Atelier series / Gust thread

[nocturnal YL]

Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings
リディー＆スールのアトリエ ～不思議な絵画の錬金術士～

I'd like to talk about Atelier Lydie & Suelle. I'm 120% certain this is the wrong forum for such discussion, as it's a PlayStation-centric RPG that falls flatly into the Japanese-as-ever territory. Still, it doesn't hurt to write a piece about this game either.

This post is extremely long. Feel free to ignore it; the main thing here is that I love this game.

FULL SPOILERS AHEAD: I don't think anyone in this forum has played or will ever think about playing this game, so I'm not holding back on spoilers.

Some basic information about the game and the series.

• The developer, Gust, was founded in 1993, and became famous with Atelier Marie in 1997, the first game in the series. They became a subsidiary of KOEI TECMO in 2011 because the latter wanted to make Atelier-themed mobile games, and were absorbed by them in 2014. Gust remains the branding used for the games they develop. Nintnedo Switch fans probably remember them for Night of Azure 2. Having access to KOEI TECMO's technology allowed them to greatly shorten the loading time of their games.
• Atelier is a series of RPGs that puts emphasis on the items. You collect materials, make your own unique items, and use them in battles or use them as materials for synthesizing other items.
• The Atelier series is subdivided into story arcs that are not connected to each other, with each story spanning over 2 or 3 games.
• Atelier Lydie & Suelle is the 19th main series entry (the game's title is thus abbreviated as A19) and the last of the Mysterious trilogy, after Atelier Sophie (A17) and Atelier Firis (A18). As such, its story brings proper closure to the previous two games' subplot.
• Atelier Lydie & Suelle is available on PS4, PS Vita (Japan only), Switch and PC. It's the first Atelier game (spinoffs included) on a Nintendo home console. It's undubbed for overseas releases, unlike the previous games.
• Atelier is pronounced Att-li-eh, in line with the word's French pronunciation.

Preface

I have mentioned this before, but I bought this game as a token of thanks to KOEI TECMO GAMES, both for making Fire Emblem Warriors and for generally being so supportive of Nintendo's platforms (even the Wii U). Following this logic, I should have bought something from ω-Force or Team Ninja, but another Warriors is the last thing I want. This also happened before I borrowed my cousin's PS4. I'd have picked the Switch version anyway, just for the portability.

We're going to have some new Atelier announcement on 14 June.

Atelier in general is known for not telling a standard hero-saving-the-world kind of story. Rather, each game follows a small group of alchemists' quests to reach their personal goals, be it saving a specific friend, seeing the world, or honing skills in alchemy itself.

Lydie & Suelle is promoted as a slice-of-life RPG, following the lives of a pair of twin alchemists. The twins' goal is to raise the ranking of their shop to the national best as a promise to their late mother, and if you think they're going to eventually save the world, well, no. They did save their city once, so I guess that counts?

This game revolves around the painting worlds they can venture into and collect materials from. Said materials will help the twins make better items, which in turn helps their atelier rank up. Repeat the process until the end — the story isn't as boring as this makes it sound, but this premise is used all the way to the end.


Characters



Lydie: The older twin. Good at studying and theories, but nota good fighter. Appears to be more delicate, although she can come off as being rude and mischievous from time to time. Likes reading romance novels. The two sisters aren't forced (in terms of writing) to be similar or different, making them one of my favourite twin characters.

Suelle: The younger twin. Outwardly energetic and mischievous, gives an impression of having more brawn than brain. She is the one to come up with ideas to raise the atelier's renown, though. Not good at reading, and doesn't read kanji very well. Fears bugs and ghosts. Called just "Sue" by herself, most other characters, and even the system menu.

Mathias: A bodyguard assigned to the twins by the castle receptionist / princess, Mireille. Later revealed to be Mireille's brother, and even later, the next king. The twins, especially Sue, made fun of him for his womanizing ways and appearing to be not working, but they eventually understood him better. The only non-alchemist in the party.

Firis: The last game's protagonist, and Sophie's student. A happy, easygoing hunter / alchemist who has set up a tent in Merveille (Adalet's captial city and this game's base of operation) while travelling. She was tasked with investigating the paintings with the twins, and stayed ever since. Loves meat.

Alt: A mysterious boy who appeared out of nowhere. As it turns out, he is actually a 500-year-old alchemist who went mad in pursit of power. He gained a normal human's form after a series of events. Has a sharp, direct mannerism. Cautious about repeating his past mistakes.

Sophie: The protagonist from two games piror. She is basically the best alchemist there is, as far as this story is concerned. She was on a pursit of getting her friend and teacher Plachta a human body after she was sealed away 500 years ago, which did eventually happen. Though powerful as an alchemist, she is not good at taking care of herself.

Lucia: The twins' rival and, as we later find out, cousin. She's a typical tsundere character, complete with the red outfit and twintails. Despite appearance, she really cares about the twins, who didn't realise this until they pulled a prank on her and read her logbook. Playable as a DLC character.

Ilmeria: The twins' teacher, and something of a tsundere (yeah, well, there are two others in this game, as NPCs). Likes cute stuff, but refuses to admit so. Also hates to be reminded she's short. Good friends with Firis, although they practise different styles of alchemy. Playable through DLC.


General impressions

I absolutely love this game. …Again. There seems to be something about RPGs that few people have played that attracted me. I wonder why is that the case?

It's not my favourite game ever, and I think I still like Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE better, generally speaking. But Atelier Lydie & Suelle also had most of what I'd ever have wanted to see in an RPG: An easy way to keep track of subplots, being able to review the story so far (in a limited way), adjustable difficulties that either makes tough bosses manageable or makes grinding easier, and most importantly, the story. The game is also fairly balanced (if you don't count the extra quests added in the 1.04 patch), requiring only little grinding if you simply want to make it to the end. It's generally very friendly to players new to Atelier, although it does expect you to know how to play RPGs in general.

One thing I do like is how it gives experience points. Everyone gets full experience (except when you're fighting Firis), even for characters who aren't participating or are down when the battle ends. Experience-raising items raise the experience points of the whole party, not just the user. I have always been hoping to see an RPG with a shared experience counter, and this is the closest thing I can find. Oh, you also don't lose progress if your party is wiped out. The worst thing that can happen is that you get sent back home and lose some of the collected items. Very user-friendly (well, me-friendly?) indeed.

But the best part has to be the story. It's really just me, but I generally like positive-sounding stories. Well, I also like sad stories, but I think they can be easily botched. Just look at Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates. I also like to see character-based events (as I did with ♯FE), as these really give out a feeling of the characters helping and getting to know each other over time. And this game is so full of them. Oh, and (spoilers) I really love how the story ended up with a negative (human) death count. Again, it's just me, but this is one of my favourite RPG stories, even more than ♯FE.

There are a few things that general RPG players may not like about Atelier. Because of the game's emphasis on synthesizing items, dungeons are short and they really exist to just host the story events, monsters and materials. You also only get a single town, because you make items at home. I personally don't mind this, and hey, I've seen worse. These simple towns and dungeons are at least 100 times better than those in Puyo Puyo Chronicle.

There are other areas that are criticized about, including the graphics (PS3- or Vita+ grade on Switch, PS3+ grade on PS4, and it's really awful on Vita), the price (base game costs about 7800 yen, DLC cost 9000 yen, the total price can be spent on three cheap games), and if you're playing in English, the localisation (spelling inconsistency between Sophie/Firis and Lydie & Suelle, and there's no dubbed voice despite the previous games did). None of them bother me too much (I spent more on the full version of FE Echoes, so this is nothing).


Random comments

I'll talk about various stuff. It won't be a full play impression, which is something you can find everywhere online (here's one, here's another, here's a short impression in English, Switch version guide). It's also very chaotic.

Again, full spoilers ahead.


The first thing that caught my attention was this:

Yep. That's Sue. With guns. That's not what I expect from a game like this, although I later found out (in-game) that Ilmeria used to use a gun too.

I don't have many images from the early game, partly because I was too immersed in the game itself.

One thing I noticed early on is that the characters here are either Japanese people who have adopted German names, or German people who have throughly adopted Japanese culture. They write in Japanese, talk about language features unique to Japanese (honourifics, first-person pronouns, furigana), make puns in Japanese, start drinking when they turn 20, and adopt an S rank above A that's characteristic of Japanese games. The only things that aren't Japanese are the character names (which are mostly German with some French) and place names (which are French). Of course, this is the case with a lot of medieval fantasy works, but this game is one of the biggest examples I know of.

Mathias is treated poorly at first. Well, maybe that's an understatement. He gets no respect whatsoever. His early attempts to hit on women also missed a lot: a failed attempt on an unnamed NPC; an attempt to ask the church's sister out, who turned out to be in her 50s and just happened to look young; and he also attempted with Sophie, which drew the ire from her friends.

This is Plachta, Sophie's teacher. This is probably the only time I can see a 520-year-old, sage-like character run into interpersonal issues and turn to a pair of 14-year-olds for help. This is actually the general tone of this game (and perhaps the Atelier series). Those who have surpassed mortal limitations still have daily lives, after all.

And this is a deity. She may be extremely powerful, but personality-wise she's just a normal girl. Lydie and Sue noticed this as well.

Firis's tent (looks like a tent outside, and a wide room created with alchemy inside) hosts character events for Firis, Sophie and Plachta, and can take a long time to clear. Towards the end of a true ending run, you'll see nothing is going on except this little tent. It can get rather boring if you truly have nothing else to do.

The event here is a meeting between masters and teachers. Ilmeria feels like she may not be a good teacher, especially for Sue. The sisters would later send her a gift of appreciation, made using their own recipe. (The blue-haired girl is Plachta in puppet form before she got a human body.)

Also, a few scenes not captured but I really liked:

There's this one point when the twins did have an argument and refused to talk to each other, but they eventually saw flaws in their own reasons to dislike each other and made up after teaming up in a battle. Generic, but I like it.

There's also the scene of Plachta finally getting a human form. Creating space? Reversing time? Making a whole human body with alchemy? Nothing is impossible for the legendary Sophie!

Oh, right. Another observation. Some of the later character events have them talk about the events in the previous games. This is unfortunately something that players new to the series (like me) wouldn't understand without an online search.

Some system stuff:

One thing I don't like about the game is the unskippable combination skills. It's not as bad as the Sessions in ♯FE (which happens after almost every attack), but it does get boring after a while.

This is the screen for making an item. It's hard to explain with a short text, but basically, you fill the guages at the bottom right so that they reach a certain level to give a certain effect to the item. You can either use no catalyst and get a 4×4 board, or use an item as the catalyst to get a wider board or add effects to it. Once you figure out how to mass-produce the Philosopher's Stone (sounds hard? To this game's alchemists, it's only an intermediate-level item), you can use 7×7 boards with multiple +5 bonuses at a low cost.

I really like the item description screens. You're presented with a mini-drama of the characters talking about the items.

Town map. This makes locating the major NPCs easy. It also shows where the next goal is at (!?) and whether there are new character events (!), although the latter is also used for the optional, infinite end-game battles. This makes it hard to tell if Firis's tent actually has a character event or if Firis is available to practice-fight the party again.

I really like Sue, both as a character in the story, and as a high-speed fighter who gets a lot of turns to fight (this is a timeline-based RPG, so speedy characters can get more than one turn for every enemy turn). As a result, I also gave the best equipment to her. Lydie and the others don't have stats nearly as high.

Post-game soundtrack commentary. It's interesting to see what the composers and voice actors think about the game, within the game itself.

This game has two BGM packs as free DLCs (one for the Atelier series, the other for a few Gust games), which take up a lot of space. There are also paid BGM packs, but I don't think I'll ever want that. Same for the outfit DLC.


And finally, true ending stuff, and a conclusion to why do I like this game's story.

Although all endings count, the true ending is basically how I want to see an RPG end.

• Firis would talk to the twins about travelling from time to time. Sophie also talked about her hometown.
• Ilmeria's events had her explain to the twins that she and Firis separated because while she wanted to run an atelier, Firis's dream was travelling and she didn't feel like she should stop Firis just because they had a promise to co-run their shop.
• During Firis's events, she made a teleporter for Ilmeria, so that they could meet while she travels without her. This solves the problem of them not being in contact while Firis is travelling.
• Firis later sent the twins a flying portable atelier that they could use if they ever decide to travel.
• After finishing all other character events, which involve mending Alt's heart, restoring Plachta's body and help her decide whether to stay with Sophie, Sophie started to discuss about the idea of permanently securing the twins' mother's existence (her soul resided in a painting after she passed).
• The twins were successful, and they also made a decision to travel far to further their goal to use alchemy to make people happy.
• In the end we get a bunch of master alchemists who is capable of just about anything, and they get to travel far with the option to teleport people from their hometown.

The whole thing is just so stupidly optimistic. I love it. I love it because it's not like any other RPG story I've seen. It doesn't end with a downer footnote, either due to the story or due to the writer's oversight.

Actually, if you think about it, there are question left behind. Those who have visited painting worlds are said to have their souls go to the paintings after they die, and this applies to most but not all of the characters. What would actually happen? Will the paintings eventually be overpopulated with dead alchemists? Interesting question, but I'm willing to let it pass. I usually only care up to the point of the story's end.



Anyway, here it goes. A rather chaotic post, I know. And I'm fairly certain that non-players may not understand everything I've written, but I don't feel like refining my writing. Feel free to ask for clarification.

And finally, it goes without saying that I do recommend this game. I don't think it has an audience in this forum, but I still do recommend it.

[nocturnal YL]

So… having completed three games thus far, I think I can start calling myself a series fan. It's going to celebrate its 22nd anniversary on 23 May 2019, by the way.

Now, where to start… I know I gave some basic information about the series before, but it may be better to list out the past games individually so that there's a reference point for what I'm talking about in the future.

The time limit in the list below refers to the in-game time limits attached to either the whole story or individual tasks. Time is consumed for almost every action — travelling (both in town and on the world map), item synthesis and battles all take time. Failing to meet the time limits (for the main plot tasks) will result in a game over.

By the way, those interested in learning about the various worlds featured in Atelier should consider trying out Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists. This game features no traditional Atelier gameplay, but the story surrounds the alchemists interacting with each other. You can get a rough understanding of what each world is like after reading through their conversations.


Generation 1
These set the basis of the series that will eventually return for the modern games.

Salburg series

(A1) Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg (1997-05-23, PS, with time limit)
Marie broke the low score record in the royal academy, so she was tasked to run an atelier for five years in order to graduate. Rather low in difficulty.
This game was ported to several sysems later, such as PS2, Dreamcast, iOS and Android.

(A2) Atelier Elie The Alchemist Of Salburg 2 (1998-12-17, PS, with time limit)
The ill, near-death Elie was saved by Marie, so she vowed to become an alchemist herself. Features more difficult battles than Atelier Marie.
This game was also ported to several systems. There are also games outside of the main series that cover and extend both Marie and Elie's story on WonderSwan and GBA.

(A3) Atelier Lilie: The Alchemist of Salburg 3 (2001-06-21, PS2, with time limit)
This game takes place before Marie and Elie, and is about the construction of the academy they go to.
Atelier Lilie is PS2-only, never ported to other systems.

Gramnad series (same world as Salburg, just different locations)

(A4) Atelier Judie: The Alchemist of Gramnad (2002-06-27, PS2, no time limit)
Judie went back 200 years in time to Lilie's period due to a mistake in making a time-travelling item. Her goal is to return to her own time. (…And then we get the (non-canon) events in Nelke. She's a dangerous time traveller.)
This game forgoes the usual time limit, but makes items deterioriate over time. It was ported to PSP later.

(A5) Atelier Viorate The Alchemist Of Gramnad 2 (2003-06-26, PS2, with time limit)
7 years since the beginning of Elie. Vio refused to move with her parents and leave her village and its signature carrots behind, so she was tasked with managing the town as a condition to stay.
Has a PSP port.


Generation 2
These are the more unusual games by Atelier standard, featuring Mana, male protagonists and darker or battle-oriented stories.

Iris series (these games put more focus on the RPG part and feature the energy force Mana, and are the first to leave Japan)

(A6) Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana (2004-05-27, PS2, no time limit)
Features a rather standard boy hero (Klein) as the lead alchemist. The story is a rather standard RPG.

(A7) Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny (2005-05-26, PS2, no time limit)
Another standard RPG, featuring two protagonists (Felt and Viese) that can be switched to freely most of the time.

(A8) Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (2006-06-29, PS2, no time limit)
Features Edge and Iris, travellers whose job is to go to alternate worlds for investigation. The last two games have NPCs named Iris, but the Iris in this game is playable.
All Iris games are for PS2 only and don't have ports.

Mana-Khemia series (these games also feaure Mana; not the same world as the Iris series)

(A9) Mana-Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis (2007-06-27, PS2, no time limit)
Alchemy student Vayne is on a journey of discovering his true origins and his late father. As it turns out at the story's end, it's actually one of the darkest stories in the Atelier series.
Has a PSP port.

(A10) Mana-Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy (2008-05-29, PS2, no time limit)
More than a decade after Mana-Khemia, this story tells the school life of Raze and Ulrika, two polar opposite students who keep arguing with each other while investigating on the gradual disappearance of Mana in their world.
Has a PSP port, and is the only PS2 Atelier to be available in PS2 Archives (downloadable PS2 games for PS3).


Generation 3
The Atelier we know and love now, with 3D graphics (finally), elements from the first games returning and the focus back to the individual alchemists' growth. All games in this generation are available on PS4, and most of these are available on Switch.

Arland series

(A11) Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland (2009-06-25, PS3, with time limit)
The first modern Atelier title. Combines systems from the various old games, and adds its own systems like inheritable item properties (in addition to item quality). The story is about Rorona trying to finish assignments required to keep her license to run an atelier.

(A12) Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland (2010-06-24, PS3, with time limit)
Adventurer and Rorona's apprentice Totori is on a journey to find her missing mother, who is an adventurer who leaves all kinds of crazy tales. Popular for its story and characters, but is very difficult on the time management side. No one posted the solution to the true ending online for a whole month since its release!

(A13) Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland (2011-06-23, PS3, with time limit)
Meruru, the ex-princess of Arls whose country was going to be merged into the Arland Republic, studied under Totori and worked on both alchemy and development of her homeland. This game is well acclaimed for its gameplay, but several out-of-character moments makes it not very well-received in story terms.

(A20) Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland (2019-03-20, PS4/Switch, no time limit)
Lulua, Rorona's daughter, received a mysterious book that only she can read. The book, the Alchemy Riddle, contains hints and guides that aids her own endeavor to become a great alchemist, and ultimately led her to change her fate.
This game mixes systems from the Arland and Mysterious series, and is bigger in scale than the previous titles. Reception on the story seems tobe mixed, though.

Dusk series (features an about-to-fall civilization, possibly inspired by dark worldbuilding in works like Fallout: NewVegas, Attack on Titan and Madoka Magica)

(A14) Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk (2012-06-28, PS3, with time limit)
Pharmacist Ayesha started learning alchemy in order to find her sister, who went missing three years ago. This game introduces multiple endings that can be fulfilled at the same time, with a dialog option at the very end to determine which ending to happen. This makes completing all endings much easier.

(A15) Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky (2013-06-23, PS3, with time limit)
The story is about the investigation of ruins… that float in the air. The game's UI is much friendlier, with features like items being replenished upon returning to town, making it one of the easier games with time limit. It also features a popular battle system.

(A16) Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea (2014-07-17, PS3, no time limit)
This game follows Shallistera who wants to learn the solution to her tribe's land getting dry and Shallotte who wants to chase her dream and "go big". It's poorly received due to tasks feeling mundane, had quite a lot of bugs pre-update (which is a problem for all modern Atelier titles), and failed to conclude many of the Dusk series' subplots.

Mysterious series (the light-hearted stories might be inspired by the nichijou-kei anime and light novel boom lately)

(A17) Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book (2015-11-19, PS4/PSVita/PS3, no time limit)
Sophie's goal is to free her late grandmother's talking book (Plachta) and give her a human body. As a stopgap solution, Plachta is given puppet forms to move freely and interact with people (which proved to be a popular system). The game is relatively free of bugs even before updates. It's very beginner-friendly, and has only one ending.
Sophie was voted the most popular Atelier character in the 20th anniversary poll held by GUST.

(A18) Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey (2016-11-02, PS4/PSVita, time limit in the first part only)
Unlike most of the Atelier series, the protagonists are not stuck in the same town. Rather, Firis gets to move her portable tent wherever she goes in open world-like fields. The pre-update version is rather buggy, and it's overall a far less newcomer-friendly game. Nevertheless, it's appreciated by seasoned fans.

(A19) Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings (2017-12-21, PS4/PSVita/Switch, almost no time limit)
Twins Lydie and Sue set out to improve their atelier's reputation to fulfil their promise with their late mother to run the country's best atelier. Well-received in terms of story, because it gives proper closure to the plot threads, unlike the other "third games" Meruru and Shalie. It's also rare in that updates did not make previous viable battle strategies useless; rather, updates made them even more effective.


Spinoffs

Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World (2019-01-31, PS4/PSVita/Switch, with time limit)
Nelke, a non-alchemist noblewoman, offers to work as Westwald's governor to help her own research on the legendary Granzweit Tree. Alchemists from multiple worlds started appearing mysteriously, and they offer Nelke their help to develop the town. A non-canon (but doesn't clash with canon) town building game that some see as surprisingly hard, partly due to the infamous time limit that scared some new players is now back in full force.

Other games
There are quite a few others, but the notable ones are Atelier Marie Elie And Anise (GBA game that extends the first two games), the DS Atelier series (3 games: Liese, Annie, Lina), Atelier Questboard (mobile game) and Atelier Online. And then we have Atelier Elkrone Dear For Otomate (an otome game) that GUST licensed out and doesn't seem to acknowledge these days.



Source 1: ねりきんextra's Atelier Lulua guide (Introduction to Atelier 1 / Introduction to Atelier 2)
Source 2: TV Tropes

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Three games in, and I think I'm starting to see what do I like in this series. It's because it feels rather relatable. Not that I run a workshop that makes both lethal poison and food from the same pot or that I throw bombs at ancient monsters, but fantasy elements aside, they're just like your usual workers with real-life concerns. They struggle to keep their business running, they have personal goals, they have problems more than "I want to get stronger", and their problems often require more brain than brawn to solve. Some of them also live in deteriorating or post-collapse worlds, because alchemy/technology abuse is a very real thing.

And their response to their hardship? Keep a positive attitude, believe something will work out for them, and help out each other if they can't do it alone. I find it admirable, even if impractical.

