This game goes by F A S T. Both by its length, and passage of time. As someone who's played through 3 trilogies of Atelier games so far (I still need to play Dusk), it's so odd seeing the time mechanic here, and see time pass so fast. One gathering attempt causes an entire game to go by. So your actions do mean more, but alchemy is waaaaay more simple. It's really interesting. I'd absolutely play more games like this, but I think I do ultimately prefer the modern Atelier formula.

The music is great as always, the live2D character portraits, and the fun minigames are just the cherry on top of this quaint little Atelier game. I think it could reasonably be one of the better entry points into the series with its length.