Characters / Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book

Main characters

Sophie Neuenmuller

This game's heroine. She runs an atelier on the outskirts of the town of Kirchen Bell. She has a bright and cheerful personality, calming everyone around her, but she's also a slacker when it comes to keeping time, among other things. She loves alchemy, and feels happy when she's able to help others with it. While she's unmatched when it comes to curiosity and effort relating to alchemy, she doesn't do any housework, and specially leaves cleaning up to other people.

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Voiced by: Yuuka Aisaka (JP), Christine Marie Cabanos (EN)

• Badass Adorable: Sophie is a cute girl who likes doing cute things and has a perpetually sunny disposition. She's also a skilled mage and a master alchemist, and she can make and throw bombs that are powerful enough to kill dragons and demon lords.
• For Happiness: She wants to use alchemy to make as many people happy as she can.
• Iconic Item: Throughout all of her appearances, Sophie's signature items are the Flame of Origin and its upgraded version, the Flame of the End. These lanterns, usually obtained late in the game, release a barrage of extremely powerful fireballs when activated.
• Item Caddy: Although all characters can use items in this game, everyone else is limited to using only certain types of item. Sophie is the only character who can use every single item.
• Inept Mage: At the start of the game, Sophie can't even make a basic medicine. This isn't a reflection on her competence; Sophie's grandmother died when she was young, and she never got proper training in her talent. Once Plachta starts teaching her, she starts improving rapidly.
• Jumped at the Call: When Sophie hears that Plachta has lost her memories, her response is to get to work and learn alchemy so that Plachta can get them back.
• Meaningful Name: "Sophie" is Greek for "wisdom" or "wise", fitting for someone whose mission is to gather knowledge into a book.
• Raised by Grandparents: After her parents' death, Sophie was raised by her grandmother, who introduced her to alchemy.

Plachta

An old book kept by Sophie's grandmother, stuffed away on a bookshelf in the atelier. She awakens when Sophie writes a recipe into the book, and becomes Sophie's alchemy teacher. Certain events lead to her taking human form, but her personality remains unchanged, and she continues to give Sophie alchemy related advice. She's completely hopeless when it comes to anything besides alchemy, and causes trouble for people when she walks around town and makes ambiguous statements. She's generally cool headed and composed, but she can be unexpectedly bold at times. After taking human form, she begins to remember a certain duty.

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Voiced by: Yuka Iguchi (JP), Ryan Bartley (EN)

• 11th-Hour Ranger: Plachta becomes playable much, much later than the rest of the party.
• Animate Inanimate Object: At first, she's a book that floats and talks.
• Exotic Eye Designs: She has stars in her eyes to reflect her doll's body.
• The Fog of Ages: She didn't lose her memory to any traumatic incident or anything, just time. She does recover her memories with Sophie's help.
• The Gift: Meklet and Atomina admit that she was naturally a pretty amazing alchemist in life.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Dresses in seriously revealing outfits, and generally doesn't have a problem with being naked. That said, she does ask Sophie for a bomb at one point when she thinks Fritz is being perverted.
• The Mentor: She's Sophie's alchemy teacher. Also, having made her share of mistakes in the past, is careful to mentor Sophie in the responsible use of alchemy.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Turns out that Plachta sealed away the Cauldron of Knowledge for a reason. Unfortunately, she remembers this too late, and this allows Meklet and Atomina to return to their true form when it is unsealed.
• Purposefully Overpowered: Plachta has a unique upgrade mechanic, excellent offense and defense, immunity to several status effects, only slightly narrower item access than Sophie, an auto-rex and an MP regeneration upgrade that lets her spam her special attacks forever. In short ... she's the best party member. Seeing as she's an extremely knowledgeable alchemist inhabiting a construct body, this makes perfect sense and was almost certainly entirely deliberate.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: Possesses a lot of the characteristics of the archetype:
  • Mysterious and/or otherworldly origins.
  • Dark and Troubled Past
  • Pale skin.
  • Short hair paired with unnatural hair color.
  • Starts off as the stoic.
  • Is definitely not quite human after having her human soul transferred into her doll body.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: Gets her soul transferred into a lifelike doll body.
• Stripperiffic: Her default outfit shows a lot of "skin" (if you can even call it skin considering how her body is a doll). And some of her forms that can be obtained via doll-making are even more revealing, including one where she's only wearing a bikini.
• Trademark Favorite Food: For a doll with no sense of taste, she likes strawberries an awful lot.

