(quick note: Whenever I italicize Rorona or Totori, I am talking about the games. Whenever I just have Rorona or Totori, I am talking about the characters IN the game.)
So, after a lols filled episode at Gamestop last Friday, I finally picked up my copy of Atelier Totori. First new game I've bought since MvC3 ..... D:
I'm going to try to keep this short.
___
So far, I've played through the prologue of the game. Well, up to the part of it where the current fad is to show you an anime opening trailer with the title, as if you didn't know what you were playing up to that point. It's been about what I've expected. Now that doesn't mean the game is jaw dropping stellar, but it's also not sitting in it's case ready to go back to Gamestop. I have a fairly good idea of what I am getting myself into with the second game of the Arland series. (Yes, Arland, the mini-series of Atelier Rorona and Atelier Totori. Not to be confused with the ENTIRE series of Atelier)
Without talking about specific aspects yet, I will say that a lot of the things I think about this game are influenced by Atelier Rorona. This game is a direct sequel, it should be. But with the step out of line Atelier Rorona took from the entire series (and actually, the mold of a RPG as a whole), it wouldn't be bad for people to assume that Atelier Totori would do the same. I thought otherwise, though. I'm pretty sure that Totori will keep with a lot of the concepts and mechanics that were in it's predecessing game.
On that, the first thing that's always important to me is the actual gameplay. The battle system, overall mechanics, the alchemy system (for this series), and so forth. So far, pretty much EVERYTHING looks nearly identical to Rorona. I don't really see combat being the main point of this game again, but I'm ready for that this time. I do think it'll factor in more, however, as the story doesn't focus no alchemy this much as it does "adventuring" (I swear if I hear the word adventurer one more time...). Everything on the alchemy side is 'bout where I remember from Rorona, go gather items, go buy items, occasionally go kill things for items. The menu options are kinda different and weird at first, but once you understand what's going on, you'll find it user friendly and nifty. I like the idea that I'll be able to search my inventory for a cool or soft item instead of having to look at every individual item's traits. Oh, and before I move to the next part, let me briefly mention that jump animation. :3 lol. What the heck.
The story... well, it's obviously too early for me to REALLY talk about the story since I've only played the prologue, but from playing Rorona, I can safely say that Totori has more potential for an interesting story. Even though it feels like it's taking the low-key, slice-of-life approach that Rorona too, Totori comes out the gate setting the tone that Totori is hellbent on reuniting with her mother and with Rorona. Those two points alone have the chance to branch out in to things more interesting than Rorona's tale of "I've got to not screw up for 3 years." The (new) characters in Totori are even more likeable and have more personality than the ones in Rorona up front. Heck, even the OLD characters seem better in this game.... ok I guess it's unfair to say that since sometime has passed between the games storywise. But I find it kinda hilarious that, from one dialogue, I like Rorona sooooooo much more now than I did at the end of Atelier Rorona. She's still got time to screw up, though.
Graphics?.... eh, it's a Gust PS3 Atelier RPG. If you've played Rorona you know what to expect (I THINK Ar Tonelico Qoga and Hyperdimension Neptunia fall into that category as well. I don't know cause I HAVEN'T PLAYED THEM YET :( ). If you've played any of the PS2 Ateliers, Ar Tonelicos, or either Mana Khemia, (or Nippon Ichi series, or Chaos Wars, or any game with the 2D still picture dialogue setup), then take those stills and put 3D models on the game screen instead of 2D sprites and now you're caught up. It's not bad, it's actually very well done. I'm just not a big graphics person and will never be. (I might add a little more if I had a HDTV :x)
The last section I'm going to talk about is really just a mesh of things. Yes, I still have to talk a bit about the music, as generally like the music of these series, but what Gust did with this game has an often-hated, but I think thoughtful concept to the game. It all falls under a kind of nostalgia feeling you get when you finally arrive in Arland. It's still Arland; there wasn't some land altering earthquake, no huge struggle to save humanity at the end of Rorona, heck, there wasn't so much as a huge monumental struggle throughout that entire game, so it makes sense in my mind for the city and places around the city to be the same. Yes, they've redesigned a few things city, the returning characters look like they've aged, but not a whole lot's really changed. Nothing caused it to. So when I walked into Hagel's shop, I wasn't any variation of upset that I was listening to the exact same theme I was listening to in Atelier Rorona. I half expected it. He's still the same Hagel (moreso than Hagel, the recurring character in the series), and it's literally THE SAME SHOP, in THE SAME PLACE, in THAT SAME TOWN. Why not stress the fact that you, as Totori, are exploring the same places that Rorona has been? Yeah, some kind of a variation (read: remix) would have been a nice flaunt of money, but the tracks they had in Rorona weren't bad. So for the sake of this concept, why change them?
__
All in all, I see this game potentially being worth my time as an Atelier fan. I'm over the shock of Rorona and I know what I'm getting into this time. I see more of what I'm looking for, but I can also tell that Gust has some ideas that'll be another nice change-of-pace from the typical jRPG. No, I don't see much (really ANY) high impact, in-your-face action or awe-inspiring memorable scenes; however, I do see the potential for a more sound, solid entertaining game in Atelier Totori. No, I don't think it'll be perfect (I've already noted one translation flaw and caught one fairly huge herp-derp story flaw), but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm able to recommend Totori to people without "if" or "but" tacked on when I'm finished.
No comments:
Post a Comment