That aside, it just feels good seeing these people, after the hard work they go through, can get their goals fulfilled. (This is also what I like about Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE.)

The biggest draw to the series (besides the story) has to be the item system. All items you get are unique, with different qualities and attributes attached. The unique item system makes the creation of equipment and items a fun puzzle on its own, but it can also get tedious if you can't figure out how to make the best items, or know what to do but don't have enough raw materials. Ignoring item creation will make battles harder, since they contribute more than the character levels.

The music also seems to be enjoyed by a lot of players, although I find them rather low-budget, with obvious synthesizer artefacts and an overuse of (non-synth) vocal songs in certain games. Songs can also feel repetitive (by being played too frequently in the game) and nondescript at times. This problem is vastly improved in Lulua, though.

Depending on what free and paid DLC BGM packs you have, you can change the background music to songs from the previous titles. Lydie & Suelle in particular has a free music pack that covers the entire Atelier series' complete music catalog as part of the 20th anniversary campaign. It also eats up at least 6 GB of storage.

The battle systems are more or less standard RPG fare, except for the more unique ways to use items. Dungeons are not very interactive (don't expect puzzles). Towns are relatively small. Not that they really matter, since character interaction and the emphasis on items are the main selling points of Atelier.

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Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland
ルルアのアトリエ ～アーランドの錬金術士4～

Overall impression

Even before the game's release, I got the impression that Atelier Lulua feels more modern in terms of graphics and UI. The text is smaller but with better spacing, and more information can be shown at the same time. This may have to do with the discontinuation of PS Vita support, which essentially guarantees the screen is always rendered in 720p or above.

The graphics feel much cleaner too, compared to the previous games. This is especially true for the portable mode of the Switch version. Lulua's graphics on Switch look a bit better than the PS4 graphics of the previous games, though comparisons between the same game still favour the PS4 version.

The system of Atelier Lulua is a split between the Arland series and the Mysterious series. In particular, it has:
- World map similar to Atelier Totori
- Item synthesis based on the Arland series
- Portable atelier similar to the one Firis has
- Two-row battle formation based on Atelier Lydie & Suelle, but further improved

The last one may take some getting used to for Arland players, especially with the presence of the Break system that makes combatants unavailable for any move after taking enough damage.

User interface

Really, the UI is good. For starter, it's now possible to sort and delete save files. For some reason, the previous games don't allow save file deletion, which makes cleaning up redundant backups difficult.

Item duplication service, previously provided by Corneria in the Mysterious series, is handled by Lulua's teacher Piana's assistant Chim Dragon here, who conveniently works in Piana's atelier.

The mini-drama in the item and monster description screens also return from the Mysterious series. They no longer comment on locations, and only the playable cast participate (because only them have the mini character head icons this time). Here you can also see the benefit of using smaller text; the item information is no longer paginated and can be viewed in one page.

Atelier Lulua has a habit of applying a weird blur filter on characters not in focus. Unlike the rest of the graphics, these blurred characters look rather awkward.

And finally, as I said before, this game has a vastly improved loading speed. Loading smaller rooms don't even trigger the "Now Loading" screen.

Battle

The most obvious change is that Atelier Lulua has 5 characters participate. But this is actually a good thing, because each supporter now supports two adjacent attackers instead of having them tied in 1-to-1 pairs. The special attack guage is now shared by the whole party, and since the guage goes up slowly, it's not practical to just use special attacks at the first availability like with the combination attacks in Lydie & Suelle.

Lulua loves curry. Guess what her special attack is like?

Since pairing attackers and supporters is not as rigid as in Lydie & Suelle, it's much easier to find good, easy-to-use combinations. One way to set up the formation is to put Lulua in the middle, supported by both Piana and Eva, then have Lulua use her physical/magic hybrid attack and trigger a long chain of followup attacks.

There are also more options for healing HP, MP, status and affliction with both skills and items. Overall, battles are much easier here. You also don't need to worry about reaching level 100, since you can reach there while worrying about other things like money and fulfilling requests.

Oh, there is also a large variety of battle music depending on where the battle happens. Atelier Lydie & Suelle only has variations of the same two songs (one for each twin) for normal battles, but Atelier Lulua has multiple unique songs.

Exploration

Certain Alchemy Riddle tasks require talking to specific NPCs or looking at specific objects in various areas. The raw material discovery and battle completion rates are being kept track of, and reaching 100% will make the raw materials found come in higher qualities.

There is also a particular material that can be found in this map during the 11th month, although this material can also be obtained elsewhere.

Item synthesis

Making items is relatively more difficult compared to Atelier Lydie & Suelle. The Arland system has the player control the elemental balance of the raw items used, and in some cases a wrong balance (like having too much fire without enough earth to counter it) will turn the item into failed trash.

The maximum quality is also initially capped. Items of quality above 50 can only be made after solving certain pages of the Alchemy Riddle.

Story progression

In Nelke, the fourth wall-breaking Gust-chan talked about how the Arland tales would continue, referencing Lulua. Gust-chan also congratulated Sophie for appearing in four games in a row in a previous conversation, confusing her.

And now, where to start… I'll just say it's not very straightforward. This time, I'm not going to discuss spoilers.

First off, on the story itself: Unlike some of the games (Marie, Viorate, Sophie, Lydie & Suelle, Nelke, etc), there is no specific end goals stated at the beginning. Some think it makes Lulua's fate-changing friend look like she just shows up without much story justification, but I'm perfectly fine with this. A person's goals can change all the time, after all. And each action, however irrelevant it may seem, makes Lulua learn something that will be made relevant to the final chapter. But not in a straightforward way.

While it's mostly an Atelier-style tale, parts of it does feel like a traditional, RPG-like epic. I like the balance here, although I still prefer a pure slice-of-life story.

Lulua talked to a bunch of Punis. How could this be related?

And now she's on a mission to expel ghosts!?

And a discussion with Rorona on how the past cannot be changed. (Also, Rorona is an adorable 35-year-old woman who is fully capable as an adventurer. How often do you find game characters like this?)

Actually, at this point, I could already guess what the end was going to be like. And I was correct.

This game does a lot of not-subtle-at-all hint dropping, and then reveal the answer when I already know what it would be. It feels more reassuring than surprising when I get the final confirmation.

One exception is the true identity of Ficus, which requires some level of knowledge in Atelier Totori's plot. This is one part I wish they could do better.

There are also a lot of character events, as would be expected from an Atelier game. One particular event I like is Lulua commenting that Totori and Mimi (a very obvious pairing) look like a married couple. Mimi gets all flustered about it, but the best part is that Totori doesn't deny it at all.

Also as per Atelier standard, there are a lot of illustrations. Though given the graphics style this time and how there are a lot of new character poses and motions this time, these illustrations don't stand out as much.

One thing I would complain is how the character events are being triggered. With the playable cast, it's the same as before: raise their friendship levels to 80%. But the events for the NPCs are a bit more complicated: basically, you need to buy from the shop owners, and complete requests for the characters that handle those. But there's also another requirement for triggering the next event after completing one, being the passage of in-game time. There's no indication on whether these requirements are fulfilled, making it hard to even tell if there are any further character events for a particular NPC.

Oh, and the story's end doesn't really feel like an end at all. It appears very obvious that a sequel is being planned, and I'm already looking forward to it. Arland 5 cannot come soon enough. I'm also interested to see Dusk or Mysterious being continued, but right now I want to see Arland 5 more than those.

Resources:

A free demo (playable up to Chapter 2) is available in the Japanese Nintendo eShop (Nintendo Switch) and PlayStation Store (PlayStation 4).

Soundtrack (YouTube)

Japanese website (don't bother with the English version; it's a single-page incomplete info dump that feels like they aren't even trying to sell it in the west)

Character page of the website (Lulua, Eva, Aurel, Piana, Ficus, Niko, Rorona and Sterk are playable; Totori and Meruru are playable through DLC)

Dengeki article that has a very good impression with the game

[nocturnal YL]

A few days ago, I got anotice on Twitter saying that GUST would announce something soon. I guess it's good to see them working on some other series—

Oh wait no. It's the 21st main series Atelier and the third Atelier title to come out in 2019. Atelier Ryza: The Queen of Eternal Darkness and the Secret Hideout is set to be released in fall, and is another completely new story.

Not sure if I'll like the changes that are said to be deviate quite a lot from the series, but at least it looks good so far.

I kind of want to see it not coming so soon, actually. Atelier is probably the only series I'd want to see slow down in releases. I'm not going to get the chance to play the older games at this rate! And it's going to be as buggy as everything else in the Atelier series, I'm fairly certain.

Leaked details

Famitsu article

[Nester the Lark]

According to Nintendo Everything, the Atelier series seems to have been building up a fan base on Switch:

Despite the challenges involved, Gust feels that it’s been worth supporting Switch with the Atelier series. Hosoi told us that sales have been increasing with each successive entry in the franchise on Nintendo’s console, so they “find that this is a good platform for us to have expanded onto.”

Makes sense, I suppose. In less than two years, they've already released seven games on the Switch (with the Dusk trilogy on the way).

[nocturnal YL]

My screenshots have those vertical line artefacts. Those are the fault of the Switch screen capture function, and are not present during gameplay. I checked across my Switch system, screenshots taken with capture devices and PS4 screenshots, and those look fine.

Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout
ライザのアトリエ 〜常闇の女王と秘密の隠れ家〜

Background information

My experience with Atelier Ryza is different from the previous games in that I was approaching this game with expectation based on the series, so comparisons are unavoidable.

Not long after this game was announced, it was revealed that this was something Gust were making for a while, in parallel with Atelier Lulua. Coupled with bold statements that it would change a lot of things to the point veteran fans may not like it, and with unusually heavy advertising by the series' standard, I was cautiously optimistic about the game.

Still, at first glance, I was also rather worried whether I would like the game, especially for the new battle system and the character design. (I was quite confused when I learned Ryza earned TGS 2019's best character design award.) I got just the game, rather than the premium box, unlike Lulua.

I played the game, start-to-finish, without looking at any external source. I also didn't watch any gameplay (besides screenshots) prior to playing, so this is pretty much a blind playthrough.

Overall impression

It ended up feeling rather lightweighted in many ways. Game length, story, voice acting, battle system, menu UI and extras are all cut down by various extents. Item synthesis is is both simpler to work with and allows more potential, so it's not necessarily a bad thing.

There are parts that did improve. Graphics and maps are the more obvious improvements, and there are more map BGM this time (one for each area and with day and night versions). Design choices that make Atelier much less frustrating than other RPGs are still there: all party members get full experience even when inactive or downed, and the penalty for losing is almost nonexistent. Difficulty levels can still be freely swapped.

I won't fault the game for its shortcomings, since it really is just what it's advertised to be: the characters grow just a little, in a small adventure that lasts just a single summer; its main improvement is the graphics, and there are gameplay changes that veteran fans may not like. Still a bit disappointed in the general lack of voice acting, though.


Story

See the character pages of the official site (JP / NA / EU) to learn about them.

I didn't expect a particularly stellar story, and I didn't get that either. I like the second half of the story better, but the game emphasizes on the first half.

Ryza starts off as the daughter of a farmer family, and both her parents and other villagers are generally dismissive of her desire to adventure outside. This is quite a contrast with the last games I've played, where the lead characters lived in helpful communities and could seek support from senior alchemists. I… don't like this premise.

Roughly the first half of the game is spent earning the village's approval, preparing for the secret hideout and proving Ryza's group's power to Bos, their rival. Roughly halfway into the game, we learn the true intention of Empel and Lila's investigation, and by the time Empel joins, the story is almost over. The pacing is rather odd, glossing over the important part of the story.

Not helping the matter is that outside of the main cutscenes, almost nothing had voice acting. It feels weird to see how each new game gets less voice acting: Lydie & Suelle had full voice acting in cutscenes, Lulua had full voice acting in the base game but not the DLC, while Ryza doesn't get voice acting in most cutscenes, putting it on par with Nelke, which is a low-budget spinoff.

And it also doesn't help that there are no character-specific side-stories and their associated endings. Atelier Ryza uses the single-ending format. NPC requests now have short stories attached, but these don't nearly make up for the shrunken main story.

Battle system

One of the bigger changes to the game is the new battle system. It's semi-real-time now, with the option to pick attacks appearing after the player's turn is reached. Additional menu selections are carried on while the battle timer is still running, although the timeline is paused while reading the character stats, during specific attack animations or in certain other situations.

The battles are generally easier to make up for the lack of time to pick moves. And it's interesting to see that they do away with the MP and item uses so commonly associated with RPGs in favour of more unique systems, even though the whole system feels more casual.

There are only 3 active characters now, just like the older games before the front/rear row mechanic was introduced. This further contributes to the casual feel of the battle system. There are other ways to chain attacks (among the three active members), but it's more limited.

Overall, the battle system is better than I initially thought when I heard it'd be real-time. But I'd still very much prefer the old system.

Maps, material gathering

Exploration is mostly unchanged from Lulua, but besides the bigger maps, there are now multiple ways to get materials besides the standard staff swing. One downside is that it is easy to miss certain material types by not remembering to gather items with all methods available, but it's mostly a good feature that encourages trying different things. There's also the new feature to generate new locations for gathering materials, although there is very little in-game use of it.

It also seems to be easier to locate certain material types now, which really helps making things less frustrating. Also, each area has its own day and night BGM tracks, and some of them sound pretty good.

Item synthesis

It's much easier to make items now, for the baseline definition of making items. Most items require only 2 materials to make.

Making the best items is more difficult thanks to the new system that allows recipes to transform to other recipes, and generally it's better to transform from a lower-level item than to just use the high-level item's recipe. The game's difficulty is nowhere enough to require this, though.

One problem I have with the new item system is the ways to find recipes. Besides recipe transformation, they are obtained from shops and quests, the latter of which can be time-consuming.

At one point, I had to make an item with a material that I did not know how to make, since the recipe for said material was two transformations behind. The game never dropped any hint on where to look for it, although it helps a bit to think like the characters do in-game and use a little bit of an alchemist's intuition. ("This item may be related to that item, so if I unlock the recipe for that item first…")

Graphics

This game uses the same way to render graphics as Lulua, and there are some shared motions. The graphics are generally improved, but it is hard to see that on Nintendo Switch, especially in handheld mode.

The character models don't seem to be much improved. It's still easy to tell the polygonal edges, and clipping still happens a lot.

And given that this is based on Lulua, that weird blur effect on things close to the camera is also still there.

Also, the illustrated scenes that the series is known for total to a measly 10 now, putting it way below all 3 other games I've played. Though one may argue that those illustrations are usually used to supplement the limited 3D assets, making them more of a practical solution than an artistic one.

User interface and system

It's worse. Not particularly bad, but it is no longer possible to find location information in the album, and I couldn't tell the overall progress of the game as easily.

The descriptions in the album and the logbook are also standard, RPG-like description now, rather than having mini dialogs and looking like the main characters wrote those themselves.

The music in the sound gallery also no longer feature the composers' comments. Voice actor commentary still remains, though.

One thing that does deserve praise is that I have never seen a system crash caused by this game, unlike Nelke, Lulua and especially Lydie & Suelle. I thought the introduction of new game systems would lead to more bugs, but apparently this is not the case.

So do I recommend this?

I have mixed, and mostly disappointed, feelings toward this game. I can kind of see why is Atelier Ryza popular, but I also think newcomers have missed a lot of what the series can offer. I expected a full-fledged game since it felt like Gust was very ambitious, but ended with a standard-ish game that's about Nelke-sized in scale.

I still wouldn't say this game should be skipped by fans, and it's still a very solid game, but the last games' quality and this game's heavy advertisement have greatly raised my expectation. I'd definitely recommend Lulua over this, especially for veteran RPG players.

Current ranking:
Lulua > Lydie & Suelle > Nelke > Ryza

[nocturnal YL]

I previously thought I'd skip talking about re-releases and spinoffs, but after playing the Arland DX games, I found that there are actually a lot to talk about.

Alchemy 101

I did not talk about this in the earlier reviews, but I thought I'd go through the basics of making items so that you don't get confused when I talk about things like quality and traits.

Items can be made by combining raw materials or other synthesized items. An item has three main kinds of property: quality, effects and traits.

The quality of an item is a number that can go up to 120 in the original Arland games or 999 in the newer games. The base quality of a synthesized item is the simple average of the materials used to make it (capped at 100 in the original Arland games), and may be further changed by other means like inheriting traits (this can raise quality to beyond 100).

An item can have various effects specific to that item, depending on what materials are used to make it.

An item can inherit traits (up to 5 in the original Arland games, or 3 traits in the newer games) from the materials used to make it. Certain traits can only be applied to specific item types, so for example, Inflict Sleep can only be added to a weapon, not an attack item. There is also a cost limit for inheriting traits that depends on what materials are used.

Making items takes time, which is where the series' difficulty comes from. The newer games don't have time limits, but they have more complex synthesis systems that make creation of ideal items much more difficult.

Basic Timeline

(Click to show full image)

Characters

Character availability list. Only speaking roles count. Player party availability based on the highest versions of the games (New Rorona/DX, Totori Plus/DX, Meruru Plus/DX, DLC-complete Lulua).

● = Can participate in battles
○ = Non-playable

Character	Rorona	Totori	Meruru	Lulua	Description
Rorona	●	●	●	●	Atelier owner in Arland. Talented, but clumsy. Loves pies.
Cordelia	●	●			Rorona's friend. Chancellor of Arland as of Lulua.
Iksel	●	●			A chef who runs a restaurant near Rorona's.
Sterk	●	●	●	●	An aspiring knight who is obviously in love with Rorona.
Lionela	●			○	A timid travelling performer. Runs a bar in Arland in Lulua.
Tantris	●				Meredith's son who does not share his views.
Gio	●		●		Former king, and best swordfighter, of Arland.
Esty	●		●		Arland official. Sterk's senior.
Astrid	●		○		Rorona's teacher. A big troublemaker, but very capable.
Pamela	○	○	●	○	Atelier series resident ghost. Runs shops.
Hagel	○	○	○		Atelier series resident blacksmith.
Ryan	○				Rorona's father. Always travelling with Laura.
Laura	○				Rorona's mother. Can get scary if angry.
Meredith	○				Politician who favoured industry over alchemy.
Tiffani	○	○			Shop owner. Widow. Attracts many middle-aged men.
Cole	○			○	Young travelling merchant. Succeeded Hagel in Lulua.
Hom	○		○		Homunculus created by Astrid to aid Rorona.
Totori	●	●	●	●	Adventurer in search of Gisela. Teaches class in Lulua.
Gino		●	●		Adventurous childhood friend of Totori's.
Melvia		●			Ceci's friend and adventurer. Has super strength.
Mimi		●	●	○	Totori's close friend. Classic tsundere.
Marc		●			Mad scientist who loves children. Makes robots.
Ceci		●			Totori's overprotective sister.
Chim		○	○	○	Homunculus created by Rorona. Totori made more later.
Filly		○	○		Timid receptionist with a wild imagination. Esty's sister.
Guid		○			Totori and Ceci's father whose presence is often unnoticed.
Gerhard		○			Bar master and Guid's drinking friend.
Peter		○	○		Carriage operator with perverted ambitions.
Piana		○		●	From the frontier village Totori saved. Lulua's teacher.
Pilca		○			Elder of the frontier village.
Gisela		○			Totori and Ceci's mother. Adventurer.
Meruru	●		●	●	Former princess of Arls. Loves mushroom.
Keina			●	○	Meruru's maid. Brings luck to those around her.
Lias			●		Meruru's childhood friend. Looks up to Rufus.
Rufus			●		Lias's brother. Capable, but feared for his high standards.
Hanna			●		Travels around and gathers materials to sell.
Dessier			○		Meruru's father. Well-liked by the people.
Lulua				●	Rorona's daughter who saved Arklys. Loves curry.
Eva				●	Lulua's friend. A cannon user with great strength.
Aurel				●	Gio's relative. Trains his sword skills in hope to best Sterk.
Nico				●	Self-titled "Pirate" who got his ship wrecked.
Ficus		○		●	Travelling magician who enjoys seeing children grow.
Mana			○	○	Orthogalaxen's operator. Machina of God.
Stia				○	Fellsgalaxen's operator. Followed Lulua since they met.
Jeltje				○	In search of her brother. Collects autographs of adventurers.
Lisa				○	Runs a bar in Arklys. Has an unfathomable appetite.
Refle				○	Runs a jewel shop in Arklys. Very knowledgeable in jewels.
Wild				○	Iksel's student. Runs his restaurant in Lulua.

---

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland DX
ロロナのアトリエ ～アーランドの錬金術士～ DX

Background information

Original Atelier Rorona	Very basic game with a system simpler than Totori. Had quite a lot of issues.
New Atelier Rorona	Complete remake using Meruru's system, making it a PS3 (and PS Vita) remake of a PS3 game. Has new 3D character models, Esty and Astrid playable, UI improvements from Ayesha, sub-tasks with a bingo reward system like in Escha & Logy, an extra year featuring time-travelling Totori and Meruru, and more.
New Atelier Rorona (3DS)	New Rorona but with a grid-based battle system, deformed character models (because 3DS), Neruneru Nerune product placement, an Atelier Astrid prequel mode, and a few maps removed. None of these changes were in DX.
Atelier Rorona DX	Added features to move faster, fast-forward battle animation and better loading time. Time capsule in during overtime (4th year) no longer accepts ingots (weapon materials).

I started playing this game in January 2020 right after Atelier Ryza, and that playthrough dragged on until July 2020, mostly because I was playing the Project DIVA games. A smaller reason is that the game's structure makes it easy to get burnt out.

Overall impression

I do like the overall game, but I'd say it's the weakest among the trilogy. The pacing makes for a game that feels boring and the story premise is plain, although the execution of the story is quite good and the gameplay feels fine.

As a time management game with an overarching time (turn) limit, I wanted to make the best out of the extra time for things like money and best equipment (which can be carried to later playthroughs), optional quests and completing the item encyclopedia. The required tasks are only refreshed every three months, so I can't just sleep through everything, view the ending and load the old save file for other endings or making the best items. This problem is not as severe in other time management games (Nelke, Totori and Meruru), since there aren't as many events tied to the calendar.

Story

There was an atelier in Arland, run by the prodigal but uncooperative Astrid. The kingdom's minister proposed to shut down the atelier in favour of industrial development, and the workshop is given three year's time to prove its worth to avoid foreclosure. Astrid is unmotivated, so it's up to Rorona, her apprentice, to save the shop.

