for the Mana Khemia series, served as the game's director. Ken Nakagawa, who contributed to previous Atelier soundtracks, also returned as the sole composer for the title. Mel Kishida, who also provided the game's illustrations, designed the game's characters. Okamura appointed Kishida, whose work is the artist's first video game contribution, to serve the position after finding that Kishida's work met his desires for a "modern and clean design in visuals." Atelier Rorona is described by the development team as a recreation of the series' starting points. It is the first title in the Atelier series to be produced for the PlayStation 3, and it is also the first to feature 3D computer graphics. ReceptionAtelier Rorona sold quickly in Akihabara on its first day of release, and, by 1:00 PM, the majority of the district's stores were sold out of the limited edition release. This is because the majority of the stores reserved a limited number of copies for regular sales to meet pre-order demands. The game had sold a total of 43,243 copies during its first week on sale in Japan and was the third best-selling game of the week. It dropped down to ninth place, selling 10,849 copies for the following week. According to public sales information published by Gamasutra, Atelier Rorona was the best-selling PlayStation 3 title on the Japanese Amazon website for the week ending on July 9, 2009. The game dropped to the second highest the following week ending on July 17, 2009, marking its final appearance in the ranking; overall estimates from this time put Rorona at or near 70,000 copies sold, with low-level sales continuing since. This makes Atelier Rorona the fastest and best selling title in the franchise since at least Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana. In December 2009, developer and publisher Gust noted that the company was pleased with Atelier Rorona sales because of the game selling a total of 121,256 copies in Japan. Atelier Rorona fared well in the West, increasing its sales to over 200,000 copies worldwide, which the company considered as "good numbers for an HD generation RPG".Atelier Rorona has received average reviews in Japan, receiving 80/75/70/65 in the Dengeki PlayStation magazine, and 7/6/7/6 for a total of 26/40 in the Famitsu magazine. However, Western reception was mixed. GameSpot awarded it 6.0 out of ten and said "confining deadlines and shallow exploration undermine the fun" of the game. US