Atelier Lydie and Suelle Alchemists and the mysterious painting - Review

 Game: [リディー＆スールのアトリエ 〜不思議な絵画の錬金術士〜]
Genre: JRPG.

Developer/Publisher: Gust and Koei Tecmo.

Platform: PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch.

Official Site: https://www.gamecity.ne.jp/atelier/lydie/

Release date: 2017-12-21

Time for another non-visual novel review, i'm still busy with TaiAli FD on the side.
I played the PS4 version because the vita version did not at all look convincing... besides
after the horror stories of atelier firis and its frequent crashes I played it safe! sadly I do not own
 a switch yet so its not like I had much of a choice here! also the vibrant colours
in the PS4/switch version give the game that much more life...
vita looked very bland in comparison even Firis looked better to me.
Just saying i'm not here to shit post like I love my vita... but I also do sort of
want to like actually enjoy games? PS3 to vita ports have been good but PS4 to vita ports
 just can't hold up all that well that much was obvious but uhm enough about that.

 
Yes I like the OP, I feel it captures the game so well especially the sisters
and their true goal, bright, cheerful and colourful happiness is best shared.

The lastest entry of the mysterious series, its the bright and colorful conclusion

I try to write a bit more as a whole there won't be much spoilers.

I didn't think so at first but this series actually managed to have some decent character

development, if you've stuck around since Sophie and the mysterious book you'll definitely notice it.

As for story? its there but very straight-forward, gust focused on the characters this time, there's

plenty of sub events and often I found myself absorbed since there's so many to keep us 

entertained while we do requests, perform alchemy and complete ambition notes

 to proceed the story; the goal? become the no,1 atelier in the country!
While doing the main objective there's plenty to be distracted by, mostly from sub event

and its better to view as they appear. I let a few stack and there goes
an hour of just viewing events😅. I still managed to focus on other games

on the side while still manage to make a decent progress with L&S.
No character truly or other things was dislikable to make me stop completely and drop the game.

Lydie and Suelle are sisters, they've lost their mom and their dad's a bit of a free loader...

using up the money the sisters worked hard to get which leads them to pursue the dream of their
mom. Eep! this looks pretty grim but it all managed to be quite a heart-warming tale throughout.

All the playables have a place in the story this time, they got a reason to be around 

and I hate to admit it but half the cast despite in Firis being oh so likeable did feel 

sort of like mercenaries, companions on the road which with the whole journey
so I am glad with L&S they toned down a little bit and tried to fit everyone in properly.

Promotional artwork.

 The characters... like Mathias is Mireille's brother, he's a bit of a dork but he fits the

 typical protector character, btw i'm sure Sterk would be proud in one way or another.

Lucia is the typical tsundere rival... at first she's a bit annoying but after a certain 

character episode the sisters showed her no quarter! and well she sort of gets better after it.

Alto... I don't want to talk too much about him but he's quite cool! most of his sub events 

are tied to Sophie's so don't worry about it, quite possible the most interesting sub arc.

Well we all know Firis! nothing will stand in her way, she follows her heart and dreams

and Liane still loves every bit about her.. ah what a sis-con.

I'm still surprised by Ilmeria... she's taken up the teacher role for the sisters

and her friendship with Firis is still strong Il-chan gives Firis the space she needs.

 There's Pamela, Hagel(haha yes they brought him back! Fritz and Drossel too

I quite liked how the latter two's sub events wrapped up some questions.
As for Lydie and Suelle themselves... they're both lovely Lydie's a bit more withdrawn
but is like a voice of reason compared to the bumbling genki Suelle.
They both have their charms and both lack something the other could cover.

 Art is pretty good, it shows how well two artist can work together

and I like how some of the CG's are like an actual painting.

