La Corda d’Oro 2ff – Tsukimori true end & Fudou Shouma GET!

Phew. I’ve been playing too much La Corda d’Oro 2ff. I wanted to get both Tsukimori’s true end and Fudou’s ending on one playthrough, but it was harder than I’d thought. First I managed to trigger Tsukimori’s Love Chain 3 but lost Fudou because I didn’t befriend the other guys in time. I reloaded and got all the guys successfully but lost Tsukimori’s LC3 because his affection rose too high (?). Luckily I hadn’t deleted earlier save. Thus I did Fudou’s route together with Tsukimori’s regular love route, then reloaded and got Tsukimori’s true ending. PHEW!

Tsukimori Len true ending

I misrepresented his regular ending a bit last time. It wasn’t quite as cold as I’d remembered it. Yes he did violinist-zone me, but it was said in a very warm and affectionate tone. Like we were almost friends. Yes, almost friends after twenty dates and a love meter of 1000. Talk about working for your happy ending.

So work I did. I got through all his chain events from applying to study abroad to getting accepted and planning to go but feeling torn because he would miss Kahoko. A lot of reading and some nice CGs later, I made it to his true ending under the tree. Finally he said it right out, “I love you.” <3 <3 But then he went on…
“But I love music more.”
… …. …Eh?
“If I had to choose between you and music, I would choose music every time.”
WAIT WAIT WAIT. What? This is the romantic ending?!

To be fair, he does ask if you’re cool with that. The game gives you the choice to say yes or no, with different responses for each answer. Either way you get a truly gorgeous CG and more sweet words about how you two will always be bound together by music and will meet again as long as you play the violin etc etc, plus some random German phrases because he’s going to Vienna Durch Leiden Freude Arbeit und Brot macht frei, the end.

When it was all over, I wasn’t mad at all. In fact I thought it was great. It fits Tsukimori’s established character to a T. He’s the kind of guy who would put music before everything. He’s also blunt and tactless enough to say so at a romantic moment. Heck, that’s his definition of romantic. So it really is his “true” ending in the sense that it’s most representative of Tsukimori and everything he stands for. The lovely CGs don’t hurt either. But I’m definitely taking Kahoko’s “You go do your thing, just don’t expect me to stick around” answer as canon.

Fudou Shouma end

A new character carried over from the Kin’iro no Corda smartphone game. Fudou is a 3rd year in the regular high school department who doesn’t think much of classical music. Instead he started a rock band and wants to start a popular music club before he graduates. It also turns out he was your childhood friend and you guys played together all the time as kids but forgot. Every time I see this kind of twist, I think “FF8 did nothing wrong!”

Getting Fudou’s route requires serious planning and dedication early on because all of the main guys’ must be willing to form an ensemble with you before the end of the 2nd concert. Not only must they be willing but you must actually create ensembles featuring everyone – I made that mistake once and had to reload. That means you have to work overtime to meet all their rivalry requirements or stalk them with presents and music until they like you. It also means it’s easiest to get Fudou on the route where your initial ensemble includes Tsukimori, since he’s the toughest nut to crack.

Once you do all that, Fudou’s route is hard to mess up. As long as you go along with him wherever he goes and don’t forget to watch him perform at the school festival (boooo, no custom CG, boooo) you’re all set. You can also meet him in town after practicing alone for some impromptu dates. In one of the events he even comes to your room, the first guy to do so. The Power of the Japanese Childhood Friend is so sugoi.

After many scenes where Fudou treats you as just a childhood friend and misunderstands his friends’ attempts to set us up, he finally realizes Kahoko is a girl… (how did he get this far without knowing the birds and the bees)… and that he has feelings for her… I guess. The lack of proper dates on this route makes it a bit sudden. They just hang out a few times by chance and boom, true love. Ah, youth.

Fudou is a nice enough guy, probably the friendliest character in the game after Hihara-sempai. I don’t mind his looks either, and his ending CG was nice. But his route was kind of shallow and Koei didn’t do as much with the classical vs. popular music angle as I would have liked. Especially since you have to go to so much trouble to form a rival band. Still there’s only so much you can expect from an add-on character with very little interaction with the main cast so I guess it was good enough.

