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. 

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.

Pacing/Gameplay Loop - 10/10

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Exploringn/Battle System - 8/10

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