Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland

I am going to start by saying that I was not fond of Lulua (the character not the game). She was just an energetic positive ball of fluff for the entire game and her only character development at all was her skill in alchemy and her confidence at using alchemy.
I compared it to Rorona, Totori and Meruru. Rorona and Meruru also remain balls of fluff but their characters were more interesting to me. I cannot entirely explain why I did not like Lulua. I learned to tolerate her so I could enjoy Sterk, Rorona, Meruru, Totori and the world again.
The gameplay itself is pretty good. Much improved crafting system in my opinion with so much potential. You actually can sit there trying to think of ways to make stuff better. I have never felt more like I'm an alchemist than I did in this game standing in front of that cauldron deeply thinking about combinations. The combat system is also improved, somewhat. Getting stun locked by enemies until I lose the fight isn't fun but it mostly happens if you're too underleveled anyways or your gear isn't up to par.
There's no time limit thankfully. I didn't mind the time limits in the trilogy that much but they did stop me from truly appreciating everything the alchemy system had to offer because every action I took used up time so I found myself simply doing what I needed to do with alchemy instead of trying to take it as far as I can.
The story for Lulua is well... yeah I can't say much but I can say I did not like it. It felt out of place with a game that spawned from the Arland trilogy and it was something straight out of a late night talk show. It's as if the writer had been bingeing on late night talk shows, conspiracies and otherworldly stuff and decided to write Lulua's story high. Couple that with the fact I didn't like Lulua's character and you got something that had absolutely no effect on me at all.
The good news for potential buyers of the game is I can't find someone who agrees with my dislike of Lulua's character so you can probably ignore my feelings about her. But the actual story? Whew... if you come to this game from the Arland Trilogy this game's story is going to feel REALLY out of place and super weird. It takes you until the very end before you're like, "Really? REALLY???" lol. Yeah ok. There's nothing alchemy can't do!
Pros
-Music score is really good.
- The animations and visuals are fantastic.
- The level design is a slight step up from the Arland games. Frankly most of it was nostalgia for me. If you come from the trilogy you'll like them, otherwise if your first game is Lulua you will think the levels are not bad, but nothing amazing either.
- The combat system requires you to make sure your character levels, gear and items are always setup for the situation you're in. Like a place where most enemies are resistant to or block earth/fire damage, you might want to go in with ice/light/lightning damage and bring elemental resists too. In the Arland Trilogy I mostly just made items that gave me the best stats and called it good, in this game, if you are playing on harder difficulties, you will need to prepare yourself. It's a nice feeling because it adds so much depth and meaning to the alchemy system beyond what you got from the Arland Trilogy.
- The improved alchemy system had me using up so much time I was literally hitting walls where I couldn't progress in it anymore until I did the main story. I was max alchemy level by chapter 7. It's an absolute blast. When you got access to high quality materials and lots of stuff unlocked, you can really enjoy it. The sky is the limit to what you can make. I can't express it enough how much fun I had with the alchemy system. In fact I'm not even done. I'm gonna go back to it and try to make the greatest items ever.
- If you loved Meruru and/or Totori there's so many lovely cutscenes with them. The DLC adds some new cutscenes, some of them are very nostalgic such as Totori following Ficus around saying he looks familiar to her, when I finally understood I was like woooooooooah. These girls look fantastic as older women and the voice actors you're used to from the trilogy are back voicing them. I wanted more like seeing Totori's village and stuff but it can't be helped. I'm glad I got what they gave me to be fair.
- While the DLC and game is expensive, you can expect A LOT of content to enjoy for the price. You are not paying $60 for a short game with a generic story. However it also depends on you as a gamer. You can rush the main story and call it done, but the real charm of these Atelier games is experiencing all of the side content and pushing alchemy to the limits. Lulua is no exception, in fact there's more to do in this one than there was in the Arland Trilogy.
cons
- Weird story, that when it reaches its climax, you're left saying, "Really?"
- Totori and Meruru have additional events and get added to your party only after you pay $9.99 PER CHARACTER for their DLC. It's basically mandatory to buy these DLC if you came from the Arland Trilogy like I did because you will want Meruru and Totori in your life. Kinda sucks really.
- DLC in general is a bit pricey in this game but it's not as bad as Ryza at least.
- It can feel grindy at times but it's mostly when you gotta use items a certain amount of times in battle. Level grinding isn't too terrible when you get the items unlocked that increase your exp gain.
- Some of the wording of the clues in the alchemyriddle suck. Like it tells you to make a 'sweet nectar of high quality' the sweet nectar ends up being honey. But there's an actual item called Nectar so I go and craft that at high quality, turns out that's not it. Bleh, at least not all of it is this abstract. If it frustrates you trying to figure it out, just google it.
- Missing certain characters like Cordelia, Esty, Frilly, Iksel, Haggel and some others... heh. Truly sucks to be honest. Haggel and Cordelia are referenced at least.
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I'm giving this game a 9/10. My disinterest in the main character stops it from getting a 10/10. Fortunately I didn't "hate" Lulua, I just couldn't get attached to her like I did the other alchemist girls.
To answer the ultimate question: "Do I need to play the Arland Trilogy games first?"
No. You can dive right in and each character's back story is told through various cutscenes. But if you DO play the Arland games first, you get to see the little alchemist girls all grown up and see how awesome they've become and experience a plethora of nostalgia everywhere, not just from characters and their interactions, but level design too and the music.
You can enjoy the gameplay and characters of this game by itself, but you'll get the most entertainment out of it if you play the trilogy first.

