Atelier Totori Plus: The Adventurer of Arland

I don't think it would have changed anything but i was so damn close to beating this one big bad boss and ugh... ran out of time.

But i'm getting ahead of myself.

So There is a sale going on to celebrate golden week and quite a few games i wanted to try were on the list.

I had played another gust game and even though i loved it to bits it was glitchy as hell and i worried the other hand held gust games would share it's fate.
Still there were two games in the same series there.
just cause i like shortening stupid long titles... i had to pick between Totori and Meruru.
i knew there was a third game in the series but ithasn't come out here on vita yet (though hopefully soon?)
i had no idea what order the games were in and one of my friends told me to get Meruru, he felt it was the better (or perhaps less stressful) of the two available titles.
so then i went to twitter and mentioned i was on the fence about it and @TaylorsShelf told me that if i were new to the series i would probably enjoy Totori more as it was his fav of the series.
I then mentioned that i kinda wanted to play them in order (which again... i didn't know) and he told me Totori was actually before meruru.
oh.... well don't i feel like a dummy.

So i got Totori (which the title always looked like sotori, i dunno the first t looks odd [nitpicking]) and started playing.
well... i started playing like.... an hour later, the problem with DL only titles (especially RPGs) is that they are really big and my connection is great for being wired... not so great for wifi.
so i played the other game i got... hurt my wrist a bit but bought time to start playing Totori.

and it was just a wave of happiness when i turned it on.
It had most of the stuff i remember loving from Mana Khemia. it had a similar look (well it's a bit more moe) and sound and just overall feel.
the alchemy was great (though some of my fav features from MK were not there) the story was good and the pace felt very natural.

It wasn't perfect, i hate to break it to you gust but breast do not jiggle like that... also some of the costume choices were just... odd... i dunno of anyone who would wear a translucent skirt. (theres quite a bit of... odd sexualization of characters but it's almost entirely limited to the still art, the extra loading screen image probably being the worst of what i saw [and you have to beat the game to see it], so if your uncomfortable with that then just be warned before you jump into the title.)
but if my biggest complaints are stupid visual crap then i am really grasping at straws.
well i do have another complaint.
that stupid timer.... why... why does it need to exist... MK had a timer too but... i dunno if felt more regimented so i never was freaking out on "am i doing the right thing? do i need to be triggering something else? why isn't sterk in my party yet" (he was easily my fav but you don't get the extension.)
ok one more complaint.
the combat...
but not the combat... more like... i would go into an area and be like "cool they look small and cute and i can probably win-- oh they are murdering me... damn... ok retreat!"
then i would go into a different area and it would be "oh no thats a pallet swap of the thing that murdered me..." so yeah i was really diligent about getting better weapons and armor but i never felt like i was getting stronger or accurately able to judge if an area was too tough.
so when i was facing evil smile and it was just.... not even funny how little damage i did to him cause i barely trained cause i hated fighting cause i couldn't find a good way to do it.... and besides the alchemy was more fun.

Still the story is basically Totori is the daughter of a great adventurer who vanished many years ago. she wants to follow in moms footsteps and even find her since she had to be alive somewhere.
this means becoming an adventurer, however Totori is fairly week and her only good point is that she is an alchemist. with help from friends she goes on her adventure.

now there are two... well i guess three time limits.
1. you have to not sleep through the day that you are supposed to leave down to get your license (i wanna restart the game just to see this with my own eyes...) but i wont realyl count it cause you would have to actually know to sleep through it.

2. once you get your permit you must hit a certain rank in 3 years. if you fail you get your license taken away and you get the bad ending.

3. after getting an extension you have to up your license again (though not really? looking at the conditions for the normal and true ending maybe that has nothing to do with anything anymore) and you also really need to start figuring out what happened to you mom, if you fail to do that in 2 years it's bad ending.

I ended up getting the normal ending and after looking at the requierments for the true ending.... i don't see how that would be possible without a guide.

but dammit i'm curious! the normal ending was fine but kinda lack luster... and i love to the big boss of the game with 3 days before games end so there was no way of getting strong enough in time.

The problem with me is that even if new glam plus is added (and it is though you only keep money and equipment) i almost never replay a game.
ever.
the only reason Ys is an exception is cause every time i replayed it was either part of the game or on a different system (ys 1&2 on ds vs Computer; ys3 on psp vs computer; ys origins cause you have to beat it three times so i guess that doesn't count)
i don't know why but when i'm done i wanna move on to the next thing in the pile. i don't know if this game is going to be any different... but i kinda want to try again... ugh i'm just conflicted cause i'm worried the true end (and subsequently the shop and chim and character ends) wont be worth it... i'm sure they will be.... but i did already buy meruru and i kinda wanna give it a try.

Still... in the end i love this game, it's extremly cute and bright and colourful and even though it has some darker moments it's pretty upbeat for an RPG.
there is a bit of randomness to the game which kinda sucks... you have to hope things will trigger and doing that without a guide is tricky.... i got very close to getting 1 character ending. but i died to the thing that would haveing given me the last event.
but you have to do that for 6 characters, 2 shops and the chims (which i never figured out how to make more of... i had water of life but yeah... only ever had the one) in order to get true end and yeah... unlikely that i will have that kind of patience. (because i am lazy)

Okay... i'm rambling cause i'm tired and it's getting late.
if you are curious about the game i say give it a try, the sale price is 20 bucks and after it goes back to 40 i still think it's worth it.
I personal had the most fun making weapons since it was just me going "how many status debuffs can i fit onto one piece of metal (well 5 is the max but you have to actually watch for things to be able to add everything you want) and at one point i actually managed to make Totori a tank, nothing did any damage, i lost effectiveness by games end but it was great while it lasted.
oh well, i'll probably starrt playing Meruru in the morning. *sighs* this is the problem with not working for the moment... too much time on my hands for video games... i feel so unproductive sometimes.