Atelier Ayesha

[Farron]

So, Atelier Escha & Loggy will be released next month. With that in mind I decided to go back to Ayesha. For some reason I ended up not finishing it.
While I do like the game for me the previous two atelier games were better.

So, I'd like to ask something for those who have finished and have some memory of the story. I'm at the part where I just got access to Hornheim, together with the balloons and the Homunculus Village. Anyone remembers if I'm far from the end? That's because I only have one year left.
Also, I didn't trigger a scene or anything special going there, I wonder if I missed something...

[Ranadiel]

So, Atelier Escha & Loggy will be released next month. With that in mind I decided to go back to Ayesha. For some reason I ended up not finishing it.
While I do like the game for me the previous two atelier games were better.

So, I'd like to ask something for those who have finished and have some memory of the story. I'm at the part where I just got access to Hornheim, together with the balloons and the Homunculus Village. Anyone remembers if I'm far from the end? That's because I only have one year left.
Also, I didn't trigger a scene or anything special going there, I wonder if I missed something...

That is....hard to say. I believe it is possible to actually "beat" the game without going there if I am remembering correctly. There are a lot of other details that are important to figuring out how far along you are. The most important being how many key-item flowers do you have? I want to say you need to have five of those to be able to "beat" the game, and you can get one in the desert that you can get to via balloon. Unless you mean you are in year 4 when you say that you only have a year left.....in which case you have already "beaten" the game.

[Cyril]

You can beat it, but you'll be missing a good chunk of the story.  Basically, if you don't do the entire set of sidequests with Keith on the island there you're going to be missing out on "hows," "whys," and "whats."  

Said hows, whys, and whats are also relevant to a main conflict in Escha and Logy.

Belated Edit:  Anyway yes, if you just want to beat the game you only need to get a certain number of flowers, then an event battle with a mean machine opens up that will probably kill you a few times until you make better gear and items.  This is the trigger for the rest of the events in the story.  More things will happen and eventually a final dungeon opens up. You'll know it because it's gorgeous.

But the final boss won't make a lot of sense unless you did the Kieth events.

[Farron]

I thought the game ended on year 3, sorry, my mistake.
I just hot access to the desert and before looking it up now and you guys mentioning I didn't know I had to collect some flowers to get a better ending.
I don't plan on getting everything anymore, especially on my first run, but I did want to see at least a "normal" ending. The ending most people would get without looking a guide or something.

I kind of feel bad because I liked the game but for some reason I got really confused in the alchemy system in this game as compared to the previous ones.
Rorona was my first atelier game but by the time I hit Meruru I was pretty comfortable with it. When I got Ayesha it seemed like I was back to square one. On one hand I see it as a good thing so it doesn't get stale but the other hand I kind wished I could've gotten used to it faster.

[Cyril]

Don't feel too bad, Atelier titles are meant to be replayed.  The ending you get if you fail is actually decent, but you do not learn the truth, which is a main theme of the game.

[Ranadiel]

I thought the game ended on year 3, sorry, my mistake.
I just hot access to the desert and before looking it up now and you guys mentioning I didn't know I had to collect some flowers to get a better ending.
I don't plan on getting everything anymore, especially on my first run, but I did want to see at least a "normal" ending. The ending most people would get without looking a guide or something.

Game ends on year 3 if you fail to "beat" the game before then. You get two extra years if you manage that.

[Farron]

I got to year 3 month 8. I think have done so many optional sttof that I wasted to much time an d for some reason I can't manage to go to the right places to trigger the story to move on.

Even looking around it seems I got all the wrong flowers in favor of mandatory ones.
I fear the bad ending is coming and I'm not sure if I'll have time to pick back in a long time.

Edit: So I managed to beat it in time! I had a really good time with it!
So I wrote a small review of it on my blog if anyone wants to check it out. It pretty much sums up my impressions with the 4 games of the series I played but focusing on Ayesha.
The only sad thing about the atelier series I forgot to mention is like Cyril said, they are meant to be replayed but I'm not much into replaying games after I've just beat them. At best I would give the game a few months to go back to them.

[Klyde Chroma]

So I umm... screwed up :/

I turned off Ayesha last year once the credits were done rolling and didn't realize my clear data at the start of year 4 was actually the start of 2 additional years.

I then proceeded to trade Ayesha in at Gamestop for some magic beans and power up rewards points.

Now I was ready to move on to E&L but don't want to skip out on anything signifigant. So give it to me straight guys.... Should I re-buy Ayesha and play year 4 and 5 before I touch E&L? Or was it essentially just more time to explore the world/characters a bit?

Remember guys, I'm a ninja. I can take the (brutal) truth if I must...

[Dice]

It's a quick enough game to play....but I dunno.  Games like this don't seem to enjoy price drops and...um, I didn't find it worth the price tag to begin with.

I have a theory these games could go up a full letter grade with another month of development and polish.

[Nel]

In a bizarre coincidence, I actually bought Ayesha off of Amazon earlier today. o_O

The only one I own is the DS one. Annie? Never cracked it open. Been meaning to someday as I clear my backlog.

[Tomara]

Atelier Annie is fairly short. If I remember correctly, the first playthrough won't take more than 15 hours.

[Klyde Chroma]

In a bizarre coincidence, I actually bought Ayesha off of Amazon earlier today. o_O

The only one I own is the DS one. Annie? Never cracked it open. Been meaning to someday as I clear my backlog.

As someone who liked "Iris" a lot but didn't care enough for "Arland" to move beyond Rorona, I really loved Ayesha. I have no MK or Annie experience so no frame of reference in that regard.

Same as always for me though, its typically a matter of characters, worlds, environments and superficial things. Ayesha was a joy for me to play-through thanks to the cast (Loved Keithgriff, Willbel, Harry and Marion although I probably just spelled them all wrong) and the soundtrack. Additional love for the uber-fast menu surfing and selecting for synthesis.

Ayesha was also the first game where I felt the time limit was actually motivating as opposed to a hindrance. I loved pursuing the plot events in such a loosely guided fashion with town requests taking a back-seat in terms of necessity.

As for my year 4 and 5 dilemma... I think I decided against re-purchase to see it through. I don't know what I missed, but felt like everything concluded nicely by the time I achieved whatever ending I did. In the future however I need to start paying more attention to available content once the credits are through-LoL

[Nel]

Well, I have no experience with the series beyond that single DS purchase. My assumption from the titles was that each game was standalone as long as the titles didn't share a name or place, so I just bought the cheapest installment Amazon had, which was Ayesha. If there's a continuing story or overall world continuity to the series, then should I play another game in the series first?

[Starmongoose]

Well, I have no experience with the series beyond that single DS purchase. My assumption from the titles was that each game was standalone as long as the titles didn't share a name or place, so I just bought the cheapest installment Amazon had, which was Ayesha. If there's a continuing story or overall world continuity to the series, then should I play another game in the series first?

No you are fine starting with Ayesha.

I started with Atelier Iris 2 and then went back to 1 and then played 3. I also played Meruru before Rorona and Totori. So far the Dusk series is the only one I've played in order and I doubt it matters.

[Nel]

Good to know. Thanks! :)