It is time for a new golden age for JRPGs

Can someone explain the appeal of these Altelier games to me? From what I've seen they look like the worst kind of JRPG

 

Totori was the last one where the time was kinda strict. After that they have gotten more lenient with each entry. Let's just put it this way, when I did my perfect run of Ayesha, to get the true ending, I still had over one and a half year left by the time I had done everything.

Different people like them for different reasons. The biggest selling point seems to have always been that they are not your average JRPG. There's usually no plot about being the chosen and saving the world, instead the stories revolve around alchemists doing various smaller tasks. It's a nice change of pace. With the new Dusk games though, the games have gotten a lot more typical to JRPGs though. Atelier Ayesha had a ton of world building and even ended with a big bad.

The Atelier series is also one of the last JRPG series' that actually have a decent turn based battle system. Fighting some of the optional bosses in the games can be extremely fun because of how good the battle system is, and how if you suck it's definitely your own fault. Another draw tends to be the alchemy systems. They're pretty rad.

What is it you dislike about the games, from what you've seen?

Edit: Oh and the games have some of the best soundtracks in gaming. IMO, of course.

 

My only experience is a few cutscenes, trailers, a bit of gameplay, and a few descriptions and it just seemed like the most generic of anime cliches
If the gameplay is as rad as you claim, then that's cool, but I dunno if I can get past the OVER THE TOP KAWAII MAGICAL GURLness I've seen in it

 

Then skip the Arland games and try out the Dusk games. They moved away from that whole "slice of life anime" thing that the Arland games had going for them. If you get a chance, you should try out Atelier Ayesha, it sounds like it would be the one most suited for you... going by that one sentence.

 

If I run into a copy of any of them cheap I'll give it a try, I've only ever seen one copy of any of the games at my local store though