Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, which one?

[cruehead967]

I want to get one of the Atelier Iris games before they disappear (damn Atlus), but I don't know which one I should get. I like to hear the thoughts of my fellow RPG gamers so I wanted to ask you all which one do you prefer?

[John]

I want to get one of the Atelier Iris games before they disappear (damn Atlus), but I don't know which one I should get. I like to hear the thoughts of my fellow RPG gamers so I wanted to ask you all which one do you prefer?

Erm, Atlus didn't publish either of the games, NIS America did.  On topic, Most people seem to prefer the first title.

[CluelessWonder]

They are both enjoyable games, but I liked the second one slightly more.  Although I must say that item synthesizing is better in the first game.  A lot of the humor in the game presented itself when you made new items.  The second game has humor but it's presented in the story itself, through the characters which IMO are better than the ones in the first game (at least the party members since Veola rules).

I don't think I ever refined my weapon in the first game.  I did do a lot of blacksmithing in the second game.  The weapon tree gave me pleasant flashbacks to Dark Cloud 2's tree.

Be warned that some people experienced problems viewing the ending of the first game.  I had no problems, but I think other people had the game freeze up before seeing the ending.

[Logick]

Erm, Atlus didn't publish either of the games, NIS America did.  On topic, Most people seem to prefer the first title.

Actually i think NIS goes through atlus or something, when I got the second one from EB, the shipping manifest on the box said atlus.  and I think they did share a booth at e3.  they got some link correct?

[John]

Yeah, they are absolutely linked, but function as separate entities, much like SOE/SCEA.

[Sketch]

While it's been a while since I've played the first one, I remember liking it a lot more than I did the second. It was longer, tougher to get through (seriously, the second installment is very easy), and had a much more enjoyable item synthesis system, which is one of the key aspects to the series.

While I disagree with Clueless' choice of favorite game, I will agree in that they are both good titles. I doubt you'd go wrong with either one.

[Spoony Mage]

The first game, because Veola > You.  :P

Seriously, both games have their merits and both of their main plots are pretty short in comparison to other RPGs on the market.  I've yet to finish AI:2, but with as much fun as I'm having on this one, I still like the first game better.  As others have said, the item synth system is much deeper and it actually impacts your gameplay in a lot of ways.  I was unbeatable by the time I finished synthesising my weapons.  Plus, you actually get a background story on each of the shopkeepers that you synth with, hence, the reason why Veola is my favorite NPC EVER.