BGM... well its gust as usual they do an amazing job not every track may stand out

but some do! the only field music I liked was from the intermission chapter after the mid-boss

aka the underwater treasury. Dunno why sometimes I just starting humming along. xD

As for the world, there's one town and its quite big atleast I think it is, luckily there's a quick

warp feature to get to where we are really needed. The paintings all have their own 

mini story to it and in my opinion its what makes it overall more charming.

My favorite painting world would be the starlight plains one.

 The alchemy system is more or less the same as before with a few tweaks sadly it still uses 

the awful recipe idea system and I really wish they're going back to the books next series.

Well due to the game plays out its easy to get accustomed to it, everything is slowly

opened up to you with the occasional boss, the mid boss was cool since I had to

to be like wait uh may I need a few to prepare? 😂 the last boss

was exciting too albeit a bit weak on the story side.

Battle system is like Eschatology/Shallie but not as broken, well that's what I like to say

since if you try you could really be stronger than if you don't all depends

on if you use the right traits on your items and weapons/armor.

Then there's battle mix which let's you use even more powerful version of an item

if you have the right material in your bag that is...

All 6 playables can tag along at once which is nice if you hate benching characters there'll be

DLC too; Lucia and Ilmeria so if you thought there wasn't enough well there you go!

There's combination moves as well and this time they have more of an impact such as this one.

While none of them appear to be locked its possible with the DLC you might be able to have more
freedom but this is not confirmed as I suspect Lydie and Suelle are fixed either way. 
Always hated how in Firis; Sophie/Plactha and Liane are locked into the party making, it was hard
to make your desired team since there are 9 playable in firis yet 3 of them are locked in.
Speaking of DLC... what is up with these 90$ season passes? this started with
blue reflection but why make it cost more than the game? in Lydie and Suelle case
we get like what? 2 playable characters, swimwear costume and extra area
which is all stuff that has costed less back with dusk series.
Well in my opinion regarding koei's season pass BS Blue reflection was the worst thus far
all those costumes and mini event that cost more than the game. Said costumes can only
be used in school not when a magical girl, wow thank you. Okay enough about that
I didn't buy it thankfully but apparently KOEI's shitty practices continue. -_-
Look I love many of their games but... this is getting ridiculous.

Another combi... haha prepare to meet your doom!

That aside I don't think there's any missables either, just try to get a flower circle/max bar
at a rank up exam for Roger's requests just max the bar and you will be fine.
You can also dismiss any request and they'll just pop back up eventually, yes even
the ones that reward you with a battle mix recipe. Money is easy to get as well
if you do requests atleast, sadly by the time you hit the epilogue chapter
you might have more than needed which means you have to spend to unlock
events required to get the shop ending, I found this out the hard way
if gust cut corners anywhere its there i'm sure they could have let us trigger them
regardless of how much we had at that point but alas this is not the case. 
Atelier games these days are so easy and straight-forward, Firis was the only exception
but even then it was still easy to reach the goal with time to spare. Its sad they took a step
back here because I actually loved Firis and miss how it was in Arland/early dusk series.

Either way I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Lydie and Suelle
while not as much as Firis its still a good way to end the trilogy, its a
heart-warming tale that has themes of family, hope and dream.

I did not experience any sort of crashes/bugs though there is an occasional
frame rate drop as an area loads in but tbh that's not bad at all
really though I can't find that many negatives, there's probably a few
like this feels more like classic atelier just by the way its paced but
its sort of like Rorona except there's really no pressure to do anything
so if you think your gear/item needs a desperate upgrade go ahead to do just that!

There was only one time there was a sort of time limit  IIRC when you at B rank
but its so lenient I finished it immediately without wasting a second

so like just go at your own pace and you'll get everything done still.

I can see gust trying to capture ways of old but then they hold back...
The other might be how they sort of gave us a last boss for the sake of one
you know it bad when I think the mid-boss fit in more than the last one. >_>
One could hope gust will take a bit of a break from atelier... despite me not finding
much flaw its clear they cut corners here and there where they could.

