History VideoGame / AtelierIrisEternalMana

''Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana'' is the sixth installment of the [[AtelierSeries Atelier series]] of role-playing games which were developed by Gust, and the first game from the series to make the journey across the Pacific from Japan. It is also the first game in the Atelier series to invert TheSmurfettePrincipal, as this main character, who is traditionally female in the series, is male.

''Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana'' is the sixth installment of the [[AtelierSeries Atelier series]] of role-playing games which were developed by Gust, and the first game from the series to make the journey across the Pacific from Japan.

** Mistreating mana is a big one for Klein.

* MagikarpPower: Klein and Norn generally start out as this having little to no reliable means of dishing out good damage, however later on both have the highest damage potential given the right equipment and skills.

* MagicKnight: Marietta who can use Healing magic and an attack one aside of being quite sturdy.

* ShipperOnDeck: Popo, he stops very shortly after however.

* WakeUpCallBoss: [[spoiler:Norn]] can quite a nasty surprise if you don't take her the minions quickly before they power her up. Fail to do so and within ''two'' turns she might take down anyone in your team in about two hits if you have the average equipment and to add more spice she will mostly likely put some of your team to sleep during the fight.

* YouALLLookFamiliar: PaletteSwap is used to disguise it, but it's still very noticeable with the maid sprite, which covers two shopkeepers in Arcose and the nearby mine (one of whom is important to Blaire's side story), one in another shop in Kavoc, and some others that tend to pop up elsewhere.

* WakeUpCallBoss: [[spoiler:Norn]] can quite a nasty surprise if you don't take her the minions quick before they power her up. Fail to do so and within ''two'' turns she might take down anyone in your team in about two hits if you have the average equipment and to add more spice she will mostly likely put some of your team to sleep during the fight.

* CantCatchUp: Marietta arrives with a serious dearth of skill points. She could be struggling to max out two skills while everyone else has only two skills ''not'' maxed.

InAWorld where alchemy exists, alchemists travel the land in search of new alchemic artifacts and mana. The mana are a race of beings who lend alchemists their power in order to craft stronger magical items.

* IneffectualLoner: Arlin, [[spoiler:he's turned into a stone when he confronts Mull alone. And even then, he very nearly killed Mull himself, and probably would have succeeded if he hadn't run out of mana and "died."]]

* ThrivingGhostTown: Towns like Kavoc and Arcose have easily 2000 people living in them, if the customer reports from the shops are to be believed. There might - ''might'' - be 100 NPCs with or without unique names in the game (setting aside enemies).

* IneffectualLoner: Arlin, [[spoiler:he's turned into a stone when he confronts Mull alone.]]

* ResourcesManagementGameplay: Some of the elements are very rare or outright limited. [[spoiler:The Time element]] is the worst offender, and you don't even learn it exists - [[InterfaceSpoiler aside from an empty gap in the elements chart]] - until [[spoiler:Avenberry]]. Several high-level crafting materials appear only a few times in the game, so you have to be very careful about using them in item synthesis.

* TakeYourTime: Want to scour all the towns again for any new quest triggers or recipes? Go ahead. Want to stock up on every item you can find and synthesize everything else? Sure. There are points where you plausibly should be hurrying along but there's no actual need to do so.

* TooAwesomeToUse: Several of the mana items. They take uncommon or limited elements, or can be substituted with a weaker item and one of Klein's skills. For example, the Heal Bulb is a party heal, but you can achieve a similar effect with a [[HealingPotion Heal Jar]] plus Wide Item. Elixir is another one, as it fully restores mana and health but it needs the fairly rare Holy element to conjure.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Norn's Sleep spell is borderline pointless, as it's primarily used against a lot of weak enemies who are unlikely to successfully resist. However, it takes time to cast, and there's a very good chance that Norn will have been mobbed by the swarm of enemies in the meantime and either had the casting "broken," or she's just outright killed because of her horrible defense. Thanks to the area-of-effect on most party members' attacks as well, you're likely to end up waking an enemy just after you manage to put them to sleep, while you're trying to get rid of those still awake. The paralysis effect is also supposed to lower physical damage dealt, but it's easy to miss this despite a lot of monsters casting it on you (and a lot of monsters resist it when you finally do get to cast it).
** Surprisingly averted with Norn's "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Turn]] [[BalefulPolymorph 2 Candy]]" spell. Like Sleep, it also takes two turns to cast, but is an instant-kill with a respectable success rate on non-boss enemies. It also turns the enemy into some kind of snack food, is usually the only way you can ''get'' those snack foods, and said snacks are useful for item synthesis in shops, especially at Blaire's bakery in Arcose.

* ItemCrafting: It's an Atelier game, what do you expect? Though the actual item crafting is done at shops, where you have to bring materials for synthesis. Klein can only spend gathered elements to conjure mana items in the field, and then only if he has at least one Mana that can use every element needed for the item in question.

