Atelier Sophie 2 Review

While it’s a bit late to say this, it’s no longer 2021 and that means a new Atelier game has been released once again. Atelier Sophie 2, or just Sophie 2, came out late February this year with a nearly simultaneous global release. If you’ve read my article about the Atelier series, you might be aware that the games have always had a new protagonist per title. Older protagonists may appear with a smaller role or as easter eggs in future entries, but have never reappeared as the protagonist. Sophie 2 is a very rare exception, being the second character to have a direct sequel game out of 23 games with nearly 23 protagonists. Hearing her return had me very excited, Atelier games have seen massive improvements since Sophie’s original debut in 2015 and the reveal trailers were looking good. The original Sophie was also my gateway into the series and I have fond memories of it. After clearing the game, I’m happy to confidently say that Sophie 2 is a rare sequel that exceeds the original in every way, and is my personal favourite of the Atelier series.

You don’t need to play Sophie 1

Sophie 2 is a direct sequel to Sophie 1. Before Sophie 2 came out, the storyline for the Mystrious ’trilogy’, at the time, went:

Sophie 2 slots in between the first two titles, so it chronologically occurs before the events of Firis. Being a direct sequel, it’s natural to assume that playing the original Sophie is a prerequisite to play Sophie 2, but that’s not really the case.

1. Sophie 1 is somewhat outdated

   Sophie 1 came out in 2015. The developer of Atelier games, Gust, is a rather small JRPG developer now and was even smaller back in 2015. While I enjoyed the original, Sophie 1 is slightly outdated at this point. I briefly revisited the game while gathering screenshots and have to admit the game is getting a bit old; the UI is clearly aging a bit, the game’s water textures look like blue dirt, foliage belongs to a 6.5th generation console game, and modern titles have much better QoL features. Sophie 2 fixes all of these issues because it’s literally just 2 months old as of writing this, and therefore is a better starting point for newcomers too.

2. Sophie 2 summarizes Sophie 1’s events

   Asking newcomers to start with a much older game is a big challenge so Gust designed Sophie 2 to be as independent as possible. In the main menu, the top entry plays a short recap of all the major, but rather trivial, events that happened in Sophie 1. The video is comprehensive enough and really does cover all the major story points for that game as well as gives context to what’s happening at the beginning of Sophie 2. In fact, here’s Sophie 1’s story summarized because it’s so simple.

   Major spoilers for Sophie 1

   1. Sophie is an orphaned novice alchemist who one day finds one of her late grandma’s old recipe books. Sophie writes something into that book
   2. The book suddenly starts moving, speaking, and flying. There’s a woman’s soul trapped in there, and her name is Plachta. She’s been dormant in the book for a while and has lost her memories
   3. Plachta knows alchemy and begins to teach Sophie, who helps Plachta remember her past (the bulk of the game)
   4. Sophie eventually transfers Plachta’s soul from the book to a doll’s body. Towards the end, Plachta remembers everything, including why her soul was in a book
   5. Plachta became a book after defeating her former friend and now ’enemy’ to monitor him, because he used alchemy for ill intentions. Sophie accidentally gave this friend his powers back and now must stop him
   6. Sophie and her team defeat the old friend. Sophie leaves her hometown with Plachta to become a licensed alchemist and find a way to transfer Plachta’s soul from a doll’s body to a human
   7. This is where the recap movie ends and Sophie 2 begins

3. Atelier games mostly don’t have to played in order

   Even within the subseries (Arland, Dusk, Mysterious, etc.), the titles are mostly independent. For instance, you could start playing the Mysterious games from Firis rather than Sophie. You would miss out on Sophie’s game and story, but hardly any of it carries into Firis. Same with L&S, you would see Sophie and Firis reappear there but the plot elements would be completely different. The games are very loosely connected and you can start playing anywhere you want. The only exception is Ryza, who is the protagonist of the entire Secret series and you should start from Ryza 1 and play sequentially.

So is there any reason to start with Sophie 1?

