Another review of an Atelier game, this will probably be my last review of an Atelier game, considering that I'm not a fan of this series and that I refuse to buy the games that don't have English voices. When it comes to fanservice, Atelier Sophie actually contains several female characters that aren't conservatively dressed, we could say, and in one way or another, the game isn't that tame when it comes to character designs, is Atelier Sophie worse than Atelier Firis and Atelier Shallie Plus when it comes to amount of skin shown and fan service scenes? I don't know...let's begin.

Story: The fact that this game involves a talking book, Plachta, is more than enough to give this category a 10 in my opinion, not even MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death made me do that, the story of Atelier Sophie ~The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book~ is so fantasy oriented that I can't help but love it, and honestly, I'd say that when it comes to writing, this game is on par with the other Atelier games I've played, at best, it's even better than those games. The characters are pretty well written and I think I like every playable character in Atelier Sophie, Sophie is a great main character and you always want to see her be successful. At first, the story is relatively simple, we could say, but it gets better as the game goes on, with more and more revelations as the game progresses, Plachta lost her memories and in the beginning of the game she doesn't remember much, but as she recovers her memories little by little, the story gets better with some revelations and whatnot, including some revelations that I didn't see coming. Overall, I think it's an amazing story, more or less, and I love it.

Graphics: For being the first Atelier game on PS4, Atelier Sophie looks great. Atelier Sophie has a great art style and the game is very appealing to look at, the 3D models look great, some textures look nice, and the environments look beautiful at times, obviously, it's not the most beautiful game of the series on PS4, and objectively speaking, the PS4 version of Atelier Lydie & Suelle looks better, for example, but the game definitely looks more than good enough, Atelier Sophie has better graphics than Megadimension Neptunia VII for example, that's for sure. The 2D art looks amazing as always, NOCO and Yuugen did some great (and suggestive) character designs for this game, and the characters look amazing in 2D, the CG images look great, and there are a lot of CG images to see. Overall, it's a game with great graphics.

Sound: Atelier Sophie is another game developed by Gust with a great soundtrack, the music is simply amazing at times, and the soundtrack is varied, of course, I'm not a fan of the use of accordion, at least not always, but I can't say that I hate the soundtrack, ''Thistle Lotus'' is an amazing boss theme with an intense electric guitar, ''Tomboy Rabbit'' is very catchy and addictive, ''Ghost Girl for Sophie'' stands out with that whistling and those bell sounds, both versions of ''Crimson Valley'' are pretty good, ''Liela Xea'' is a great final boss theme...it's an amazing soundtrack for the most part, and considering that Atelier Sophie is a game developed by Gust, it could not have been otherwise. Atelier Sophie has dual audio, the English voice acting is pretty good, and some popular actors voiced characters in this game, Leon is voiced by Erica Mendez, Elise Phulie is voiced by Laura Post, Fritz Weissberg is voiced by Keith Silverstein, Corneria is voiced by Brianna Knickerbocker...it's a great cast and the voice acting is pretty good as I said, I really like Corneria's voice, Brianna Knickerbocker gave Corneria a calm and more or less soothing voice, it's a nice voice and the same thing can be said for Plachta, I can respect a game with at least 1 character that has a relaxing or soothing voice.

Addictive: It's a turn-based RPG like the other games, and like the other games, for the most part, the game is more about alchemy than anything else. The alchemy system of Atelier Sophie is similar to the one in Atelier Firis, in this game you can't use catalysts unlike Atelier Firis, but if you want to make items of better quality and whatnot, you have the option of using different cauldrons. In Atelier Sophie you have a grid where you have to put the materials and the size of each item is something that must be considered, not to mention the quality, traits, etc. It's a deep system, fun to use, and I spent many hours using the alchemy system, I reached the maximum level, level 50, but even so, I kept using the alchemy system, because it's something that you will really need to use, even if you reach the maximum alchemy level. The turn-based combat is functional, you can attack, use items (what items can be used vary from one character to another), defend yourself to reduce damage, and use different skills, of course, there is also a command to escape from a battle if you want, unlike Atelier Firis, in this game you have different stances that can be used, you can be in an offensive stance or a defensive stance, and depending on the stance, different special skills can be used automatically, if you use an offensive stance, the characters will use even more attacks, and if you use a defensive stance, the characters will protect each other, I'm not going to lie and say that it's the best turn-based combat of all time, but I can't deny that the battle system is functional and it has a little of depth, and in fact, the difference between an offensive stance and a defensive stance is something that can be important depending on the battle and difficulty.

