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This article features information from a game released only in Japan. The editors of this wiki are English speakers, which may cause certain translations or information to be incorrect.


Kreis Kuhl is a supporting character in Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg. He also appears in Atelier Elie: The Alchemist of Salburg 2 , Atelier Marie GB, Alchemist Marie & Elie, and Atelier Marie, Elie & Anis: Message on the Gentle Breeze. He has a minor role as a helper in Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Alchemists of the New World

Kreis is the Salburg alchemy academy's top student during Marie's school time, and later goes on to study high end alchemy. He and Marie constantly argue, but despite this the two seem to consider each other as friends. 

During Atelier Marie he is very entitled and rude, but throughout the series he also tends to show a more reluctant personality at times. However, when arguing with Marie, he is back to his old self. Though that the two mainly seem to communicate in insults towards one another, Kreis develops a crush on her throughout the games. Although also jealous of Marie's success, his feelings for her seems to give him perspective on his narcissism.

Role[]

Atelier Marie[]

Kreis studies at Salburg Academy with Marie. Although the two are in the same year, he and Marie are polar opposites. While Marie is the worst student at the academy, Kreis is regarded as the best student in the school. He has top marks and is excelling in his studies, gaining the respect of professors and teachers alike. Intelligence seems to run in Kreis' blood, as his older sister Aula was also renowned for her high grades when she was a student.

Although he is incredibly intelligent, he lacks social skills. He has a calm and logical personality, but his poor attitude makes him hard to converse with. Kreis is never shy to brag about his success, and is narcissistic and sarcastic. Some students feel intimidated by his sense of self entitlement. If Kreis' friendship is 75 or higher he will request Marie to make him a Living Broom, as he is moving into a new dorm for especially gifted students. While he complains that the broom has the same wild personality as Marie, he also gives her his genuine thanks.

Kreis will be introduced in early November of the first year. Although he is rude and insulting towards Marie the first time that they meet, he is available to hire, and can be recruited from the academy. Like Schia, he is also very weak in combat, but is inexpensive to hire. He excels in magic, but is lacking in many other stats. In the original version, as well as in some later releases of the game, he does not have a weapon equipped when first hired. 

Atelier Marie Remake[]

The remake follow the same plot as official first game as well as his additional events from ver 1.3. He also has several new events, where he is seen defending Marie from criticism from other students as well as showcasing his passion for alchemy. Like always his poor social skills cause trouble, but Marie admits that he has good sides as well.

Although still one of the weaker characters in terms of stats and, his new battle skills allow him to use items more efficiently.

Atelier Elie[]

A Meister Rank student, yet Elie has never once seen him at the academy. After Marie left Salburg, Kreis was left with a sense of emptiness despite performing well in his studies. He then left the academy to go to Kentnnis and meet Marie again. While he is less prone to brag about himself he still speaks in a way that comes off as very stiff.

Kreis is first introduced on the way to Kasutanye, asking for directions. Kreis is one of the supporting characters in Marie's character events, but isn't playable. He will ask for Elie's help with his feelings for Marie, though it's possible to make Elie misinterpret who the person he is in love with is and therefore give him inaccurate information. If provided with the right information, he will realise that the reason he could never catch up to Marie is that he never had any real ambition or path that he believes in. He then makes up his mind to find a true reason for his alchemy, and work from there.

While the player will always encounter Kreis on their way to Kasutanye, there is only a small random chance that one will meet Kreis again after seeing him argue with Marie (similar to My). This makes the continuation of this portion of Marie's character events highly missable. To meet him the player must move from one location in Kasutanye (weapon shop or general store) to the bar. It is likely that the player will have to attempt this on several different days before the event triggers.

Alchemist Marie & Elie[]

Kreis is one of the alchemists of Artisan Way, running his own workshop. He is also a hireable party member. Like in Atelier Elie, he is in love with Marie, but he's unable to be honest about it and resorts to arguing with her instead. Although he is one of the weakest adventurers, he is cheap to hire and like the other alchemists his friendship may pay off in form of alchemy recipes.

If befriended he may share the recipe for Weizen Soil during tea time, allowing Marie to restore Media Forest. He also later shares the recipe for Fliegend Steel, a metal needed to unlock the most powerful equipment at the weapon store.

In his events with Marie the two interact in a rather childish manner, and the higher his friendship rises the more Marie emphasises that she dislikes him on his status screen. Between September of the first year to the end of February of the second, Marie will run into him lost in thoughts in the city streets. If Kreis' friendship is over 70 between August of the second year and last of January of the third, and the player has over 10 000 silver coins, Marie will make a bet with Kreis. Whoever can make the most money in three months win, and has to do whatever the other one says. It doesn't matter if the player wins this challenge or not to see the end of his storyline, but it is an opportunity to win money and useful items.

Note that some of his events with Marie can be interrupted by his separate chain of events with Elie.

