Atelier Totori Plus – Starts slow then gets really good

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!

Got the hang of Legend of Legacy. It’s fun!

What is this fraudulent promotional art? The characters don't look like this at all!

Brief update post. Now about 17 hours into Legend of Legacy. HP in the mid to high 200s, SP around 28 for all party members. I just unlocked the rest of the continent and started exploring the Ship Graveyard. I spent most of the weekend on LoL TBH, and would still be playing if my brother hadn’t kidnapped the 3DS on Sunday night. “*mumble mumble* Metroid remake *mumble* cya” and he was gone. ¯\_(⊙︿⊙)_/¯

Anyway, things were going pretty well before I stopped. I’m actually enjoying Legend of Legacy quite a lot now that my party is so much stronger. Once you get some hit-all Arts and Charms and better equipment, battles don’t take as long. And if you can survive the first two turns and set up some good barriers and buffs, victory is all but assured. I’m making better use of defensive skills like Parry and Intervene instead of trying to go out guns blazing from the start. Once you have someone tanking or deflecting the hits, the others can use risky skills like the Fire Contract to make mincemeat of the enemies.

It’s a shame that I still have to run and dodge enemies while trying to explore, but the frustration has gone down by 30% because I can end things quickly. The enemies I can’t dispose of quickly are the ones that drop the occasional good equipment and help me level up my stats, so it’s all good. The only thing that would make this better would be more boss battles. I’ve got all these great skills in my arsenal and no one to use them against. More bosses, please! I also want to try out some new weapon types. I picked up a powerful spear by accident but haven’t put it through its paces yet. Oh, and I need to go back to old areas to talk to NPCs so they can give me new formation options in battle. All minor stuff that won’t take long.

Apart from that there’s nothing to say about Legend of Legacy since it’s not a story-heavy game. You explore a map, you beat a boss, you explore another map, beat another boss, and on and on. According to the FAQs I have four areas (Bogsaur Marsh, Bottomless Pit, Summit of the Gods and City of the Unseen) to clear and some optional sidequests/bosses to do before finishing the game. Just hope I still have a passion for the game by the time I finally get it back.

In the meantime I’m still playing Atelier Totori and (on-and-off) Sorcery Saga so I’ll post about one or both of them next time. See ya!

Legend of Legacy – This is what I wanted from Xenoblade 2

Legend of Legacy is a 3DS RPG where you play as an adventurer exploring an unchartered island. You go to a new area, you explore it, you fill it in the map. You move to the next area, explore it, map it. And on and on until you finish the game. It’s a simple, unremarkable experience in many ways, but it scratches my exploration itch and that’s good enough for me.

After all, it’s that unscratched itch that made my interest in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 disappear faster than a con man with a fool’s money. Not that I’m accusing Monolithsoft of conning me or anything. It’s still a beautiful game with plenty to do in it and I’m quite eager to get back to it. It’s just… I really really wanted to fill in the maps my self. For all its other flaws, Legend of Legacy lets me do that much with minimal interference, which is why I had a great time playing it over the weekend.

That said, exploring and mapping is pretty much all the game has going for it. The graphics and character designs are so-so. My main character (Liber) has almost no backstory and a very simple personality. The music is unremarkable. There isn’t much of a story, though there’s a bit of lore revealed in drips and drabs. <— This is actually a good thing because I don’t have anyone forcing me to go where I don’t want to go or making me sit through cutscenes when I’d rather be out there fighting. It’s been 5 years, but I’m still lightly traumatized by 7th Dragon 2020.

Normally I love it when a game gives me the freedom and lack of linearity that Legend of Legacy offers. The problem is, if a game doesn’t have much of a story and the characters are generics in all but name then the gameplay needs to be excellent to carry the whole experience. However the gameplay here is neither very good nor very bad. It’s just okay-ish. Let me briefly explain the two biggest issues for anyone who might considering this game.

