When Light hits Night

As any fan may know, I find Atelier Iris 1: "Eternal Mana" to be the worst of the 3. Why is that? Simply put, Klein is an awful alchemist. It did not help that he didn't really have a strong support cast behind him either. This time however, we're going to look at why the characters around him didn't help his case since they were nearly as worthless as he. Now I know I'm gonna take some heat for this... but I do have a certain love of this game, even though it was the one I found to be the most awful game in a very wonderful series I enjoy very much.

Starting with the easy part... the lead female, Lita Blanchimont, was actually rather useful to me. I found that she was at least 3 times more useful than any other character in the game other than Arlin. (We'll look at him later.) Lita doesn't look like she could be a powerful character, though when you line her up, her physical powers are top-notch. Being the mana-daughter of Iris you'd expect that she SHOULD be able to use the mana items of the game... wrong. Another resounding reason why Klein is such a bad alchemist. If it wasn't for Lita and her unique powers from the Ruby Prism, this game wouldn't be possible. Granted I don't remember 100% of the game since it has been several years since I've played it... But I'm sure any readers will now what I mean; her power about the wings that appear and such.

Norn the cat girl? No. I'm sure SOMEHOW she has a use to the game and its battles... but I never found it. She annoys me far too much to keep in a party. Throws her mage staff and meows a lot. I've got nothing for the creativity on her design... but esh, not a cat.

Delsus? Well while he wasn't the WORST (that's reserved for Klein!) he still wasn't all that exciting either. For a crossbow user, I'd have expected some techniques that may have been unique since you rarely see crossbows as a characters prime weapon. His damage output just can't compare to Lita or Arlin... and when you get Marietta he pretty much loses completely. ALl in all, just not really all that useful of a character.

Speaking of Marietta, she's alright. Healing and semi-powerful attacks pretty much ensure that she should make a party. Granted she suffers from the same problem that Delsus did, a lack of impressive physical strength. Like I said, she has some good techniques, though her strength just can't make them really stand out as amazing like Lita. She does fit the role of a 3rd party member in a standard build because of her healing. Just maybe would have liked to see a little more out of her in the end I guess?

Finally there is Arlin. Arlin fights just like Felt does from Atelier Iris 2 with Mana Strike and other wonderful techniques. His normal physical attack is quite good and proves that his job is to be REPLACING Klein in a final party. But guess what... WRONG AGAIN! Why would the best character in the game be allowed to stay with the party to fight the final battle? Eventually through the game he gets turned to stone and you lose him. Now I've seen youtube videos of him having english dialog in the final scene vs. Maul but I've never figured out how to get him out of that statue and back to my party and I've been through the game twice back then. Since Arlin is gone... you're stuck with Klein, Lita, and Marietta as your best hope for the game. Heaven help you if Klein dies in the final fight, then you are stuck with no hope of revivals or the other mana items to be used. If he wasn't such a bonehead his mana items could be used by the rest of the party! Take Viese from AI2 or Iris from AI3... Both were great alchemists that knew how to make their stuff function for the rest of the party. In conclusion Klein was just awful and his team really couldn't help him out too much. You basically go the entire game expecting Lita to do everything for you... Just so long as she doesn't run out of mana; don't forget to recover it once in a while before she gets the Ruby Prism!

In our final installment of Ateliers we will be looking over Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm. The game that caused much wonder and confusion to the already well established line of "Iris Blanchimont" by giving you a photo replica girl named "Iris Fortner". All this in preparation for the grand release of Mana Khemia 2 soon! Stay tuned for more!

My name is Vayne, I am an Alchemist

With the approaching release of Mana Khemia 2, I've decided to take a look back at the game that features the greatest battle system I've ever played. Technically (as best as I've put together) Mana Khemia 1 and 2 take place long before Atelier Iris 2. To be exact... I think the proper timeline is Mana Khemia 1, Mana Khemia 2, Atelier Iris 2, and then Atelier Iris 1. Atelier Iris 3... It is often said... takes place in another dimension dispite the resounding similarities of the "Iris" in 2 and 3; but oh well back to Mana Khemia!

