Is the story decent and long?

[Frozen Esper]

I'm still on the edge of picking this up. Is the story good, and can we expect many hours out of it? I am looking for a decent length story that is engaging where you get attached to the characters.

[D-Black Catto]

i dont think most people play these games for story, its more about characters, gameplay, nice music and visuals and the journey

[Bob Barnsen]

I'm about 10h+ in the game and still waiting till the "story" gets interesting.
So far it's mostly running around, gathering stuff, crafting stuff, killing monsters.

I don't really care about all those gameplay features, when the story is as boring as watching grass grow.

[Usagiraindrop]

It is more about the character growth and how she grows as the story goes on. It's like watching slice of life with action anime. If you looking for like action action, I say this isn't your game.

[Prydzen ᛋᛟ]

Story gets more interesting later but its kinda short. A lot of grind getting recipes and good gear. But its a good kind of grind imo.

[CLG]

Not finished with the game yet but this game has the worst pacing in any Atelier game. The game just doesn't want to let you go out and explore. You are locked to the same 3 early environments for half of the game while running back and forth doing pointless deliveries for people around town.

I guess the overall presentation for the game is great but as an Atelier veteran this game just has way too much hand holding and is kind of annoying to play. I want to go out and explore the world already like every other Atelier game but this one wont let me. It's taking way too long to become an Atelier game and open up.

[Moga CMDR]

TBH these games stories are always debatable. Its more about exploring, gathering and crafting while being around cute characters and seeing their friendship.

I can't say the cast is all that compelling either...but that's subjective. I definitely cared more about Sophie's cast than this one (so far)

If you want compelling stories there are other games. Atelier games don't try to be something they aren't.

[D's Journal]

The story is meh for me. As for characters, in the other games, there were character events and stuff but they added character stories instead DLC for like $6 within coming months so seeing real growth and bond of characters probably won't be as strong as it could be.

I wouldn't play this is you want well-written games, because this is just meh.
You'd want to play it for messing around alchemy, creating fun and new items with
different traits and effects.

[Llyes]

Originally posted by D's Journal:

The story is meh for me. As for characters, in the other games, there were character events and stuff but they added character stories instead DLC for like $6 within coming months so seeing real growth and bond of characters probably won't be as strong as it could be.

I wouldn't play this is you want well-written games, because this is just meh.
You'd want to play it for messing around alchemy, creating fun and new items with
different traits and effects.

there seem to still be conversations among the characters, but I must be missing some way to know where to go to trigger them, because they don't show up on any map I've seen, and randomly wandering around hoping to find them is getting very... tiring

[Xavi]

Originally posted by Cute Little Girl💕:

Not finished with the game yet but this game has the worst pacing in any Atelier game. The game just doesn't want to let you go out and explore. You are locked to the same 3 early environments for half of the game while running back and forth doing pointless deliveries for people around town.

I guess the overall presentation for the game is great but as an Atelier veteran this game just has way too much hand holding and is kind of annoying to play. I want to go out and explore the world already like every other Atelier game but this one wont let me. It's taking way too long to become an Atelier game and open up.

Agreed!
Been playing Atelier games since Ayesha and the pacing of this one is so bad I want to cry!

[Prydzen ᛋᛟ]

Story isnt interesting yet at 10 hours.

[Nyachou]

the story get's much more interesting starting 3rd chapter.

[Relkya]

Yes, it's decently long (if you take time to enjoy the gathering, crafting mechanic on hard mode)
The story will get thicken and interesting after you discover what happened to the ruin of the old empire which the game is taking place. I say about almost half way into the game, maybe?

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by Cute Little Girl💕:

Not finished with the game yet but this game has the worst pacing in any Atelier game. The game just doesn't want to let you go out and explore. You are locked to the same 3 early environments for half of the game while running back and forth doing pointless deliveries for people around town.

I guess the overall presentation for the game is great but as an Atelier veteran this game just has way too much hand holding and is kind of annoying to play. I want to go out and explore the world already like every other Atelier game but this one wont let me. It's taking way too long to become an Atelier game and open up.

