Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny

Being a hero makes you go gray early

Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny is the second in the Atelier Iris series of Role Playing video games which itself is a subseries of the Atelier alchemy-based RPGs. (Note: "Azoth" is an old alchemical term for mercury, once believed to be a wondrous substance.)

Despite being a sequel, the game actually takes place several centuries before the first Atelier Iris (since the character of Iris appears only as child.) It stars a pair of teenage alchemists, Felt and Viese, who, having grown up together, have the old Anime problem of denying their obvious feelings for each other.

When their homeland, Eden (where humans and Mana, the spirits of the Alchemical elements, coexist peacefully) literally starts to vanish, Felt finds himself chosen by the titular Azoth (actually a talking sword) to go to another world to investigate the cause. While separated, the two friends keep in contact thanks to a magical device that allows them to share items (and letters.) Felt discovers that on the other world, Belkhyde, alchemy is a near-forgotten art (and is considered an art used for evil), an abusive empire rules, and an evil version of the Azoth is loose. Viese helps mostly by making alchemical items for Felt, though she does have her own adventures on Eden concurrent with Felt's, including investigating a mysterious little girl...

The playable characters include:

• Felt, who, besides wielding the Azoth, learns how to upgrade weapons on Belkhide;
• Viese, who adventures alone for most of the game on Eden (pronounced vee-say);
• Noin, a sexy warrior girl who saves Felt and gets him involved in the rebellion against the Empire;
• Gray, a humanoid dragon (actually a warrior who gained a draconic appearance from fighting too many dragons );
• Poe, a fairy who looks like a little boy but is actually an incorregible womanizer (and fights with a gun!)
• Fee, a female warrior sent to destroy the Azoth (it's a misunderstanding) by a religious order.

---

Tropes used in Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny include:

• Accidental Marriage: Poe ends up marrying a Catgirl when she overhears him reciting a love declaration and believes it to be directed at her.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different - This is actually a core mechanic of the game and one of it's selling points; you can flip between Felt on the ground and Viese in Eden as you wish and progress the two stories as you see fit. (Well, to some degree, at least; advancing Viese's story requires certain triggers at points in Felt's story. And the tales eventually merge, to boot.)
• Anti-Villain - Chaos. At least near the end, when you find out about his Dead Little Sister.
• Artificial Human- Yuveria is really just a machine/computer program.
• Bag of Sharing - The Share Rings, which let Felt and Viese share items (including stuff Viese makes with all the things Felt finds in the lower world) despite their great distance from one another. Somehow, this still includes the rest of the party.
• Become Your Weapon: Palaxius pulls this trope when he merges with the Azoth for the final boss fight.
• Better Than It Sounds Video Games - Excalibur can talk. Turns out to be a total Jerkass. Also turns out to have an Evil Counterpart.
• Book Dumb - Felt, who learned Mana Synthesis pretty quickly, but was more interested in combat/sword-fighting to learn true synthesis and become a full-fledged alchemist such as Viese.
• Broken Pedestal - Palaxius
• Call to Adventure - Yuveria, to Felt
• Camp Cook - Noin
  • Also a Lethal Chef, though she does improve slightly over time...
• Cloudcuckoolander - Tolena
• Crapsack World - The world below Eden is initially portrayed as this, in contrast to Eden's Utopia. ( The truth is, naturally, a little more complicated.) This version of Regallzine is still quite easily the grimmest setting the franchise has ever explored, though.
• Doomed by Canon - Being that 2 is a prequel to 1, and that Iris and the people that protected her were killed...
• Emotionless Girl - Fee
• Evil Chancellor - Theodore
• Evil Counterpart - Chaos, to Felt
  • As well as their respective Azoths.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture - The desert people look a lot like Native Americans. Whether or not Gust brings up some Unfortunate Implications for American audiences with this is an exercise best left to the viewer.
• Fantasy Gun Control - Very oddly used here. Poe, obviously, avoids this completely... but at the same time he has a "magic" gun which isn't a standard weapon at all. The Imperials don't seem to use personal firearms at all, and even cannons don't show up that much, despite the culture of Regallzine being fairly advanced otherwise. Granted, this might have to do with people's perceptions of alchemy before Felt arrives on the scene, but still.
• Fragile Speedster - Fee
• Genki Girl - Noin, and Viese to a small extent (although she may be a bit more of a Pollyanna).
• Good Republic, Evil Empire - Slightly averted as the Simsilt group seeks to restore the Monarchy, but you still have the basic structure.
• Interface Spoiler: The very fact that Viese has stats (HP, MP, etc.) should make it rather obvious that she's gonna end up joining the party somewhere down the line.
• Lady of War - Fee, very much so.
• La Résistance - Simsilt
• Large Ham - Poe, particularly when speaking to women in his usual flowery manner.
• Lightning Bruiser - The Final Boss is one of these, to many a player's frustration.
• Luke, I Am Your Father - Noin is Galahad's daughter and Fee turns out to be Max's long lost sister.
• Kid with the Leash - Felt, keeping the Azoth in check (a fact for which the world should be infinitely grateful).
• Knight Templar - Galahad, one of the Imperial Champions.
  • More of a Worthy Opponent. Galahad doesn't believe in what Theodore is doing, and often actively criticizes it. But he also happens to be part of the My Country, Right or Wrong school of thought.
• Mysterious Waif - Iris
• Hand Cannon - Poe's absurd doomcannon is as big as he is. And then of course he's always hitting on Viese whenever possible...
• Red Oni, Blue Oni - Felt and Viese, although they aren't antagonistic in any way, and the colors associated with them are actually reversed; Felt's normal outfit includes a blue overshirt, while Viese typically capers around in a maroon dress.
  • More standard example is the Azoths. The Azure Azoth is good while the Crimson Azoth is evil. And the Big Bad of the game, no less.
• Running Gag - Played for Laughs with Felt and Max, where Max consistently says Felt's name wrong.
• Shout-Out - Through the above trope, Max eventually ends up calling Felt, Klein.
• Spell My Name with an "S" - When she was debuted in Japan Viese's name caused a lot of linguistic contortion in trying to spell her name in English; Japanese lacks both a true V sound and a construct used like the English "ie", so what most people ended up with was some variation of "Wisey". This still occasionally trips people up when they encounter early promotional material (or when they encounter certain hardcore fans).
• Stripperiffic - Viese is one of the Atelier heroines who very much avoids this trap; if anything she's the franchise's most conservatively-dressed heroine, almost to the point of absurdity for her native climate (two or more layers of clothing for a paradise island that's apparently warm-temperate year-round?) Noin on the other hand...
• Talking Weapon - The Azoth
  • The Crimson Azoth too.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill - Felt. Thou Shalt Not Let Die, too, evidently. He goes out of his way to help a poisoned Fee, even though she tried to kill him earlier. Only applies in cutscenes, though.
• Turned to Stone - Chaos likes doing this.
• Utopia - Eden approximates this, if you couldn't tell from the name.
• Younger Than They Look - Invoked by Fee of all people when the gallery tells you that her age is 14. To quote a GameFAQs user: O.o Fee's 14!?