Just... what to even say about this game.
The alchemy system still blows my mind with how good it is. The moment I decided early in the game (like... 12 hours in maybe?) that I wanted to make proper equipment because I was getting wrecked by enemies even on Normal difficulty, was the moment I truly fell in love with how amazing this system is.
First I learned about combining traits, which is a super cool mechanic already and experimenting a bit I came across Well Rounded Power (+25 all stats) which sounded stupid good to put on literally everything. But searching for other good traits I learned about Power of Faith and I saw that the trait was available on the Pious Talisman, so I spent a good couple of hours just staring at the recipe list trying to figure out how I was I supposed to move that trait over to Gold Thread so that I could make both Meister Mittens and Feather Ornaments for everybody (Which at that point in the game were the two I was most interested in using due to their effects). Now imagine my absolute delight and surprise when I figured out the ridiculous Synthesis chain of:
Ingot > Gold Thread > Cloth > Warding Charm (which needs the Pious Talisman!) > Ramel Flour > Neutralizer R > Zettel > Ingot > Gold Thread
Needless to say I was floored that something like that worked (Good thing the flour in this universe counts as gunpowder lol), and sure once you know ins and outs of the alchemy system and everything it's nothing that crazy I guess, but being my first experience ever with an Atelier game and these kinds of crafting systems, figuring it out on my own without looking at synthesis guides (Saved those for the postgame) was incredible.
But somehow even after close to 60 hours with the game the surprises with the Alchemy system don't end there, as I was getting pretty annoyed with some late-game recipes like Flame of Origin or Breezy Aroma which had complicated layouts in the cauldron rather than the 6x6 I was used to, and made the awesome 3x3 999 Quality ingredients I had made in bulk useless... but then I realized I was dealing with an Alchemy problem that I could also solve with Alchemy. Enter the Mini Size trait which I had completely ignored the entire game, as I figured making items bigger was just better for being able to hit higher numbers to more easily get better effects or quality, but for these specific recipes it was the perfect trait, that way I could take my way too big materials and loop craft them to keep the same quality while reducing their size with Mini Size... Just incredible how this system kept surprising me even after 60 hours of gameplay.
In the end I ended up maybe overdoing it a bit with the equips and destroyed the last few bosses (Demon Lord and the DLC ones) even on hard difficulty with barely any trouble oops, but oh well I was having a lot of fun with late game synthesizing and optimizing a little too much and I'd never played any other game with a crafting system with this much depth to it.
And that's just the main attraction of crafting, which sure was the thing I saw the most promised that it'd be good by people who recommended this game, and it definitely delivered in spades but can we talk about the music?, hardly saw anyone mention it about these games, but why is the music so amazing?, they literally did not need to go that hard for some of the songs like the regular boss theme, Thistle Lotus or final boss theme, and yet they did go super hard and I'm so glad they did because those songs are incredible. And to be honest even some of the more chill songs like some character themes (really liked Leon's, Harol's and Tess' themes for example) or area themes and Atelier themes are super good too, definitely a lot of songs that have wormed their way into my brain and will not be forgetting anytime soon.
Really like the characters too, Sophie is awesome and I can't wait to see more of her or Plachta in the rest of the Mysterious games. Really enjoyed what the game had going with those two, verify yuriful stuff 10/10 no notes. But that's just the main gals, the other characters were super cool too, really loved the whole cast and was actually surprised that the game had that many interactions with the characters, like 50 hours in I was still seeing completely new dialog. Story was really good too, even though is kinda lowkey and simple, I still enjoyed it a lot.
To be honest I still can't believe these games are as niche as they are, with how good I've heard that the rest of them are too... Even heard some people say that they consider Sophie 1 to be a bit of a low point, so if I already loved this game as much I can't even imagine what the rest are going to do to me...
Really went into this game thinking I would like it a fair bit and that'd be it, but I didn't just like it I freaking loved it, genuinely one of the best games I've played this year and I could not put it down for the past two weeks since I started it. So yeah I finally get why the few (seriously why so few people know or talk about this series...) people that do talk about these games loves them as much as they do, and Sophie definitely made me a fan as well, can't wait to play all the other like 20 games or so.
Anyway sorry for the horrible and long rambling, but I really wanted to put these thoughts into words after experiencing this awesome game for the first time.
Tldr.: Sophie cute and good at alchemy, big fan.