Anyway I took my time but honestly its a pretty short game still, not that short though!
but if you are impatient to go ham with the alch/battle system you'd be disappointed
as battling/alchemy doesn't reach its full potential till the last chapter of the game
by then a lot opens up and there's lots of powerful enemies to test you, unfortunately by then
the story is already over but that shouldn't stop you from having fun breaking the game even more.

 Only the hidden painting dungeon has a little bit of story, errr more like lore to it.

If you already played Sophie and Firis I see no reason to skip out on Lydie and Suelle, its 

a great game that finished what was started way back in Sophie through character development.

If I had to be honest the mysterious saga has mostly focused on characters while plot

takes a backseat(like after thought) yes even Firis! no especially Firis, she had her goal

and met so many friends a long the way that made it all more interesting.

I don't want to repeat myself too much so I guess I'll wrap it up... yes I recommend L&S!
at the very least it might be better if you've played Sophie first and as much
as I loved Firis you could probably skip it and be fine?

I do think this might be my last atelier game... lol I say this everytime

a series concludes but somehow gust always manages to pull me back in.😅

Chouchou Jiken Rhapsodic - Review

 Genre: Otome Visual Novel. 

Developer/publisher: Otomate.

Platform: PS Vita.

Official Site: http://www.otomate.jp/chouchoujiken/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v19851

Release date: 2017-11-30

I dunno why I bought this... I imported the first manga volume and was intrigued I guess.
Erena/Elena the protagonist seemed okay, there was a mystery vibe and the art is pretty
though the first promo art the protagonist looks like a freaking twig ready to snap. -_-
 I got the feeling I wouldn't like it that much so I bought the regular edition and I am glad.
Sydney's character trailer should've warned me but yet... I still bought.
PS: Some say they spoiled some stuff like Sydney in the promo image... but honestly speaking
if you don't know what the spoiler is you'd think he's some sort of fancy earl.

There are some difference from the manga like Erena for example... she is more typical otomate
heroine template which disappoint me because she appeared to have more personality in the manga.
 Don't want to say Erena was that bad since she had her moments in the game  where she managed
to shine if only a little. The rest flowed almost identically from what I had seen from the manga
dunno but in the manga it felt like Erena had more spirit, hopefully you get what I mean.
Part of me think the manga is supposed to be the main and this game just fanservice.(who knows)
for all we know this was supposed to be an interactive shojo manga... hench why
certain stuff is a bit all over the place and some routes especially the initial two
(Masanari and Haruka) can feel like filler compared to the locked ones.
If you care for the story then I'd say Ritomo is the true route of the game since everything
make sense but it all depends on preference, personally the guy is anything but likeable.

Play order:
 Masanari>Haruka>Sydney>Iori>Ritomo
The last three route are locked... I do know that doing Masanari unlocks Sydney.
doing both Haruka and Masanari get you Iori's route which in turn unlocks Ritomo.
So you could do Sydney second but I don't think that's a good idea... just do the 

initial routes first aka Masanari and Haruka and the rest will be natural to get to the truth.

Pro's
-  Just doing one route won't get you to the truth.
- Pretty art, well portraits look nice but CG's vary.
- Charming cast, atleast I found some of them to be 'charming'.
- MURASE AYUMU's stellar performance.

Con's.
- It can get a bit draggy at times and two routes are essentially filler.
- This womans blooood uwaaaagh, zombies overall writing may leave to be desired etc. >_>
- Protag/heroine was too ala otomate.
- You can't skip the credits, yep its 2k18 and yet they couldn't implement such a feature.
(There's no movie view feature either...)

