Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea review

Disclaimer: This was written in late February/early March. This in no way impacts what is written here, just worth noting for some otherwise odd references to the time of year.

2020 seems to starting off as the year where I finally dip my toes into the series I’ve always been curious about but never before tried. The Atelier series is one I’ve been curious about for probably close to ten years now. I remember being in a GameStop and the cover art for one of the PS3 titles catching my attention. Of course, in those days, I was a broke college student, so I likely got what I came in for initially and left, if I left with anything at all. Regardless, I didn’t get that game, and ever since, it has been that series that I always say I’m going to try yet never once found the time for – until now!

The Dusk Alchemist triolgy recently re-released for current gen consoles, which honestly meant about as much to me as French does. That is to say – I know enough to recognize generally what it is, but I had no grasp of exactly what it meant. However, it was January and nothing else of interest to me was out yet, so I thought why not! I picked one of the three games at random and forged ahead! Granted, after finishing my pick, it would seem that, of course, I managed to pick the final installment of the three, speaking story-wise. Yes, I picked Atelier Shallie, the sole reason being that I was curious about the relationship between the two girls on the cover – meaning I was kind of hoping for some vague queer representation. Well, I didn’t quite get that, but what I did get was a pleasant, fun game with what is perhaps one of the most well written female friendships I have maybe ever seen in an form of media!

To start with, the game is very pleasing to look at. The colors are bright and vibrant, and the character designs are a ton of fun. I actually found myself wanting to get back into cosplay for a few of them. Even the environments are all unique and beautiful, despite the fact that they’re small and the overall geographic scope of the game is fairly limited, especially for a JRPG. The game also plays very well. I never experienced any sort of technical difficulty.

When it comes to the characters, I loved them all. Of course, I liked some better than others, and there were some that just didn’t quite speak to me. However, they were just so well written! If felt like all of them should have been able to fit into the generic JRPG/anime stereotypes based off of their designs, but the writers went out of their way to make sure each one broke out of their specific archetype. My favorite character, by far, had to be Jurie. She shows up and gives off the impression of the busty, brash bad ass. However, she turns out to just be a reserved woman who loves her sister, tries really hard to simply be good at what she does, has a little bit of imposter syndrome, and wants to one day write books that make people happy. She was such a 180 from the kind of character I thought she’d be that I couldn’t help loving her. Plus, who doesn’t love a character that’s both life goals and wife goals? Not this girl, that’s for certain.

Also, as I said before, I feel like this was one of the best female friendships I’ve seen in almost any media, and it’s from a JRPG from 2014! The friendship between the two main characters Shalistera and Shallotte (Stera and Lotte, respectively) is just chef’s kiss. To start with, I feel like most conversations between them pass the Bechedel test, and when they don’t, it’s simply them talking about what’s going on with their friends. There is never any conflict about or around guys; as a matter of fact, neither even shows any interest in romantic relationships (which I was not expecting at the beginning of the game, given that Stera has a younger, handsome, male bodyguard). They are both far more focused on their individual missions and helping each other accomplish their goals. Also, as a notorious shipper, I normally will find the subtextual UST if it exists in even the smallest amount, but here? I found none of it. It just felt like an amazing, realistic, deep, female friendship. Even when they fought, it felt so true to life. Honestly, I could probably gush for a lifetime over the character writing in this game, but I have other things to praise, so ever onward we trek!

Continuing in the vein of writing, I will say that the story could give me a bit of whiplash at times, though that isn’t necessarily a critique. For one thing, there are definitely two separate stories gong on here. Early on, you choose to play as either Stera or Lotte, and the girl you pick is who you follow thoughout, to the exclusion of whole bits of story that are happening concurrently to the other Shallie. The game doesn’t catch you up on what has been going on either – you will have to play through again as the other Shallie to find out what happens. This is all well and good, except that there are also large portions of the game that overlap, and from what I can tell, there is no New Game+ that lets you fast track the bits you’ve already played through (think RE2). I may eventually go back and play though as Lotte, but it won’t be anytime soon. I know I would wind up with burn out.

The story itself is rather small scale, which I love. It also feels rather light-hearted, despite the core subject matter for about ninety-eight percent of the game, which I also love. That last two percent, though? It kind of fucked me up, man, but that’s mostly because it wound up delving into a very real issue that I have Feelings about.

