Atelier Totori Plus the Adventurer of Arland Ps Vita Review
Title:Atelier Totori Plus
Adult By:Gust
Published Past:Tecmo Koei | Mindscape (Australia)
Based On:Atelier Totori for the Playstation 3 – Third installment in the Alchemists of Arland series
Console:Playstation Vita
Genre:RPG / Alchemy
Classification (AU):This title has been rated R18+ for References to Sexual Violence
Review Conditions:Australian Edition, Playstation Vita, Digital Download
Special Thanks:Mindscape Commonwealth of australia for kindly providing a review copy of this title
This nation has a job chosen "adventurers". It all happened earlier Arland became a republic. People wanted to explore, run a risk or develop the frontier. The knights of Arland were weak, so the citizens joined them and helped out. It happened gradually, only that system was later institutionalized. Adventuring is now a existent job. My female parent was 1 of those adventurers. I hear she's really famous too, but we oasis't heard from her in years…
My father and sister both remember she is expressionless already… but I don't think so.
Given that the appearance of Atelier Totori Plus on the Playstation Store was a surprise to all, upwards to this indicate the only references to the English language launch of the game on The Otaku's Report is based effectually the surprising determination of the Australian Classification Lath to give it an R18+ title – allowing it to join an exclusive group of games such every bit God of War and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. Having already played the Playstation 3 edition of the game I was left curious as to what new additions could have warranted the change from the initial PG rating to R18+ for "References to Sexual Violence"
…
…
…
and you lot know what…. I still have absolutely no idea. Either way, read on for my review for this Playstation Vita port of Atelier Totori Plus.
Storyline
While the Playstation 2 installments in the Atelier franchise focused on RPG aspects with the emphasis of alchemy helping prepare it apart from the crowd, the Atelier games on the Playstation 3 have switched the focus and take greater focuses on alchemy with an RPG backing to information technology. The first game for the latest generation of consolesAtelier Rorona lacked that balance and turned out to be a pretty hit or miss championship – while Atelier Totori turned out to exist much better balanced with less restrictions and more of a chance to do more than than sit in a workshop and synthesize pies.
Yous get-go the game equally Totooria Helmond (Totori), who lives with her sister Cecillia (Ceci) and her almost non-existant father who grew upwardly without her mother who had disappeared while trekking out on an adventure. Sometime before the events of the game, she came across and was trained past the (debatable) highly skilled travelling alchemist Rorona – and really manages to grasp some skills. While she lacks the competence but yet – she is encouraged past her long-time friend Gino to become an charlatan, and is led on a quest to not only develop her alchemy skills just also find her female parent whom she does not believe to be dead.
Unfortunately if you are non a fan of time restrictions, this game still retains them equally all Playstation 3 installments have. However unlike Atelier Rorona y'all are no longer limited to iii-iv month periods with a certain detail to collect and submit – nevertheless a key element requires you rely on both adventuring and alchemy in society to progress through the storyline. Due to a recent surge in Adventurers Licenses beingness handed out, new adventurers accept iii years in order to reach a sure rank or face up having it withdrawn. Therefore, for the first three years of game time, Totori's quest to become an adventurer like her mother equally well equally notice her whereabouts are dedicated to gathering items in majority, travelling the world and trying to accomplish the level so Totori tin progress to the second part of the game. This fourth dimension is used to introduce all the characters to your party, hopefully build up your character relationships to get fragments of character development and encounter the seemingly random events that you would need a guidebook to detect each ane. While it does non evangelize a stellar storyline performance, it does practise a dainty job at getting you in to the gameplay while rewarding your efforts at using different characters and travelling effectually the world – including the occasional swimsuit fanservice event or a cook-off against Iksel (A graphic symbol from Atelier Rorona).