It's a better Sophie.
Out of the atelier games post Rorona without a time management mechanic, this is honestly my favorite one.
I would also say I feel that it's weaker than the rest of the Arland games.
I'm going to jump on a little soap box for a second and say I'm getting a little bothered that Gust doesn't put in an optional time management mechanic into these games. Click new game > get prompted if you want time management or no > play the game you want to play.
The community is a bit divided on this mechanic, but why make it one way or the other? Why not both? Why not make everyone happy.
Playing this game was a little frustrating cause I like the time management, and unlike Sophie or L&S, where it felt like it was designed without that in mind, playing this game feels like time management got cut at the final hour. Why am I making items that make me travel in less time? Why am I making items that will warp me instantly from one side of the map to the other? There are aspects to these games that are not backed up by other mechanics, and I'd say it's bothersome to say the least.
Off my soap box.
I don't really have anything else to say. Um... this should probably not be your first Atelier game, I would recommend Rorona if you're starting out. You don't need to play the rest of the Arland games to play this one, but there is a joy in seeing old familiar faces again.
The Alchemy Riddle was paced out well and a great improvement off of the Mystery games that were doing similar progression systems.
Turn base combat was strong and I liked the interrupt system.
Playing on hard felt well balanced for the first third of the game, and the last third of the game. Mid game I was just like, WAY overpowered, cause guess what, the alchemy is pretty good.
OH, I thought the story was very strong, apparently some people who are stringent say that certain aspects with the end of the story are contrived or break series lore, but it didn't bother me.
Still humming a lot of the tunes.
Lulua's Innocent Fairy outfit is adorable.
Also, gating Totori and Meruru behind DLC is disgusting, please don't do this again.
I'm sorry, I really did have a lot of fun playing this game, I dunno why I'm so salty.

I made a cake out of a philosopher stone
alcohol out of a sea monster
used my fishing rod as fuel for a fire
and dropped some giant pudding on a dragons head
10/10

Cute anime girl adventure! Excellent quality RPG about an Alchemist taking over the business. Grind monsters, collect ingredients, take quests, buy new outfits, and discover ancient mysteries in the main quest (when you get around to doing it)

