PlayStation 2

Posted: 2025-06-10

I really enjoyed this game!

The Atelier Iris trilogy are the first atelier games introduced to the west. I didn’t know this until MONTHS after i finished this game and 2 other atelier titles. I’d be interested to at least try the other titles (if there are any translated ROMs – I’d have to find that out). Anyways, the atelier series is knows for including crafting as a core mechanic alongside the more typical turn-based combat.

The story follows the protagonist – Klein – a newly minted alchemist, on his journey to learn more alchemy, which seems to be a rare or mostly forgotten occupation. You meet Lita, who seems to deep roots connected to ancient alchemy... I forget the rest of the plot. I beat the game months ago. You collect party members and travel through the fictional world until you eventually save the girl and punch a demi-god. ¯\_(σ ‸ σ)_/¯

I do remember that Lita had an interesting berserker mechanic. Her hp cap would be reduced over time, and when it gets low enough, she gets a blanket stat buff to everything. The player has to use magic to replenish her energy. I didn’t really utilize it (im pretty risk averse in my play styles) but i imagine there can be some fun combat mechanics using Lita.

Visually, the game has great spritework. The colours are beautiful and the style has a cute, cartoony aesthetic. The talk sprites are stylistically all over the place. You can easily pick out what artist had which characters assigned to them. It’s not a big deal, it’s more of a fascinating artifact.

The game has picked an isometric view for the maps. Most of the time, this isnt an issue, but occasionally the lack of field of depth makes navigation difficult.

The music is fantastic. Like holy hell here are a lot of bangers throughout the whole game. I’ve included a few of my favourites, but for real the whole OST is solid.

The atmosphere of the game is pretty cozy. There’s a lot of focus on party and npc interaction. Some side plots progress as you revisit areas and shops in the main town. My favourite npc runs a supply shop that has a character arc to rival party characters lmao she starts off cold and distant and eventually you learn that she only runs a shop to survive and kinda hates customer service (spiritually, she is all of us) only to warm up to us when we chase off her landlord (or loan shark or whatever) anyways, she keeps flirting with the protag with the sole purpose of pissing off the female lead. Shes not even interested, she just does that to stir shit AAHAHAHA queen shit right there

Speaking of party, its funny that its easy to tell who is going to become a main party character because they’re the only characters that “breath.” These characters are the only ones that have a breathing idle animation, no other character – no matter how important – can “breath.”

This game has kelpto tendencies TO THE MAX. You cant craft without materials, so the game is covered with stuff to pick up and harvest in every map. It sort of becomes a habit to mash the harvest button all over the place.

Crafting is alright. What crafting mostly means is that the player basically has free potions and heals no matter what. And, since crafting remains pretty useful in combat, its generally a good idea to keep Klein in the main party comp for the whole game. Some crafting only happens in shops, which is a little bit of a pain in the ass to constantly revisit shops to check for crafting.

Something kept happening that confused me when i crafted items for shops. Customers will say they’re enthusiastic about an item with “Deadly Odor” as a trait. it turns out the item is supposed to smell good, but a glitch in the game makes the descriptors wrap around to the worst possible description for smell lmao its funny to imagine swaths of npcs clamouring to eat at a restaurant and be like “wow, this food smells like dog shit! Five stars (ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ)”

the combat is pretty basic. I found my favourite party members, figured out what moves i liked, and just stuck with that. Most important fights were alright, but the final boss had an absurd amount of hp (31k????). it was an absolute slog fest, and a good chunk of the moveset was barely survivable. I think it took me 2 tries and consulting a guide to beat. (i had a notepad tracking the final boss’ hp bc genuinely the fight took too long (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻) but frankly, the final boss was the only part of the game that kinda sucked in an otherwise fine game.

I struggle to summarize Iris 1. Its a good game, but it’s not a groundbreaking or stand out game. The crafting is novel, but its combining materials in a list menu. There isn’t anything engaging about it other than just a series of self-imposed fetch quests. The consensus is that the crafting is more impressive in later games, and frankly, I agree. I sort of liked this game for being an inoffensive JRPG and having pretty spritework.

PlayStation

Posted: 2025-06-12

I think I’m going to have a fun time comparing and contrasting all the atelier series games. From what I’ve seen, the atelier series had yearly releases, so the gameplay is iterated on slowly over time.

I’ve played Iris 1, and I’ve played Sophie 1 before this. These two games are pretty much at the far ends of the timeline for game releases. Iris is pretty close to the earliest title of the series (its the earliest release to the Western world) while Sophie 1 is one the more recent titles released in 2015. These two games are very different, so as I play through the series, it will be interesting to see how the series evolves slowly over time.

