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1[[quoteright:339:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/_-Atelier-Iris-2-The-Azoth-of-Destiny-PS2-__3172.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:339:Being a hero makes you go gray early]]
3
4''Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny'' is the second in the Atelier Iris series of [[RolePlayingGames Role Playing video games]] which itself is a subseries of the ''VideoGame/AtelierSeries'' alchemy-based [=RPGs=]. (Note: "Azoth" is an old alchemical term for mercury, once believed to be a wondrous substance.)
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6Despite being a sequel, the game actually takes place several centuries before the first Atelier Iris. It stars a pair of teenage alchemists, Felt and Viese, who, having grown up together, have the old Anime problem of [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend denying their obvious feelings for each other.]]
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8When their homeland, Eden (where humans and Mana, the spirits of the Alchemical elements, coexist peacefully) literally starts to vanish, Felt finds himself chosen by the titular Azoth to go to another world to investigate the cause. While separated, the two friends keep in contact thanks to a [[BagOfSharing magical device]] that allows them to share items (and letters.) Felt discovers that on the other world, Belkhyde, alchemy is a near-forgotten art (and is considered an art used for ''evil''), and an EvilEmpire rules. Viese helps mostly by making alchemical items for Felt, though she does have her own adventures on Eden concurrent with Felt's, including investigating a mysterious little girl...
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10The '''playable characters''' include:
11
12* '''Felt''', who, besides wielding the Azoth, learns how to upgrade weapons on Belkhyde;
13* '''Viese''', who adventures alone for most of the game on Eden (pronounced ''vee-say'');
14* '''Noin''', a sexy warrior girl who saves Felt and gets him involved in the rebellion against the Empire;
15* '''Gray''', a humanoid dragon;
16* '''Fee''', a female warrior sent to destroy the Azoth by a religious order.
17* '''Poe''', a fairy who looks like a little boy but is actually an incorrigible womanizer (and fights with a gun!)
18
19----
20!!This game provides examples of:
21
22* AccidentalMarriage: Poe ends up marrying a CatGirl when she overhears him reciting his love letter for Viese and believes it to be directed at her.
23* ActionizedSequel: The new battle-system is more dynamic and fast-paced, the plot is focused in defeating an evil empire and salving Eden, rather than learning alchemy and exploring a lost city, dungeons are bigger and you no longer use tools to solve puzzles or reach hidden items.
24%% * AlchemyIsMagic: Complete with InstantRunes for element extraction and item "initialization" (making a newly crafted item available for mana synthesis).
25* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: This is actually a core mechanic of the game and one of its selling points: you can flip between Felt in Belkhyde and Viese in Eden as you wish and progress the two stories as you see fit. The story is still linear to an extent, with episodes usually favoring one side over the other. [[spoiler:And the tales eventually merge, to boot]].
26* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler:Yuveria is really just a machine/computer program.]]
27* BagOfSharing: The Share Rings, which let Felt and Viese share items (including stuff Viese makes with all the things Felt finds in the lower world) despite their great distance from one another.
28* BarbieDollAnatomy: The Sound Manas, which appear as rather well-endowed young women with pointed ears and skin coloration that looks like a risque blue swimsuit, gloves, and long socks... but no nipples (and legs always conveniently crossed to cover anything else). It's not too obvious until you talk to one as part of the plot and get a full-body portrait of her.
29* BecomeYourWeapon: [[spoiler:Palaxius]] pulls this trope when he merges with [[spoiler:the Azoth]] for the final boss fight.
30%% * BlobMonster: The Punis, again.
31* BreathWeapon: Gray can use his draconic powers to breathe fire on a wide area of enemies. With [[ItemCrafting weapon synthesis]], he can master the ability to breathe ice or thunder.
32* BrokenPedestal: In a conversation with the Azure Azoth, he reveals that [[spoiler:Palaxius, one of the greatest alchemists of all time, was once a kind man and the mentor of Elusmus (the original person behind the Azure Azoth), the creator of the Azure Azoth. But Palaxius went mad once the prospect of controlling all creation and destruction came to him, resulting in the Great Alchemy War.]]
33%% * CallToAdventure: Yuveria, to Felt.
34* CombatMedic: Noin is a capable brawler and also gets several group healing skills, reserving healing items for when you need the Skill Gauge for attacks or when Noin's not around (in contrast to the previous game, where items made up almost all your healing power).
35* {{Combos}}: Using a Break Attack on an enemy knocks them back in the initiative count, and if it puts them in the "break" part of the VisualInitiativeQueue, you get bonus damage and build up a chain for further break attacks keeping them there. The [[ComboBreaker chain ends]] if the enemy gets out of the break part of the initiative, and so fast enemies are hard to keep broken. Dealing more damage grants bonus experience and landing more hits grants bonus skill points.
