The Atelier series and its mixture of potion-crafting and JRPG combat has only recently found success out west, but the series began in 1997 with the release of Atelier Marie in Japan. Now that first game is being remade with new graphics and released outside of Japan for the first time. It'll arrive on Steam this summer.
Here's an announcement trailer from this past week's Japanese Nintendo Direct:
Those graphics are all new, which should be obvious given it doesn't look like a PSone game. It does seem to otherwise hew close to the original though, keeping its camera perspective and combat style rather than that of the modern iterations such as Atelier Ryza.
Despite Atelier Marie seemingly being released in 1997, Koei Tecmo are still running a series of Atelier 25th anniversary events. The next livestream is due on February 20th at noon GMT and will feature more information on both the Atelier Marie Remake and Atelier Ryza 3. You can watch it here when the time comes.
Ed was put off by Atelier Ryza 2's self-conscious cuteness but found himself drawn in by the endless pursuit of better crafting materials. JRPG expert Kat Bailey took a broader view when writing about what the rise of the Atelier series said about PC gaming.
There's no Steam page for the Atelier Marie Remake yet, but there are a handful more screenshots on its English language site. The trilogy-capping Atelier Ryza 3 is already live on Steam, meanwhile.
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