Yes, there is. While minor, Sophie 2’s cast of characters makes some references to the original that you wouldn’t understand without playing the prequel. Additionally, playing the other Mysterious games made the ending of Sophie 2 way more satisfying and hit a lot harder than it would have otherwise, at least for me. You can just start with Sophie 2 to save time and money, and this is what I recommend it you’re completely new to Atelier. However, as someone who played the rest of the Mysterious series games before this one, I can say for sure that they provided some extra enhancements that made Sophie 2 more enjoyable and emotional. Throughout this review, many of the screenshots will compare the two titles graphically, Sophie 1 on the left and 2 on the right. You’ll notice that there has been signficiant improvements in graphics and UI.

Initial story

Sophie 2 does a good job of getting a player started and starts strong. I will be talking about some early story, but this is all material that has been public since the game’s first teasers and doesn’t contain any spoilers.

Sophie 2 starts off with Sophie and Plachta journeying, when they find a giant tree Plachta saw in her dreams. Suddenly, both of them are sucked into a vortex and teleported to another world. Sophie awakens alone in a different world and finds the town of Roytale near the same giant tree, whose inhabitants tell her that she is in a dream world called Erde Wiege, disconnected from reality. Sophie begins looking for Plachta with the help of some residents of Roytale. At the same time, Sophie hears stories about someone named Plachta that has been living in Roytale for a little while now…

Thoughts

When Sophie 2 was first announced and its chronological position revealed, I was curious to see whether it would cause timeline inconsistencies. Since it is a forced retrofitted title, Gust had to be careful not to do anything too bold or else they would be forced to use unsatisfying endings like ‘it was all a dream’ or ‘you lose your memories of Erde Wiege when you leave’.

When I first started the game, the story started strong and had me intrigued. In Firis, Sophie and Plachta both emerge safely within the first 20 minutes of the game, meaning that the two safely found their way out of the vortex. Knowing what happens to them in Firis makes you wonder how was Plachta found, and what exactly happened inside Erde Wiege. The story had a strong start with defined motivation and solid pacing, the graphics were significantly better than the original, and familiar gameplay elements from the Mystrious series were steadily introduced as the game progressed, giving me a warm feeling of nostalgia.

There was a lot more attention to detail as well, Sophie’s feet would stay flush to most surfaces, she had idle animations that changed based on the weather, and more trivial but very appreciable features. Additionally, controller support just worked out of the box, which sadly is still a problem among some PC ports. Gust games have typically had some launch day issues with PC ports, but Sophie 2 didn’t seem to have any.

The emphasis on dreams was also a large focus, you’re told that Erde Wiege is stuck in time and therefore you don’t age and the real world is frozen. You’re also told that areas are created from the dreams that people have, and even monsters from these dreams are pulled into the world of Erde Wiege. Early into the game, Sophie 2 tells you what you can anticipate to happen in this fantasy world.

Visuals, audio, and others

Graphics

Talking about graphics in an Atelier game is a bit odd since the series isn’t particularly a visual masterpiece nor was it designed to emphasize graphics. But since this is a game review, covering graphics is a must. The image above compares areas with similar themes between the two games, and there are very obvious improvements. There are more environmental details, Sophie’s character model looks better, textures and the UI are fresher, shadows and ambience are more defined, the colour palette is way more saturated and lively, and just look at the water. The graphics have significantly improved over 7 years, and having better visuals is a strong selling point for any game and is better at enticing new players. Sophie 2’s artstyle stands out more and is more cartoony, which fits nicely with the Atelier series’ style. Overall, I like the artsyle.

Facial expressions

Gust made a big deal of this feature when promoting the game, claiming that characters in Sophie 2 have a diverse range of expressions compared to previous ones. After clearing the game, I can vouch that this is completely true. Each character has a lot of facial expressions that fits the atmosphere much more effectively than previous entries, which had rather general and overused faces such as smiling, surprised, angry, scared, confused, and focusing. The new expressions have all kinds of enhancements, such as the iris shifting across the eyes to emphasize attention to someone, comedic expressions like smugness and sparkling eyes, and other expressions like frowning, grinning, confusion, seriousness, small o-shaped mouths for surprises, and a lot more. The expressions help convey the character’s feelings more effectively than before and made them feel more human. The cutscenes are more enjoyable thanks to the better facial expressions, and I think Gust did a great job with these new facial expressions.

