Various Thoughts

The first of this trilogy (apparently a sequel to the Dusk Trilogy if Logy’s appearance is any indication) is Atelier Sophie ~The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book~. It starts off very laid-back and slice of life-y, which isn’t really a problem. The problem is that the combat system and gathering areas feel unfinished and are kind of a chore to engage with. Combine that with having to grind requests to advance the plot and I ended up dropping it shortly after the previously mentioned Logy appearance.

The second, Atelier Firis ~The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey~, reintroduces the time limit found in earlier Atelier games (you have a year to complete the ‘main’ quest; there’s no limit to continued exploration afterward)… except now time passes constantly. Simply walking around the map causes time to pass. That’s a hard no from me.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle ~The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings~ is the third game, and much like Shallie it brings back a large number of characters from both previous games. The plot here is more self-contained though and not having played through those doesn’t seem to result in missing much here (Alt will be a mystery until his last friendship event triggers and the couple mentions of Oskar won’t make sense if you haven’t touched Sophie). There’s no time limit (aside from the repeatable/ignorable requests and one particular, very simple, main quest) and it doesn’t require any grinding to progress the storyline (though unlocking the True End does, effort I feel is wasted due to the conflicting messaging). The only problems are that the gathering areas are much too large (not lifelessly so however… with one notable exception which was presumably intentional) and pretty much everything relating to the Ice Palace painting is pretty bad.

So the first two are skippable depending on your tolerance for, respectively, lack of direction and feeling rushed, while the third is quite good and has nearly all the elements of Ryza already in place.

It’s an incredibly good thing I didn’t start the franchise with this trilogy. One thing I’m particularly hostile toward in RPGs are arbitrary time limits, and both of the first two Dusk games feature just that.

The first, Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk, has a 3-year time limit but basically no structure whatsoever as far as the storyline or plot development goes. This is an unfortunate combination. You can essentially visit areas in any order, which means it’s incredibly easy to do so in the ‘wrong’ order and miss the time-saving adventure equipment recipes… which is a serious issue when it takes half a day by default to search a single gathering point. Other issues would be that the plot developments are pretty bad, Ayesha is an ill-fitting protagonist (she’s of the ‘airhead older sister’ archetype), and the Wilbell, Regina, & Linca character arcs are all terrible.

The follow-up, Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky is far better in most respects. There’s still a time limit, but here it’s structured into specific assignments with linear area unlocking. So long as you do everything at least once there’s no fear of missing something important or ever running out of time. Even better, the Alchemy system is far less obtuse and it’s actually possible to craft powerful equipment without going through extensively arcane reverse trait-inheritance shenanigans as in Ayesha. The characters are mostly better as well, although Escha is incredibly Anime, Lucille is annoyingly peppy, and both are on the shrill side of things voice-wise.

Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is the trilogy’s conclusion, and it heavily references the previous game (and moderately references Ayesha). Making it an exceptionally bad choice from a storyline-perspective to enter the franchise with. Mechanically however it’s a bit better with a much more engaging Alchemy system, active combat system, and most importantly: No time limit. And yet… it’s not much fun. There’s a soullessness to the areas and repetitive ‘life goals’ that just sucks all the enjoyment out of visiting new locations or killing monsters. Lotte being awful, the garbage plot developments, and some incredibly bullshit end-area bosses certainly don’t do it any favors either.

The most interesting thing about playing these three games was watching the Alchemy and combat mechanics evolve into what eventually shows up in Ryza. I can’t recommended any of them, besides perhaps Escha & Logy with certain reservations, on their own merits.