What next?

Heh, you think I’m done? I still have to get Kaji Aoi’s true ending and Fuyumi’s friendship ending. And since Kaji and Yunoki are a set, maybe I’ll work on Yunoki’s ending at the same time. No tears will be shed if I lose him, though. THEN I’ll be done with La Corda d’Oro 2ff… for a while. After all that I think I’ll finally be ready to move on to La Corda d’Oro 3.

As for Demon Gaze, I killed the last boss a while ago. Now I’m half-heartedly exploring the bonus dungeon. Part of me wants to kill more mobs and collect more treasure, a bigger part of me wants to move on. I’ll see how far I can get by the weekend and do a wrap-up early next week. Good game, though. And that’s all for today!

La Corda d’Oro 2ff – Tsuchiura true end, Kanazawa, Kira & Etou GET!

Kin’iro no Corda 2ff is the updated remake of Kin’iro no Corda 2 (La Corda d’Oro 2) for the PS2. The original was remade for the PSP as Kin’iro no Corda 2f which was then updated with more CGs and characters as Kin’iro no Corda 2ff. I played the original extensively earlier this year, and I’m sure readers were glad to see the back of it when I finally put it away. Too bad guys, it’s baaaaack! And in a newer, shinier skin. But it’s still the same game so I’m having a good time all over again.

Changes I noticed and liked

★New CGs for old events! New CGs for new events! Many, many more date spots and date events, including a monthly exhibition. I appreciated the weekend events the most because I got tired of going to the same places.

★Three new guys to get, and they’re not too hard either. Etou is a brat, but Fudou seems nice and it’s good to finally get Kira after his high-and-mighty attitude in the original.

★I like the new ending theme. Very “boy band,” which is the effect they were going after.

★The new graphics are crisper, brighter and more polished than the old ones, but not by much. What really stood out were the clearer backgrounds and the increased detail during events like the school festival and Christmas. And I very much prefer the detailed art and relatively muted colors to the garish, simplistic, generic anime brightness of Kin’iro no Corda 3 and 4. Not that I won’t play them, though…

Kin’iro no Corda 2ff Goals

Getting the “love chain” endings, i.e. the true endings that eluded me last time. Which means I have to watch the love points like a hawk. 300-400 will trigger Love Chain 3, but anything over 400 will close that route off for good. And taking part in contests raises those points, so you have to make sure the guy in question likes you but not too much going into the concert. Which means you’ll have to avoid some events, not walk home with him, turn down date invitations, etc. if necessary. I’m sorry Tsukimori-kun, it’s not that I don’t like you. Things are just moving too fast!

I actually lost Kaji by failing to police his points. Yeah, just like the first time I played the original. And I was too lazy to redo a whole month of work so I let him go and got his regular lovey-dovey route. I also lazily answered Ousaki’s emails and got his route again. Same as the old route but with several more emails. At least he doesn’t pressure you or guilt-trip you about not answering his messages.

I also got Kira’s route without really trying. His is virtually automatic because he shows up on set dates and you just have to answer correctly to trigger the next event. The game clearly tells you if you mess up completely on a route so there’s nothing to worry about. Note, however, that you can’t get both Kira and Kanazawa on the same playthrough for story reasons.

Now for the endings I got in order of getting, excluding Kaji and Ousaki because I’ve covered them before.

Etou Kiriya

Little punk… Putting on airs and talking like a big shot, but he’s actually two years younger than Kahoko. That’s Hino-senpai to you, young whippersnapper! I wasn’t too excited about having yet another violin player in the series anyway. If they have to double up on an instrument, of course it must be the piano ♥.

Anyway, Etou’s story is that he’s a genius violinist who lacks stimulation because no one in Japan is a match for him. Really, Etou-kun? I’m pretty sure Ousaki-senpai could smoke you in a contest, how about giving him a try? Long story short, Kahoko’s unskilled but impassioned performances move his heart somehow or the other and he realizes… something. I forget what he realized. I think he realized what he was missing but I was too busy fuming at his disrespectful airs to pay attention. In the end he says he’ll be applying to Seiso Academy next year and looks forward to being with Kahoko. I look forward to putting you in your place, punk.

