The Atelier series

[Puukko]

Steam reviews are very good, praising the gameplay, qol improvements and maps. And it seems to have booba galore...

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

Sophie 2 is amazing, the only Atelier i consider a bad game is the first Ryza game but that game was clearly unfinished, Gust was testing the water with their new engine. I'm optimistic with Atelier as a franchise and makes me hopeful for it's future, something that i can't say about any other. Gust has clear what Atelier as a franchise is, cute girls going on adventures with some yuri spice and crafting autism without being so hard that people who just want a SOL animu get filtered by. I do miss being able to look at characters pantsu and i'm sure that it's because Soyny but most companies have bended the knee to them by now so that it's nothing new.

If you like Atelier buy it, you will not regret it.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

... And it seems to have booba galore...

Oh? Hmmm.....

 

[Gerrard]

Releasing it 1 day after Elden Ring was a brilliant marketing strategy.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Releasing it 1 day after Elden Ring was a brilliant marketing strategy.

Yep. I bought Atelier Sophie 2 instead of Elden Ring. Take that, From Softpenis!

 

[Reinhardt]

Releasing it 1 day after Elden Ring was a brilliant marketing strategy.

Yep. I bought Atelier Sophie 2 instead of Elden Ring.

Every sane person did it.

 

[Hobo Elf]

The music is so great in Sophie 2. I always liked the Atelier music, but I don't remember it being this good.

 

[Reinhardt]

Good to hear. Music was always GUST strong point but they declined lately, mostly using tracks from previous titles while playing recent games.

 

[Deflowerer]

I haven't even played the games proper yet, but know this album:

 

[deuxhero]

Official survey. Link broken in-case referal info being checked.
https://koeitecmoamerica .com/survey/sophie2/

They want to know if you want an English dub (fuck no) and anything else (tell them the girls should actually kiss instead of just teasing)

 

[Puukko]

Alright, this game has given me the Atelier bug again. A lot of great aspects and improvements and some bits that I think are a bit meh after previous games did them better.

The first impression is that the game is front loaded with skippable tutorials and exposition. Those tutorials are still going 10 hours later and it's still introducing mechanics. The actual gameplay loop opens up after maybe 1.5 hours and man, is it loopy. The game constantly dangles a carrot in front of you. You unlock recipes for two different alchemists with their own alchemy levels and unique craftables by collecting specific materials and beating enemies or performing specific moves in battle. Then there are the usual requests that you fulfill in tandem. It's easy to track where to go to for these thanks to the icons on the map.

The tl;dr of how alchemy work this time around is that ingredients come with Tetris blocks of different shapes and colors that you then place on a grid in an optimal way to form lines and create chains between the blocks. It's a system that's fairly easy to grasp and also to tell how it'll get really complicated down the line due to all the factors you have to take into account. Very engaging.
Everyone can use items in combat (with some odd limitations that I haven't figured out yet) and it's relatively standard fare. No ATB, 3+3 with swapping on the go between the rows. Easy so far on Hard, might bump it up.

The less inspired:

The town is pretty generic compared to Ryza 2 and you have little reason to traverse it outside fast travel to the important locations. No side quests from NPCs so far nor any shops beyond one. This series has never really had cities that felt alive (OG Sophie felt particularly soulless in this regard based on what little I played of it) and here it's really all just dressing so far.
Story is nonsense. Again, not a main focus of this series, it's slice of life with ~mystery~ sprinkled on top. Actually, the main plot is basically a retread of Ayesha, now that I think of it. Difference being, the world of Dusk was somewhat interesting. I'd like to see them revisit it or make something similar that's darker.

Competent on a technical level, certainly a big improvement over the barely functional DX ports though with some oddities. Won't use more than 80-85% of my GPU - even less if I were to drop the resolution. Antialiasing does jack shit. Forcing SSAA via driver seemed to help a little bit, maybe? Could be placebo, I was already tired when testing. Rare low res textures. Looks very sharp otherwise.

Music is subjective, hasn't struck out to me so far. I'm a fan of the Dusk trilogy music, they've lost some of that creativity since.

Grandma looking fine:

 

[Shadenuat]

it's atelier thanks god, couldn't stop synethiszing, already going into volcano land. of course it lacks familiar and soothing archetypical characters of Arland, doesn't do anything experimental like Firis and is not "setting is the story" like in morrown Dusk, but I think it plays better than Sophie 1 and it is not rtwp with nerfed alchemy so it is a small Incline.

biggest problem: where are my costumes?? there is nothing to dress up chars into, barely anything and its only for sophie

if this is GIRL GAEM, at this point there should have been dress up system - hats shoes jewelry dresses etc.
wtf black cat not approves.

