Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Jan 18, 2020

  My favorite one in the franchise. Super fun, more RPG focused than the rest. It has some issues that need to be patched out, but neither will ruin your experience. Perfect game to start with if you're interested in the series.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 6, 2023

  The Atelier series before the Mysterious games are more of a mystery to most people, and there's some reasons for that, namely the existence of time limits and the lack of various quality of life features. After playing through Escha & Logy, which was my first time with a pre-Mysterious game, I can say this: Your first Atelier experience should be with Mysterious or Ryza since the streamlined features and mechanics make the barrier to entry much less rough than the older games. However, if this isn't your first rodeo with Atelier, then E&L is certainly one of the games to experience. I can also say you can play the Dusk series in whatever order you desire since the stories are *mostly* not connected to each other unlike Sophie's journey in the Mysterious games as an example. Let's go over the story first. The Dusk series looks like it's more serious and dark due to it's... well, permanently dusk sky and ruined/post-apocalyptic looking areas. However, this is mostly untrue. The trademark slice of life, lighthearted vibe the series is known for is here and is the center of attention. The background about the world is slightly more grim, but the tone never fully shifts to that. However, that contrast between the world and the actual tone is quite interesting, and is unlike anything I've seen in any other Atelier I played. Protagonists Escha and Logix (Logy) are both alchemists that become government officials for Escha's hometown of Colset, and their job is to help with the townspeople's troubles and investigate the many ruins around them to learn the truth about them. It's quite an interesting angle that the protagonists are government employees, but it's a unique perspective on being an alchemist and the troubles they face together. The blooming relationship between Escha and Logy is also quite a fresh thing to experience, since very few Ateliers have both a male and female protagonist in the same game. Those two really carry the story; the supporting cast is also quite good, but not perfect across the board. Some characters can be rather one-dimensional or simply not have enough screen time to flesh them out. Regardless, it's still a good cast and there's quite a big number of them, just as much as Ryza 3 if you can believe it. Now for gameplay. As you might expect for an older entry, there are some hiccups and lack of quality of life features that are present in future entries, but E&L makes up for this with it's own unique quirks that make it stand out from the crowd. The main thing to point out is the quarterly assignment gameplay loop. Like most other older Ateliers, you have a time limit. In E&L, you must complete a primary assignment given to you within the "term", which is 4 in-game months (Think of it like Persona 4 and 5's deadlines). Aside from that, there are also dozens of optional assignments that will give you more rewards and further increase your rank, but will no longer be available to complete once the term is over, as the next term will have an entirely new set of assignments. You can finish the primary assignment in no time, but the real challenge is trying to complete all optional assignments in time as well, since it does require some planning ahead on where to go and what to synthesize. It really gives a different feel to the gameplay loop as it forces you to plan out your actions much more to get the highest possible rank you can. The story is also slightly affected by how many assignments you complete, along with some side activities here and there. Not everyone will be thrilled by this as it may sound stressful to some, but I feel that it's a very interesting way to experience Atelier, and I wouldn't mind seeing a formula like this in a modern entry. Synthesis is rather simple compared to future entries, as you simply add 2 to 4 ingredients, and spend points of a certain element to enhance the item as best you can. It does have it's depth later on, but the concept is far easier to grasp than something like Sophie's synthesis. It gets the job done, even if I think it could be better. Unlike Lydie & Suelle which was mostly just cosmetic flair, E&L goes farther with the dual protagonist premise. The biggest part is when you start a new game, you choose whether you want to play as Escha or Logy. You could consider these two different "routes", but it's mostly the exact same story. The only big change is exclusive event scenes here and there, along with exclusive endings for each. Escha uses the traditional cauldron to make synthesis ingredients and consumables, while Logy uses a blacksmith-esque method of alchemy where he can make weapons and armor. It's a really nice way to contextualize each of their own skills and where they grew up. Escha and Logy are also the only ones who can use items, and have unique skills together, so the two working together translates well into gameplay which is neat. Now I wanna highlight the notable issues I experienced. The writing and/or localization for some of the gameplay mechanics are either not well-explained or nonsensical. For example, Traits aren't actually called "traits", but "Properties" while Traits are something else entirely. I also noticed a fair number of trait and assignments descriptions that are either misleading, vague, or flat out factually wrong. An example is a SPD Increase trait has the description of "Increases the speed on accessories", but you can also apply said trait to weapons and armor as well as accessories. This doesn't ruin the game by any stretch, but it makes certain aspects of the game more difficult to understand than it should be since it's just not well explained at times. The in-game guide and enemy info is also sorely lacking. Unlike modern entries where you can sort and filter items to find what you need quickly, E&L just has a simple list with no pictures until you roll over the specific item. On the world map, there's no pictures of enemies or monsters in an area, just the name. And in both combat AND guide, you straight up have no information on the enemy, not even something as simple as their HP value. You also know no stats of theirs whatsoever, or even what their resistances are which makes it pointless to attempt to strategize using specific elemental damage. But all in all, Escha & Logy is an entry that's very much worth playing despite it's few drawbacks. The tonally different world and unique gameplay loop of completing assignments feels so different from the modern entires that I believe it's worth experiencing at least once. Undoubtedly a good game in spite of it's age.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 31, 2021

