Atelier Firis

This is the second chapter of the “Mysterious” trilogy and, therefore, of a direct sequel to Atelier Sophie , released by us just under a year ago. However, we want to calm the neophytes of the series: it is not necessary to have played Sophie in order to appreciate this chapter: you may not catch some of the obvious quotes, but the title is played equally without too much effort.

We will interpret Firis, the young homonymous girl who grew up in Ertona, a village hidden within the mountains and thus obscured by the dangerous outside world: her dream has always been to get out of her country and to travel. At the beginning of th

e adventure, Sophie, the protagonist of the previous title, will arrive in the village, and Firis will discover that she has an innate talent for alchemy, combining different materials to create objects with which she can help herself and the people around her . Thanks to this new ability, he will finally get the consent to leave the village, accompanied by his older sister Liane who will give her a stock, but with a condition: she will have a year to get to Reisenberg and pass the exam to get the alchemist license. If it fails,

It is precisely at this last point that at least initially we were disappointed: we had praised the previous chapter precisely because it was finally released from the temporal constraints, and the news of their return did not make us jumps of joy. F

ortunately,  the time limit is really generous and well managed within the story so much that we still have time to enjoy the surrounding landscape, exploring it in freedom. A generous limit, however, always remains a limit , so it is our advice not to overestimate the timing needed: always pay attention to the watch and try not to concentrate too much on sidequests, limiting the collection of necessary materials and completing your main goal.

It is obvious that Gust’s developers have tried to find a compromise to please the purists of the series, as well as those who approach the franchise for the first time. Exploration and all secondary missions will not be lost forever, since once we have passed the exam we will finally be free to appreciate everything we left behind without worrying about the timing.

The focus of the game focuses not o

nly on the final destination and on the completion of the main storyline, but on the journey itself: exploring these vast areas in search of as many materials as possible, possibly exploring the various dungeons in search of objects more rare, is incredibly satisfying and will devour most of our time. We appreciated one of the novelties of Atelier Firis, the portable atelier: we can take advantage of one of the areas set up to mount our cam

p, deposit all collected items, rest and use alchemy to create new objects. The alchemy phase has remained largely unchanged from the previous chapter by combining the collection of materials with a kind of tetris puzzle game to combine them in the

best possible way and achieve excellent results. Do not forget, however, the time limit. Some objects will in fact also require several in-game days to complete and, well done, getting lost in crafting objects may become problematic.

As you have surely understood, do not expect epic stories about a dangerous world that needs to be saved or something like this: the plot is mainly focused on the growth of our young protagonist, outlining what is the alchemical experience of the game. As a role-playing game, battles will still play an important role: we will have only one form of training in which to place

our team: a character in front of everyone (preferably a “tank” difficult to break), two other little characters behind and our Firis mandatory in the rear. We have not unfortunately been able to decide between different offensive or defensive formations and we can not even move Firis of position, demonstrating a lack of freedom on this front.