36* CosmicKeystone: [[spoiler:The workshops, called the Paradies auf Eden, which are the engines in the real world by which the artificial world of Eden is maintained.]]
37* CrapsackWorld: The world below Eden is initially portrayed as this, in contrast to Eden's {{Utopia}}. ([[spoiler:The truth is, naturally, a little more complicated.]]) This version of Regallzine is still quite easily the [[SlidingScaleofIdealismVersusCynicism grimmest]] setting the franchise has ''ever'' explored, though.
38* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to Eternal Mana, where the main antagonist only appears briefly before the final confrontation and the Alkavana Knights were more of a GoldFishPoopGang than a threat, the war against the EvilEmpire and Eden's crisis on Eden is taken much more serious.
39* DoomedByCanon: [[spoiler:Being that 2 is a prequel to 1, and that Iris and the people that protected her were killed...]]
40* DuelBoss:
41** Felt encounters a mysterious girl on his way out of Riesevelt with the order to destroy the Azoth.
42** The third and final fight against Chaos involves Felt going after him by himself after declaring his wishes to not interfere the lives of his allies in doing so.
43* DuelToTheDeath: The final encounter with Chaos is fought with Felt alone. The two fight [[spoiler:in front of the Gardo Continental Drive containing Eden, Chaos using his Crimson Azoth against Felt's Azure Azoth.]] It also counts as a prelude to the true final fight for [[spoiler:Elusmus, the soul imprisoned in the Azure Azoth, against Palaxius, his former master imprisoned in the Crimson Azoth.]] Though Felt bests and critically injures Chaos, Chaos still has the last laugh by [[spoiler:using Exanosis on Felt, turning him to stone.]]
44* DumpStat: Magic, for any character but [[spoiler:Viese]] and arguably Poe. It generally increases the power of elemental or healing skills (which tend to scale poorly for their skill cost) or the potency of StatusEffects (themselves [[UselessUsefulSpell Useless Useful Spells]] because of how unreliable they are), both of which are done better with consumable items. And for some reason, most attacks and skills, even when they're stated to do Magic damage, scale with the user's Attack stat.
45* ElementalTiers: Compared to the original game, there are much fewer elemental items, with Ice being fairly weak and Lightning and Dark appearing very late in the game. Notably, there are a lot of Fire-based items, and most of the strongest elemental items (the Tera Flame and Flute of Cerberus) are Fire-based. The strongest item, however, [[TakeAThirdOption deals all four types of elemental damage at once]].
46* EmptyLevels: As this is still an ''Atelier'' game, stat boosts from leveling up are relatively minor, and while the gains eventually add up, the most significant improvements come from mastering passive skills and upgrading equipment.
47* EncounterBait: The Aroma Pot completely refills the Encounter Gauge of an area. In addition, the party immediately fights a random enemy encounter.
48* EncounterRepellant: One of the earliest available Mana Items, the Fear Bottle, completely drains the Encounter Gauge of an area, regardless of how many encounters can happen. With a few exceptions (notably TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon), all areas are susceptible to this item.
49* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Pretty much everyone assumes Viese and Felt are already an item, and refuses to believe any protests to the contrary.
50* EvilCounterpart: Chaos, to Felt. Both are alchemists who, in a turn of events, are forced to call upon the forbidden power of the Azoth to resolve a major conflict. Felt himself recollects the past events after [[spoiler:blessing Chaos' dead sister with an Elixir]] and notes how similar his and Chaos' motivations were.
51--> '''Felt:''' ''(to Viese)'' While I was here, Chaos and I fought many times over Eden. [...] He was just as driven as me. He was fighting for someone he loved more than himself, and in the end, [[spoiler:he was just a pawn of the Crimson Azoth, Palaxius.]]
52%% ** As well as [[spoiler:their respective Azoths.]]
53* ExperienceBooster: The one who deals the final blow in a fight gains a +10% experience bonus.
54* {{Expy}}: Yach and Hagel are reproduced, sprite and all, from the first game. This time, Yach is a merchant in Eden rather than a precocious child who wants to study alchemy, while Hagel is a blacksmith hiding out in a mountain instead of a weapon shop merchant. Then there is Tolena who look lot a like Pamela.
55* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The desert people in Tatalia look a lot like Native Americans.
56* FantasyGunControl: Very oddly used here. Poe, obviously, avoids this completely... but at the same time he has a "magic" gun which isn't a standard weapon at all. The Imperials don't seem to use personal firearms at all, and even cannons don't show up that much, despite the culture of Regallzine being fairly advanced otherwise. [[spoiler:Granted, this might have to do with people's perceptions of alchemy before Felt arrives on the scene, but still.]]