However by this signal, y'all are left with a much stricter time limits and if y'all do not recognize the proper catastrophe criteria and set bated enough time to complete them. Substantially provided you receive your proper license, it is valid for another two years – and this time there are plot twists which bring the main storyline about Totori searching for her mother to calorie-free and expands the gameplay to facilitate it – but of course you lot can just continue on your adventuring if you choose until the games fixed cease signal. While I thankfully was able to reach a satisfactory end in my playthrough of the Playstation Vita version… it fared less well during my very kickoff playthrough (See:The Otaku's Log #1: Sam Reaches the Bad End of Atelier Totori).
Taking a focus onto the characters and their development, I do honey the personality of Totori. She has that happy-become-lucky innocent personality however can strike critical blows confronting others such as telling the bar owner he has no customers or making awkward comments about Sterk's face. She may seem like she has the ditzy innocent girl personae, simply the writing is creative and implements a lovable personality that works well with both storyline and comedy alike. I too institute a new liking for Rorona – more and then then her game, and a mixture of being like her principal simply notwithstanding the same klutz at times. Taking a look at the other characters – Sterkenburg (Sterk) is the but returning playable non-DLC character and the game tries to dig into his personality a flake more than, however the new characters Melvia (Panty flashing and skirt flipping jokes ahoy!), Mimi, Marc and Gino all hold interesting personalities just I do not think their storylines held up to those of the Atelier Rorona cast (With the exception of maybe Mimi).
As this is the Playstation Vita edition, there are a few extra additions to the mix which should entreatment to fans both new and like although none of these really had any impact on the storyline. The three originally DLC characters – Ceci, Cordelia and Iksel are now included in the mix for free and accept been slightly better integrated into the storyline, however in terms of storyline are still defective in comparison to the original playable character cast. As for the game at present being classified R18+ up from PG for supposed references to sexual violence…. I didn't come across anything that I would regard in those terms.
Pattern
I was skeptical nigh how this game would look having been ported from the Playstation 3 to the Playstation Vita…. and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. While there were a few noticeable graphical glitches which unless isolated cases in my feel should have been picked upwards in testing – merely otherwise the visuals really do shine on the smaller screen. Many of my comments in terms of the blueprint itself remain the same from my original review:
The pattern is 1 surface area which I think has been improved upon the most. I liked the 3D models of the original game, only could non deny that they were going for the cutesy semi-chibified design – so it was a welcome alter to see they included a bit more realism with their graphic symbol, allowing them to non only take the characters match their grapheme portraits and CG Designs but let them to express emotions and not rely on their portraits in every single scene. The 3D models are well suited to the intended surroundings with bright colours and creative designs for every character. Character portraits are of comparable quality to the original, merely the original characters exercise become redesigned (To suit the 5ish year time jump) and the new ones are solid. Environments are of comparable quality equally well, however had a more various set of settings which fabricated traversing Arland'south many different regions more tolerable alongside existence less linear and could be perceived as more than open-worlded..
A few problems must be noted withal – No free photographic camera again which leaves you at the mercy of the game to requite you the best viewing position. xc% of the time this is no problem, but the times where it really matters are when the camera obscures a monster or search point behind a boulder, tree etc which results in small-scale frustration. Equally a more minor complaint, they even so remain lacking in the multifariousness of special furnishings during battle. Despite these, the pattern has been enhanced and should not disappoint. Also… the mini-Chim'due south are ADORABLE!
Music / Voice Acting
This game uses a mix of new songs for the game and those from Atelier Rorona, which makes for a dainty combination – with the new songs being appropriate and enjoyable. While the original music DLC was split over several installments different Meruru and Ayesha which featured a unmarried music pack for a set toll – every bit this is Atelier Totori Plus all the DLC song packs are included in this game to give you quite a lot of choice in terms of what music plays while in town, in battle and on the world map to proper noun a few examples.
The original English language dub has been included in this release and for the most part it was potent – especially with the female person playable characters and Sterk. A particularily low indicate was for the grapheme Gino, which wasn't upwardly to the standards of the others, but I did capeesh the effort and heartiness put into the role of Rorona likewise as Totori whose vox extra portrayed the innocent graphic symbol role finer.
