So uh, this is my favorite Arland game. I haven't even played Lulua yet but there's no way it's this good. It can't be. It's actually now probably my #1 or #2 favorite game in the series until I get through Dusk and can add those in.
In my quest to play every one of the modern Atelier games, I landed at Atelier Meruru knowing that it was considered the fairest of the "time limit" games, had a lot of quality of life improvements, but did a few controversial things in winding down the Arland story (because originally this was intended to be the last one).
What I didn't know was that the second I turned it on I would be blasted with the full power of Meruru's energy from the opening song. And yet, I love it, I keep catching myself singing the random English words.
Atelier Meruru seems to want to take the structure of Rorona and the freedom of Totori, keep only the good parts, and then add a lot of fun stuff. Finally, I felt like I had a "time limit" game where the limitation really was just a way to keep me focused and not a stranglehold on my whims. I thought I'd need to play this game with a guide like the previous two, but I immediately discovered that no, this game was far kinder and easier to work out. Eventually I just grabbed a quick checklist to consult if I thought I missed something and just plowed ahead with my own plan on how to finish my objectives in both my first and second playthroughs. Finally. It only took three games to get there. This is what I want from an Atelier game - room to try and fail and improve without being overly punished for it.
I guess I should get to the highlight of the game - this game is a celebration of the Arland series' conclusion, the OP shows you as many characters as possible even if they didn't appear in the game at all, just to make sure they're covered. Most of the characters do make a comeback, including a few that skipped the last game but were sorely missed. The game still found room for a new cast of characters that seamlessly fits into the bunch anyway, including the new protagonist Meruru who comes into every situation like she's being fired out of a cannon and full of cocky pride. After two games of protagonists wrestling with their own insecurities, it was a nice change of pace to have someone who was far more self-assured (even if that's both her strength and her flaw.)
But this game also has its own identity as well - the graphics have taken a huge jump. There's a sort of "fairy tale" filter over everything in keeping with our royal protagonist. The OST is as good as ever, but even recurring character themes are represented with more traditional instruments. I think Atelier Meruru is the most thematically consistent of the Arland series in its presentation (though I do miss Totori's fish obsession.)
As for the mechanics, I really enjoyed that I had a tight defined objective to attain but gave me so much breathing room in how to attain it. Much of the annoyances of the way time was consumed were gone - travel times were more reasonable as were field actions, and the items I could make to reduce both carried over into the new game plus again. Even so it was rare that I found myself too far ahead of the calendar even when I did a new game plus run and sped through the early game. The additional system of adding buildings to the kingdom gave me a great sense of accomplishment - the game has told me I am a princess expanding my kingdom with alchemy and all through the game I'm seeing developments pop up everywhere. So very satisfying.
The alchemy system is just the one from Rorona again (or rather, Rorona Plus stole this game's alchemy system) but it really shines more here when I had the time I wanted to play around with making uber accessories, gear, and items. The combat system was similarly just the one from Rorona Plus again, but it still works and is welcomed after the bare bones affair of Totori. The addition of characters getting to potentially end a battle with their own theme music was a fun touch, though given the circumstances to make it happen are kind of rare, I only saw one or two per playthrough.
As for the thing that I still think is Arland's best selling point... the characters are fantastic. I already praised Meruru, but it was great to see her forming a new student-teacher bond with a much more mature and confident Totori, completing a chain of alchemist teachers that continued from before the first game. Her friendship with her maid Keina is legitimately charming and generated a lot of "Awwwws" from me. The complicated storyline of luckless knight Lias and his overly prim but perfect brother Rufus kept me engaged.
Unfortunately this also leads into the one sore spot in the plot - apparently the devs didn't like the idea of showing a Rorona in her 30s (given the amount of time that has passed over three games). So while you technically get to experience the joy of playing all three of the Arland protagonists at once... Rorona was turned into an amnesiac 8-year-old. Yea, Loli Rorona is admittedly funny and it's absolutely the most Rorona-like thing to ever happen to her, it feels sour to be deprived of seeing Rorona transitioning into becoming a full mentor or seeing her interacting with her old and new friends with actual character development - instead we only see a little kid for essentially the entire game.
But aside from that misstep, everyone else that returned from earlier Arland titles has satisfactory continuations and conclusions to their plotlines. More Hagel, playable Pamela?! YES PLEASE. Esty and Filly freaking out over their weird love lives? Thank you! More humor at the expense of my man Sterk, who is slowly going crazy with wanting to be a knight again? Gimme! Hell, even Gio came back and he's a very welcome addition to the cast... though with the caveat that all of his storyline is told only on a new game plus playthrough.
Yep. You cannot get some of the endings without a second playthrough and an entire playable character is held back to that second playthrough. I thought this would bother me but actually it took some ease off my first playthrough - I could unlock as much as I wanted the first playthrough, then use the second one for clean up and still have new content to play so it didn't feel like too much of a retread of content I'd already played.
And while Meruru has a seemingly light story, it does have a constant goal of self-improvement for its leading lady. I loved that the storyline events all showed her growing up and taking responsibility for her kingdom, but on her own terms. The game and the Arland series itself is constantly reflecting on growing up, on what's left behind by generations before us, what we do with it, and what we leave behind for those that come after us. It's a game about endings leading into beginnings. You can tell the Gust team loved making the Arland series and while they were looking forward in a very different direction with the next sub-series, they're very fond of Arland. Coming to the end of the original trilogy, I understand why these characters stick with people and why they still get meme'd over and over. Arland has some real growing pains to endure, but I truly enjoyed my time with this game.