57* FloatingContinent: Eden appears to be a large island floating in empty sky with nothing beneath. [[spoiler:This is because it's in a pocket universe created by the Gardo Continental Drive. In reality, Eden is an artificial continent situated within Lake Midgard.]]
58* ForcedTransformation: The Item Wish transforms enemies into special harvested items with potent equipment reviews. It is more likely to work when the enemies have been sufficiently weakened.
59* FragileSpeedster: Fee has fantastic speed and decent damage, but low max LIFE and Defense. Noin was in the running, especially when there was only [[JackOfAllStats Felt]] and [[MightyGlacier Gray]] to compare her to, before Fee showed up and stole the title.
60%% * GenkiGirl: Noin, and Viese to a small extent (although she may be a bit more of a {{Pollyanna}}).
61* GlobalCurrency: Cole is the currency in both Eden and Belkhyde, [[spoiler:even after 400 years of their separation.]]
62* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: The group Simsilt seeks to restore the prosperity of the Slaith Dynasty, amidst the corruption of the Silvaresta Empire, primarily that of the Imperial Consul.
63* HealingCheckpoint: Camps, marked by glowing purple circles. Once you set camp, the party is fully healed and you can chat with other party members, craft items, save, and switch between Felt and Viese.
64%% * HumanResources: Felt extracts elements from any enemy he kills, even humans.
65%% * HundredPercentCompletion: The item and monster compendiums return from the first game.
66* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: Noin blatantly flirts her way past a border checkpoint.
67* InterfaceSpoiler: The very fact that Viese has stats (level, LIFE values, etc.) should make it clear that she will end up joining the party somewhere down the line.
68* ItemAmplifier: Similar to Klein from the last game, your last party member [[spoiler:Viese]] has both Wide Item to increase the item's range, and Power Item to make those items stronger. Unlike Klein, though, she has item-unrelated [[TheMedic healing skills as well]].
69* ItemCrafting: Three main types:
70** Item Synthesis in Viese's workshop, where you combine harvested materials or other items to create new ones. The materials themselves have various properties such as improved damage or increasing various stats, which they confer to the newly crafted item (and the rest of the stack retroactively). In the case of Mana Items, Viese can initialize them so they can be crafted using Mana Synthesis.
71** Mana Synthesis, which uses elements extracted from enemies or bits of scenery to reproduce Mana Items. Both Felt and Viese can perform this, and they can also do this in battle to use items which are out of stock.
72** Weapon Synthesis, which combines a weapon with a specific item to change the weapon's properties. In addition to modifying its stats, it is the main source of new skills. Only Felt can do it, at an anvil in camping spots.
73%% * ItsUpToYou: Justified. Felt was the one on the spot when the Azoth needed to be drawn, and the situation ''needs'' an alchemist who is willing and able to fight. Nobody else in Eden had the right skill set, and nobody in Belkhyde even knows there's a problem and probably wouldn't care because it's not their world falling apart and oh did you happen to notice TheEmpire trying to conquer everything over here, we're kind of busy.
74* TheKlutz: Coco the Wind Mana, who helps out in a shop in Eden. She regularly trips and drops everything, despite ''flying'' - because she often loses control of the tiny whirlwind that every Wind Mana uses to fly.
75* LaResistance: Simsilt, the revolutionary group headed by the last member of the royal family overthrown by TheEmpire.
76* LazyBackup: You can only have three party members at a time; however, standby party members will immediately jump in to replace downed party members.
77* LeakedExperience: All party members receive the same share of experience and skill points, regardless of whether they were in the active party or not.
78%% * LevelGrinding: TechPoints Grinding, really. It's easy to end up with a pile of unlearned skills because you just kept going on with the story at a steady pace, rather than stopping to grind or taking advantage of break attacks and combo chains. You can also equip two of the same Alchemy Item to get double skill points on a single skill, if there's one you must have quickly.
79%% * LightningBruiser: The FinalBoss is one of these, to many a player's frustration.
80* LukeIAmYourFather: Noin is [[spoiler:Galahad's daughter]] and Fee turns out to be [[spoiler:Max's long lost sister]]. Noin already knew, though, and she just acts annoyed when it comes up.
81* MagicIsEvil: Alchemy is described as one of TheDarkArts due to the shaded past it has, to the point where Noin states using it dooms you.
82* MagikarpPower: Poe. He is very weak stats-wise when he first joins, and to make thing worse, he gains stat points erratically (most of his level-ups don't actually change his stats at all). Later on, however, he gains increasingly impressive growths to all his stats and becomes one of your party's best damage dealers.