When I learned of Cross Edge, the popular cross over game on Playstation 3, having a few of the characters from Mana Khemia 2 I began to wonder... why not one? MK2 isn't even out in the states yet (not that it stopped me from enjoying the characters!) and MK1 was an extreme hit with the "Atelier Fanbase". I thought that such memorable characters like Vayne, Anna, and even Roxis should have been in it for sure!

As I stated before, Mana Khemia 1 brought to me the greatest battle engine I'd ever played in my life; and I've played a TON of games. It brightens the soul of an old-schooler to see a game with so many wonderous features like MK1 that didn't try to destroy it with cinamatics and other extremely unneeded junk like other game lines... the "Atelier-Series" productions keep true to what a real RPG feel is. If my book ever hits the point where I can finish my goal and have it turned into a videogame... I would hope that Gust/Salburg(whatever you wish to call them all) would consider taking it.

So why revisit Mana Khemia 1? When I bought the game I only completed one story arc... and that was Anna's. I ended up Youtube-ing the rest of the ending arcs to see what happens. This of course isn't going to be enough for me. I wish to play through the game one more time before the release of MK2. I'll be lending MK1 to a friend of mine tonight so that they can see what the story is all about before MK2 since Cross Edge kinda addicted him to the story. (He's a fan of Raze & Lily)

So which story to take? I was thinking of Pamela or Jessica. Mostly because Pamela has been a constant laughter throughout the Atelier Iris series, and Jessica is supposed to be the main cannon I'd imagine. To be honest I don't really use Nikki or Muppy, I leave them out. I don't have anything strong against them but they don't do the job like Roxis or Flay in my party design. Be damned if you think I'd take Anna out of my party also!


Finally for now... I'd like to point out my favorite of the 3 Atelier Iris games. I think that Atelier Iris 2 should have also made a bit of the cut in Cross Edge. Not to discredit the main figure of the Atelier series, Marie, but perhaps she could have been either replaced or complimented by another alchemist like Viese. Although I always thought Klein (Atelier Iris 1) was an awful alchemist, I'm glad he didn't appear. (For note... I always said the reason he was the only one that could use the alchemy items in 1 was because he was so terrible only he knew how his junk worked!) Also, the reappearance of the Azure & Crimson Azoth Swords would have been exciting as all hell I think! Felt would have made an awesome character to have and that would have disrupted my Cross Edge team something crazy. My final party build was Lyner, Raze, Meu, and Misha. I guess I would have replaced Meu for Felt. Call me totally on the side of Gust's characters at that point.

This concludes this installment of my views once again. Please feel free to comment as you like and share your oppinions!

Next Step

Well it's a short message this time but it will carry its impact! First off www.Raquiandreams.com is now open! Here is of course the official website of the stories that I'll be having published in due time. The format and content of the site is rather skeleton at the moment but I'll have updates and information piling in as time goes on.

As for Ar Tonelico fans... I'd like to remind everyone that Cross Edge is AMAZING! Lyner is really the best character you get until Misha and Orica join the party. I'll never take Lyner out unless they force me too. As it is... I'm looking at a party build of Lyner, Misha, Ruze (I cant remember how to spell his jap name atm), and Marie. Unless I'm mistaken this is the first US release of a game with Atelier Marie in it so I don't think too many people will know who she is.

Finally I'd like to point out that the new Atelier game... "Atelier Rorona" looks pretty good. I suggest anyone interested in the series to check it out via youtube or atelierfun's site.

Dream ACCOMPLISHED!

I'd like to take this time now to report that my life long dream has finally been fulfilled! I have become a contracted author and will be publishing my first story in a line! I signed the contract and was welcomed into the family of the publisher and now... Everyone can look forward to the future of "Minazuki's Treasures"! That's right, Minazuki's Treasures my story from the videogames, has been accepted in the novelization form I've been working on. The final stage now is for PublishAmerica, the publisher, and I to work on the first books cover design.

