Looking for a new RPG to play: Atelier Iris?

[mikeyramone]

I never played the Atelier Iris series, are they cool?

I am aware that this is kind of a subjective and non-specific question, so let me get more specific.

Is the story of the game(s) any good? How linear is it actually? I am aware that most J-RPG's are quite linear, but are there for example still different ways in which the characters relate to eachother according to how much you use them in your party, or because of certain very small storybranching options and stuff. Or is it all the way Final-Fantasy-ish walking down a beautiful but straight hallway.

How hardcore/difficult and interesting is the battle system? For me, Xenosaga was a bit difficult and frustrating. (no disrespect, that's just how I experienced it). Wild Arms on the other hand got somewhat boring for me really fast (perhaps I didn't understand it well enough though).

Normally I wouldn't bother anyone with such a question and just buy it (since it's second hand) and if it sucked, then oh well, that would just be too bad but no big deal.  But I am currently a bit low on cash so I want to inform myself well before commiting myself to the purchase (I saw 1 and 2 second hand for 12 Euro's each which is I guess about 15 dollars each or something...)

Thanx in advance for any helpful responses

[ForceCube]

Can't say about 3, but 1 and 2 are definitely linear. In fact, you can't even enter most  locations before the story gives you a reason to go there and they magically open up in the world map. Oh, and the story sucks in all three games, by the way. No visual novel-style interactions between party members either.

That said, there's a lot to like in these games, despite them being so flawed. The characters are funny and likable (especially some of the shop owners - thst's right, shop owners - in AI1). Towns and dungeons are filled with objects you can interact with in a number of ways, battling is fun (in AI2 and AI3, anyway) and the item creation system is really addictive, especially since the characters actually talk about the items after making them. And of course... the soundtracks are amazing.

[mikeyramone]

Thanx ForceCube.

Hmmmmm.... I think I'm just going to buy the first one. Usually a good story, and some sort of non-linear aspects are important for me, but I guess I should give one of them a go considering the positive points you mention (funny and likable characters sometimes compensate a bad story for me. I could live with the Naruto filler episodes for example just because by that time the characters had grown on me, and those episodes were TERRIBLE storywise ). And if the battle system and item creation system are cool, then that'll make up for a linear story perhaps. And if I either really like or hate the first one, I'll know wether or not to buy the second one.