  Probably one of my favorite atelier games (And I like many of them). I like the characters, its nice to be able to chose a protagonist. Its also nice that it gives you a reason to replay since there are different scenes and conversations depending on who you chose. Alchemy is good. I like this system better then the mysterious series. I've always been a fan of turned based RPGs because its relaxing :) Music is good too. I love being able to have different music play when I go to my atelier to change things up (You can do that in most of the games, but still a plus!) If you like Atelier and still haven't played this one, then you should :)
• gamedeal user

  Aug 7, 2020

  Game has severe a bug that erases your game system settings. The effect of this is that unlocked items like costumes get reset and locked and you cannot get the back. This also blocks you from achieving the true ending as that requires replaying this game with a special flag set during first clear and this also will reset. As usual, KT is dead silent so maybe when Arland DX Mega Uber 16xHD, comes out in 20 years they will fix this.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 3, 2020

  Regardless of how good or bad the game is, this port is too bad. -Your system data gets randomly "deleted". Essentially means, all your global progress, like unlocking costumes, filling the extra mode with images and so on, will NOT work on the long run. This is a critical and known error where I have no idea how this gets so completely ignored. -Vsync is broken. If you tab out of fullscreen, the game goes max fps. If you are in fullscreen, the game struggles actually keeping constant fps and fluctuates between 58 and 62, leading to choppy gameplay. This does NOT happen in windowed, but.. -If you don't play on 1080p, 2d art is horrendously scaled. I'd call this another critical bug, especially as it badly effects lower resolutions. (higher ones are kinda understandable) TK doesn't fix this. The game is essentially a broken mess, The only good thing about this is, that it could've hit MUCH better games than this one, as I don't consider it that great. It still doesn't deserve this amount of a terrible port that doesn't even get fixed.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 21, 2021

  The Atelier series never disappoints. I've started with the mysterious series and those were already fantastic but after I finished Atelier Escha, I got to say that, out of all Atelier games this is my favourite so far. The dating sim between Logy and Escha is subtle and bitter sweet. ♥ Logy x Escha forever ♥
• gamedeal user

  Mar 21, 2021

  This just might be the best game in the Atelier series. Combat's good, alchemy is great and pretty well explained, music is superb, story and characters are right up there with Arland. Assignments with time limits do a good job of giving you direction, but don't really put much deadline pressure on you even when going for all the optional stuff. The only thing I can really think to criticize is the localization. Enough typos and grammar errors to be noticeable, though not egregious. Gets off on the wrong foot with "Loadning system data" right at the start though. The translation itself is... let's call it "liberal." The script on it's own merits is fine, but if you know a bit of Japanese and use the JP voices you'll constantly be saying "that's not quite what was said, but I guess it sort of works." I found it distracting.
• gamedeal user

  May 5, 2020

  Fun game, but the port can be improved by a bit such as the random system save reset bug. Sometimes all of the costumes you unlocked reset for no reason.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 5, 2023

  🟡 Requires heavy tinkering Lossless Scaling or Borderless Gaming to run it in borderless fullscreen properly. Ingame fullscreen option stretch the image on non 16:9 screens. Tested on: OnexPlayer Mini Pro 6800U Follow Handheld Friendly
• gamedeal user

  Jun 4, 2020

  Always choose Logy first. Atelier Escha and Logy is the 2nd Atelier game in the Dusk series. But honestly speaking, you don't need to play Atelier Ayesha before playing this (especially if you want to play as Logy). This game introduced me to the Atelier series and had lots of fun playing it.