Atelier Sophie follows the everyday life of an up and coming alchemist named Sophie Neuenmuller. In practice, this means that the bulk of your time in Atelier Sophie is spent in a cycle of creating various items through alchemy, then going out exploring to harvest more raw ingredients to make more stuff - and rinsing and repeating throughout the duration of the story. Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book (PC) Review By Brandon (Michael) Howard 07.02.2017 2 The Atelier series is something of an oddball; while it's been around for nearly twenty years now,it's never quite Posted By Pramath | On 08th, Jun. But the outskirts of town are a dangerous place, filled with monsters, so you'll need to be able to stand on your own two feet in battle too. Until the feature opens up to have these items automatically replaced—again, very welcome and confusingly excluded until late—repeatedly making the same Berg Medicine you first wrote down into Plachta can be a chore. Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book marks the beginning of a new chapter in the series. I wish there were more engine-rendered cut-scenes that utilized the beautiful character models and that the mouths were synchronized with their speech. Being able to throw a team mate in to absorb damage for you was an invaluable tactic, but now we can't choose when to do it, it makes things a bit more awkward - we lost count of the number of times the (admittedly rather fragile) Corneria got knocked out by a group of enemies with a vendetta, to the point where we basically stopped using her in battle altogether. Affiliate Disclosure: Evolve Media LLC, and its owned and operated websites may receive a small commission from the proceeds of any product(s) sold through affiliate and direct partner links. Don’t worry about catching up on story though, the series has gone through many separate Arks and Atelier Firis is actually only the second game in the ‘Mysterious’ series, which started with 2015’s Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book. Pretty soon, they start needing you to make items in your atelier, which drives the need to gather more materials, fight more monsters, and discover more recipes as you attempt to fulfill requests. Once battle-related options reveal themselves, including the equipment needs and an absolutely vital chaining system, you’ll find yourself asking why you didn’t have these before.​. Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book and its Atelier predecessors carve a curious niche for themselves. The newly-announced Atelier Firis is actually part of the same series as this game. Atelier Sophie, PC RPG, Koei Games, Koei, Koei Tecmo, Atelier. Only in Atelier Sophie, as an alchemist, needs to gather items for her recipes, and thus needs to venture out into the surrounding wilderness. Orders of $150+ Get FREE Shipping! Story Talking books are normal? Can you name the PS2 RPG from the screenshot? Battles themselves are turn-based and can be quite challenging on the Normal difficulty, especially because of some arguably annoying gatekeeping on the game’s part. Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book (PS4) Review Reviews. Despite this, the character models in Atelier Sophie are stunningly beautiful with a lot of gorgeous detail and common JRPG over-styling. Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book is essentially a story about a girl, Sophie, who wishes to become as good as her grandmother at the art and science of alchemy, but is quite the beginner at it, which seems to be a theme found in at least one other Atelier title: Atelier Annie: Alchemist of Sera Island for the DS (here: Atelier Annie). Set in the idyllic German-inspired town of Kirchen Bell, Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book follows the tale of the titular Sophie, a young alchemist who's inherited both her skill and atelier workshop from her late grandmother. The cunningly named 'Offensive' stance increases the damage you deal to enemies, while 'Defensive' reduces the damage you take from attacks - so far, so Ronseal - but there's a bit more to stances than that. Sophie is a typical and yet charming protagonist. Especially as the more ingredients you harvest out in the open, the more powerful the monsters prowling around become…, That's the weirdest looking Star Fish we've ever seen. Becoming a master alchemist is all well and good, but if you want to fill the pages of the book, and help Plachta, you'll need to get some recipes. It’s been a good, long time since I’ve played a JRPG, wasting away over a hundred hours trying to level and get the supreme weapon for each of my characters. The game begins with Sophie discovering a mysterious book (fancy that) in her atelier. The story unfolds based on your activity in each of the game’s various modes. The majority of Atelier Sophie seems wholly unconcerned with that. Sophie herself is driven by the desire to make others happy, hoping to follow in her deceased grandmother’s footsteps, though remarkably her grief and coping mechanisms play no part in the narrative. Unfortunately, for all her optimism, little Sophie is a little lacking in the skills department, with almost everything she tries to create turning to smoke - … But it remains that her appearance is entirely a projection made onto her by others, both in-game and outside of it. Items themselves range in quality and size, which don’t just affect the final product but also the mixing process. This Mysterious Book seems to hold all. Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist Of The Mysterious Book Review Miguel Moran 07/06/16 1 In a lot of games , there’s generally one specific … 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. Set against a vibrant background reminiscent of a medieval European town, the Atelier series' latest standalone installment follows the exploits of a young novice Alchemist, Sophie, who discovers she is the owner of an enigmatic book imbued with a soul. What is Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book? The battle system has some awesome features that are locked behind story gates. Once you've unlocked your recipe, and gathered and chosen your ingredients, you can get to alchemy-fying them - but there's a bit of assembly required. You take the bad. Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book will be a delight for those who’ve stayed loyal to the series. Like any Atelier game, Sophie poses the titular heroine with a situation and a goal, though Gust has apparently abandoned the concept of time limits, even for most side quests. Recipe discovery is also a mixed experience. Directed by Yoshito Okamura. 