In the long run I hate to admit that I will no longer be producing my freelance RPGMaker titles such as Raquia or Minazuki's Treasures, even Soulscape. From this point forward I will be working to gain a contract with a real videogame company such as Konami or Namco to turn my books into a videogame! Shortly within the next week I will be opening the named domain site for the books at www.Raquiandreams.com so if you are interested, I suggest you follow it. As for this blog... It will continue. That's right, I will still operate here just as normally. To all the fans of my works, I thank you for your support as I worked to achieve this and I look forward to hearing about the book from all of you soon!

Replay Machine

Let's take a look back at the world of "Ar Tonelico" for a while shall we? I've recently went on a grand search for the artworks of this awesome series that often does not get the credit it deserves here in the United States. The first game of Ar Tonelico, The Melody of Elemia, was not exactly the most popular of releases out here... proves that most US fans are whipped by the mainstream of Final Fantasy or other popular games. In 2009 here when AT2, "The Melody of Metafalica", came out in the States, I admit I didn't even know it was coming out. I was at a game store and saw a clerk stocking the shelves with AT2's boxes and I flipped out!

Currently I'm unaware of how the sales of AT2 have been here but I'm sure it's going to be a repeat of what happened to AT1. Its a shame that people are missing out on the power of Song Magic and the lovely Reyvateils like "Misha Artcerc Lyune" and "Luca Truelywaath".

Can any fan of Ar Tonelico imagine the powers of a ~Synchronity Chain~ between Luca and Misha? I suppose in my honest opinion I would still use Croix & Cocona for the physical attackers in such a party cause Cocona is just amazingly powerful, at least she was in my save. Lately I've been wondering about the possibilities of the 3rd Ar Tonelico, SPOILERS COMING UP!

Ar Tonelico 2's ending teaches us well the obvious... Cocona is a Reyvateil. Since she has a mission now it seems to scream the setup to the 3rd AT. I wonder if she will still be a fighter or if she will become a total songstress, giving way for a new main character? I'd figure she would become a songstress because of the Dive System in the series. Of course we can explore to chances of a total crossover? If you were to combine the characters of both Ar Tonelico games into one, you would have an unbeatable force... However that would lack a great deal of character development through the game.


I'm sure that all Ar Tonelico fans enjoyed the Hymns sung in both games. My particular favorites come from Misha's album and Cloche's. "EXEC PAJA /Misha Extracting" and Cloche's "METHOD Metafalica" win that status of favorite. Of course I like the EXEC with METHOD version of Metafalica, but I just like the basic METHOD version a little more.

I'd like to close my little rants here with realizing this is another one of the few, not the last though, tangents I've gone on about something other than my programmings. A little tidbit of knowledge for anyone out there interested is that in the United States if you're fortunate enough to find a copy of Ar Tonelico 1, it will cost you at least 100 USD! Since I once owned Ar Tonelico 1 a few years ago and only managed to get two hours into the game before the disc stopped working, I'd LOVE to have a new copy. It's rarity is what I blame the crazy price on, but it seems when the time comes for me to finally get it back, I'll have to pay it. I feel as if I'm missing out, and I better get AT1 before there's an announcement of AT3 in the future or something. Besides, then I get to have Misha sing again and she's just an amazing star singer! Got a comment or question about Ar Tonelico or something roughly in general to it? Just leave one and let me know!

Break

Presently I'm on vacation from my programming at the moment. If you wish it however you can find me on Florensia Online! I'm the master of the guild, "Infelsphere", which any Ar Tonelico 2 fan worth their salt will understand the name. Anyways drop by sometime and visit me. This of course doesn't mean that I'm not programming anymore, its a VACATION! Lol

Back on Track

Well since the previous update I've actually have a radical change of events take place. Instead of canceling the project, "Minazuki's Treasures 2", I actually went through and completed it! It had a grand release party to the Raquiandreams faithful and seems to be going well as everyone now gets that opportunity to join Remy Hinomori on her historic adventure.

What's in works now some might wonder? Is it Minazuki's Treasures TACTICS? The simple answer to that is no. MT TACTICS is currently on the backburner for a special release... an unnumbered generation title. Raquiandreams is proud to present... "The True Story of Raquia: Memorial Anthem Wish"! This new endevor is an expansion pack to the previously released title "The True Story of Raquia". I have nothing more to report at this time except that progress on the game is going smoothly and will make more headlines later as details become avaible. All I have to announce is that since this an expansion to the original title, meaning an all new storyline after the ending credits of the original, it will be on the RPGMaker 2003 engine and not RPGMaker XP.

