Yep, more DS RPG impressions from me.
This is my first Gust alchemy title so I may say things that seem obvious to people who follow the series.
In this game, you play Annie, a trainee alchemist taking part in a competition to revitalise an island resort through alchemy. You do this by running a shop and using the money from that to build new facilities (which in turn generate more money and can be upgraded).
The money you get from resorts (and competitions that take place every 6 months) is completely seperate from your own money so to make cash to upgrade your alchemy equiptment and battle equiptment you must make items through alchemy. You gather items from single screen gathering spots, get recipes from a library and make items to order. These orders are from one of three people: friends (you make items to boost your relationship), adventurers guild (which gives you personal money and boosts your shop's fame) and facilities (no personal money but boosts the facilities fame and monthly profits).
The game is largely a sandbox with no real plot. The overall goal is to make the most money out of all alchemists after 3 years so you can win the competition and marry the prince. Every 6 months you get a task to create some items through alchemy and they get progressively more difficult. Instead of a real story, you meet lots of characters and become friends with them. The game is crammed full of scenes with them and there's a lot of dialogue. At some points, every time you go to your workshop you get a scene with some characters. These scenes are almost entirely played out for laughs, usually based around each of the cast's quirks.
The game is a lot of fun, despite the lack of a real plot. There's a lot of dialogue in the game and, although only the intro is fully voiced (in Japanese), there're lots of voice snippets throughout the game (the way Annie says barrel is oddly cute). There's plenty to do and you're never just wandering around wondering what you should be doing next.
The problems with the game involve the sandboxed nature of the game. You're given the ultimate goal of winning the alchemy competition but, you're given absolutely zero information on your progress. Yes you get medals for how well you do in tasks and a monthly update on how much money you're earning for the resort but there's no indication of if you're actually doing well or not by how much money you're earning. I could be doing really awfully but I have no idea.
The way time flies is worrying too. When you gather days fly by and you can easily spend most of a month at a single gathering spot if you're not ultra efficient. Given the game lasts for three years, it's a bit worrying at first. However as the game goes on, you spend less time gathering and more time around time. Rather annoyingly, you'll have to keep going back to the Basin (1st gathering spot) to get spring water as loads of items need it but it's a pretty rare thing when gathering (and it's not sold at the general store). You're also at the mercy of the jobs available at the adventurers guild as the money you earn for turning in items seems to often bear little resemblance to the rarity or difficulty of making the item.
The battle system seems very crammed in, adds next to nothing to the game other than acting as a money sink. Very annoying that you cannot craft your own weapons from scratch, only change their attribute.
It's a nice fun little game that makes a change from most RPGs on the DS. The lack of feedback on your progress is probably the most damning thing about the game. Given it'll likely take about 15 hours to finish at the rate I'm going, it'll be very frustrating if I get to the end and it goes "ha ha, you sucked. BAD END!".
This is my first Gust alchemy title so I may say things that seem obvious to people who follow the series.
In this game, you play Annie, a trainee alchemist taking part in a competition to revitalise an island resort through alchemy. You do this by running a shop and using the money from that to build new facilities (which in turn generate more money and can be upgraded).
The money you get from resorts (and competitions that take place every 6 months) is completely seperate from your own money so to make cash to upgrade your alchemy equiptment and battle equiptment you must make items through alchemy. You gather items from single screen gathering spots, get recipes from a library and make items to order. These orders are from one of three people: friends (you make items to boost your relationship), adventurers guild (which gives you personal money and boosts your shop's fame) and facilities (no personal money but boosts the facilities fame and monthly profits).
The game is largely a sandbox with no real plot. The overall goal is to make the most money out of all alchemists after 3 years so you can win the competition and marry the prince. Every 6 months you get a task to create some items through alchemy and they get progressively more difficult. Instead of a real story, you meet lots of characters and become friends with them. The game is crammed full of scenes with them and there's a lot of dialogue. At some points, every time you go to your workshop you get a scene with some characters. These scenes are almost entirely played out for laughs, usually based around each of the cast's quirks.
The game is a lot of fun, despite the lack of a real plot. There's a lot of dialogue in the game and, although only the intro is fully voiced (in Japanese), there're lots of voice snippets throughout the game (the way Annie says barrel is oddly cute). There's plenty to do and you're never just wandering around wondering what you should be doing next.
The problems with the game involve the sandboxed nature of the game. You're given the ultimate goal of winning the alchemy competition but, you're given absolutely zero information on your progress. Yes you get medals for how well you do in tasks and a monthly update on how much money you're earning for the resort but there's no indication of if you're actually doing well or not by how much money you're earning. I could be doing really awfully but I have no idea.
The way time flies is worrying too. When you gather days fly by and you can easily spend most of a month at a single gathering spot if you're not ultra efficient. Given the game lasts for three years, it's a bit worrying at first. However as the game goes on, you spend less time gathering and more time around time. Rather annoyingly, you'll have to keep going back to the Basin (1st gathering spot) to get spring water as loads of items need it but it's a pretty rare thing when gathering (and it's not sold at the general store). You're also at the mercy of the jobs available at the adventurers guild as the money you earn for turning in items seems to often bear little resemblance to the rarity or difficulty of making the item.
The battle system seems very crammed in, adds next to nothing to the game other than acting as a money sink. Very annoying that you cannot craft your own weapons from scratch, only change their attribute.
It's a nice fun little game that makes a change from most RPGs on the DS. The lack of feedback on your progress is probably the most damning thing about the game. Given it'll likely take about 15 hours to finish at the rate I'm going, it'll be very frustrating if I get to the end and it goes "ha ha, you sucked. BAD END!".
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