So I spent most of my waking hours for the past week playing Atelier Sophie and just finished writing a review on it. There's several thoughts on the game I couldn't squeeze into the review that I figured I could put down as a regular blog post, an appendeum to the review itself.

I gauge the amount of thought games require by how many pages of notes I take on the game. Atelier Sophie clocks in at about a half-dozen pages, including several lists of what Accessories/Items to put on each character, along with which Traits to craft into their equipment. I recall several times I had to quit the game for a bit because my brain overloaded trying to figure out the chain of crafting necessary to get, say, the +25 All Stats trait onto a piece of paper for burning while making a metal bar, rendering me temporarily incapable of coherent thought. It's been very enjoyable, and I dread the day I finally crack the mechanics and easily get the ultimate Traits onto my equipment, essentially finishing up the game.

At least the combat mechanics are also some of the most robust I've seen in an RPG. The Offensive/Defensive stances a whole new layer to the tactics, and being able to block attacks against teammates turns the Guard command from the "poor choice" it is in most RPGs into a vital component of your tactics. Seriously, I can't stress how much of a game changer it is to purposely set someone up to soak up attacks, and the threat of the Break gauge filling up (and stunning a character) encourages rotating your defenders, too. Oh, and did I mention that attack items, rather than being a poor alternative to spells, are the strongest attacks in the game? It emphasizes your crafted items so well. I love it, I just love all of it, it's one of my favorite RPG combat systems ever.

Of course, I didn't really appreciate the combat system until the second half of the game. The first half, once you get a 4th party member, is actually pretty easy; it felt like your leveling and crafting quickly outpaced the enemies' levels, and most fights were a walk in the park. It was only once I reached Max Level about 2/3rds through the game and started hitting the endgame zones that I realized these enemies were legitimate threats. You could easily die to a random encounter if you were reckless. And once I started taking bounties on the optional bosses, I was really impressed by the curveballs the game tossed at me. For instance, one boss could only be damaged by filling its Break gauge to stun it, while another boss healed itself up whenever its Break gauge filled, forcing me to use only single-hit, strong attacks to minimize how much its Break gauge rose. Both forced me to analyze the boss's patterns and adjust my strategy on the fly mid-battle, which I really appreciate.

Unfortunately, while the setting/social part of it takes some cues from Persona 3/4 and Stardew Valley, it doesn't do nearly enough with either. It has months divided into weeks divided into days, but the passage of months doesn't seem to matter at all, what week it is doesn't matter, and the only difference between days is whether it's a weekend or a weekday. Furthermore, everyone's dialogue only changes 2-3 times over the course of the whole game, making the whole town feel lifeless. I found myself just warping straight to the shops rather than exploring the town, and even the other playable characters felt kind of flat, let alone the barely-characterized townsfolk. There's no NPCs that really jump out at you, like the Funky Student or Mysterious Fox from Persona 4. It all feels like a wasted opportunity.

Then again, quite a bit of the game feels barebones. Many of the combat zones are barely 2-3 screens across, the variety of enemies feels lackluster (I've beaten the game and only encountered one dragon-type enemy), and if it wasn't for the crafting system I could've probably beaten the game in about 10-15 hours. They even recycle some of their models in ways that are utterly baffling and don't make sense. For example, the weekday waitress at the local cafe is just a reskin of the Female Shopper, which makes it really weird to see an on-duty waitress with a purse slung on her arm. The most egregious example is a cutscene of a man cradling & stroking a log while the protagonist takes notes- it makes slightly more sense in context, but I couldn't help but make innuendo jokes about the whole scene.

Speaking of which, the random borderline ecchi in the game was probably the worst aspect of the game and actively detracted from it. I don't mind some of it- after all, I enjoyed Dragon's Crown a lot- but this stuff went everywhere from outright confusing to borderline disturbing. For instance, I was kind of expecting the childhood friend to have boob physics, but I was shocked to realize she was the only one with them. There's major NPCs (and another PC) in the game with chests twice as large as hers and they're rock solid compared to hers, and my utter confusion at why they decided to apply physics only to hers still baffles me. In fact, the only other character with any type of jiggle physics is Oskar, the boy with the large gut. Then there's the fact a major goal in the game is creating a humanlike doll to house Plachta's soul, and the clothes designed for her (by one of your party members) look like, as someone else put it, "Victoria's Secret designed outerware". And then the protagonist gets a similar outfit that, while not as scanty, looks like a magical girl outfit complete with exposed midriff, shorts, and a fancy hat. I rolled my eyes at its reveal, and while I eventually grew accustomed to it, I still kept switching back to her old outfit with the giant coat & high boots. You know, stuff that you'd expect an alchemist to dig up plants and fight monsters in. Did I mention both of them look like they're in their mid-teens, and one is explicitly mentioned being too young to drink?

Even the cutscene camera seems intent on angling itself to get upskirt shots of Plachta, assuming she's even wearing a skirt. I gave her a skirt because when the game enabled me to change her appearance & stats, the very first thing I did was try to find her less-revealing clothing. After accidentally giving her a bikini swimsuit ("No, no, no, no, no..."), a combat skirt was the closest thing I could find. I left it at that, but someday, by god, I will find her some pants. Or at least a skirt that doesn't reveal her ass to every camera angle at knee height.

Anyway, ignoring the ecchi elements as much as possible (seriously, they feel so out-of-place in this game), the mechanics in this game are top-notch. Utterly addictive. The bane of obsessive-compulsive perfectionists. I've beaten the game and am working on tackling the optional bosses, and I still need to upgrade over half my items & equipment. I spent nearly two hours yesterday tweaking an attack item to have max power. While the game's systems aren't perfect, they hit pretty close to the mark, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the sequel being released stateside next month.

P.S. Did I mention the music is pretty good? It's pretty good. The graphics that aren't actual characters suck, but the music makes up for it. Except for the music in your Crafting Room. Seriously, can't you rotate the song list in a room you know the player is going to be spending over an hour in at a pop?