1. The overabundance of encounters. Because of the Saga-like way the game works where you level up more or less randomly as you fight, you don’t feel the importance of each individual encounter. Since you’re more likely to get stronger fighting strong enemies while weak monsters are just a waste of time, I’d much rather fight one boss-class mook for 10 minutes and than fight 10 weaklings for 1 minute each. Unfortunately the latter are very much more common. You can dodge or outrun encounters, but then an enjoyable JRPG/dungeon-crawler turns into a horrible stealth/racing hybrid where you can’t even take in the sights. My kingdom for an invisibility accessory.

2. Elemental field effects drag battles out. Pointless, annoying gimmick. There are invisible forces called “elementals” floating around. The kind of elemental that’s most common on a battlefield affects all the participants in the battle. For example if Water elementals are most prevalent then magic damage is halved for both enemies and allies. If Wind prevails then physical damage is halved for everyone. For example in the screenshot below, Owen’s fancy attack is only going to hit for puny damage because the field is wind-dominated.

I’m in such an area right now (Roaring Valley) and it’s pretty annoying. “No problem,” you say, “If physical damage is halved then I’ll just use magic!” Not so fast, Gandalf. Before you can cast any spells, you have to waste a turn signing a contract with an elemental. Which would be okay if you did it once a battle and it stuck. But no, elementals are as fickle as an otome game heroine. If an enemy uses a spell of the same color, they’ll break the contract and trot over there with their tails wagging: “You rang, master?” Then you have to waste another turn signing another contract. Oh, and any spells you had queued up before the betrayal will fail, costing you SP. It’s every bit as tedious as it sounds.

In short, you can’t explore freely because of weak encounters dotting the map. And when you get into those encounters, you can’t fight freely because you have to deal with elementals getting in the way. And when you win the encounters, you may or many not get any growths as a a results – most likely you’ll walk away with diddly squat. Put all that together and chances are high that Legend of Legacy will be one of those games where I decide one day that I’ve seen enough and just drop it. Luckily that day hasn’t come yet, so I’m still having a moderate amount of fun with this game. I’ll write about it again when I either finish it or drop it. Until then!

Sorcery Saga? Atelier Totori Plus? Legend of Legacy? Something else?

What to play, what to play… It’s not that these games are bad or anything but I want something more exciting! Something faster-paced and slashier with a high enemy density. Something like… an action RPG. Tokyo Xanadu is calling me. Phantasy Star Nova is calling me.

But what do I do with these games I’ve already started? I know myself. If I stop now, I will never come back to them in a million years. And if I start dropping games left and right in February, the rest of 2018 is in danger. Therefore I must control myself and either finish what I’m working on or play enough to know I don’t want to continue.

All right, then. A progress report.

Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Curry God – A rogue-like about a girl named Pupuru who is exploring a series of dungeons to find ingredients for he ultimate curry. The game itself is fine, just normal roguelike stuff, but the “humorous” skits and events leave me cold. They’re not cute, they’re not funny, they’re just repetitive and energy-sapping. Roguelikes don’t need stories!

I’m on my second dungeon (Volcano thingy), just fought my second boss. Haven’t died yet, but I’ve cut it close before. Those Warp scrolls really come in handy. Apart from that there’s nothing much to report. I’ll write a proper post about it when I’ve finished… hmm, let’s say 4 dungeons. Or died 10 times, whichever one comes first.

Atelier Totori Plus – Cutesy alchemist wants to be an adventurer. This is super petty of me, but I can’t stand the way Totori runs. Who runs like that? Is she even trying? It’s not a deal breaker though. I’m more bothered by the loading times that seem a tad long to me. Especially right before a battle, when I compare it to Rorona it feels so slow. I barely started this and haven’t been motivated to continue. But I’m sure it will be fine once it opens up a little bit and I can visit places beyond Alanya Village.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – Haven’t forgotten about this one, but the Switch is currently out of my hands. I miss it. A console you can take to bed with you is just too handy.