Story impression

The overall tone of the game is a comical one. The main story is rather plain; although this is understandable considering this game is all about bringing the Atelier series back to its roots.

There isn't much content in the main story, and Rorona is given mundane tasks like making home accessories, with only short dialogs to introduce the tasks. Still, some parts of the main story do dive deeper, like when Astrid explains why does she dislike the people of Arland at the end of the 3rd year. To contrast the simple main story, the character events are made more interesting.

My favourite plot thread is Lionela's, which explains why does she have two talking puppets who seemingly move on their own. She left Arland afterwards and does not appear in Totori and Meruru, and I'd have felt sorry for her… if not for her cameo in Meruru's opening and eventual return in Lulua suggesting she's fine.

I unfortunately did not collect all events, because I jumped into the game blind and missed my chance to raise friendship levels for Gio and Tantris. I submitted low-rank items for friend requests, not realising how friendship works in the original Arland series.

Graphics

The character models were updated, but I don't think that extends to the landscape models, which look like they're for systems older than PS3. The original Rorona came out more than 2 years after PS3's release, but this was the series' first 3D entry. While I didn't expect good graphics, it still feels quite jarring to jump from Ryza to this.

Game systems

The original Arland games are simple in terms of both item synthesis and battles. They lack any of the more complex systems introduced later, and the focus is on time management and getting specific endings.

For both New Rorona and Meruru, there is the Pocket Watch equipment, which revives the downed wearer when their turn comes. This means that unless all 3 characters are downed, the player cannot lose. This does not provide sufficient protection against Meruru's extra bosses, but in New Rorona, this is more than enough.

A Secret Remedy item with the effects HP Recovery L and Fall Back, and the traits All Range, Living and Spiritflower Energy can protect against KOs, revive downed members (if the protection does not work) and activates itself for the next use. This does not work 100% of the time, but usually lasts long enough even for drawn-out boss fights. The Extend Range series of traits is not available in Meruru, unfortunately.

New Rorona introduced a garden feature that allows high-quality raw materials with specific traits be obtained from specifically-crafted seeds.

Rorona is the only Arland game without a fully-featured world map. Instead, each area has many sub-areas that are unlocked by reaching exits of the previous sub-area. Visiting each sub-area has a fixed time cost and gathering/battling don't incur more, making this the easiest game in terms of time management.

Everything considered, this game is easy.

---

Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland DX
トトリのアトリエ ～アーランドの錬金術士2～ DX

Background information

Original Atelier Totori	Has a world map, very simple synthesis and battle systems, a tight time limit, and a very helpful ability to make exact copies of materials and items. Doesn't feel different from Plus and DX at all.
Atelier Totori Plus	DLC-complete version, making Ceci, Iksel and Cordelia playable. Adds Orthogalaxen and extra bosses, which makes it harder to get all adventurer points.
Atelier Totori DX	No additional changes besides faster movement, battle animation and loading time. Totori Plus came before the other two, so there's also no save data bonus to be made unconditionally available in DX.

I played a bit of Totori DX in June for the original PS3 version's 10th anniversary. I started playing it full-time in September, after fighting the extra bosses in Rorona DX. Because I know Totori is difficult, I decided to consult a walkthrough from the get-go, although it doesn't cover anything introduced in Plus.

Overall impression

The most obvious thing is that I love the story! It has the most serious tone across the three games, and it's a touching tale. The music, introduction of a world map and the adventurer rank system all set up for an atmosphere that befits Totori's quest to find her mother.

And there's its opening theme song, Pilgrimage. When I ran the game for the first time, this song from the opening movie caught my attention, and I intentionally held off listening to the full version until after finishing the game. The story gives context to its lyrics, so listening before and after game completion evoke different feelings.

The game's reputation as a difficult entry really shows. The time limit is very tight for getting all enemies, items and adventurer points, especially after the Plus additions. Making optimal items for battle proves to be difficult too. I have a single month left for free activities at the end.

It's not the most newcomer-friendly entry (something shared by fellow second game, Atelier Firis), but it's the most satisfying one.

Story

Totori became an adventurer in hope to find her long-missing mother, Gisela, thought to be dead by the rest of the village. Her search effort spanned across Arland (now a republic following king Gio's resignation), and after extending her 3-year adventurer license for 2 more years, she set sail across the sea to the eastern continent, finding a village that seemingly had the answer of her quest.

Story impression

There are just so much to like about this game. The story is an emotional, and ultimately heartwarming one. It also gives us a peek into the eastern continent, which two characters in Atelier Lulua originate from, and may serve as the stage of a potential sequel.

I'm a bit surprised to see how Totori started her career. It's easy to forget that she didn't start off as the best alchemist and teacher as a child. Especially since she doesn't seem to age visually.

There's also her relationship with Mimi. It went as one would expect, but it's good to see why she's so attached to her. Totori sometimes unintentionally offend people (although I'd say compared to others, she is a careful speaker), and Mimi has a very fragile ego due to her pride as a noble. The fallout between the two at one point let Mimi come to terms with her feelings and open up to Totori.

Other character event highlights include the ones with Ceci and Piana (and Rorona), which involve sibling rivalry-like dynamics of having their attention taken away by someone else. Ceci's big sister instinct is finally useful for something other than being overprotective.

That said, the handling of Piana is actually pretty weird. She followed Totori home after Totori left the eastern continent for the first time, and has been staying there since. Perhaps it's due to her being a late-game addition, her appearances are confined to a few events and the ending, and she doesn't appear in the illustrations. She doesn't have much of a presence and isn't seen in Atelier Meruru, despite living with Totori.

There are events I think aren't well-written, though. Gino's final character event feels a bit forced; the writer seems to want to give him a chance to shine by making him save Totori from a monster, but that's after establishing Totori as a better fighter several times. Worse if this event is viewed after Sterk (Gino's much stronger teacher) laments if his service is needed after Totori outlevels him.

I would certainly recommend following a guide for this game. The way the character events are arranged is very complicated. There's no way a normal player can gather all endings in a single playthrough without a guide; it's very easy to overshoot the requirements and miss out the endings of lower priorities.

Graphics

Taking New Rorona's rehaul in consideration, Totori Plus / DX has the oldest base game, meaning that the graphics are also the most outdated. I found it a bit weird to look at the character models at first. Character faces use low-resolution texture, but the game does zoom in on them.

Game systems

Totori Plus / DX also has the oldest game system. This contributes to several differences from the other two, the most obvious ones include the lack of trait combination, the lack of ability to chain attacks and items to the extent possible in New Rorona and Meruru, and having only one equippable accessory per character instead of two. That said, while I think I'd like to make fighting easier, having to combine item traits would take more time, and time is the one thing this game severely lacks. Simpler synthesis and battle systems are actually appreciated.

This is the only game of the three that allows raw materials and synthesized items to be duplicated with all attributes intact, thanks to the little homunculi called Chims. This means there is no worries about using raw materials with rare traits. Other games have other ways to mitigate this, but Meruru doesn't.

Totori receives the fewest changes between the original and Plus versions, and between Plus and DX. The only major addition (Orthogalaxen) only makes full completion harder for an already difficult game.

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Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland DX
メルルのアトリエ ～アーランドの錬金術士3～ DX

Background information

Original Atelier Meruru	Still has a world map, and retains certain time management-related aspects of Totori, but is much more lenient. Introduced trait combination and chaining attacks to greatly increase item power.
Atelier Meruru Plus	DLC-complete version, making Hanna, Rufus and Pamela playable. Adds Makina Domain, extra bosses both inside and outside of Makina Domain, and a lot of game rebalancing.
Atelier Meruru DX	Adds faster movement, battle animation and loading time. Ending slightly modified. The opening and closing scenes to New Rorona's events, which was patched into the Japanese version of Meruru Plus, is now included in the western version as well (in Japanese voice only). Seems to have introduced a bug in PS4 where the right stick cannot be used to scroll through trait candidates while picking materials for synthesis.

I played this game right after Totori, starting in November. I went back to reading just simple Japanese wiki guides without day-to-day instructions, and I didn't really need much guidance besides the ending requirements and guides on the tougher bosses.

Atelier Meruru was a controversial entry in several ways. The biggest criticism is the depiction of certain characters. Sterk is uncharacteristically eager to become a knight upon learning Arls is still a kingdom (although this is his dream, going out of the way to convince others to create a knight squad is out of character).

And there's Rorona. She is turned into a child, both body and mind, by Astrid's potion, and the original version's endings turned her back… to a 14-year-old state from Atelier Rorona. Fans blamed this on the new writer, as the game's staff (and Astrid in-game) stated that they don't want to see a 30-year-old Rorona. Fans (and Totori and Meruru in-game), on the other hand, do, and think the treatment of Rorona is not a proper way to end this trilogy. Eventually, Gust released a calendar (Gust Calendar 2012) depicting a grown-up, 33-year-old Rorona, and this adult Rorona was added as the highest-precedence ending in both Meruru Plus and an update to the original PS3 game.

This game also received some rating-related controversy. This game was originally given a CERO rating of A, per series tradition (so far), but it was later found that there are hot spring scenes (which I think warrant at least a C) that were unsubmitted to CERO. Gust was fined, and this game (and subsequent ones) were released with a B rating. (Aside: to me, this is the opposite of Fire Emblem Warriors, which is given a C when I think a B is more sensible.)

Overall impression

There are a lot of character events! With 12 player party characters plus Filly and Hagel, and the trigger for some of them being raising friendship level by 5-10 points (up to 80 depending on character), it's easy to keep triggering them until they end (at around the later half of the 4th year). Not only this, but this game's main missions related to the country's development have event cutscenes too.

The development missions are mostly time-consuming busywork, but even with all the item-making, I have a higher adventurer level than alchemy level even before maxing out the latter (50, versus adventurer level which can go up to 99), unlike the other games. Travelling is less time-consuming than Totori, and without the need to squeeze everything into a single playthrough (there are things unavailable in the 1st run anyway), I ended up with a lot of free time.

Although initial fan reaction wasn't good, playing this game retrospectively made this a good experience. You don't have to worry about the characters' well-being, because their future selves already said they'll be fine. This is especially true regarding Rorona in this game.

Story

Arls, a kingdom bordering Arland, is set to merge into Arland in five years as agreed by the leaders of both lands. But in order to make Arls a worthy addition and to address the criticism of the opposition, the country needs to be better developed first. To help with this, Arland has sent a group of capable people to Arls, among them the alchemist Totori. Meruru, impressed upon seeing alchemy for the first time, asked to study under Totori.

King Dessier, Meruru's father, was initially opposed to her idea of her becoming an alchemist, but he eventually agreed with a condition: she has to contribute to the country's development along the way as part of her royal duties, and her progress will be checked in three years' time, upon which she has to stop if the country does not have a population of 30000.

Story impression

First off, I can't get everything! This game restricts Gio's events and availability as a player character to the 2nd playthrough onwards, meaning that there are things I can't get the first time, including the second-best ending. I can see why did they do this (to save story details, to make the second run feel fresh and to make the first run not as intimidating), but I missed out stuff as a result.

The story is otherwise so-so. Not bad by any means, but not very impressive either, especially since I played this right after Totori. Having said that, the sheer amount of character events means there's bound to be something I like. There's Lias, whose defining feature is extreme bad luck, and there's child Rorona who's just so adorable.

And of course, even more Totori and Mimi. This game has the answer to why is Mimi so insistent on destroying all Pure Truffle she can find in Atelier Lulua. It's tasty, but it makes one tell the truth.

There's also an early-game cutscene (probably the most famous in the game) where Meruru insults her father in a verbal fight, because otankonasu is certainly how you should address a king. Granted, it's an insignificant country… (otankonasu [おたんこなす], exact etymology unknown, but the most common interpretation is "short little eggplant")

Oh, there is one thing I find weird. Although this game includes many cameos and references to characters who don't appear, Piana is completely absent in any form. She doesn't have an opening movie cameo (unlike Ceci, Marc and Lionela), and she's not mentioned in any of Totori's conversations at all. Atelier Lulua mitigated this by making her playable in battles. (Image from Atelier Lulua)

Graphics

Naturally, this is the best of the bunch graphically. New Rorona updated the character graphics to match the quality of Meruru, but Meruru's terrain graphics is relatively better. One slight complaint is that Infinite Corridor looks too dark when the Switch system is not docked.

At one point, I encountered glitchy graphics. It's probably caused by problems with the game card's contacts, and is not a fault of the game itself.

Game systems

For the most part, this game has the best-developed system, with many elements taken from Atelier Totori, including the world map, the time management mechanism, and the development requests taking after Totori's adventurer point system.

In terms of battle, Meruru has the move Potentialize, which consumes a lot of the other characters' action points and item use count, but makes the item really potent. This provides a risk-and-reward dynamic where the player needs to choose between using the action points for attacking or defending Meruru (in the Arland games, protagonists shouldn't be defeated as they can use items and are needed for healing). New Rorona does this too, but Meruru has more difficult fights that encourage smart use of both options.

One thing it doesn't have is the ability to pick an ending after meeting the criteria for more than one. This is introduced in Ayesha, so for Meruru the player still needs to sleep until the end whenever one ending is fulfilled to collect them all. The thing is, in Meruru sleeping (or advancing the calendar in any way) will make the popularity level drop, and at zero it will be a game over. So to get to the end, Meruru should rest for 20 days, fulfil requests for popularity level, and repeat. Not a fun thing to do.

By the way, the DX versions are largely unchanged from the originals besides a few specific changes. That means even the glitches are the same. In Meruru DX, the music change option menu still calls Escha & Logy the new game in development.

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Impression for all three games

I approached these games with the goal to find out the past of the Arland characters after seeing them in Nelke and Lulua. And I'm glad I did; playing these game made me appreciate Atelier Lulua more as a sequel that shows what happens after everything, especially since Meruru really isn't a very good way to end the series.

I actually did not expect the item synthesis system to turn out that way. Since Atelier Lulua had a different synthesis system than Lydie & Suelle, I thought that system was indicative of the original Arland series. Turns out it's far simpler in the older games.

Battle system is less unexpected, but that's because I saw screenshots of it before. The lack of difficulty settings (Lulua has 5 difficulties; Ryza has 7 because why not) makes getting stuck at bosses a frequent occurrence, but it also means I had to take a good look at improving the characters' equipment, whereas on the new games I just lower the difficulty whenever I face bosses.

The story is perhaps the least surprising part, since the Atelier series has a tradition of making return characters talk about their own experience, spoilers and all. It's still good to see the finer details of their original tales, and there are references in Atelier Lulua that I missed that are explained in the older games (like Mimi's issue with Pure Truffles and why Sterk is so protective of Rorona).

And some thought on Rorona herself: she has a rather child-like demeanor, which is pointed out by Totori a lot, and she was a child in Meruru. She does want to be treated as an adult, though; I wonder if this helped making her decide to adopt Lulua later on.

Also, I think 35-year-old Rorona is the best, and Rorona (35) > Rorona (8 [28]) > Rorona (14) > Rorona (22).

Nice experience overall, and if I am to rate these games relative to each other:
Lulua > Lydie & Suelle > Totori DX > Meruru DX > Nelke > Rorona DX > Ryza 1

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Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World
ネルケと伝説の錬金術士たち ～新たな大地のアトリエ～

I may as well talk about this one to complete my set of reviews.

Background information

Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists is a spinoff town management game with a lot of game mechanics from the Atelier series carried over. The goal is to fulfil various quests given to Westwald governor Nelke so that she can keep her job and see to the end of her term.

Nelke can create farmland, ateliers and shops to make a chain of primary, secondary and tertiary production to make money. For resources that cannot be farmed, workers can be sent to outside areas to collect resources. Shops can be made to sell specific items to fulfil quests, which makes more money. Unlike the main series Atelier games, individual items cannot be customised.

The main game lasts 100 turns (can be extended after that), and there are weekday and weekend parts per turn. The weekday part deals with land development, while the weekend part deals with character conversations and exploring the outskirts and doing simple battles (which feels more like a mobile game than a traditional RPG).

This is the second Atelier game I played. It's the kind of game that targets series fans, but I got it, with no knowledge of the series, just because I can see a small bunch of characters again.

Story

Noblewoman Nelke has a personal goal of seeking the legendary Granzweit Tree. Upon hearing rumours that it is located in Westwald, she offers to become its governor and develop the place. Possessing no talent in the art of alchemy, she started by trying to find alchemists, and happened to see Marie soon after. Marie is from a different world, and is trying to find a way to return; and in the upcoming weeks many other alchemists of a similar situation appeared, each warping here after their own freak accidents. Knowing this is related to the Granzweit Tree and is too specific to be a coincidence, Nelke sets to uncover the secret of the tree while developing the town in parallel to continue staying in it.

Characters

Interestingly, while the modern game's characters are from the end of their respective stories, they use their original games' design. So we have Sophie, currently satisfied to have her ultimate goal accomplished, taking the appearance of when she has just started doing alchemy.

(Full image without character names)

Various impressions

I'll just bring up a few points to highlight.

This game is obviously low budget. Voice acting is only done for the main story, character-specific events and battles (which is still a lot). Frame rate is very choppy. The game crashes often, and at one point I got the game glitched so that I could make buildings overlap.

Nevertheless, the character interaction, which I got this game for, is good. It's good to see alchemists talk to each other, and it's good to see what happens to them after the end of their own games. And for the characters from the older games (who don't appear in the online titles), this is their only chance to resurface. Even though this game isn't canon.

There are an impressive 110+ characters, if the minor characters who don't have full portraits and voice are counted, and updates and DLC packs both free and paid feature even more. Even counting just the major characters, there are more than 30. I do wish there are more, as some playable characters from the original games (like Mathias) are missing here, but 110+ characters drawn in the style of NOCO (co-illustrator (with Yuugen) of the Mysterious series) is already a highly-appreciated feat. This also means that the old PS1 characters get modernised art. Character events also end with full-screen artwork, as per series tradition.

Individual events tend to be comical. Memorable ones include one where Lita contemplated wearing bunny ears but isn't ready for it, with a slightly disappointed Sophie wanting to see it for real; and one where Ayesha discussed eating insects, which grossed Suelle and Nelke out.

Character-focused stories extrapolate from the characters' main personalities. There are some comical stories like Viorate's love of carrots motivated her to convince vegetable-hater Firis to try some, but the more serious ones that feature character exploration (Escha and Logy, and Lydie and Suelle, both surrounding their relationship with each other) or explain the states of their worlds (Shallistera, which deals with the Dusk series's water shortage problem) are helpful on shedding some light on what their worlds are like.

There are also the main story, the research events and anything added to the game in later updates. It has been a while since I played the game, so I actually don't remember a lot of the finer details. But there's enough contents to have kept me playing for several hundred hours. Or 1000+ hours, because the Switch version has a bug that makes the game count sleep mode time. (Lydie & Suelle has this bug too, and Nelke's programming is based on it.)

[Nester the Lark]

Nice 6,000th post!

For a while, I was a little interested in trying Meruru because I heard it had town-building elements, and I like town-building side quests in RPGs. But then I also heard it wasn't the best game for a newcomer to the series. (Although, opinions on what Atelier games are or aren't good for newcomers vary a lot, and most people say it really doesn't matter.)

So, now I'm considering Ayesha for a few reasons. For one thing, it's the first in its trilogy, so if I enjoyed it, I could continue on from there. Plus, it's one of the cheaper Atelier games on the NA eShop, and the Dusk trilogy games are the most recent of the "budget-priced" games. Also, I was intrigued by the subsequent games having dual protagonists (one is even a male protagonist... which seems to be a bit controversial among fans?).

I've also heard that the time limits are very lenient in the Dusk trilogy, but I haven't really taken that into account because I honestly don't think the time limits would bother me.

I'm still unsure of how much I would ultimately enjoy it, though, so I would prefer not to pay full price, but the games are rarely ever on sale. The last time they were on sale on the eShop in NA was last Spring, and even then, it was a modest discount. It's a shame the demos are Japan-only.

But nice reviews, YL! You clearly put a lot of effort into them, and I enjoyed reading them!

[nocturnal YL]

Thanks! I shall immortalise the moment my post count reached 6000!

A little explanation on town development in Meruru. Screenshots are from different missions. Yes, I have several thousands ready just in case I need them.

First, you get requests from other people: on-site town developers, Rufus, optional bosses and more.

You show the request letter to Rufus, who will explain what needs to be done. It is also possible that the requirements are already satisfied, in which case you get the rewards immediately.

You complete the mission, which can involve giving specific items, defeating enemies, using specific items in-battle, or many other things.

Immediately after fulfilling a task, you get the reward and development points.

Development points have two uses: the accumulated development points can be used to raise the kingdom's rank, and your currently held development points can be spent on building facilities with different effects.

After waiting a number of days, the building will be complete and its effect will take place. However, visually, this is only reflected in the world map. Inside the town, only a few small areas can be visited (as is standard for Atelier games prior to Ryza), and you won't see any extra building as 3D models.

While you do deal with stats like population and popularity in Meruru, it doesn't really feel much like a full-fledged town-building game in the sense that you can't customise or explore what you built.

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Whether a particular Atelier game can be recommended to newcomers depends on what are they looking for. In terms of story, it's fine to pick up a sequel without playing the previous games. I learned about the worlds of Arland and Mysterious from the last game, and I know other people who started from Lydie & Suelle too. Not a problem. If anything, playing out-of-order gave me assurance that the story wouldn't end up disappointing.

Not knowing about the past wouldn't be a concern. Atelier generally does a good job filling you in for the missing details, because the player characters need this information too. And they still leave enough things out, in case you want to try the past games yourself.

In terms of gameplay, I'd also say it's not a problem for the most part, unless your plan is to play Totori blind and expect 100% completion in the first playthrough. Be prepared to read guides for any of the games with time limits. The ones without time limits usually don't have things that can be missed out, so those can be played completely unassisted.

And don't worry about boss difficulty. Making optimal items is much more important than any conventional RPG wisdom. And mandatory bosses don't even need particularly good items.

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I haven't played the Dusk games. Not even in a "launch the game and peek at the title screen" way. Actually, I just unboxed my copies of those games to redeem Nintendo Account Gold Points (available within one year since release, which means the deadline is less than a day away).

The Dusk series would be something I try after the other modern Atelier games, since they're farther from the Atelier image I have in mind. These games lack many Atelier symbols — no Punis, Pamela and Hagel aren't in these games, and I think no Unis too. Barrels are still there, complete with Logy trying to make that cute "Barrel!" voice clip.