Gameplay
Bated from the return of a make new dungeon from Atelier Rorona, a handful of costumes and the appearance of DLC characters – in that location is very little in terms of new content gameplay-wise and many core features have been present in all three parts of the trilogy or at least the latter two.
The starting time thing yous will notice upon starting the game is that the world is much more open up then Atelier Rorona, so instead of having half dozen to eight different maps with a number of areas within them, you are presented with a earth map, with areas being unlocked every time you level up your Adventurers License allowing you access to new areas with tougher enemies and better points to gather items. To progress the story and unlock new areas you take to collect points to rank up which works similar to an achievement organisation. Everything from synthesizing items or a set of items, to completing quests, defeating monsters or even finding landmarks tin can result in you getting points towards your rank, which requires anywhere from 100 points initially to one,500 points at the end. I establish this system much more than adaptable to my playing style, fifty-fifty if the last few points needed to rank upward felt purposefully wearisome.
Of course, as with the original game yous are required to have money and lots of it to be able to purchase random materials and alchemy books. Y'all do so by undertaking quests that require you to have X amount of an particular or kill Y of a monster and in render you go a prepare number of cole and provided yous didn't pass off D or Eastward rank items, can go a bonus synthesis particular with your submission. You will find making money rather difficult in this game fifty-fifty if all skill books are available at the start. This is in part due to the quest seemingly not giving out every bit much cole as previous, but likewise due to the time restrictions. Everything in this game takes up time – and a lot of information technology. For example – getting from Alanya to Arland takes a total of 21ish days by foot for case, followed by a twenty-four hours lost for every fourth dimension you lot exit an area and rather hefty chunks of time taken out every time you loot or battle an enemy. You learn to take in majority to refrain from further trips – and while some may find this an incredibly annoying feature of the game, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The turn based battle system for this game as information technology was with Atelier Rorona is not a key element of the game, however you will still exist using it quite a chip in materials collection. The boxing system is easy to grasp as it is very simplistic, with gamers only starting off with Set on, Guard and Abscond (In the example of Totori and Rorona, you tin too utilise attack and heal items you tin can synthesize) – later followed by the power to use skills and special attacks once reaching sure level milestones. Through the cosmos of cloth and ingots you lot can create new weaponry and armor for your characters but skill and leveling testify to be the cardinal factors in battle success. You can easily obtain the ability to attack offset by attacking the enemies in the field (Mostly at that place are but a handful per field) simply until you reach the final few areas of the game, they should bear witness petty problem.
If one affair has remained the same over these games, it is the alchemy organisation. This game relies heavily on your repeated use of the system to clear quests and unlock new rank tiers, but likewise at a certain level to complete the game without endless reloading of the game. The organisation allows you to covert anything from one items to many of them into make new updated items – so for case, any ane item tin can exist converted into a supplement but making Ingots crave specific ores and other items. The organization works well and does get you lot out into the world and searching – notwithstanding one complaint I practise had was that found myself non needing to dive into all the items, as there was but a specific items I seemed to always exist asked for.
From feel and several playthroughs, a unmarried run of Atelier Totori Plus should take y'all effectually xx hours approximately to stop, and unless you are very creative with your save files or have a guide you are looking at several runs to see and unlock everything you have to do.
Concluding Words
Every bit this is substantially a faithful port to the Playstation Vita with DLC unlocked and a few nice goodies, there isn't that much to offer the returning histrion. That being said while there are low chances of the starting time installment in the serialAtelier Rorona beingness ported alongside with information technology, information technology serves as a nifty introduction betoken into the series and hopefully we will see Atelier Meruru Plus released downwardly the track likewise…. hopefully less all of a sudden.
FINAL SCORE
Storyline/Character Development:B
Design: A-
Music/Voice Acting: B+
Gameplay: B+
Replayability:B+
Personal Opinion:B+
Overall Score: B+
Source: https://www.otakustudy.com/video-game/2013/04/atelier-totori-plus-playstation-vita-game-review/
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