Atelier Totori Message Board

Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland, part three of Gust's Atelier trilogy, is currently being localized for western audiences and will see a released by NIS in North America and Europe this May. NIS also published the first and second entries in the series, Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland and Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland.

As the artful trailer above explains, Atelier Meruru concerns the adventures of Princess Meruru and her quest to become an alchemist while simultaneously growing her kingdom of Arls to its full potential. "Development" is a primary aspect of the gameplay, with story progression changing based on how the player decides to expand and improve the kingdom. Personally, we had no idea that becoming a master alchemist involved so much sweeping.

Wow, it’s been a while since I visited you! I hope you’ve all been having a great summer. Today I want to talk about our upcoming titles, which include ClaDun x2, Atelier Totori, and Disgaea 4! I knew it would be a very busy summer for us at NIS America, but now that I think about it, we’ll be making you super busy, too! Well, hold tight, all the latest information is coming your way.

ClaDun x2 will be available only on PSN at the end of August. I don’t have the exact date just yet, but please look out for ClaDun x2 when it pops up on the PlayStation Store. You can also sign up for our Prinny Bomb newsletter at our website to get all of our announcements and news straight from us!

If you played ClaDun: This is an RPG, you might feel like this will be just another run-of-the-mill sequel. But don’t jump to conclusions too quickly! ClaDun x2 returns with tons more customization—more Magic Circles, more artifact types, more classes, more everything!

So how does this game work? Here’s a quick rundown: at its heart, ClaDun x2 is an action RPG. There are two parts to the gameplay; first comes the preparation, where you strategize your battle formation, then comes the dive into battle. Victory is heavily based on the preparations you make in your Base before you head into the dungeons. Customizing Magic Circles with your characters and artifacts, which boost your stats and grant different abilities, is the most crucial part of this game. Each character class has its own specialties and weaknesses, which you’ll have to take into consideration when forming your Magic Circle. When you’re ready, you can head into a dungeon to battle deadly enemies. As you go through the story and level up, you’ll gain more Magic Circles, more gear, and more artifacts! This may sound easy-breezy, but it will actually require a lot of strategy and thinking! Here are some screenshots from the Magic Circle system.

In ClaDun x2, there are 10 classes. Some of the new classes include the Swordmage, which strikes the perfect balance of spells and melee attacks, the Shaman, which is an expert magic user and wielder of powerful Magic Circles, and the Ninja, which excels at sneak attacks and even has a Magic Circle that allows them to fight alone in battle! There are more classes to discover, and as I mentioned above, each class has different abilities and specialties. I’m sure you’ll have a blast exploring them all!

ClaDun X2 has also gotten a major boost to its editing system. This time around, you can add facial expressions for when your character is walking, running, and even dying… Yes, sad I know, but it’s a pretty cool system. And of course, you can also customize your weapons, armor, and even background music. I hope you’ll all pick up the game when it releases on PSN and dip into this super addictive dungeon RPG! You can also check out our official website for more information!

Let’s talk about Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland! This is the highly anticipated sequel to Atelier Rorona, which was released in 2010. And here’s some good news for our Rorona fans out there; Rorona will return in Atelier Totori! Rorona appears as Totori’s teacher, and she’ll help Totori grow as an alchemist and become a great adventurer on Totori’s quest to find her mother. Supposedly, Rorona is a responsible, grown-up lady now, but I’ll leave the final judgment on that to you. Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland will be shipped to retailers on September 27th! The Premium Edition of Atelier Totori will come with a full-color art book and soundtrack!

Atelier Totori features a hugely expanded world map setting, and there are some new features as well. One of these new additions is the “Adventurer’s License” system. The higher Adventurer’s License rank you get, the more places and lands throughout Totori’s massive world you can unlock and explore. In order to get higher ranks, you’ll need to accumulate points by defeating strong monsters, helping the citizens of Arland with quests, creating rare items through synthesis, and so on. Your ultimate goal in the game is to help Totori find her missing mother, and this task will require you to explore the entire world of Atelier Totori. Dust off your adventurer’s hat, and get ready!

It sounds really exhausting to do all that by yourself, right? Not to worry! You can get up to five Homunculi to help you gather ingredients and synthesize items while you’re doing more important things out in the world. They’re very helpful, but they’ll need some extra time to synthesize at first. And in order for them to stay happy and healthy while they work, you’ll need to provide them with delicious pies. Yes, pies! But pie is a small price to pay for such great helpers, right? Here are some screenshots of your helper Chims (That’s how Totori calls them!) Ahhh, they’re so cute!

I know you guys can’t wait to get your hands on Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten! Very soon, your Disgaea needs will be fulfilled… Disgaea 4 will be shipped to retailers on September 6th! The Premium Edition of Disgaea 4 will come with a full-color art book and a Fuka figurine.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the trailer for Disgaea 4 already, but I wanted to post it here once again, in case anyone missed out. I think this trailer perfectly explains what Disgaea 4 is all about. “One copy in every home!” Ha ha ha Here you go!

So, Disgaea has returned with some awesome hi-res graphics. The adorable characters move around the map smooth as silk, and they flawlessly capture the illustrations of character artist Takehito Harada. When you think of Disgaea, one of the many elements that comes to mind is customization. In Disgaea 4, you can customize characters, items, special attacks, character personalities, battle voices, and more! Not to mention, you can rocket your characters up to level 9999! And your attack damage can go over 10,000,000,000!!! Oh my gosh, seriously!? Yeah, that’s pretty much how I reacted when I found out.

The game’s developer, Nippon Ichi Software, wanted you all to enjoy and focus on the gameplay, so they made sure that there would be no load times during battle. You also have the choice to skip the (incredibly awesome and hilarious) battle animations, as well as other shortcut options. Personally, I love the battle animations so I like to leave them on, but for those of you who want to just go go go, this is definitely a cool option to have!

The main story is all about friendship, promises, and love (gotta have that, right?) in the Netherworld! This time around, the story is based on political power and balance, so you get to have your own cabinet, influence the Senate, and so on. There are 10 chapters in the main story, along with multiple endings. Just playing through the main story is plenty satisfying, but NIS knows that no true Disgaea fan would be content if things ended there! So what did they do? They added even more stories for you to unlock after you finish the main story, of course! In these special stages, you will battle against more than 10 hidden bosses. These bosses are…just ridiculously dangerously powerful. The final boss in the main story is maybe level 100, but the hidden bosses are…well, I think you guys should find out on your own. But you’ll see lots of familiar faces, so it will be a treat! (I am sure some of you can already guess who they are…)

For those who really want to spend the next year or two, or three, with Disgaea 4, try to find items called Promotionhell Tickets, which you can use to unlock the X-Dimension. In this world, you’ll get to play some really super duper hard battle maps. Even if you clear the main story, these stages will still be challenging. So good luck!

There is so much more to talk about for Disgaea 4, but I think I’ve kept you here too long already. So I’d better get going, and hopefully I can come back again soon!

Story details abound in the North American debut trailer for Atelier Totori.