The [b]time limit[/b] is the worst part of this game. I do not care if people report that they had 100 days left. I think this is highly dependent on how much you explore, if you are the type of person to focus on the main plot, skip recommendation letters, etc.
The reality is, [b]there IS an optimal way through the game[/b]. Sometimes gathering is pointless, other times it is not. There is no way to know the value of your actions until AFTER you gain knowledge. For example, if you knew in advance that you would have to get dozens of Lumber to build a boat, you would have collected them back in the Dona region, but there is no way to know that at the time you are in Dona.
One recipe requires Blue Steel Stones, and you could have searched a lot of ore deposits and caves and never found one, only to realize after wasting 12 days that a merchant sells them and that you HAD to buy them from this merchant (because I swear to god, I could not find them). If there was no time limit, I would have combed every optional cave and zone, and I might have found those Blue Steel Stones, but [b]because of the time limit, I didn't[/b].
After tons and tons of backtracking and flubbing, I still had ~90 days available by the time the exam came, but completing the exam made me seriously question why a time limit has to be there at all to stress the player out and alter their decision-making within an open world game that begs to be explored, but threatens to end your game if you engage with any of it.
[h1]🪫 The LP (Stamina) Mechanic[/h1]
And not to be outdone, this game includes a [b]fairly tedious stamina mechanic (LP) that depletes rapidly[/b], which forces you to rest in your bed very often to recover it. Atelier games already had a mechanic to force you to go back to the Atelier—it was called having a full basket. But in addition to that, you will run out of LP far faster before your basket is full, and you'll be resting quite often. It's not challenging, it's just tedious and really breaks up the flow. LP in Atelier Sophie didn't really matter at all, so Gust's "solution" was to make LP incredibly tedious and annoying.
[h1]👥 Characters and Story[/h1]
On top of this, [b]I don't think the characters or story is as good as the Ryza games, Sophie 1 and 2, etc.[/b] You gain party members with basically no introduction to them—just random strangers joining 15 and 18 year old girls, and they trust them implicitly. Two of these party members look like psychopaths / thugs at that.
[h1]🎬 Constant Interruptions[/h1]
One thing that annoyed a lot was the [b]forced cutscenes that ran every time you went back to your atelier[/b]. Again, these break your flow. Almost every time you enter your Atelier, it's to recover from LP or craft something, so there's nothing quite like a cutscene to break up your thoughts and make you forget what you intended to do.
[h1]⚗️ Alchemy and Progression[/h1]
[b]The alchemy system is definitely a step down from Sophie 1.[/b] Progression amounts to crafting the same item over and over, which again takes time off your deadline. You need to do this if you want to inherit traits or just get access to basic material rotation when synthesizing.
[b]Bomb usages don't refill[/b], you need to keep crafting them, and there doesn't seem to be a duplication feature either.
[h1]🗺️ Navigation and Quest Design[/h1]
[b]Navigating the map and backtracking is a pain.[/b] You can only fast travel within the same map. Because of the impending deadline, backtracking several days on foot is not appealing, especially if you just want to check something out of curiosity.
[b]The quest progression is what you would expect from an older game[/b]—sometimes obtuse, with that "where's waldo" style gameplay that has you running around or wondering how to progress. I had to look stuff up a lot because things are not clear. Experimentation is fine when things are not clear, but you are being timed so you are punished for going through a learning curve due to your lack of knowledge.
[h1]📋 Conclusion[/h1]
Atelier Firis is one of those games that if you actually fail, you'd probably clear the deadline on a 2nd attempt by 150 days just because [b]pre-knowledge is so important in this game[/b]. You'd know exactly how many flowers you need, how many punis you need to actually kill, how many Dona Woods you would need, etc. and you could just optimize the crap out of it.
It is entirely possible that the open world nature, the obtuseness of the quests, the time limit and the alchemy system really excite you. It is unique as far as Atelier goes, I will grant it that. But [b]this is probably the most unenjoyable modern Atelier game I have ever played.[/b]
