{"id":56653,"date":"2026-02-12T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=56653"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T08:20:12","slug":"atelier-values-its-appealing-characters-but-future-entries-will-pursue-stronger-gameplay-we-need-to-make-games-you-can-recommend-without-hesitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/atelier-values-its-appealing-characters-but-future-entries-will-pursue-stronger-gameplay-we-need-to-make-games-you-can-recommend-without-hesitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Atelier values\u00a0its\u00a0appealing characters, but future entries will pursue\u00a0stronger gameplay.\u00a0\u201cWe\u00a0need to make\u00a0games you can recommend\u00a0without hesitation\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Koei Tecmo released&nbsp;<strong>Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack<\/strong>&nbsp;in November&nbsp;last year&nbsp;for PC (Steam), PS4\/PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. The title is positioned as a definitive edition of the trilogy, bundling new elements&nbsp;and improvements&nbsp;with the three previously released entries.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Talking to AUTOMATON in an interview conducted at the time of the release, Gust&nbsp;studio&nbsp;head&nbsp;Junzo&nbsp;Hosoi and development producer&nbsp;Katsuto&nbsp;Kawauchi reflected on the&nbsp;success of the&nbsp;Secret&nbsp;trilogy&nbsp;and discussed the future direction of the&nbsp;Atelier&nbsp;franchise as a whole.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the Atelier series has long been associated with appealing characters&nbsp;(like the iconic Ryza)&nbsp;and distinct worldbuilding, Hosoi emphasized that the brand\u2019s long-term competitiveness will, going forward,&nbsp;depend more on the strength of its gameplay systems.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1401\" height=\"788\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1401px) 100vw, 1401px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260212-56653-001.jpg\" alt=\"Atelier Ryza \" class=\"wp-image-56656\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260212-56653-001.jpg 1401w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260212-56653-001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260212-56653-001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur largest user base is still in Japan,\u201d Hosoi says,&nbsp;but notes that&nbsp;Asia and North America, which&nbsp;have&nbsp;the two biggest player bases&nbsp;after Japan,&nbsp;have been growing in recent years.&nbsp;While competition&nbsp;in the genre&nbsp;is particularly fierce in Asia,&nbsp;Hosoi believes that&nbsp;few developers consistently release JRPG-style&nbsp;games&nbsp;at the pace that Atelier does, and&nbsp;that&nbsp;this&nbsp;regular release cycle&nbsp;may have helped the series gain traction&nbsp;overseas. &#8220;In&nbsp;a sense, it may even be something of a blue ocean,\u201d&nbsp;he comments.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Hosoi&nbsp;also&nbsp;acknowledges&nbsp;that Atelier does not yet stand alongside the most globally dominant JRPG franchises.&nbsp;Gust\u2019s&nbsp;goal, he explained, is for players to recognize a title as part of the Atelier series and choose to&nbsp;purchase&nbsp;it on that basis alone.&nbsp;But to reach that point,&nbsp;Hosoi believes his&nbsp;team must&nbsp;continuously&nbsp;demonstrate&nbsp;growth in both game&nbsp;design&nbsp;and&nbsp;development&nbsp;technology.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked whether this means prioritizing systems over characters and setting, Hosoi agrees. While&nbsp;he\u2019s&nbsp;extremely grateful&nbsp;to fans who already buy the games&nbsp;based just on the Atelier name,&nbsp;he argues&nbsp;that expanding the audience&nbsp;will require more&nbsp;effort.&nbsp;\u201cIf we want to expand our fanbase further, we&nbsp;have to&nbsp;make the games even more compelling, so that&nbsp;core fans can confidently tell others,&nbsp;\u201cThis game is absolutely worth recommending.\u201d Without that,&nbsp;Hosoi believes the&nbsp;series will not continue to grow.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1401\" height=\"785\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1401px) 100vw, 1401px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260212-56653-002.jpg\" alt=\"Atelier Ryza 2\" class=\"wp-image-56657\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260212-56653-002.jpg 1401w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260212-56653-002-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260212-56653-002-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Touching on the&nbsp;unprecedented popularity of Atelier Ryza,&nbsp;Hosoi described the&nbsp;franchise&#8217;s current state as&nbsp;being in&nbsp;\u201csomething of a bubble,\u201d&nbsp;commenting&nbsp;that the level of success seen with Ryza will not last forever, and is not easy to reproduce. \u201cThat\u2019s precisely why we need to use this moment to raise our development capabilities and our sales&nbsp;to a higher level,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack is available for PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/bundle\/58615\/Atelier_Ryza_Secret_Trilogy_Deluxe_Pack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>), PS4\/PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.&nbsp;Starting&nbsp;February 10, the&nbsp;bundle&nbsp;went on&nbsp;its first&nbsp;sale, and&nbsp;will be available at up to 20% off until&nbsp;February 24.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related articles: <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/atelier-resleriana-will-take-completely-different-direction-from-yumia-bringing-back-classic-mechanics-of-atelier-sophie-2-devs-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Atelier Resleriana will take \u201ccompletely different direction from Yumia,\u201d bringing back classic mechanics of Atelier Sophie 2, devs say<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-atelier-team-admits-its-mistakes-and-they-want-all-the-feedback-they-can-get-series-producer-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>The Atelier team admits its mistakes, and they want all the feedback they can get, series producer says\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gust\u00a0studio\u00a0head\u00a0Junzo\u00a0Hosoi and development producer\u00a0Katsuto\u00a0Kawauchi talk about the Atelier series&#8217; future direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":56655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,10,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-56653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-interviews","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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