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.
Probably my last Atelier replay for a bit, but I really enjoyed it! I am putting it at half a star higher than a few years ago.
This game is a pleasure to play, and is in my opinion, an improvement on Sophie. As the Atelier series’ first open-world game, they really nailed some things here. The world is fun to explore, the characters are charming, crafting is well thought out, and the enemies are enough to be somewhat challenging, but not ridiculously overpowered. I am not a completionist, but I am only two trophies away from platinum and I have 95% of the in-game database.
The flaws…for one, I wish there was more of an overarching narrative with more conflict and some higher stakes. Here, you have many slice of life type stories, which are fun, cute, and provide some nice world-building after Sophie, but I wanted more. While I prefer this game to Sophie, I will admit Sophie did better in this regard.
There are a few little things about the open-world that don’t work as well. A couple of glitches here and there, repeated conversations as you travel, and in my opinion, it takes much too long to get a fast travel option. In addition, there is a quest line/boss that is too hidden away for how much lore it provides. I know it is relevant in the sequel as well, so I don’t know why it is difficult to access…
Finally, this can be an extremely misleading Atelier game for newcomers. It leaves the impression that the pre-exam portion of the game is most of the game, when it is indeed the opposite. I have seen many posts with people asking what they are supposed to do after, or if after the exam is just an “epilogue.” Gust could have really touted that this is where the adventure actually begins.
Overall, solid experience that I put 120 hours into, and am still not completely finished with. The good outweighs the bad, but I won’t give it 5 stars since I mainly give that score to my really special games. Highly recommended after playing Sophie though!
This game is a pleasure to play, and is in my opinion, an improvement on Sophie. As the Atelier series’ first open-world game, they really nailed some things here. The world is fun to explore, the characters are charming, crafting is well thought out, and the enemies are enough to be somewhat challenging, but not ridiculously overpowered. I am not a completionist, but I am only two trophies away from platinum and I have 95% of the in-game database.
The flaws…for one, I wish there was more of an overarching narrative with more conflict and some higher stakes. Here, you have many slice of life type stories, which are fun, cute, and provide some nice world-building after Sophie, but I wanted more. While I prefer this game to Sophie, I will admit Sophie did better in this regard.
There are a few little things about the open-world that don’t work as well. A couple of glitches here and there, repeated conversations as you travel, and in my opinion, it takes much too long to get a fast travel option. In addition, there is a quest line/boss that is too hidden away for how much lore it provides. I know it is relevant in the sequel as well, so I don’t know why it is difficult to access…
Finally, this can be an extremely misleading Atelier game for newcomers. It leaves the impression that the pre-exam portion of the game is most of the game, when it is indeed the opposite. I have seen many posts with people asking what they are supposed to do after, or if after the exam is just an “epilogue.” Gust could have really touted that this is where the adventure actually begins.
Overall, solid experience that I put 120 hours into, and am still not completely finished with. The good outweighs the bad, but I won’t give it 5 stars since I mainly give that score to my really special games. Highly recommended after playing Sophie though!
This is a really charming entry in the Atelier series! A lot of characters return from Sophie which is nice, the puzzle alchemy is as fun as ever, and Firis is super cute and likable. The only thing I wasn't a big fan of was the second half of the game; it's really open, and there's no obvious 'main' ending to pursue. After a while if you keep playing, you'll eventually unlock it, but there was a bit where I was kind of wandering aimlessly, trying to figure out what I needed to do. But overall, I had fun!
Apparently this is one of those games where the main story is the tutorial and a lot of stuff is unlocked as sidequests afterwards. As I stopped after the credits rolled I feel I just scratched the surface of this, so I might go back to it one day and my rating is not final.
I know people are mixed on this game but it was just so charming to me. I love Firis, I love her journey, I love her dynamic with her sister, I love how Sophie and Plachta are written in this game.
I honestly really enjoyed the semi-open world design. Exploring to find new materials and things to do was really fun and made for possibly my favorite gameplay loop in the series. This game does this feeling of childlike wonder so well and I loved it.
My main complaints are most side characters I don't really care for that much and I just don't like how grindy the endgame is if you try to optimize. I get why it's mixed but personally I adore this game
I honestly really enjoyed the semi-open world design. Exploring to find new materials and things to do was really fun and made for possibly my favorite gameplay loop in the series. This game does this feeling of childlike wonder so well and I loved it.
My main complaints are most side characters I don't really care for that much and I just don't like how grindy the endgame is if you try to optimize. I get why it's mixed but personally I adore this game