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Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book
Released On: Jun 7, 2016
75
7.7
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 32 Critic Reviews
75
53% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
47% Mixed
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 32 Critic Reviews
75
53% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
47% Mixed
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The Atelier games are smarter than almost anyone gives them credit for, and Atelier Sophie is no different. The gentle coming of age narrative, coupled with the pastoral setting and likable ensemble cast, make for a very fine start to a new trilogy (we assume) in Gust’s marquee franchise.
Gust’s first foray on the PS4 with their flagship Atelier title is a rousing success, and even though I lament the removal of the time limit mechanic from the series, it still proves one of the strongest entries the franchise has had to date, and one of the best RPGs available on the PS4.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 85 User Ratings
7.7
73% Positive
62 Ratings
62 Ratings
13% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
14% Negative
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 85 User Ratings
7.7
73% Positive
62 Ratings
62 Ratings
13% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
14% Negative
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
Hands down, one of the greatest Atelier games. Atelier Sophie is a whimsical adventure with the ultimate embodiment of adorableness known as Sophie Neuenmuller and an equally lovable cast. It highlights concepts like the power of community. It legit irks me that Ryza has a higher score than Sophie.
I mean, ffs Lilea Xea is a god tier song that to this day, cannot be matched. Get. This. Game.
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PlayStation 4
Atelier is a long running title with Sophie being the protagonist of this 17th main installment - therefore also known as project A17. As the tradition this is the first episode of the mysterious trilogy within the installment, much like the Arland trilogy and the Dusk trilogy. This trilogy features a more interactive and tetris like crafting in order to achieve the "best output" in battles - maximum quality of equipment and bombs to be specific. The interactive and open-world like environment has also improved the game. This series amazed me everytime when a new sequel came out as there are always surprise and improvement waiting for me.
This series is praised as atypical JRPG as it is full of Japanese style animation and full of young and innocent little girls with seeming lesbian reference yet the battle emphasizes hugely on buf and debuf other than physical damage output. Therefore you are an alchemist who needs to fight off monsters only because you need the stuff and you save the world by synthesizing but not by fighting off the dragon. However, this time the game finally asks you to do things that you like and you want instead of saving the world.
This game offers:
1. The very hard mode in NG+
2. The free DLC for the final map
3. the balance of the available traits and properties (you need more to decide what and what not to combine)
4. Easy platinum or hardcore boss battle to show off on youtube
5. The story lines are diverse - development of multiple characters and are playable although they are all linear.
6. The world is large and filled up with things to do and read
7. Complete and vivid voice acting for all dialogues
8. Unlimited In game time to enjoy all the game has to offer (as tradition players are usually given a defined time frame to fulfill the end game requirement and arriving at different ending)
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PlayStation 4
Not the jump forward I was expecting for this series, but a light and entertaining RPG nonetheless.
If you do not let the graphics get the best of you, Atelier Sophie is a great game to spend time with, full of cute girls and explosives.
Atelier Sophie represents a new identity for the series. A self-pilot episode, that tries to capture the interest of a new fanbase. Good, but we would have preferred a more challenging game.
For anyone seeking out an RPG they can just play for weeks, Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book is a solid choice, but for each of its highlights, it suffers a misgiving.
If you've played other titles in the series, then this entry will feel like it adds very little to the experiences that you've already had, while leaving a much blander taste.
** OVERALL 8.5/10 ** Gameplay 9/10 - Creativity 9/10 - Music 9/10 - Visuals 7/10 - Characters 7/10 - Plotline 7/10 - Emotional Engagement 7/10 - Replayability 7/10 - Difficulty */10
This was an incredibly unexpectedly lovely game. It’s 60% puzzle crafting/minmaxing, and 40% cutesy JRPG.
The crafting system is the focus of the game and where you’ll be spending most of your time making the best items you can at various points. The adventure portion is mostly to go out and collect raw materials. However, you’ll be doing a lot of writing down item trees, i.e. since I want to make this, I need these 3 things with these 3 properties, and for each of those, i need these other 10 things with these properties, and for those… etc. It gets deep an engaging, and the actual process of creating an item, once you have all the materials, is a tetris-block-fitting puzzle game that, especially at the higher levels, is really challenging.