Animations

Atelier games have also been improving in this department for some time now too. Back in Sophie 1 they were ok, then they took a sharp fall in Firis (likely due to the ambitious goals of that game), and have been steadily recovering since L&S. In Sophie 2 the animations are all good, nothing sticks out as bad or particularly stiff looking. There is of course some awkwardness, but Gust probably doesn’t have motion capturing equipment so it’s unfair to demand fluid AAA quality animations. Overall, animations look fine and don’t ruin the experience.

Music

Gust never disappoints with music. There’s a meme out there about games with really good soundtracks which goes like ‘I bought a $60 music pack and it came with a free game’. Every Atelier game, even the older ones, having really good soundtracks. Area themes, character themes, regular battle and special boss songs, cutscene music, all of them are great. I really don’t understand how Gust keeps pumping out top tier music every time with their games, but the composers and musicians are on crack. Not to mention that in Sophie 2 the audio quality itself seemed substantially better than previous titles, I think the music had better mixing this time (unless I’m hearing things), which is wonderful. Good mixing quality seems to be somewhat hard to find in any type of music, video game or not. Additionally, Gust gives free DLC for every game which contains many tracks from previous titles. This means that you can play boss battle songs that came out 20 years ago (and they’re damn good) while playing modern titles, or change your atelier’s theme to something else you prefer more. It’s a really wonderful feature that I hope doesn’t become paywalled, because songs for newer games tend to be in music packs that you need to pay for. For instance, Ryza 1 music wasn’t available in Ryza 2, but is now available in Sophie 2. I really hope this paywall doesn’t start creeping up or it’s removed entirely.

Voice acting

I haven’t seen an Atelier game without good voice acting, and Sophie 2 does not disappoint either. The VAs for Sophie and Plachta return, and Gust contracted some pretty high profile VAs for the new characters this time. Most Atelier games have well known VAs here and there (Dio in L&S, Illya in Rorona, etc.), but there’s a lot more in Sophie 2. Overall, the voice acting is very high quality and professional. None of the important characters sound awkward or sloppy, and the VAs know how to properly act out emotional scenes (the ending is killer).

Character design

Character design is on par with other Atelier games. Most are somewhat archetypical and probably won’t really impress you (there’s a gloomy dual-wielding swordsman dressed in black), but they aren’t bad or boring by any means. The characters look vibrant which fits with the game’s dream world theme. To me, the main strengths of character design this time was seeing refinements to returning characters like Sophie and Plachta. Sophie’s outfit looks more elegant and detailed, and Plachta looks much cuter.

There are some design choices that I don’t really understand, just look at the photo above for character design and naming. I get that Gust devs are probably 100% Japanese so their naming sense for fictional Western ones can get… odd at times, but when you have very normal names like Sophie or Katrina, you wonder how Gnome also managed to pass. There’s some fanservice shots and designs as well. Several characters have designs that I dislike certain elements of, and there’s the occasional funny camera angles during combat that show pantyshots. I’m not against them, but they feel forced in and awkward.

I hope that Gust is able to improve on its NPC designs too, because they’re in a rough state. I remember seeing some of these guys all the way back in 2018, and there’s some newer NPC models mixed in there but the overall state looks kind of lacking.

Photo mode

Starting from the Ryza games, photo mode was implemented. You can be creative and take all kinds of screenshots with a lot of settings to change; you can position each character, give them different poses and faces, even add NPCs or enemies, change the focus, zoom, time of day, add frames, and a lot more. If you like this kind of tinkering, you can easily spend many hours in photo mode. It’s not exactly my type of activity, but I did see how great the ‘skill ceiling’ and potential time sink for this could be from the brief moments I tried taking pictures.