Other party members

Monika Ellmenreich

Sophie's best friend. She was born into a decently well off family, and she's a talented girl capable in both studies and fencing. She's very serious about everything, and acts politely. She and Sophie are childhood friends, and while she's always pointing out Sophie's faults, she's also very willing to help. She actually has quite a liking for singing, and can be found practicing in secret at times. She often visits Sophie's house to eat sweets, but she also cleans the place up in exchange.

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Voiced by: Aya Suzaki (JP), Erica Lindbeck (EN)

• Beautiful Singing Voice: Sophie mentions how much she likes to hear Monika sing at church. Part of Monika's character events explore this talent.
• Crutch Character: She'll be dealing most of your damage until you get to the point where you can upgrade your weapons.
• Religious Bruiser: One of the more deeply religious characters and simultaneously one of the more physically capable party members.
• Royal Rapier: Born to a well-respected family, and wields a rapier in combat.
• Sweet Tooth: Loves to receive sweet tasting items as gifts.
• The Reliable One: Tends to be the most responsible member of the main Kirchen Bell trio and often offers to drop by the atelier to help Sophie clean up.

Oskar Behlmer

Sophie's best friend, and the son of a grocer. He's an optimistic guy who doesn't care about minor details. He has a special ability to hear the voices of plants, and his knowledge of plants is also vast. Oskar loves plants, and he's quite passionate when it comes to them. He's lazy when it comes to exercise. He's always filled with confidence, but caves in rather easily.

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Voiced by: Seiichirō Yamashita (JP), Erik Kimerer (EN)

• Big Fun: A chubby boy who's also one of the game's main sources of Comic Relief. He's lost weight by Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey.
• Bridal Carry: In the last part of his personal storyline, Monika ends up poisoned by pollen in the Forest of Fairies and Oskar carries her out like this.
• Combat Medic: Can heal allies with Relaxing Herb.
• Rolling Attack: His special attack, Harvestamp.
• Shovel Strike: Fittingly for a plant lover, his weapon of choice is a shovel. He mentions in a conversation with Sophie and Logy that he prefers a shovel since it saves him from having to carry an extra piece of equipment and he can reset any dirt that gets displaced during battle to help the local plants.
• Spin Attack: Spinning Shovel
• Talking to Plants: Oskar is obsessed with plants, and even claims to be able to talk to them. It seems to be true as of the end of his quest.

Julio Sebald Leidenschaft

A knight from the country of Adalett who originally came to Kirchen Bell seeking the help of Sophie's grandmother. He works for the church and vows to keep Sophie safe.

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Voiced by: Genki Ookawa (JP), Robbie Daymond (EN)

• BFS: His weapon is a rather large two-handed sword.
• Big Damn Heroes: His first appearance is cutting down a demon to protect Sophie.
• Declaration of Protection: He vows to makes sure Sophie isn't hurt in their fight against the dragon. It'll probably be his dialog for the rest of the game when you talk to him.
• Graceful Loser: One of his lines after being defeated is a pained "Well...done."
• Holy Hand Grenade: His special move a slashing a cross that explodes in divine power.
• The Paladin: A Religious Bruiser knight? Check. Bonus damage against demons? Check. A desire to help people? Check. One of his abilities even references Paladins.
• Religious Bruiser: A powerful swordsman who works for the Church.
• Small Steps Hero: He wants to help the people around him rather than serving a country.

Corneria

A girl who opens a mass production shop in Kirchen Bell. She's an alchemist like Sophie, but her ability is to duplicate objects. However, using her ability causes her body to shrink as a toll, so she tries not to overuse it. She's a very easygoing person who lives life at her own pace. She decides to become famous to find her father, who she has never known, and currently runs a warehouse store.

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Voiced by: Yui Kondo (JP), Brianna Knickerbocker (EN)

• Disappeared Dad: She hasn't seen her father in a long time, which is why she runs a shop: she seeks to make herself famous for her services, so that her father will hear about her and know where to find her.
• Equivalent Exchange: Corneria's item duplication powers drains away her body's mass little by little as she uses it, causing her to slowly shrink. She drinks a lot of milk in order to counteract this effect.
• Item Caddy: Her duplication ability allows her to use a weaker version of an item without depleting its uses.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Drinks lots of milk in order to reduce the shrinking effect of her duplication alchemy.

Leon

A traveling tailor who appears in Kirchen Bell as both a shopkeeper and playable character. Leon can craft and enhance armor.

