Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream

搅大缸，爽

Not a good sequel to Atelier Sophie, sadly. Story is just Isekai-nonsense so it's not a true sequel to the journey of Sophie & Plachta (and you can't avoid the "it's was just a dream" trope in the end), doesn't follow up the things you left at the end of Sophie 1 : What about Sophie wanting to be a great alchemist, doing the test ? What about the promise of helping Plachta recovering her body ? Nope, you won't get that, and i doubt you'll get this one day. Characters are serviceable, at best. Classic copy past from previous entries, but Gust were so lazy theses times you get twice the same characters : two bodyguards ? Check. Two goofys merchants ? Check. Theirs backstories are boring, and they're not even very fun with their rare banters. But the ultimate frustration is YOU CANT PLAY PLACHTA. You had one job in a Atelier Sophie game : playing good ol plachta with Sophie, most of the Sophie games are about relationship about thoses two. Why do you spend half the game in liberating Plachta when, as the time you finally do it, she's invoke some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ excuse and stay in the inn doing litteraly nothing. What a bummer. Antagonist is just the worst i experienced in Atelier games. She's just a brat, no motivation at all than just doing stupid things in her world, and her voice is just high-pitched you want just to cut off all the voices in the game just for hers fights. Game is really pretty, the alchemy system is still one of the best Atelier has to offer. NOCO artworks are still awesome. The weather system, while being a nice idea at the start, comes quickly boring and tedious. It basically made exploration slower and break the rythm. Same for the aura system. They've just overused it at the point you spend most of the endgame fights breakings auras over and over instead of you know, hitting boss and throwing bombs. It breaks the flow of combat and gets just frustrating for the last boss unless you exploit OP items. Music is just meh. Big letdown from previous entries. None of the boss or fights themes are Gust bangers. there's just 2 or 3 okay themes, for a 4 CD OST it's just bad. No wonder why i see the physical ost price slashed on online retailers. TLDR : Looks like Atelier Ryza 2.5 reskinned at a Sophie one. Story is just another "short ephemeral summery adventure" with friends, but nothing exciting. Except from the Alchemy system inherited from Sophie 1, new systems gets quickly tedious and boring. Oh, and Ol' Plachta isn't playable and invisible.