Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings

It took me 133 hours to complete this game in the highest difficulty, taking my time. I put a positive assessment but with very mixed feelings. The positives are the same as usual with the workshop series:-the craft system is the best I know, and it improves with each Opus. -The costumes are always very successful. -The environments, which have long been one of the weakest points of the Atelier, are now more extensive and more detailed (as in the two previous Opus). The negative points are unfortunately numerous and difficult to accept for such a expensive game. The difficulty is ridiculous, if you optimize a little your equipment all the fights are ultra easy. The characters are totally unbalanced in terms of power: properly used in support, Firis does much more damage than all the rest of the Group gathered. To the point of being able to one-shot some boss endgame. It is not even necessary to have the best objects of attack nor to climb to the Max level, I never grinded on the contrary, I avoid as much as possible the fights (because they are irrelevant) and at the end of the game my characters were far from the Max LVL. I was only around the 50 LVL at the end, and yet everything was of a childish simplicity. The other weak point is the scenario. It is an old recurring problem of the Atelier, but in this Opus it is pushed to its climax. The scenario is in three lines, there is no dramatic tension, no rebound, it is very difficult to be interested in this story. Then the dialogues. The vast majority of dialogues has nothing to do with the main plot and comes down to the common conversation without interest. From the same level as your last elevator conversation with your neighbor about the weather of the day. As in addition one is passive spectator of these dialogues that offer us no choice, they quickly become unbearable. Especially when we played the two previous Opus, because they are the same stories that come back and give the impression of playing a remake. Last black point, Alchemy has a big flaw: the materials allowing to change the color of the squares. There are a few dozen but only one is really useful: "Activator". The first one you learn to make, the simplest, which is also very far the most effective throughout the game once you have assimilated the color matches. The Activator disbalances the entire alchemical system in exactly the same way that Firis unbalances the fights, it becomes very easy to optimize all your objects using a single method. Such a design error is unbelievable. In summary, this Opus seems to me really sloppy by some sides. In my eyes alone the quality and complexity of the Alchemy system (despite its flaws) saves it from a negative evaluation.