One of the best combat systems in the series tragically beset by one of the worst alchemy systems. Crafting and unlocking new recipes is such an unfun chore that the game ends up being more fun if you set the difficulty to easy and ignore items altogether beyond the bare minimum. Which, in an Atelier game, is rather disappointing. But in every other aspect it's a big improvement over the first game, and features one of the strongest casts in the series to date. Patty and Serri my beloveds.