Depth: If you ignore most optional quests and play the game on easy (more details later), you can probably beat this game in 50 hours or less, but if you want to see everything, there is more to do, there are a lot of optional quests and recipes to unlock, there are a few optional bosses to defeat, it's a game with a lot to do, maybe not on par with Atelier Firis when it comes to things to do, I have unlocked pretty much every CG image in Atelier Sophie, unlike Atelier Firis where I haven't unlocked many CG images for example, not to mention that I have played Atelier Sophie less than Atelier Firis, I have played Atelier Sophie less than 87 hours, and I think I have done pretty much everything, considering that I have more than 75% of the trophies and whatnot...still, I can't say that it's a short game...

Difficulty: Maybe you have realized this, but when I review a game with different difficulty levels, the number I give this category is always due to the highest difficulty level, this means that I'm willing to give this game at least an 8 if we are talking about the ''Hard'' difficulty, also, even if you play on ''Normal'' the final boss is very difficult, I lost count of how many times I lost in the battle against the final boss, I haven't played the game on ''Hard'', so, I can't really say if the game is genuinely difficult if you play on the hardest difficulty, but I can only assume that the game is more difficult if you play on that difficulty level and that the final boss is even harder, if you play on ''Normal'' or ''Easy'', the game isn't a big challenge for the most part, it's the final boss what really made me lose a lot of times, one could say that Atelier Sophie is easier than many other turn-based RPGs...except for the final boss and maybe, MAYBE the ''Hard'' difficulty and optional bosses.

Atelier Sophie ~The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book~ is a turn-based RPG worth playing, even if you have never played an Atelier game before, this is still a good game to pass the time and I recommend it, the amazing music, English voice acting (unlike other games of the franchise that don't have English voice acting), great story and characters, not to mention the fact that the game doesn't have a time limit unlike Atelier Firis, are things that make me recommend this game. This might be my last review of an Atelier game, and I can't believe I played this game from beginning to end considering that I'm not an Atelier Fan, I said the same thing in my review of Atelier Firis, but anyway, I don't regret playing Atelier Sophie...and I recommend it, if you don't have a problem with some fanservice of course.

I've been wondering about getting any of the atelier games on PS4 but they seem to come out so fast that by the time i'd finish one another 2 would come out etc. It's good to know its a decent game though so i may get it at some point.

Good review also!

sonicmcmuffin :

I own one of the Atelier games because I got curious.

Coincidentally, it's the same one the OP reviewed.

It's definitely a much different experience than any other RPG I've played. Sure, at its core, it is a turn based experience, like any other, but there's a heavy emphasis on alchemy, and item collection and harvesting. And there's also the trademark of the Atelier series, getting seemingly random plot points set up. Like there's some stuff you are guaranteed to hit for story progression, but character events can happen all over the place at random times.

It can be appealing, or so I'm told, but honestly, it just frustrates me, since I have a hyperactive need to do everything in a game. A game like this is terrible for someone like me.

sonicmcmuffin : Thanks for the reply, I'm confident in my reviews. Yes, I saw you own this game digitally, and well, I'll basically repeat what legacyme3 said, Atelier can be appealing depending on what you want in an RPG, some people don't like the time limit of certain games (Atelier Rorona, Atelier Totori and Atelier Firis have a time limit for example), while other people enjoy exactly that, in the end, these are turn based RPGs with a bigger emphasis on alchemy, and item collection, and they also tend to have a lot of optional things to do (typical of Gust games, apparently).

As a non-Atelier fan, I can't speak about the other games, but at least, I can say for sure that Atelier Sophie and Atelier Firis, not to mention Atelier Shallie Plus, are games worth playing, I've also reviewed those games here on Vizzed, so, feel free to read those reviews if you want.