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Pros:
+An astonishing soundtrack that stays true with the games locales and scenery.
+Character designs are top notch bringing Sophie and Plachta to life
+A newly implemented alchemy system that brings both new and old to life
+Outfit changing brings the game to life from being stale and boring

–Brings forth a lack of story, which is not known in previous entries
–The battle system feels weak and troubled since the days of Escha and Logy
–New Game+ is absent in this newest title

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Much like any Atelier game, our newest title starts off pretty plain, pretty simple, and with a bit of a trademark design. In the beginning we are introduced to our playable character – Sophie. With her aspirations to become a great alchemist recognized, it’s time for he to take on the works of her grandmother whom has passed. With her family legacy being known as a renowned alchemist of the atelier arts, it’s now Sophie’s turn to try and take to such greatness. With her grandmothers book in her possession, it’s not her time to take over and begin picking up where her legacy begins.

As one would expect, the book is where much of her story will unfold as it is not just any book, but a special one known as Plachta. Working along side Sophie, Plachta will help Sophie unlock the memories hidden within Plachta to find out the memories her grandmother left behind that have since become hidden. While exploring the world in order to unlock a rather tough alchemical formulae and the memories, the two will take on extraordinary tasks as visitors will come and go within her life while they explore new recipes and materials to help create them.

As one would expect, the Atelier titles do live up to expectations on their graphical standard. With their visuals becoming more consistent across each release; their’s a sense of tradition to the titles as they have taken on their cel-like anime approach with shading. Those of you familiar with the titles on both PlayStation 3 and even the PlayStation Vita – they’ve remained on-par as they upgraded into their 1080p standard. For those of you who visited titles like Night of azure, Dragon Ball Xenoverse or even Digimon Cybersleuth, you’ve come accustomed to what the graphics will be like. The graphics are perhaps one of the most appealing things about the game as players find themselves lulled in by them next to the songs that play throughout the game.

Even with its anime like approach to character designs, anime-like soundtracks, and traditional crafting gameplay, the game has been tweaked a bit to ensure that even the most hardcore of fans won’t get bored. With each character in the series, girl that is, remains lighthearted, loving, ditsy, cute, and even a bit damsel-ish, the games remain fun as players get underway through their tales. Unfortunately, that’s about it for this game as it does find itself a bit troubled when all-else comes into play.

While this game does offer up a common moniker that the series is renowned for it doesn’t fail to drop the traditional JRPG like mechanics. Combat is straight-forward within the title as players will pick what attack they want to perform, items to use, and what their combat rotation comes out to be. After a good 30-40 hours in, players will find themselves incomplete in ways if they are wanting to finish unlocking their trophies. While New Game+ has been a traditional piece of this franchise, this one falls short of doing so and leaves players with a single playthrough.

As you’d expect – Atelier Sophie is a decent game. Definitely not what was expected especially being the first one for this generation of console. Character design and soundtrack were wonderful as to be expected with the Atelier titles. The new alchemy system felt new yet familiar which was very refreshing. However it doesn’t make up for the lack of good story and feeling like you are getting nowhere fast or even a normal pace. Time management, Battle system, Leveling, and lack of a NG+ among other things kept this game from being better then it was and/or expected to be. However still looking forward to what the next Atelier game will hold for us fans. Hopefully the next time around will try a tidbit harder to bring back the love the series got from previous titles.

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Our review is based on a copy provided to us by the games publisher.  For information about our ethics policy please click here.

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 Final Score: 5 out of 10

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About the Writer:

Chris Adee is one of B.A.T.G.R.’s newest writers who seems to love three things. Sleep, games, and MOBA’s when he’s not goofing around on Warframe and SMITE. He also likes games. A lot. Oh and anime. Did we mention anime?