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Atelier Annie: Alchemist of Sera Island is the second Nintendo DS entry in Gust Corporation's Atelier series, and is both the first DS Atelier title and the first Atelier with "traditional gameplay" to be released in North America.
A lazy young girl named Annie Eilenberg is unknowingly shipped off to Sera Island by her parents in order to force her to make something of herself. Left only with a note from her grandfather and a fairy sidekick named Pepe, she is pushed by her family to take up the trade of alchemy. Shortly after she wakes up on the island for the first time, she is informed by a young man named Hans Arlens of a contest being held on the island. She and several other alchemists are to compete to build Sera Island into a resort paradise within three years. The person whose alchemy most impresses the judges will earn themself the title of "Meister", granting them a boatload of money and the opportunity to win the hand in marriage of one of the King's children.
Hearing those magic words ("money" and "marrying up"), Annie gets right to work...
Tropes in Atelier Annie:
- Affectionate Parody: A lot of the characters are built like this; Annie is a "Determinator" who is only working hard in order to marry up so she'll never have to work again, Kilbert is an Idiot "Hero" whose incompetence actually prevents him from using his full potential, Kyle is a Bungling Inventor who ends up really annoying people when his inventions don't work, etc.
- Bag Of Spilling: Strictly speaking, Liese. Depending on how one plays Atelier Liese, she could be upward of level fifty (e.g., the game's level cap) with powerful stats and some of the game's best equipment. Even without going for an ending involving killing all the bosses, you'd typically finish with Liese in her mid-to-upper thirties, at least. In Annie, she starts out at level ten, and while she's pretty decently equipped and with a unique weapon to boot, she's nowhere near the murderous killdozer she could be at the end of her own game.
- Berserk Button: Don't use the "s" word around Pepe.
- Bifauxnen: Annie. Poor, poor Annie. She gets mistaken for a boy constantly. That she doesn't really have much of a fashion sense (or care to have one) doesn't help her much, either.
- Mueller is also this, but much more deliberately.
- BFS: Kilbert's "Fragarch" has a handle that easily stretches from shoulder-to-shoulder. Note that Kilbert also has very broad shoulders.
- He also ends up subverting the trope, in that it's eventually revealed that he cannot actually use his overly-massive sword in a practical sense; he only keeps it around for the intimidation value.
- Bishounen: God, practically every single playable male character is this, and they're the traditional type of Bishounen, too. Tall, willowy (although Kilbert is pretty well-built), handsome to the point of being pretty; the only one who doesn't fit this trope exactly is Beaux, as he's a bit more of a shota, really, which just means he's a bishie-in-training. This game doesn't leave the Estrogen Brigade hurting, that's for sure.
- Bishoujo: And on the other side of the coin? Oh yeah. Practically every unique-portrait female character is one (even Mueller, who really is too pretty to be a man). The actual appearances run the gamut, but without fail Sera Island is evidently packed with eye-poppingly gorgeous girls. The male demographic hasn't been ignored, either.
- The Dandy: Kenner, manager of the "recreational" resorts.
- Determinator: Annie herself is a parody of the concept. She arrives on the island listless and annoyed at having basically been kidnapped and forced to work, but then she learns of something that fills her with a determination to win no matter what! Her goal? To marry Prince Joel and thus fulfill her lifelong dream of getting into a life of ceaseless luxury. That's not usually the kind of goal a "determinator" has, Annie...
- Different As Night And Day: Jasmine and Mueller. Jasmine loves to flaunt her femininity and sex appeal, while her sister Mueller...erm, doesn't.
- Everythings Better With Zippers: Check out Kyle's coat, and the mondo full-length zipper which keeps it closed.
- Exposition Fairy: Pepe. Applies doubly since he's actually a fairy.
- Fiery Redhead: Liese, for sure. She's a bit tame most of the time, but don't get in the way of something she wants...
- Fragile Speedster: Beaux.
- Good Morning Crono: This is pretty much exactly how the game opens. The two minor subversions are that Annie is of course female rather than the typical guy who gets this trope, and she doesn't wake up at first, necessitating some mild violence from Pepe to get her to actually wake up.