Projects & News

Well I'm going to officially begin a countdown on the cancellation of project "Minazuki's Treasures 2: The Fate of Karaceltia". I haven't been able to find CG at all for the remaining characters when I need them, despite their minor role in the story. I'm afraid that if I just have a blank CG spot and say their name in the dialog, it might lose the overall appeal of what MT2 worked with. However I will leave this to vote eventually before I push the red button to stop the project and dust it.

Of course there are no, and no future problems with the other project... "Minazuki's Treasures TACTICS". This is still in work, but traveling at a snails pace thanks to the continuing distractions of the following games I've been playing. Ar Tonelico 2, Shin Megami Tensei ONLINE, and Persona 4. However this time has been better served to help build the storyline and further the character personalities... which is overall going well.

Quick on a side note, I'd like to mention that in Ar Tonelico 2 I think I'm one of the rare people that like Luca Truelywaath (Truelyworth in the American Release). I'll not go into spoilers but trust me, it's TOUGH to stand with that girl as the story went on.

More announcements and information will be coming along soon enough.

More Delays

Project MT2 as well as MTT (Minazukis Treasures TACTICS) are on further delays. While I can blame the work on the new gains of mine including "Persona4" as well as "Ar Tenelico2"... You can actually blame a bit of the delay of MT2 on CG issues. I'll have more to say later on.

Minazuki's Treasures TACTICS: Delayed

That's right, sadly enough, project "Minazuki's Treasures TACTICS" is on delay for its demo release set for the 15th. There's a series of things we can blame this on, with number one being that I was terribly sick last week when I planned on completing it. Number two is my new infatuation with "Shin Megami Tensei Online: Imagine"... This new MMORPG is all about one of my favorite game series, SMT of course.

So I know what you're all thinking, when will the demo of TACTICS be ready CK? It's simple really. I only have two and a half stories of the eight in the opening left to design. Those being Sakura Shirakawa, Akira Miyauchi, and Satoshi Sasamine. Currently I'm working on Sakura's story which wouldn't take much longer once I feel like working on it. Never fear though, the demo will not be delayed for long, I'd guess a week or so really.

Other than that, there isn't much to report at the moment. I'm busy trying to figure out how to setup the last 25% of "Minazuki's Treasures 2: The Fate of Karaceltia". I need CG for 3 characters and I don't have any that fits the specifics needed. If worse comes to worse I'll have to write around that section of the story and figure something out instead. But as of now, I can still do about 10% more work before I need that CG.

New Year & Nothing New

Well for all my fans out there the new year and holiday break yielded nothing by the way of Raquiandreams game front. I seriously was lazy for the entire time and did not put a drop of work in to any of my projects. I however am announcing that there will be a special DEMO release of "Minazuki's Treasures TACTICS" coming out sometime by mid-January. I'll be doing this to get feedback on the tactical battle system, again you've all seen such a system in games like "Final Fantasy Tactics", "Suikoden Tactics", or "Hoshigami"... to name a few.

Anyways the demo will be distroed only by special request and via MSN or AIM instant messangers. I'd imagine I'll have it ready by round-abouts the 15th, save of course for me dealing with the test plays of it myself so that it will run for everyone. So here's what's important if you want the game. You'll need to either have or get from me the "RPGMaker XP RTP Installation Pack", this will allow the game to run on your computer. Naturally like any other project done by me once you have the RTP installed, you'll be able to play any of my XP edition projects. That will include "Minazuki's Treasures 2: The Fate of Karaceltia" when I release it.

I seem to recall promising something about posting screenshots next time I talked about MT2... I really don't have much, so here's a fresh look at the status screen, featuring Remy, taken about 3 minutes ago as I thought of it. This menu system will not be used for "Minazuki's Treasures TACTICS", so don't get to thinking you'll see the same thing twice. Naturally I'll be putting up promo stuff and maybe a vote on favorite characters for TACTICS when I release that one. Anyways stay tuned...