Prior to playing any Atelier game, I heard the least about Ayesha compared to the rest of the modern games. It feels to me that unlike Rorona and Sophie, Ayesha gets overshadowed by the other Dusk main characters.

At any rate, I don't think I'll play Ayesha so soon, since there are other games I want to play first. But don't quote me on that; I may change my mind.

I don't think a single male co-protagonist is that controversial. They once had male protagonists five games in a row with Iris and Mana-Khemia. Having dual protagonists doesn't seem to be a popular choice though, since you need to play from both perspectives.

[nocturnal YL]

Getting so excited over this. I was just scrolling through Twitter to catch up missed posts as usual, and…



Mysterious DX is coming soon! It'll release on 22 April (simultaneously worldwide this time) on PS4, Switch and Steam.

I'm really looking forward to re-buying Lydie & Suelle. I knew this would happen, I held off buying the original Sophie and Firis, and doing any second playthrough preparation in Lydie & Suelle, in anticipation of a potential deluxe version.

I hope Lydie & Suelle DX will improve upon the resolution on the Switch version. The original came out in 2017 when the system was new, but later entries saw better graphics and the PS3-based games ran at 1080p30 just fine.

[nocturnal YL]

Atelier Sophie 2 is officially announced! Coming 24 February, 2022.

This game was leaked a while ago, and I was quite worried about the game system not feeling like an entry for the Mysterious series or that the story would contradict from the original trilogy. But according to the Famitsu interview, Gust went out of the way to avoid this by having the dream theme and keeping the more advanced synthesis and battle systems.

Known info so far:
- The story takes place between Sophie and Firis. The adventure takes place in a dream world, and the events there have no timeline placement in terms of the real world. (Slight spoiler: this reminds me of how the extra painting in the DX version of Lydie & Suelle is explained.)
- Sophie and Plachta are the only returning characters. Everyone else is new.
- New characters include dream versions of Ramizel (Sophie's late grandmother), who is less experienced as an alchemist at this point, and a younger Plachta who does not recognise Sophie.
- The front-and-back-rows battle system from Lydie & Suelle and Lulua is back. It's turn-based.
- The panel-based synthesis system is back, this time with the panels in two difficulties, with the more difficult one aiming at returning players.

From the interview:
- Why Sophie? She's popular.
- Why 2? Some players want to see returning main characters. Ryza 2 was well-received in that aspect, and some people want to see the return of Rorona as a main character too.
- Why dream? Both to avoid contradiction with the original trilogy and to allow for the kind of fantasy locations similar to those seen in Lydie & Suelle.
- No grown-up Firis or the twins? Timeline placement, and also to avoid losing focus in the story, so no.
- Will there be a Ryza 3? "The summer adventure has yet to end. That's all I'll say."

[nocturnal YL]

I've finally finished the Mysterious Trilogy DX games! That means I still have Dusk DX, Ryza 2 and Sophie 2 to go. Yay.

Going through the ending parts of these games is quite a lot of work, which is the main reason why it took me so long to finish these games. Since the DX games are re-releases with all DLC, 100% collection actually seems possible, and I wanted to give it a try.

The DX versions, as usual, contain most of the DLC. Non-Gust crossover DLC (Sophie with Little Noah and Chain Chronicle / Lydie & Suelle with New Everybody's Golf) are unavailable, naturally. But unlike Arland DX and Dusk DX, this time there are actually new contents added in, perhaps because there were no Plus versions (the original PS Vita versions released along with the original, not after).

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Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX
ソフィーのアトリエ 〜不思議な本の錬金術士〜 DX

Background information

Atelier Sophie is a relatively orthodox Atelier title. While it is easy to draw comparisons with Atelier Rorona because of this, Sophie has a more personal goal than getting through a certification process, and the main story (the plot surrounding Plachta) is obviously written with sequels in mind. Both Sophie herself and Atelier Sophie were among the most popular in the series.

Sophie and Plachta are playable in Warriors All-Stars as heroes summoned by Tamaki.

Atelier Sophie DX added extra cutscenes on her quest to live up to the example of Ramizel, her late grandmother, with Ramizel's clothes. It also added a few new cauldrons to make advanced synthesis easier, although unlocking those requires beating some of the harder bosses in the fist place.

Characters

★ = party member

	Sophie Neuenmuller ★ An alchemist living in Kirchen Bell who has lost her parents and her grandmother. She sets to restore Plachta's body once she learns her origin.
	Monika Ellmenreich ★ Sophie's childhood friend. She looks after Kirchen Bell's church. She also enjoys singing, having joined the church's choir and eventually becomes a professional singer.
	Horst Basler A bartender who runs a café that serves as a bar at night. He also hosts the guild since patrons started passing requests among themselves.
	Plachta ★ The titular mysterious book who awakened with no memories when Sophie wrote notes on her. She would later get a puppet form thanks to Sophie and other townspeople. SPOILER: Click to show She is actually an excellent alchemist who sealed Luard into the artificial bodies Meklet and Atomina, and herself into the book, after the fallout between the two 500 years ago. She gradually lost memories and consciousness over time until Sophie rediscovered her.
	Marguerite Behlmer Oskar's mother. A greengrocer in Kirchen Bell who is often upset with Oskar for running away when he is supposed to be working, but she is otherwise caring.
	Oskar Behlmer ★ Sophie's childhood friend who is able to talk to plants. He is very passionate and knowledgeable about plants, to the point that he skips work to visit them.
	Pamela Ibis A nun who works in the church. She doesn't seem to age, and churchgoers remember being in her care for as long as they remember. She is concerned about having to leave to attend the mandatory lecture for all nuns.
	Elise Phulie A book store owner who Sophie looked up to due to her vast knowledge. She later wrote a children's book based on Sophie and Plachta's adventures to encourage reading.
	Tess Heitzmann A cheerful but somewhat troublemaking waitress who works in Horst's café. Her goal is for her family to open their own shop, and she succeeded as of Atelier Lydie & Suelle.
	Logix A travelling blacksmith who Sophie has known for a while. He is knowledgeable about other cultures. Looks the same as the Logy from Atelier Escha & Logy, but they're not the same person.
	Meklet / Atomina A pair of travellers shrouded in mystery. They seem to be interested in Sophie's rapid progression in learning alchemy. SPOILER: Click to show They're actually Luard, an alchemist who practiced alchemy with Plachta until his interest in Ablation Alchemy turned him power-hungry. Plachta sealed him into Meklet and Atomina, and they lost the ability to perform alchemy. Luard is the final boss of this game.
	Harol Simens ★ A clock maker who inherited the business from his father, but has lost interest as he often gets compared with his much better father. He has turned to making guns instead. Sophie restored his motivation.
	Julio Sebald Leidenschaft ★ A knight from Adalet who seeks Ramizel. Upon learning that she has passed away, he instead decided to travel with Sophie, waiting for her to become more skilled in alchemy.
	Corneria ★ An alchemist who lives in Kirchen Bell. She can copy items at the cost of temporarily losing height, although she is not tall to begin with. She is searching for her father, who she has no memory of and her mother wouldn't talk about.
	Leon ★ A travelling tailor who opens shop in Kirchen Bell. Though excellent at her hob, something seems to be bothering her, although she gets better and her fashion brand becomes a household name in later games. SPOILER: Click to show It's the fact that she feels no satisfaction at winning Adalet's tailor contest. Leon is an alias; her full name is Amelia Leonmeyer.
	Fritz Weissberg ★ A travelling puppeteer who used to do mercenary work. He is seen without his family, as his wife Grace left the family some time ago and his daughter Drossel has absolutely no sense of direction.
	Nazarus The reason Julio is looking for an alchemist. Nazarus has an infection from battling a monster, which leaves him with a mutated left arm and makes him involuntarily transform at times.

Overall impression

I started playing expecting a standard game like Rorona, and I was half-wrong. It is relatively unflavoured compared to Firis and Lydie & Suelle, and the main story does have a simple, "meet this goal to unveil the next" structure, but Sophie's goal is of a more personal nature, as she sets to settle Plachta's conflict in the past and restore her human body. With her family gone and her friends only being able to accompany her for so long, it's not hard to imagine why is Plachta so important for her.

The other part that's unusual about Sophie is the various game mechanics. During battles, moves aren't executed until everyone's moves are determined; player level only goes up to 20 with subsequent experience points going to custom character builds; advanced synthesis sometimes requires preparing the cauldron first… Even now, I don't really understand some aspects of the game well. It certainly doesn't help me in fighting the DLC bosses, which ended up making me move on to Firis before getting everything in Sophie.

And speaking of the DLC, I ended up not making optimal equipment besides armor because some of the traits are locked behind tough post-game bosses. I suppose I can make intermediate versions of the equipment to see if I can take down the bosses, but I ended up giving up.

The story is more commendable. Although the individual character plotlines can feel isolated from the main story (see note below), the events themselves are quite engaging. Seeing events of individual characters like Harol or Julio/Nazarus would leave me wanting to see how they continue.

(Note) In Lydie & Suelle and later games, the main story cutscenes know exactly which characters are in the party, and can therefore work them in. In the earlier games, it's not unusual to see only the few main characters in the cutscenes while other party members get excluded, much like the Fire Emblem games prior to Three Houses.

Story

Sophie is an alchemist who lives alone off the town centre of Kirchen Bell. One day, after she writes notes on a seemingly ordinary book, the book comes to life. The book introduces herself as Plachta, but she has no memory of what she even is. The only thing she knows is knowledge in alchemy. Sophie then goes on a quest to learn more alchemy and write more recipes on the book to restore Plachta's memory.

As Plachta regains more memory of her past a human alchemist, it has reached a point where the effectiveness of this method is diminishing. Sophie's initial goal of restoring Plachta's body has proved to be too difficult. But then, she gets the idea of using a puppet as a temporary solution, inspired by Fritz. She and her friends in the town work hard to the goal, and eventually, Plachta got a puppet body and regained more memory.

Plachta remembers the circumstance of her becoming a book, and just at the same time, someone from her past has started to threaten the world.

Story impression

With the exception of Tess (and… some parts of Plachta), the whole story has a serious tone. The overall story seems like it's trying to both work as a standalone story and set up the story background for subsequent entries. Most of Sophie's attempts to help other people have satisfactory endings, except that it's still a long way before Plachta can get a human body, and both Fritz and Corneria have yet to meet their families. It's like the scenario writers know exactly what the story of the next two games will be.

Sophie herself has a rather straightforward personality. She has her quirks, like her interest in alcohol and fear of ghosts, but she's otherwise a normal good person who likes to help others. She also has a slightly weird naming sense, giving verbose operation names and naming snacks after herself, but that's pretty mild compared to some of the other alchemists.

The new events added to the original's DLC (which sees Sophie preparing for her journey) and the DX version (which shows more of her interaction with Monika and Corneria) fit the overall story well. It explains why doesn't Corneria seem to be aware of the existence Corneria doll in Firis when she and Sophie meet again, and why doesn't Monkia travel with Sophie despite them being close friends.

If I have to pick, my favourite parts of the story are the shocking reveal of Nazarus's arm (after playing the Arland games, I already know that the monsters are no joke story-wise, but Nazarus is a more explicit showcase of what they can do), Sophie showing Leon how her tailored outfits are appreciated by using the same method to gift her custom-made accessories, and Sophie insisting on convincing the final boss to change his ways rather than outright killing him.

Oh, and there's this minor character, a boy who takes part in single-person hide-and-seek.

Graphics

It should be rather obvious, but Sophie uses a different version of rendering engine than Firis and Lydie & Suelle. The 3D model outlines are thicker here, and the aliased parts are more pronounced. And as is the case with Switch games in general, the resolution drop in handheld mode is very visible. Not that it matters; graphics aren't the selling point here.

In the earlier versions of the game, Sophie's atelier has a set of boxes that clip inside a barrel. Astonishingly, it actually got corrected in the 1.03 update.

Synthesis

The synthesis system takes a bit to get used to, but it's actually quite fun. In the Mysterious series, there's this system called panel synthesis, where the player has to put various shapes on a grid in specific ways to get higher-level effects.

First, select the materials as usual.

Then, pick the cauldron to use. Each cauldron has different effects, which may be changed by re-synthesising the cauldron itself.

Put the materials into the cauldron. In Atelier Sophie, putting in materials will light up adjacent cells (up to 3 levels), and covering lit-up cells will raise the effect bars further. Matching colour with the cells and the percentage shown on top (which is the portion of cells already covered) will raise the bars even further. Putting materials on already-covered cells will remove the whole of the old material, not just on the specific cells.

After everything is done, select traits to inherit. Unlike Arland, there are no trait points to worry about.

I do find it satisfying to be able to get high-level effects with clever manipulation, although it's difficult to plan ahead due to the sheer number of factors at play.

Battle

The battle system of Sophie has a different approach from all other modern Atelier games, being the turn system. Rather than getting to pick action whenever the character's individual turn comes, the enemy and player have to pick their action first and have their attack order determined, after which the turn will start and their moves will play out.

Each turn will see everyone on the battlefield act once before the end of the turn, provided that they're not in the Break state. This prevents a common advanced tactic in the series, where the enemy's timeline placement gets continuously delayed so that they can never attack at all.

Depending on the player characters' timeline placement and their stances (offensive or defensive), they may launch coordinated moves, the most advanced being Special Attack or Special Guard, which starts when the Chain Link gauge is at 300% and 3 party members have the same stance. Manipulating the timing of these attacks can turn the tide of the battles.

To be honest, I like the battle systems of the other games better. I'm also not very good at it, and it took me several tries to win against a post-game story boss.

The normal battle BGM, Spring Wind Skylark, is a popular pick among fans. I'd also pick Cliffhanger, the battle BGM when the player is slightly outranked, and Liela Xea, the final boss theme. (Full playlist here)

Other game mechanics

Atelier Sophie has a world map in a similar style as Totori. It also has an LP system, which fortunately doesn't have much gameplay impact. Since there is no time limit for the main story and Sophie's bag gets full easily, Sophie can just walk (or teleport) home to replenish LP (and HP and MP) every time after fulfilling quests or gathering materials.

Getting new recipes is simple. The hints for unlocking new recipes is readily available in the menu, and it usually involves making other items, visiting specific locations or finding certain materials. Some of these hints can be cryptic though, and I ended up not getting everything due to the sheer difficulty in the post-game.

There are quite a few other things unique to this game: gathering information from Horst, exchanging items from Tess, giving presents to other townspeople, and the fan favourite, Doll Making.

Doll Making is a dress-up feature for Plachta. Depending on the materials used, Plachta can change appearance and gain stats. She's already the most potent party member to begin with, and this can make her even better. Also, this is the song that plays during Doll Making.

One feature new to the DX version is the Photo Mode feature that has been present in evey Gust game since Ryza 1. It is triggered by the L stick button (L3 button), and unlike the other games, there is additional loading time when entering and exiting Photo Mode. I often trigger it accidentally and waste time when I panic from trying to escape from enemies.

The menu has a nice touch where Plachta would make comments like hints and general words of encouragement. This continues even after she joins the party, so it's possible to see her twice on this screen.

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Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey DX
フィリスのアトリエ 〜不思議な旅の錬金術士〜 DX

Background information

Atelier Firis is a big departure from Atelier Sophie, being a much less "safe" game. It introduced huge areas with maps that have to be completed by the player, item collection missions, multiple towns, multiple weapon types per party member and twice as many named, non-enemy characters. A downside with all these big changes is that it's also the buggiest Atelier game I've seen (and this is the DX version!), beating the record set by Nelke. It does have better resolution and frame rate than Nelke though.

This game does have its fans, but all those issues have led to a common impression of it being a good, but least impressive entry of the trilogy.

It shows in the later updates too. Bugs remain unfixed, encyclopedia entries in the second DLC (Shanon) miss descriptions, and the DX version left a lot of these rather obvious defects intact.

The DX version adds new vehicles (which are rather useless since they consume item durability as fuel), a new Puni drone that makes completing the maps much easier, and a bunch of post-game bosses summoned by someone Palmyra knows (probably Termina), making her weakened. The new cutscenes in Firis DX have no voice acting, unlike those in Sophie DX and Lydie & Suelle DX. The new items do have encyclopedia entries, which makes it even weirder that they don't fix the ones from the second DLC.

Characters

★ = party member

	Bernd Lederer Ertona's elder. He's concerned about the town's decreasing mineral output, and relied on Firis's ability to find ores. He has a rather mischievous side for a town elder. He's the only major NPC who cannot be added in Photo Mode.
	Firis Mistlud ★ A resident of Ertona with the special ability to listen to ores who dreams of leaving the town, which is locked due to security concerns. She eventually gets permission to leave and pass the given conditions in flying colours.
	Liane Mistlud ★ Firis's sister who travels with her as her supervisor and guardian. Hunter. Absolutely loves Firis and is very protective of her. SPOILER: Click to show They are not biological sisters; Liane's birthplace was destroyed by a monster, and her mother Aria died after taking her to Ertona.
	Lukas Mistlud Firis's father. Although secretly supportive of Firis's desire to leave, he wouldn't say this in front of Nicola. Misses the sisters when they are gone.
	Nicola Mistlud Firis's mother. Got into a fight with Firis over her desire to leave, but allowed it upon Liane and Bernt's persuasion. She actually cares about Firis a lot and made her food and clothes in secret even as Firis revolted.
	Sophie Neuenmuller ★ A travelling alchemist on her way to get recommendation letters for the license exam in Reisenberg. She taught Firis the basics in alchemy, but left so that Firis can come up with recipes on her own. She eventually joins Firis again.
	Plachta ★ Sophie's teacher and friend. Sophie's long quest to give her a human body continues. She would sometimes give Firis advice in secret, as Sophie would not want her to steal her student.
	Revy Berger ★ An adventurer who seeks powerful artefacts. He has a pretty serious case of chuunibyou and can appear intimidating. He is also good at housework and cooking.
	Heintz Freihorn ★ An adventurer on a quest to tame powerful monsters. He is from a tribe that keeps monsters as pets, but while others would only keep small monsters, he wants to stay true to his tribe's tradition and get powerful ones.
	Tiana Paschen A carefree merchant who is travelling to see what can her career options be. She was a bit inexperienced, at least at first, when she couldn't even set prices properly.
	Dion Maier The officially certified alchemist of Mechen. He just got his license after many failed attempts, and assures Firis that determination will be rewarded. He himself is prone to failures due to his anxiety.
	Ilmeria Von Leinweber ★ An alchemist on the way to get a license, who ran into Firis several times. After receiving help from Firis on several occasions, they became close friends. Something of a tsundere, a bit like what Mimi is to Totori.
	Annelies Exner The head librarian of the Observation Institute. She is very knowledgeable. The Observation Institute records the adventurers' travels, which serves as an optional collection quest in the game.
	Drossel Weissberg ★ A travelling novel and script writer with absolutely no sense of direction. Fritz's daughter. Like Fritz, she is obsessed with puppets, much to Plachta's trouble.
	Aurelie Bluch The officially certified alchemist of Dona. She is the village elder and gives off an impression of being a difficult person. She gives Firis the lesson that alchemists often get bombarded with mundane requests and she shouldn't mind those.
	Oskar Behlmer ★ A plant enthusiast who can listen to them. He has got much slimmer since Atelier Sophie, and he explains that his both gets fat and gets thin easily. He is later seen with a plant named Chelsea.
	Kald Lau ★ A historian whose goal is to record other peoples' history. However, the history of his own lineage, the Symbol People, is unrecorded. Firis, Plachta and others would help him uncover this history. SPOILER: Click to show The Symbol People started with Alt, the student of Plachta and Luard, as his curiosity led him to start writing down everything he saw.
	Logix A travelling blacksmith who has opened shop in Flussheim. Like others in the town, he would assist Firis in her quest to make and enhance an alchemy-powered ship.
	Kai Holthaus A sailor in Flussheim who works hard to keep the town attractive and competitive. He tried to keep the monster issue that prevented ships from sailing a secret, causing many travellers to get stuck. Married as of Atelier Lydie & Suelle.
	Angriff Dahlmann ★ A mercenary who seems to be obsessed over money, and gets involved in various get-rich-quick schemes. His goal is to build a school to give children the education he never had, which he still runs as of Atelier Lydie & Suelle.
	Luis Bester A troubadour who is forced to also work as a merchant because singing doesn't make much money. She loves singing and hates to be seen as a merchant first. She is seen teaching Tiana singing later.
	Mea Holthaus Kai's sister, and the one who saw through his attempt to hide the monster problem in the town. Very cheerful, and loves fishing to the point of often leaving her post as a shopkeeper to go fishing.
	Ren Breitner The officially certified alchemist of Flussheim. She is a serious person who often unintentionally startles people. She offered help for Firis in several occasions and taught her that alchemy should be done with a goal in mind.
	Escha Mea's friend who is later seen being fascinated with Logy's shop. She would later learn alchemy from Firis and use it to help Logy. Loves sweet food, just like the other Escha from a different game.
	Shanon Atkins ★ A knight-in-training who is very timid and has trouble talking to people. She has great physical strength, but her fear of interaction is preventing her from becoming a full knight.
	Meklet / Atomina Travellers from Sophie's past, who can use basic alchemy thanks to her help. They enlist the help of Firis to investigate the fate of an apprentice and friend from the past.
	Norbert Classen The officially certified alchemist of Grau Tal. He is the embodiment of laziness, although he does work when he really is needed. SPOILER: Click to show He is Liane's biological father and was separated from his wife in the monster attack. This is why he cannot bring himself to work.
	Fritz Weissberg Travelling puppeteer who has arrived at Weisslark, the headquarters of the Observation Institute. He is reunited with Drossel and is revealed to be a friend of Angriff's back in his mercenary days.
	Kirsche Litter The officially certified alchemist of Flocke. She is the youngest to pass the licensing test, and the test she gave Firis was deemed too difficult at first. She taught Firis to break difficult problems into smaller, manageable ones.
	Henrikka Asmus The hot spring manager in Flocke. She usually looks like she is half-asleep, but gets very passionate once the topic of hot spring is brought up. She used to be a singer, but has no plans to return to the stage.
	Nanna Tremmel A shop owner in Reisenberg and a friend of Edel's. She will do everything she can to make people pay her, and Firis is easily baited. This makes Liane very defensive against her.
	Pamela Ibis A nun who has finished compulsory study, but is stuck because she spent all her money on buying souvenirs. She now runs a shop to get enough fund to travel back, while still listens to confessions when people approach her.
	Edel Hangstein The mayor of Reisenberg who took the post after her father retired. She is also the examiner of the official alchemist exam and is an excellent alchemist herself. Though a good mayor, sometimes she has weird ideas on improving the town.
	Julio Sebald Leidenschaft The vice captain of the knights of Adalet. He is Shanon's commander, and approaches Firis to help with her fear of talking to others. He is promoted to captain in Atelier Lydie & Suelle while Shanon becomes vice captain.
	Palmyra A playful, powerful girl who is later revealed to be the creation goddess. She asks Firis to play (battle) with her. In the DX version, she gets unwell at the end when someone she knows summoned powerful monsters throughout the region.