Kira Akihiko

As I mentioned, his route is almost automatic. When you talk to him in the church, he admits that your music touched and changed him, but doesn’t talk about love. Fair enough. It’s not a romantic route at all. But then after the credits, you get a scene where he’s lying on a couch holding your hand. Whoa! How did we get there? On one hand, kyaaa! On the other hand, ewww!

I… really don’t know how to feel about a romance with Kira, to be honest. I liked him more as a cold, professional adversary rather than a love interest. He actually had a very valid point about separating the school into two separate institutions for greater specialization and higher profits. It’s just that the story revolves around magic and music instead of common sense and money so I was forced to stop him.

In any case, once Kahoko softened him up with the power of music, my work here is done. What is there left to talk about? What hand-holding is there left to do? Kira, I didn’t know you were that kind of guy, I’m very shocked. Though I shouldn’t be, since one of the earliest things he does is take you to a bar for drinks…

Christmas Party ending

If you ignore absolutely everyone asking you out and choose a guy who doesn’t like you at the end, you’ll get a CG with everyone at the Christmas Party. I’d never seen it before because it had never occurred to me to aim for a Forever Alone end before. It’s always something that just happens to me when I’ve got loftier ambitions. But it takes all of 5 seconds to check it out and it’s a very nice CG so I’m glad I saw it.

Tsuchiura True End

Yay! At last! Getting it was a pain. I kept a separate save every time I successfully saw a Love Chain event. I also had about 10 other saves at various points for easy backtracking. I’d always wondered why otome games had so many save slots, now I know. For all my carefulness I still had to reload and redo a previous concert period just to get that LC3 triggered, but after that it wasn’t too bad.

Tsuchiura’s true ending is very similar to the normal end, but with added details. If you’ve been through all his events, you know about his ambition to become a conductor one day so he talks a lot about that in his ending. He also gives you the music box you found at the church bazaar as a present. Most importantly he finally remembers – or claims to remember – you watching him play Für Elise ten or so years ago. A likely story, Tsuchiura. You guys will say anything to get a girl, won’t you?

And after all that, he still doesn’t say he loves Hino. He’s grateful to her, he’s happy she’s around, he supports her, but love? All right, fair enough. If he doesn’t love her, he doesn’t love her. Just don’t get jealous if you see her together with Tsukimori in the manga, okay?

Kanazawa End

I totally ignored him in the first La Corda d’Oro. He was too lazy and scruffy and kinda gross-looking. This is where the better, less fuzzy graphics on the VITA come in handy. Now he doesn’t look quite so bad. His re-recorded voice also sounds a little less lazy. Plus I was a little bit intrigued by what Kira mentioned about his throat. He’s a heavy smoker, of course there’s something wrong with his throat. Or is there something else I should know?

Well that “something else” turned out to be Kanazawa’s history as an opera singer in Europe. Eeeeeeh??? THIS GUY?! Wow. You really can’t tell by looking. He developed polyps in his throat and refused to have surgery, which would have ruined his voice anyway. Which was already ruined. Either way he was sunk, and his lethargic attitude reflects it. However, seeing Hino work so hard encourages him to reconsider medical treatment. In his post-ending scene, he’s at the airport on his way somewhere but he promises to come back for her someday.

Aww. It was actually kinda sweet. And a lot more wholesome than some endings I could mention, hmm Kira?

Other stuff to mention

I’m not done yet! I’m already working on Tsukimori’s route. I was trying to get everyone to join my ensemble by the second concert so I could get Fudou Shouma’s ending as well, but I didn’t start wooing Hihara-senpai early enough. Also Tsukimori’s affection is already 326 in October, way too high to be safe. So I’ve got to rewind a bit and plan my concert properly. Once I’m done with Tsukimori and Fudou, I’m hoping to tackle Kaji again and maybe get Fuyuumi’s friendship ending to see what that’s about. I won’t be getting Hihara (already done), Yunoki (too mean) or Shimizu (too slow) this time.