UI and smaller touches

UI design is the best it’s ever been for the series. The menu is rather intuitive, there are nice QoL features here and there, and a nice in-game wiki. This wiki gives character descriptions, the world, and anything else important that is frequently updated as you progress. It provides good background information for those that haven’t played Sophie 1 or are newcomers. The world map is nicely designed and show all materials and enemies that are present for each climate, as well as showing you quest indicators to quickly find objectives. I haven’t encountered any UI/UX flaws that I found frustrating, which is good.

Gust paid attention to details, which I greatly enjoyed. The most immediate things were that Sophie’s initial battle and alchemy level were 20 and 50, respectively. These are odd numbers, but then I remembered that both these levels max out at 20 and 50 in Sophie 1. This gave the feeling that Sophie 2 really was a true sequel and you’re starting right where Sophie 1 ended, which was amazing. One more big detail is the instant start to battles. In previous Atelier games (and many other RPGs), a little transition start when you engage in combat. Maybe the surroundings looks slightly off to where you encountered an enemy. In Sophie 2, Gust emphasized their new battle intro with no transition; you encounter an enemy and the battle starts immediately where you’re standing. It seems like such a small detail but is very noticeable once you try it and makes games with transitions feel sluggish. Other touches I can remember are trying to keep Sophie’s feet flush on slanted surfaces and stairs, monsters running away if you’re powerful, and wet clothing textures for characters during rain. There are others that I’m certainly forgetting, the point is that Sophie 2 is filled with small details that are fun to discover.

Gameplay mechanics

Alchemy

Can’t talk about an Atelier game without discussing the alchemy system. Sophie 2’s alchemy system is the culmination of what made synthesis in the Mysterious series so satisfying and enjoyable. The system scales very nicely from newbie to veteran, so you can either breeze through the game for a casual experience or actually take time to min-max each item build with a decent amount of thinking involved. Sophie 2 takes the following mechanics from each Mysterious game that came before it:

1. The original puzzle-like board from Sophie 1
2. Catalysts from Firis that impact your synthesis board and traits
3. Gauge filling mechanic from L&S

The game also adds on its own new mechanics to not make the synthesis mechanics too similar to older titles. Sophie 2’s system is complex and hard to understand with photos, but here’s the gist: add material components (the shapes made of squares in both images on the left sides) to the board and cover as much of it with colours that correspond to the bars in the lower right to raise the item’s effect levels. Each ’tile’ in the board covered by a colour raises the item’s effect by 1 for the same colour. Put special tiles adjacently and you increase the item’s maximum effect level. Filling each row or column (not diagonals) fills the ‘super success rate’ gauge, which will increase your item quality by 50% if proc’d.

Initially your synthesis panel is very limited and it is impossible to max out item effects, but around mid game the system opens up to become more complex and the difficulty really scales. You can choose to use the restrictive synthesis panel which allows you to maximize item effects or choose the unrestricted, easier board in exchange for less powerful items. Additionally, by meeting certain conditions you can activate support skills from your team mates that grant bonuses which are sometimes needed to build the best items. Props to Gust for making a system that quietly made me feel very frustrated when I was one bar off from maximizing an item’s effect and spent 20 minutes trying to play Tetris to finally build the item. Building strong endgame items can honestly be challenging, but it is very satisfying when you finally accomplish it. If you don’t feel like doing this, the game offers an auto-synthesis feature where material components are placed randomly and quickly for when you don’t want to think. It’s not optimal, but does speed up the synthesis process. I would recommend you really try to get used to manual crafting though, because you’ll need it to make decent gear and survive higher difficulties.

You can choose to synthesize with either Sophie or Plachta, which is nice because Plachta plays a big role in the story. Each character has their own ‘alchemy level’, which is basically proficiency. This level must be equal or greater than an item’s level or you cannot craft it. Sophie and Plachta have some mutually exclusive items, so you need to balance your synthesis load instead of just using one character.