Overall impression

The first thing I noticed was that this game is closer to Lydie & Suelle than Sophie, in terms of graphics style, sound effects and the basic game program. This got me excited.

The second thing I noticed is that Gust was probably trying to replicate Atelier Totori in some ways. Overprotective sister? Check. Travelling and adventure as a theme? Check. Tsundere noble best friend who once got frustrated because they fail to outperform their friends? Check. Long, tedious boat-making sequence at the middle of the main story? Super check. The last one applied to Esha & Logy too, which is also a second game. Also, while Totori has an extremely tight time limit, Firis is the only Mysterious game to require any kind of time management at all (it's not difficult, but you can still lose if you're completely clueless), so both have the strictest time limits in their respective series.

Atelier Firis has a refreshing feel to me, since quite a lot of mechanics are changed, mostly due to the travel theme. Instead of a time limit, a chapter count or the amount of main missions done, the approximate main progress is reflected by Firis's physical location. She's in Mechen? Probably early game. Flocke? Late game. There are also other differences, like how it's much harder to know what is needed to unlock recipes (online guides don't have the full answer to this), how there is no way to copy anything at all, maps not being made available from the start and have to be completed, and how some weapons are exclusive to enemy drops and cannot be made (another obstacle to 100% completion). I like how it gives a feeling that the player really is going on a long journey, but it also feels very not-Atelier in some ways. This series is known for not requiring grinding, and Firis sticks out as an exception.

There are both a lot of good things and bad things to say about this game, but I would say I generally really like it. The sheer amount of characters and events contribute well to the journey theme, and since it uses the same program base as Atelier Lydie & Suelle, half of the UI is done well. The other half consists of bugs and oversights, which is entertaining in its own way.

Oh yeah, bugs. This game is prone to crashing, and there's a small chance that an application error will occur whenever the player attempts to save or leave the tent. There are also other problems, like how the Corneria doll occupies a storage item slot internally even when it is moved to a furniture slot, anything from the original game's 2nd DLC wouldn't register properly on the encyclopedia (even though the DX additions are handled properly), a character event that moves Firis to (0, 0), and even the ending can crash the game. Also, when Firis takes more items than supported by the storage, the UI asks for the number of new items to be discarded rather than the excess number (for example, if Firis has 3480 items in storage and she picks 25 more, she has to discard 25 items rather than 5).

The biggest thing this game has accomplished is that it made me like Firis more. She has grown pretty tall in Lydie & Suelle, and it's easy to see her mostly as a cool senior alchemist who has already reached self-actualisation. Atelier Firis shows a more child-like, adorable side of her, and it also gives her more backstory that's hard to imagine by just playing the sequel. I like her adult design better, though.

Story

Firis lives in a mineral town, Ertona. For both the reasons of theft prevention and safety, there is a large gate at its entrance, and no one is allowed to get out or get in. Firis has always wanted to go outside, but she is not allowed to, nor can she convince her parents and village elder to let her go.

Until one day, Sophie broke into the town to look for officially certified alchemists so that she can take the exam to become one herself. Firis, having witnessed the power of alchemy, asks to learn alchemy from Sophie and use this power to protect herself so that she can go outside. She fights hard for her parents' approval, and is eventually allowed to go out with a catch: she has to become officially certified herself in one year, otherwise she has to return home. And so, Firis starts her journey to Reisenberg to attend the exam.

Story impression

In Atelier Firis, everything is branched out, with only the story in the three main towns (plus any three of the challenges from the officially certified alchemists) required for getting the certificate. Of the main parts of the story, I like the Reisenberg part the best. Maybe it's because I used to like the thrill and challenge of exams.

There are many characters and character events, and the party members also have their own conversations. So like Atelier Meruru, there's bound to be something I like. My favourite subplot is the exploration of Liane's past and her own motivation to go outside as a hunter. Like some of Firis's own backstory, this is something that has to be seen here; Atelier Lydie & Suelle and the spinoff games don't talk much about their past.

And while this is not about the story itself, the old party member system is back, where only current party members gain experience and friendship points. This makes advancing character events for characters I don't use often pretty slow. In my case, this happened to Kald and Angriff, and Kald is especially difficult since he doesn't have many other events to raise his friendship points.

Overall, I'd say the story isn't particularly impressive, although it has its high points. It's the overall atmosphere of Firis going for a journey and meeting people itself that I like, rather than any particular part of the story.

Graphics

The landscape models are large, and perhaps this is why they don't look very detailed. The camera inside Firis's tent is also weird, possibly due to the furniture being customisable. It's easy for the camera to clip through them.

This game features quite a lot of alternate costumes for the female party members (besides Plachta). Unlike other games in the series, I actually do use them over the original outfits.

Synthesis

Synthesis in each Mysterious game works differently. In Atelier Firis, materials do not contribute to just a particular row; rather, they fill up a bar at the top, and whenever it is filled up, the effect levels (seen below the bar) goes up by 1.5 if the colour matches or 0.5 if it doesn't. How much does the bar go up depends on the alchemy content of the applied material and the bonus counter (seen above the grid).

As the materials are picked, the potential effects attainable can be previewed.

Pick a catalyst to use. The catalyst used decides the lines shown in the grid, which can be filled for various bonuses. The quality and traits of the catalyst does not affect anything, so it's advisable to use something undesirable as material here.

Then fill in the materials and start the synthesis. Most of the difficulty comes from preparing the right materials (especially the size, or the number of cells they take up, adjustable via traits and line bonuses); once that is taken care of, the final puzzle isn't difficult.

Battle

Battle is a bit like in Atelier Sophie, minus the turn system. When the combination gauge is filled, the player party can link their attacks together as long as they are not interrupted by enemy turns. Do enough attacks before the gauge is depleted, and the player can launch even more powerful attacks.

The powerful attacks don't break the linkage. It can continue as long as the gauge isn't depleted.

Other game mechanics

One thing I find rather annoying is the LP system. Walking takes LP, and once Firis runs out, she is first given a warning to immediately go back to her tent, and if she does not go back on time, she will be treated as if she fell in battle, losing time and some of the acquired materials. Some maps do not allow quick warps, so it is entirely possible to be stuck in an enemy-filled area and be forced to lose this way. It actually happened to me once.

Like some of the older games, going back to tent does not immediately refill HP and MP. Fortunately in this case, item synthesis counts as passing time in the tent, and HP, MP and LP can be replenished this way. I still prefer having the home base replenish everything.

Getting new recipes is easily the single worst part about this game, even worse than the program crashes. To come up with new recipes, Firis has to fulfil some requirements, except that said requirements are never explicitly stated in the game. After the requirements are partially fulfilled, they may appear in the recipe notes, noting that what has Firis done so far, still without any explicit goal sated. At this point Firis can at least spend idea points (obtained from quests) to immediately unlock the item, but not all items can be unlocked this way. And the hidden requirements are often hideous, like defeating a certain type of enemy 50 times or making the same item 15 times. This is the worst way to unlock recipes across the whole series.

Similarly, getting the needed traits and high-quality raw materials is so time-consuming that I ended up not making optimal equipment, although it's better than Sophie's case of having rare traits locked behind difficult DLC bosses.

Not all quirks in Atelier Firis is bad, though. It records enemies in the encyclopedia after they're faced, regardless of whether they're defeated or not. This only affects the encyclopedia though; to have it count in the Observation Institute, they have to be defeated.

Firis's goal is to get the certification, which means the task before the basic ending is a final exam. The exam is split into several parts: a written test, a practical test where candidates make the best item they can, and another practical test where they try to inflict as much damage to a Puni as they can. After the test is done, the candidates who have passed would have to battle to determine their ranking in the exam. The written test and the first practical test have time limits, making it really feel like an exam. It's one of my favourite parts of this game.

And here is some little trivia: at the loading screen, hold the L (L1) button and repeatedly tap the B (×) button to extend the Puni. This can also be done in Atelier Lydie & Suelle, which makes the alchemist stir faster and items will pop out.

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Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings DX
リディー&スールのアトリエ 〜不思議な絵画の錬金術士〜 DX

Background information

Atelier Lydie & Suelle is a game that people were initially sceptical about, since at that point the series has been following a pattern: an easy and relatively simple first game that lays the groundwork for the background settings, an adventurous second game that greatly expands upon it, and a third game that doesn't quite end the story satasfactorily. Meruru is a comical take on the world of Arland that doesn't feel like (and isn't) a grand ending, and Shallie leaves too many plot threads open. So people had their reservations.

…Until the game actually came out. Early adopters played it, loved the story, and words of mouth of this game being an Atelier title that finally handles story right spread. It ended up being one of the most well-loved games in the series in the eyes of series veterans. The biggest feature of the story is that it continued and concluded many of the subplots, even if it means a lot of the cutscenes exclude Lydie and Suelle entirely to focus on the old characters. Characters with unfulfilled goals will actually achieve what they try to do. And it's not just the old characters; Lydie and Suelle themselves are met with a perfect end too.

In terms of game mechanics the new synthesis system, the front and rear row formation, and the new traits that can make the items and equipment really potent all add to the game being a fun experience at top level play, all without compromising casual play. Getting rare traits is easier (compared to Firis; both with and without DLC) too; as is copying items (which is expensive, but money can be replenished in Starlight Plain [late game / non-DLC], or Claudel Prairie [endgame / DLC]).

The DX version came less than 4 years after the original and target the same systems (minus PS Vita), and the added content is a painting world based on Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists, which focuses on the story and has little gameplay impact. It is quite a treat to see the return of Nelke as a fan though, and it finally gives players a chance to actually walk in Westwald, rather than just seeing the town as 3D models.

Characters

★ = party member

	Lydie Malen ★ A young alchemist who wants to run the country's best atelier with her family to fulfil their promise with their deceased mother, Honnete. Suelle's twin sister. A studious idealist who tries to be good, but sometimes takes part in Suelle's antics.
	Suelle Malen ★ Lydie's twin sister. Relies on intuition, dislikes reading, mischievous, doesn't care about minor details, but good at advertising herself and not being shy. Good at messing with tsundere characters. Likes manga and wields dual guns. Not to be confused with Sue, Sue, Sue, Sue or Sue.
	Roger Malen The twins' father. An excellent painter, but is bad with alchemy, being only able to come out with weird, impractical ideas. SPOILER: Click to show He is originally an officially certified alchemist, but the loss of his wife turned him into this.
	Grace Weissberg The head nun of Vegne Church, the largest church of Adalet. She often organises church gatherings for children. SPOILER: Click to show She was originally a puppeteer and is Fritz's missing wife, who left when he and Drossel got too passionate about puppets.
	Hagel The resident blacksmith of Merveille who makes all kinds of metal products. Likes singing and has all kinds of weird ideas. Gets oversensitive over any mention of his bald head.
	Lucia Borthayre ★ The twins' friend and rival who runs the prestigious Atelier Borthayre. Though she competes with the twins, she is also very protective of them. SPOILER: Click to show She is actually their cousin; Roger changed surname after breaking off from the family.
	Mireille Ferrier Adalet Adalet's princess who works in the castle to handle all kinds of general enquiries from the residents. She is the person responsible for the atelier rank system. She make all kinds of bad puns, which the twins react coldly to.
	Ilmeria Von Leinweber ★ An alchemist who is invited to Merveille to promote alchemy, a profession Adalet underappreciated in the past. Lydie and Sue's alchemy teacher. Got more mature personality-wise since Atelier Firis.
	Pamela Ibis A nun from Kirchen Bell who was about to go home, but took the wrong wagon and came back to Merveille instead. It has been 8 years since she left Kirchen Bell, and the children she was supposed to look after are now all grown up. Poor sister…
	Liane Mistlud A hunter who has set up shop in Merveille to collect fund for Firis's atelier. She has got even more passionate about Firis, much to the latter's annoyance. She is appreciative of the twins for befriending Firis.
	Corneria The president of a trading company. Corneria offers item duplication and item replenishment services, and her search for her father continues. SPOILER: Click to show Drossel found him. He overworked and shrunk, and her mother treated him as missing and moved to Kirchen Bell.
	Mathias Ferrier Adalet ★ Adalet's prince who works as a knight, trained by Julio and Shanon. As he is often off-duty and often hits on women, the twins make fun of him for being unemployed. He actually has good qualities to be the next king, which will surface later.
	Fritz Weissberg A puppeteer who came to Merveille to continue the quest to finish the ultimate puppet show and to reconcile with his estranged wife. SPOILER: Click to show The show is about the adventures of the alchemists themselves.
	Drossel Weissberg A novel and script writer whose works are adored by readers like Lydie and Lucia. She still has no sense of direction, as she met Fritz and the twins by coming out of Fritz's newly-rented house. How did she get in in the first place…?
	Firis Mistlud ★ An excited traveller who successfully pursuaded Lydie and Sue to travel with her group, firing deadly arrows that take down even the mightiest monsters along the way. Nothing can get in the way of her trips.
	Alt ★ A mysterious alchemist who speaks in a blunt manner. SPOILER: Click to show He is Meklet and Atomina recombined and therefore Luard with a new name. He has a lot of serious moments (especially regarding his past mistakes), but also a lot of not-serious ones.
	Fuoco An inhabitant of the painting world, The Great Cascades of Anfel. She is first seen evacuating from a fire dragon attack. At the end of the game, it turns out the dragon was attached to her, and she kept it as a pet.
	Sophie Neuenmuller ★ A master alchemist who saved Merveille's defence force of alchemists when they were about to be attacked by Falgior. She reunited with Firis and stayed with her for the remainder of the game.
	Plachta Sophie's teacher and friend, and an alchemist from 500 years ago. Sophie's quest to give her a human body finally comes to an end, and she realised that Sophie has surpassed her as an alchemist.
	Neige Chintreuil The creator of the first mysterious painting. She abhorred the adult world as she saw it as being full of betrayal, and after her death, her soul ended in her painting where she manifested as a child. She acts cold at first.
	Captain Backen An undead pirate leader with a cheerful personality who lives in the painting world Treasury At The Sea Below. He gives his visitors tasks in exchange of his treasures.
	Honnete Malen Lydie and Sue's mother, who passed away a few years prior to the story. SPOILER: Click to show Like Neige, as a deceased person who has visited painting worlds, her soul went to the painting, The Heavenly Flower Garden.
	Termina The goddess of destruction who resides in the painting world Domain of Despair to stay away from humans, fearing that her own power would destroy them. She gets an aloof personality as a result.
	Palmyra The goddess of creation who can be found in Dawn Realm. She is glad to see Firis again, offers to play (battle) with them and asks the twins to befriend Termina, who is lonely due to her destructive nature which she didn't ask for.
	Nelke Von Lestamm A noble in charge of the development of Westwald. She seems to know the twins even though they haven't met her before. SPOILER: Click to show It is revealed at the end that the painting version of Westwald is a recreation of the real one. Its implication for Nelke herself isn't stated.

Overall impression

One of my favourite games got even better with the addition of DLC and Nelke's painting world. The DLC introduced new items, most importantly the Spike Boots that increase running speed, which is absurdly low in the base game and is one of its few faults. The DLC also introduced new locations with better materials to pick, and painting worlds based on BLUE REFLECTION (complete with its very catchy tunes) and Night of Azure 2.

The Switch version of the base game ran at a glorious resolution of 540p (docked) with lighting that makes it look a bit drab compared to PS4, but the DX version and the 1.07 update for the base game released on the same day changed the resolution to a much more pleasing 900p (still doesn't beat Arland DX and Lulua's 1080p, but still a big improvement), and the lighting is closer to that of PS4. There's no saving the even more hopeless PS Vita version though…

Because of the inclusion of DLC, collecting all traits and making optimal items and equipment is now a much easier task to do. This makes this game the only one that I actually tried to complete everything. And taking down powerful enemies like they're nothing really does feel great.

And since the original game is my first Atelier game, playing this again with more knowledge on the series and the game mechanics right after I went through the story of Sophie and Firis allowed me to refresh my memory of Lydie & Suelle's story while giving me the context in the cutscenes that refer to the older games, as well as bringing me to attention said references in less obvious ways, like the NPC dialogs and item descriptions. I wouldn't have thought a random mention of a brand name would actually trace back to the professional artisans who travelled with Sophie long ago! In many ways, the circumstances surrounding my playthrough makes it an enhanced retelling of the story.

I kind of wish this game could read my Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists save file and arrange the town in the Westwald painting world accordingly. This would require much more effort to achieve, though.

Story

Lydie and Suelle are a pair of twins whose wish is to fulfil their promise to their late mother: to run the country's best atelier. But the reality they face is harsh: their father has lost all motivation to do alchemy, so they have to learn it themselves, and without anyone to guide them, they have reached the limit of how far self-study can help them.

One day, after getting tired from gathering materials and looking for requests, they went home and Lydie heard voices from a painting in their father's room. They went to the painting, and found themselves inside the painting world. They thought they were dreaming, but they found that they returned with materials found in it. Although they thought this would help them with their job, their father forbade them from getting near the painting.

Not long after, they received a notice from the kingdom: they are starting an atelier rank system, where participants will be given a rank based on their ability, regardless of their wealth or social standing. This would be their chance to rise, the twins thought. They applied for the ranking system, but they couldn't pass the initial test. And just as they were heading home, they found the very person they needed: Ilmeria, a self-proclaimed master alchemist. They asked her to become their teacher.

With Ilmeria's advice, the twins managed to pass the initial test and join the atelier rank system. As a reward of sorts, the twins are asked to explore a newly rediscovered type of painting: mysterious paintings. The twins then continue to work their way to the highest rank, alternating between fulfilling rank requirements and exploring mysterious paintings.

Story impression

Well, what more can I say? The plot lines close properly and satisfactorily, the story is a good mix between a touching tale and a slice-of-life comedy, and seeing the twins help resolving other people's and their own issues is highly satisfying.

The DLC maps don't add any story. The crossover painting worlds don't have any story at all, and Claudel Prairie has a few events of Firis introducing the place to the twins and reminiscing her past adventure with Ilmeria.

The DX part, however, does have 3 cutscenes of the twins collecting the painting fragments and a few more after they enter it and Nelke enlists their help. I was a bit worried about this addition at first, since there is no way this version of Nelke and Westwald can fit in the story, with the biggest issue being that in Nelke, Westwald is not a painting world. This does get explained at the end, and while I am not fully satisfied, I do accept it as not being a blot that ruins the otherwise-excellent overall story.

Graphics (linked images in this section are 1080p PNG files)

It runs at 900p, 30 fps, with pretty good lighting. The same applies to the Switch versions of the other Mysterious DX games. As the maps are smaller than those in Firis (except Claudel Prairie, of course), they can have more details without compromising the performance. The vast improvement in the Switch version over the pre-1.07 base game really shows that the staff working on rendering have gotten used to the system now.

Comparison: original 1.06, original 1.07, DX 1.03

I don't know if it's the fault of my capture device or the game itself, but taking a group picture of 8 all with glowing weapons in a painting world still isn't a good idea…

Synthesis

Synthesis is different from Sophie and Firis in several aspects: each item can now act as multiple alchemy ingredients, overlapping ingredients will not lead to the earlier occupant's complete removal, and effects are now dependent on the number of cells that match their colours and which bonus marks on the grid are occupied.

Like in Firis, the process starts with the selection of the catalyst.

Pick the items. In general, advanced items and equipment are reliant on synthesised items rather than raw materials, so it is much easier to attain high quality.

Start putting in the ingredients. Each item can carry multiple ingredients. Put them over bonus marks for bonuses like extra copies of the item and increased effect level cap.

Use an enhancing agent if needed. These can change the colours of the grid or the ingredients, change the grid's bonus marks, or even make spent items reusable.

Add the remaining ingredients. In most cases, the enhancing agent should apply in the middle of the application of ingredients rather than at the end.

Pick the traits to inherit. In this example we have made 3 Magic Stone Chains, which raises the gain rate of the combination gauge, increases support skill damage, adds up to 180 attack, defence and speed (if all front attackers use copies of the same accessory), and raises stats even more against high-level post-game enemies.

Battle

The battle system has changed vastly, to the point that it shares more with Atelier Lulua than the last two games. For instance, the only kind of chaining is done between the front and rear attackers of the same line, and their signature attacks, Combination Arts, are now manually initiated at any time after their combination gauge is full.

Firis deserves special mention. Her support skills are all elemental arrows triggered by the front row attacker dealing attacks in the matching element, with some also requiring the attack to target a single enemy. So an Omega Craft (or even an Uni Bag) with the traits Twin Powers and Twin Powers: Pair, which targets a single enemy and has all elements (plus the item's own physical attack), can trigger all of Firis's follow-up attacks.

I also find Sue quite useful, especially before I finished making all optimal equipment. Sue is the fastest character in the whole series, meaning that she can get a lot of turns in battle, especially with the right accessories attached. She also has an active skill Fatal Snipe, which has a small chance to instantly kill an enemy. Said chance scales with level, so a high level Sue can go back to the main story paintings and take down enemies in Starlight Plain for easy grinding if the player is not yet ready for the DLC locations. She feels more like a non-alchemist in battle.

Oh, there's one thing I don't like about the battles. The Combination Arts animations cannot be skipped, and are unaffected by the DX version's new fast-forward function, possibly because it will cause the sound effects to desynchronise. Not that it's a problem for me now; since most enemies fall before I can even use Combination Arts.

Other game mechanics

I'll start with the few things I don't like about this game: map movement is slow even with Spike Boots on, and there is still no way to delete save files as they can only be created and overwritten. I don't know if this is an oversight coming from PS4's ability to delete individual save files at the system level.

There are few bugs and oversights this time. Everything that is patched in the original game stays that way, and the game has never crashed in my playthrough. There is only one glitch that I can find, being the one that keeps the raised quality if quality traits are picked to be inherited and the menu is closed, leading to easy 999 quality. This worked in Sophie too, but due to changes in weapon crafting in Lydie & Suelle, this only applies to armours. Armours crafted this way used to crash the system, but the crash was patched while the quirk remained. The only other issue is an oversight, where the NPC who sells shop licenses is reused in Nelke's painting world, so talking to her (who is supposed to be a generic NPC here) triggers a cutscene and inexplicably brings the twins back to the castle.

