Atelier Shallie Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea (Vita Edition)
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Critic Reviews for Atelier Shallie Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea (Vita Edition)
From personal experience, it can be said that Atelier Shallie Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is the perfect place for series newcomers to start.
Atelier Shallie Plus is a great way to end the Dusk trilogy in the Atelier franchise and suffers from the usual Atelier on Vita problems while still charming me over.
Atelier Shallie is a great entry in the series. I really enjoyed all of the characters, and the Life Task system is a fun take on quests and story progression. In those ways, I even like it more than Atelier Sophie. Unfortunately, so much of my love for this game is ruined by its choppy frame rate on PS Vita. If this were simply on PS3 or PS4, it would be a nearly flawless experience. As it stands, Atelier Shallie is the best version of the game available in terms of content, but having to suffer through a poorly optimised experience for those benefits is too steep a cost.
Atelier Shallie Plus may close the curtains of the Dusk trilogy, but it is a good place to start for those new to the Atelier games and can even be a good way to ease into the series. The story doesn’t get overly serious while maintaining a lighter tone than your typical JRPG. Being on a portable like the Vita, this entry makes it easy to pick up and play where you can get things accomplished in short sessions. Atelier Shallie Plus is perfect for anyone ever interested in trying out an Atelier game.
If not for the rather terrible framerates and muddy visuals, Atelier Shallie Plus could have proven a true redemption for what I consider to be the worst game in the series. Still, it is a notable improvement in terms of content, with many more events and playable characters. If you have a high tolerance for poor performing games and feel the need to see everything that transpires in the last episode of the dusk trilogy, do so with a Vita instead of your PS3.
The game is beautifully set up, assuming you’re into the zen level of work it has in store for you.
Atelier Shallie Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is great way to wrap up the trilogy. This is a perfect choice for someone looking to try their hand at a JRPG, but still offers enough meaty battle challenges and huge crafting possibilities for devout fans of the series. This Plus version is one of the best entries in the series to date, and while Atelier as a whole may not quite measure up to the genre's classics, this is still a very enjoyable handheld adventure that will keep you coming back for more.
Atelier Shallie Plus features a rich extra content and a more complete storyline, however it also presents various flaws, even severe ones, that were not present in its original PS3 version, leading this PS Vita port far from being perfect.
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