Atelier Escha and Logy
If you're familiar with the series, you know that Atelier is synonymous with turn-based rpg with a strong attention to synthesis. In Escha and Logy, they did not disappoint, adding the best of all the games with a new twist. Lovers of the Atelier series will love that Gust redeemed themselves of the bore in the first installment of the Alchemist of the Sky and became more in-line with the depth of character in the Arland Trilogy. Atelier Escha and Logy lack the same intensity to get things finished as in some of the favorites such as Atelier Totori. It makes up for it in the revamped synthesis system that is not only more complex and more fun to play with, you get plenty of time to make whatever you want in the game once you get through the first play-through.
When choosing which character you want to play with your first play-through, you must decide exactly which you prefer first. To get the Atelier experience you're used to, you choose Escha. To get a new Atelier experience and a somewhat darker story, you choose Logy. I chose to play with Escha first to learn the ins and outs and I believe it made playing Logy that much better. That is a personal choice though. Choosing the players also allow for certain other perks, which I will not spoil for you.
The gameplay is what has surprised me most of all. I was fairly excited to see that they had given us two protagonists, 6 people to fight with in each battle, and the gameplay sated my anticipation and I was not disappointed. A lot of the time, even though I am a huge lover of turn-based, they oftentimes can get so boring but I found that I loved running into monsters, loved to see how I could manipulate skills, items, the support meter, etc to defeat foes more efficiently. If you have a love for turn-based japanese role playing games, then this is one that must be in your repertoire, otherwise you're not a real gamer!
The synthesis we all love is now better than ever. The game encourages you to spend time, creating items over again to get even better results as you progress through the game and get better items. The process lets you use alchemy skills to strengthen items which becomes the best part of synthesis, to see how many skills you can use and how much you can get out of an item. Applying effects to the items is even more fun, even though the sad part is you can only add a max of three effects, regardless of how much cp you have. This is not that bad of a deal, though, because you can add the traits together, multiplying its effect and giving it a different name, allowing you to actually apply several effects in one effect.
Traveling in the world, harvesting is very different. When you harvest, You only get one item in most cases. This is because in synthesis, you never use 2 or more of one item to synthesize one thing. When you harvest or fight in a field, you accumulate points, these points allow you to do various things, such as change the monsters, items and relics in your environment to letting you fight rare and more difficult monsters. As you go on in the game, especially in your second play-through, you will find those accumulated points are more useful to leveling up your character to max.
In my opinion, this is the best Atelier game ever released and I've played them all. I've heard people complain about time management being annoying to them but in my opinion that's part of the challenge, but this game allows you to freely do so much where the time management part hardly hinders you especially in your second playthrough, which you get through easier and you're also allowed to carry on several things from your previous play, such as items and money.
So if you're looking for RPG right now and you don't know what to get, run and get Atelier Escha and Logy. I daresay you won't be disappointed. The beautiful graphics and light-hearted humor in the game will make you smile. The synthesis will have you intrigued for hours. The fighting will let you use the items you make effectively and also help you get rare items you otherwise may not get.