RE: Registering cloth, I might be mistaking it from one of the sequels, as I had actually forgotten that Pre-Meruru the different places only accepted certain items, and the Hom equivilent in Totori can dupe /anything/ perfectly.
RE: Recommendation
Atelier Totori is probably the best overall of the recent ones IMO. With the biggest downsides being that it has some of the least satisfying non-true endings, and probably the hardest overall time-management.
Atelier Meruru features probably the sanest protagonist, if you consider that the writers basically froze her as a 14 year old the whole 6 years. Downsides are that 90% of the characters are directly reused from the previous games and the main plot is probably the least interesting of the games, plus you have to put up with Astrid being an even worse bully than in Rorona, and the container sorting is inferior to Totori so finding that one trait you need for specific supplements out of a container of 1300 items can be a huge pain(Only comes up when making "ultimate" stuff).
Atelier Rorona features by far the simplest time management and combat systems, it is quirky and funny without trying too hard to be /more/ quirky and funny than it's precursors, and there is actually some fairly good plot going on in the background. For downsides I'd say the #1 is that it is too short, and the features to aid you(Hom/Registering items) get introduced waaay later than I'd be happy with and are inferior to the later games. It also is the only one with random freezes that can kill your progress. Also once you make and register a adequately well made bomb all combat becomes trivial since you'll be able to do upwards of 3k damage for trivial amounts of money.
One thing to keep in mind is that none of the Atelier games were made to be played through only once; you are expected to need to play at least one New Game+
RE: Recommendation
Atelier Totori is probably the best overall of the recent ones IMO. With the biggest downsides being that it has some of the least satisfying non-true endings, and probably the hardest overall time-management.
Atelier Meruru features probably the sanest protagonist, if you consider that the writers basically froze her as a 14 year old the whole 6 years. Downsides are that 90% of the characters are directly reused from the previous games and the main plot is probably the least interesting of the games, plus you have to put up with Astrid being an even worse bully than in Rorona, and the container sorting is inferior to Totori so finding that one trait you need for specific supplements out of a container of 1300 items can be a huge pain(Only comes up when making "ultimate" stuff).
Atelier Rorona features by far the simplest time management and combat systems, it is quirky and funny without trying too hard to be /more/ quirky and funny than it's precursors, and there is actually some fairly good plot going on in the background. For downsides I'd say the #1 is that it is too short, and the features to aid you(Hom/Registering items) get introduced waaay later than I'd be happy with and are inferior to the later games. It also is the only one with random freezes that can kill your progress. Also once you make and register a adequately well made bomb all combat becomes trivial since you'll be able to do upwards of 3k damage for trivial amounts of money.
One thing to keep in mind is that none of the Atelier games were made to be played through only once; you are expected to need to play at least one New Game+