After replaying the original Arland trilogy, I must say this one is the one where my opinion changed the most. I really didn’t like this game back in early 2021 due to struggling with the time limit. However, this time, it was a ton of fun.

I loved the town building aspects and charming characters, whether they were returning from Rorona or Totori, or new for this game. Like Atelier Rorona, and to a certain extent, Totori, this is a chill game that is surprisingly addicting.

Onto the complaints…for one, you can do everything in the game, beat all bosses, but if it is not NG +, you cannot get the true ending due to a certain character being unavailable for the first playthrough. This is a gaming pet peeve of mine, and never sits well with me.

Unlike Rorona and Totori, you are literally stopped every few minutes for a skit. The other two games had their share of skits, but this one was too much of a good thing. The characters ooze charm, but the skit overload really messed with the pacing.

My last complaint is how horribly this runs on the Vita with frame rate drops and load times. You have to be quite patient with it. My advice is to get the PS4 or Switch DX versions. I imagine those play better.

Overall, so much fun, and I am very glad my opinion of this game has improved. Will play this and Totori later for the true endings, but for now, I am marking them as replayed.

I highly recommend this trilogy if you’re into zen anime games!

Rating in 2021: 3 stars

Rating in 2023: 4.5 stars

Edit: 6/27/23- I decided to finish the game off with the true ending. It was a way better story having everything fleshed out more…I still believe this should have been doable with one playthrough and not required NG +.

Edit on 11/11/23: Finished again with 91% to platinum, and all endings. There were some great ones, so I highly recommend going for all endings. It really fleshes out the game.