AHHH RAISE YOUR LUNCHTIME AHHH SING YOUR SUNLOVE AHHH SHOW YOUR LIFE!
So uh, this is my favorite Arland game. I haven't even played Lulua yet but there's no way it's this good. It can't be. It's actually now probably my #1 or #2 favorite game in the series until I get through Dusk and can add those in.
In my quest to play every one of the modern Atelier games, I landed at Atelier Meruru knowing that it was considered the fairest of the "time limit" games, had a lot of quality of life improvements, but did a few controversial things in winding down the Arland story (because originally this was intended to be the last one).
What I didn't know was that the second I turned it on I would be blasted with the full power of Meruru's energy from the opening song. And yet, I love it, I keep catching myself singing the random English words.
Atelier Meruru seems to want to take the structure of Rorona and the freedom of Totori, keep only the good parts, and then add a lot of fun stuff. Finally, I felt like I had a "time limit" game where the limitation really was just a way to keep me focused and not a stranglehold on my whims. I thought I'd need to play this game with a guide like the previous two, but I immediately discovered that no, this game was far kinder and easier to work out. Eventually I just grabbed a quick checklist to consult if I thought I missed something and just plowed ahead with my own plan on how to finish my objectives in both my first and second playthroughs. Finally. It only took three games to get there. This is what I want from an Atelier game - room to try and fail and improve without being overly punished for it.
I guess I should get to the highlight of the game - this game is a celebration of the Arland series' conclusion, the OP shows you as many characters as possible even if they didn't appear in the game at all, just to make sure they're covered. Most of the characters do make a comeback, including a few that skipped the last game but were sorely missed. The game still found room for a new cast of characters that seamlessly fits into the bunch anyway, including the new protagonist Meruru who comes into every situation like she's being fired out of a cannon and full of cocky pride. After two games of protagonists wrestling with their own insecurities, it was a nice change of pace to have someone who was far more self-assured (even if that's both her strength and her flaw.)
But this game also has its own identity as well - the graphics have taken a huge jump. There's a sort of "fairy tale" filter over everything in keeping with our royal protagonist. The OST is as good as ever, but even recurring character themes are represented with more traditional instruments. I think Atelier Meruru is the most thematically consistent of the Arland series in its presentation (though I do miss Totori's fish obsession.)
As for the mechanics, I really enjoyed that I had a tight defined objective to attain but gave me so much breathing room in how to attain it. Much of the annoyances of the way time was consumed were gone - travel times were more reasonable as were field actions, and the items I could make to reduce both carried over into the new game plus again. Even so it was rare that I found myself too far ahead of the calendar even when I did a new game plus run and sped through the early game. The additional system of adding buildings to the kingdom gave me a great sense of accomplishment - the game has told me I am a princess expanding my kingdom with alchemy and all through the game I'm seeing developments pop up everywhere. So very satisfying.
The alchemy system is just the one from Rorona again (or rather, Rorona Plus stole this game's alchemy system) but it really shines more here when I had the time I wanted to play around with making uber accessories, gear, and items. The combat system was similarly just the one from Rorona Plus again, but it still works and is welcomed after the bare bones affair of Totori. The addition of characters getting to potentially end a battle with their own theme music was a fun touch, though given the circumstances to make it happen are kind of rare, I only saw one or two per playthrough.
As for the thing that I still think is Arland's best selling point... the characters are fantastic. I already praised Meruru, but it was great to see her forming a new student-teacher bond with a much more mature and confident Totori, completing a chain of alchemist teachers that continued from before the first game. Her friendship with her maid Keina is legitimately charming and generated a lot of "Awwwws" from me. The complicated storyline of luckless knight Lias and his overly prim but perfect brother Rufus kept me engaged. Unfortunately this also leads into the one sore spot in the plot - apparently the devs didn't like the idea of showing a Rorona in her 30s (given the amount of time that has passed over three games). So while you technically get to experience the joy of playing all three of the Arland protagonists at once... Rorona was turned into an amnesiac 8-year-old. Yea, Loli Rorona is admittedly funny and it's absolutely the most Rorona-like thing to ever happen to her, it feels sour to be deprived of seeing Rorona transitioning into becoming a full mentor or seeing her interacting with her old and new friends with actual character development - instead we only see a little kid for essentially the entire game.
But aside from that misstep, everyone else that returned from earlier Arland titles has satisfactory continuations and conclusions to their plotlines. More Hagel, playable Pamela?! YES PLEASE. Esty and Filly freaking out over their weird love lives? Thank you! More humor at the expense of my man Sterk, who is slowly going crazy with wanting to be a knight again? Gimme! Hell, even Gio came back and he's a very welcome addition to the cast... though with the caveat that all of his storyline is told only on a new game plus playthrough.
Yep. You cannot get some of the endings without a second playthrough and an entire playable character is held back to that second playthrough. I thought this would bother me but actually it took some ease off my first playthrough - I could unlock as much as I wanted the first playthrough, then use the second one for clean up and still have new content to play so it didn't feel like too much of a retread of content I'd already played.
And while Meruru has a seemingly light story, it does have a constant goal of self-improvement for its leading lady. I loved that the storyline events all showed her growing up and taking responsibility for her kingdom, but on her own terms. The game and the Arland series itself is constantly reflecting on growing up, on what's left behind by generations before us, what we do with it, and what we leave behind for those that come after us. It's a game about endings leading into beginnings. You can tell the Gust team loved making the Arland series and while they were looking forward in a very different direction with the next sub-series, they're very fond of Arland. Coming to the end of the original trilogy, I understand why these characters stick with people and why they still get meme'd over and over. Arland has some real growing pains to endure, but I truly enjoyed my time with this game.