If the player has a proceeded through his events and has a Honest Heart in their inventory during December of the third year, Kreis will accidentally drink it and confess that he is moving to Kenntnis to join the Sage Association. While it is a great honor to hold a position within the association, it is a very busy environment and he may not be able to leave for the outside world for years. Marie is upset that he is has been hiding something so important, and Kreis tells her he was going to consult her but that her proposing the challenge got in the way. Realising through his bet with Marie that he wants to focus on research, he made up his mind to leave for Kenntnis. As farewell gift he asks for a Living Broom, like in their time at the academy. He leaves in January[2]. If the player has a Living Broom and chooses to see him off, he acts in a manner different and more honest than usual, since it's the last time they'll see each other. Marie disagrees, saying that even if she doesn't like it she's stuck with him, so she's bound to run into him somewhere. Kreis then disappears from the game, and on his status screen Elie notes that Marie seems lonely at times now that she doesn't have anyone to argue with.

Atelier Marie, Elie & Anis[]

Kreis has left Salburg to become a researcher at the Kenntnis Academy, where he studies high end alchemy and minerals. He still constantly argues with Marie, but the people around them seem to view their relationship as friendly. Still, Marie is not entirely convinced of their views and is still oblivious to Kreis' true feelings for her. Since he left Marie does however have a problem with excess energy due to being unable to take out her anger on someone[3].

Kreis can only be initially encountered by Marie. Though he acts demeaning towards Marie when facing her in person, he appears to be very concerned about the chance of being able to meet her again. Like in the past, he lacks a social life and friends and mainly seems to isolate himself, doing research.

Kreis is one of the game's many hireable party members, but is largely ill-suited for combat. However, his hiring fee is among the cheapest, and he will sometimes guard Marie from attacks. In addition to this he also has high MP, potentially making him a good item user. While hired he can be found at the Salburg academy entrance or library, but if dismissed from the party the player will have to go back to Kenntnis again to see him. Kreis also teaches a recipe that can be used in a book and grants a material that can be used for an item in the Final category.

If Marie's friendship with Kreis is over 90 points, Marie catches Kreis in one of his melancholy moments (triggers in Glackenburg's bar). Kreis states that Marie is the only thing that connects him to the rest of the world, also hinting in the same scene that he would like to be more than a friend to Marie. However, as the conversation has already turned into an argument she interprets it the wrong way.

If the player accepts to write a book in the Final category, Kreis is confounded as to why Marie would leave researching at the prestigous Kenntnis academy to simply open a workshop with Elfir. She replies that she doesn't go well with academic settings, and believes that there is plenty to learn from the outside world too. Impressed by her answer, he entrusts her with the Rock from Ancient Times that he discovered.

In the Science Type (学術系) ending, Kreis is seen teaching. He can also be seen together with Marie in one of the paintings from the artist.

Atelier Marie GB[]

Marie's classmate from her time at the academy. He has a crush on her, but can't be honest with his feelings and hides it behind snide comments and remarks. As in the original game, he is cheap to hire but has poor combat ability.[4]

Trivia[]

  • His voice actor has voiced many characters over the Atelier franchise. These characters include Kreis Kuhl, Schwalbe Satz and Bredolf Schigsal within the Salburg series and Ealie Mitter in the DS release Atelier Lise. Later in the franchise, he does the Japanese voices for Rufus Falken from Atelier Meruru as well as Roger Malen from Atelier Lydie & Suelle.
  • He appears in Aurica's Cosmosphere level E in Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia. In the English version, his name was translated as Chris.
  • He uses watashi (私) as first-person pronoun, with exception to when he casts his special attack - which he uses boku (僕) for.
  • In Atelier Marie, Elie & Anis it is mentioned that Kreis has no other friends than Marie.
  • In a promotional manga one-shot made for Atelier Marie it's shown that Marie has mutual feelings for Kreis. While it hasn't been confirmed canon, this manga ended up influencing his role in the games. The planner of the game compares his eventual role to that of Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables. [5] Addtionally, one of the relationship charts in Atelier Series Perfect Works hints that their feelings are mutual, but doesn't confirm it.
  • He was very popular with female fans, which the planner of the game admittely wasn't entirely happy with due to the character's disagreeable personality.[5]
  • In Atelier Marie Remake, he can be seen grumbling about that women "prefer older, reliable guys" rather than someone younger than them. This might be a reference to Kreis having a crush on Marie in the sequel, as this was never etablished within the "Atelier Marie" main game before (however, some comics and drama CDs did include it).

Gallery[]

Character Events[]

References[]

  1. Atelier Marie Voice Cast www.imdb.com
  2. http://latache.net/e3/event/event1.html Official site - Kreis Event, retrieved at 2020-07-08
  3. Event that occurs if protagonists haven't visited Kenntnis by November of the first year
  4. ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/アトリエシリーズ (ザールブルグ) Wikipedia - Atelier Series (Salburg), retrieved at 2020-05-22
  5. 5.0 5.1 https://web.archive.org/web/20030217220854/http://www.salburg.com/data/marie/02.html Salburg Dot Com - Kreis Kuhl (archived)
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