For those of you thinking, “Hey, weren’t you playing Demon Gaze?” The answer is I’ve been playing both interchangeably. When I get tired of reading, I switch to Demon Gaze. When I’m bored with killing palette swaps, I switch to Kin’iro no Corda 2ff. The PSVITA system makes it really easy. Not like the days where you had to get up and switch CDs or cartridges. Viva modern consoles.

That’s enough out of me for one day. See you later!

 

Demon Gaze – Beat all 10 demons, let’s finish this!

Let’s finish it just as soon as I find a way around that Ether Mirage boss in the Spring Palace. Healing almost 6000HP every 3 turns is just too unfair. This time I’m just going to turn the difficulty down to the lowest. Then I’m going to save-scum for the True Snipe artifact like the FAQs tell me to. Then I’m going to kill that stupid thing and finish this game, hurray!

Failing your first try against a boss is pretty normal in dungeon crawlers anyway. If anything it’s a testament to the relative ease of Demon Gaze that I’ve come this far with only two major roadblocks (Ether Mirage and Venus). And both were due to poor preparation. I don’t know what I was thinking going into a battle without my faithful old Chronos and a truckload of Demon Vases.

Once I finish off Ether Mirage, all that’s left is the final boss and the bonus Black Cage dungeon. Or so the game tells me. I haven’t even set foot in the Black Cage, so that’s something to look forward to depending on how I feel once the boss is down. Since I’m so close to the end I won’t bother writing too much today. Let’s finish this!

Update: Killed Ether Mirage, and I didn’t even have to lower the difficulty. The True Snipe artifact dropped easily in the Summer Palace, which helped a lot. I knew she was going to heal up at the start of the 4th turn, so I spent those four turns setting up my HIT buffs and concentrating with my attackers. Once she healed, I sent Mars into a Rage and let Ether Mirage have it with Jupiter Bane and Cyclone. She barely lasted two turns after that.

I then went on to fight the last boss. The boss himself is easy but those summoned monsters… And I kept having to take my Gazer out of the attacking queue so he can use Whistle, which slowed down my DPS a lot. I need the artifact that lets someone else mimic that skill, then I need to get my healer focused on using Whistle and Force Guard instead of Holy Shield. But right now my back hurts from too much playing so I’m taking a break for the rest of the weekend.

Demon Gaze – 6 demons down, 4 to go

Demon Gaze plays like a cross between Entaku no Seito and Stranger of Sword City but with cuter designs and brighter, happier colors. Same classes, same skills, same races with the same advantages and drawbacks. I like it, it feels very warm and familiar somehow. Though it does mean I wasted my time writing an Entaku no Seito walkthrough all those years ago. I should have just referred users to Demon Gaze, it’s almost the same thing.

I think a reader once mentioned that DG is set thousands of years after Students of the Round? Or was it Stranger of Sword City? They all share the same lore of dragons being in charge of keeping the balance of the world etc etc so most likely they’re all set in the same universe. Eh. Whatever. I hate lore. Not hate-hate, I guess. More like I don’t really care as long as it makes sense and doesn’t get in the way of having fun.

Dungeon crawlers don’t need stories so we’ll just skip the story of Demon Gaze. Or maybe not, since there isn’t much: You are the chosen one and you’ve gotta collect all 10 demons to save the world. I’ve beaten 6 right now, just got Game Over’d by the 7th (stupid Venus and her stupid adds) so I’m here to get my thoughts together, take a bit of a break before returning for revenge.

