Crafting - 10/10

Tetris fun in crafting to add traits and effects. So much fun with this system and even fun puzzle from the start figuring out what grid to start on. This was one of the better crafting systems in an Atelier game.

Characters - 9/10

The sisters were great. Their interplay was really funny most of the time, and occasionally touching as they talked about their dead mom and deadbeat dad. The cast kept growing with Mysterious series regulars and they all added soemthing to the story. Some were playable, some just shops or help. Alt was pointless.

Pacing/Gameplay Loop - 10/10

I really liked this. There was a chapter system, but even the pacing in the chapters was great. First you would need to do some checklist stuff to raise your reputation. Once that was high enough, you'd get an Exam to rank up the Atelier. Also, a new painting and new overworld area would appear. Nice loop.

Battle System - 8/10

It took a while to get more powerful and not feel so helpless against random mobs. Wish it'd have started a bit better, but ocne Firis joins, you can start feeling very powerful. There's a repeateable EXP quest that helped level up and fell better. Turn-based and nice follow-ups from Firis were the best.

Crafting - 8/10

This was definitely a prototype that got better in Firis and then L&S. Eventually it got OK, but was very limiting early on and I hated having to do so many upgrades to get the ability to rotate my pieces. Interesting to have so many different alchemy pots, but they kinda rang together after a bit.

Characters - 7/10

Just too many. You could only battle with 4, I didn't need 8 and really left some completely untouched for the vast majority of the game. Fat guy was uninteresting. Puppet guy was too late to care about. Gun guy was a complete dud. His voice acting sucked too.

Pacing/Gameplay Loop - 7/10

The game did drag at times, but it was interesting how it was all about the alchemy. The way to open new recipes, which kinda drove the whole plot was interesting, but so so many were ridiculously obscure. Thank goodness for GameFAQs, I'd not have figured out so many myself. 

Exploring/Battle System - 6/10

Both of these were quite basic. Exploring was go to place and collect, very few systems there. And there were far too many little places. The battle system was kinda basic and with such a large cast, limiting to 4 stunk. It was fine, but didn't really have clear ways to do extra damage, or I wasn't smart enough to consistently activate it.

Cut Content - 0/10

So many things didn't make it to this version: Job-specific outfits? Gone
Some islands? Gone
Monster job classes? Gone
Party chat? Hacked to bits

Pace of Game - 9/10

Thing game flew by, and that 

Maribel - 0/10

(insert pic of Maribel dead)

Graphics/Sound - 9.5/10

It looks absolutely amazing. Perhaps the BEST looking DQ game ever...? Could be. Love the voiced dialogue but really kinda wish everyone wasn't always British. Also, some NPCs didn't quite match what I thought (kids sounded too old), and the accents sometimes were a bit much. Didn't like the doll astetic, but really barely noticed it in-game.