In the second round of video game impressions, I’m going to share my first impression thoughts on Atelier Escha & Logy since I will probably won’t be able to finish my first play through when summer break ends the next week. (Image Source)
Compared to the Arland trilogy, which had a rocky start before it got better since Gust was transitioning from the Playstation 2 to the Playstation 3, the Dusk trilogy has significant graphical improvements and changes to alchemy gameplay to make it less frustrating. Since Tecmo Koei, who now own Gust has messed up the English release by not including the Japanese voice, I never got to experience the first game (but I’ll probably do so when I manage to get the Japanese version).
On the other hand, from playing 30+ hours of Escha and Logy, I am enjoying the improvements they made to the Alchemy system and collecting items that carried over from the prequel. Now, Ingredients have set effect power and traits, meaning you don’t have to throw out ton of items because they gone bad like in the Arland games. Of course, this also makes things easier since you don’t have to collect thousands of ingredients to get the desired traits. In addition to simplifying the trait/ingredient quality, now you can use abilities to change the outcome of the item. Each item gives you amount of committed points (SP) for each attribute (fire, water, wind and earth). In addition, the amount of attribute (属性状) will also determine the effects of a new item just like previous games, except it’s not determined by the ingredient used.
Since Gust now has access to game engines from Tecmo Koei, this game basically uses the same engine that Dynasty Warriors use, allowing them to expand the battle system. Aside from the additions from Ayesha which allows the main character to use support attack/defend and move around the field, Escha and Logy now allows you to use 6 members in battle, three of them are on standby. With this, you can swap members, use their support attacks/defend and allow them heal during battle. To me, this makes the battling aspect rather enjoyable.
As a whole, I think Atelier Escha & Logy is probably one of the most enjoyable games from the Atelier franchise I played thus far besides Meruru. While I don’t care so much about being able to play as a male protagonist, it doesn’t really affect my feeling towards the game as Escha’s story maintains the slice of life aspect of previous games. Aside from that, the item duplication, quests and earning points on small tasks are pretty much the same stuff from previous games. Also, I decided to get the Wilbeil character DLC since I had leftover Playstation Network points to use, but I think she is rather fun to play with even though it’s not really that necessary. Then again, I want a team of mostly female characters, which is why I done this.
Aside from that, hopefully this will hold everyone over for people who are wondering about this game until Thanksgiving/Winter break, when I can complete and write a full review of this game.
If you are also wondering, I plan on playing Mana Khemia 2 and writing a review for that in the future since I manage to get a first-edition release, which had the download code for it.
If you can stomach it, I would still recommend playing Ayesha just for characters alone. In terms of gameplay, it is step backwards from Eschalogy, but I still enjoyed it. I am glad that they did at least decided to throw in some challenging boss battles like the Mana K duology. Sadly, my friend did not get a 1st edition of the game that a had a code (he said would let me have it if it came with it), but I have both the originals on the PS2, so no big deal. Still would been awesome to have it on my PS3, though 🙁
I probably will get a Japanese copy of it since Gust already released a cheaper copy and that it’s probably better using what I already learn so I don’t forget it… Of course, I could just go retro and disable the voices. But aside from that, hopefully Mana Khemia 2 will be fun to play around with although I think it’s different from the traditional games. Also, I have Atelier Ellie, but I have a hard time playing that since it’s different from the modern games (although the four elements from my knowledge is there as in the Dusk series). Probably will try to tackle that someday.