Everyone can use items in combat (with some odd limitations that I haven't figured out yet)

you can check who can use what when equipping item, little faces show
alchemists use everything, others depends: sniper is ice, he can use advanced ice bomb; knight is knight uses lightning and some restoration items; sophie and plachta are gluttons so eat all food. extremely logical

 

[Endemic]

biggest problem: where are my costumes?? there is nothing to dress up chars into, barely anything and its only for sophie

if this is GIRL GAEM, at this point there should have been dress up system - hats shoes jewelry dresses etc.
wtf black cat not approves

I'm sure Koei will add a bunch of swimsuits etc in the inevitable $50 season pass.

 

[Puukko]

There are swimsuits already... I put one on whatsherface, the pink haired girl, because it's a slight improvement over her dumb default outfit.

 

[Shadenuat]

 

[Puukko]

I went back and listened to the Escha & Logy OST a bit. Great mix of styles and probably my favorite Atelier OST ro date. Sophie 2 made has made me realize just how valuable the BGM DLC is, the atelier theme is already leaking out of my ears and I play the game muted more often than not.

 

[Hobo Elf]

The first real difficulty spike of the game. Had to go back and re-synth everything to beat this boss since I had been coasting it with crap.

 

[Endemic]

I went back and listened to the Escha & Logy OST a bit. Great mix of styles and probably my favorite Atelier OST to date.

Agreed.

 

[Puukko]

I went back and listened to the Escha & Logy OST a bit. Great mix of styles and probably my favorite Atelier OST to date.

Agreed.

"mind if I barge in?"

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

 

[Reinhardt]

What i really miss is larger cast of non-alchemist party members. I think Firis was last one where you had some freedom.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Finished Sophie 2. The ending scene with Ramizel

Spoiler

hit me in the feelies since I've somewhat recently lost my grandmother who I was close with.

Very enjoyable Atelier game, definitely one of the better ones though I'm starting to feel fatigue with the Mysterious series alchemy system. I find that it starts to feel a bit too "heavy" in the long term because the alchemy is already mechanically quite complex with lots of things to think about without also playing a color tetris. It's not a bad system and I enjoy it in short bursts, but it does wear you down when you start to min-max. Otherwise I don't really have much to complain. Gameplay was great fun all around and I enjoyed the entire cast of characters. Think I might take a short break and then start replaying Lulua or something.

 

[Puukko]

Finished Sophie 2. The ending scene with Ramizel

Spoiler

hit me in the feelies since I've somewhat recently lost my grandmother who I was close with.

Very enjoyable Atelier game, definitely one of the better ones though I'm starting to feel fatigue with the Mysterious series alchemy system. I find that it starts to feel a bit too "heavy" in the long term because the alchemy is already mechanically quite complex with lots of things to think about without also playing a color tetris. It's not a bad system and I enjoy it in short bursts, but it does wear you down when you start to min-max. Otherwise I don't really have much to complain. Gameplay was great fun all around and I enjoyed the entire cast of characters. Think I might take a short break and then start replaying Lulua or something.

How's the post game? Better than Ryza's I hope.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Finished Sophie 2. The ending scene with Ramizel

Spoiler

hit me in the feelies since I've somewhat recently lost my grandmother who I was close with.

Very enjoyable Atelier game, definitely one of the better ones though I'm starting to feel fatigue with the Mysterious series alchemy system. I find that it starts to feel a bit too "heavy" in the long term because the alchemy is already mechanically quite complex with lots of things to think about without also playing a color tetris. It's not a bad system and I enjoy it in short bursts, but it does wear you down when you start to min-max. Otherwise I don't really have much to complain. Gameplay was great fun all around and I enjoyed the entire cast of characters. Think I might take a short break and then start replaying Lulua or something.

How's the post game? Better than Ryza's I hope.

Nonexistent until they start adding the DLC. You can have rematches with old boss fights but that's all.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Wanted to finally give the series a proper try, and figured Atelier Ayesha and the Dusk trilogy would be the best place for me to do that. Despite the horrendous pricing practices of KOEI, is there any reason I shouldn't get Ayesha DX on steam?