Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland Plus Review

This review won’t contain anything particularly mind blowing, because this game is pretty simple to talk about. Atelier Totori is primarily a game of crafting and time management with a side of RPG battles. The characters are extremely typical of anything Japanese, and the game gives off a vibe of a slice-of-life anime. It can be fun for the very niche crowd, but I feel that the majority of people who play this game will probably drop it. It’s a game with some very interesting mechanics and plenty of endearing characters, but the gameplay itself is, quite simply, a bore. Let’s talk about the strong points first though.

Make no mistake, this game’s art is top notch. The character sprites are beautiful to look at, and their 3D models look just as great. It’s extremely apparent that this game was designed with disgusting weeaboo nerds like me in mind. The backgrounds are bright and cheerful, and the monsters don’t look like complete trash even though they are using 3D models.

Don’t be fooled by the screenshot, dem legz look fucking fantastic on the Vita.

The voice acting is what you would expect from a moetard JRPG. The ditzy girl sounds REALLY ditzy, the quiet girl sounds REALLY quiet, etc. etc.. The music fits the game pretty well, but it’s hardly anything special. The soundtrack is quite large though, and I’m a guy who really appreciates variety in the music played throughout the game. I never find myself humming along to the melody of any of the music though.

Atelier Totori is more of a slice of life anime than it is a game. You will more than likely spend half your game time just watching the cut scenes that unravel as you travel the world. The cut scenes are extremely cliché, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Mostly it’s just little scenes poking fun at the quirks of the different characters, and the interactions of the extreme personalities of each character. Nothing revolutionary, and most of you probably know what you’re getting into.

Dialogue like this is pretty much scattered all over the place. It’s just good old cheesy NIS humor.

Unfortunately, none of this is enough to make me continue playing this game, because the gameplay is just too bland. The battle system is just depressing. You will probably find yourself never having to make a difficult decision in combat, simply because there aren’t many decisions to make. There is much more emphasis on being prepared for fighting than actual fighting. You will spend a lot of time managing your inventory and figuring out how to best equip your party members. The time management mechanic isn’t so bad, but I feel it was badly executed. You generally spend your time completing bounties and crafting things that customers want, and try to reach certain goals to increase your ranking, while trying to maximize your profits so that you can afford new recipes. It sounds nice, but in reality, it’s just extremely repetitive. If you’re looking for any good gameplay, you won’t find it here.

Overall, this game delivers on what it is marketed to be, and for the right crowd, it can be very enjoyable. You’d be hard pressed to find character art like this in any other game, and the game has subtle cheesy humor almost everywhere you go. Atelier Totori is more of a visual novel than a game, so if you’re the type of person to skip through cutscenes and love challenging gameplay, I’d skip out on this one completely. However, if you don’t mind grinds and like to watch cute girls doing cute things, there is no reason to wait any longer to buy this game. The verdict for this game is quite simple. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

Score: 7/10