I quit Ryza halfway, but the Atelier soundtrack is still godlike
I recently listened to "Azami Renge" from Atelier Sophie again.
First of all, nobody can read that title.
The title is read "Azami Renge," roughly "Thistle Lotus."
It makes zero effort to be readable at first glance. But once you hear the track, it's hard to forget. It wraps you in a dreamy atmosphere, then the guitar and the rhythm suddenly charge to the front.
If you only go by looks, the Atelier series seems like a gentle game.
A cute alchemist chats with townspeople, picks up ingredients, and brews something in a cauldron. The colors are soft. The heroine is slim, and her outfit looks like it came out of a fairy tale.
Then the battle music starts, and things get strange fast.
- Folk-style melodies
- Furious guitars
- Rapid-fire drums
- Strings
- Choirs
- A final-boss kind of buildup
It looks adorable and pumps dopamine straight into your brain.
I'd like to call these "dopa-songs."
Famous even though nobody can read it: "Azami Renge"
"Azami Renge" is a track from Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book.
Even if you've never played the game, you'll run into the name if you dig around in game music. On YouTube, plenty of uploads and arrangements have been getting listened to for years, and considering how big the series is, I think this track has a really devoted following.
It isn't a song everyone in the general public knows.
But among game music fans, it's the "you know, Atelier has this one amazing track" kind of song. The track's reputation has walked ahead of the game's fame.
The Atelier series is long-running, but its fame is uneven
Atelier hit its 25th anniversary in May 2022, so it's a long-lived series. Still, not every entry is equally known to the general public.citeturn872569search10
The one that carried the name far outside the series is probably Ryza.
The three games of the "Secret" series passed 2 million copies shipped worldwide in 2023. It also got an anime, which spread awareness beyond the longtime Atelier fans.citeturn872569search1turn872569search5
That said, I bet plenty of people learned the name through Ryza's thighs before they learned anything about the gameplay.
I'm one of them.
I know Ryza.
I know the thighs.
I bought the game.
But I only played part of it.
I only got partway through Ryza, yet I love Atelier music
I'm not sure I can even call myself an Atelier fan.
Ryza is the only one I've played.
And I never finished it.
I haven't played Sophie at all.
Still, when I hear "Azami Renge," I think it's a masterpiece.
So I guess I'm less a fan of Atelier's game systems and more a fan of Atelier's battle music.
In the game you have to gather materials, synthesize items, craft gear, and manage it all. Sometimes that gets old.
Music doesn't ask for any of that tedious work.
The moment you press play, only the most intense emotion of the whole work flows in.
Even after you step away from the game itself, the music stays with you.
Seen after Ryza, Sophie's thighs look way too thin
If you know Ryza first and then look at Sophie's artwork, her legs look really skinny.
Sophie was probably just a normal slim heroine to begin with.
Ryza blew up the series' standard for protagonist thighs.
So when I look at the earlier heroines, the first thing that comes to mind is:
Skinny! Is she getting enough to eat?
The music attacks that hard in "Azami Renge," yet the heroine's silhouette is delicate.
That contrast is very Atelier.
Getting bored of a game doesn't mean getting bored of its music
When you quit a game halfway, it can feel like you've lost interest in the whole thing.
But the parts of a work can be separated.
- I like the characters
- I like the world
- I like the music
- Synthesis isn't for me
- Grinding and managing materials gets boring
You don't have to love everything.
You don't need to finish a game to be allowed to listen to its soundtrack.
In fact, for some of us, grabbing the music on its own, without spending dozens of hours on the game to reach it, is the better fit.
A music powerhouse disguised as a cute alchemy game
What's fun about the Atelier series is that a calm everyday world sits right next to some absurdly strong battle music.
On the screen: flowers, cauldrons, ingredients, cute outfits.
In your ears: guitars, drums, folk melodies, a showdown vibe.
It's a dopa-song supply series disguised as a fluffy alchemy game.
It's fine if you only got partway through Ryza.
It's fine if you've never played Sophie.
It's even fine if you first misread the title as "Grass Carp Lotus."
If you end up saying "Azami Renge is just too good" and hitting repeat, you've already been caught by Atelier's music.
