Finally bought a PS4 earlier this year after owning nearly 20 games before I got it. This is the 3rd game I finished after Utawarerumono 2 and 3. I started writing this after I played quite a bit of Firis so there might be a little bias because of it.
Overall I would say the game feels like a really safe and standard Atelier game. They didn't do anything really drastically different than their previous games other than removing the time limit in the game. The remove of the time limit basically allows you to go at your own pace without much worries or rush though the game still basically streamlines you using other methods.
Actually there is one other thing that was changed from previous games and it is how recipes are acquired. Now you get new recipes unlocked by doing specific tasks such as fusing an item, sometimes with specific traits, visiting and investigating certain areas, gathering certain items or even just through story events. The game basically uses this to limit what you can and cannot access while pushing you through the story through these recipes. It's a interesting way to do recipes compared to just buying recipe books like in previous games, but the downside is that the recipes, especially some of the later ones are really specific ways to unlock them that would be hard to figure out by yourself.
Synthesizing is not much different then before other than being much more restrictive earlier in the game. It's basically playing Tetris on a square grid and as you get farther and upgrade your cauldrons you get more options and it becomes easier. Stuff like larger grid size and being able to rotate your materials. Nothing really ground breaking but it gets the job done.
The combat system hasn't really changed too much, the start of the game actually feels slower though than most other Atelier game but as you progress it's basically the same as past games. One quirk about the system that is in previous games too is that the level limit is only level 20 and after that all you get are skill points which can be used to increased stats, skills and other abilities. If you have played any of the previous games you'll get used to the system quickly. One thing that bugged me though it doesn't come till later in the game is that skill points will sometimes overflow and causes you to have negative skill points later in the game, not actually sure what causes it but it has happened to me a few times.
Unlocking new areas and quests are all railroaded by the story, so you never really reach any really tough areas or enemies you can't really beat. Most of the tougher bosses are only encountered through taking rumors in the tavern. The game is pretty easy because of such as well as 100% crit trait also being able to instant kill most normal enemies. Some of the rare materials later on are also limited by using these rumors. Difficulty wise this is probably one of the easiest game in the series minus maybe 2 of the bosses which are kinda tough.
Music and graphics are both pretty much what you would expect from a game from this series. Nothing too spectacular but they get the job done and by no means bad at all, just that nothing quite stands out too much. Character design are all done pretty nicely and all of the cast in the game and some returning character are all pretty likable.
In my opinion this is one of the better games for someone new to the series because it feel like an introduction for people to it with how lax the game actually is. The issue is if you plan on playing this game you probably want to plan in playing the whole trilogy since the ending is open ended and kind of leave more to be desired (At this point I haven't completely finished Firis yet so I'm not sure how the endings are). I would still recommend the game for anyone that wants to try the series just to see how it is like. It is a good game but nothing super amazing or ground breaking for the series.
Total play time ~40 hours
Rating: 8.5/10
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