Before I say anything, because these are three games that have been played, mastered and enjoyed by many people in the past, this review will mostly talk about the combo pack and port itself, not as much about the game’s story, RPG elements, combat or alchemic systems. Anyways, onto the review!
The Atelier games as a whole are an interesting direction for JRPGs. Instead of combat-heavy, world-saving stories, evil tyrants and a character often becoming “the one,” the Atelier series is focused on smaller, more personal stories. These stories can have some grandeur and affect the world around them, but often it is about the hero’s growth and changes into a powerful alchemist while dealing with personal drama with friends or family. This isn’t a bad change, I think these games thrive on the more light-hearted nature of adventure and focus a big on alchemy, it is just different than your standard story or set of ideas. The combat for the games is actually quite good. With each of the three titles having variants on the turn-based system with dashes or real-time interactions, I really enjoyed the combat even if it is slightly simplified compared to other JRPGs. The difficulty in enemies was a little spotty though, they would either be far too powerful or too weak sometimes while just doing normal storylines quests, but nothing game-breaking. The games themselves are just like they were; entertaining titles that let players enjoy a more casual and different side of a JRPG.
Now, with that established, I would say that the games themselves range between a 7 and 8 in ratings. There are really interesting and light stories for players to enjoy. But, I do want to talk about their port over to the PS4, where I am playing them currently. I would assume because of the graphics and general design of the game, the Nintendo Switch and PS4 versions are almost, if not totally identical. Coming from the PSP and PS3 era, I wasn’t going to expect a lot of changes, but some more notable changes would have been really nice. The difference between the PS3 and PS4 versions are almost indistinguishable other than the colors and images are more defined and sharper on the PS4 version. Some better shadows, better texturing and smoother animations would have been a huge plus. The load times are also a little longer than I would expect, especially because of the lacking upgrade in graphics and overall quality. Players are allowed to access a number of costumes before starting the game, which is a nice feature. It can be a little awkward playing dress-up with mostly female characters that are definitely underage, so go to the “Dressing Room” at your own risk. These come from the DLCs, so it is nice to see all the content, DLC or the original game be included in one package.
Overall, the move to newer systems is just fine and does the job well, but it lacks some features and a noticeable facelift. For fans of the games, this is a great bundle that brings these titles to your modern collection, but doesn’t add too much more other than another playthrough. And for newcomers, this is kind of an odd purchase, probably only the most dedicated RPG players would enjoy this fully. Let us know what you think of the games, either past or current playthroughs and the overall quality of the port to current-gen consoles.