The role-playing portion is cute. It’s not the deepest battle system, but it works. You see the enemies coming and you can generally run from everything. Even if you completely die, you just lose some of the crafting materials you picked up along the way, and wake up back at your shop. You probably won’t go underground into a “dungeon” for a long time in the game. You’ll be talking to people, looking for particular items, and looking for particular locations, in order to find “inspiration” for a new crafting recipe. Battles really run the gamut of difficulty, you can stomp everything and then suddenly get completely overpowered. Only bother with the difficulty setting if you want to grind for XP or GP. Once you find “gold punis”, you’ll want to set it to max (“despair”) difficulty to fight them for thousands of gold at a time - think of them as the literal “metal slimes” of the game.
The music is well done and catchy, and you can adjust the game music in very fine detail. Just go to the desk in your house and select BGM and you can set any music or sets of music for any situation. As in, you can make your house music the battle music and vice versa, if you want. I like the higher level battle musics, and the traveling and night music. Night music almost makes me cry, it’s very “sad music box”-like and atmospheric.
Visuals are ok. Nothing stands out as particularly bad, but I wasn’t awe-inspired by anything, either. I do like the colorful and well-crafted character designs. In particular, I like the motion capture they did - everyone’s movements are very realistic. However, they don’t quite interact in as complex a way as some other games like Tales of Berseria. In the latter, characters pick each other up, caress faces, hold people close or push them away - complex interaction done well. Atelier Sophie is more like people just reacting individually. I have to take off a point or two for fan service, though. It’s not as bad as I’ve seen, but almost every female character has “female armor” syndrome, a super-short skirt, or exploding bras. At least the main character isn’t that way, but everyone else you meet is. I wish they’d stop this.
Character wise, everyone’s pretty developed. Not too many of them have arc, though. There’s event trees for all major characters and a few minor ones, but characters other than the main one don’t change much, other than maybe one or two. Their personalities are delightful and engaging, though, so they’re not boring or anything. A few cliches here and there but generally decent.
The plot line’s a little on the weak side, but it’s ok. It’s mostly a crafting game, the plot is a device for making you synthesize more alchemic items. Everyone just reacts adorably and lovingly to each other over the course of some weird things that go on. It’s kinda K-On-ish to me, very “moe”.
The emotional engagement isn’t great because most of the characters don’t develop much, and the physical interactions are a bit limited.
Replayability is ok, I may go back to finish off some of the DLC stuff later, but there’s (sadly) no newgame+ mode. The game just ends and you can keep playing to make more items if you like.
The difficulty is weird. I can’t give it a number because it’s adjustable. You can set it to easy, normal, hard, or DESPAIR. For the most part I kept it on normal, until I got the ability to craft weapons and armor, and then I felt overpowered and moved it back and forth between normal and DESPAIR. A few enemies are nasty on DESPAIR, but most just have more HP and give more XP and GP.
Overall, it was an incredibly addicting game that kept me up way into the morning multiple days in a row. In true “Civ” fashion, “just one more turn!”.
Highly recommended, as long as you enjoy the synthesis type puzzle system and how most of your leveling comes from that, not from grinding enemies.
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PlayStation 4
I like this game. First, it still looks like a traditional JRPG and that is the best part of every Atelier game. Second, very beautiful design of the whole game. The third, interesting and funny story. In the Atelier series they always trying to add something new, so in this game they made a new Alchemy system. This new Alchemy system is interesting because now Sophie can learn new recipes through various activities and when she performs alchemy, the player needs to solve the easy puzzle to receives a bonus. This function reminds me of the Alchemy system in Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis where the player must choose a certain color on the roulette to get a bonus, while in Atelier Sophie the player needs to solve the puzzle. Also in Atelier Sophie they have made a new battle system. This new battle system looks just like a traditional Turn-based battle system with some new functions. My favorite battle system in the Atelier series is the one in the Mana Khemia series. The battle system in the Mana Khemia series was the best improvement of the traditional Turn-based battle system. They used that battle system again in Atelier Escha & Logy and Atelier Shallie but unfortunately they did not put this battle system in Atelier Sophie.
