I greatly respect the pivot that Atelier Firis makes from Atelier Sophie to a game that's far more open and exploratory. It has a far better cast and so much more to see and do than Sophie.

Unfortunately, the second part of the game is where it loses me, as it makes you amble towards endings as you unravel the complicated event system in the game, all while squaring up against the rather harsh difficulty of the combat and generally unfulfilling alchemy system that seems more geared toward sheer grinding than smart material use.

It's neat, it's fascinating, it's definitely a look at what would come later in Ryza, but it's also messy, sometimes quite tedious, and a bit too often unfun.