- And that she's being woken up after being hauled across half a nation and an ocean by her grandfather's hominculi...during which she never woke up at all.
- He has to do this to her once or twice more during the course of the game. Annie is apparently capable of entering a voluntary comatose state at will.
- Handsome Lech: Kyle likes to think he's this. Annie is usually just annoyed by his antics, however.
- High Class Glass: Albrecht, the manager for the "high class" resorts, wears a monocle over his right eye.
- Idiot "Hero": Kilbert. Obviously he isn't the actual "hero" of the story, but he's clearly meant to be a send-up of this type of character.
- Item Crafting: Naturally, the cornerstone of gameplay.
- Just Add Water: The "Pure Water" item is used as a beginning ingredient for many recipes.
- Lazy Bum: Annie is this before she decides to "go for the gold", as it were; she still retains a lot of her slacker tendencies afterward.
- Lethal Chef: Gillian and her "herbal health drinks". They aren't lethal to her, but they're indigestible to anyone else.
- Low Fantasy: A notable and welcome return to this after some of the craziness in Mana Khemia, and this is the first time Americans have seen the franchise acting this way. Although, as always, the game isn't gritty or cynical in the slightest, humanity still dominates the island and the wider world (in fact, other "sentient" beings generally try to keep out of human business; Pepe insinuates that even the fairies don't always like involving themselves in wider affairs, and he's only training Annie as a favor to Bentner), all the "magic" involved has some basis in science, and the most epic thing Annie can do is fight some large monsters who are in the way of the island's development. And, of course, you never actually leave the island.
- Mini Game: You can play these after you've opened up some buildings on the island.
- Multiple Endings
- Nerd Glasses: Daniel
- No Sense Of Direction: Beaux. He somehow crossed an ocean without understanding how he did so.
- Non Human Sidekick: Pepe.
- Not Good With People: Fitz is the "shy" type. With the exception of Annie, she has trouble taking to others (especially young children, which makes her think that people also see her as acting "childlike").
- Odango: Fitz's hair buns.
- Optional Party Member: Liese. She's not exactly hard to unlock, but at the same time, if you're distrustful it's possible to lose her hook. She's also only available starting from the game's second third onward.
- Relationship Values: Prominently displayed on the status screens of party members. Getting these higher unlocks the full story-arc for each. The "best" endings require that several of these be maxed out.
- The Rival: Julian.
- Schizo Tech: This occasionally crops up, such as Hans being described as doing business on a phone - even though phones never show up on the walkabout maps, there's no sprite for him holding a phone, and there doesn't really seem to be electricity on Sera Island (or gunpowder weapons aside from grenade-like bombs, for that matter).
- Sink Or Swim Mentor: Bentner.
- The Slacker: Gillian. Even though she's one of the Orde Knights, she's always finding excuses to skip her assignments.
- Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Mostly on the "idealistic" side.
- Surprise Difficulty: The game sure looks cute, doesn't it? And it has that E10 rating, right? How hard could it be? Well... make absolutely sure you pick two companions before leaving town to investigate the initial gathering sites. And make damn sure you save before checking out new ones you hear about. That's all we'll say about that.
- Tear Jerker: When you find out exactly why Gillian is so obsessed with herbal health drinks. Maybe it isn't quite as heart-wrenching as some other games, but compared to the tone of much of the rest of the game (and the character), it's surprisingly dark and distressing.
- Alternately: When you find out exactly why Kilbert has Fragarch and avoids the weapon store owner. Or, when you find out why Fitz has so much trouble relating to people and why she finds Annie so remarkable.
- Really, most of the character backstories and end-caps to their in-game plots can invoke this. The only ones who don't do it much are Beaux and, uh, Hans.
- Throw The Book At Them: Annie's default weapon.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Melody the Librarian really likes squid jerky.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The back of the box and a few pages in the manual show Liese in the party. It doesn't highlight her name or anything so a total newbie won't know who the character is, but once you see her in-game you'll realize she's recruitable.
- Unfunny: Hans.
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