I feel the opposite. I have to sometimes leave my Atelier to unlock new materials. Pffff.I was going to craft sometimes amazing and its final step needed a material I hadnt unlocked yet. :(

Alchemywise it has way less handholding and way more openness then previous games. Materials are nowhere near as locked as they normally are. (usually they are heavily gated by story areas)

[CLG]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Originally posted by Cute Little Girl💕:

Not finished with the game yet but this game has the worst pacing in any Atelier game. The game just doesn't want to let you go out and explore. You are locked to the same 3 early environments for half of the game while running back and forth doing pointless deliveries for people around town.

I guess the overall presentation for the game is great but as an Atelier veteran this game just has way too much hand holding and is kind of annoying to play. I want to go out and explore the world already like every other Atelier game but this one wont let me. It's taking way too long to become an Atelier game and open up.

I feel the opposite. I have to sometimes leave my Atelier to unlock new materials. Pffff.I was going to craft sometimes amazing and its final step needed a material I hadnt unlocked yet. :(

Alchemywise it has way less handholding and way more openness then previous games. Materials are nowhere near as locked as they normally are. (usually they are heavily gated by story areas)

Theres tons of items that are gated by story areas. You also get a few quests you can't actually finish because there's no way to get the items. The pacing is incredibly slow compared to other Ateliers. You can easily be playing for 10+ hours and still only have the first 3 areas to explore while you do menial busy work to progress the main story. There is no balance of alchemy and exploration in the early game because exploration gets hard locked very quickly. In older games there is usually always a new area to go out and to explore but pretty much every area in this game is locked to the story so there's no freedom to go off and do what you want.

I'm still enjoying the game but the start of it was a terrible slog to get though if you are used to how other Atelier games play.

[Tiasmoon]

You also get a few quests you can't actually finish because there's no way to get the items.

Which goes to show how open it is. In previous games those quests wouldnt even be available untill much later. Since they arent as storylocked, you will get quests before you can get the items needed to complete them. However you can also complete them much sooner then otherwise would be possible for the same reason.

For example you can craft Super Pure Water (lv 42 synth) right after doing the castle area, even tho that area is around level 20~, because the recipe is a reward from a quest.

You can easily be playing for 10+ hours and still only have the first 3 areas to explore

With the exclusion of Firis, previous Atelier games also had far smaller maps then Ryza does. 3 areas with multiple sub areas. The faerie forest alone is already 4 areas.

You make it sound like theres barely places to explore or gather, but thats because you count the larger areas and not the actual amount of areas the game has.

but pretty much every area in this game is locked to the story

That is the case with all Atelier games, so im not sure why you feel different about it now. Technically all areas in all Atelier games (except Nelke!!) are locked by story. Nelke is the only game where no level is locked by the story and you can explore them regardless of chapter progress.

So you have to progress a bit to unlock some areas, thats not new. However you also unlock far more of the map each time the story progresses in meaningful ways. When I reached the castle part of the story (which is basically the end of the introduction part of the story) it unlocked 2 areas with most of their subareas. Then right after completing it, another area unlocked.

Ofcourse I spend far more time then 10 hours to reach there, however that is because I focused on Alchemy. I didnt actually need to progress far to continue with Alchemy tho. Only reason I even needed that material for a craft is because I wanted to make its very best version.

I'm still enjoying the game but the start of it was a terrible slog to get though if you are used to how other Atelier games play.

Precisely because I'm used to the other Atelier games (everything post Rorona except Shallie) I've played, would I say that it has a lot more freedom.
In good part because you don't have to use as specific materials for synthesis anymore. You only truly need the base material, and any materials on the way to a recipe change (for recipe unlocks).

But also because theres a ton of optional monsters that drop very rare and good materials with great traits.

If you are really invested in Alchemy youll spend the first 10 hours doing quests and crafting recipes, figuring out what materials drop where anyway. I wouldnt call that a slog at all.