Weather control

Sophie 2 introduces controlling weather as a gimmick mechanic for changing several important aspects of what you can do in the field. This includes changing the map topology itself, the materials you can gather, and enemies that spawn. You can change the weather between sunny, rainy, snowy, and thunder. In the early game, the game provides some simple puzzles that you need to solve by changing the weather a few times. For example, make it rainy to create a pool then freeze it with snow to walk across. The puzzles aren’t used extensively since that would need way more complexity and it isn’t a core mechanic, but does demonstrate some potential of the weather system. The change in materials and enemies will be impactful until you hit mid to late game. In late game, the weather system will feel more of an impedance and gimmick, but most mechanics in games tend to end up this way so I don’t blame Gust that much. The weather system is overall interesting and offers some simple puzzles that are cool to solve in early game.

Traversable areas

Over the last few years, explorable areas in Atelier games have been increasing in size. Compared to Sophie 1, the areas in Sophie 2 are several times bigger and feel more immersive while bringing out the world’s scale more accurately. Atelier games are not open world games so you don’t have one gargantuan field to roam, swim, climb, and fly around in. In fact, you can only roam in this game, not even swimming. My wish would be to make the game feel more open world by replacing the loading areas between areas with natural transitions, since moving from A to B still needs a black loading screen. Making the game feel like an open world title would be incredible and further improve immersiveness.

As dreams are a central theme to the game, the maps reflect this by featuring locations and mechanics that wouldn’t be possible in reality. For instance, you can make certain areas have lower gravity and jump higher or make objects float. I do wish that Gust was more creative with maps, since most previous games also feature similar map themes (volcanos, frozen castles, etc.).

Gathering

Gathering is a staple mechanic in Atelier, it’s how you gather materials to synthesize items. In older titles, you just walk up to a gathering node and press a button. Different areas had different materials to gather, and that’s about it besides monster drops. Starting from Firis, the games started using gathering tools such as pickaxes, fishing rods, hammers, and scythes to diversify what you can do. In Ryza, this system reached its peak complexity (so far); you can hit a plant with a scythe, bug net, or hammer and get completely different materials. In Sophie 2, you gather by hand, staff, scythe, pickaxe, hammer, bug net, fishing rod, or slingshot. You can only use one type of equipment to gather from nodes, so you can only use a pickaxe on stones and nothing else, simplifying the gathering process. Depending on your equipment quality, you can gather higher ’tier’ materials so it’s important to keep your gear fresh. The system does a good job of forcing you to learn alchemy without causing too many headaches.

Major gathering

Sometimes you’ll find a gathering node where you can play a major gathering minigame. Through the minigames, you can essentially customize what properties your material will have, and this can significantly ease synthesis pains. If you need a plant material that needs fire components but this doesn’t naturally exist, you can make it exist through a minigame. Major gatherings aren’t a game-chaning mechanic, but it does freshen up regular gathering.

Battle system

Following the radically different ATB (action turn battle) system in Ryza, Sophie 2 returns to the traditional turn based system. But just because fighting doesn’t take place in real time, doesn’t mean the fight is boring. Sophie 2’s combat system is pretty dynamic, satisfying, and difficulty can scale very nicely. 6 characters are involved, 3 in the front and 3 in the back. Only the frontline members get to act, while backline members can swap in to perform support guards, skills or use items, or replace a KO’d frontliner. First, I really like the UI in Sophie 2’s battle system. The screen is clean, and the camera does a nice panning and alternates between close ups and regular character shots.

Characters have 5 basic actions: normal attack, block (skips turn and reduces damage until next turn), flee, use an item, or use a skill. So far everything is similar to any other RPG, you get KO’d at 0 HP, need MP to use skills, etc.