The game has four difficulty settings – Cold, Cool, Warm and Hot. Before tackling Venus’s dungeon I was playing on the default setting of Cool, but I found it too easy so I went up to Warm. Soooo should I lower the difficulty to Cold so I can pass Venus or take my lumps like a seasoned gamer? Decisions, decisions. I think I’ll stick it out for one or two more attempts first. My Gazer/Paladin/Fighter/Wizard/Healer party with an average level of 21 should be good enough. I just have to prevent her from dispelling my buffs and kidnapping my Paladin and we’re golden. If all else fails, there’s always the high-risk Enrage Mars in Turn 1 strategy…

Things I like about Demon Gaze so far

  • Bright happy colors.
  • I wanted huge dungeons with lots of loot and that’s exactly what I’m getting.
  • Very easy to dive into after playing Experience Inc.’s other games.
  • Adjustable difficulty means I can’t complain “It’s too easy!”
  • It’s interesting what they’re doing with the demons and the skills you get from setting them.
  • The dungeons are straightforward so you rarely have to check a FAQ or a map. Rarely, but not never.
  • Not too much talking, not too many cutscenes. Huge breath of fresh air after Atelier Meruru.

Petty, petty peeves

  • Dungeon crawlers don’t need fanservice. And no game needs this much fanservice.
  • Having to select a demon before every battle gets annoying.
  • Using items and certain skills is a pain because it gets in the way of mashing X and Auto every turn.
  • Rent gimmick is unnecessary and just makes me dislike Fran. Just give me my keys, you money-grubbing slave driver.
  • Actually the whole inn gimmick is unnecessary.
  • Not enough missions on the Bulletin Board. I like sidequests.
  • I’m okay with generics, but I miss actual party members just a little bit.
  • Experience Inc. could have done more to distinguish Demon Gaze from the other entries. I would have settled for just new music and sound effects – I’m tired of hearing those harpies squawk.

So far the good parts vastly outweigh the bad, which is why I’ve blazed through Demon Gaze so quickly. I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent on it, so I’m gonna hazard a guess: twenty hours. No, thirty. 25 hours of exploration and battle, 5 hours of getting lost and kicking random walls. Very little grinding because of the lower difficulty and aforementioned getting lost. I’m going to guesstimate again and say I’m halfway through, simply because I usually finish these games around level 40-45ish. See you when I’m done.

Atelier Meruru Plus, I finished you! (spoilers)

And straight away I declare Shin Rorona no Atelier the best of the trilogy by simple virtue of the fact that it let me watch all the endings I qualified for in a single playthrough without forcing me to replay.

In Atelier Meruru Plus I’m sure I unlocked an ending for getting 100,000 people in Arls Kingdom and another ending for beating Airshatter in Mt. Velus (I know because the game told me) but since I reached alchemy level 50 and made the True Potion of Youth, I got the ending where Rorona is restored to normal. I reloaded from an older save, slept till 4/1 Year 5 and got another ending where Rorona is restored to age 14 with partial amnesia. I guess the Rorona endings take priority over everything else.

This is the way it’s always been in Atelier games, so if I hadn’t played Shin Rorona I probably wouldn’t notice or care. Now it’s like, eh, Rorona end was very nice and happy but I wanted to see the other stuff. But I don’t want to play Atelier Meruru again, so it’s Youtube for me! In any case I don’t immediately replay Atelier games unless I got a bad ending (like in Lise, or Lina, or Lilie, hmm I’m seeing a pattern here) so a replay would have to wait several years. I’m off to do some research, but first a few thoughts about the game and the Arland trilogy as a whole.

Story

Atelier games don’t have stories so much as they have premises, or, these days, excuses to make cute girls run around doing cute stuff. The excuse in Atelier Meruru Plus is that the tiny kingdom of Arls is going to merge with the Arland Republic in five years and Princess Merurulince wants to be an alchemist. Somehow the two things come together and she uses alchemy to develop the country as much as she can in 5 years. Totori, Rorona (now reduced to child form due to an alchemy “accident”) and some other characters from previous games show up to help Meruru and Arls through this transitional period.

Characters

Did you know I really don’t like the “spunky princess who wants to live a free life instead of being bound by tradition” cliche in stories? You probably don’t because they aren’t too common in JRPGs. And even if they were I wouldn’t play them because, as I said, I don’t like it. It annoys the little girl in me. Like, why even have a princess if she’s not going to be princess-y at all? Where are the ballgowns? The white gloves? The state banquets? The handsome princes? Atelier Meruru doesn’t have any of that, just a spoiled little brat who complains all day about stuff she isn’t even going to do. Stupid, ungrateful brat. If you’re going to eat, drink and travel at taxpayer’s expense, at least have the decency to enjoy it, damn you.