Still, despite my existential crisis there at the end, I enjoyed my time with Atelier Shallie, perhaps even more than I thought I would. I’m more often than not down for a meaty JRPG, but I don’t always get super into the deeper systems. However, I even found myself loving to mess around with the alchemy mechanics. I’m incredibly glad that I finally found the time to mess around with this series, and if you too find yourself looking for a new JRPG to pick up, might I suggest this one?

Long Time, No Blog – My Pandemic Gaming

Long time no blog! 2020 has been…. weird? I guess that’s the lightest possible way to put it. I had no intention of just straight up disappearing this year, but shit just went so sideways in the world. I had two complete reviews/impressions written that I just…. never posted? Mainly because by the time I was getting ready to, coronavirus had hit my country and nothing seemed that important anymore. It also felt very weird to post anything that was written from a time before it happened. That said, I may wind up posting the one review with the note that it was written back in late February/early March. The impression was for the FFVII Remake demo, soooo… that ship has sailed! lol!

After that though, I kind of lost a lot of my drive for… well, a lot of things. My company went full-time WFH, then I got sort-of promoted, and all of this just consumed my life. Writing and video games felt like extra chores for a long time. Finally, I’ve gotten to a point where it doesn’t feel like everything I do or want to do is a chore. It only took like…. six months? Ish? So… I guess that’s been a small slice of my mental health journey this year! (In less bummer news, I also got a new puppy in February, and he has been wonderful. That said, three giant breed dogs are a lot of dog….)

I want to say I haven’t played a lot of games this year, but that also isn’t necessarily true. I’ve played a fair amount, I’ve just struggled to really connect unless they fell into the “comfort food” camp. Example: I really didn’t expect to play P5 Royal for about three months (don’t ask me why I didn’t expect this when I played the original game three times in a row, back to back). Persona just felt warm and comfortable, with the additions to Royal adding just enough to keep me so very engaged that I stayed up way too late playing many times. And now saying that, I want to revisit it… again… So… that might be a thing XD That said, certain aspects stood out as more distressing to me than before, given I started playing it right at the start of the pandemic – things like a mystery illness and a government not caring for the people effected. Things like that struck so differently back in March/April that I, at first, struggled to get through the opening of the game. All that said, I can’t recommend P5 Royal enough if you like JRPGs. Even if you played the original, Royal adds a whole new dimension and so much more moral nuance. The twist at the end blew my mind a little (not a lot, but definitely enough).

The main tentpoles of my comfort food gaming have been farming sims and, well, regular Sims. I played so much Stardew Valley in the spring and early summer because it was simply a lovely, simple escape. Even when I was meticulously planning out my farm layout and products I wanted to ship, it was still so low stress compared to so much else in my life. That said, Stardew was also a stopgap in my wait for the remake of Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town on the Switch. Once that came out, I played it obsessively for a hot minute. I haven’t made it through the second year yet (mostly because I kept restarting in the summer of my first year), but it’s a cute, competent remake of the GameBoy game. There are a few new characters, everyone got a redesign, and you can play as a queer character (there are a few other tweaks, but those are the big takeaways for me – my bisexual agenda, let everything have more queer options). It’s fun and delightful and absolute cotton candy fluff. A part of me does wish I could smoosh together Stardew and FoMT though, because I love the depth of the characters and the farming in Stardew more, but I find the festivals, especially the ones you can spend with your romance option, in FoMT so much more delightful.

There have also been some Sims 4 packs to come out, and I play those (with extensive mods… which maybe I should list one day) from time to time. I’m on staycation this week, and I just obsessively sunk two whole days into The Sims, so now I’ve burned out. Still, it’s always a good staple, especially when I just need to decompress from the whole of the world for awhile.