Auras

Enemies soon into the game will start protecting themselves with auras. These are essentially shields that significantly reduce damage taken, grant stat boosts, and allow enemies to choose stronger attacks more often. To break them, you need an attack that counters the aura type; a fire attack for an ice aura, physical attack for a magic aura, thunder for a wind one, and so on. Once an aura is broken the enemy will be stunned, take extra damage, and be more susceptible to status effects so you need to use this opportunity to really go all out. Auras aren’t a complicated system, but it keeps you from slacking off. Enemies with auras will hit hard until you’re fully prepared with equipment that can keep you alive and the right items to dismantle the auras. Not to mention bosses will use auras to remove any debuffs on them so this further emphasizes the importance of keeping good items around.

Twin actions

At the bottom left corner of the battle UI there are two arched gauges. One is currently at 100% and the other has three blue bars in it. The blue bars, called TP (twin points, I think), allow you to perform twin actions or support guards. Twin actions are when one frontliner and backliner switch positions and simultaneously act out their turns, each using a skill or an item. Skills require 10 less MP to use in twin actions. This mechanic has some strategic implications; you can accelerate the actions of both characters to get some quick damage before a boss tries to nuke you, 10 MP-costing skills can be spammed, and the second attack in twin actions ignore aura damage reduction which is big early on. You can’t spam twin actions early on because it fills slowly and you’ll want to save TP for guards instead that will keep you alive.

When guarding, a frontliner targeted by an enemy can switch positions with a backliner by using one TP. The backliner takes decreased damage and in early game of higher difficulties, this is very important because simple mobs will vapourize your HP without the damage reduction. Since guarding causes a backliner to move forwards, that character better have their items and gear up to date or else you might be in for some trouble. The TP system forces you to think of when and who to switch, to keep everyone’s equipment in good shape, and you can’t abuse it because it doesn’t recharge too fast. It’s a nice mechanic that spices up the battle system and adds good strategy elements.

Dual triggers

Like most RPGs, Atelier games have some kind of ‘ultimate move’, either very powerful nukes or support abilities. In Sophie 2, these are called Dual Triggers and you can only use them when the DG gauge is full. Dual triggers are either the strongest attacks in the game or provide support effects such as healing and buffing, and removing debuffs on your team or debuffing the enemy; they require two characters to be performed with at least one of them in the frontline and both must be able to fight. These big powerful moves aren’t new by any means, but it is important to bring them up. You also get cool special victory screens unique to each Dual Trigger, which is a nice touch.

Downsides

While overall a very solid game, Sophie 2 isn’t perfect. It, just like anything in the universe, has flaws.

Graphics

I’ve been saying that Sophie 2 looks nice for an Atelier game, and this is true. What I haven’t said yet is the performance requirements. I played this game on PC with an RX480 and i7 6850K, which aren’t new components but are still capable of playing modern AAA titles at reasonable settings. Sophie 2 runs well for the most part, but there are some areas where the framerate struggles to sustain 50 FPS. The game also has buggy menus, where rapidly going back and forth between two menus will cause the framerate to drop to 30. When the game creates popup notifications when you gather materials, they cause significant stuttering. The graphical performance requirements have been creeping up for a few years now, and I’m worried about future titles. This problem doesn’t go away with better video cards, there are reviews from people with 2080 Tis complaining about the same issues. Gust needs to start addressing this problem or even their PS5 ports are going to suffer from performance issues soon. I can’t imagine how this game would look and run on the Switch in handheld mode, it would be a pretty bad experience.

Not only does performance need some fixing, game textures and antialiasing should also be looked into. I’m assuming that Gust’s game engine is causing these problems, and that’s a big problem to try and fix. Take a look at the photo above, see how weird the trees and waterfall look? The grass and foliage is also weird, but that’s a bit hard to tell through pictures. The game uses TAA, which should be a decent AA solution, but the game looks weird in some screenshots and has some other problems. Character outlines look jagged (which is what AA is supposed to fix), Sophie has a weird halo around her in bright areas, lightning effects and clouds look outdated, draw distance is low, and more. Overall, there’s quite some work needed to fix graphical problems with Atelier games. I certainly prefer modern titles to the older ones’ visuals, but these problems shouldn’t be left as is. The games do a good job hiding the problems through flashy particle effects and lots of glare, but when you take a look at random screenshots the problems will be visible.

