Felt the characters kind of lacking in this one but there's two other games, so I'm hoping they develop them a bit more. I really liked the themes presented in the story. An island that never changes despite being a giant piece of technology that can change on a whim. I also liked that Ryza was the only one to stay even though she was the main person saying how much she wants to leave. I also liked how you could see the theme of change and growth if you did the side quests, all the NPCs change in their own way or their small arcs revolve around change or revisiting the past in new ways. The story was serviceable since the story is focused more on the characters.

I thought the gameplay was decent, I spent more time breaking the game with the alchemy which doubled my playtime. I thought it was simplistic but engaging enough where I wanted to mess around with items and make myself OP. Great entry point into the series and I would recommend it for people who haven't gotten into Atelier yet.