Conclusion: Atelier Sophie is a good Atelier game and is a good JRPG but it would be even better if they put it battle system from Mana Khemia series.
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PlayStation 4
Having played every Atelier there is under the far sun, I think I can safely say that I know my stuff about Atelier games.
First let's take a quick look back.
The Series started strong for me with Atelier Iris.
Even though the Voice Acting was kinda hit-and-miss, I loved the characters and the style behind it.
The Alchemy stuff was still in the making, so it was really not that extraordinary, but I shelf that to its age.
The Mana Khemia Series, while technically not an Atelier game ( even though it featured the ever buxomfull Pamela), was enjoying with that kinda watered down Alchemy system.
But then, I don't quite know what happened.
The Arland Trilogy began.
And that was when it went downhill for me.
You see, I get that you have to pander to the male audience.
I do.
For me, there were alot of things that turned me away form it.
No.1 : I dislike Kishida Mel's Arts Style. Nothing against her, it just makes some Characters look horrible (Rorona's face in Atelier Totori, anyone?).
No.2 : The outfits. Like I said before, I understand the pandering. But looking at Lionela's or Hanna's outfit, what else is it, except fan service. And no one can tell me Corneria's outfit is not for the lolicons out there.
No.3 : Horrible cliched characters. Like every Main Girl, Sophie is a young Alchemist that is kinda meh at what she does at first. Thank god we hadn't seen that in Rorona, Totori and Meruru before.
But now to the actual game.
Like I said before, I don't like Mel's art work, so I was really happy with seeing that the art for the characters in Sophie is absolutely breathtaking.
The story brings not really much new to the table, but for me it was enjoyable because I felt never any sense of the urgency I felt in previous games. Which brings me too...
They continued the no time limit in Sophie, giving you more time to run around, doing stupid things.
The Alchemy system is new and improved, but to get really good results get ready to spend a lot of time crafting items over and over and over because you can not get that one bar filled... ( Damn you, Mana Feather!)
The combat is revamped and will probably take some time to get used too.
There are now difficulty settings ranging from easy, normal, hard and despair.
Unless you enjoy breaking your PS4 controller (like this d00d right here), don't play on despair the first time.
LP makes an unwelcome return for me, even though a fully crafted Mana Feather can remedy that, I had hoped it was a thing of the past.
There is now also a day and night cycle, making more dangerous and other enemies appear at night (Like Ghost's). Plus it has wheather effects, like how rain makes Puni's huge and more dangerous
Gathering works mostly the same, except you have a sort of gauge that goes from 1 Point to 5. The higher it is, the more rare items and ore items you can gather, but it will also kae some serious tough customers come out.
That leaves me to the pro and cons
Pro
+ Beautiful Art Work
+ Alchemy is fun again
+ No time constraints
+ Doll making
+ Sophie's cute and energetic ( Plus I'm a **** for her canine tooth)
Cons
- Characters are mostly bland (Monika)
- People not doing anything when it's night
- People in the game annoying me when I'm fully inversed in my Alchemy
- LP
I gave it a 9, because Atelier Sophie makes me feel kinda warm and fuzzy.
It's a cute game full of cute characters that don't have any kind of epic mission.
Just enjoy it ^^
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PlayStation 4
It is a decent JRPG in terms of graphics and story and gameplay. If you are a fan of the genre you wont be upset you played it. Where it excels is in its item creation/crafting system. If, like me, you enjoy playing games where you can go in depth in the crafting system, then you definitely need to pick this game up.
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PlayStation 4
Surprisingly addictive once you get in the zone with this game. Not something I'd recommend if you're looking for more of a traditional story-driven JRPG, but what's here is more like a crafting RPG with a slight Harvest Moon feel.
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PlayStation 4
Summary The nubie alchemist Sophie of Kirchen Bell meets the Mysterious Book called Plachta and embarks on a wonderful adventure.
Rated T
for Teen
Platforms:
- PlayStation Vita
- PlayStation 4
- PC
- PlayStation 3
Initial Release Date: Jun 7, 2016
Developer:
- Gust
Publisher: Koei Tecmo Games
Genres:
