Someone once said, "the only difference between life and stillness...is that we die." It is the limited time we have on this planet that makes our decisions and the small moments we experience worthwhile. The meaning of life is something that can only exist because life has an end.

Atelier Shallie is the final part of the "Dusk" atelier trilogy. Taking place in a slowly dying world, this game is the only one in the trilogy to directly acknowledge this fact and "look for a solution." I put the last part of that in quotes, as the game devotes very little to actually doing that.

First and foremost, I feel it important to mention that this is one of the few atelier games to have no time limit or time passing systems. At first, this may make the game seem less stressful, however as someone who recently started this series with Atelier Ayesha, it is exactly because you have limited time that you feel driven to push forward and to truly think out your choices. I often found myself feeling like the actions I took in Shallie were pointless. Why am I gathering right now? Why am I doing quests? Why am I synthesizing? All of these actions matter very little, especially because the majority of actually useful alchemic items have strict alchemy level requirements, which you will not meet until much later than you bought the reference book you learned the recipe from. Many actions feel just pointless, and the game actively punishes you for doing most of them.

While there is no time system, there is instead a "motivation" system. Every action done slowly decreases motivation, while completing life goals boosts it up. At low motivation, you move slower and gather less items. In the final chapter, motivation will be locked at whatever value it was going in. All of this leads to a situation where the only things you should be doing are exactly what the game tells you, lest you end up in the final section of the game moving at a snail's pace and having to grind out ingredients for items you finally have the alchemy level to create.

Spoilers ahead, but the story (much like the gameplay) also manages to have no concept of time or consequence. In essence, the sea is slowly drying due to "the dusk" a poorly defined natural phenomenon the series has brought up only in passing in spite of being the link between title names. It is found out that the reason for this is civilizations and alchemists of the past, who created many gardens, cradles, and laboratories which used humans (more or less, its complicated) as a power source and admin. It is found (by Keith and Ayesha mind you, not any of this game's actual main cast who really should be the ones solving the issue) that the sea is drying up due to one such facility existing underneath the city. The game says turning it off will make things worse before they can get better, but soon after does a 180 on this, with keith simply adjusting the machine rather than fully destroying it, so ultimately there is no penance or accountability taken for the actions of ages passed. The solution found to the dusk issue is simply that the alchemists of this world must work to find and disable these harmful relics of the past, while also planting a seed of new life (which was Escha and Logy's conclusion already by the way. somehow this game just decided it would co-opt that) to show nature that humans are sorry. I find it important to mention Escha and Logy (of the previous game) and Keith (from Atelier Ayesha) had/were literally already doing this and likely would have continued to on exactly the same regardless of this game's events.

In conclusion, for being a game that is supposed to bring together all the prior casts against one big problem, it manages to do absolutely nothing and say absolutely nothing while also making me feel like I had no reason to do anything the entire time. Ayesha and Keith just end up solving all the world's problems, something they were already doing in their friendship ending (considered to be the "canon" ending by many fans). Even outside of those two, Escha and Logy had their own dreams and solved their own problems in their game. The Shallies have vague, generic dreams and get all their problems solved by asking characters who worked harder to find answers on their own. Keith would never have helped someone like that before this game, but I guess he's the easy pick for "character who can solve this issue because he's just better than everyone else."

A disappointing conclusion to a trilogy. A story that is a boring drag, where characters are inconsistent and motivations are unclear. The set up that were created in the previous games are squandered, character developments that should continued were forgotten while pointless characters are given the limelight for reasons that are beyond me. Even previously established bonds and relationships devolved in this game. Not recommended. Such a disappointment should just be retcon out of existence.

The Dusk games are probably my favorite Atelier trilogy. They're a little darker than the other games, they feel a little steampunky, and they've all got a slight post-apocalyptic tone to them. They're still Atelier games, so they're still just Waifu Simulators, but at least they've got nice settings. (And music! Such nice music!)

Atelier Ayesha is probably my favorite game in the series, and Escha/Logy might be my second. But Shallie... Shallie is not really hooking me.

* There's no time limit. I didn't LOVE the time limits in previous games, but they gave the games structure and urgency. Removing the time limit makes Shallie more tedious--and more trivial--because if I have a hard time in a distant land, I can just walk across the entire map to restore and restock.

* The worldbuilding feels strangely empty. Ayesha's map felt like it was full of distinct areas with different regions. In Shallie, I've unlocked dozens of areas that look the same. There are some "landmarks" on the map, but they feel only distantly connected to the areas I actually enter.

* You get huge numbers of alchemy recipes at the same time, which makes them feel cheap and forgettable. You hit the end of the chapter, buy 4 books, learn 20 recipes. I have no idea where I got most of them.

* The maps also feel less interesting. There are trading posts with nothing in them and villages with buildings you can't enter. Most maps are one long hallway long.

The music is good. The characters are fine, although I like the recurring characters from Ayesha and Escha/Logy a lot more than any of the new folks. Overall, it feels overwhelmingly average for an Atelier game, and I'd much rather play the other two games in the Dusk trilogy.

There is no reason for this game to exist. It takes all the systems from the last 2 dusk game and makes them worse. The combat feels clunky, levels don't really matter and the characters are generally unlikable.

The first two game were much better, and I would refund this game if I could.

the only atelier I didn't like up to now.

It crashes without autosaving anywhere.
It has no time limit which makes it aimless.
It doubles down on the repetetiveness by making you play the same story twice.
Synthesis is record breaking bland.
Combat is bland.

It was nice to see the other characters from the previous games again but thats it.
Shame I will never find out how the dusk series ends, since I am not replaying 5 hours from crash to crash

So many issues with this game. It's poorly balanced. While most fights that result in a loss kick you to the map to try again, there are a few that will result in a game over. Some of these are random encounters on the map, and they can be completely unwinnable if you haven't yet done all your end-game property farming (even on the easiest difficulty). This means save often, and the game let me save between killing the final boss of the game and triggering the final scene, so now my save can't be used for playing the endgame anymore. As soon as I step foot in a city, the game ends.

The life quests are not very enjoyable. Their triggers are often hidden, and the quests themselves are very repetitive. The number of times I got "kill 7 rare slags" is dull. Additionally, they aren't always available. Once you've progressed the story enough to advance a chapter, you're asked if you want to continue, but it disables those quests until very specific moments. Even if you do something that would advance it, it won't count.

I've played the Atelier franchise since the PS2, and this has been the least enjoyable entry since Atelier Rorona. Save yourself the headache and skip this one, and stick to newer Atelier games like Ryza. It's the better Atelier game.

Lost a battle and then game over, and I didn't have the save file so I lost like 5 hours of gameplay.
This is a down vote guaranteed.