With TGS less than two weeks away, Koei Tecmo is teasing a new Atelier game.

This was largely expected already. Koei Tecmo’s TGS schedule includes a spot for a new game from Gust.

While Gust develops other games besides Atelier (I wouldn’t mind seeing more from Blue Reflection in the future), they almost always release a new Atelier game each year, so an announcement felt likely.

Well, in the new Atelier 25th Anniversary Trailer celebrating the series, they tease the next title directly.

The trailer walks through the entire series, from Atelier Marie back in 1997 all the way up through this year’s Atelier Sophie 2, although it skips spin-offs like Nelke. At the end, after showing frames for all the protagonists, it focuses on a new frame and shows glimpses of new environments and locations.

I’ve been expecting Atelier Ryza 3 to be the next Atelier game, since Ryza has been a big seller and they usually make each cluster of games a trilogy. The music at the end of the trailer sounds like Atelier Ryza music, so that supports the idea.

However, fans have pointed out that since the new game gets its own picture frame in the teaser, that might mean it’s a new protagonist. The trailer also specifically referred to Atelier Ryza and Atelier Ryza 2 as the Secret series, not the Ryza series. Ryza’s voice actress also sent a tweet that many fans are taking to mean she’s involved, which would most likely make it a third Ryza/Secret game, but she could just be restating her appreciation for being in the series rather than specifically saying she’s in the new game. In short, the clues are pointing toward a third game in that world, but the specifics aren’t clear yet.

Whatever it is, the glimpses from the trailer look like it’ll be a beautiful world.

(Meanwhile, am I the only one bothered by Atelier Lulua appearing with the other Arland games in the trailer but Atelier Sophie 2 not being grouped with the Mysterious series?)

If you’ll recall, the Atelier 25th Anniversary was set to include 6 new Atelier projects. Of these, the first was Atelier Sophie 2, the second was a collaboration with Tales of Arise, and the website still lists the remaining four as unannounced. One is certainly this new game, but that still leaves us with three unknown projects. Is it too late to hope for a remastered collection of some of the older games?

This trailer reminded me painfully of the huge backlog of Atelier games I have, but I’m still looking forward to seeing the new game when it’s announced at TGS! What do you hope the new Atelier game is?