Pretty good Atelier game. The main draw is the huge open world which is very fun to explore. There are a lot of villages scattered throughout the world, each with their own set of side-quests and interesting characters.

This comes at the cost of less of a focus on building relationships with your companions. Interacting with your companions feels more like a late-game/completionist activity than a core part of the game like it was in Sophie.

The synthesizing system also feels less interesting compared to Sophie. Choosing the right ingredients is important, but the actual placement of them feels less challenging and less impactful.

Even though it's a step down from Sophie in some aspects, in my opinion having a huge open world to explore more than makes up for it.

Pretty good Atelier game. The main draw is the huge open world which is very fun to explore. There are a lot of villages scattered throughout the world, each with their own set of side-quests and interesting characters. This comes at the cost of less of a focus on building relationships with your companions. Interacting with your companions feels more like a late-game/completionist activity than a core part of the game like it was in Sophie. The synthesizing system also feels less interesting compared to Sophie. Choosing the right ingredients is important, but the actual placement of them feels less challenging and less impactful. Even though it's a step down from Sophie in some aspects, in my opinion having a huge open world to explore more than makes up for it.