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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rating in 2021: 3 stars

Rating in 2023: 4.5 stars

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

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

Not much I can say about Meruru that I didn't already say in my Rorona Plus review. This game basically takes everything from its prequels and tries to improve it as much as possible, also brings along a lot of powerful optional post-game content that will test your alchemy and combat skills both. It might feel a tad safe, but it's a great way to conclude the trilogy. Soundtrack is great again, but I kind of prefer Totori's battle themes, though that's just preference because Meruru's battle themes are just a complete different beast.

The plot this time is just as light as previous games, and lighter than Totori's even. This time you're tasked with helping develop your kingdom through alchemy, plus usual coming of age kinda stuff as Meruru grows over the 5 years the game covers. Nothing too special, but Meruru herself has some great growth throughout the game and seeing characters from previous games show up again but older is excellent fanservice. Adult Totori is best girl. The game also really toned down the misplaced "lewd" shit that the previous games had, which is very welcome, although Astrid is back and still a bit suspect at times, but I still don't mind her and she's not as bad as in Rorona anyway. Developing the kingdom is also great fun, and you get different rewards based on what you choose to develop. For time limit haters, the time limits are also a lot more lenient than Totori's.

There's not much for me to complain about for this game. Meruru herself can be a tad obnoxious and loud at times (I like her overall least out of Arland's protags), and you HAVE to play the game twice through NG+ to be able to get the true ending (it's literally locked from you on a NG run), but I didn't mind that as I was going for the plat from the start anyway. The game's cast is also mostly made up of returning characters, which can be kinda lame but I don't mind it because seeing the returning characters and how they've changed over the games is one of the best parts of the games, just don't expect many new characters. Enviorements are still nothing special, but it IS nice to see them change over the course of the game as you develop the kingdom so there's that.