Reviews from

in the past


Fun enough for what's essentially an anniversary game. Got it on sale for about $20, which is about what I'd price it at for being a for-fans time management sim. That said, I'm about halfway into my second go at it after losing in the original run, when I realized I don't really care to keep going lol.

Nelke is a celebration of the Atelier franchise that is just packed with (non-sexual) fanservice featuring characters throughout the history of the whole series and other references and homages to things of old. It's very very hard though, reminding me of the days of first trying Atelier Rorona when it was originally localized and losing a million times in a row. This is designed like older Atelier - play until you fail, learn from that failure, play again while planning ahead, repeat until you finish. That loop is fun though and in the case of this game specifically you meet characters and such at different times so there is a bit of a new experience (aside the big issues) each time.

The gameplay this time is a management sim rather than a synthesis based JRPG, but they managed to design a pretty addictive and fun one even though it's so far from what they usually make.

Pretty to look at, fun to play, massive lovable cast - but a bit lacking in story.

Got to 2 turns to go in task 5 and realised I wasn't gonna make it. As it went on I started to feel like I had to take notes with the constant stat and item juggling, it almost got kinda stressful. I constantly found myself going through menus to set up the events for the week, remembering something that needed doing and then going back and doing that thing, and it gets more and more tedious to do that the more facilities you build. I wish the weekday menu system was a little more streamlined, since that's probably the majority of the game.
That being said, it was pretty fun and addictive! Good dopamine hit when you're constantly unlocking new stuff. If I pick this back up to finish again it'll probably be on vita when I need another way to blow away my commute.