Gust

Yoru no Nai Kuni 2: Shingetsu no Hanayome – Final Review

October 12, 2017 by chikorita157 2 Comments

In November 2015, Gust made a new franchise called Yoru no Nai Kuni (also known as Night of Azure outside of Japan). It focused on a half-demon girl named Arnice (アーナス) with her quest to protect Lilysse (リュリーティス) and stop the Nightlord

The sequel, Yoru no Nai Kuni 2: Shingetsu no Hanayome (よるのないくに２；新月の花嫁, lit: Land without Darkness: Bride of the New Moon) starts where the first game left off with a new cast with more refinements to the battle system and a new story. Of course, this game suffered development hell with it delayed several times. It’s not until August 31^st it finally made it past development and released to the public in Japan. With that, this makes you wonder, is the sequel worth the wait?
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Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey – Final Review

June 7, 2017 by chikorita157 2 Comments

In recent years, there has been a shift to open-world type games such as Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with the advancements in graphics power to handle them. While Gust made improvements to the gameplay aspects in the Atelier series, Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey (フィリスのアトリエ〜不思議な旅の錬金術士〜) is perhaps the most ambitious game they made in the franchise. It features a large world to explore while bringing new mechanics. How well did they execute this? Let’s find out.
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Atelier Sophie: Alchimist of the Mysterious Book – Final Review

January 7, 2017 by chikorita157 2 Comments

With the Dusk/Twilight trilogy complete, Gust finally make their first entry to the Playstation 4. Atelier Sophie: Alchimist of the Mysterious Book (ソフィーのアトリー〜不思議な本の錬金術士〜) is Gust’s first entry to the new system with ports on the Vita and Playstation 3. While introducing new mechanics, Gust also brought back some old as well. How well is Gust’s first entry to the Playstation 4? Let’s find out.
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Yoru no Nai Kuni (Nights of Azure) – Final Review

May 4, 2016 by chikorita157 3 Comments

For a while now, Gust has specialized in turn-based role-playing games, namely for the Atelier and Ar tonelico franchise. Yoru nai Kuni (よるのないくに, lit: Land without Darkness) also known as Nights of Azure in the west is Gust’s first attempt at an action role-playing game. With that in mind, how will their first action role-playing game will fare?
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Atelier Shallie – Alchemists of the Twilight Sea – Final Review

May 7, 2015 by chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Since the start of the Dusk/Twilight trilogy, Gust has experimented with gameplay elements while having a somewhat darker story with the Earth in decline. In the last game, Escha and Logy allowed all 6 members (three active) to participate in battle while improving the alchemy gameplay by allowing you to choose the traits again. Also, you can see what tasks you need to get done along with what rewards you will get if you get a line up. Of course, the biggest addition is that there are now two protagonists you can play as, which has not been in the game since Mana Khemia 2.

The third and possibly last entry in the Dusk/Twilight trilogy is Atelier Shallie, which of course not only have dual protagonists (both female), but it also bring backs some game mechanics from Mana Khemia 2 such as getting rid of the time limit, variable strike and the burst gauge while introducing some new features and improvements. Since I have beaten the game at least once, its time to share my thoughts.
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Ciel nosurge – First Impressions

November 4, 2014 by chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Back in 2012, Gust who is known for their work on the Atelier franchise decided to make another series that is set in the same world as the Ar tonelico series. Since the Playstation Vita came out in February of 2012, they decided to experiment with this new handheld by creating a communication dating sim called Ciel nosurge (シェルノサージュ〜失われた星捧ぐ詩〜 lit. Ciel nosurge ~Song offered to the Lost Star~ ), which is played in real-time over the internet. This game can be described as Animal Crossing meets Love Plus with social elements thrown into it. They recently released an Offline version that removed the online requirements with all the DLC content included, thus making it possible for the player to play at his/her own pace.

While two versions of the game got released after the original (Re:Incarnation and Offline), they also created a sequel titled Ar nosurge, which came out this year in Japan and later got localized to English. I find it odd that they would release that game first considering that the sequel requires the player to finish most of Ciel nosurge in order to fully understand the story. Considering that this game is a niche title, not a role-playing game and is very text heavy, I can understand why Gust and Koei Tecmo aren’t willing to localize it. Even so, it seems that people are interested in this game. With that, I will share my initial impressions of the gameplay from the Offline version.
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Atelier Shallie – Alchemists of the Twilight Sea – First Impressions

August 25, 2014 by chikorita157 2 Comments

Last month, Gust finally released the third installment of the Dusk series, Atelier Shallie. Unlike the first two games in the Dusk series, it feels like a departure from the usual gameplay since this game feels more like Mana Khemia 2 since they replaced the time limit with a Life Task system. While there are some mixed reactions from the fans, here are my first impressions of the game.
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Atelier Ayesha Plus – Final Review

August 2, 2014 by chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Koei-Tecmo’s acquisition of Gust has left a bad taste in most fans’ mouths when they decided that they are not going to include dual audio in Atelier Ayesha (I shared my thoughts on this issue in an editorial about localization issues I wrote early last year). Not to mention, there has been reports that they poorly handled Escha and Logy localization. Eventually, I ended up just importing the Japanese copies of the game since I knew enough Japanese to understand most of the game.

Although I considered getting a Japanese copy of the game for the Playstation 3, I decided to wait since Gust in December announced a Plus version for the Vita. Since I finally finished the game, it’s time to share my overall thoughts about the game.
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Atelier Escha & Logy (Anime) – Final Review

July 3, 2014 by chikorita157 3 Comments

Before I started playing Atelier Totori last year, I never heard of these games since it was not a traditional Japanese RPG. Instead of focusing on saving the world from an evil person, Atelier games focuses more on collecting ingredients, doing tasks, exploration and of course item crafting. Back in the 90s, these games were ground breaking as it introduced item crafting for the first time, which subsequently got added to other Japanese RPGs.

To commemorate Gust’s 20^th anniversary, they decided to make their first anime adaption for the franchise starting with Atelier Escha & Logy. While I have shared my first impressions of the game last year, I wonder how the anime adaptation will fare?
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Atelier Ayesha Plus – First Impressions

May 31, 2014 by chikorita157 2 Comments

Back in 2012 when I regained my interest in Japanese RPGs, I eventually discovered the Atelier games, which focuses more on item crafting rather than saving the world. While I have played all the games from the Arland trilogyand enjoyed them, Ayesha is the first game in the Dusk trilogy, which overhauled the synthesizing and battling systems while giving a slightly darker story. I choose not to play this game at first for the fact that Tecmo-Koei thought it was a good idea to remove the Japanese voices from the localized release.

At first, I thought of getting a Japanese copy. However, they eventually announced a Vita version several months later. Therefore, I waited to get that instead. With that, here are my initial thoughts of the game after playing for 30 hours. (Image Source)
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