Visually, this game uses similar spritework to Iris 1. The talk sprites are improved and have a more consistent art style across all the characters. For some reason, the music didn’t stick out to me as much as it did in Iris 1. ¯\_(σ ‸ σ)_/¯

Iris 2 is a nice improvement on the existing formula. The two main mechanics are the crafting and the combat. The core gameplay loop has these two activities feed into each other, and this aspect remains the same for the whole series. Both aspects are improved in Iris 2.

Iris 2 introduced a turn meter as part of the combat UI. Of all the methods of indicating turn order, this is my favourite so far. Sometimes it’s not the most clear. It’s possible for enemies/characters to overtake one another and change the turn order. This is dependant on speed, so even if enemies/characters overtake, its consistent within the battle.

My favourite change to the combat is that the regular attack was separated into two types. There is a Charge attack and a Break attack. The Charge attack refills your special meter. The special meter replaces MP and is shared across the entire team. The Break attack pushes enemy(s) further back on the turn meter. Break attacks can stun, but repeated Break attacks has diminishing returns. Knowing when and how to attack has been a fun change of pace for combat. Balancing stuns with special attacks was pretty engaging.

The crafting aspect was improved, but nothing radical. Crafting at stores was removed, which was a nice QoL change. All the important crafting can be done at the cauldron. Crafting already crafted recipes can still be completed in the field (for certain items). The secondary characteristics were completely meaningless to me. There didn’t seem to be a lot of flexibility in the recipes to begin with, and the items were effective enough that I didn’t feel the need to revisit any recipes to improve items. ¯\_(σ ‸ σ)_/¯

One of the more unique choices was that this game had two protagonists.

Felt is the male protagonist (yes, that is his name (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞). He leaves his magical floating continent behind to explore the world below. His story follows a pretty standard JRPG. He collects party members, travels across the world, and casually takes down the empire. He does all this as a means to save his home.

Viese is the female protagonist. She’s Felt’s childhood friend, and stays behind on the floating continent to play a support role. Viese does all the important crafting and creates pacts with mana sprites as they are restored by Felt. Viese also meets the game’s namesake as a child and adopts her.

This places this game squarely in the distant past from the first Iris game, where Iris has been long dead for centuries. There are a few locations that overlap with the previous game at the far east edge of the map, but not many. I was hoping to run into Penelope, but it seems she doesn’t make an appearance in this game.

Now, you can switch freely between the two protagonists at any save point. Obviously, Felt and his party have their levels displayed in the menu. The floating continent has no monsters, so Viese’s half of the game is just crafting and resource gathering. The thing that drove me absolutely bonkers is that Viese ALSO has her level displayed in the menu. You can’t put any equipment on her, so it was stressing me out that she was always displayed at level 1 as the game progressed. (TДT)

Now the wild thing is that two thirds of the way through the game, Viese DOES leave the floating continent to look for a lost Felt. She eventually joins the other characters and becomes a full party member. It was very strange having Viese at level 7 while the rest of the party was at level 28.

What I liked about the switch to Viese leaving the floating continent is that because she didn’t know where she was or where to go, all of the locations on the overworld were locked again. Luckily, other party members pick Viese up and fast track her into finding Felt. So this phase of re-exploring early parts of the game doesn’t last too long.

I suspect that Viese must be on a different growth curve so that she’s viable as a party member. She was still 10 levels below the next party member by the time I hit the final boss, yet her stats were comparable.

The story was good. It’s standard JRPG fare. The magic floating continent is in danger, and the imperials are abusing power. You punch the problem in the face. With alchemy.

Gray is my GOAT. Big dragon scalie punch hard and is loud and big I don't ever recall learning that the dragon transformation was apparently a curse. I was fully on board with accepting that dragon people are a normal part of this universe. (I mean, cat people are normal here, so why not dragon people.) He’s also tanky as hell. (ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ) I set hit to the front of the party and never moved him if I could help it. He was such a great damage sponge it gave me free reign to do whatever I want lol

Fee is also best character. She’s so speedy and her Break attack was multi-target it’s so nice

Overall, solid game. I only clocked in about 30 hours and almost 100% the game. The combat was a touch easy which was fine with me. The final boss was a nail-biting endeavour. There were a few touch-and-go moments where it almost wiped my whole party in one turn. Honestly, the only reason I was able to beat it on my first try is bc RNG worked in my favour. At least the final boss didn’t have an absurd amount of HP like in Iris 1.

Iris 2 is not exactly a standout game. It’s an improvement on the previous, but if Iris 1 wasn’t your cup of tea to begin with, then don’t bother with Iris 2. Still, I intend on finishing the Iris trilogy because I like that these games are a nice break from the heavier plots of other games. Not to mention the iteration of the mechanics I mentioned earlier. Welp, we’ll see how far into the future that might be lol I might genuinely forget everything about the Iris games before i get to the third one my game list is so long lmao