This game was a turning point for the series in terms of time limits. This was the first point where the time limit was so lenient that it actually got in the way. You end every period with so much time on your hand that you're just not really doing anything for at least a month after every assignment.

In terms of progression, there's this really weird inexplicable gap between mid game and end game where getting any increase to your multipliers is excruciating. I don't understand why the fused traits suddenly end at this weird point in mid-late game and you just have to replace them with the super special traits.

Probably a part people normally don't really think about, but I found it really unfortunate that setpieces in the dungeons just disappear at a certain point. The first ~25% of dungeons were quite nice to look at, but the rest seemed like they were cobbled together in a rush.

The one really good thing I can say about the game is that the two protagonists are really charming. Probably among my favorite atelier MCs, falling only behind Vayne and Ryza. However, the game suffers from a pretty bad case of "the middle of the trilogy" syndrome. There's way too many referencing of Ayesha and way too many plot points are introduced in preparation for Shallie. It would have been nice if the game felt more like a standalone.