Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream - Review
The Atelier is a long running and beloved JRPG series that has followed the magic girl anime influence, as well as alchemy and a different style of RPG to what is typically available on the market. Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream is the direct sequel to the critically acclaimed game that came out in 2015 and follows loosely on from the events of that game.
In the Atelier series it is not uncommon for popular protagonists to get sequels, yet typically there isn’t so much space between them. After two Atelier Ryza titles, both of which were pretty well received a return to Sophie which was one of the best received previous gen titles in the is an interesting choice.
Due to this large gap, there is a very welcome “The Story So Far” option for the game at the start menu that will allow you to become familiarized with the events of the first game and fill in the gaps in this story. However, if you have not played the first game, you won’t be out of place or left in the lurch playing Atelier Sophie 2, as the stories are mostly independent of each other. Some characters are referenced from the first game, but besides Sophie herself, you are dealing with pretty much a brand-new cast of characters, environments and a standalone story.
Atelier Sophie 2 takes place in a dream world, and not in Kirchen Bell such as the first game. This is very important in allowing for the standalone story because it allows for the characters, we know from the first game to exist in a place where they have no knowledge of Sophie. The world itself is filled with dreamers who cannot leave until the achieve their dream. Each and every character is aware that they are a dream, and it blurs the line between whether or not the persons themselves are real or dreams of someone else.
The story itself is rather light, and very anime inspired. Most Atelier games play off some typical tropes, but Atelier Sophie 2 has a relatively fleshed out story. There are times where the story itself gets blurred and takes a backseat to the gameplay, but this isn’t a bad design choice. Whilst it is well thought out, and there is development of the world and the characters in gradual progression of the story, it is also somewhat of a rehash of other Alchemist storylines from the Atelier games. Particularly it reminds me of ideas laid out in Atelier Iris and Atelier Rorona. If this is your first time playing an Atelier series game, the story will fill the JRPG niche that you are looking to fill, and you’ll find yourself easily lost into the world that is being created. If a veteran of the series, you’ll know what to expect here and can probably catch story beats a little bit before they come. There are twists and turns throughout and some of the revelations around time-travelled dreams and younger versions of persons as a result. It’s fundamentally sound if not a little typical.
The gameplay itself is where I found myself getting lost in the game world for hours at a time. The Atelier games have a huge emphasis on gathering materials to then create new items to sell, use or equip, depending on their type. The gathering systems themselves are basic, but the large number of items you can carry and the slight variations in element and abilities that is rather impressive, and it allows for a huge amount of combination in crafting. Problematically, it didn’t ever really seem to matter. Beyond side requests that asked for particular items of a certain level of quality, there was never much of a reason, in general gameplay to optimise each and every synthesis. The auto-add option for materials was useful, as it sped up the process. The problem in not needing to optimise the synthesis process makes it feel more like a chore or a task, rather than an integral and integrated part of the gameplay.
As a follow on to this, the combat takes somewhat of a hit because of the games assumed focus on synthesis of items. Whilst you can effectively clear almost every encounter with just basic abilities, the game expects that you will invest time into elemental items for synthesis. The issue here is the game never creates a point in which it is important enough to become a necessity to learn how to use the synthesis sections efficiently enough for optimised combat. Further to this, working out how many enemies you need to grind between areas is very hazy. There is many, many enemies in the open world, and tougher mini-boss style enemies are marked as such with larger icons on the map. Yet it is very unclear how many enemies you need to be killing to be at appropriate levels as your progress. New party members coming in is a somewhat decent guideline, but with how slow the levelling process is, when I had a team member come in at level 28, when all my other characters were level 23 was somewhat frustrating.
The sheer amount of encounters I would have had to kill just to be equal in level is obnoxious. Easily 30+ encounters would be required for these 5 levels. This is an unfortunate trope of some games in the Atelier series in that the combat is a complete chore, but one that is necessary. Rather than putting focus on the good parts of the combat system, like support guards and combo skills, it focuses on the grind. The levelling also feels somewhat asinine in that there is no clear increase in power as you level. The level 28 character felt equal to the level 23 characters. This is smoothed out somewhat around what could be either the three-hour mark or the twelve-hour mark, depending how lost you get in focusing on secondary content, when you unlock the attributes levelling. Whilst not huge increases in power, the attribute levelling is far more notable in power surge than levels ever do across the game. The number of enemies on screen in the over-world at any point in time is impressive, and it lends itself to the idea of engaging with them far more regularly. Yet I think a shift to an active battle system and a move away from a turn-based system would be beneficial to the series, particularly with the ability to swing and ambush enemies prior to battle. There are foundations for active battle mechanics, that are not used in a turn-based system.
Visually the game is the best in the series and is a step up for the Atelier series. Unfortunately, with releases like Tales of Arise and Scarlet Nexus last year, Atelier Sophie 2 looks somewhat plain in comparison. The quality and detail of anime inspired titles was exemplified in the prior names’ titles, and Atelier Sophie feels a little bit dated comparatively. This isn’t a bad thing, but during conversation cutscenes, the lack of facial emotion is jarring. Most emotion is conveyed effectively enough by the change in eyebrow and body motion, but facial expression is lacking, and it makes the characters feel a little bit robotic at times. The cutscenes themselves generally involve the characters standing stagnant and talking, rather than walking or engaging in an activity of some kind. This isn’t inherently bad, but it’s an unfortunate side effect of similarly styled games look far more impressive.
The world design however is immaculate. The areas feel full of life and items. A wide variety of enemies always visible as well as impressive parts of architecture and deep design care shown throughout the world, and this entirely makes up for the shallower sections of the gameplay and story. The world is one you’ll find pleasure in exploring and running around the areas and working out the secrets is far more enjoyable than it would first be perceived.
Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream is an interesting entry into the series. Whilst lacking polish that the first game, and some other major previous titles have had, it is a strong title regardless. There are flaws in the overused story tropes and somewhat grind heavy gameplay, yet the world and the designs around it make up for it. The characters are deep despite their robotic and jarring appearance, and it is a joy to learn more about them and flesh them out.
The Score
7.5
Review code provided by Koei Tecmo
The Pros
- Strong character personalities
- Great world design
- Synthesis system is fun
The Cons
- Too much grinding
- Synthesis feels somewhat irrelevant
- Character design feels emotionless compared to their personality
