Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book Reviews

The progress of gameplay and story can feel a little directionless at times if you’re used to games pushing you to meet specific quests to push forward a narrative. Atelier Sophie doesn’t tell you what to do, but instead encourages you to just go about collecting, synthesising and talking to people, allowing the story to just happen as you go about your business. You get some general advice on how to trigger the next story event, but often it is vague enough to be of little use. I found this jarring at first, but once settled in to the idea of just going about things at my own pace I realised that events just progressed along. It’s nice not feeling under pressure, letting you discover and progress without the stress of objective arrows and progress bars.

Overall the Atelier Sophie is a good JRPG that is worth checking out if you are a fan of these kinds of games. If you can get over the fact you have to play a cutesy young woman, there is a good story, deep combat system and a great crafting system waiting for anyone who checks it out.

Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book might be one of the nicest RPG’s I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Coming from a franchise that has been around since 1997, the Atelier games have always had a heavy focus on alchemy; collecting ingredients and mixing them together to create a variety of items to aide you on your quest. The alchemy itself has always been vital to your characters progression, so while other RPG’s give you the option of using alchemy and cooking, ...

In conclusion, while the game has flaws most of which stem from a cluttering of systems being placed into the game. The immersive crafting experience and colorful characters still makes it an enjoyable experience. If the player doesn’t care much for combat and prefers a crafting experience Sophie will be a truly good title to have in one’s library.

Even so, Atelier Sophie gets right the same things as many of its predecessors. It’s a charming, relaxing adventure with a new cast, strategic depth of combat, lovely visuals and a uniquely bright setting and atmosphere. It does almost nothing new, but it doesn’t have to because the fans don’t want it to. If you’ve played any of the recent series entries, you already know if you want this. If you’re a series fan, you probably already have it.

While Atelier Sophie makes interesting changes to the dynamic of the series, it does not leave a strong impact.

The alchemy- and crafting-driven Atelier series has had a steady flow of releases since its North American debut in 2005, building up a niche fanbase with its fun gameplay loop of moving into a new town and proving yourself as an alchemist. Over the years, the Atelier games have stayed close to their traditional RPG roots – a tendency that puts them at risk of becoming banal. However, developer Gust takes more chances to shake things up with Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book, and it pays off. It emphasizes the series’ best parts (like the alchemy system) and shores up the weaker aspects of the formula.

Don’t you hate it when you really love the concept of a game, but can’t bring yourself to fully enjoy the execution? It’s that weird feeling when you really, really want to like something, but it seems (from your humble perspective, anyway) like the designers missed the boat on what makes their own game fun? Well, I’ve struggled with this for the last few entries of the Atelier series — while I liked this January’s Atelier Escha & Logy Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky quite a bit, I was left with a sour taste in my mouth. It wasn’t until I really analyzed how I was playing the game that I realized just how crazy it was driving me; that cursed “time limit” between milestones made me extremely careful about the way I tackled each set of quests, and I felt like I should be poring over a guidebook rather than trying to figure it all out on my own. If that’s something that’s prevented you from fully enjoying this series too, I’ve got good news for you: Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book does away with the time restrictions and lets you explore, craft and build relationships at your leisure.

The Atelier series is one of those under-the-radar JRPGs that is constantly overshadowed by the likes of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Megami Tensei, and Tales series here in North America. With its staple formula embodying a unique world full of alchemy, light heartedness, and innocence, it may seem odd and not your cup of tea at first. However, the Atelier series has been gradually making its mark since 2005 with Atelier Sophie being the twelfth main game in the series to hit North American shores. The Atelier series is also constantly evolving and changing with each ark and subsequent installment. As the previous “dusk” ark was completed by Atelier Shallie, Atelier Sophie begins the brand new “mysterious” ark fully jam-packed with new characters, themes, and even artist to keep things fresh and exciting.

Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book tries tells a charming story, but the neat turn-based combat system is really what makes this game memorable.