Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey - PlayStation 4

I've played quite a few Atelier games but none have ever had the impact that Atelier Firis had. This game starts off strong and gets more and more epic as it progresses. The developers, Gust, have created their magnum opus with this game.You don't really need to have played past Atelier games to understand this one. However, I would recommend playing Atelier Sophie which took place prior to this game. In Atelier Firis, many years have passed since Sophie and Plachta defeated Luard. An aspiring alchemist named Firis lives in an isolated cave community but has bigger ambitions to travel and see the world. A fate encounter with the previous game's heroes takes her and her sister (Lia) on an epic journey to the alchemy capital. It's best not to know any more than that going in.The gameplay is so addicting and fun. If you're not used to playing these types of games, it will take a period of time for you to become accustomed to the alchemy system. This requires gathering materials, creating new materials, combining those to make other materials before arriving on a final product. Creating one material a certain amount of times can also unlock other materials. The discovery process is part of the fun!The battles are a lot of fun as well. They are turn based and every enemy presents their own unique challenge. Enemies vary in strength and items dropped when defeated. Also certain enemies only appear during certain times of the day. I should mention this now, there is a time system where days progress via morning, afternoon, evening, and night. There is a deadline you need to meet story-wise, so always pay attention to the date/time and how many days you have left.If you're concerned about a deadline limiting your exploration of the world, worry not. The deadline is lifted late in the game and you have total freedom to do what you want.The design of the characters and world are gorgeous. The art direction they went with in the last game and this one has truly been a great choice. Character's clothing, hair, and faces speak volumes about them. Every area of the world evokes a sense of wonder and you feel yourself on this journey with Firis and company. Speaking of the world, this is the closest to an open world game that the Atelier series has ever gotten. Location maps all connect to one another, and while you could use quick travel (available late in the game), you can get to most locations by traveling there on foot. Albeit it would take a lot of time!And let me not forget to say that the music is breathtaking. This is not just the best Atelier OST ever, it's one of the greatest OSTs ever. I loved the music so much I made sure I got myself a copy of the OST which contains 4 discs! There is not one track I disliked from this. The music is so iconic for me now that whenever I hear a melody from it, I am immediately transported to this world and Firis' journey.Sadly, this is the last Atelier game that had an English dub. The voice acting was top of the line and so perfect. Gust gave it their all with Atelier Firis and it clearly shows. Everything about this game feels so inspired. This is one of the best games I've ever played and I can't wait to play it again.

Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey is the second game in the Mysterious series and this time the alchemist is a girl named Firis. She has never been allowed to leave her mining town Ertona because her parents think it's too dangerous outside but Firis wishes to explore the outside world. She's also envious of her big sister Liane since Liane can go outside because she's a hunter. However everything changes one day when Firis meets Sophie and Plachta from the previous game and Sophie teaches Firis alchemy. Firis thinks that since she now knows alchemy her parents will let her go outside and they do except on one condition: Firis has one year to make to make it to Reisenburg to take the alchemy exam and become a certified alchemist. If she passes she can explore the world for however long she wants but if she fails she has to come home. Firis agrees to the condition and sets out on her journey to Reisenberg with her sister Liane.What I liked:The world is really open world compared to Atelier SophieThe graphics are beautifulThe alchemy is funThe combat is niceThere's a big cast of charactersThe main story is lightheartedWhat I didn't like:Enjoyed the open world but got lost quite a few times and didn't know where to go even with the maps and wished the entrances and exits to the next area showed up on the map and not just when you got close to them. Another thing I wished showed up on the map were quest points. Most of the quests showed up but sometimes they didn't or they did but weren't in the right location. Also I wish there had been fast travel between the maps available early in the game because it was a pain having to backtrack.The graphics are beautiful but I noticed that every time Firis was moving the ground always got this fuzzy blur but maybe it was suppose to be like that.The alchemy is fun but I still miss the Arland and Dusk alchemy systems and while I like the gathering recipe ideas I miss getting alchemy recipes from books because then you didn't miss recipes although you can use idea points to unlock a recipe if you have enough points.The combat is fun but can be hard if you're not at the right level or don't have the right equipment. Also I miss the Dusk combat system where you can have everyone on your team and just switch people out instead of having to ask someone to leave your party and then having to go find them and ask them to join again.I liked the main story. It was lighthearted and cute but I kinda miss the serious aspect of the Dusk game stories.So I enjoyed Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey. It was fun delving back into the Mysterious series again and starting a whole new alchemy journey, seeing new and old characters and exploring a open world. And while I did enjoy playing Atelier Firis I think I still like the previous alchemy games better but that's probably just because the Arland and Dusk game systems weren't too different from each other and I got used to playing the Atelier series that way but that's just me. I'm still looking forward to the next game in the Mysterious series Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings.I give Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey four stars.