There is still life in the DS! Hallelujah!
*ahem*
Atlus and a team of developers that previously worked on Etrian Odyssey and the Atelier series are working on an RPG for the DS, Nora to Toki no Koubou. It’s due out in Japan on 21st July 2011, which should give me enough time to get Rondo of Swords out of the way and possibly play a little something else. Will it come to the US? Should I wait to play it? (hell no) Only time will tell!
Nora sounds like an Atelier kind of game: fulfilling quests and making items in order to make the villagers like you. According to Famitsu there’s a time-related component to making the items, so it’s not like the usual alchemy system we’re used to. What Nora does is described as “導刻術”, using the characters for “guide”, “time/engrave” and “technique.” It allows her to manipulate time, but we’ll have to wait for more details on exactly what that entails.
The story sounds simple enough: a little girl named Nora goes on a training trip, finds herself accused of being a witch and has to prove her innocence. Like most recent Atelier games (yes yes, I know it’s not an Atelier game), this one has a time limit of three years, during which she has to build up the trust of the villagers while keeping her skills hidden from them. I’m not saying they copied it or anything, but remember how in Atelier Lina Lina is accused of burning down the forest and is forced to help the fairies rebuild it? Just saying.
Btw, the romanization of Nora’s full name is given on the official Atlus website as “Noora Brandor”, but seeing as that same page misspells “character” as “charactor”, I think we’re safe going with Nora for now.
It sound like there are multiple endings depending on how you related to your companions in the course of your adventure. No Saga 3 style hidden requirements, please!
From the sole battle screenshot I saw, the battle system is a regular turn-based one. Probably nothing too complicated either. As long as the quests and the item creation system is rich and complex enough, I don’t really care what they do to the battle system. As for the cutesy-wutesy character designs, I’ll get used to them eventually.
Btw, is it just me or does the world map look an awful lot like the world map from Atelier Lina?
Anyway, massive props to Atlus for continuing to develop games for the Nintendo DS at a time when other companies are shifting their loyalty to the 3DS. Between this and Devil Survivor 2, Atlus is my new favorite company! Three cheers for Atlus!
After all, I don’t have money for a 3DS right now, and if I did have that money I’d spend it on a PSP and a couple of games. I’ve had a DS since 2006 and I must have played at least a hundred (whoa… but yeah, I think so) games on it, but I’m not quite ready to move on yet.
So, looking forward to move details being added to the Official Site and Official Development Blog soon!
Hey there, I just stumbled across your blog yesterday after being confounded by this game. XD I absolutely love it, but it’s about as demanding as possible. The whole time factor about it is, I think, its greatest downfall.
It’s an atelier game alright. You have to make things and collect things constantly, and every time you make something new (often you need large quantities of a certain ingredient to help then make a large batch of another ingredient in order to make another large bunch of the item requested!), it takes an entire day – often to only make ONE of the items. As you already know, you’ve only got 3 years, and when you’re experimenting with ingredients in order to create mystery items the villagers ask for, you can’t enjoy it, because the next thing you know, two or three precious months have passed, and you may be stocked, but you’re waaaaay behind in the storyline.
While you’re futzing with all of that, the battle RPG element comes in to play. You have to continually be leveling up and upgrading equipment on your characters so that you can beat the bosses of this or that item field in order to progress the story! This also takes up precious time you just don’t have to waste. I’ve been playing this game for a few weeks now, and have already lost 5 times, each time trying a different strategy to get ahead. GRANTED – I have a handicap in that my kanji knowledge only goes so far. I can read enough to follow the storyline and figure out where I’m being told to go, but since many of the items and places use complex kanji characters I don’t recognize yet, I may well be missing out on some hints that would help me. Even still, you have an enormous time constraint.
The game is heavy on running around and bantering with the villagers (it takes a day or two to run from place to place), every time you go to collect items, it burns another 4 days or so, and the obligations to the bartender are inexhaustible. You will NEVER get a break, and you have to constantly play fetch for this guy to get him to “like” you. What’s funny is that in the end, even if you’ve nearly made it there, and have convinced all of the characters to like you (except for that stupid mayor who seems to be a neverending douche), you’ll be ridden out of town on a rail. Every single “friend” you made turns on you and will drive you out. THE END. I don’t know if there are endings where someone actually sticks up for you in an attempt to keep you in the town’s good graces, but I’ve come very close to beating the game, and I never got it. Best I’ve seen is extended arguing about the cause of the last straw at the end of the 3 year time period. Ultimately they all just blame you, blow on into the forest with their torches and pitchforks, and away you go. Given the heartlessness of the bad ending as it is, I’m amazed they don’t show her being burnt at the stake or something!
SO, now that it sounds like I hated the game – I actually love it, and am determined to figure out how to beat the main story so that I can move on to creating more and more elements and items! That part is really enjoyable, and totally destroyed by the main story’s time limit. You are not allowed time to enjoy the game. I personally don’t have a problem with the character design, I love the cute! If it gives you a clue of what kind of RPG gamer I am, the furthest I’ve ever gotten on an atelier game was Iris (or Ar Tonelico, if that counts as one), but I’m a Disgaea fanatic. 🙂 The battle system in this game really appealed to me for the same reason. I never had much patience with alchemy, but Nora makes it fun for me.
I like your blog, I really hope my assessment of the game doesn’t irk you too much, and I hope you’ll review Nora after you’ve played and beaten it! 🙂
Your thoughts pretty much mirrored my own after my first playthrough of Nora, except they’re much more positive. I’ve played most of the other Atelier games, including all those on the DS, so I know it’s possible to make an Atelier game with good endings and much better time management. That made it all the frustrating for me. I loved how tough the battle system was at first, though.