Story: B+
Characters: B
Music: S
Gameplay: B+
Misc: A

Overall 7.75/10

For my first Atelier game I was surprised as to how fun this ended up being. It has a lot of things that makes me think of games I hold really dear; good world building, consequences, characters that doesn't insult your intelligence, some good twists, and of course a female protag (there's something Kino about female leads in games)

I was also surprised with how "safe" this game is, always saw Ryza's arts and thought the game was too lewd pandering to people that likes thighs, and besides 2 character designs (and some slight jiggly physics and butt camera), the game is actually very tame and does not use stupid generic trope jokes.

Game is quite easy (that depends mostly on the learning curve tho), but it's still very fun to play, the gameplay loop is fun and sometimes the game has some difficulty spikes that are well received, I was also amazed with how polished it is as there are certain things that makes things quite balanced, in this case, Item and Skill usage. Also, Small numbers goes brrrrrrrrrrrr.

Soundtrack is full of bangers as expected of GUST.

Now, there's some things that I wish were done a little better, I understand the idea behind not being able to carry a bunch of items in your explorations, but it's quite annoying having to go back to the Atelier to get rid of items to continue exploring, and you only get the bag expansion somewhere midgame, and the item scanner further into the game, which would have saved me a lot of trouble early, but it is what it is. Other than that, it was a solid experience.

This game is hella beautiful holy cow

Completed all main 5 routes.

Gameplay: Might not be as fast as I love my Ys, but it's still pretty good and solid. Quite difficult even on normal difficulty (although second route was a breeze until endgame lol) Variety of weapons is nice, but Punch 2 Explode was my go-to in the end.

Story: Not going to tell much here to avoid spoiling too much, but I think this is the closest I've been to a story that tops my favorite game trilogy (Trails in the Sky), at first I had my doubts because it seemed like it focused on delivering with OST and gameplay, but the other routes changed my mind.

OST: Great, and I love how some quests have a thematic soundtrack composed for them, which is a neat detail.

Characters: Great, same with Story, the other routes vastly changed my mind about them.

Misc: Great, Quests are quite rewarding and while some might be a little bit tedious, at least the QoL features this game has makes them fun to complete.

Overall: I had fun, and the game may leave a big void on me lol. All I can say is that I wish I had played this a little bit sooner haha, but oh well, it was still 35+~ish hours well spent.