83* {{Magitek}}: Quite a lot of it hidden in the background of the world, though almost nobody knows about it anymore [[spoiler:or how to maintain it]].
84%% * MeaningfulName: Most of the Manas, when they aren't engaging in ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming. For example, Klavia the Sound Mana: ''clavier'' refers to most keyboard instruments, and is the French for keyboard, while ''klavier'' is German for piano.
85%% * MoneySpider: Very poor Money Spiders, though.
86* NominalImportance: Noin manages to [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this trope a couple times, such as when she insults an Imperial soldier by calling him a "random encounter."
87* NonStandardSkillLearning:
88** Gray learns the "Dragon Slayer" passive skill by completing the Dragon Test in the Dragon's Den as part of the main plot.
89** Fee learns the secret technique [[spoiler:"Ein Zecksclaw"]] after [[spoiler:performing a special ritual involving defeating the Slaith Reincarnation]].
90* NowWhereWasIGoingAgain: The save screen shows an icon of Felt or Viese to indicate which one the main plot is currently following, and you can get hints about where to go next from party members in the camp.
91* OneStatToRuleThemAll: Speed. A character with high Speed gets to move more often, and in turn can charge the Skill Gauge faster and deal more damage compared to a character with low Speed. The two fastest characters Noin and Fee combine this with the "Quick" skill, which adds a chance to cut the wait time after using an attack or skill by half, making them extremely fast and dangerous.
92* {{Panacea}}: The Cure Jar can cure Poison, Paralysis and Sleep (but not Curse). Later on, you can craft the Uroborus Pill, which cures all status effects, including stat-lowering debuffs.
93%% * RandomDrops: An important source of some crafting materials.
94* RandomEncounters: Random encounters exist in this game, and there is an Encounter Gauge which indicates how close you are to meeting a random encounter, as well as how many encounters remain within. Once the Gauge empties, there will be no more random encounters until you leave the area entirely or set camp. Each section in the area has a separate meter.
95* RareCandy: Certain Mana Items called "Cores" raise one stat permanently (for example, the Uru Core raises fire resistance). There is one core for each stat except Defense and Speed, but these require either rare Mana crystals (which cannot be bought until later in the game and are expensive nonetheless) or Life elements (which can only be extracted from nonrenewable clusters and very specific enemies).
96%% * RedOniBlueOni: Felt and Viese, although they aren't antagonistic in any way, and the colors associated with them are actually ''reversed''; Felt's normal outfit includes a blue overshirt, while Viese typically capers around in a maroon dress.
97%% ** More standard example is the Azoths. The Azure Azoth is good while the Crimson Azoth is evil. [[spoiler:And the BigBad of the game, no less.]]
98* RevealingSkill: Ein Zecksclaw. The royals are apparently ''born'' knowing how to do it, as [[spoiler:Fee]] can do it on reflex when under stress, which is later used as proof that [[spoiler:she's Max's little sister Audrey, who was lost when the Empire conquered Slaith back when she was in diapers]].
99* RewardingVandalism: You'll be stealing from a lot of barrels, and extracting elements from a lot of other things across the game.
100* RoyaltySuperPower: Ein Zecksclaw, a skill known only by members of the Slaith royal family.
101* RunningGag:
102** PlayedForLaughs with Felt and Max, where Max consistently says Felt's name wrong.
103** In some areas, there is a recurring lady complaining about her maid's poor service, prompting an awkward apology.
104---> '''Lady:''' I ordered tea! Not this mysterious black liquid!
105---> '''Maid:''' I'm terribly sorry, ma'am.
106* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:The powers of Mana and alchemy were sealed off in the floating continent of Eden to prevent alchemy from ever being used for war in the wider world of Belkhyde. In addition, Lilith, the Creation Mana, was doubly sealed within the Temple of Creation.]]
107* ShoutOut:
108** Poe declares, before going to flirt with (yet another) woman he just met, "[[Franchise/StarWars Blue 5 to Red Leader, I'm going in!]]"
109** Max eventually ends up calling him [[VideoGame/AtelierIrisEternalMana Klein]] in the English translations.
110%% * SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness: Yes, you have to craft all the way up each weapon's upgrade tree even if you somehow acquired the final required item and Mana before touching weapon synthesis.
111* SpellMyNameWithAnS: When she was debuted in Japan Viese's name caused a lot of linguistic contortion in trying to spell her name in English; Japanese lacks ''both'' a true V sound and a construct used like the English "ie", so what most people ended up with was some variation of "Wisey". This still occasionally trips people up when they encounter early promotional material.
