History VideoGame / AtelierRoronaTheAlchemistOfArland

* AgeLift: Rorona, Cordelia, Iksel, Sterk, Tantris, and Lionela are all three years older in the NISA English version than in the original Japanese release.

** You know the kind of HandsOffParenting that you'd often see in this sort of setting? For Rorona, that's outright ParentalNeglect, and her [[FreeRangeChildren strong sense of independence]] comes from the fact ''she doesn't have a choice''. Astrid, who's only in her twenties, is basically juggling the role of [[PromotionToParent both a parent and a sibling]] in order to take care of her.

* WorkOffTheDebt: This is the reason Rorona's livelihood depends on the atelier surviving even though it's technically Astrid's: Rorona is working for her in order to pay off a debt she'd incurred when Astrid had cured her parents from a near-fatal disease, so if the atelier is shut down and Astrid is run out of town, she's going to take Rorona with her. The 3DS version's "Atelier Astrid" scenario reveals that Astrid won't consider the debt repaid unless Rorona works for "[[LongerThanLifeSentence three thousand years]]", basically making Rorona her slave for life. [[spoiler:At the end of the game, Astrid reveals that her ''real'' plan was to use the ordeal to [[PassingTheTorch transfer the atelier to Rorona entirely]], meaning the entire thing was just a pretense.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: At one point, Rorona asks Sterk if knights like him do things like [[KnightInShiningArmor saving princesses and slaying dragons]], to which he replies that [[YouWatchTooMuchX she must have read too many fantasy books]]... before telling her that it's also why ''he'' wanted to be a knight in the first place, only to be disappointed when it turned out to be a lot of paperwork, dealing with higher-ups he doesn't like, and not getting to use his battle skills much during peacetime. Nevertheless, he's still very attached to his job and devoted to the fundamental principle of protecting others.

** Adventurer Ending: Obtained by finishing Cordelia's events and having both of them reach Adventurer level 50, defeating the Iron Giant and Demon, and flagging all of the True Ending requirements. [[spoiler:Rorona continues working as usual, but she and Cordelia seem to be more preoccupied with slaying huge monsters than anything else.]]

** Rorona is given a mild amount with most of her party members: Iksel is a ChildhoodFriend who's commented as being LikeAnOldMarriedCouple with Rorona in his ending, Tantris is implied to have feelings for her, [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer Cordelia and Lionela]] can be argued to possibly as well, and Rorona is hinted to have a PrecociousCrush on Sterk in his ending, [[spoiler:which involves him ''moving in'' while he's at it]]. Gio is the only one whose treatment is completely neutral, since he's basically just a ReasonableAuthorityFigure who cares about Rorona for perfectly understandable reasons.

** ''Rorona and the Great Alchemist'' has Rorona and Sterk act out the roles of [[VideoGame/AtelierMarieTheAlchemistOfSalburg Marie and Kreis]] in their [[CreatorsShowWithinAShow in-universe play]], something that sticks out because Sterk is usually considered to be an {{Expy}} of [[KnightInShiningArmor Enderk]] and doesn't resemble [[InsufferableGenius Kreis]] much in personality at all. However, Kreis ''does'' happen to be the character known for having his own ShipTease with Marie... [[spoiler:something it turns out Astrid had been well aware of when she put a LoveConfession line from him into the script]].

A novel titled ''Atelier Rorona: Rorona and the Magnificent Alchemist'' was released in 2010, depicting a side story taking place during the events of the game involving the characters putting on a play with a story that [[CreatorsShowWithinAShow just so happens]] to resemble the story of [[VideoGame/AtelierMarieTheAlchemistOfSalburg a certain other alchemist]].

* ProductionThrowback: Being a game made for RevisitingTheRoots, ''Rorona'' pulls very strongly from the original ''[[VideoGame/AtelierMarieTheAlchemistOfSalburg Marie]]'' in terms of how it handles its format, party structure, and calendar system. In particular, the final assignment is for Rorona to show the palace the greatest item she can come up with, the same as Marie's overall goal in her game.

* ShipTease: Rorona is given a mild amount with most of her party members: Iksel is a ChildhoodFriend who's commented as being LikeAnOldMarriedCouple with Rorona in his ending, Tantris is implied to have feelings for her, [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer Cordelia and Lionela]] can be argued to possibly as well, and Rorona is hinted to have a PrecociousCrush on Sterk in his ending, [[spoiler:which involves him ''moving in'' while he's at it]]. Gio is the only one whose treatment is completely neutral, since he's basically just a ReasonableAuthorityFigure who cares about Rorona for perfectly understandable reasons. Future games shift the ShipTease focus entirely to Sterk.

A novel titled ''Atelier Rorona: Rorona and the Magnificent Alchemist'' was released in 2010, depicting a side story taking place during the events of the game involving the characters [[ShowWithinAShow putting on a play]] with a story that [[MythologyGag just so happens]] to resemble the story of [[VideoGame/AtelierMarieTheAlchemistOfSalburg a certain other alchemist]].

* TakeCareOfTheKids: A non-fatal variant. [[spoiler:Near the end of the game, as Astrid starts making preparations to [[ButNowIMustGo leave town]], she approaches Sterk and asks him to "take care of Rorona." While Sterk would have done so anyway, the request is particularly striking to him because she'd asked him in an [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness uncharacteristically sincere manner]], effectively acknowledging her own role as Rorona's ParentalSubstitute and revealing that she considers Sterk to be the one she would trust the most with this kind of task. It's because of this that he goes as far as moving into the atelier himself to help an overwhelmed Rorona in his ending.]]

