So I have quite a few thoughts on this game.
When it was announced I was somewhat cautiously optimistic, an unnecessary direct sequel to a game that was already fine as is? Anyone would be sceptical but after the near perfect game that was Blue Reflection Tie/Second Light I decided to trust in Gust's plan with this one because if Tie was anything to go off this game could potentially be fantastic
And was it? Well yes and no, it took the world of the Mysterious games and put them in a game that feels way more like a Ryza game which I'm mixed on because I do enjoy some elements from those but massively dislike a lot of other things from them so if have much preferred a more traditional style of Atelier game from this along the lines of what we previously had in this trilogy with Sophie and Lydie & Suelle but alas they gotta keep it somewhat similar to Ryza to appeal to the new fans those games brought in
The game being essentially Mysterious 1.5 makes it obviously still aimed towards the somewhat longer time fans of the series as well so it kind of feels like it's trying to appeal to both audiences and feels somewhat weird at times especially with how story focused and less focused on slice of life and synthesis it is much like the Ryza games and much like those the focus on story leads fit a mixed bag where the story is decent enough but has a lot of kinda generic plot points, which if you've played the first Sophie game you'd know it was far more focused on the slice of life content and the synthesis for almost the entire game so while they did ditch the boring Ryza mechanics to bring back the synthesis mechanics that had actual depth the game feels far less focused on them
It's not all questionable though as they did some things I did really enjoy, the new battle system was an enjoyable return to form after the icky Ryza ATB systems that for some reason limited the use of items in games in a series about creating and using items???????? and some of the new and technically returning characters like Elvira, Ramizel and young Plachta were handled well (young Plachta especially was a highlight of the cast)
Those are just some quick thoughts I'll avoid saying some other things because I'd prefer to keep this spoiler free but yeah, game is alright
Also I'd like to add that they make this as a 25th anniversary title for the franchise then proceed to give it the perfect setting to have returning characters from previous Atelier games (they even went out of their way to state that people in the world of this game were from all across time and space) only to just not do that, I definitely wouldn't be nitpicking this if it wasn't supposed to be a 25th anniversary game but it is one, at least they had plenty of other references to previous games in the series I guess
When it was announced I was somewhat cautiously optimistic, an unnecessary direct sequel to a game that was already fine as is? Anyone would be sceptical but after the near perfect game that was Blue Reflection Tie/Second Light I decided to trust in Gust's plan with this one because if Tie was anything to go off this game could potentially be fantastic
And was it? Well yes and no, it took the world of the Mysterious games and put them in a game that feels way more like a Ryza game which I'm mixed on because I do enjoy some elements from those but massively dislike a lot of other things from them so if have much preferred a more traditional style of Atelier game from this along the lines of what we previously had in this trilogy with Sophie and Lydie & Suelle but alas they gotta keep it somewhat similar to Ryza to appeal to the new fans those games brought in
The game being essentially Mysterious 1.5 makes it obviously still aimed towards the somewhat longer time fans of the series as well so it kind of feels like it's trying to appeal to both audiences and feels somewhat weird at times especially with how story focused and less focused on slice of life and synthesis it is much like the Ryza games and much like those the focus on story leads fit a mixed bag where the story is decent enough but has a lot of kinda generic plot points, which if you've played the first Sophie game you'd know it was far more focused on the slice of life content and the synthesis for almost the entire game so while they did ditch the boring Ryza mechanics to bring back the synthesis mechanics that had actual depth the game feels far less focused on them
It's not all questionable though as they did some things I did really enjoy, the new battle system was an enjoyable return to form after the icky Ryza ATB systems that for some reason limited the use of items in games in a series about creating and using items???????? and some of the new and technically returning characters like Elvira, Ramizel and young Plachta were handled well (young Plachta especially was a highlight of the cast)
Those are just some quick thoughts I'll avoid saying some other things because I'd prefer to keep this spoiler free but yeah, game is alright
Also I'd like to add that they make this as a 25th anniversary title for the franchise then proceed to give it the perfect setting to have returning characters from previous Atelier games (they even went out of their way to state that people in the world of this game were from all across time and space) only to just not do that, I definitely wouldn't be nitpicking this if it wasn't supposed to be a 25th anniversary game but it is one, at least they had plenty of other references to previous games in the series I guess