Jingle bells, jingle bells, Logy all the way~
7 hours and 26 minutes into Atelier Escha & Logy Plus, just completed the main assignment for Year 1 December. I’ve also been playing Chaos Rings III and Ys: Memories of Celceta, but we’ll save those for another day.
I’m too lazy to write much today, so I’ll just say this is MUCH better than Atelier Ayesha so far. It’s too early to go overboard praising it, but I like the greater amount of freedom you know you have in this game. In theory Ayesha was a very open game: just save Nio within three years. But on a first playthrough you don’t know how long that will take or how many steps are needed. What if you play around too long and don’t have enough time? So I ended up gunning straight for Nio and got her and then it was like… now what? Everything felt meaningless after that.
Escha & Logy does a better job of pacing and doling out the objectives. You know when you’re on the clock, you know when you’re free to do whatever you want. There are core objectives, then there’s stuff you can do if you feel like or ignore if you don’t. I spend one month on assignments, one month on alchemy, another month or two on exploration and combat and it all works out great. If all Atelier games were like this, maybe I’d say they were too regimented, but here the schedule fits the government bureaucrat setting just fine. It’s a different premise from the others, and I’m having fun playing as Logy to make it feel even more distinct.
There are some negatives here and there, but when I compare it to the suck of Ayesha I don’t feel like complaining. I get to make my own weapons and armor again!!!! File that under “Stuff you didn’t know you needed until they took it away.” The alchemy system… I heard people say it was simplified compared to Ayesha’s… I guess it’s true, but I’m still grappling with it so I can’t really say. IMO Ayesha’s system gave me more leeway to pour in elements and unlock properties by playing with the stockyard and picking skills carefully. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but once I did there was nothing I couldn’t do. Still, Logy and Escha are only at alchemy level 24 and haven’t gotten any complicated recipes or great ingredients yet, so I’m on the fence for now.
Is Escha & Logy only 3 years long as well? If it is, I’ll be done in no time at this rate. I’ll return with a proper review once all is said and done. Or if anything dramatic or horrible happens that I feel I have to talk about. Don’t expect to see me too soon, though. Gaming is busy work!
I really like to give another Atelier a shot eventually (didn’t like Annie much and the Iris spinoffs don’t quite count). But being limited to the English Releases, but not having a PS3 or Vita, I’m always torn of where to start, since everyone seems to be very torn on the quality of the latest games. Escha & Logy is indeed the one that looked most intersting to me, maybe that’s just because I’m shallow and wanna play as cute fox-eared Logy, but that of course has no PS4 version xD
There are some Atelier games on Steam (and Switch?). I think Atelier Totori or this game are good ones to start with. The second game in a trilogy has often worked out the kinks of the first game but hasn’t gotten stale yet. Personally I like to play things in release order, so if emulators are your thing you can start with the PSX fan translation of Atelier Marie & Elie.
Not sure if you have access to a Switch or PS4 but I think I’ve just found one of the best drpg I’ve played in years. Wizard’s symphony just came out from Arc System Work the other day and I’ve been playing it non-stop. It’s very much a dungeon crawling while hanging out with characters you like kind of game, honestly almost feels like entaku no seito with full voice and a more laid back story. Every party member have affection points and get their own set of quest lines so they end up endearing enough even if they’re all a little trope-y.
The system is also pretty unique and fun. You have access to full respec on skills in town for all your characters, along with a materia-like system where you can slot gems with random stats you find in dungeon onto your gears, you can pretty much change builds completely if you’re having trouble with a particular boss or dungeon, and playing on hard, the bosses so far are all brutal. I wiped on every single one and had to respec multiple times to find the right build to push through and I’m only on chapter 4. If you have access to either a Switch or PS4, I’d highly recommend considering giving this a try if you’re in the mood of some drpg.
It sounds amazing. I mean the art looked like this so I was like yeahhh…
But you’ve sold me by sneakily comparing it to Entaku no Seito. I can’t resist. My DRPG schedule right now is Demon Gaze II -> The Lost Child. And now I will add Wizard’s Symphony to the list, thank you. I was just talking to my brother about borrowing the Switch when Fire Emblem comes out, so playing one more game won’t hurt.
Yah…the art is a bit old fashioned but once you get used to it it’s pretty charming. So far the biggest issue I have with the game is how sluggish the UI and combat feels. The game does this thing where they play an animation for UI element appearing on screen like when you go into the shop, blacksmith or tavern and it can’t be skipped, so it’ll always feel like there’s a half a second delay. And during combat, every character play a voice line when they use an ability and it also won’t be skipped even if you set the battle on skip mode. The only way to make it go faster is to go into skip mode AND spam A button in combat to skip the lines as soon as they start. Really hope they’d address these issues, otherwise the game feels perfect.
If I’m lucky they’ll have added a patch by the time I get round to it. Sluggish combat definitely grates in a genre where you fight hundreds of battles from start to finish.