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Voiced by: Mayumi Iizuka (JP), Erica Mendez (EN)

• Cleavage Window: She has a rather prominent one in the front of her dress.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": "Leon" is actually named Amelia Leonmeyer, however, she rejected that name when she fulfilled her dream of being the greatest tailor, only to find herself feeling unsatisfied, leading her to abandon her past identity.
• Gender-Blender Name: She's not Leonie or Leona, but Leon. It's actually an abbreviation of her real name: Amelia Leonmeyer.
• The Fashionista: Well she is a clothier.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Her handmade fancy dresses don't seem to hinder her at all in combat.
• Motive Decay: She wanted to make clothes so spread joy to people, but somewhere along the lines wanted to become the greatest clothier in the country instead.
• Naginatas Are Feminine: Her weapon is more of a normal spear than a naginata, but it fits her elegant and graceful style in a very similar way.
• Wanting Is Better Than Having: Her dream was to become the greatest clothier, but she still felt unsatisfied once she finally achieved her goal. It's subverted when she realized she really wanted to make people happy.

Harol Simens

The town clock maker. He inherited a clock shop after his father retired, but he's unserious about his work. He prefers to make his living through gunsmithing instead. He's a very sarcastic person, and speaks harshly about people, but he's actually caring and helpful inside. He's always concerned about Sophie, who he's known for a long time.

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Voiced by: Tarusuke Shingaki (JP), David Vincent (EN)

• Brilliant, but Lazy: Capable of making powerful guns in a setting where they are uncommon at best, and eventually does start repairing clocks. However, he has almost no ambition when it comes to actually running his shop.
• The Gunslinger: Although he's a clockmaker, he'd rather make guns, which he uses in battle.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Is quite abrasive at first, but becomes much nicer later on. This is best shown when he flat out refuses to make springs for Placta's doll at first, but changes his mind when Sophie says "You're the only one I can rely on."
• Looks Like Cesare: Tall, thin, pale, and with perpetual bags under his eyes.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Part of his lethargy towards clockmaking comes from knowing he'll never be better than his genius father. He does manage to overcome this mindset, and eventually learns that his father had to practice to get where he did, not rely on natural talent.
• Shout-Out: His offensive 300% Chain special, which has him freeze time and surround the target with throwing knives, is suspiciously similar to an attack performed by Dio Brando in part 3 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. One could also claim his occupation as a clockmaker in addition to time stopping and knife throwing could be a shout-out to Sakuya Izayoi

Fritz Weissberg

A former mercenary who works as a traveling puppeteer and doll maker. His dream is to perform the ultimate puppet show using a script penned by his daughter. He lends his abilities to create Plachta's doll body.

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Voiced by: Kenyuu Horiuchi (JP), Keith Silverstein (EN)

• Cool Old Guy: He's in his fifties and can easily best Julio in a sparring match.
• Disappeared Dad: Inverted. He didn't disappear as much as his daughter wandered off. He is fairly nonchalant about the whole situation and figures they will run into each other again eventually.
• Dual Wielding: Wields two swords in combat.
• Marionette Master: Averted. Although he makes a living performing as a puppeteer and dreams of putting on the ultimate puppet show, none of his abilities or attacks make use of puppets.
• Martial Arts Headband: Likes receiving headbands of this variety as a gift.
• Retired Badass: He may have traded mercenary work for doll making, but the old man's still got it.
• That Came Out Wrong: When Fritz comes into the atelier at one point, he asks if he can examine Plachta's body. ...He meant that he wanted to give her a checkup and some maintenance.

Non-playable characters

Horst Basler

A café owner in Kirchen Bell. The shop operates as a café during the day, and a bar at night. He's also well versed in the latest information around town, managing various requests and offering to talk about rumors. He's a sincere man who's deeply trusted by the townspeople. He also feels lonely easily, which is a reason why he opened a café for people to gather in at all times of day.

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Voiced by: Yoji Ueda (JP), Marc Diraison (EN)

• Quest Giver: Acts as the quest giver for all side quests and optional boss fights via the Requests and Rumors options.
• Cool Old Guy: One of the oldest characters and a genuinely nice guy. He even goes out of his way to create a non-alcoholic type of liquor just so Sophie can see what alcohol is like.

Tess Heitzmann

The weekend waitress at the café. Tess is the eldest of multiple siblings and is working towards eventually opening her own shop. Tess can exchange vouchers awarded from requests for rare materials, equipment, and even a date with her.

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Voiced by: Sayaka Nakaya (JP), Reba Buhr (EN)

• Bunny Girl: Wears a headband with bunny ears that evokes this design. She claims the headband was her idea to attract customers and that Horst didn't put her up to it.
• Didn't Think This Through: Tess's character events are a series of these situations. From using a bomb to blow up a rock in her yard that also takes out part of her house to using herbicide that kills ALL the plants instead of just the weeds, expect Tess to ask you for an item and then ask for another to solve the mess the first one caused.