2016 Under Article , Reviews This whole “slice of life” approach can be appealing, almost soothing, juxtaposed against other RPGs. Well, that's essentially what long running alchemical role-playing game Atelier is about - and it's way more exciting and addictive than it sounds. Being the first game in a new trilogy for the Atelier franchise and also the first game in the franchise on PlayStation 4, The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book is a relaxing and bright JRPG … February 07, 2017. As I said, I loved playing it (despite the rush to meet embargo), but its faults keep it from becoming a classic in any sense. It’s kinda like Breaking Bad, with less drugs and a floating book, if that makes it sound appealing to you — kinda. With the release of Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book on Steam, this reviewer managed to get his hands on what would be his first Atelier game. Gone are strict deadlines of previous games in the series to more vague challenges. Checking in on them often leads to new conversations and narrative expansion. As always, there's a few more bits and pieces you can do when you're not busy battling, harvesting and alchemising too - Meister Horst's Cafe in town has a requests board where troubled townsfolk can post their pleas for help. Various aspects of the narrative, even venturing into the meta-narrative of Japanese game development, range from uncomfortable to disturbing. Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book Review- Fantasy Life The newest Atelier game is easy to recommend. Not only is her body literally a large doll, but her initial outfit is translucent lace with thigh-high stockings. This is a quiz is for you! It's new streamlined alchemy system removes some of the confusion of previous instalments, and the lack of time limit makes it much more accessible for newcomers. Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book Review - GameRevolution, Delightful, if plain, slice-of-life storyline, Organic story progression via just playing the game, Empty-looking environments and color-swap enemies, Confusing or needlessly offensive writing and design decisions, Variety of equipment crafting and enhancement options, So many options locked behind gates until certain story points, Welcome to the new GameRevolution community platform. Enemy designs are not only boring but repeated via color-swaps to a nauseating degree. Posted on June 7, 2016. If you've ever played an Atelier game before, Atelier Sophie's battles will be instantly recognisable - turn-based affairs, where both friend and foe take it in turns to attack, defend and sling spells (and in Sophie's case, alchemised bombs et al too), they're pretty easy to pick up and play. Crazy cat person? Maybe fat-shaming and body politics could’ve just not been in this game if they aren't going to be properly addressed. Atelier veterans may be familiar with Support Attacks and Support Guards, where you can choose to have allies leap in and execute follow-up attacks, or jump in front of you to absorb damage in your place. Some recipes will only give you vague categories of items you need to include, such as 'paper' or 'animal', while others require very specific items, meaning mixing, matching and experimenting with what goes into your creation is part of the fun, and the best route to creating the very best items. By placing the ingredient pieces on the grid, you can tweak the item's properties even further - our current strategy is to try and pick as many of our ingredients from the same elemental 'family' as we can, which lets us exploit huge bonuses when the whole grid is filled with 'blue' pieces, for example. Atelier Sophie: Alchemist of the Mysterious Book is the latest entry in the Atelier franchise, and while it was already on Playstation 4, it’s finally releasing on Steam! Though once Sophie starts the final three alchemy books—Hope, Dreams, and Mystery—the item-based requirements ask you to mix recipes to have very specific traits, whether or not you’ll need them. 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 … To celebrate the launch of Paper Mario: The Origami King, why not test your knowledge with a quiz? Twitter; Facebook ... and luckily it seems that they’ve picked it up once more as the latest title, Atelier Sophie, is a vast improvement. Get Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book - Plachta 1/7 Scale Figure (Re-run) on the Tokyo Otaku Mode Shop. As time passes and items are delivered, more characters will appear, check in on Sophie, and be checked on by Sophie, thereby fueling this cycle of story delivery. Today, we have the start of a new series in Atelier. Her doll body’s creator’s occasional creepy comments notwithstanding, if she was actually a young-looking woman who dressed in lingerie, as confusing as that may be, I’d be able to understand it more. Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book is a cutesy role-playing game which focuses on the long lost art of alchemy, a magical form of cooking that can turn various ingredients into more useful items. In the world of Atelier, you 'cook' everything you need for your adventure, from the aforementioned healing potions and bombs to critical quest items, and the titular Sophie's growth from a novice at her late grandmother's knee into a great alchemist known the land over is a key part of the game. Horst will also tell you about any interesting rumours he's heard (for a fee of course), which detail locations of rare monsters or spots where unusual alchemy ingredients can be harvested. Be ye a perfect pirate captain, or should ye walk the plank? However, we would have appreciated a bit more control in battles, as being able to have another party member act as a damage sponge for an injured team-mate is particularly useful, and something that could have saved our (or at least Corneria's) bacon more than a few times. You take them all and put it in a cauldron. Sophie discovers that when she writes alchemy recipes into the book, it begins to … A flowchart of all the recipes in the game, unlocking new ones requires all kinds of different 'experiences', from battling specific monsters, to synthesising items with set properties, to visiting a particular place - while others are linked to the stories of your party members, being defeated in battle or exploring until you collapse from exhaustion, amongst other things. Genre(s): AdventurePlatform(s): Wii, 3DS, Wii U, Bubble Bobble is back - and this time it's brought four player co-op, A triple pack of trains, and a huge leap forward. monitoring_string = "9825918b2b361fb0e003f4935ce18ae6", Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book, PC / PS4 / PS5 / Xbox One / Xbox Series X, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake. Depending on how you lay them out and if they even fit with each other, the result can vary wildly until you really get a feel for it. By Patrick Rost. 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