Customer Reviews

Atelier Escha and Logy (PS3)

Okay, so this is my first encounter with the Atelier series (which at this point has 15 games or something?) and I was completely unsure of whether I'd like it or hate it. Recently I've been trying out JRPGs which is a genre I'd previously been avoiding, but after titles like Fire Emblem and Bravely Default I've fallen in love with the genre. Anyway, on to the game.

First of all, this game has a LOT of stuff for you to learn; I've been playing it for about 5 hours now and the tutorials are still coming. If it's your first time with the series, always select yes when the game asks if you want to hear a tutorial so you won't be completely lost. To be honest I still have no idea what any of the various stats do to an item (like seriously, what is an Earth point worth? I can use it to increase the "effect" of my item, but does spending it have any repercussions?) so it's probably worth looking at guides online or reading the game manual for a total understanding.

The story from what I've been able to pick up is this: You are an alchemist working for a government agency in a small village with a partner. If you choose the male protagonist to play as, you're basically a city boy who's been transferred to the countryside and has to cope with using older methods for alchemy. It's your job to solve all the various problems that come up. At this point in the game I've yet to encounter any of kind of antagonist or bad person in general which is apparently something of a common trend for the series. Whether or not I find it to be a problem, I'd say the story hardly demands a villain so it's fine.

The games central theme, if it can be called that, is alchemy/crafting. Before taking missions, you synthesise and create potions, bombs, food etc. and forge/imbue weapons. There's a lot of micro-management going on which at a lot of points seems arbitrary at best, but I like it since it has the potential to have you experimenting with various combinations and upgrades for hours. On saying that, you can't really mess around too much, since the game also makes a big deal of time management and alchemy takes a lot of time. There's also the combat, which is turn-based and pretty fun, but seems a little unbalanced since whenever I'm given the option to fight a special kind of enemy, I select the easiest one and still get my butt handed to me despite the fact that normal encounters are relatively unchallenging.

The assignments in the game give you a time limit; 120 days to tackle the main assignment and any other optional assignments you have time for. Most actions in the game use up time; picking up items, traveling to new areas and alchemy all use up multiple days, so you have to plan well. Actually, it's not of the utmost importance if you take your time since passing the main assignment is all you need to do to advance in the game and that's easy. The main assignment is often easy to complete quickly and on the first assignment I'd completed the main goal in 20 of the 120 days. This leaves the remaining 100 days as "free time", where you can tackle all the various subquests and interact with the characters.

You'd think that a game that relies so heavily on its crafting system, which is a minigame at best in most games, and time management wouldn't be very fun at all, and yet the crafting is so diverse and varied that the mere act of experimentation has such a large appeal and the time management is more than lenient, affording such large amounts of time for the simplest of tasks, and yet still preventing you from just breaking the game by gathering infinite amounts of ingredients.

With everything considered, it's kept my attention much longer than any western releases as of late, games which I would usually have afforded 5 stars, so it hardly seems fair to give this any less than that. It's a pretty great experience that really shines if you have the patience to withstand the slow, tutorial-ridden first 1 or 2 hours.

If you've been playing Gust's Atelier series, you know what to expect. Cute girls, alchemy and different persons to enter your team along the story. And that's the case in this game also, but you can also play from male perspective which isn't too bad.

Good: The battle system gets updated, and it went to the better way. In each battle you have six persons fighting for you, three at a time but other three can support your attacks or defend you depending on the situation. Alchemy is better than in Ayesha and the story perspective from government officials is also good.

Bad: Not much, maybe the last year can get bit boring if you complete everyrhing you need to do way before the time limit.

All in all, a great game for everyone who enjoys Atelier games.

I love me some Atelier! Love the games and their combat and synthesis system, love the design and loveable characters, love it all!
This one is special, Gust used for the first time Tecmo Koei's Dinasty Warriors engine to make this game and you can tell that the character animations and lighting in this game is in a new level. The beautiful places you visit look more alive.
Character designs is as always supperb and players who have had the pleasure of having played Atelier Ayesha will recognize some returning characters.
The soundtrack is mindblowingly good and I was pleasently surprised by some Anime custscenes that look lovely and make me eager for the upcoming Anime series for this same title.
A most enjoyable experience that you wont regret playing and replaying.

Really good Game and the delivery was fast and simple. At the begining it may seem a little diferent than most rpg's but once you get the hang of it it becomes really fun.

Builds on the previous game, adding another playable character and an almost new cast of support characters.
Alchemy has been redone.
The structure of the game is quite open and the time limit won't matter unless you waste a lot of time.
Items like bombs etc. are replaced (for a cost) when you return to town , so you can be quite free with their use.
The field search function alllows quick gathering, or discovery of artificats (some very rare).

The only negatives are some things are poorly explained and the translation has some errors. The quality is not quite upto the first trilogy.

Great game. Bought it and everything went well with the shipping.

I recommend the game to all rpg lovers and you should definitely pick this one up.