Legend of Legacy – I started this… last year? Eh, two years ago?! I liked it but my 3DS was acting up. It’s working fine now, but maybe I should rush through all the 3DS RPGs I want to play like this one and Etrian Odyssey Untold and SMTIV Apocalypse before it starts its nonsense again.

“He who chases two rabbits catches neither.”
“You can’t look into a bottle with both eyes at the same time.”

The ancients were full of wisdom when it comes to the order in which video games should be played.Try to play everything at the same time and you’ll burn out and drop them all. So I’m going to impose some discipline on my myself. Sorcery Saga + Legend of Legacy right now, no touching other games. (Waaahhh… But I must…) Then sandwich an ARPG in there real quick. Then Atelier Totori and Xenoblade 2.

La Corda d’Oro 2 – Hihara true end, Shimizu, Tsukimori and Yunoki GET!

I have been a busy little gamer, haven’t I? In addition to doing all these routes I also started Atelier Totori Plus, played it a little, wasn’t feeling it and started Sorcery Saga instead, which is right up my alley. Plus it’s a roguelike so I’ll be done soon, just as soon as I die about 30 times. More on those games some other time. Today let’s talk about all the routes I did in La Corda d’Oro 2 and how I finally got Hihara-sempai’s true ending.

Okay, “true” ending isn’t how the game describes it (IIRC they call it the 連鎖/chain route or something) and the ending itself isn’t any sparklier or prettier than the regular ending. However it does have a developing story that makes it more deserving of the term “true ending” than the ambivalent mushy-wushiness of the normal route.

It’s also considerably harder to get because, as I suspected, raising a guy’s affections too high too quickly causes him to forget all his troubles and focus only on his love for Kahoko. There’s a lot more drama and less romance on the events route, but IMO the payoff is much more satisfying because you’ve supported him through difficult times. Or at least you were in the general vicinity when it was all going down, which is virtually the same thing.

The tricky part about getting a chain ending is triggering the 3rd chain event. You’re likely to be close to unlocking a guy’s third heart (400-500 affection) by the time it becomes available. If you get the third heart first, you can’t get the third chain. If you even trigger a third heart events – even if you answer wrongly – the chain route is closed off forever. Earlier and later chains are also tricky, but it’s the 3rd that trips me up on every route. You have to keep multiple saves and keep reloading once you meet the conditions so you trigger the right events. Phew!

The sad thing is by the time I finally swallowed my pride and checked the FAQs for how to get the alternate routes, I had already done the regular routes for every character except Shimizu, Fuyumi, Kanazawa and Amou. Much as I love La Corda d’Oro 2, there’s no way I could do the whole thing all over again. I had to pick whose story I really, really, really wanted to see before putting the game away for a while and only the mystery of Hihara-sempai’s commercial came to mind.

What’s eating Kazuki Hihara?

As I mentioned on his normal route, Hihara-sempai got a starring role in a commercial. However he didn’t seem too thrilled with the way it turned out. What could be making Hihara-sempai so unhappy? Did they stiff him on the payment or something? That would make me depressed, I tell you.

The IRS wants what percent?!

But in a way, what they did was worse. They had Hihara play the trumpet for the advert but dubbed his performance over with a pro’s. On top of that, he had to sign a non-disclosure agreement preventing him from telling anyone the truth. I don’t know what’s worse for a budding musician: being told your playing is lousy, being forced to pretend someone else’s performance is your own or realizing that none of your friends and family can tell the difference. Poor Hihara-sempai. There there, I’ll comfort you.

Yunoki, move! I said I’d do it!

Luckily he has a few discerning and understanding friends like Yunoki, Kaji and… Hino? Hino you’re lying, you didn’t notice a thing. But she pretends she did and he buys it. So although Hihara desperately wants to confess the truth to the world, his friends persuade him to wait 50 years before saying anything in order to minimize the legal fallout. Kaji also talks him into signing up for external music competitions so he can see where he really stands in the world. And a good time was had by all.

After all that drama, it feels really natural when Hihara shows up under the Christmas tree and tells you how special you are to him and how he wants to be with you forever and ever. Awww, Hihara-sempai~<3~~<3~ And that’s why I call this the true ending.

