My progress has slowed considerably on Adventure Bar Story, but I’m still playing it on and off. Awkward touchscreen controls mean I’d much rather be playing with my DS or PSP most of the time, so I only play ABS once in a long while when it’s like “Oh yeah, whatever happened to that game?” Last I checked I was 19 hours in and just unlocked the desert dungeon. I’d probably be finished by now if I were using a FAQ, but I stubbornly refuse to do so, so I’ve got to take the breaks where I can.
The biggest issue I’m having (apart from the uncomfortable touchscreen controls) is the lack of interesting recipes to cook. To level up my crew and raise my Bar Rank I need to cook fairly costly recipes frequently, and those all need the same ingredients like Salmon and Garuda Eggs and Golden Fish. Those can’t be bought in stores, so I keep having to go out day after day after day to the same old, same old hunting grounds to fight the same old, same old monsters and gather the same old, same old items. In the beginning you could be confident of finding lots of new ingredients in every new stage, but now you get two, maybe three new foods if you’re lucky. That’s not very exciting for all the work you have to put into it. I haven’t come across any new towns lately either, so I’ve been wearing the same armor and weapons for the past 10 hours or so. Excitement factor = zero.
This situation would be annoying enough at the best of times, but now I have at least 200,000 gold to my name, which only makes things more irritating. A well-monied bar owner like myself should be able to afford to hire a few adventurers to do all the grinding and hunting for me. Make it extremely expensive if you must (I can afford it anyway) but take the burden off me somehow. This is where I miss the older Atelier games oh so much.
In other news I’m 28 hours into Tales of Hearts, the game that should have ended 8 hours ago. Only 8 hours more to go, at last. I’m in this cave with gas pipes and other annoying things, but it’s cool ‘cos I’m getting new items to upgrade my troops’ weapons with. You see the difference between this and Adventure Bar Story? That sense of progress is important! So ToH will continue being my main game while ABS continues to be my bit on the side until further notice.
Oh yeah, I also started something promising on the PSP. If I don’t finish ToH soon or I don’t feel like talking about it when I’m done, I’ll introduce that instead. Look forward to it.
