Line #56 VideoGame/AtelierLuluaTheScionOfArland


1	--> ''"Once again, the hands of the clock have begun to move..."''
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3	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/atelierluluaboxart.jpg]]
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5	''Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland'' is the fourth game in the ''Arland'' sub-series of the ''VideoGame/AtelierSeries'' franchise, marking a return to this universe for the first time since 2011. The game was released on March 20, 2019 in Japan, May 21, 2019 in North America, and May 23 in Europe.
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7	The game is set after the events of ''VideoGame/AtelierMeruruTheApprenticeOfArland'', in a frontier town called Arklys in the recently-expanded Arland Republic. The heroine this time is Elmerulia "Lulua" Frixell, daughter of Rorona. Though she studies hard to surpass her mother, she is not particularly talented at the art. Lulua finds a strange book which she dubs "Alchemyriddle", which only she can read, and which mysteriously reveals a hint whenever she needs to use alchemy to solve a problem. One day, Lulua receives a letter informing her that her mother's Atelier is about to be shut down due to its license expiring. In order to save the workshop, Lulua heads towards Arland, which begins a great adventure during which she will learn much about the world and herself.
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10	!! Atelier Lulua contains examples of the following tropes:
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12	* AgonyOfTheFeet: Night's Domain turns out to be much too dark to explore when you first get there; this is illustrated by having everyone accidentally step on Ficus' feet. When you later return with some night-vision goggles, Ficus still ends up getting stepped on.
13	* AlternateTimeline: [[spoiler: The Alchemyriddle that Lulua relies on is revealed to have been entrusted to her by a parallel world's Lulua who failed to save her Stia. If the Lulua the player plays as successfully saves the Stia of this world, then she will venture to this parallel world to help its Lulua save its Stia. Otherwise, the player's Lulua will pass on the Alchemyriddle to another world's Lulua in hopes that she can do what she couldn't—even repeating, word for word, the OpeningMonologue at the beginning of the game.]]
14	* TheArtifact: The game's time mechanics are an artifact of the way older installments were [[TimeManagementGame Time Management Games]]. Even the time limits for optional sidequests have now been removed; time beyond the day-night cycle is used only for two minor recurring yearly events, and even for those, with no constraints on your time you can just wait and trigger them whenever (and as often) as you want.
15	* BackgroundMusicOverride: Using an Ultimate Attack causes the battle music to stop while [[SuperMovePortraitAttack a picture of the character using the move shows up on screen]], followed by a specific jingle playing during the attack's animation.
16	* BiggerOnTheInside: The interior of the Wagon Atelier is much bigger than what its exterior indicates. This is even discussed in-game by Lulua and Piana where it's revealed that the interior is actually inside some sort of PocketDimension created by alchemy, as Piana warns Lulua not to add too many windows or else the entire wagon collapses in on itself.
17	* CallBack: The game has several throwbacks to events from the first three Arland games:
18	** Piana has a CG where she gets drunk and affectionately hugs and chokes Lulua.
19	** The CG from ''Atelier Rorona'', where Rorona looks upon her atelier accompanied by Astrid and Cordelia, is echoed with one where Lulua has officially inherited her mother's atelier in Arklys, accompanied by Piana and Eva.
20	** The squid that captured Sterk and Totori in a CG in ''Atelier Totori'' returns, this time capturing Lulua, Aurel and Stia.
21	* CerebusRetcon: Several parts of Arland lore that were previously treated as simple intriguing mysteries are given much deeper and potentially frightening significance here.
22	** Orthogalaxen, treated in ''Rorona'' and ''Totori'' simply as a mysterious facility that Astrid had to get special permission to explore, is explained to be [[spoiler:one of many structures supporting the infrastructure of Arland in itself, which are also in danger of collapsing due to machine glitching -- and could potentially take all of Arland with it. Moreover, its administrator is none other than the {{Superboss}} of ''Meruru'', who at the time had been treated as yet another oddity without much significance.]] Even the theme music is given a DarkReprise for its incarnation in Fellsgalaxen, with a much darker and more mysterious atmosphere.
23	** While [[spoiler:a demon kidnapping and killing young girls]] was already pretty dark in ''Totori'', this game adds a number of tragic touches to it in that [[spoiler:even the demon himself wasn't that enthusiastic about the whole ordeal either, as he himself was being blackmailed into it by an even stronger demon that would threaten to do even worse, and had been forced to sacrifice even one of his most beloved friends to him.]]
24	* CombinationAttack: Primal Arts are special buffs triggered when certain combinations of characters are in the frontline.
25	* DemotedToExtra: Despite being the protagonists of the latter two games of the Arland trilogy, Totori and Meruru are not playable without DLC and their role in the story becomes increasingly marginal as the game goes on.
26	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The scene where [[spoiler:Mana transfers her Elite Operator authority to Stia]] has plenty of dialogue that sounds very suggestive.
27	--> "We-well... Um, I... This is my first time [...] So, um. You'll be gentle, right?"
28	--> "So warm... All over!"
29	--> "Huh, it's already over? Couldn't it have lasted a little longer..."
30	* DyingTown: Arklys was founded as a hub for adventurers looking to explore the ancient ruins of Fellsgalaxen, but due to the ruins having an impenetrable door, the adventurers left and the town quickly fell into decline. Lulua hopes that by breaking the door to the ruins, she can help kickstart the revitalization of Arklys.
31	* GenderEqualEnsemble: Including Chim Dragon and Stia, the main ensemble consists of five boys and five girls.
32	* GreatBigBookOfEverything: The Alchemyriddle serves as this, giving Lulua (and the player) goals, recipes and eerily accurate hints on what she should do next.
