Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book - PlayStation 4

I first started playing the Atelier series on the PS3 with Atelier Rorona, than was hooked, and bought Totori followed by Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland, so of course I had to get Sophie and was not disappointed. I missed Atelier Ayesha, Escha & Logy and Shallie since my PS3 died after Meruru and was upgrading to a PS4 at the time. (Can't comment on the last 3 games). Change of pace, light hearted, story character driven, they removed the time limit system from past games which helps you explore and develop characters without having to time every step and not make the days past. Share Play can be used, as well as streaming. No blocked parts.I'm glad i'm back playing the series. One of the main reasons I like them is the change of pace. It's light hearted game play and nothing overly serious like end of the world scenarios you see in almost every game. Character goals are more important, as well as alchemy and exploring the world and meeting new people. Gust tends to always bring characters from previous games back as cameos. Logy is in this, I know he was from the Escha game and comes back as a sword smith. Pamela has become a recurring character in almost every game (she's also in this). It also helps move the story seeing past characters since you connect with the previous game.. While this may sound tamed or dull to some, it's far from it. It does have special events that pop up that you must beat (monsters, dragons and demons) but story focus is on personal developments and exploring the world around you. It's very story focused with events popping up randomly or on intervals and each person has a 'friendship' meter. Which triggers events tied to them.Can't compare on the last 3 games fighting system but I do know they removed the "limit break" that was present Rorona, Totori and Meruru it was a special skill when a character reached a certain mode which was an ultimate attack and have now fused them into a team type ultimate attack instead on single. Each person does have thier own ultimate, they are just joined by the group present. They still have skills, items like uni bombs, lighting rods etc and the standard, heal, speed up, break, sleep, poison etc. If you're familiar with those (which is standard in most RPGS) it should be simple to jump into. If you're a fan of the series and missed a few games like I did, it should very easy to get use to it again. Alchemy system has been enhanced but for the most parts follows the standard theme. (traits, quality, levels) when mixing. You can still carry over traits like previous games. To people not use to the Atelier series, it may be hard to understand how the story flows since they dont hold your hand, you have to advance the story doing tasks or alchemy but eventually it opens up to character moment to move the story forward. In the status menu section the friendship meter appears in red or black. Some moments in the game require you to talk to characters to trigger events. Most the times it tells you in the "idea section" others you have to walk up to characters. They use a day/time system some events only happen at a specific time. This is not a negative, it just needs some getting use to if you're use to these types of games.Even though I missed the last 3, they still have some of the best music. Everything fits the game perfectly and like previous ones, they include vocal parts on special events. The rest that seem basic, grow on you and you start to appreciate it as time passes. My only regret was not buying the special edition, since I missed the last 3 games I wasn't sure if they could "hook" me again. THEY DID.

The Atelier series is one of my favorite gaming series of all time up there with Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. I end up missing this one back then because I didn't have the money to buy it at the time and I kind of forgotten about it over the years, but I'm glad that I got it now for my collection. Being the first Atelier Game on PS4 it was what I was expecting from those earlier PS4 days, the synthesis system is a little archaic but overall it's still pretty good.

The alchemy is like Tetris where you have to fit the ingredient shapes together and every ingredient not only has a different tetris shape, but different quality levels and attributes which you have to combine correctly to make stuff. Making stuff raises your alchemy level. These ingredients come from monsters which you have to kill. Killing monsters raises your character level. Higher alchemy level = more of the map unlocked and tougher monsters, higher character level=easier to kill stuffMy problem was that the alchemy level rises so much faster than the character level that you end up with quests to kill monsters that can decimate you by sneezing in your general direction so you end up stranded in grind mode until you can kill the monster, make the item, then unlock the next quest that has a bigger, badder, monster and repeat the whole cycle again. Wouldn't be so annoying if the turn-based action cinematics in battle were either quicker or could be skipped.Very Pretty Game though. The characters are adorable

I haven't enjoyed an Atelier game this much since I played Totori a few years back. Its over all a bit more relaxed as you don't really have a time limit. There still is a calendar, but the events are not time sensitive, so no more stressing out about going out to explore, or make an item before a date. Its based more on synthesis of key items so it makes the game more manageable.The battle system is simple, similar to other games in the series however you cannot get any character in reserve into the current battle. And again later bosses in the game have a two stage power setting that can get you if you're not prepared for it.The synthesis is quite enjoyable, as you can get several different cauldrons as the story line/exploration develops and you can improve them. its a bit of a puzzle mini-games and there are hundreds of items that can be synthesized. This is indeed one of the games in the series with the most amount of items you can synthesize.The friendship system is vastly improved. Now you don't have to grind to be able to fulfill character friendships. Again, this is a result of not having a time when you have to complete certain events.As a conclusion I can tell you that is less stressful Atelier game, with a decent battle system, superb synthesis system and good friendship and character development.