Hey everyone, it's Rpg Soul back with a game I enjoyed very much. Atelier Rorona was one of the first Jrpg to come out for the Playstation 3 and not being to afford the console, I dreamt about playing it for a long time. It's a great game and I can't wait to review it! Ikuyooo!
Plot: Rorona is a clumsy alchemist in-training with big dreams of opening her own workshop one day. Her life gets turned upside down when her teacher abandons her and she's forced to work for the Ministry or risk having her teacher's workshop closed down. In her adventures she meets a colourful set of characters with goals that coincide with hers and a love interest who used to date her teacher (!!)
Opinion: With the exception of the Atelier Iris series for the Playstation 2, the Atelier series has never had very dark or complicated plots. They're normally light-hearted and fun. I enjoy it as a nice alternative in the Jrpg genre, it is more in the veins of a Harvest Moon game with it's lightheartedness. 3/5 Soul
Setting: The setting of Atelier Rorona is very simple, it's a medieval fantasy setting with lots of magical creatures and colourful monsters. You're based in a town so you prepare from trips around the area to gather materials and it's all beautiful animated with its cell shaded graphics. 4/5 Soul
Characters: The characters in Rorona are not the most fleshed out characters in all of gaming, they have traits about them that stands out a lot more than others and some are sadly lame stereotypes like the tsundere and the bad drunk. But it's okay because this game is not supposed to be about the about character depth.
This does not mean the characters are unlikeable or shallow. A lot of them have backstories that help keep you invested in these guys and some are sadder than others.
Rorona's character is ditzy and can be annoying at times as the aim is to be as MOEEE as possible. This game is a moe game and doesn't try to hide it, in fact it embraces it with all its moe glory.
3/5 Soul
Gameplay: The game revolves around Rorona going to dangerous monster filled areas to collect materials for Alchemy. Each play through has a 3+1 year and every month you'll have to submit items made from Alchemy to the Ministry. You are then judged on the quality and/or quantity of the item(s). Along the way you also craft weapons, armor and character quest items for the other playable characters.
The battle is straight up turn based and it's awesome! I love turn based combat and Rorona keeps it simple while keeping the battles hard as balls. I did 3play throughs with new game+ and am still unable to defeat some of the optional bosses in the final year and with how fun the game mechanic is and how charming the characters are, it's only a matter of time before I start my 4th Playthrough. 4/5 Soul
Overall: I thoroughly enjoy Atelier Rorona but I understand that it's marketed towards a niche group of English players. I, fortunately, am part of the niche. It also helped that I grew up on Atelier Iris and Mana Khemia, so I am familiar with the interesting play-style. Overall I give the game a very biased and very MOE! 4/5 Soul Because of how much passion and soul went into the production of this game. A passion for fun game making that was carried over and perfected in the next two Atelier Arland series and lost in the newer Trilogy.
Please Follow me as I do my next review in the Nostalgia Soul series....Earthbound 
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