A couple of other noteworthy games that wound up being pleasantly comfort food-like:

• Arcade Spirits : I’d had my eye on this one for a bit because I am periodically a sucker for a good dating sim/visual novel. I purchased the itch.io bundle for racial justice and equality this summer and this game came in it, so last month, I finally took the time to play it while my room where my consoles are set up was taken all apart for painting. This is a very, very good dating sim, if that’s your deal. The characters were endearing and not just strict tropes or stereotypes; there is decent, occasional voice acting (though I did wind up turning it off just due to personal preference); and the story is about so much more than just the dating (there is even an option to date no one and go a friendship with all route). I expected the story to end on about three separate occasions, and while it didn’t on most of those, it still never over-stayed its welcome. Highly, highly recommend this.
• Coffee Talk : Another visual novel, though this one has far less decision making than Arcade Spirits. Still, it was enjoyable – a very chill experience. If you just want to spend a few hours making virtual coffee and hanging with some cool cats (in some cases, literally), I recommend this one. The idea of a world identical to ours except that it is inhabited by fantastical races is also just a delightful concept. All the same, while I do recommend it, I also recommend maybe picking it up whenever it is on a sale since it is so light (that said, it retails normally for $12.99, so if you feel like that is a good place to spend your gaming dollars, by all means support your indie devs!).

Now, for the games that were not quite comfort food/I really wish I had been in a better state of mind to play because I was highly anticipating them but felt I couldn’t enjoy them due to where I was at mentally.

• Final Fantasy VII Remake : All told, I’m not 100% sure why I struggled to start this as much as I did. I think it was a combination of not wanting to put down P5 Royal and the hype for this game being so intense from literally all of gamerdom (that I interact with, anyway). I knew I was enjoying the familiar comfort of P5 and didn’t want to start a game that I knew I had been so hyped for when I didn’t feel like I could properly appreciate it. I also wanted to give time for all the hype to stop overshadowing it. I wound up starting it probably a little before I was really ready to, but it was also becoming harder (I felt) to consciously try and sidestep spoilers. In the end, it was a gorgeous game, and I greatly enjoyed the changes to the story from the original, as well as the implications of those changes. I’m very excited to see the how the subsequent entries in the series will go, though Nomura does always seem to bite off more than he can chew in regards to his plots (they always seem to start with promise but wind up so very convoluted and tripping at the finish line). His treatment of his female characters is also always a concern, though hopefully these ladies already being established characters will curtail that a bit. My biggest complaint about the game is really the side quests. They left a lot to be desired, and I hope that either gets resolved in the next game, or they just get rid of most of them altogether.
• Resident Evil 3 Remake : This was a rough one to start given the state of the world this year, but I was prepared, I knew it would be. In the end, it wasn’t as difficult to get through as I had expected thanks to the…. camp?… of RE. I know there was a general feeling of this game being underwhelming to a lot of people, but as someone who never played the original RE3, I think that largely went by me. I had a very good time with this game. It was a decent length, and getting to just shoot zombies and monsters for awhile was deeply cathartic.
• The Last of Us Part II : This one…. this one was hard. It was a struggle to start for many of the same reasons as RE3, but unlike that game, this one offered none of the catharsis of just shooting monsters. TLoU2 is an experience I wish so deeply had come at a different time. I think I would have appreciated it so much more in a different state of mind because as it was, the deeply dark and hopeless feel of this game was a real struggle for me. I went to bed some nights after playing with my anxiety kicking my ass. That isn’t bad on its own, by any means. Like I said, in different circumstances, this is something I would have loved. However, it just suffers from circumstance right now given that there was no real reprieve from the hopelessness when I turned the game off. Once the game hit the midway point, I really considered just…. not playing anymore. Still, I stuck it out, and while the game suffers from some deep issues with pacing/plot structure that I’m honestly not sure how one could begin to untangle, it’s a fairly gorgeous journey to learning to forgive and move on. I wish I had waited, but, once more, spoilers had become very tiresome to avoid.

So that about brings everything up to speed and encapsulates my gaming for the past seven or so months.

Now normally, I spend October playing nothing but scary games, but that just isn’t jibing with me this year. I tried, but nothing in the realm of horror was really speaking to me, and while I was playing Blair Witch, I found myself with no interest in what was happening there and far more annoyed with my inability to see anything in that game than anything else. It wasn’t even scary to me, so I quit. I’m trying to be better to myself in terms of using my hobby times to only do things that actually bring me joy. So, I went back to 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, which is simply gorgeous and something about it is just giving me such comforting vibes. It’s anime af and mostly a visual novel interspersed with RTS combat, but it’s sparking joy for me, and that’s what matters. Hopefully, I will write something up on it later and just generally be coming back here more frequently.