Average at best
Atelier Iris 2 tells the story of Felt and Viese, orphans who’ve adopted each other as family. Living in the world of Eden, both Felt and Viese are alchemist…well, Felt is an apprentice, Viese is the alchemist. One day, Eden is mysteriously rocked by an earthquake and most of the mana shrines on it disappear. The Belkhyde gate, a gate long dormant and rumored to lead to another world reopens. Long story short, Felt volunteers to investigate the Blekhyde gate and goes through it leaving Viese behind on Eden.
The majority of the game will have you playing as Felt on Belkhyde. You can switch over to Viese anytime you want though but switching over is mainly only for creating alchemic materials. Just think of it this way, Felt is the main guy and Viese is your supplier of stuff. Need items, just switch to her via any save point and have her create item you want.
The rest of the game though…is pure vanilla. I don’t like vanilla. You’ll be traveling a lot once you get to Belkhyde but playing the game you don’t feel it at all. Areas are usually just a handful of screens and that’s it. Usually I **** that dungeons are too big or something but here, I’m ****ing that the dungeons are too small! Some of the dungeons in the game barely last 10 minutes (I’m not kidding!). Sure there are a ton of them but who cares when you can blow through them with no hassle. That’s another point I’d like to make, the game’s too easy.
The puzzles of the first game; using mana you recruit as stepping stones or to destroy stuff, is gone. That’s a misstep if you ask me. With no need to use mana for environmental puzzles, most of the dungeons simply starts with point A and ends with a brisk walk or jump to point B. Straightforward and too easy.
One of the game’s neat addition is a meter that empties as you engage enemies. Basically, a given area has a set number of battles (usually 5) and when you’ve fought the required number, the meter empties and you’ll never face another random encounter in the screen again. As dungeons and other areas are made up of a number of screens, clearing them all can take a while but on the flipside, if you do take the time to clear them they’ll remain cleared, allowing you to explore to your heart’s content. The meter automatically resets if you use a save point or leave the area though.
The battle system is reminiscent of the first game. You can free see whose turn is coming up on said bar. In battles, you can use a charge attack, a break attack, skills, tag in a reserve teammate, retreat or use items. Charge attacks fill up your charge meter, which are used to power your skills. Break attacks stun the enemies, delaying their turn. The use of break attacks is where the main strategy comes in. Remember the bar I mentioned to see who goes first? Well, at the lower third of the bar there’s a different colored section. If an enemy’s icon is pushed into the section using delayed attack, you’ll stun the sucker and allow you to use combos. Thing is, the more you use Break Attacks on a baddie, the less effective it becomes and the longer you take to recover from one. Balance is key.
Using alchemy, you can practically keep making items as much as you want. Even higher end items can be made with no cost financially; you just need the elements to synthesize them. Elements can be found all over the place easily. Add to that enemies who die way too easily (even at higher levels), characters who can learn cure all spells and the ability to spam them and you have nothing to fear in the game.
With such a focus on making items in the game using alchemy, it’s a shame that not a lot of thought went into making equipment or accessories. The armor and accessories you can buy or make in the game are only a handful in number, not really giving you a choice to customize. Hell, they’re not really balanced that well either. Early in the game you can make crappy items that barely make a difference. Later in the game, you can create godlike items that totally throw the game’s balance out of the window. Fun as it is, it kills replay value. When my characters were just level 20+ they had no trouble dispatching baddies of higher levels…
Graphics are underwhelming for the game which is kinda a letdown seeing as how the first game was vibrant and pleasing to the eye. 2D games can look beautiful. Look at the Guilty Gear games, look at Disgaea or even Castlevania: SotN. Those are some of the greatest looking 2D games I’ve played. The 2D graphics for Atelier Iris 2, while not bad exactly, aren’t even close to being the best. While the panoramic view of some places are nicely done, places with multiple levels you can navigate while jumping are done badly. Some of the areas you can barely make out that there’s a ledge to jump up or that you can jump down. The swamp or cave areas have some of the muddiest textures ever! I don’t mean that as a complement either. The characters and enemies though are nicely done though their animations leave a lot to be desired. Winning and battle animations never change and after your 100th fight end with Felt sheathing is sword and saying the same line again, you’ll undoubtedly be sick with boredom.
Voices and music for the game are average at best and while both are not bad, like the rest of the game, they really don’t excel in any area either. Some of them are better than other though. Poe for example, is nicely done, with his voice (annoying at first) and lines complementing each other perfectly. The rest seem too stereotypical and deliver equally stereotypical lines.
Atelier Iris 2 isn’t that bad a game, its quite fun even though its like playing a watered down version of the first Iris game. Still, it’s a good play and a fun ride while it lasts.