Gameplay
First time with an Atelier game, was pleasantly surprised. The core loop of gathering and crafting is very satisfying, as is making upgrades to your gear. Each new tool in your arsenal feels like you just broke the difficulty of the game in half, which can be very satisfying, but I wish they let you play the harder difficulties before clearing the game. Even on Hard the game never really challenged me except when I accidentally stumbled into a post-game boss.
Story
The story was very charming, and it struck me how grounded it stayed. Sure, you are eventually saving thousands of people with your actions, but the focus is squarely on the personal growth of your characters and a well crafted coming-of-age story.
Anime Bullshit:
The game is thankfully light on typical nonsense, baring some over-sized and gravity defying boobs, as well as the main character's absurd outfit. Outside of the visual presentation, the story does not overly sexualize it's women and lets them be full people, even sidestepping what I thought was surely going an out-of-nowhere romantic development.
In Conclusion
A nice, warm, and ultimately bitter-sweet coming-of-age story with a compelling crafting system, main thing holding it back is an ok combat system and an aversion to doing anything too terribly different or out there. It is an excellent "one of those" but there are a lot of them out there.
First time with an Atelier game, was pleasantly surprised. The core loop of gathering and crafting is very satisfying, as is making upgrades to your gear. Each new tool in your arsenal feels like you just broke the difficulty of the game in half, which can be very satisfying, but I wish they let you play the harder difficulties before clearing the game. Even on Hard the game never really challenged me except when I accidentally stumbled into a post-game boss.
Story
The story was very charming, and it struck me how grounded it stayed. Sure, you are eventually saving thousands of people with your actions, but the focus is squarely on the personal growth of your characters and a well crafted coming-of-age story.
Anime Bullshit:
The game is thankfully light on typical nonsense, baring some over-sized and gravity defying boobs, as well as the main character's absurd outfit. Outside of the visual presentation, the story does not overly sexualize it's women and lets them be full people, even sidestepping what I thought was surely going an out-of-nowhere romantic development.
In Conclusion
A nice, warm, and ultimately bitter-sweet coming-of-age story with a compelling crafting system, main thing holding it back is an ok combat system and an aversion to doing anything too terribly different or out there. It is an excellent "one of those" but there are a lot of them out there.