Marguerite

Owner of the grocery store and mother to Oskar. Marguerite sells various vegetables, fruits, and other cooking related materials.

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Pamela Ibis

A nun working in Kirchen Bell's church who can exchange items for donations. She may actually be a ghost.

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Voiced by: Asuka Tanii (JP), Brianne Siddall (EN)

• A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: Pamela's "Donate" option has shades of this. On the one hand, donating money to the church is the only reliable way to get holy water and the Talisman series of items, on the other, the index entries for these items notes that they seem to just be normal water and paper with something written on them in ink. Pamela swears they are genuine and can fix any number of problems.
• Dead All Along: Turns out this Pamela is dead and has been so for quite some time. We are talking so long ago she stopped counting at around 500.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Just look at that big puffy skirt with all its lace and frills, and then compare it to the rest of the characters.
• Legacy Character: Young, usually ghostly, girls named Pamela appear in multiple Atelier titles.
• Nuns Are Spooky: Has a lot of ghostly traits that make Pamela appear as not quite human.
• Offscreen Teleportation: As part of her overall ghostly character traits, Pamela seems capable of reappearing in another spot suddenly. In one character event, Sophie sees Pamela at the grocery store and when she leaves to go to the bookstore in Old Town, Pamela has mysteriously beaten her to the shop.
• Orphanage of Love: Runs a kind of orphanage out of the church and genuinely seems to care deeply for the children she is responsible for. Pamela eventually reveals she has been setting aside your donation money to buy a stuffed teddy bear for the children.

Logy

The blacksmith of Kirchen Bell who can craft and strengthen weapons at his shop. In an effort to hone his craft, he asks Sophie to bring him "Forgotten" materials.

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Voiced by: Kaito Ishikawa (JP), Max Mittelman (EN)

• Continuity Nod: Although he appears to work as a normal blacksmith, when creating a new command bracelet for Plachta, she notes that Logy must possess some level of talent with alchemy in order to create her style of weapon. This is likely a nod to his deuteragonist role in Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky.
• Legacy Character: He doesn't seem to be quite the same as the co-protagonist of Atelier Esha & Logy.
• The Teetotaler: Doesn't actually like alcohol and only partakes when he has to while meeting with clients.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: He seeks to be one of these and with Sophie's help, he'll realize it.

Elise Phulie

A bookworm who runs the bookstore in Old Town that she inherited from her grandfather. She possesses knowledge on a wide range of topics and sells book and paper type materials.

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Voiced by: Yuka Ootsubo (JP), Laura Post (EN)

• Bookworm: Not only does Elise love to read books, she runs the bookstore in old town, loves to receive book related items as gifts, and even draws and writes her own children's book.
• Cute Bookworm: An adorable and kind girl who loves book and runs a bookstore.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: According to Sophie, Elise is really pretty without her glasses.

Meklet and Atomina

Twins who are fascinated by alchemy but lack the ability to perform it themselves. They provide recipe ideas and guidance to Sophie early on in her journey.

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• Meklet Voiced by: Sachi Matsumoto (JP), Brianne Siddall (EN)
• Atomina Voiced by: Hina Kino (JP), Reba Buhr (EN)

• Creepy Twins: These two are somewhat unnerving in most of their appearances. Which makes sense, considering how they're actually the Big Bad.
• Ironic Name: Atomina's name comes from "atom", meaning "indivisible". She's actually part of Luard's soul which was split in two.
• Literal Split Personality: They're both half of Luard.
• Really 700 Years Old: They're actually Luard, making them as old as Plachta.
• Walking Spoiler: They don't do much throughout the game until very late, when we learn that they're actually the Big Bad.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: They didn't seem to like their 500 years of life. One of Atomina's lines even suggests they would have preferred death, but just couldn't die.

Luard

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• Big Bad: Luard is the biggest antagonist in the game.
• Final Boss: The last opponent you face in the main story.
• Green-Eyed Monster: It's implied he first started using Ablation Alchemy out of jealousy for Plachta's natural talents.
• Motive Decay: He wanted to help people once, and his Ablation Alchemy was supposed to help with that. Unfortunately, his fascination with Ablation Alchemy consumed him in the end.
• Sealed Evil in a Six Pack: His soul was split between Meklet and Atomina by Plachta in order to prevent him from using Ablation Alchemy.
• Walking Spoiler: He's only introduced late in the game, and brings a series of shocking revelations with him.
• We Used to Be Friends: In the past, Luard was Plachta's friend and alchemy partner, but became so obsessed with Ablation Alchemy that she had no choice but to defeat him and turn him into Meklet and Atomina.

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