Penny's Big Breakaway is the definition of a game with extremely impressive highs and absymal lows. At it's best, it takes the Mario 3D World approach of linear 3D platforming stages and almost perfects it with exceptional level design, highly rewarding momentum based challenges, a simple but effective list of moves that can chain together that helps build speed, interesting level based gimmicks, and a smooth flow/pace to the platforming. However, at it's worst, you're clipping through the the walls and floors, slogging through the story cutscenes and boss fights, getting frustrated when your moves work against you causing you to fall off the courses, and pleading with the developers to just let you move the damn camera. It's kind of what you make of it. You will get out exactly what you put into the game.

This was my first time playing an Atelier game and I was genuinely surprised by how much I liked it! I had a bit of the series beforehand like the Ryza and the Dusk trilogies, but never had an urge to try them. When they announced they were remaking the first game, I thought it would be a great opportunity to finally give the series a chance. After playing it, the game really won me over so much that I might replay the game in the future to get all of the endings. The game has a lot systems, but they all work so cohesively with one another since they were designed to be simple. However, the systems being simple for me is a huge positive. As a newcomer to the series, it never felt too overwhelming trying to contend with the systems that it asks the player to experiment with. It mainly just asks you to collect a series of items to craft a higher tier item without too much trouble (besides for remembering which items are collectible in a particular season, but the game gives you a chart on this anyways). Crafting items, doing battle with turn based rpg mechanics, interacting with characters, managing money, questing, boosting your reputation, and collecting items while exploring new areas was incredibly addicting and never got tiring for me personally. The time limit was a great addition as well as it made me think strategically on how I should plan out the remaining days I had left before the graduation. It reminds me a lot of the time management in Pikmin which I absolutely adore in that series (to be fair though, it is way more lenient in Atelier Marie than in Pikmin). Honestly the only negatives I can say is that the characters are kind of boring and that after a certain point, money becomes kind of useless as you have nothing else to buy with it. However, these are extremely minor in the grand scheme of everything this game accomplsihes. Also wanted to mention, the presentation is stunning with gorgeous character art, pretty good 3d models, and cutesy music. Overall, it was a super charming experience with no glaring flaws. Can't wait to play more of the series in the future, super excited to try the newer entries!