Getting recipes is much easier this time, as the requirements are now easier than even the ones in Sophie. In a 180° reversal from what Firis did, requirements are explicitly stated, and the tasks are much less repetitive.

Collecting traits is much easier this time, especially with DLC. The DLC quests related to Claudel Prairie give items with rare traits, and after defeating the boss in the BLUE REFLECTION painting (and before leaving it), there are 3 rare item collection points that gives top-level rare traits, and they respawn if the player re-enter the area.

Weapons work a bit differently in this game. The weapon itself does not have any effects and traits; rather, core and sub-parts have to be made to add those to the weapon. This may appear weird at first, but this split means the player can concentrate on quality and weapon stats and not worry about traits when preparing weapon materials.

Character events are much improved compared to the previous games. Event markers are back after being absent in Sophie and Firis, and it's much easier to gain friendship points and trigger events. One downside is that recurring events (such as battles with Sophie/Firis, Palmyra and Termina) have event markers too, so it's not obvious if any place (especially Firis's tent) have non-recurring events required for the endings.

One thing I noticed while making this review is that Firis keeps disappearing in Photo Mode. I think this is done to prevent any possibility to peek into her skirt, and her skirt is short and she is the 2nd tallest female character. The game overcompensates this to the point that the camera position I used to take pictures of the characters worked for everyone except Firis. Some other games (like Project DIVA X) handle this by showing the character model as a silhouette so that the player knows where the model is, but this isn't the case here.

Finally, here's an Easter egg: In all 3 mysterious games, in the item synthesis screen, rotating the R stick will make the contents in the cauldron in the background rotate in the input direction. In Lydie & Suelle, the character will also say some lines like Sue's「まーぜーまーぜ♪」 (ma-ze-ma-ze♪) or 「ぐるぐるぐーるー」 (gurugurugu-ru-) or Lydie's 「はやすぎず、おそすぎず」 (Not too quickly, not too slowly), which is quite adorable.

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This is quite an experience, especially towards the end. Different players may feel otherwise, but to me, this is a huge upgrade from just the Lydie & Suelle base game with just the character DLC to the entire trilogy with all extra contents plus some more, and the play time also raises accordingly from about 2 months to more than 5 months. Shedding more light on the story that I already deem the best I've seen in a game was the biggest reason for me to like this trilogy, and I really like Firis and especially Lydie & Suelle from a gameplay standpoint too. And for Lydie & Suelle, I get to get all DLC and collect everything at a lower cost than actually buying the original's DLC.

Interesting observation: the DX additions of the three games each relates to a sequel in some way.
Sophie DX has story cutscenes related to Ramizel (→ Sophie 2)
Firis DX adds endgame enemies summoned by someone Palmyra knows (probably Termina) (→ Lydie & Suelle)
Lydie & Suelle DX features a painting world based on Nelke's town (→ Nelke)

Current ranking

Credits to wikiwiki.jp and Fandom Wiki for English version names, and to NanoGames, 生臭坊主のゲームメモ, Shooting*Star, ゲームとかやろうか, h1g wiki, 表裏一体 and 壺から１G for gameplay tips.

[nocturnal YL]

(My old computer finally died earlier today while I just started typing this. And now I have to get used to my new computer, Windows 11 and all.)

I finished BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light a while ago. Here's some basic information on the series:

The original BLUE REFLECTION (JP: BLUE REFLECTION 幻に舞う少女の剣, subtitle translates to "Sword of the girl who dances in illusions") was released in 2017, featuring a world that is reset every million years and is administrated by a godly being called a Sephira. The Sephira threatened humanity by attempting to fuse with humans, so it was seen as a danger and was reflected by Hinako Shirai.

In 2021, Gust announced a series of new cross-media works that take place 4 years after the original, being the anime BLUE REFLECTION RAY/澪, the consumer game BLUE REFLECTION TIE/帝 (Second Light) and the upcoming mobile game BLUE REFLECTION SUN/燦. The in-universe timeline is RAY → SUN → TIE, making the game we're covering the latest chronologically.

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BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light
BLUE REFLECTION TIE/帝

Background information

BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light was a game that I originally thought of not getting, exactly because it was a 3-in-1 deal. I don't watch anime, and I don't play mobile games. What made me change my mind was a timed crossover DLC between this game and Atelier Sophie 2, and I hate to say it, but sales tactics like this work so well on me, and I don't even feel bad about it.

As a game, it can be seen as both a main entry and a series celebration of sorts, as it contains characters from all other works: Hinako, Yuzu and Lime from the first game, Hiori, Mio and Uta from the anime (which Kokoro also appeared in), and Shiho and Kirara from the upcoming mobile game. The story is also connected, although this game is intentionally light on details whenever the events in those other works are discussed. Still, This game is played form Ao's perspective, who's a complete outsider prior to the story's start, so the player is also given the necessary information to understand what's going on. This is a good introductory game to the series.

By the way, this is not Atelier. It has the same control scheme, the same field exploration system, and the overall code is based on Atelier Ryza 2, but in terms of story and worldbuilding, the only thing they have in common is that in less serious parts they share the slice-of-life genre.

This game is available as a demo on Nintendo eShop and PlayStation Store in all regions.

Story

Ao is an ordinary girl who is bored with her ordinary life, and she has always wanted to become something special. One day, when she was on the way to summer school, she dropped her phone on the way, went back to pick it up only to find a mysterious messenger app and a message of unknown origin saying "Be Reborn", and before she knew it, she was on an island with nothing but the school on it.

The only people she could found there were three girls who have lost their memories: Kokoro, Rena and Yuki, who didn't even find it weird to be the only people in this alternate world until Ao brought it up. Finding no obvious way out, Ao had no choice but to settle on the island.

For basic character profiles, see the official website: blue-reflection.com/secondlight/us/

This game introduces characters along with the overall plot. The usual plot is that a specific character's memory is triggered by some facility or other event, which makes that character's heartscape appear. Exploring the heartscape will reveal more of the character's past, and they may have memory about other characters, which will then bring them in. Rinse and repeat.

As I said before, almost anything I can say about this game is spoilers, which is why even the official website descriptions introduce the characters with text like "a student who joined after a certain event". I was torn between talking about the story or not. While those who intend to play should stay away from spoilers and save the surprise, I also think those who aren't going to get the game anyway should at least know why its story is so well-loved.

This is my 2nd attempt to write this section. I eliminated about 30 paragraphs of the game's plot, because (1) it defeats the purpose of trying to advertise this game's story, and (2) if you still want to know without actually playing, you should watch gameplay videos online instead.

That said, I'll attempt to explain why is the story good without being too specific:

(1) They feel personal. Each chapter focuses on a character (or a pair of sisters), and a lot of them involves them overcoming hardships. It's sweet to see them getting better with the encouragement of their friends, or by their own resolve. One example would be Kirara.

(Chapter 5 spoilers)

SPOILER: Click to show

Kirara was revealed to be able to hear god — or rather, she could read her surroundings like a computer reading data. She hails from a rural village, and unfortunately her power was abused by her politicial father who wanted to use it for his personal gain. She eventually rebelled when she was asked to falsely accuse her only friend for breaking the village's treasured pot, an act that angered her father but earned the praise of the other Reflectors.

(2) The ones that aren't resolved in their own backstories get very, very touching endings here, in the Oasis — the tiny world featured in this game.

(Chapter 4, Chapter 8 major spoilers)

SPOILER: Click to show

You're better off just actually playing or watching gameplay videos of Chapters 4 and 8, but it involves two initial members, Rena and Yuki. These two are the very definition of star-crossed lovers. Rena has a very no-nonsense personality that earned her no friends, while Yuki is very energetic and noisy. In time, however, Rena fell for Yuki and wanted to know what she had been hiding behind the cheerful demeanour, which she wouldn't tell. It's not until late in the story that the truth was revealed: Yuki had an uncurable disease and died from it, and was revived and sent to the Oasis as an unknowing enemy spy (the enemies are essentially gods) that let them know where to attack. This truth broke her, and in a panic, she tried to get the group to kill her, but Rena's ability to see through her act and Ao deducing that she actually thinks highly of Rena even now got her to admit her true feeling, finally breaking her layers of self-inflicted lies told to protect herself and others.

This plot thread is the most emotional thing I've seen in a game so far. I honestly got tear-eyed throughout the whole cutscene. But it also feels great to see their character development in the rest of the game and how they were getting along later on. And yes, these are my favourite characters in this game.


I do have some complaints regarding the ending. It's confusing, and I didn't quite understand what it's trying to say until I read multiple comments from other people who have played it. I am ultimately satisfied with the story, but I hope they can get more explicit. I do understand that BLUE REFLECTION is more reliant on background lore and symbolism, though.

Gameplay systems

Like other Gust games, the gameplay is broken down into material gathering, item making and battle. Exploration and material gathering is just like the other games, nothing special there.

Making items is simple: Just pick the item to make, pick the members who make them, and select raw materials. Unlike Atelier, there aren't much to consider here, as the only item properties are the effects. Other Atelier elements like traits, quality and item usage count aren't here, making the system closer to the Surge Concerto games.

The battle system is unique. It runs on a real-time timeline, where the Reflectors have to wait to charge EP to launch attack at the enemies. Knowing when to use attacks is important here; sometimes the enemy attack is coming soon and you'll need to give up on charging EP in favour of launching attacks immediately.

That said, the overall difficulty of this game's 1st playthrough is low as it's limited to just NORMAL, and a lot of the more advanced mechanics just ended up being completely unused in such a playthrough.

Obviously, gameplay isn't really this game's main point. It's the story and character events. That's where the facility crafting and dating systems shine. Facilities can be made and placed at various points of the school, and Ao can invite her friends to visit these facilities for a short (unvoiced) conversation. Dating events not tied to facilities are also available. This unlocks Fragments (equippable abilities), so the player should get them whenever possible.

Oh, and the way Ao interacts with her friends are, well… see for yourself.

Graphics

The graphics aren't the best I've seen. The resolution on the Switch version is dynamic, but can go as low as 540p. On the other hand, the menus run at 60 fps, making it on par with Atelier Lulua on this particular aspect.

The hair physics is weird. Sometimes Yuki's hair looks like it has its own mind, which is somewhat distracting in her cutscenes.

The shadow and lighting effects seem to be dynamic too. The shadows are a bit low-res; it's not really that bad, but the last few games from Gust looked better.

Other impressions

➢ The music is generally great. Too bad there aren't that many tracks (about 40 across the whole game), so some themes end up coming up a lot. And the battle themes are rather subdued after we got OVERDRIVE in the original BLUE REFLECTION.

➢ There is unfortunately no Extra menu unlocked after finished the game. There are also no event illustrations.

➢ This game pulled a reversal on me. I came to play a game about emotions, and ended up having my own emotions played by the game.

➢ I'm touched by Ao's willingness to go to some extremes to help her friends. Her attitude sometimes surprises even Hiori, a perpetual source of positivity. Her action near the ending says that she's not an ordinary person at all.

All things considered, I really like this game, and I'm glad I actually tried it out. In gameplay terms it's a bit repetitive, since there's no puzzle element when it comes to making items and late-game combat, but obviously the story is the main drive in this game, and that's one thing it does really, really well.

[nocturnal YL]

I've just finished Atelier Ryza 2. I actually wanted to group the Atelier games with BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light together in a single post, as there are some common themes between these games. All three games use similar code bases, making their rendering and exploration systems similar. BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light was so surprising that I wanted to talk about it as soon as I could, though.

This time, I will be talking about these games in relation to each other. Atelier Ryza 2 has always been on my "play it eventually" list, and the reason I played it was because of this post. I wanted to be able to compare BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light and Atelier Sophie 2 with Atelier Ryza 2 when talking about those games.

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Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream
ソフィーのアトリエ2 〜不思議な夢の錬金術士〜

(For more title screen variations, see: 1 2 3 4 5 6)

Background information

Atelier Sophie 2 is the first entry of the Atelier series 25th anniversary campaign (and, as of this writing, the only 25th anniversary game). In a way, its position is like what Fire Emblem: Three Houses to the Fire Emblem series, being a new entry with improvements from the recent entries but targeting veteran fans rather than trying to attract new players.

Despite promises that the game would be what Mysterious series fans want and it eventually turned out to be so, I actually wasn't excited at all about its announcement. I was actually a bit disappointed to see them going for a rather easy target, being a sequel to a popular game. It felt like they were trying to replicate what they did with Ryza 2, only targeting veteran fans rather than new ones. Still, other fans were interested in it, and unlike most other game series I like, with Atelier my opinions do actually align with other fans' most of the time. The new additions to Mysterious DX also suggest that Gust knew what they were doing.

Overall impression

This game is essentially the antithesis to Atelier Firis. It's rather short, and the overall scale of the game is quite small. On the other hand, the quality is top-notch. Improvements over the previous games may be individually insignificant, but when put together, we get a smooth set of UI and game mechanics that's fun to play with.

Although I do like a lot of changes individually, my biggest reason to like this game isn't a particular system or story. Rather, it's the relief from seeing that Gust still knew what they were doing and haven't lost themselves from the popular Ryza games. Prior to release (and even now), there were fans who worry about them being unwilling to revisit the older games, or that their creativity would be clouded by Ryza's success. I was more hopeful by the time I played Mysterious DX and BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light, the former showing that they still know what made the Mysterious series good, and the latter showing that they are willing to expand on games that aren't popular.

(Aside: for a rough idea on the popularity of these games, I heard that (no proof, nor do I vouch for correctness) BR1 sold 80,000 copies lifetime in Japan, and BRSL sold 120,000 in the first three months; Atelier prior to Ryza 1 usually sell in the 300,000 range, and Ryza 1 and 2 sold about 500,000 each.)

Sophie 2 took a lot of its programming and design from the previous games. In particular:

• It has a farming system, like New Rorona and Ryza 1 and 2.
• It has similar exploration gimmicks as Ryza 2.
• Characters have rich expressions, like in BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light, although they're less exaggerated here.
• The encyclopedia UI is similar to Ryza 1 and 2, but with character comments added.
• Equippable items work like in Sophie 1.
• Although not really useful as a mechanic, there are campfire spots where Sophie's party can set up tent and rest. The idea of setting up tent is from Firis, while mid-map resting points for sleeping (passing time) and HP/MP recovery are from Ryza 1.
• Unlocking recipes work similar to Lydie & Suelle.

…And so on. Of course, there are also mechanics it can call its own, especially the synthesis and battle systems.

Story

On the way of Sophie and Plachta's travel to Ertona, Plachta suggested to visit a nearby tree which caught her attention for unexplained reasons. When they got there, a portal suddenly appeared and pulled the pair in. Sophie then found herself in an unknown world, and Plachta was nowhere to be found.

Among the townspeople she met, two of them caught her attention: Ramizel, who shares name with Sophie's late grandmother, and Plachta, who is younger than the Plachta she knows. Both are alchemists who are below Sophie's level in this world, unlike their counterparts that Sophie knows. She also learned about the nature of the world: the tiny world is called Erde Wiege and the central town is called Roytale, and it's created by the dream goddess Elvira based on the dreams of the people she saw. She created this world and invited people with dreams and ambitions from different eras, so that they can hone their skills here without ageing and return back to their original time when ready to leave.

In order to find Plachta, Sophie and her new friends must first find Elvira, then figure out what has happened to Plachta.

(Parts 3-4 spoilers)

SPOILER: Click to show

It turns out Elvira didn't invite Sophie and Plachta using the usual method, but rather pulled them in by force, out of curiosity when she saw Plachta, a doll, with a soul in it. Unfortunately, it has the side effect of separating Plachta's soul from the doll body. Elvira, being a shut-in goddess in panic mode, had to be found, fought and given a good scolding from Ramizel before they could get her help to fix Plachta.

(Parts 5-10 spoilers)

SPOILER: Click to show

After Plachta's return, she decided to stay for a while and help with the town's issues. Unfortunately, said issues involved the appearance of dream-eating monsters, who appeared as a natural consequence of the creation of Erde Wiege. Elvira tried to suppress them herself, but she ended up getting corrupted.

After she was freed from the corruption, she decided that Erde Wiege was too dangerous, and asked the townspeople to leave so she could return the power she spent creating it to herself. Although she was worried that they would get angry with her, they were actually thankful to be here at all and were more worried about Elvira being lonely again. Sophie made an accessory that allowed her to talk to the people — in their dreams, fittingly.

(Of course, this summary glossed over a lot of things, and didn't mention the character stories at all.)

Characters

(Original image: HERE)

Interestingly, Atelier Sophie 2 has the fewest number of major characters in the series. There are only 6 party members and 5 major NPCs, although the town of Roytale is filled with generic NPCs and shopkeepers. This puts the major character count under even BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light.

Top row, left to right:

• Olias, self-proclaimed world's best bodyguard with the skills to back it up. He is originally a mercenary, and hasn't returned home for a long time. Seeing Sophie reminds him of his little sister.
• Pirka, a merchant from much a earlier time. She is from Corneria's tribe and dreams of making her tribe well-known.
• Elvira, the creator of Erde Wiege. Her own dream is to talk to other people about their dreams, but her personality isn't helping.
• Doll Plachta, who got dragged into this world. She serves as the town's mayor after she was found.
• Katrina (Kati), an excellent archivist and the Observation Institute's former head librarian who runs the town's café to gather information, but is incredibly lazy.
• Gnome, who works for Kati after she showed him the ropes on how to live in this world. Very hard-working, and is the reason why Kati can afford to be so lazy.

Bottom row, left to right:

• Diebold, this world's second best bodyguard. He was originally a knight who has successfully killed a dragon who killed many in his home country, but the long battle and subsequent unemployment drove him into depression. He's the oldest major character in both senses (the oldest natural human and from the earliest era).
• Ramizel, the first resident and de facto leader of Roytale. Her dream is to of help to people, and alchemy is merely a tool for her to achieve that goal.
• Sophie, the town's best alchemist who got dragged in. Her habit of not tidying up her workspace has gotten worse. Due to her power as an alchemist, the goddess considers her her own goddess.
• Plachta, whose goal is to hone her skill in alchemy. Hates losing and is bitter towards Sophie at first, but warms up to her as the story goes on.
• Alette, a cheerful and skilled merchant who came to hone her business skills even more.

Olias and the bottom row characters are party members.

Story impression

The overall story feels quite a bit on the serious side, depending on whose character story it is. This is the 11th Atelier game I've played and the 5th within just the Mysterious series, and there hasn't been anything too out of ordinary in the story. Most of the story just advanced as I expected, especially regarding how would the story end. It's well-put together, though, and I'm glad it doesn't break the continuity of the rest of the Mysterious series, as promised.

If I have to point out a few special points, the biggest would be that, although expected, it did a very good job telling extra information about the lives of Ramizel and Plachta, the two most important people in Sophie's life. For Ramizel, we finally know what she looked like and what her early life was. We only have second-hand accounts from Pamela and Aurelie previously, and Ramizel here has a rather different image. And for Plachta, the way she came to realisation how important Sophie is to her future self and the two Plachtas having a heartfelt discussion are some of the highlights of the story.

I also like the story of the other characters, and mostly Pirka and Diebold. Diebold came as a surprise because, although the threat of monsters has always been a constant force in the series, a party member directly traumatised by seeing companions killed by them is unusual (he's not the only one though; Ficus in Lulua also has a dark background). It's nice to see Pirka, who looks up to him as a historical hero, gets to help him directly. And for Pirka's own story, it gives additional background information to her tribe and shows how they became aware of the limitations of their ability to copy items.

The ending reminds me a bit of BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light. Both involve the main character's actions affecting their past selves (in Sophie's case, Sophie inspired Ramizel to hone her alchemy skill, and indirectly made Sophie take alchemy as her career), and both feature characters (Ao in BRSL and past Plachta in Sophie 2) with absolute confidence in their friends and future. Stories like these feel inspirational in a surreal way.

One detail I like is that Sophie's ability to hear the voices of materials started to manifest in Sophie 1, but she only fully realised what that was in Sophie 2. In Firis she had a full understanding of this ability, which makes it feel like the writer intentionally left a gap between Sophie 1 and Firis. (This is an ability possessed only by a select few, including Sophie, Firie, Lydie and Suelle. Also, a few people can hear specific things: Oskar for plants, Firis for minerals, Lydie for paintings and Liane could somehow talk to Honnete while she was in Roger's painting.)

Similarly, in Sophie 1, Plachta's book form was found by Ramizel a long time ago, after which she was just being left at home until Sophie reawakened her. This sounds irresponsible on Ramizel's part if she knew about Plachta's nature, but with Sophie 2 in mind, Ramizel's action feels intentional.

Graphics

This game looks good, except during field exploration or in photo mode. The resolution seems to be dynamic, with 3D elements rendering at 540p to 900p and 2D elements rendering at 1080p. But resolution isn't the only issue here; it's its combination with the cel-shading outline that makes characters look really blurry when zoomed out. But it also seems to have gotten rid of the 3D shading artefacts that adds vertical lines on 3D models in Ryza 1 and 2. (This was solved in BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light, but that game was low-res on Nintendo Switch so I didn't immediately notice.) In short, close-up models look better, zoomed-out models look worse.

3D model clipping is still there, but it's rarely noticeable now.

Depending on DLC, pre-order and save data bonuses, Sophie has access to her default outfits in her previous games, her new outfit in Sophie 1, Ramizel's outfit in Sophie DX, Ryza's outfits in Ryza 1 and 2, Ao's uniform, Firis's outfit in Atelier Firis and the Puni T-shirts first seen in Ryza 1.

The best news in terms of graphics and hardware features is that the game is more aware of non-PlayStation hardware now. The PC version now supports better mouse-and-keyboard controls instead of merely doing keyboard-to-controller mapping (and the mouse can be used for menu navigation now), and introduced a whole slew of options on refined graphics adjustment. The Switch version offers two modes that lets the player pick between processing speed and graphics, although all choices still look worse than Atelier Lulua. I hope they can sacrifice processing speed a bit more in exchange of clearer graphics, at least in photo mode. For a turn-based RPG like this, I can stand 20 fps if it means reliable 900p graphics.

