A Huge Battleship
Member
And so it continues. About 18 months after finishing Totori, Ive finally gotten around to starting the final game in the Arland trilogy. Mainly because I just bought Shallie and my brain wont let me begin the Dusk trilogy until Merurus been conquered.I'm extremely good at buying the PS3 Atelier games, but pretty terrible at actually sitting down and playing them.
From what Ive played so far (nearing the end of year 2), its basically more of its prequel, which is excellent news since I really enjoyed Totori. Im glad that Meruru maintains a relatively hands-off approach for its 'tasks', since I much prefer being left mostly to my own machinations rather than having deadlines constantly looming over me.
Due to RL time constraints I dont plan on doing a New Game+, so Im trying to accomplish everything I want to in a single playthrough, i.e. get the endings for my favourite characters and give some of the optional bosses a good kicking. I gather Makina Domain isnt available on a 1st playthrough, but Im fine with that given the likely time / effort itd take to beat it.
My current and probably permanent party is Mimi and Esty, both of whom hit hard and fast and are just great characters generally. Id consider using Totori but I feel like having double Alchemists would break the combat a bit, particularly in the endgame.
The main negative for me so far is, oddly enough, the absence of Following the Footsteps (and all its variations) playing across the overworld. Really loved that theme. The storys also lacking compared to Totori, but then thats never been the main draw of the Atelier games for me.
So yeah, after the rocky start of Rorona the games have cemented themselves as a strong contender for my favourite JRPG series in recent years. If the Dusk trilogy is up to the same standard then I'll be over the moon.
Cory vs Mimi hasn't gotten any easier to decide. Probably still leaning Cory slightly.