I’m not sure how to check my playtime, but I estimate I’ve been playing Atelier Totori Plus for about 15 hours now. I’m in the middle of year 2, Adventurer Rank 6. Unless I mess up horribly I’m certain to avoid the bad end so that’s a load off my mind. I’d still be playing right now but my controller needs charging. Give me my old wired PS2 controller any day.
I’m too lazy to write a long post today…. Aahhhh… I JUST WANNA SLEEP… So let’s note a few salient points.
– The first 3 months of Totori were horribly boring because you can’t do much or go anywhere interesting and Totori is horribly weak. Things pick up dramatically once you get your adventurer license and can explore a lot more. Right now I have a ton of places open on the map that I haven’t explored yet, which is great.
– Boring beginning aside, Atelier Totori Plus solves most of the problems I had with Shin Atelier Rorona. Firstly the characters I hated most like Astrid and Esty haven’t shown up at all. Secondly most events involve Totori herself, not other characters standing around gossiping about her. Most importantly there are many recipes to synthesize. In practice the total number is probably similar to Rorona’s but in Totori there is much more available right off the bat, if only you can afford it. Which I can’t, which is good.
– That said, even though Totori is definitely the better game, you should still play Rorona first. There are waaaay too many references and recurring characters to make it fun otherwise. Unless that sort of thing doesn’t bother you.
– Getting license points for doing stuff you would do anyway like exploring and taking quests and synthesis is a cool concept. That way the whole adventurer thing doesn’t get in the way of the game but you still get regular rewards. The three-year deadline is generous and easy to meet as long as you play normally.
– I’m having a hard time thinking of anything I don’t like about Totori apart from the slow start and her silly running style. It’s pretty close to my ideal Atelier game. Plenty of things to synthesize, lots of places to explore, a generous time frame to do it in and very few restrictions on your freedom. And it’s only going to get better when I get a homunculus like Rorona did. Speaking of which, where did Hom-chan go?
– Long story short, Atelier Totori Plus is a very good game. There’s not much to say about it besides that, so I’ll reserve any final comments for when I finish it. Adieu!
Told ya it was an improvement – shame the series starts declining right after the next one.
Did you get a giggle out of the scene where Rorona and Sterk discuss the fact that they dropped the mechanic of having to pay your battle partners a salary?
Oh, I haven’t gotten that scene yet. Sterk hasn’t joined my party. He shows up once in a while but otherwise I have no clue where to find him.
Update: Just got Sterk and saw the scene ^__^
Somewhat related – they released an English fantranslation of Atelier Marie + Elie for the PS2 today. I guess it’ll be nice for more people to be able to get into the root of the series.
Yup, I’ve been keeping tabs on that fan translation for a while, glad it’s finally out. I hope lots and lots and lots of people will play it and love it as much as I did.
I’m almost done with Atelier Totori Plus, btw. Just playing around with character events while waiting for the game to end.