Battle

The battle system in Sophie 2 is an evolution from the two-row system seen in Lydie & Suelle and Lulua. Unlike in those games, follow-up attacks don't happen automatically. Rather, they can be manually triggered once the player accumulates TP (Technical Points), which is rather easy. Even better, unlike Lydie & Suelle and Lulua, the follow-up attacker does not have to be the one standing behind the primary attacker. The follow-up attacker also uses normal attack skills (at a lower MP cost) or items rather than follow-up skills, but only one skill can be used per turn rather than potentially multiple skills like in the previous games.

Unlike Sophie 1, the player and enemy sides don't take turn one after another. A mild annoyance is that the battle UI doesn't give an easy way to tell how much WT (Wait Time) each move uses.

The signature attacks now involves 2 persons, although only specific combinations can take part and there are 10 total. Using such a move also makes the characters involved appear in the battle result screen, which is a nice touch.

There are two other major new changes besides the two-row system. One of them is that battles now take place on the field without screen transition. It's supposed to make battles look smooth, but with two caveats: enemies now won't chase Sophie too far away from their original points and will avoid corners, and the loading time in the Switch version doesn't make it feel smooth at all.

The other is the aura shields that some enemies have. These shields are supposed to make battles last longer, since shielded enemies have to have their shields depleted first. But since follow-up attacks don't have their attack power reduced by the shield, they aren't very effective outside of boss battles. Also, it's possible to give Plachta the right equipment and item so that she can kill most enemies in a single move.

Synthesis

The puzzle synthesis system in Sophie 2 is top-notch. It's difficult and takes a long while to figure out how to place ingredients effectively, but once you do it's actually fun to try to max out all effects with a limited selection of raw materials.

Early- to mid-game, it feels like a mix between the synthesis systems of Sophie 1 and Lydie & Suelle, but once the last (non-DLC) catalyst and the characters' friendship level skills are unlocked, the synthesis process becomes a difficult puzzle where the player needs to figure out how to make a large number of chains form between the bright cells at once. The catalyst makes it so that the bright cells are removed once a character skill is invoked, and that happens at 3 cell linkages, but we're aiming for 10 cell linkages (which lets us place one more raw material, which is important for equipment-making), so we're going from 2 to 10. Normal cells can overwrite bright ones, so only certain shapes can serve as this 2-to-10 trigger. In modern Tetris terms, not all tetriminos are equal and only T can T-Spin. (Dear Tetris Company, please encourage recognition of J/L/S/Z-Spin.)

Enhancing agents from Lydie & Suelle and Lulua did not return, which means that colours cannot be changed. Coupled with recipes having more specific material requirements, the overall difficulty for making optimal items has become quite high, and would involve quite a lot of trial and error. Logic puzzle fans would love this.

Other game mechanics

The overall pacing of this game is very good. The placement of character events and the recipe unlocks are done pretty well, mostly avoiding situations where I'd neglect to progress in certain aspects (like recipes or alchemy level) and find myself having to grind to make up for the lost progress. This is a problem I had with Rune Facotry 4 Special, and even some Atelier games like Firis and Ryza 1. It's still possible to miss the required alchemy levels (Sophie 85, Plachta 75) for endgame, but the requirements from earlier missions means catching up wouldn't be too bad.

Material gathering is basically a simplified version of Ryza 2's. Each gathering point can now only be harvested with one tool, eliminating the need to switch between tools. Each gathering point also gives exactly 3 types of items, one for each rank (depending on the gathering tool and its effects). The world map also shows what materials can be gathered, making the process much less frustrating than Ryza 1 and 2.

One addition to the gathering system is Major Gathering, which is essential for getting larger ingredient shapes. Gathering at a Major Gathering point starts a minigame that grants various bonuses, and the minigame for slingshot and bug-catching net gathering points is quite easy (it's also playable with the mouse in the PC version).

There is also weather control, which changes the terrain of the area Sophie is in and the available enemies and materials. Weather is usually fixed because this is a world created based on people's dreams, but Elvira made it possible for specific people in the town (like Ramizel and Olias, who are needed to maintain and protect the land) to change weather using Dream Vessels for exploration purposes. I actually find it a bit tedious, but the items for weather control will be eliminated at the end of the game, making the weather change mechanism unlimited.

Item copy is done through Pirka here, who is from the same tribe as Corneria and is a bit disappointed to see only Sophie recognising her tribe and her telling her that the tribe still didn't get well-known by Sophie's time. What sets her apart from the older copy shops is that she copies things immediately after getting paid instead of having to wait 10 days. There is also no need to leave her a sample first. This makes the process closer to the Ryza games, but they consume Cole (money) rather than gems (exchanged with other items).

The battle level is capped at 50, which can easily be reached long before the end of the game. Sophie also starts at battle level 20 and alchemy level 50, being the caps of Sophie 1 and players of it would have likely reached them. On a related note, Sophie 2 did a god job showing that she is a veteran both as an alchemist and as an adventurer here.

There are free DLC locations based on BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light, but it's just the terrain model that made it here. No new music or enemies, making it much less attractive compared to the BLUE REFLECTION DLC in Lydie & Suelle. There is also paid story DLC that lets the player use Plachta, and it has full voice acting. After having DLC events without voice acting for three new games in a row (Lulua, Ryza 1 and 2), we're finally back to fully-voiced DLC!

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Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy
ライザのアトリエ2 〜失われた伝承と秘密の妖精〜

(For more title screen variations, see: 1 2)

Background information

At the time of this writing, this is the only PS5 game in the series. They actually cancelled the physical PS5 version shortly after announcing it, and subsequent games went back to PS4-only. Getting save file transfer bonus in the PS5 version is cumbersome, as you need to run the PS4 version first, then have PS5 Ryza 2 read the save data of PS4 Ryza 2. PS5 Ryza 2 also cannot be used to unlock PS4 Sophie 2's save data bonus. The game is primarily made with PS4 in mind, so not much is lost if one opts to just play the PS4 version to avoid the hassles.

This game is also available in French, another thing that the later games dialled back on.

Atelier Ryza 2 did not get my interest at first, being a sequel to my least entry in the series so far. It also made me doubt if such a game would be able to carry one of the series' themes of previous main characters appearing as veterans who is able to guide the other less experienced alchemists. Because of this, I kept this game on hold for a long time.

When BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light and Atelier Sophie 2 came out, I decided to finally give this game a try, mainly to find out which changes in those games are unique and which are taken from Ryza 2.

Overall impression

I like this game as a Ryza sequel. I still don't like it as much as most other Atelier games, but it's a large improvement over the last game.

For the most part, it improved upon Ryza 1's system. It's much easier to make high-quality items, battles are better, making items for exploration is less frustrating, story and character events are more palatable, and the new exploration systems, although rather pointless, feel fresh.

It still feels a bit grindy, and I had quite a lot of character events and quests still open by the time I finished the main story. Mass producing items is difficult until the post-game, although judging from other people's take on the game, endgame item-making is indeed easy.

During the course of playing this game, I kept getting reminded of BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light. The battle system uses a 3+1 formation, with the backup character being summonable at any time (subject to cooldown). There are also dungeons that involve viewing others' memories, the overall summer theme, and exploration gimmicks like sliding and going through narrow passages, although the last one is also shared by Sophie 2.

Story

3 years after Ryza's adventure in discovering the truth behind her hometown and fighting Philuscha, she started to feel that her progression in studying alchemy is getting stale. Around this time, she received a letter from Tao, who was studying at the capital along with Bos. Tao told her about a group of ruins around the capital, and that he felt those ruins may be alchemy-related. Around the same time, Bos's father Moritz requested Ryza to investigate on a rainbow stone, one of his family's treasures that has started to glow.

Upon arriving and meeting up with Tao, the "stone" hatched. It turns out it's actually the egg of a creature who Ryza named Fi. Adding the investigation of Fi's identity to their goals, they started looking for information on the ruins' whereabouts and exploring them. They met friends, both old and new, who are in the capital for their own goals.

(4th ruin spoilers)

SPOILER: Click to show

At the end of each ruin is a large crystal glowing with magical power, which Fi happily absorbs. Ryza later learned from Empel and Lila that Fi is actually a creature from the Underworld and needs mana to survive, which is why he has been absorbing the crystals in the ruins. This makes Ryza more eager to explore the remaining ruins, wanting to prevent Fi's death.

(6th ruin/ending spoilers)

SPOILER: Click to show

Upon getting the last crystal, Empel and Lila rushed to Ryza, bearing dire news from their findings. It turns out that the crystals are used for locking the final ruin, which was built around an ancient, naturally-occurring gate to the Underworld. The ancients had no way to do anything about the gate, so they built a large structure and magically sealed it to prevent the invaders from being able to do anything. Having broken the seal, Ryza's group had no choice but to fight a foe stronger than the ones they fought three years ago.

Characters

• Reisalin (Ryza): Worked as an alchemist, a teacher and (sometimes) a farmer after the adventure three years ago. Came to the capital to investigate alchemy-related ruins.
• Fi: A newborn creature who warmed up to Ryza and company. Although he doesn't speak, he's very expressive.
• Klaudia: The daughter of a merchant who is always busy. She always thinks of the old days of adventuring with Ryza and wished to relive those days.
• Lent: An old friend of Ryza and Tao's. He left Kurken Island to train as a fighter, but he feels much less carefree now as something has been bothering him.

• Tao: An aspiring historian who grew up a lot since three years ago, both physically and psychologically. Still has a tendency to get lost in the books.
• Patricia (Patty): A girl from a noble house who has complicated feeling about her upbringing. Envies the freedom Ryza and her other companions have.
• Clifford: A treasure hunter who has an idealistic view on things, although he recognises that his job doesn't actually make much money, as any good treasure spot would have been looted already.
• Serri: An Oren (Lila's species) who is on a quest to purify her homeland, which was ruined by the ancient Klint Kingdom's alchemists.

• Volker: Patricia's strict father. A former knight who worked his way into nobility. Provided a place for Ryza to work in.
• Bos: Ryza's group's former enemy. Currently studying at the capital along with Tao. Studies and trains very hard for multiple reasons.
• Zephine: Works in the café close the campus area. Because of this, she meets many people from out of town and enjoys their travelling tales.
• Dennis: A blacksmith who is also interested in goldsmith work. He attempts to make his debut as a goldsmith by entering a contest with Ryza's help.

• Romy: A merchant who has set up shop in the capital. She is originally a minor NPC and returns as a major, voiced NPC in Ryza 2.
• Cassandra: The eldest daughter of a farmer family of 5 sisters. As they don't have enough labour, they are currently working with few land than they possess.
• Empel: Currently investigating the capital's surroundings with Lila in their continuing quest to close gates to the Underworld (home to the Oren) to prevent Philuscha invasion.
• Lila: Travelling with Empel on their quest to close gates to the Underworld. Knows something about Fi's origin. Saddened to see Lent's current state.

Story impression

Interesting trivia: Ryza is 20 years old, making her the oldest main character alchemist in terms of starting age as far as I know, not counting cases like Astrid in New Atelier Rorona (3DS) or Lila and Empel's DLC stories in Ryza 1.

I don't like the overall world of the Secret series, and I know the reason for that better now. It feels like a rather big contrast compared to Arland or Mysterious when it comes to the way people interact. There's this lingering feeling of loneliness in the Secret series; some of the characters work with people all the time, but none of the people they work with feel like friends. This is apparent from the perspective of the whole player party except Ryza and Tao. Even for Ryza, there's always this feeling of never getting her work recognised. Ryza 2 eased off this feeling a bit compared to Ryza 1, but it's still far from the warmer feeling in the other titles.

The overall story still feels rather like standard RPG fare to me. Ryza works on the standard RPG tasks of investigating dungeons and solving other characters' problems. Later on in the story, more particular details show up, and Ryza's group gets a bigger sense of urgency, but otherwise they'd just go complete their quest as usual. There's also a single ending which feels weird at points because it seems to assume that the player has finished all character events. The ending itself, like many things in the series, feels much better than Ryza 1 but falls behind most other Atelier titles.

One thing I do like about the story is that Ryza's old adventuring group got together, even if it's just for this quest. The overly-realistic setting of everyone having different jobs and thus must separate works in its favour, since the group reuniting wouldn't have the same impact in the other games, especially Arland ("just teleport").

Graphics

This game got an updated rendering engine, being a significant evolution from Ryza 1, but there are also enough quirks to show that it is indeed based on Ryza 1. The change is not as significant as the move from Lydie & Suelle to Lulua.

While the later games just took advantage of Ryza 2's updated programming, Ryza 2 itself did as much as it could to showcase its new parts. Ryza's clothes get wet in the rain (and it only affects Ryza, so it's probably a model change), and there is an emphasis on water reflection (even on puddles after rain).

The graphics look good overall, and it suffers less from being on Nintendo Switch than Sophie 2 did. The vertical line artefacts is more visible now (in Ryza 1, I only really noticed them in pictures taken with the Capture button and not those taken with my capture device), like Patricia's face here, but otherwise the rendering quality is high, the issues below notwithstanding. Like most of the recent Atelier games, the resolution is 900p and the frame rate is 30 fps for 3D models, and 1080p / 60 fps for the menu.

3D model clipping is still a major issue, however. The touching scene where Ryza and Klaudia meet has distraction in Klaudia's ribbon clipping into her hair and their arms clipping into each other's. There are also other issues, like the Switch version getting low-resolution textures (can't blame them, Nintendo Switch has game card storage and loading time issues) and the character motions sometimes feel very unnatural, especially when they have no transition animation when changing from one motion to another.

Battle

The battle system has improved enough from Ryza 1 that I'm not going to complain about its real-time nature anymore. The premise is still the same as Ryza 1 or BRSL, where the battle starts with more basic attacks until the player gets enough AP, at which point they can use skills to attack and raise Tactics Level, which allows a higher maximum AP and makes higher damage possible. Skills are now triggered by holding the R button and selecting a skill button rather than using a menu. It's also easier to charge AP than in Ryza 1. This, in addition to me getting more used to the idea of semi-real-time battles, made Ryza 2's battles more enjoyable to me.

Ryza 2 got rid of the first game's attacker/defender positions and the class system that I have never figured out. It introduced a position system where the player and the enemies' positions matter when it comes to not just skills and items, but also the camera. Characters will actually run to the enemies if they target enemies at a different position, and the enemies will also move to target faraway player characters. It doesn't really matter that much most of the time; either the enemies get taken out early or it's a boss fight with just a single target, but it does make the battles feel more dynamic.

Being impatient and wanting to get to the end sooner, for the final boss fight I neglected to make equipment for other characters and only greatly raised Patricia's stats. It actually worked. By the way, I played at EASY due to the difficulty in mass-producing equipment.

(Final boss)

SPOILER: Click to show

Synthesis

Item synthesis works mostly like Ryza 1, with a few systems like essence (which allows highest-level effects to be unlocked, among other things) added. The item quality is also proportionate to the number of materials added instead of being a simple average. I think I benefited more from being more knowledge about the synthesis system than changes in the system, though.

Because of the way quality works, I reached 999 quality rather easily. And because neutralisers can be used to make themselves and they are used for making ingots and cloths, adding desired traits to equipment is not that difficult.

It is copying the items that's the annoying part. Since copying (and making essence) require gems, which are produced from items and raw materials, I couldn't do that often. Without the ability to copy items, I had to make many copies myself, which eats into my raw materials stock in a game that already requires large number of materials to make a single item. The end result is that making items feels even more tedious than in Atelier Firis, and there isn't really a good way to mass produce gems (and thus duplicate items) until endgame.

There's another system called EV Link, which is used for combining two items to either grant an EV effect to the first item, or change them into a different item altogether. Ryza 2 can actually last rather long if the player's goal is to make optimal items or to complete the encyclopedia.

Other game mechanics

The music is better than I expected. There are quite a few memorable tunes, and in some cases they actually surpass songs in the other Atelier titles. Some of them sound similar to BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light BGM due to its composer also worked on a few Ryza 2 tunes.

The field maps are not very useful, owing to the 3D nature of the fields. What the map shows as a wide open area can actually have vastly different elevation.

The main gimmick in the dungeons is that there are various memories that Ryza can collect, and those can be used in a deduction minigame (it's really just matching synonyms) for unlocking recipes (needed to story progression) or SP (for unlocking recipes and game mechanics in the skill tree). These collectables will also reveal the stories of past events in the ruins, although not much of it is discussed in the main story, nor is there any kind of completion bonus for completing all of them.

There is a new shop upgrade system, where Ryza can provide sample items for Romy to improve the shops Seeing that this game is already very heavy on consuming items and raw materials in other places (item synthesis, quests, making gems for essence and copying) and that materials sold in shops aren't very good anyway, this system ended up feeling rather underused. Shop ranks do carry over playthroughs, though.

Ryza 2 brought in quite a few changes in field exploration. There are spots where Ryza can crawl, fall down slopes or traverse narrow passages, which are also inherited by the later games, each using different sets of available moves. It also introduced swimming, which introduced limited 3D exploration; and Spirit Beast riding, which raises running speed a bit but the screen transition makes it not worth it. Swimming and Spirit Beast did not return in the later games.

---

My overall opinion on these two games are more or less what I expected. Both Sophie 2 and Ryza 2 ended up better than I expected, and Ryza 2 still had quite a lot of room for improvement. Ryza 2 felt like the developers were too focused on improving the rendering and tried to make as many features to showcase it, but the overall gameplay still ended up not feeling cohesive. It's also a sequel to Ryza 1, after all, and so felt like it's catering to fans of that game for the most part. My wish for the Secret series is that they would make a sequel with a more satisfying ending; plot points like friends having to separate for a long time and the general public not appreciating their jobs are too realistic.

Sophie 2 similarly felt like it's meant for Mysterious fans, and it actually succeeded in appealing to this group. I'm most glad that it handled the story well, as it didn't break the series continuity while successfully giving additional information on Corneria's tribe, Ramizel and Plachta. The item synthesis system serving as a fun puzzle game (once I figured it out) is a nice bonus. I don't really have anything I really want to see for the Mysterious series; but I'd certainly like to see a proper game featuring Plachta, showing her early interaction with Luard.

With the new games done, now I only have the Dusk games left before my quest to complete the modern Atelier series is over. For the other Gust titles, there's still Night of Azure 2 and Surge Concerto DX (and Fatal Frame if that counts; I'll ignore FAIRY TAIL for now), and I actually hope they can port Night of Azure 1 and the first BLUE REFLECTION. Or the early Atelier and Ar Tonelico games, for that matter. But for now, I think I'll move on to other games first.

(Current ranking)

[Nester the Lark]

So, Nintendo Life decided to rank every Atelier game currently available on Switch.

From what I've seen in regards to Atelier, this kind of thing varies greatly depending on the individual (as can be seen by the comments section), so it's not worth taking too seriously. But it was fun to compare it to YL's ranking.

[nocturnal YL]

It has been 11 months since I posted here. The last 2 games I played are Atelier Ryza 3 and Nights of Azure 2, which are very different games from the same developer.

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Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key
ライザのアトリエ3 〜終わりの錬金術士と秘密の鍵〜

(For more title screen variations, see: 1 2)

Background information

When Atelier Ryza 3 was announced, it was revealed that its theme was the end. In particular, the end of a chapter in Ryza's career, and the end of the mystery surrounding some of the background story elements, meaning that a good chunk of the history will finally get exposed.

At the time, I was not exactly a fan of the Secret series, so I was mostly happy that the series is finally ending. I also had hope that the ending would actually be good, like how the Mysterious series ended up to be. I became much more interested in this game compared to Ryza 1 and 2.

The game came out, and it was pretty well-received. It was said to be the fastest-selling game in the Secret series (in terms of first-week sales, I think). Curiously, they didn't claim it to be the fastest-selling Atelier game overall, so what sold faster? Marie? Sophie 1?

And on that note, as of June 2023, the Secret series has a combined worldwide shipment of over 2 million units. I may not like the Secret series in particular, but I welcome better general recognition of the series. I've seen stories of some of these new players trying out the older games too.

Overall impression

It does an excellent job clearing whatever doubt I've had for the final entry of the Secret series. It turned out to be a very fun game, with an improved story that puts Ryza herself in a much more positive light and turns the conservative Kurken Island into a popular tourism and trading destination, several pseudo-open large maps to explore with lots of things to do and decent loading time, battles with better pacing and smooth screen transition (like in Sophie 2) and, this is partly on me, much easier synthesis thanks to an easy way to copy items pretty early on and an early availability of good intermediate items.

Series producer Junso Hosoi previously mentioned that Gust came to the conclusion that Atelier and open world don't go together well after the mixed reception of Firis, but here it looks like they did it right. This time, the maps are broken into smaller parts connected by curved corridors (yeah, it's very obvious that they tried to mask loading time), and used various features to make exploration easier. The result is an illusion of open world that doesn't get in the way of the game.

It's still the Secret series, and this isn't close to my top favourites, but I really appreciate the effort they put into this game, both in terms of game mechanics and as a conclusion of Ryza's story.

Story

After the last game's events, Ryza returned to Kurken Island. Although saddened by Fi's departure, she soon regained motivation to work as a problem solver of the island. At one point roughly one year after her adventure in the capital, a group of islands, Kark Isles, suddenly appeared off the shore of the mainland, west of Kurken Island. This introduces challenges to sea trading, as not only do the new islands block the ship routes, they also introduce monsters that prevent unarmed people to get near them.

While fighting the monsters from the islands, Ryza heard voices directed at her. As Ryza's group investigated Kark Isles and built the first offshore branch of Ryza's atelier, those voices reached her from time to time, telling her to reach the Code of the Universe, and she got a sudden inspiration to synthesize a key that can be used to get items, break barriers and aid battles and synthesis. As the investigation went on, they met Federica, a young travelling acting union head of an artisan group, who carries jewelry with the same pattern as seen on the palace entrance on Kark Isles. This led them to a possible clue to unlocking the mystery of the islands by travelling to Sardonica of the Cleria region, where Federica is from.

Although their travel didn't conclusively lead to secret of the Code of the Universe, they resolved the dispute between Sardonica's two groups of artisans, the Glasswork Guild and Fairystone Guild, and learned that Sardonica was originally founded by an alchemist. Meanwhile, they received messages from Empel asking for clues related to dragons, which has led them to their next destination, Faurre in the Nemed region.

Faurre is an old, conservative village that makes Kurken Island look modern in comparison. Although Faurre appears to be thriving, they did so by relying on ancient technology that they did not know how to repair and required a limited energy source to work. Dian, a young warrior in the village, has been dissatisfied with the village's pessimistic ways, and Ryza's group's arrival was the change he has hoped for. Through their hard work in repairing the village's machines and giving them a better energy source, they were able to bail out Empel and Lila (who were imprisoned for trepassing an enclosed area despite being told not to) and help Dian convince the village leadership that they need to change their ways for long-term survival.