* TakeCareOfTheKids: A non-fatal variant. [[spoiler:Near the end of the game, as Astrid starts making preparations to [[ButNowIMustGo leave town]], she approaches Sterk and asks him to "take care of Rorona." While Sterk would have done so anyway, the request is particularly striking to him because she'd asked him in an [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness uncharacteristically sincere manner]], effectively acknowledging her own role as Rorona's ParentalSubstitute and revealing that she consideres Sterk to be the one she would trust the most with this kind of task. It's because of this that he goes as far as moving into the atelier himself to help an overwhelmed Rorona in his ending.]]

* ButNowIMustGo: [[spoiler:Astrid does this at the end of the game after Rorona saves the atelier and proves she can hold her own career as an independent alchemist, with Astrid hoping to rebuild her career from scratch without letting her own bad reputation poison Rorona's. Overtime has her pop nack in to watch over the time-slipped Totori and Meruru, but she leaves again after the year is up, and whether Rorona gets to reunite with her depends on which ending the player achieved.]]

* NewGamePlus: After beating the game with a cleared save, the player can start a new game with all of the money from the last game. In the original game, this ''only'' applied to money and functionally only served to make the early game easier and contribute to building up for the Rich Ending, but ''Plus'' allows the player to transfer equipment and decorations as well, saving the player a lot of time.

* A remake titled ''Atelier Rorona Plus'' (titled ''New Atelier Rorona: Story of the Beginning'' in Japan) was released for the [[Platform/PlayStationVita PlayStation Vita]] and Platform/PlayStation3 in 2013. While Gust had been making UpdatedRerelease "Plus" versions of their games for the Vita, ''Rorona'' was in need of a more significant graphics and system overhaul to be on par with later titles, so it was given a full remake and even accompanied by a [=PS3=] version. It also features extra party members and an additional "Overtime" session taking place after the events of the main game, featuring sequel protagonists Totori and Meruru arriving via TimeTravel and adding events that help connect ''Rorona'''s story to its sequels.

* RevisitingTheRoots: The game was intended to be this for the ''VideoGame/AtelierSeries''. After the more standard EasternRPG style of the ''Iris'' and ''Mana Khemia'' games, ''Rorona'' returns to the simulation, alchemy-based gameplay of the first five games. The rest of the series soon followed, thus re-solidifying the series' brand as a SliceOfLife series.

* KnightInShiningArmor: At one point, Rorona asks Sterk if knights like him do things like saving princesses and slaying dragons, to which he replies that [[YouWatchTooMuchX she must have read too many fantasy books]]... before telling her that it's also why ''he'' wanted to be a knight in the first place, only to be disappointed when it turned out to be [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome a lot of paperwork, dealing with higher-ups he doesn't like, and not getting to use his battle skills much during peacetime]]. Nevertheless, he's still very attached to his job and devoted to the fundamental principle of protecting others.

!!This game contains examples of:

After the series' attempt at a DarkerAndEdgier GenreShift with the ''Iris'' and ''Mana Khemia'' games resulted in some of the franchise's worst sales at the time, Gust decided to have the series [[RevisitingTheRoots go back to its original roots]] as a SliceOfLife ItemCrafting series. As such, ''Rorona'' serves as a functional callback to the original ''[[VideoGame/AtelierMarieTheAlchemistOfSalburg Atelier Marie]]'', being a TimeManagementGame with a low-stakes SliceOfLife story and a heavy focus on CharacterDevelopment. The result was a breakout hit that revitalized the series, leading to two immediate sequels in the following "Arland" subseries (''[[VideoGame/AtelierTotoriTheAdventurerOfArland Totori]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/AtelierMeruruTheApprenticeOfArland Meruru]]'') as well as a long line of successors that would follow in its wake. Another sequel featuring Rorona's daughter, ''[[VideoGame/AtelierLuluaTheScionOfArland Atelier Lulua]]'', was released in 2019.

* BeachEpisode: Astrid forcibly turns an outing to Nabel Lake into this, gathering all of the girls and getting them into swimsuits. Overtime adds another one at the actual beach.

* LetsMeetTheMeat: When Rorona creates the Living Pie, she [[DidntThinkThisThrough didn't think through the implications]] of giving life to something she planned to eat alive, so she's taken aback when it proves unwilling to cooperate with her plan of eating it alive and decides to fight back for its life.

* WorkOffTheDebt: This is the reason Rorona's livelihood depends on the atelier surviving even though it's technically Astrid's: Rorona is working for her in order to pay off a debt she'd incurred when Astrid had cured her parents from a near-fatal disease, so if the atelier is shut down and Astrid is run out of town, she's going to take Rorona with her. The 3DS version's "Atelier Astrid" scenario reveals that Astrid won't consider the debt repaid unless Rorona works for "[[LongerThanLifeSentence three thousand years]]", basically making Rorona her slave for life. [[spoiler:At the end of the game, Astrid reveals that her ''real'' plan was to use the ordeal to transfer the atelier to Rorona entirely, meaning the entire thing was just a pretense.]]

* DifficultButAwesome: Sterk and Gio have the highest hiring fees in the game (something Rorona holds a PettyChildhoodGrudge over Sterk for in following games). This can make hiring them prohibitive for a player in the early game, but they have the skills and power to match.