Actually I didn’t mind Meruru herself all that much. But the “princess” setting was definitely unnecessary. It created far too many annoying scenes like Rufus lecturing Meruru or Lias whining about his duties or Meruru rebelling against hers, etc etc. I just want to get on with my alchemy, please thanks.

Suck on that, Keina.

The rest of the new cast… Didn’t like any of them. I turfed Keina and Lias out of my party super-quick. Though somehow Keina still ended up with 100 affection for Meruru within a year or two anyway. One-note characters like those really bore me. Keina is all Meruru, Meruru, Meruru. Lias is all Rufus oniichan please notice me. I started skipping all their events after a while so I don’t know how they resolved all that in the end.

For Rufus, in an otome game I wouldn’t leave him alone, but here he’s always pissing on my fun left and right. Ignore as much as possible, was my approach. Unforunately the game is set up so I can’t do any development quests without his approval. Then what’s the point of the strong, independent princess character?

Hanna, I had her pegged from the start as the game’s token Ms. Fanservice. It didn’t help that I got a random naked scene in a forest for no good reason at all. But I threw her in my party late game and her hit-all boomerang is actually super-helpful at clearing up mobs. Huh, who knew. That said, I don’t remember much about her personality besides her running a shop and occasionally giving me freebies. Did she even have a personality? Or just a skimpy top?

Away with thee, foul apparition!

For the returning characters from Atelier Totori and Atelier Rorona, I ignored Gino and Mimi like I’d wanted to do all along. I’d also had enough of Rorona and Sterk, so I didn’t use them either. However I did add Esty to my party and discovered she’s not as mean and manipulative as she was in Rorona. In fact, she’s downright nice. What happened? Maybe getting her away from the receptionist’s desk was the cause. Less stress, less opportunities to flaunt your puny power over hapless adventurers, that sort of thing. You know how certain people get when they get a taste of power.

Astrid also got hit with the not-so-nasty stick in Meruru, dunno whether it’s the localization making her softer or her just chilling out with time, either way she’s just capricious here and not outright cruel and malicious like in Rorona. But she’s still not forgiven. No matter how hard Gust tries to humanize her, she will always be Ass-trid to me.

All in all, I’d say Atelier Totori had the most appealing cast in the Arland trilogy. No Ass-trid is a huge part of that, but it’s also true that by Atelier Meruru many of the jokes and quirks have gotten old. Even the stuff that isn’t old feels old. Like there’s a weak attempt to make Meruru a fan of mushrooms, but it doesn’t really go anywhere and it’s just like yeah, yeah, Rorona and her pies all over again. And Viorate with her carrots, but that’s a different universe. Don’t force yourself, Gust.

Gameplay

Meruru collects and synthesizes helpful stuff to help the kingdom develop. Things like quality lumber and steel and weapons, that kind of thing. If there’s an enemy around, she defeats it. For her efforts she gets Development Points which she can use to construct new facilities. New facilities increase the population and also have side effects like cheaper merchandise, easier alchemy, that sort of thing.

I like the system well enough. It’s easy to understand and fairly logical. The development system also adds a number of new synthesis items I’ve never seen before, which is great. I don’t know if this feature was there in the earlier games, but in Meruru Plus, if you can’t make an item because you lack a synthesized ingredient, it lets you go straight to that recipe and make it. You can also select the exact trait you need from a list instead of scrolling through all the items/googling to find out what item tends to have what trait. It’s amazingly convenient.

I just have two little problems with the gameplay.

Problem 1: Unlike Atelier Viorate, which has a similar town development gimmick, you don’t see many tangible changes from developing the city. Sure there are some new buildings on the world map, but you can’t visit any of them. There are more NPCs loitering around, but they’re just that – NPCs. They don’t even move from their spots and they don’t dress any better when the country becomes more prosperous. The castle looks the same, your cottage looks the same, the townscape looks the same whether you have 100 citizens or 100,000.