(Final region and ending spoilers)

SPOILER: Click to show

The Nemed region, as it turns out, is where a naturally formed gate to the world of the Oren is. There, they met Kala, the elder of the Wave Tuner tribe who are considered mytical by most other Oren tribes. Kala herself has suffered from the destruction brought by the ancient people of the Age of Gods, from with the technology of Clint Kingdom (a now-defunct kingdom who also attacked the Oren) came from, and was herself very interested in revenge against the Age of Gods group.

After lengthy research on locating and unlocking the entrance to the Code of the Universe, they entered it, only to be greeted by a completely dead city. Reading the notes left by its last inhabitants showed that the city, founded by the people of the Age of Gods, once prospered, but they soon got tired of it and left for other worlds one by one, taking their knowledge in alchemy with them. While the city is empty, its mechanism of detecting top alchemists, inviting them in and trapping them has not ceased, which has lead to the loss of talents and lives throughout the ages. To ensure this never happens again, the group destroyed the Code of the Universe. Though not being able to fight the people of the Age of Gods directly, Kala was satisfied that her archenemy of more than a thousand years is no more.

Characters

• Lent, who has regained confidence since last year and worked as a guard before sailing back along with Klaudia for Ryza's newest adventure.
• Dian, an orphan raised by Faurre's top warrior who is at odds with the village's ways and wants to change their fate.
• Ryza, who returned to Kurken Island after her business in the capital was done. She contributed to the island's development and defence since.
• Patricia, daughter of the noble Volker who remained at the capital but went to find Tao when Volker's mail got unreturned.
• Bos, Moritz's son who was busy with the village's management but decided to join Ryza partly because he thought he wouldn't have another chance.
• Federica, the acting union leader of Sardonica's artisans who took over the union after her father died.

• Klaudia, a now-seasoned trader who has taken over her father's business. She came to Ryza's aid as soon as she got her message.
• Tao, a scholar who got two offers to a prestigious academy and is at a loss on which one to pick, and is too excited about Ryza's adventure to really care yet.
• Kala, the elder of the Wave Tuner tribe. She has been alive during the historical invasions of the Oren's world, and aids Ryza for a chance to tkae revenge.
• Empel, an alchemist travelling with Lila on a quest to close the gates that connect to the Oren's world.
• Lila, an Oren from the Whitefang tribe who currently acts as Empel's bodyguard. She is glad to see Lent being back in shape.

Besides the playable characters, there are more than a dozen major NPCs, with a lot of them returning from the first game since both games take place on Kurken Island.
(Pictured below: Lent's father Samuel, Fairystone Guild leader Alberta and Glasswork Guild leader Saverio, and Ryza's parents Karl and Mio)

There is also a surprise near the end of the game.

(Endgame characters)

SPOILER: Click to show

Kilo (from Ryza 1) and Fi (from Ryza 2) are back!

There's also a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo of Serri from Ryza 2 at the ending sequence.

Story impression

This is a very fitting final game of the series. For starter, Ryza's group is finally being treated as grown-up professionals. This is quite different from the older games where the main characters, no matter how new they are to their jobs, will be seen as capable professionals later on in the same game they debut in. Unless we're talking about Rorona.

Throughout Ryza 1's story, I was under the impresion that Kurken Island is a very stuck-up place, and no amount of effort can be done to change the way the residents act. It came off as a pleasant surprise to see that not only did the island change, they were also more reliant on Ryza's efforts and the leadership is now more willing to explain why do they object to some of the changes done to the island. It's also interesting to see that the other regions they went to were all quick to accept that they need to implement changes. I guess this is partly because Ryza is now an adult with a long résumé to back herself up, and partly because her work has better visibility now. They chose to work in a secret base and hide the island's shocking history, and they're okay with being underappreciated, so good for them I guess.

I also like to see the inclusion of children from the other regions. It helps balancing out the older age of the main group, and puts some of them into a mentor position. Lent helped Dian improve his fighting, and Klaudia and Bos taught Federica management. Too bad Ryza didn't have a student yet. There's also Kala, who is over a millennium old but didn't have much experience in the human world, so she kept getting excited like a curious child.

Like Atelier Lydie & Suelle, several plot threads started by the previous games get satisfactorily resolved here. Also, while in Ryza 2 they felt bad about potentially not being able to meet for a long time, whereas the general feeling is more positive here.

I also like that plots critical to the characters' development are mandatory main story events here, instead of being optional like in Ryza 2. This avoids situation where the ending tells things the player doesn't know.

I do have some complaints about the story, though. Towards the ending, the nature of the Code of the Universe and what did it do exactly isn't made very clear. It didn't really matter since it wouldn't change Ryza's course of action, though. And it's not like I expected more either; this series isn't known for having every minor plot detail explained. Atelier Lydie & Suelle was close, but it did have an unexplained scene where Sophie was seen contemplating something after the final boss.

(Atelier Lydie & Suelle Episode 11 spoilers)

SPOILER: Click to show

After the Remplir core of The Black Horizon is defeated, Sophie was staring at the painting world's surroundings, seemingly thinking something is amiss. This was never brought up again.

My other complaint, and it's really mostly a personal preference and expectation thing, is that this game is too straight. As in, not gay. This isn't Nights of Azure, but the previous games did have some low levels of… fuel for yuri fans, shall I put it. There are not-explicitly-stated but obvious pairs like Sophie and Plachta, and a few popular one-sided examples. The Ryza games, however, gave us not one, not two, but three sets of straight pairs that are explicitly stated. Not that I dislike the pairings themselves. (Nelke gave us several straight pairings too, but that's side contents and not part of the main story.)

Graphics

The screens look like they have underwent multiple passes of processing. In terms of resolution, the 2D UI elements are rendered in 1080p, while the 3D models look pretty crazy. It's like they rendered the models at 810p, then apply the shading at 540p, and for parts that the game wants to render as transparent, it uses dithering at 810p. On top of that, it uses low-resolution textures, which is very notable with the skybox. The whole thing looks very jarring.

Also, speaking of fake 3D object transparency, the battles take place without screen transition. There is no collision detection for the player characters or enemies, and they can appear behind objects that are rendered transparent. The result looks really, really weird. The draw distance of the shadows are pretty short too.

There is a recent update that adds some graphics options to the console versions of the game, but I haven't tried that yet.

Not related to graphical power, but one feature implemented in Ryza 2 and 3 is that Ryza's model will look wet in the rain. The problem is, this looks weird when she is indoor, and I went through the long cutscenes with her discussing Federica's jewel in Klaudia's father's company, where water drops were seen flowing upwards along her raised forearm, pretty much confirming that this is just animated texture. And as the group departed for Nemed afterwards, the skybox is hardcoded to be sunny but Ryza was still wet.

One small thing I don't like about the UI is that during battles, the icons showing the character skills triggerable by L1 + direction are not put far in the bottom left corner. The UI is already pretty cramped, so anything that obstructs the action would be undesirable.

Battle

The battles are mostly the same as Ryza 1 and 2. Additional features include the ability to make keys after weakening enemies (the type of key gained differs for each enemy), use keys (although since battles are easy anyway, keys ended up being underutilised), and trigger specific moves from player characters even if they are not part of the active party.

I think the battles are actually simpler than the previous games. In Ryza 1 and 2, Ryza's allies will have follow-up attacks when certain requests are fulfilled, like "use an item" or "stun an enemy". This time, there are only 2 types of requests, being "perform physical attack" and "perform magical attack". Any method of attacking (besides standard attacks) can be used. Follow-up attacks are also triggered when swapping characters. Generally speaking, the battles are both mechanically simple and easy.

Characters still move around, but it's mostly just for show. The enemy position mechanics in Ryza 2 are gone, not that it really mattered there either.

Synthesis

Making items is more or less the same as before, but it's easier. For me personally, actually bothering to figure out how item duplication works helped a lot.

Not only are powerful items made available relatively early, but a new mechanic, super trait (a 4th trait slot with its exclusive, powerful traits that can only be inherited directly from raw materials), makes mass duplication of items very easy. Before long, I got Philosopher's Stones and other gems that can fill up large numbers of slots, and can replenish them for free anytime. This is also possible in Ryza 1 and 2, but they're not that broken and I didn't bother with duplication back then.

Keys can be used to slightly improve the synthesized items. This is mostly useful for adding that final little push when making ultimate equipment and items.

Other game mechanics / impression

A major story element is the keys, but as a game mechanic they don't feel that important. They are needed to break barriers and get all recipes, and their ability to make items better is most certainly welcome, although in battles they aren't that useful.

Dialogs that aren't tied to the story, world quests or character quests aren't voiced. This includes normal quests featuring major characters. It's to be expected by now, though.

The movement options also feel a bit limited. Ryza's running speed cannot be raised since the Wind Shoes are only used for sliding this time, although she can move faster by riding on the divine beast. The resulting maximum movement speed is still below what can be achieved in Firis (and a bunch of other Atelier games), which is a minor problem as Ryza 3 has large areas to explore in. Ryza's base running speed isn't bad, though.

One neat feature is the animals that guide Ryza to treasure boxes and other areas of interest. And there are turtles near underwater treasure boxes to make them more discoverable. This is done in a rather subtle way, as the game doesn't explain this in any way.

And speaking of animals, Ryza can pet cats and dogs. They will give Ryza some raw materials in return.

This game is neat in many ways. I don't like it as much as some of the Arland and Mysterious games, but as a game in general, it's still a very good one, and easily the best out of the Ryza games.

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Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon
よるのないくに2 〜新月の花嫁〜

Background information

Nights of Azure 2 is an action game that, like the first game, intentionally departs from Gust's usual style. While it's mainly Gust's production, it has a director from ω-Force, a writer from Team NINJA, and Junichi Fujisaku from Production I.G as an external scenario supervisor, resulting in this particular story and game style.

Outside of the action, there are also time management and relationship point elements, but they are easy to manipulate if you know in advance what to expect (and understand that 100% completion is not possible in the first run). The overall format and low difficulty has similarities with Atelier Rorona.

There is a lily motif throughout the game, and the partner characters Aluche can bring are called Lilies. Yuri (the plant) means lily, and this is a yuri game, thus the theme.

Nights of Azure 2 has fallen victim to its circumstances, resulting in a rather low popularity. It was promoted as part of the Gust Bishōjō Fes and had a planned 2016 release date, but that was delayed to February 2017 and later August 2017, with a Nintendo Switch version announced alongside the 2nd delay. For one reason or another — the delays, the repetitive nature of the game, or the story — it ended up not being widely discussed relative to the first Nights of Azure or the other Gust Bishōjō Fes games (Atelier Firis and BLUE REFLECTION).

In a way, this is good news for me. The game's delay and platform change means I can play it on Nintendo Switch. The low popularity means I can buy it years after it came out and still get the first-print bonus DLC (a Puni Servan).

This game shows quite a lot of skin. It's rated CERO C (15+) / PEGI 12 / ESRB T, which is the same rating as much milder games like Fire Emblem Fates. Unlike in those other games where CERO overreacted, here the C rating is warranted.

Overall impression

This game is rather underwhelming. The action is clunky (because that's what happens when a turn-based RPG developer makes action games, just like how Super Paper Mario has weird physics), the background story is intriguing but the resolutions aren't satisfying, and the character events are rather predictable.

It also forces multiple playthroughs, which seems to be a recurring theme for Gust (Meruru, Escha & Logy, Shallie, Nights of Azure 2, Nelke and BRSL all cannot be 100% completed in a single run). I guess it's not as bad here, because this game has a very small scope, with only up to 44 days of explorations possible in the first playthrough. It also has a small scope in terms of story, with only the main story (7 chapters), 6 sets of Lily Quests (18 short conversations × 7 characters) and some unvoiced extras.

This game looks like it will greatly benefit from having a sequel, but it also doesn't look like it will get one. Generally, I appreciate how Gust isn't afraid of following up on things that aren't well-received, but in the case of Nights of Azure 2, I don't think they will benefit from making a sequel. It won't make money, it's unlikely it will introduce interesting gameplay, and I doubt many would want to see one made anyway. The only purpose a sequel would serve is as a story conclusion. This makes the situation rather frustrating.

The music is pretty good, though. And the story does have some interesting moments.

Story

TV Tropes has a better introduction than I can come up with.

In a world where humans and demons coexist, a being known as the Moon Queen Malvasia sets out to launch a revenge attack on humanity. The Curia, an organisation whose goal is to stop the spreading of the Night by the demons, sends their agent Aluche to get the priestess Liliana, Aluche's childhood friend who has the ability to stop time. Upon learning the Curia's intention to have Liliana as a human sacrifice to stop Malvasia, Aluche found herself in a difficult position.

They were confronted by their other childhood friend Ruenheid, who has left the Curia for the rival organisation, the Lourdes Order, as she has had enough of the Curia's approach of using human sacrifices to solve all problems. Before they could settle their dispute, they were approached by Malvasia, who easily overpowered and killed Aluche. Ruenheid escaped while Liliana went missing.

Aluche found herself waking up, as a researcher of demons and fiends called Camilla revived her by giving her demon blood. Camilla took Aluche to Hotel Eterna, an establishment under Camilla's ownership, where Aluche and Ruenheid reunited. The hotel has facilities for half-demon maintenance, and has served as their base of operation since then.

As a half-demon, Aluche could see the Azure Moon, a countdown that signals the coming of the Night, when people will sleep eternally. She also got the ability to suck blood, which was necessary for her to maintain a balance of red human blood and blue demon blood. With the help of Camilla and others, Aluche must find ways to delay the Night, and eventually kill Malvasia and stop the Night from spreading.

(Ending spoilers)

SPOILER: Click to show

The DLC shed more light on Malvasia's nature. Malvasia was driven by the rage of having her human lover commit murder-suicide as a result of humans ostracised her for loving a demon. Malvasia herself was revived (demons can't die permanently) and experimented on by the Curia, which further fueled her hatred and led her to conclude that she must spread the Nights and end humanity.

In the true ending (unlocked with all Liliana and Ruenheid character events seen), it was revealed that the Night was already spreading, and Liliana was using her power to halt Malvasia the whole time. Liliana also transformed the nearby area into an alternate, dream version, hoping that she could fulfil her last promises with Aluche before she can no longer hold up and lets the Night consume the world. (The Liliana they found in the story was an illusion.)

Aluche's response was to suck Liliana's blood to gain her power, which combined with Ruenheid's power over emotion she got earlier allowed her to join Liliana to trap themselves and Malvasia in a time bubble for eternity. The epilogue (unlocked with all character events seen) has the Lilies wishing for their return and Arnice stating she wants to rescue them after taking care of her own business of finding her lover.

The default ending has Malvasia absorb Aluche and gaining her power, which forced an unwilling Ruenheid to use a failsafe mechanism in Aluche's implanted heart to kill her along with Malvasia.

Characters

Let's get to the terminology first: there are several types of beings in this story.

• Humans, red-blooded creatures who belong to the day
• Demons, blue-blooded creatures who are active at night
• Half-demons, purple-blooded hybrids artifically made by blood transfer
• Fiends, organic and inorganic things who gain sentience by exposure to blue blood

Through prolonged exposure to blue blood, demons, half-demons and fiends can lose their selves and become vicious, mindless attackers. Half-demons can also turn into full demons through continued exposure, and they need to regularly absorb red blood to avoid losing thselves.

• Aluche, a Curia agent who is trying to find a way to stop Malvasia without sacrificing Liliana. Though optimistic, she is prepared for the worst outcome. She loves chocolate.
• Arnice, the legendary half-demon and the current Nightlord, the storngest demon. Also has an interest in taking down Malvasia.
• Ruenheid, Aluche and Liliana's childhood friend and dormitory roomate in the academy. Now part of the Lourdes Order as she does not agree with the Curia's ways.
• Liliana, a priestess who can halt time. It's because of this that the Curia has chosen her as the sacrifice to Malvasia.

• Muveil, former Holy Knight of the Curia before she volunteered herself to Camilla's half-demon experiment. She is now a full demon.
• Eleanor, a chocolatier who wants to make people happy with her chocolate, which is popular among demons. She provides the hotel's chocolate drink used for welcoming guests.
• Camilla, a half-demon researcher responsible for Aluche's revival. She owns Hotel Eterna, Aluche's base of operation.
• Veruschka, a half-demon killer who was sent to kill Aluche but teamed up with her upon finding that their goals align. She is slowly dying due to the circumstances of her half-demon experiments.

• Christophorus, a pure-blooded demon and Arnice's friend who often appears out of nowhere to give Aluche advice.
• Nero, a fiend who Aluche found during childhood. It now partners Aluche as a Servan.
• Kaede, a doll fiend found by Camilla. She uses her Shikigami to help run Hotel Eterna.

(There are many other Servans, but Nero and Kaede are the most story-relevant ones)

Story impression

My general frustration of the game mostly stems with the story. They made a good, interesting setup, and directed the audience to get attached to the characters and oppose the Curia, who created more problems than they are set to solve, but then failed to give the player a proper channel to really help these characters. This would have been fine if it's not the final game in the series and the next entry can resolve this (which is why I am satisfied with Ryza 3 despite not liking Ryza 1 that much), but a combination of low sales, low engagement and Nights of Azure not really being that good as an action game makes me think a sequel is unlikely.

I will now pretend a completely different game, Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists, is totally canon and indicative of the characters' fate. They successfully got out of that nightmarish situation and spent about a year peacefully in Westwald. Yep. For context, in Nelke, the Atelier characters are from after their respective best endings, and is written in a way that mostly avoids conflict with canon. The extra non-Atelier characters from the free DLC packs don't come with any pretext, but let's pretend they're also post-ending, since there's no story conflict with them either (they only have generic lines like "we need to produce more of ____").

Back to Nights of Azure 2 itself, I also find the romantic aspect a bit unexpected, in that Aluche has a fixed lover despite what the UI suggests. While I'm usually a fan of fixed pairings, I feel sorry for most of those who are interested in Aluche, since Aluche already has her pick and is completely oblivious to anyone else.

The story has some parallels with BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light, but there are also many differences. Both have emotional stories, but BRSL had an ending that made the journey worth it, while in Nights of Azure 2, it ended with a feeling that something still needs to be done. It's a good first half of a story, but not a good full story. I already know about this game's reputation though, so while I was disappointed, I was not unpleasantly surprised.

Graphics

It's blurry, as expected from a 2017 Gust game which never got updated like Atelier Lydie & Suelle did. The resolution is about 540p for the 3D elements. But at least it's consistently blurry and it doesn't have a lot of special effects added.

The frame rate is a consistent 30 fps most of the time when docked, surprisingly. This makes animations look less refined but more consistent than ω-Force and Team NINJA's Warriors games, which run at slightly above 30 fps. Since the final output is always 60 Hz, a consistent 30 fps actually looks better than 34—36 fps without interpolation.

The overall graphics quality surprised me a bit. I expected worse for an action game from a non-action game team.

Battle

It plays like a Warriors game, but with clunkier controls. Attack animations cannot be cancelled, which makes defensive play harder. Good thing the enemies' moves are also very heavily telegraphed, so the overall game is still pretty easy, with a few enemies as exceptions.

Unlike Warriors, while weak and strong attacks still use the □(Y) and △(X) buttons, not all moves use a pattern like △, □△, □□△, □□□△ and so on. Aluche's defualt single-handed sword uses this pattern, but other weapons have moves like △□△ and △△□ for the partisan and □△□ and □□△□ for the broadsword, although in general I don't bother to remember individual moves.

During each exploration, Aluche can bring a Lily (partner character) and two Servans (fiends who remain uncorrupted by exposure to demon blood) to roam the player-selected area for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on Aluche's level and unlocked skills. The player can advance the story, get side quests done, or just generally grind for levels.

The Lilies and Servans usually fight on their own, but there are character-specific moves (Active Skills, Lily Burst, Double Chase) that can be triggered and the Servans can either be commanded to attack or transform to weapons at the press of a button, provided they have MP left. I'd say the variety is just enough not to look too boring, but it still feels like a lot of busywork. Lily Burst and Double Chase do look flashy, so I'd recommend to use each each Lily at least once, although Camilla and Muveil aren't very efficient.

Of all Lilies, Arnice is the most powerful one in both story and gameplay. She looks like a "knight in shining armour" type too.

Synthesis

Wait, wrong game. There is an item enhancement system though. Throughout the game, the player can get various equippable items from chests or as quest rewards. These items can be combined at the shop to make better versions of the items, but the process is expensive if items of a lower tier are used to strenghen a high-tier item. The gain from this is relatively miniscule, and given the game's low difficulty, there isn't much point in doing so other than as a way to get rid of duplicate items.

Consumable items dropped by enemies or found in barrels are instantly consumed. There are also no equippable items that can be used for healing. Actually, healing options are rather limited in this game, so while it's easy, it's not exactly effortless button-mashing.

Other game mechanics / impression

While the story and gameplay don't feel like what Gust usually does, the rendering, UI, general programming and music are still distinctly theirs. The Saint's Forest BGM, El Viento, feels very similar to Gemini Wing, a boss fight BGM in Atelier Lydie & Suelle. Love Song of War also feels like it could fit in Firis or Lydie & Suelle as a boss theme. And speaking of the music, it's great.

It also has the same bug that counts time spent in sleep mode as play time, just like the original Lydie & Suelle and Nelke.

Starting from version 1.02, the time limit is lifted after the first playthrough. I don't think time management is that tight though, and 100% quest completion is definitely possible in 2 runs even without this patch.

One thing this game didn't handle well is the bonus costumes, which I have none. Costumes based on Firis (Atelier) and Hinako (BR) are available for those who have early purchase bonuses of all three games (and are limited to PS4 and PS Vita, since there are no Switch versions of the other games). Costumes based on Millennia (Kagero) and Yuri (Fatal Frame) are time-limited free DLC, and the former was only available on PS4/PS Vita and the latter was only for Nintendo Switch. Which means a complete set cannot be obtained, no matter what.

This game is good enough for me to see to the end of it. It actually left me wanting for more of the story too, despite the rather boring gameplay. But the combat does feel repetitive, and the incompleteness of the story (and unlikeliness of a proper sequel) left me a sour taste.

---

I picked these two games to play back-to-back somewhat intentionally. I wanted to play a new game and a relatively old one to contrast each other, and they are polar opposite in many ways too. There isn't much in common between these two games besides both being low-resolution and both games halted/crashed once during my playthroughs.

Surge Concerto DX will be next.