(EDIT: Looked into it further and I now know the developer is Gust! Thanks Gust for being such an awesome team. Looking forward to more.)
This is my first Atelier game. I've gotta say I've been missing out. If we base a price tag on content, and not filler content but genuine content, the price tag for this game is completely reasonable (it's $85 in Australia). What Atelier focuses on: Crafting and Story, and to a lesser extent Combat.
Combat
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The combat is satisfying, but generic. If you've played any turn-based RPG you will feel at home with its combat system. What I like is that Lulua as an alchemist is rather weak as a fighter, but makes up for that by the strong items she can craft. This helps tie her alchemy skills in with the combat system and gives her a unique strength. It's fun being able to craft an OP bomb and blasting the enemy to bits. The combat's biggest weakness is that difficulty is focused on the enemies being bullet sponges (if you pick Hard you really feel this), but as combat isn't the game's focus it's easily forgiven.
Crafting
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This is where the game shines. Crafting in this game is done through Alchemy by synthesising. You take ingredients, each having their own quality, element/s and modifiers, and combine them in different ways to form different items. Some items require pre-combined materials to form a new material. All of these modifiers determine both the quality of the product, as well as the possible effects/attributes it has, which leads to an easy to understand complexity that favors growth/progress over repetition. Recipes aren't discovered by experimentation, instead you find them by buying from merchants and unlocking them through exploration/story progress (I much prefer this method). Rather than making items become irrelevant as the story progresses, instead your alchemy skill and quality of ingredients will increase the strength of the final product. This is great as you not only feel yourself making significant progress, everything you do stays and feels relevant rather then each previous 'tier' becoming a dump and forget concept. Really well done.
From what I've read, each Atelier game also has its own unique spin on crafting. Which I find fantastic. I hate game companies who believe they've found the 'magic formula' of mechanics and will spin out the exact same version of their games each year. There is no perfect game mechanic, and only through experimentation and exploration will you make your games bigger and better. I'm not just excited for the newest game coming out Oct. 29th, but also for the older games as I know I'll have a unique experience with each one.
Story
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One word to describe the story would be Fun. It is not deep, high-stakes or daring -- it is pure, and unadulterated, fun. While people liken it to slice of life, I would call it more of a journey of life. It depicts a character that has its own agency and chooses to use that agency to live a full and varied life. This means not only can life take Lulua wherever it goes, Lulua also can take life wherever she wishes. It makes the story so much more fun because you are not set on a pre-determined path, and the journey's end becomes much more of a choice then a consequence. I prefer stories written this way both with games and novels, and so I instantly fell in love with this one.
The characters themselves are varied and interesting, and the interactions between them are fluid and life-like. A friend feels like a friend, with their flaws and mistakes. Each character feels like they live a life with their own dreams and hopes, choices and journeys, not just having their life defined by the main character. The one thing I do find regretful is that the story feels almost scared to explore the relationships and psyche of the characters deeper, in fear of taking away from the light-hearted tone of the narrative. However a light-hearted story is perfect for just such a thing. How one lives everyday life says a lot about a person and it's a natural thing to want to see more of who they are, and choose to be. (EDIT: After getting much farther in, they do delve into deeper topics though it never goes beyond. Still, great addition).
This is a game, and a series, that I can wholeheartedly recommend to the point where I would commit to day-one-purchases, which is a rarity for me now with the way the industry has gone. I hope Koei Tecmo continue to make fantastic games, and remain unafraid to experiment in them. I'll buy the games that don't get things right regardless, as they're the ones that build towards something great.

Ok finally finish this and conclude the arland until they decide bring other arland game... Ok lets start with the basic do i need to play the other trilogy for this one. Well not really you can play it without really know the world lore. Still my suggestion is play them if you play more for the story than other things. YOu will see a lot of chars from old games and will bring the nostalgy of the past.
Now this game is way better in temr of alchemy still i prefere the alchemy in the Misterious saga, unlike the rest of arland saga you have no time restrictions and combat is very good. The music.. well what i can say the bgm free dlc bring a lot of old atelier music and some paid dlc bring a lot of good ost from other games. Graphics is really good so if you are a fan of atelier games i suggest play all arland from begining and finish with this last great title.
PD: well if i have to pick a best game from arland saga.. even if its old I have to say rorona the start, ending and evolution of the world is very good on that game.. in this game the endings are not so good

GOOD GRACIOUS. Love it. <3