The common route is basically a giant introduction too long for its own good each
chapter sort of introduced a character, chapters are not long but combined? they are.
Certain stuff will never change even if events play out slightly different
part of this is normal atleast there's something interesting to find out in the actual routes.
As for length its average, not too long not too short but the problem lies that its rather dreary.
There are two endings bad/good but its not very exciting since its just the typical two-choice system
where the correct choice raises affection which in turn lead you to best end, no guide needed!
Art is pretty, the music is so-so... bgm was awful in the long run definitely not worthy
to buy an OST of this.The OP/ED I can say these are fine but it not my thing.
I heard people say the lipsync is awful but honestly its OK most of the time it
looks awkward in some way so I tend to prefer no movement all together.
Characters seem interesting so there was drive to do the non locked routes to get
to the more interesting ones but uh TBH in the long run most of the story wasn't very interesting
since nothing makes any sense till the last two routes and even then... /shrug.

To get the platinum trophy you have to save the lines the characters say this is something
daisy2's games have had in the past, here's 60 slots but you only need a couple
to make a playlist and get the two remaining trophies.
In fact you can just spam the same line into all three playlist for the trophy.............
OTOMATE WTF ARE YOU HIGH? this isn't funny since there's not much
I'd classify as note worthy, if it had lots of comedy then yes but this is a waste
there's other games like for example Ninkoi that deserve this feature yet do not have it. -_-
Not saying there aren't any memorable lines but IMO... not enough to warrant this feature.

Let me try to keep it short...
Takes place in the early Showa period, shortly after WWII with some russian agenda mixed in.
So our heroine Erena is the unfortunate orphan who enjoyed a quiet life ever since an incident
in which her parents passed on from, she enrolls at this fancy school in the big city
after a sudden invitation and one day runs into these vampire zombie folks who want to devour her.
I kid you not I cannot even put it any other way,  for mystery driven chouchou jiken is decent
but it was too draggy and took forever to get somewhere. I feel this was meant to be a manga
 from the beginning like I already mention it but Erena is typical otome protag
aka meek and very otomate, I did had drive to figure out WTF was going on but my
first route didn't get very far nor did it make the guy feel relevant and it sucks if the dude
whom's route your on doesn't strike your interest at all.(like for me Masanari)
I think forced play orders are still good though but I think it is better to do Haruka first
since it felt like he was a whole lot more relevant and interesting than angry navy boy.
 Moving on...
The protag is 15 years old yet... most of her suitors are almost 10 years older, for the 

time period its ok but it is a little creepy. The plot only makes sense in the last 2/3 routes
This game seemed like a good mystery otome game that might be a little trashy
but it wasn't all that, it suffered from a rather cliche/over used protag has magical blood plot
which makes her wanted, the trashy bit never really gets that far, there's a somewhat decently writen
plot behind it all but you must have a pretty good attention span to get it, lots of TL;DR
 Well I wouldn't say its a kusoge downright since it had nice build up...
even then some stuff might not even add up to historic facts, partly that's fine but its not all
that great to get a load of bull, if you know your history of the period don't expect much.
In all honestly to me early on most of the plot was dull and only interesting if you like to have a
mouse nibble at ur toes like some characters could make it better which for me which
are Haruka and Sydney but that's it, Masanari's route was total filler and the plot
only picked up in Iori and Ritomo's route, Sydney? I like the guy but the route was still eh.

Most of the endings also gave me the is that it feeling like there could be more or better way
to end yet still... looking at you Iori suuuure let's go to sovjet together to look for more clues :eyeroll:
Especially with bad ends sometimes they tried too hard to make something of it

like bad fanfic I think Haruka's bad end is exactly that lmao.
While doing route no.2 so much flew by me that I just gave up all expectations...
 each route was unique enough though but sadly the last unlockable route aka Ritomo
makes you sit through the whole game from scratch unable to skip common scenes
just for a bunch of new flashback scenes in between old scenes. I'm like come on otomate?
It is so very fun to sit through it all just for a few scene here and there, also yes I did force skip it. -_-
Personally Haruka and Sydney's route are most enjoyable but tbh it might just depend on taste...
 whichever character you like the most will depend on personal preference.

5/10
''Chouchou Jiken seemed like it would be a decent mystery otome game but it
turned out to be hilariously average, its not a kusoge but its not exactly that good either.''