33	* HappilyAdopted: Multiple examples in this game.
34	** Totori's family adopted Piana after the events of her home game, and Totori taught her adoptive younger sister alchemy. The two are portrayed as having a strong sibling relationship.
35	** [[spoiler: Lulua eventually admits to Sterk that she is adopted, and has no blood relation to Rorona at all; nonetheless, Rorona still considers Lulua her daughter and Lulua still considers Rorona her mother.]]
36	* HopelessBossFight:
37	** At the end of Chapter 1, Lulua and Eva encounter a strong monster outside the door to Fellsgalaxen which is too strong for the two to take on; after being defeated, Piana has to come and save them.
38	** The first battle with Wind Stone in Chapter 7 is meant to be lost by Lulua.
39	* MasterApprenticeChain: The chain of Astrid -> Rorona -> Totori gets expanded now that Totori has taught Piana how to use alchemy, and Piana in turn became Lulua's mentor.
40	* MisappliedPhlebotinum: Rorona used the philosopher's stone, the ultimate crystalization of an alchemist's understanding of the secrets of the universe, to make ''pie''. Played with in that despite being a flagrant misapplication of the philosopher's stone it still has deep meaning to Rorona and helped her find her purpose in life.
41	* MistakenForGay: In one event, Lulua decides to make a Komet as a gift for the gemstone-obsessed Refle. Little did she know that in gem language, the Komet means "I want to be with you forever" and is usually given during marriage proposals, leading to a ''very'' awkward reaction as Refle thinks Lulua is confessing to her.
42	* MultipleEndings: True to form for this series.
43	** In the Bad Ending, [[spoiler: Stia sacrifices herself to stop Fellsgalaxen from collapsing and destroying Arklys. After some time and a wistful look at the ruins where her friend is now forevermore entombed, Lulua passes on the Alchemyriddle to another world's Lulua in the hopes that Stia can be saved there.]]
44	** In the Normal Ending, [[spoiler: Lulua is running her atelier with Stia.]]
45	** In the Eva ending, [[spoiler: Lulua works with Eva to take care of the children of the Arklys Orphanage.]]
46	** In the Piana ending, [[spoiler: Lulua and Piana have opened an alchemy school together.]]
47	** In the curry ending, [[spoiler: Lulua has opened a curry shop.]]
48	** In the Aurel ending, [[spoiler: Lulua has begun to study swordplay under Aurel.]]
49	** In the Ficus ending, [[spoiler: Lulua has begun to learn magic tricks under Ficus.]]
50	** In the Nico ending, [[spoiler: Lulua has become a seafarer with Nico.]]
51	** In the Sterk and Rorona ending, [[spoiler: Sterk and Rorona are about to embark on a long adventure together.]]
52	** Finally, in the true ending, [[spoiler: Lulua leaves Arklys on a journey to become the greatest alchemist in the world, with Stia by her side.]]
53	* MundaneMadeAwesome: The arm-wrestling contest against Sterk during the Arland Festival. A simple ButtonMashing minigame with only a small Cole prize is turned into an epic spectacle, complete with {{Battle Aura}}s erupting into a PillarOfLight, and a DistantReactionShot of a giant explosion engulfing the town if you win.
54	* NoAntagonist: The major threat you have to confront in-game is [[spoiler:the declining state of the Fellsgalaxen ruins, which isn't anyone's fault. All the major bosses are either on your side and just testing you, or are Stia with her memory temporarily erased.]]
55	* OpeningMonologue: The game begins with an unnamed girl's monologue as she entrusts a book to Lulua.
56	--> '''[[spoiler: Parallel Universe Lulua]]''': Good... This is it. With this, I'm sure... Everything I've done, everything I've learned, and everything I've experienced... I'm passing it all to you. So please! I'm counting on you, Lulua!
57	* OrphanageOfLove: The Armster Orphanage in Arklys is run by Father Benon, a FriendToAllChildren who does everything he can to make sure the orphans are happy and safe.
58	* RougeAnglesOfSatin: "Rock Puni" is misspelled as "Rock Punk".
59	* RunningGag: The game {{lampshades}} the "Barrel!" running gag: the Alchemyriddle to unlock the recipe for the Barrel item requires you to examine the barrel in your atelier; the hint to this is "running gag".
60	* {{Superboss}}: The Machina of God can be fought repeatedly at the end of the game, leveling up to Level 200 after each defeat, making it the most powerful enemy in the game.
61	* SuperMovePortraitAttack: When a character uses an [[LimitBreak Ultimate Attack]], a picture of them appears before the move starts.
62	* TakeAThirdOption: At the end of chapter 9, Lulua is faced with a cruel choice: [[spoiler:Fellsgalaxen has become so severely damaged that it could collapse at any moment, which would lead to the total destruction of the Arklys region. The only way to fix it is to use Fellsgalaxen's self-repair system, which would require Stia to sacrifice herself to activate it]]. The game doesn't give you the choice to [[spoiler:allow your hometown to be destroyed]], but you can also choose to reject both possibilities (and are required to do so to avoid the bad ending): [[spoiler:by creating a Memory Core, Lulua creates a backup of Stia's consciousness, and once the repair process is done, she can forcibly remove Stia from the device and re-upload her mind into her body]].
63	* TrilogyCreep: After ''Atelier Meruru'' closed the Arland trilogy and ''Atelier Ayesha'' moved on to the Dusk trilogy, this game returns to the Arland continuity and turns it into a tetralogy.
64	* VisualInitiativeQueue: As with other ''Atelier'' games, the order in which combatants act can be seen at the top of the screen.

Context VideoGame / AtelierLuluaTheScionOfArland