Isn't this Atelier rather thin? (possible spoilers)

[orgrune]

Or did I just totally miss a major plot point?

I just finished my second playthrough. spent most of year 3 just finishing up all *(Star marked) notes/quests and trying to get all friends to 100. I did not manage it with Kieth, Juris and bot girl.
All others were at 100 and I'm pretty sure I finished all their plot points because I could not find any more.

I managed all the not-completely-frocking-impossible bosses but after two tries with the special 4? bosses I just gave up that idea.

So I ended the game with the notebook having 7 notes. the 4 bosses, two about secret-cow area (haha right?) and the secret garden thing and the most curious one: "curious alchemist" or whatever.

It feels like I just missed something major. Not in the least because the curious alchemist thing says I have to wait for something but nothing ever happened.

anyone have any clues as to what I must have missed?

Footnote: I had no chance in the cow area and barely survived against some monsters inside secret garden water, I usually fail at the end-game fighting in these games but this stuff was worse than normal I'd say.

Edit: I suppose the feeling of... wrongness I feel after finishing it is that in the games I've played before it was not this easy to get the "real" ending, and usually the "real ending" did open up more than a few conversations and a new playable character...

[Kiru]

You can definitely miss the Keith stuff, because some events have to be done specifically before doing the ending. Can't tell you if you did that. Some flowers are also missable, though you only need 6 or so.

Friendship in Ayesha is mostly important for the early 3 characters. Everyone else doesn't need much (Juris), or nothing at all, in part because they are kinda DLC characters anyway. (Marion, Ordelia)

As for difficulty, you gotta try your alchemy obviously. There's also hard mode, which needs to be a new game and does a bunch of changes including higher prices in shops, less synthesized items and stronger enemies. If you want to or not, this would teach you how these games work if you want to beat it. I've not seen the endgame of Ayesha DX yet, but I doubt it's that hard.
Newer Atelier games usually have difficulty settings, and you should compare to the highest after all. They are made for the endgame stuff and usually only unlock once you unlock endgame for that very reason. Lulua's highest difficulty setting basically requires you to lock yourself into the atelier for 50+ hours. THAT is extreme. In Ayesha that'd be not possible, due to timelimits. (and especially hard mode doesn't allow carrying over things) On the flipside, that obviously makes it important to have an idea of what you are doing. Don't think hard mode is made with the extra bosses in mind though, so that'd be more an extra extra challenge.

Atelier games are mostly about figuring out good builds, and assembling them, Ayesha also has time management in there. It's somewhat similar to action rpgs with builds and whatnot, just without the farming/grinding, but in exchange usually harder to make. Lot's of planning and theorycrafting is still involved.