112* StealthPun: Eden is [[spoiler:an artificial world maintained by an alchemic machine called the Gardo Continental Drive. In other words, the Gardo of Eden]].
113* StormingTheCastle: Chapter 19 involves storming the Riese Palace.
114* {{Stripperiffic}}: Viese is one of the ''VideoGame/AtelierSeries'' heroines who very much avoids this trap; if anything she's the franchise's most conservatively-dressed heroine, almost to the point of absurdity for her native climate (two or more layers of clothing for a paradise island that's apparently warm-temperate year-round?) [[MsFanservice Noin on the other hand]]...
115* SwordBeam: Some of Felt's skills send a blast of energy from the Azoth to strike multiple enemies.
116* TakeYourTime: Handwaved in the case of Fee's poisoning. The healer in Max's camp can keep her stable indefinitely, they just can't fully cure her.
117* TalkingWeapon: The Azure Azoth and its evil counterpart, the Crimson Azoth, have been imbued with the intellect of their original creators, [[spoiler:Elusmus]] and [[spoiler:Palaxius]], respectively.
118* TechPoints: Some items have "Secret Factors," or skills you can use while equipped. You learn the skills permanently once you earn enough skill points from battle. Different characters may have different skill point costs to learn the same skill (such as the Damask Ring's "Defense Up" passive boost, which takes 350 SP for Felt but 550 for Noin). Generally, weapons teach you new active skills while alchemy items teach new passives.
119* ThirstyDesert: Tatalia Desert, where Felt lands upon arriving from Eden and nearly dies.
120* ThouShaltNotKill: Felt. Thou Shalt Not Let Die, too, evidently. He goes out of his way to help a poisoned Fee, [[HonorBeforeReason even though she tried to]] ''[[HonorBeforeReason kill]]'' [[HonorBeforeReason him earlier]]. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Only applies in cutscenes, though]].
121* TownWithADarkSecret: [[spoiler:The village of Alha is a village meant to pass on the knowledge of Belkhyde Alchemy. Chaos was born there.]]
122* TrickBullet: Poe can shoot special bullets to deal damage and inflict either [[DamageOverTime Poison]], [[ForcedSleep Sleep]], or Paralysis on the target.
123* TurnedToStone: Chaos likes doing this. [[spoiler:Palaxius does it to all of Eden upon awakening.]]
124* UnderratedAndOverleveled:
125** Downplayed with Poe, a fairy from Eden with a magic gun, but no monsters to fight. While he does join the party at level 15, which is to be expected at this point in the game, his ''actual stats'' are notably poor compared to the others.
126** [[spoiler:Viese]] averts this, though for the same reasons as Poe. As when she is suddenly thrust into combat at the third to last episode with no previous training, she is understandably revealed to still be level ONE.
127* UnintentionallyUnwinnable:
128** The Flay Hammer is an optional Mana Item used to break rocks and harvest ore, and it is possible out of insanity to miss the recipe for crafting it. It becomes impossible to obtain this recipe when Viese [[spoiler:leaves for Belkhyde]] and later on, she has to use Flay Hammers to harvest a special ore, which she cannot do unless she has the recipe and can craft it.
129** The Damask Ring is a required ingredient in crafting the Flay Hammer, and its recipe is just as missable, if not more so: it is purchased from Melona's shop in Eden, which Viese cannot do should [[spoiler:she leave for Belkhyde]].
130* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:Chaos, who is actually being manipulated by his Azoth, Palaxius, with his hope of resurrecting his sister]].
131* UselessUsefulSpell: Most items and skills which inflict or grant StatusEffects are usually inferior to ones which inflict damage or recover LIFE, mainly due to a low success rate or expensive cost.
132* {{Utopia}}: Eden approximates this, [[MeaningfulName if you couldn't tell from the name]].
133* VisualInitiativeQueue: The turn meter is displayed in the top left of the screen.
134* WarpWhistle: The Return Gem, a mana item that teleports you to the beginning of a dungeon.
135* WeaponBasedCharacterization: Characters stick with one weapon throughout the game, though Felt learns how to upgrade them.
136** Felt has his CoolSword, the Azure Azoth [[spoiler:and Chaos has the Crimson Azoth, the Azure's evil counterpart]].
137** Noin has her PowerFist, the Eizen Knuckle gauntlet.
138** Gray prefers DualWielding his Dragon Killer blade.
139** Fee also goes for DualWielding her one-handed [[SinisterScythe Assassin Scythes]] or sickles.
140** Poe uses a gun that can change into several sizes ranging from his HandCannon into and actual Cannon.

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