In the world of gaming there is a phenomenon known as the annual release. In the Western world the annual release is almost synonymous with the sports genre. In Japan, they have annualized role playing games. Its not as ubiquitous as the wide world of sports but there are a few examples, the Atelier series likely being the most prominent. Atelier is a long running series developed by GUST, the first releases being all the way back on the first Playstation with 1997's Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg. The series went international starting with the localization of the Atelier Iris trilogy for the Playstation 2. The series was an immediate hit for GUST, who just kept pumping more games in the series out. By the time of the series' 20th anniversary in 2017 there were 19 games released in the series. This is not a direct series with sequels, prequels, spin offs, and side projects. Instead the Atelier series is one that features common gameplay elements and mechanical design. Atelier is more of a series of series, with the large library broken down into duologies and mostly trilogies. Today's game, Atelier Ayesha is the first game in the Dusk trilogy, the 2nd overall trilogy that was fully released on the Playstation 3.