Shimizu GET along the way

Shimizu’s is the… collateral damage ending, I guess you could call it? Meaning I got him without trying while aiming for Hihara’s true end. As long as you get a guy’s affection up to 920-ish before the final concert, La Corda d’Oro 2 will give you his normal ending. You might have to see at least one event and go on one date as well, not sure. Either way it wasn’t a problem because I had a lot of time to spare while trying to avoid raising Hihara’s affection too high.

Shimizu’s issue is that he’s searching for a muse to help him write better music. Somewhere along the line he realizes he writes and plays better when Hino is around. Then I lost his true route, which is fine. Something-something Alma Mahler something Shimizu is such a weirdo something. When I met him under the Christmas tree at the end, he told me that his music sounds better when I’m around so he hopes I’ll stick around for a while longer. Yeah sure, I wasn’t going anywhere anyway.

My opinion of Shimizu hasn’t changed much since the last game. He’s still a dull, sleepy slacker. If anything he seems even more sluggish than before. His dedication to music does come through very clearly and I admire that. But as a romantic prospect he’s not exciting at all. You wouldn’t be able to talk to him about very ordinary things like movies or fashion or computers or anything that’s not music. Let’s just be friends forever, Shimizu-kun.

Violinist-zoned by Tsukimori

“I’m attracted to you…. as a violinist.”
“I want you to stay around forever… as my rival.”
Thus spake Tsukimori Len in his so-called normal ending. As the face of the game, Tsukimori has always played harder to get than the other characters but I thought he would make an exception this time, seeing as I got his affection so high and stuff. Nope. You will be hard pressed to hear him say anything that could possibly be construed as warm or affectionate throughout his route, even when he’s walking you to and from school every day.

His story is that he developed an interest in studying abroad after hearing about Ousaki’s trip to Vienna. He put in an application somewhere or the other and that’s the last I heard before losing the true route. Doesn’t sound like he needs/wants my help for anything so… let’s just be violinist rivals forever, Mr. Moon Forest.

Yunoki is as mean as ever

Yunoki’s storyline is that he promised his family that he would only pursue music until he graduated from high school. Now that day is drawing nearer and he doesn’t know how to feel. Plus his family business is on the rocks so he might not have the luxury of following his dreams for much longer. Sounds nice and serious, right? Like something I would want to dig deeper into and try to help him solve… if he wasn’t such a massive jerk all the time.

Seriously, he can’t get through a five-line conversation without sneaking something mean in there. Even his nicest comments are backhanded compliments. Stuff like “You actually look good for once” or “This black tea is amazing. Not that someone like you can appreciate it, of course.” I think the modern kids call it ‘negging’? I call it a cue to run far, far away. Of course I went ahead and got Yunoki’s normal ending anyway (it’s not romantic in the least) but after that I want absolutely nothing to do with him.

It’s strange though, because he’s such a nice guy on Hihara’s route. A really caring and perceptive friend who always looks out for Hihara’s best interests. He even calls me out and tells me not to dare break his best buddy’s heart. I thought this might be because Hihara doesn’t know Yunoki’s true nature, but I’ve seen two different events where Yunoki lets his mask slip in front of Hihara and they’re still as tight as ever afterwards. So Yunoki’s just nasty to me and nice to everyone else. One of those guys. Yeah, no.

What’s next for me and La Corda d’Oro 2?

Part of me still wants to get everyone’s true ending. Let’s see, if I played on Easy and skipped every event I had already seen… It’s not… impossible. Another part of me wants to play the 2 Encore fandisk, which is short but offers a new form of gameplay. And a third part of me wants to start a completely different otome game altogether. My otome game backlog is so long I’ve gotta play at least one a month or I’ll never get anywhere.

That being the case I will very reluctantly move on from La Corda d’Oro 2 and start something else soon. In the meantime Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Sorcery Saga and Totori will keep me occupied for the next couple of weeks.