Atelier Rorona ~The Alchemist of Arland~ DX

As a newcomer to the Atelier franchise, I jumped into it with zero expectations, only knowing its slice-of-life-esque reputation. To my surprise i got super hooked on the crafting system and the whole calendar gameplay loop. If you enjoy cute girls doing cute stuff and le crafting autism you will enjoy this game. HOWEVER i do have a few complaints, mainly that i wish that the triggers for character events were much clearer (as to save me the work of looking it up) although this might be me asking for muh yellow paint level hand holding.

Heard a lot of positive things about Atelier, and as a big JRPG fan (e.g. FALCOM and Complile Heart, apparently related to Gust) and ALSO as a fan of moe/slice-of-life anime... I thought this would be Jackpot! ...But it wasn't. Rorona is a low-quality JRPG. BGM/SFX is mediocre to bad, gameplay repetitive, difficulty goes from ultra-easy to 1hit KO in overtime, clunky UI, 3D visuals and animations are very meh, translation is very wonky, unskippable cutscenes/attacks, game is vague and the story delivery is atrocious... It needs a restoration mod that fixes opening the inventory taking 5 seconds. But these two surprised me the most: -The entire game is a RPG-crafting system first. You'd expect the main focus to be absolutely smooth and fun, but it isn't; it's vague, monotonous and clunky. Some mechanics, like the red traits bars, simply don't get explained (can't even find it online). The crafting UI feels like it was designed specifically to work against you. You'll mostly be managing your inventory and just finishing checklistists of orders... then in overtime you suddenly need to minmax everything and exploit broken items to carry high level traits. Then when making high level…

As someone who play the 4 series ahead of this game, ill say it aged a bit poorly, the first 1/3-2/3 of the game is pretty slow even tho it pretty short, game don't feel like it pick up in pace of things to do that are interesting still the last 1/3 (year 3) of the game, ill say year 2 but year 2 kinda get speed run by making alot of perma upgrade to the shop that are really helpful. Gameplay wise, combat is pretty much Spam attack with ticket items for 90% of the main story with the last year requiring some brain and making weapons yourself. The time limit only realyl exist in the period of year 2 if u want to make new items but for the most part the main story request are simple enough to cheese by buying it from another store or having Hom (a person that can craft and gather for u) make the items for u to turn in leaving u with alot of free time. Crafting seem like it can go indepth but because of the limit i never really got into it as much, think i would if i wanted to continue the game as post game is unlimited time. But overall feel a bit just that it exist, game offer really good gear and item don't scale well that you kinda only craft for quests and to learn the recipes.…

Nothing happens in this game, but that's okay!

This was my first entry into the Atelier Series after being recommended as the beginner's choice. Before I discuss my thoughts on the game, I want to talk about its performance. I played most of this game on my Laptop, a <2-year-old mid-tier gaming PC. The resolution settings in the launcher only go up to 720p, but with some file editing, you can get it to 1080p with no issues. There's also a noticeable issue with the game's anti-aliasing not working well on modern PCs, and while I played the entire game with it, there are some online sources that can help fix it. Having said that, I didn't have any issues with launching the game, and graphics looked fine, if a bit dated. The art style for the game was pleasant enough to excuse any age, but I can imagine this opinion changing when playing later entries. —GAMEPLAY— In terms of gameplay, I was told that Rorona wasn't particularly punishing or restrictive in its time management and its combat, and I would agree with that sentiment. Most of the objectives given are forgiving enough in how you can tackle them, and given the full length of the game, there's enough leniency for failure to still get one of the better endings. The main …

Atelier Rorona is the charming first modern Atelier game. The synthesis is simple but engaging, and battles are basic and fast-paced. I like the character of Rorona and some of her friends, and the setting of Arland is nice. This game plays more like Marie than other Atelier games that I have played.