My 6th Atelier game, and one I haven't really beaten/don't have much drive to do so right now. I played a little past the exam. The standard Atelier loop is still here and still addictive, though the large zones make gathering and traversal more annoying, and the alchemy requires leveling every recipe up individually which was an addition I didn't care for. Story and characters are cute, the opening was definitely a mood. It took until halfway through the journey to the exam for the side characters to exist at all beyond their initial recruitment scene tho, and there wasn't much to drive me after the exam. Combat doesn't have much of a twist, the way limit burst is handled changed again. Better than Sophie 1's offense/defense stances but I found Shallie's more fun. Music is really nice again. I know fans will tell me to stick with it and play more, but finishing the exam took me almost as long as the other entries took to beat and there's not much motivation there for me, I'm more excited over the thought of starting Lydie & Suelle than I am continuing this one.