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Character Desinger Mel Kishida 'Ran Out of Ideas' After Working on 3 Atelier Games

Game developer Gust held the "Atelier Series 20th Anniversary Presentation" event in Tokyo on Wednesday to honor its Atelier video game series. Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland, Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland, and Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland character designer Mel Kishida reflected on his work for the series at the event.

Kishida said he "was nervous at first" when he started work on the Atelier series as his first RPG character designs. However, he said he had "run out of ideas" by the third game, and designing became a kind of war of attrition. In addition to his video game designs, Kishida designed characters for the the Hana-Saku Iroha anime and illustrated the Heaven's Memo Pad light novel series.

Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk, Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky, and Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea character designer Hidari also attended the event. He said he was in high school and played Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg, the first Atelier game, around the time it debuted in 1997. He added, "So that means Kishida was around a junior high school student."

Yuugen, character designer for Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book and Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey, said he "wants to defeat" Kishida and Hidari and that it was an honor to talk together with them at the event. In addition NOCO, who also worked on the two "Mysterious" games, appeared at the event.

Gust revealed at the event that the newest installment in the main Atelier game series will be Riddii & Suuru no Atelier ~Fushigi no Kaiga no Renkinjutsushi~ (Atelier Liddy & Sule: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Painting). The company also announced a smartphone app spinoff titled Atelier Online ~Bureseiru no Renkinjutsushi~ (Atelier Online: The Alchemist of Blasel). (Note: The romanizations of both games' titles are not official.)

Riddii & Suuru no Atelier ~Fushigi no Kaiga no Renkinjutsushi~ is the next game in the series' "Mysterious" storyline, after Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book and Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey. As the title indicates, the game will have two protagonists, and will center on a mysterious painting. Yuugen and NOCO will return for this new game. The below image teases the silhouette of the game's main characters.

The most recent game in the Atelier franchise is Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey, which shipped for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita last November in Japan. Koei Tecmo Amercia released the game in North America on March 7 on the PS4, and digitally on the PS Vita and the PC, and on March 10 in Europe for the same platforms. NIS America localized and released most of the previous games in the series, including Atelier Meruru, Atelier Totori, and Atelier Rorona.

Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky inspired a television anime in 2014.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web