I’m not demanding Tomb Raider level visuals, but enough to solve Atelier games’ current visual problems. If these can be solved, a huge portion of my problems will be gone.

Localization

The translation team decided to make some… weird choices with their translation. I can’t speak Japanese by any means but I can make out a decent amount of phrases spoken by characters. There’s a huge discrepancy between what the characters are speaking and what text is shown below. For instance, one character is given a country style accent despite the fact that he speaks normally, another is given an older English diction when again, he speaks normally. Overall, a lot of the translation wasn’t done properly in my view. I can understand localizing references or figures of speech that wouldn’t make sense when translated literally, but the localization in Sophie 2 was quite strong and there was no reason to; the fanbase is most likely weebs. There were weird phrases that I’ve never heard (ever heard of ’like chalk and cheese’?), and in the worst cases a complete mismatch between what was spoken and written. I prefer literal translations when possible, so this was a big negative to me.

Rampant DLC

Like most Atelier games, DLC is a giant problem for Sophie 2. It’s not as bad as how some AAA games execute the practice, but the mere presence of DLC worth more than the base game is a bad thing (Koei Tecmo really loves DLC). The DLC contains extra alchemy recipes that are likely broken, swimsuits and other outfits, and extra music tracks from other Gust games. You can purchase a season pass that has all of this for a discount, but unless you’re a diehard fan that uses cash as toilet paper, I don’t recommend the pass and DLC altogether.

Additionally, Gust always offers physical pre-order packs for fans. These come with exclusive character goods, artbooks, and codes for in-game bonuses. Leaving aside the fact that you shouldn’t ever pre-order a game, the problem I have with these pre-order packages is that Gust sells multiple tiers with mutually exclusive goods. So they might have a super-ultra pack for $150 and a super-deluxe one for $100, but both have different products. Therefore, any collector has to buy multiple packs. It’s pretty scummy behaviour.

EULA

One last thing to mention is the EULA. I’m against DRM and other digital inhibitors, and especially with the trend of requiring internet connection for single player games, which should not exist. I’ve read the Koei Tecmo EULA and while it isn’t as bad as some others, I disliked seeing the EULA in the first place. If the EULA ever becomes more restrictive such as requiring internet connection, goodbye Atelier on Steam. I might play the games through other methods. DRM is sickening and no one should be subject to it.

Final words

A damn good ending

I shed a few tears at the ending of Sophie 2, being honest. For reference, I can’t remember the last time I cried at any media, whether it was a movie, show, book, or anything else. The ending wasn’t designed to be an absolute sobfest, but really got to me. In the beginning when I said that playing Sophie 1 would enhance the ending of Sophie 2, this is why. After the tears, the credits played and then one last cutscene showing where Sophie and Plachta were heading next. This post-credits part was super satisfying because it perfectly leads to the beginning of Firis, and that was the best way the game could end.

Post game, you get the typical RPG option of starting a new game + where some of your belongings carry over and you unlock the highest difficulty. Unlike most RPGs though, there was no option to go back right before the final boss, the game instead allowed you to go back to right before you triggered the ending again. One more thing was a boss-rush game where you can challenge major bosses but they’re much tougher now.

You also unlock bonuses after clearing the game. These are all the music tracks in the game, the CGs you saw throughout playing, and bonus commentary from the VAs themselves. I agree with Sophie’s VA and am hoping a Sophie 3 can happen some day.

Conclusion

Ultimately, I’m very happy with Sophie 2. It’s by far the best Atelier game I’ve played, is a great starting point for newcomers, and when compared to Sophie 1 proves that Gust games have come a very long way. The title feels very polished with pinnacle-tier alchemy, a decent story for an Atelier game, engaging combact and scalable difficulty, and does not cause much time paradoxes for a retrofitted game. I’m really looking forward to what Gust is going to deliver with Ryza 3, and have a small dream inside of me that perhaps Sophie 3 is also not an impossible outcome. Thanks for reading.