It's hard for me to recommend these games to anyone.

[Walrus Beard]

I played and finished Atelier Ryza. I decided for my next Atelier game I wanted a change of pace. I am very interested in Atelier Sophie 2, but I decided I will play the first one to begin with.

I enjoyed Ryza, and I think I'm actually enjoying Sophie more. It has a very comfy and cozy vibe to it that I find delightful.

Here's the problem though. These games are hard to get into. I had two false starts on Atelier Ryza before I finally beat it on my third try. The reason is because the crafting system is EXTREMELY complex.

Now there is nothing inherently wrong with complex game systems provided they are well explained, however, Gust seems to really struggle with providing tutorials that explain the systems well. There seemed to be many useful features that it didn't tell you about, and some things I had to go and look up guides online because I couldn't remember if they were explained, nor could I find answers in the in-game help documents.

Moving on to Sophie, I am having the same issues. I have had to go online to look things up several times. The only reason I am not severely struggling is because certain things about alchemy remain consistent across titles. In this sense, Atelier Ryza was a good practice run. I would not recommend these games to anyone, unless I knew that they were the kind of person who enjoyed obsessively experimenting to find out how everything works.

These games seem to target a very particular kind of person. That isn't a bad thing. It is better to cater to a core audience rather than pursue a global audience in the name of endless profits. That never ends well for anyone. Problem is, although there are things about the Atelier games I definitely enjoy, in both games I have played so far, crafting is a sore point for me. I'm not sure yet if I am really part of the target audience. I feel like I will need to play several Atelier titles to really figure that out. Or, maybe if things aren't clicking immediately I have my answer?