…but I don’t like Atelier Ayesha Plus so far. Even though it’s only December of year 1, it’s quite boring. In this game, Ayesha’s sole reason for doing alchemy is to track down her sister, so the joy of doing alchemy for its own sake is non-existent. My great joy in Atelier games, reduced to a pointless preliminary. Oh, the shame!
The alchemy itself isn’t bad, though. They went with all-new designs for most of the items and there are a lot of new items I’ve never made before in all my years of playing, so that’s good. It’s also good that your basket has much more capacity now because of the way items stack, so you can forage much more with less stress. I haven’t gotten the hang of the Ayesha’s alchemy skills yet, i.e. when to use what and why, but I’ll pick it up eventually. Same with the whetstones and dyes, though TBH having to tweak and re-tweak equips to get all the right bonuses and resistances is my least favorite aspect of the games.
I started this game on Hard, but so far it’s just normal. I got too much done in one playthrough in Rorona, Totori and Meruru. The latter two especially left me twiddling my thumbs after a while, so I wanted a slightly more panicked pace this time. Unfortunately Hard mode in Atelier Ayesha Plus seems like they just jacked up some prices (?) and increased the HP of the enemies (?) but they’re not even that hard and stuff isn’t that expensive. I can’t imagine what Normal mode would be like.
Do your best not to be hated by me.
Back to the complaints about the story, I don’t like Ayesha. She’s too faux-cute and ditzy. And I’m not saying they have to give her a carrot or pie or mushroom addiction, but can’t they make her personality stand out somehow? She’s supposed to be chasing this sister of hers, but the sister disappeared before the game even started. I haven’t met her, I’ve barely seen any flashbacks. How am I supposed to get excited about helping someone I don’t care about (Ayesha) look for someone I don’t know (Nio)? Especially when the main character doesn’t care about the stuff I do care about?
Also the playable cast is crap. Too many skinny little twig-like girls. When the game intro started with two grown men instead of little kids, I thought “Yay! No more moe!” but I was so wrong. I want more testosterone! Or at least some different physiques.
Current progress: Average party level of 19, Ayesha’s alchemy level around 20. Nothing much happened for the longest time, but now I’ve been told that if I go south beyond Hallos village I can find someone who will give me the next story trigger, so I’ll work on that now. Need to spend a bit of time grinding up/buying bombs first though. And better whetstones and dyes.
It’s a bit early to be writing this post, but after 6 in-game months I’ve earned the right to complain a little bit. I’m not enjoying Atelier Ayesha Plus. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to enjoy about it. The albums and achievements at every step? They just stress me out. The quests you can’t do half the time because they’re asking for items you don’t have? Items that regular townspeople shouldn’t even know about because alchemy is so arcane?
Or am I supposed to be enjoying the “cute” characters? They’re not cute, they’re not funny, they’re not even that useful in battle. But this could be another Atelier Lina situation where I was playing it all wrong and later have to eat crow while proclaiming my love for the game. I’ll finish the first in-game year and come back for a re-evaluation.
Tokyo Xanadu eX+ isn’t dropped either. I’ve put in at least 10 game hours since I last posted and made a little bit of progress with the story, which is normal for Falcom RPGs. IMO the game is getting kind of stupid right now, but if it ends in the next 10 hours or so, it won’t be so bad. Loving the combat as usual, though the dungeon gimmicks are gradually getting more annoying. Will update once I hit 30 hours, as previously agreed upon. See ya!
Atelier Ayesha is a entirely different animal from the Arland games, that much is sure: while the latter left me cold and bored me stiff, I fell head over heels in love with the former. I couldn’t exactly pinpoint where the difference lies, but I think it may have something to do with Ayesha’s stronger emphasis on combat and exploration and collateral toning down of all things alchemy. My fondest memories of Ayesha involve running around, killing everything in sight and drinking in the gorgeous vistas. Alchemy, on the other hand, felt more like a breather/necessary evil, depending on the complexity of the involved recipe.
Ayesha does offer a more traditional RPG-like experience with a clearly defined objective, so it’s an easy way into the series for RPG lovers. I play Atelier games because I want to forage and synthesize stuff for 40 hours, and the combat is my least favorite part so it’s not quite as much fun for me.
The Arland series had a similarly large focus on character interaction and cute girls being cute rather than on alchemy so I wasn’t too crazy about them either but I enjoyed them more than Ayesha so far.
You might like the Atelier Iris trilogy. They very much put the traditional RPG forefront and have only very little alchemy in them.
Oh yeah, that’s right. And Mana Khemia too. Very colorful, very good RPGs with a crafting component that doesn’t take over the game. I highly recommend them (though MK2 honestly sucked).