4/5 ★ – Elesh's review of Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream.

I'm going to assume you've played Sophie here, because if you're thinking about playing the sequel you really should have. The game pulls most of the basic mechanics forward, so if you know the first one you'll be right at home in the second one. There are definitely changes - especially as you dig deep into the game's more advanced systems later on - but the core of the experience is largely the same, albeit slightly improved. In a lot of ways, this is just a slightly refined version of Sophie 1 with a new story to tell. One thing I will say is that while most Atelier games are simple coming of age stories told in fantastic worlds of alchemy... Sophie 2 has the benefit of the character already having passed the 'coming of age' moment in Sophie 1. This allowed Sophie 2 to really delve deep into the titular character's personality, bringing much greater depth to her than the series normally allows for. This led to a number of good scenes including one particularly powerful scene near the end that had me genuinely in tears. Unfortunately, as this is simply a 'slightly refined version of Sophie 1', it does still bear the flaws of the Mysterious trilogy's crafting system, which turned the series famous crafting systems into an awkward minigame that never felt quite right to me. And, while it isn't bad - Atelier crafting never is - the system isn't nearly as good as previous entries in the series have shown the team is capable of building. Overall, this is a solid JRPG, and if you liked Sophie 1 enough to be interested in this game, you're certainly going to be in for a treat as this game does nearly everything Sophie 1 does slightly better. Don't expect it to stand on its own two feet though, you really do need to have played the original to even have a leg to stand on here.