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The story of Atelier Lina is a pretty hilarious mixture of misconceptions. As Lina, you’re a girl just starting out as an alchemist, having just passed the state exam. Just when she was going to tell the good news to Luon, her childhood friend was apparently in a big fight with his dad and ran off. She chases him and they end up at the edge of some woods … which happens to be on fire.
Of course, being at the scene of the crime automatically means “caught red-handed” to the monsters who live in the forest, so to make them pay, the two have to earn enough money to rebuild the forest in three years.
What a great way to start a new career!
Lina starts a business to fuel her forest repayment fund. In her travels, she meets up with the head of a trading company. In return for a favor, he helps her with a peddling business. The game runs akin to a quest system: Lina finds missions from rumors, then she completes the task, which you’ll probably have to do with alchemy, and then after it’s done, you earn money. As you complete the requests, the story unfolds.
The art looks beautiful, and the music on the homepage of the official site isn’t bad. The merchant business is something new to me and the characters all look eccentric and fun to play as.
Atelier Lina, the next DS installment in Gust’s Atelier series, is slated for the Nintendo DS on December 12 of this year in Japan.
