Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream

9/10. I really really like it. My first Atelier, per the recommendation of my friend. I'm not exactly familiar with these genres, but I've always been open to new things. And man I'm glad I tried this one out. I'm very impressed. The alchemy system is probably the most intricated things I've ever seen. Easy to learn, hard to master. And the game rewards you squarely for the efforts you put into alchemy. It's a very satisfying experience once I took the time to learn it. And I guess that's what this series is for. The story, graphic, etc. are pretty generic for a jrpg, but gameplay is where it's at. I've played a lot of genres, but whenever I think of Atelier, it's prob going to be a standalone recommendation on its own haha. True that it's a "kiddie" game, but prob one you can have hours and hours of fun with the right mindset, just like minecraft.

Sophie is the cutest, couldn't complain

Atelier at its best, imo. Extraordinarily polished mechanics, battles, music, though of course you really should play the first one so you care about any of these characters.

Upper end atelier game with slightly less interesting main characters than side characters. The crafting system is solid, not the best in the series but well done. I would argue most atelier games are worth 40 dollars but this one is a genuine 60 dollar game, I still got it on sale because I almost have to but it is worth full price.

This is a sleeper of a game to get started. i am 35 minutes in and 28 of that was cut scenes. i mean maybe it is awesome but i want some control besides run from point a to point b inside town before the 30 minute mark.

This is the best game I've played so far in the Atelier series. It's quite fun overall. Nice story that isn't too dark. The alchemy system is great. My biggest complaint is the camera panning is jerky, especially around edges and walls. Somehow, it's even jerkier than earlier Atelier games. My second biggest complaint is that the anti-aliasing is low quality and results in very visible shimmering and jagged edges. You can get mitigate this by playing at a higher resolution if you have a good enough GPU, so it ended up not bothering me too much.