As promised, I’m back at the end of Year 2 of Atelier Ayesha Plus for an update of my progress. Actually I’m a little beyond that and into Year 3, July 7th IIRC. Just finished saving Ayesha’s sister Nio.

But somehow the game is still continuing, barreling forward without any motivation on my part. The whole game has been “Save Nio, Save Nio, Save Nio” so far, so now that I’ve saved her, I don’t know what they want me to keep playing for. Especially since I’ve made almost everything on the alchemy list. Could the deadline for the game be only 3 years or will they come up with some new story premise soon? Anyway, a few things to note since I posted last:

I have mixed feelings about the whole “Searching for the Truth” theme of Atelier Ayesha. On one hand it’s great to have a game where the main character isn’t just a puppet doing whatever the village elders/some mysterious girl with a pendant/the Great Spirits tell them to do. In theory Ayesha does her own investigations, tracks down her sister and saves her largely by herself.

In practice though, her steps are heavily guided by the gruff and annoying Keithgriff who refuses to share what he knows purely so Gust can drag the game out Falcom-style, which pisses me off because if you’re not going to help then don’t even be in my game.

The game is supposed to depict a process where Ayesha breaks down his defences and worms her way into his good graces through her hard work and determination, but really she just whines and stalks him and simpers at him until he caves in. Never underestimate the power of feminine wiles and a low-cut dress.

One thing I do like about the story: all the progress Ayesha makes in the course of her search for Nio. Losing her sister mysteriously isn’t something she would have chosen, but without that, she might have lived her whole life in that little workshop and never experienced so many things. Meeting new friends, visiting Viezerburg and Hornheim, riding a hot air balloon, becoming an alchemist, going as far afield as the Salt Desert. I felt a real sense of adventure and accomplishment after rescuing Nio and comparing her stagnant development to all the things Ayesha had seen and done. I had a good feeling! This is the way!

Of course, this is another reason why I feel like I’m done with the game now that I’ve rescued Nio. It’s been a wild ride, I’ve done a lot of stuff, now I’m ready to finish and move on. If Ayesha isn’t curious about who/what Yggdrasil is and whether it was a good idea or not to destroy the guardian, then neither am I. It’s not like Keithgriff is prepared to tell me anyway. My next objective is to save 20,000 cole for a hot air balloon and visit the Floating Island. Then I’ll just kill time till the game ends and come back for a final report.

Before I go, though: another thing I really like: alchemy! Lots and lots of alchemy! I.E. the whole reason why I’m playing this game! It takes a while to get all the useful Alchemy Skills and even longer to learn to use them efficiently, but now I’m starting to have fun. You can do some really useful things with Power Transfer and Power Pour to get the best even out of mediocre ingredients, which is great.

And I’m really happy that there are sooo many new items to make that I’ve never seen before in an Atelier game, even though the actual useful ones aren’t that many. Make first, find use for later. After so many games in the series, I’m pleased that Gust can introduce so much new stuff even now.

The only change I really dislike is the weapon/armor thing. Wading through tons of useless armor and weapon drops gives me Xenoblade Chronicles flashbacks. And you don’t just rely on drops but you have to synthesize and apply dyes and whetstones to every single one. It’s very boring. Especially in an alchemy game where I would enjoy making the weapons themselves, or at least the ingredients. I hope this will be fixed in the sequels, which I am quite eager to play now. I hope they’ll let me explore more of the world at that point.

Okay, that’s enough for a mid-term report. See you when I finish the game!

Related posts:

Put Tokyo Xanadu eX+ on hold and started Atelier Ayesha Plus Wasted 26 hours, 17 minutes and 40 seconds on Atelier Ayesha Plus (spoilers) Finished Atelier Escha & Logy Plus with a little help from YouTube (spoilers) Atelier Shallie Plus – Lousy at first