Problem 2: The schedule is rather tight in the first two years, so you can’t make what you want or go where you want for fear of getting a bad end. The second to fourth years are great, with a good balance of stuff you must do versus stuff you want to do. Especially the fourth after I was free of obligations. However by early Year 5 I was almost out of stuff to do. Killed Airshatter, gotten 100,000 citizens, synthesized almost everything, development quests slowed to a crawl. There was a long boring stretch until I grinded up to Alchemy level 50 on Elixirs and discovered the hot springs at the same time, then I was busy to the end. Some better pacing would have been appreciated.

Battles

For most of the game I ran a team of Totori, Meruru and Esty, which worked out swell. It’s awesome that I could go beyond level 50. Might be my imagination, but the battle system feels a lot faster and less sluggish than in the previous two games. Easier too. If there are bonus dungeons and DLC, those might be tough, but I beat almost all regular bosses in one try. Healing items like Healing Bells and Elixirs are just too handy. Powerful attack items are super easy to make and replicate. And thanks to development quests you’ll get to try a lot of them out. It’s like the game is pointing a bit fat sign to those items: “Use These For Easy Mode.”

I also had a much easier time getting the traits I wanted onto my equipment. Didn’t even have to check any FAQs. There are so many useful traits even on low-level items. Plus since I don’t have to spend money on adventurers and alchemy tools and there are so few books to buy in Atelier Meruru, I was flush with cash from beginning to end. I even finished the game with almost 200,000 cole.

How do I feel about all this easiness? It’s great! I’ve already paid my dues in other Atelier games. I don’t have to prove quién es más macho to anyone, especially not to myself. And double especially since I “quit” Dragon Quest VII for punishing me for not having a particular skill. Bring on the easy games! …But I’ll be playing Atelier Ayesha on Hard Mode when I get round to it.

Overall

Hmmm… I didn’t dislike it. In fact I really enjoyed the gameplay side of Atelier Meruru Plus but wasn’t so crazy about the cast and the little interactions. I have a bit of an issue with the Arland series being too moe, too “cute girls doing cute stuff” versus being “cute alchemists who sometimes do stuff that might be considered cute but mostly just pursue alchemy and other goals” like the older games. Right from the start when I saw Meruru’s frilly little bloomers I was just like “Ughhh, who asked for this…”

So yeah, the gaming parts were great, the visual novel parts were crap because I didn’t like the characters very much. Of course, blazing through the game in record time exacerbated some of the problems. For example Rufus probably wouldn’t be so irritating if I only saw him lecture Meruru once a week instead of several times a day…

Pros
+Bright, happy colors.
+Easy and largely stress-free.
+Large selection of new items to synthesize.
+Lots to do but there’s still time to do your own thing.
+The alchemy system is smooth and highly polished, very easy to work with.
+You can unlock most locations and recipes by playing normally, no need for a FAQ.
+This is the most powerful I’ve ever felt in an Atelier game.
+Later on you can skip easy battles by whacking enemies with a stick. It’s about time.
+If the music annoys you, you can replace it with music from older games. You can do it in other games too, but this is the first time I’ve bothered.

Cons
-Too many skits and cutscenes.
-I don’t like the new characters.
-I’m tired of the old characters.
-Game froze on me more than once, but nothing catastrophic.
-Rorona sits by my alchemy pot so I’m always talking to her by accident.
-Replay value is even lower than for the other games because you’re so constrained early on.
-The kingdom development setting is hollow if you can’t see any actual development.
-The comments the characters make when you start the game piss me off. Today Meruru said, “Don’t you have anything better to do with your weekend?” Shut up, brat. If I did, would I be here? >:-[
-All this fuss about the Potion of Youth is super ageist. Thanks to Princess Maker 5 I’ve already accepted that a woman can’t be sexy if she’s not a size zero or has less than a D cup bust, but now you have to be under 20 as well? Farewell, cruel world!

TL;DR – Atelier Meruru Plus was fun but tiresome so I wouldn’t want to play it again. Now on to Demon Gaze!