I’ve played seven other Atelier games (all 3 Dusk and Ryza games + Yumia) at least most of the way through , and this is easily the worst of the bunch. I decided to give it another go because of the positive Steam reviews even though I bounced off it at release, but I dislike it even more now if anything. Atelier Sophie DX offers mindless combat, paper-thin characters, and a plethora of tiny gathering areas with barely anything distinguishing them from one another. There’s so little effort in the plot that I really don’t think you can even call it a story. A book asked you to help it get its memories back, so you do.
Many of the positive reviews say this is the first Atelier game, and I can believe that the novelty of the crafting system is enough to carry the experience if this is your first go of the series. I would strongly recommend playing Ryza or the Dusk games instead to get a deeper crafting system, a real story, and worthwhile combat, but this system is fine. You basically add tetronimos to a grid and can earn bonuses based on how you did so. It’s not as deep as earlier games, but it’s miles ahead of Yumia’s inane version.
The one nice thing I have to say about Atelier Sophie DX, other than that the character designs are mostly solid, is that the recipe unlock system was a good idea. I like that you find new recipes by completing little quests that are vaguely related to the item in question, but they didn’t go far enough with this system. In practice, you’re locked to a linear progression and have a couple of basic tasks you must do to progress rather than anything that really encourages exploration or experimentation.
Conclusion
If all you want is a low-pressure game with cute characters that you can play without having to think about it, Atelier Sophie DX is probably worthwhile. For everyone else, I wouldn’t bother unless you’re dying for more Atelier and have exhausted rest of the billion games in the series.
Rating: 40%. At least it runs well, including on Deck.
Time to beat: I lost interest after 4 hours, which would probably have been about 6 hours if I’d been letting the voice acting play out. HLTB says 30 to rush, through.
Price: Too much.
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For more reviews, see my Steam curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43219041