does it do?
• I was thinking maybe getting the Vita versions and play them on a PSTV, but how crap does the PSTV rendering look compared to a PS3 native version?

I see three options:

1) Get all PS3 versions but the Ayesha dub thing annoys me and I don't know exactly what i'm missing from the + versions?
2) Get all Vita versions but i don't know how crap this will look on my TV through PSTV? Even if it looks amazing on the Vita I don't like doing long gaming sessions on the Vita, I prefer TV for RPGs.
3) Get all PS3 versions except Ayesha on Vita? But I don't know what's the benefit of importing saves between games?

It's a very long post, thanks for reading if you did and if you have any advice on this please share!

[desocietas]

I'm not in EU, but I'm curious about these questions as well!  I've only played a good portion of the first Atelier Iris, but I'm definitely interested in the other games, including the ones that have "plus" versions.  I hate that my preference in owning the physical versions might mean that I'll have the "lesser" version of the game, but I'd like to hear the pros/cons of it all.

[gf78]

I'm not sure what the + adds to the Vita versions that aren't in the PS3 ones, but I would definitely go with the PS3 versions.  Physical discs, big screen + more comfortable controller for long RPG gaming sessions makes it a no-brainer IMO.

If nothing else, wait for a Vita PS Store sale.  But honestly, I don't think you are missing out on much and the cons of "digital only" is something I just can't get past.

[turom]

So I got this in the mail today: Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland - PS3



I was surprised that the game cover and manual are entirely translated in french and the manual is very complete, a nice effort was made to compensate the lack on ingame french localisation - I always play my games in english anyhow.

The cross save feature works wonder, too bad it's the only "+" game that is cross platform..

Graphic comparison

Then I decided to make my own comparison between the two versions. Considering this is technically the 4th episode they released on PS3 and the 3rd on PSVita I may assume this should be well representative of the other games in term of engine performance.

I did a bunch of comparative screenshots, here's an extract below, you can see the full set here: https://imgur.com/a/mfscW

The big ones are PS3 of course, all the images are raw:

So on PS3 there are several improvements to be mentionned:

• The game runs in 720p60, even if it rarely keeps a solid 60 FPS, it's always above 30 where the PSVita version struggles between 20 and 30. The game experience is way smoother on PS3
• The texture quality is higher, on characters and on 3D environments
• The higher vertical resolution makes the artworks more detailled
• Loading times are around three times faster

It seems from what I've read that the performance on PSTV is worse with even lower framerates and the obvious blurry upscaling that you can guess from watching the screenshots above.

Price comparison

Currently the prices of the PSVita "+" versions on the store are locked to 39.99€:

• Atelier Totori Plus - 39.99€
• Atelier Meruru Plus - 39.99€
• Atelier Ayesha Plus - 39.99€

All the DLCs are included, the 2 last games have not yet been released on PSVita.

Comparing with Amazon physical PS3 versions:

• Atelier Totori - 25.90€
• Atelier Meruru - 29.49€
• Atelier Ayesha - 24.15€
• Atelier Escha & Logy - 42,73€
• Atelier Shallie - 32.73€

The DLCs are not included in the PS3 versions, the store indicates that there are ~50€ worth of DLCs available for the 5 games. So the Amazon prices + all the DLCs makes a round price of 41€ per game. Considering there are a bunch of DLC that are swimsuit costumes that I don't care about, that makes the PS3 versions + DLC cheaper than the PSVita "+" versions.

I may document on a later post my findings about the "+" bonus content that is no DLC, but from what I've saw here and there it's really not much to be concerned about.

For now the balance is way more in favor of the PS3 version, I'll keep you updated!

[desocietas]

This is great - I appreciate you taking the time to do these comparisons! It will definitely help when I decide to start purchasing the Atelier games that have plus versions.

[turom]

This is great - I appreciate you taking the time to do these comparisons! It will definitely help when I decide to start purchasing the Atelier games that have plus versions.

Glad if that helps!

List of "+" content for each game on PSVita, with its [availability/price on PS3]:

Atelier Totori Plus

• Three DLC characters: Ceci [2,99€] Iksel &Cordelia pack [2,99€]
• Extra dungeon: “Orthogalaxen” from Atelier Rorona - Unlocks end game higher grade gear tier and boss challenge [Not available]
• Extra mode: Model viewer [Free DLC]
• Two swimsuits costumes [Not available]
• I believe the additional BGM packs are included [14,95€ for 5 BGM packs]
• Tweaks: Touchscreen menu navigation, camera zoom control, fast messages scroll speed [Not available]

Atelier Meruru Plus

• Three DLC characters: Pamela [3,99€] Hanna [3,99€] and Rufis [3,99€]
• Extra dungeon: “Makina Domain” - End game [Free DLC]
• BGM Pack included [2,99€]
• Extra Ending [Included with patch 2.02 on japanese PS3 version only]
• Various tweaks that are not well documented [Not available]

Atelier Ayesha Plus

• Japanese voice option [not available]
• Two DLC characters: Marion [3,99€] and Odella [3,99€]
• Extra dungeon: “Cow's Paradise” - End game [Free DLC]
• Extra dungeon: “Hidden Paradise” - End game [1,99€]
• BGM Pack [2,99€]
• Three swimsuits costumes [8,97€]
• Other costumes [Not available]

Following episodes Atelier Escha & Logy and Atelier Shallie don't have PSVita versions in the West yet.

