Alchemy and the battle system in this took a bigger leap in a different direction than they have in previous half dozen or so iteration transitions. It’s kind of a mixed bag and I honestly prefer Atelier Shallie over this one, but this one isn’t terrible by any means either.
The recipe system in this revolves around completing specific tasks. This can be anything from gathering X amount of times or killing a specific enemy to getting a specific trait on to a crafted material. So long as you have the “section” unlocked you are able to unlock recipes, including ones you can’t see yet as you haven’t crafted one in an adjacent slot.
This means that recipes aren’t bought from books in stores anymore, which that in itself I like as I don’t need to overly manage money. However unlocking items through specific individual requirements kind of sucks, particularly in the latter half of the game. If they use the no book purchasing in future iterations, I really hope they come up with a better feeling way of gaining recipes a bit more organically and fun gameplay wise. That doesn't mean they can't have things locked behind some annoyance, just not too much otherwise it becomes a slog unlocking new recipes and thus less fun in turn.
Story progression in this game has some issues as it’s tied to key recipe progression in your alchemy book. Usually this goes smoothly, but for a few sections it really just slowed way down and really killed the feeling of progression. In most previous games the time mechanic handled this quite well in most cases and if you completed a request early you could speed up to the transition point by just sleeping. Other than that the story is mostly your typical Atelier slice of life with an actual bit of shounen at the end that felt
slightly forced/tacked on.
The alchemy system I knew I’d dislike going in so it didn’t bother me much. However, in the latter half you gain 6x6 grid which makes alchemy pretty simple to unlock equipment traits when crafting for the most part. Until then it’s pretty much a slog to attempt on getting better traits unlocked on alchemy and takes a good amount of time to do which drags out alchemy too much. I definitely prefer the previous alchemy systems to this one.
As for the battle system, I hated it at first before you begin to unlock more of the gameplay. The main difference in this one is that you can’t stack the speed stat as it’s very much turn based rather than speed stat based. There’s not much else to say about it as it’s not that much different other than that. Though I suppose the games max “soft” level being 20 is different. You continue leveling to gain points to spend on various things on each character, which is nice. I also felt that combat was a little more difficult than previous iterations, but after a certain point with crafting it was basically a joke (like usual). Although I did take a wrong turn in the final dungeon and encountered what is supposed to be a post-game boss that damage wise I could have killed if they didn’t regain their health every turn to max. All-in-all, I think I preferred the older battle systems but hope they can do something to make speed less of a god stat if they go back to that style of system.
Characters for the most point were enjoyable. I really hated Oskar and disliked Monika (mostly for her pants, what the hell). I also didn’t like Logy being in place of Hagel for the blacksmith, but it’s not that bad. I don’t really like Logy as a character in general though as I always felt he was pretty boring and shoehorned in. I didn’t care much for Harol at first, but over time I felt his character got better.
The other things I didn’t really like in this game that I haven’t mentioned is the rumor system. I do not like having specific items or enemies tied to it. I understand they want you to use money in the game somehow with book buying out of the way, but I don’t feel this was the way to do it. It’s way too random and thus not really enjoyable. Also hated how I couldn’t tell if a character was able to have a cutscene or not, which means you’re forced to talk to everybody constantly to see if you can progress with them or not. Some past Atelier games had them show up on the town map when they had something new to say which was great. Not sure why the hell they removed that.
The other things I did like about it is how they integrated the item duplication system as well as equipment restocking. I won’t spoil it, but you don’t gain these abilities right away and everything fit pretty naturally into the world compared to previous games. I also liked the weapon and armor reinforcement system a bit, but I think they can improve its presentation to make it fit better if they decide to re-use it again. Finally, I really hope they continue to stop using book buying to earn recipes as money management just to afford the things in previous games was always a pain in the ass.
Tl;dr
Like
- The way you don't rely on buying books for damn near every recipe. I feel they can still improve this though. Also nice to feel like you aren't worrying about not spending money to afford said books.
- How they integrated duplication and item regeneration. Though it isn't unlocked right away.
- The weapon/armor reinforcement system. I feel it kinda fits. Somewhat. It's a nice change of pace and hope they integrate it better in the future if used again
Ehhh
- The battle system. I prefer the old ones where speed was more noticeable and it was less of a strict turn based system than this one. Hated it at first, but as more stuff unlocked it wasn't so bad.
Dislike
- Alchemy system. Prefer the older ones, but becomes less of a chore when you unlock 6x6 cauldrons.
- Characters: Monika (It's probably those pants.), Oskar & Harol. Oh and
you Logy, quit appearing in so many damned games. Everyone else is fine. Though the twins are kinda ehhh.
- Rumor system. I don't really like having optional bosses tied to rumors that randomly appear. Same with the superior gathering items, which I hope are equivalent to 5* gathering. (I'd rather have rare/boss enemies tied to weather/time and have some kind of weather prediction system in game, maybe via alchemy.)
Recommendation: Maybe at some point, but hopefully the (likely) plus version improves on the negative aspects. Otherwise play through other games in the series first before considering this one.