* WeSellEverything: Very averted. Every shop has a narrow, thematically-appropriate inventory selection, with up to 9 available to buy at any time (and often far fewer). Some certain expensive items are never restocked once you buy them out, as well. Finally, some shops do expand their inventory, but only once you bring materials for the new recipes. Some of these crafted items only restock in the shop after you've crafted more yourself, as well.

* CatGirl: Norn. You can also meet other werecats when Norn is in your active party, who will offer to heal you or share an item out of solidarity and friendship.

** LightningBruiser: Arlin, fast, strong with physical and magic attacks also having good balance in Speed and Defense. [[spoiler:No wonder he is a CrutchCharacter]]. Lita evolves into something of this as more of her skills unlock and level up, since she shares Fast Attack with Arlin and her Dodge skill is nearly identical to his Block.

* EmbarrassingMiddleName: Delsus' [[spoiler:he really doesn't like to be called ''Ashley'']].

* NominalImportance: As in many [=RPGs=], most NPCs have generic names, a few are named, while important and regularly-recurring characters (usually with their own side plots) are named and have portraits.

* ShipperOnDeck: Popo, he stops very shortly after however.

** Mull turns out to be rather older than he looks [[spoiler:since he actually studied alchemy long ago with Klein's mother Daphne, and Zeldalia]].

** HealingPotion[=/=]ManaPotion: The health and ether jars, respectively.

* TooAwesomeToUse: Several of the mana items. They take uncommon or limited elements, or can be substituted with a weaker item and one of Klein's skills. For example, the Healing Bulb is a party heal, but you can achieve a similar effect with a [[HealingPotion Healing Jar]] plus Wide Item.

* ItemCrafting: It's an Atelier game, what do you expect? Though the actual item crafting is done at shops, where you have to bring materials for synthesis. Klein can only spend gathered elements to conjure mana items in the field.

* LoveAtFirstPunch: Lita rescues Klein first, and then calls him a weakling for traveling alone.

* NonLethalKO: Unless the whole active party is knocked out, anyone defeated in combat will be up again at 1 hit point afterward. You can rotate out defeated characters for fresh ones, as well.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Delsus's Spirit Blast skill. Earned through a series of [[FetchQuest Fetch Quests]], it does a phenomenal amount of either fire or ice damage, but costs 99 mana to cast (compared to his next most expensive skill, at 12 mana). That's likely most of his mana when you get it.

* AreaOfEffect: Many attacks and skills. Arlin is notable in that nearly all of his attacks are single-target only, while everyone else has a different [=AoE=] for basic attacks and most skills. Klein's basic attack has a circular area effect, and some of his skills grant an area effect to alchemical items. Lita has more of a vertical (relative to the player) oval area on her attack, representing the wide sweep of her claws; while Delsus and Norn have a horizontal oval area (Norn's is very small) for their projectile attacks. Even Norn's "[[BalefulPolymorph Turn 2 Candy]]" skill has a very small area of effect instead of being strictly single-target instant-kill.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Beggur and the Alkavana Knights object to Klein's efforts to get into Avenberry as they're dedicated to keeping the ruins sealed up because of all the potential dangers inside - but they would also like to recruit Klein because his alchemy powers would be really useful for protecting people. There're no signs the Alkavana are actually tyrannical or monstrous, and at worst they're kind of full of themselves. But Beggur is apparently used to getting his way and is easily provoked, so for much of the game the Alkavana are alternately trying to press-gang or arrest Klein.

* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: '''''Beggur'''''. So very, very much. The [[LargeHam EPIC Ham]] voicework really helps this, to boot..

* LoveAtFirstPunch: Lita does rescue him first, and then she calls him a weakling for traveling alone.

* VitriolicBestBuds: Lita and Veola shades strongly into this, especially once Lita jumps in to berate someone else for insulting Veola.

* AreaOfEffect: Many attacks and skills. Arlin is notable in that all of his attacks are single-target only, while everyone else has a different [=AoE=] for basic attacks and most skills. Klein's basic attack has a circular area effect, and some of his skills grant an area effect to alchemical items. Lita has more of a vertical (relative to the player) oval area on her attack, representing the wide sweep of her claws; while Delsus and Norn have a horizontal oval area (Norn's is very small) for their projectile attacks.

** GlassCannon: Klein, has some of the strongest attacks of the game, but can die '''really''' fast again stronger enemies.
*** Arlin whenever he uses the ''Berserker'' ability.

** FragileSpeedster: Lita.

** LightningBruiser: Arlin, fast, strong with physical and magic attacks also having good balance in Speed and Defense. [[spoiler:No wonder he is a CrutchCharacter]].
** SquishyWizard: Klein and Norn, both can do serious damage, but have the worst Defense value of everyone.
** MightyGlacier: Marietta, she has excellent physical attacks, packs the highest HP of the group and she even has a healing spell her Speed is depressing, though.

* IdiotHair: Klein's, oddly enough only in his art, his overworld sprite doesn't sport this.

* Creator/CrispinFreeman as Delsus

* CatGirl: Norn

* ExpositionFairy: Popo, who is hilariously enough an ''actual'' fairy.