So globally the important content like new dungeons are in general added as DLC on the PS3 version, and a few costumes and tweaks are exclusive to the PSVita "+" versions. Not really critical from my point of view when counterbalancing the advantages of the PS3 versions. I assume the method will be the same for the next episodes.

Importing saves

When starting Atelier Rorona or Meruru, you can detect if another save from another Atelier game is present, that may gives you costumes or powerful items that are already in the game early. It's nothing like carrying over your progression from one game to another.

Conclusion

My conclusion is I'm going PS3.

I'm not hardcore enough to play all the series on PSVita for the few additions it has considering I can get almost everything on PS3 DLC included for the same price and in much better gameplay conditions.

The only thing that really bugs me is the lack of JP voice in PS3 version of Atelier Ayesha.

Even if english dub is not so bad, I can still go for the PSTV option as well if I want to endure serious slowdown and crappy upscaling for having JP voices, since importing the saves doesn't matter.. And at worse, there're always other ways...

[desocietas]

Now that the Escha/Logy physical plus edition is available to preorder as well as the Arland Trilogy, any thoughts?

The only Atelier game I own is Shallie at the moment.

From what your research shows, it looks like overall, the PS3 versions might still be the best way to go for performance and cost.  Just wanted to see if you still feel that way and if price drops of physical titles will play into it as well.

[turom]

I saw the news about the physical edition of Escha/Logy, looks pretty cool indeed, especially the collectible version ! Gameplay-wise I would still go for the PS3 versions though, these are games you spend a lot of time in, loading times and smoothness is really important on the long term IMO.

[desocietas]

I saw the news about the physical edition of Escha/Logy, looks pretty cool indeed, especially the collectible version ! Gameplay-wise I would still go for the PS3 versions though, these are games you spend a lot of time in, loading times and smoothness is really important on the long term IMO.

Awesome, good to know Thanks! The CE does look really good, though your thoughts on the performance of the game will be taken into consideration... That, and my wallet ;P

[sworddude]

I myself usually prefer english language instead of the original japanese audio,however after playing allot of RPG's I've seen that allot of rpg's with english voice acting is pretty bad.

In those cases even the japanese audio sounds better to me and in some cases way better.

Still though if the voice acting is good I prefer english audio.

[desocietas]

I myself usually prefer english language instead of the original japanese audio,however after playing allot of RPG's I've seen that allot of rpg's with english voice acting is pretty bad.

In those cases even the japanese audio sounds better to me and in some cases way better.

Still though if the voice acting is good I prefer english audio.

I will usually default to whatever the original audio is but sometimes the Engish audio is fine. I just usually find English audio to sound overdone... Japanese audio tends to sounds more natural to me.

[sworddude]

I myself usually prefer english language instead of the original japanese audio,however after playing allot of RPG's I've seen that allot of rpg's with english voice acting is pretty bad.

In those cases even the japanese audio sounds better to me and in some cases way better.

Still though if the voice acting is good I prefer english audio.

I will usually default to whatever the original audio is but sometimes the Engish audio is fine. I just usually find English audio to sound overdone... Japanese audio tends to sounds more natural to me.

That's what I mean, I prefer japanese audio in most cases since in allot of rpg games the english voice acting is pretty bad and not natural.

I'm not a hardcore original audio fan but if the english audio is bad I prefer the japanese voice acting.

[desocietas]

I myself usually prefer english language instead of the original japanese audio,however after playing allot of RPG's I've seen that allot of rpg's with english voice acting is pretty bad.

In those cases even the japanese audio sounds better to me and in some cases way better.

Still though if the voice acting is good I prefer english audio.

I will usually default to whatever the original audio is but sometimes the Engish audio is fine. I just usually find English audio to sound overdone... Japanese audio tends to sounds more natural to me.

That's what I mean, I prefer japanese audio in most cases since in allot of rpg games the english voice acting is pretty bad and not natural.

I'm not a hardcore original audio fan but if the english audio is bad I prefer the japanese voice acting.

Yup, totally understandable. Some folks are bewildered that I choose it because I don't understand Japanese, but I find English dubs sometimes to be *so* bad that they're actually distracting and can make me dislike a character more.

[kashell]

Atelier Sophie was released in Japan a few days ago. Hopefully we'll be getting it on our side.