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Atelier Firis |OT| The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey

S

Strings

Member
Played for a couple of hours now, and the game is super odd. Not exactly sure how I feel.

There's some uncharacteristically bad VO, and the flow of collecting -> fighting -> crafting is real weird for me atm. Some of the character models have real bad faces too, in a way that Gust games usually don't (Firis herself in particular).

Wish they hadn't messed with Sophie's cauldron crafting, as the system was near perfect, and catalysts are kinda annoying as a replacement.

Despite all that, I'm still having fun, because it's still very much Atelier. Just one that probably won't end up being my favourite :p
 
A

Arthea

Member
Strings said:
Played for a couple of hours now, and the game is super odd. Not exactly sure how I feel.

There's some uncharacteristically bad VO, and the flow of collecting -> fighting -> crafting is real weird for me atm. Some of the character models have real bad faces too, in a way that Gust games usually don't (Firis herself in particular).

Wish they hadn't messed with Sophie's cauldron crafting, as the system was near perfect, and catalysts are kinda annoying as a replacement.

Despite all that, I'm still having fun, because it's still very much Atelier. Just one that probably won't end up being my favourite :p
Click to expand...

I think I'll like Firis alchemy more than I liked Sophie's, and it really wasn't perfect, but it's too early to tell.

As for that time limit and open world nature of Firis, I can see this going very wrong, very fast. I like doing everything possible in the game, and this seems even worse than Rorona's time limit, where already there was no possibility to explore alchemy fully in that time frame.
I have to make a hard decision how I'll go about it, play like I want and possibly fail, or rush through it and be unhappy about it lol
I still can't make up my mind, send help!
 
P

PaulSane

Member
Arthea said:
I think I'll like Firis alchemy more than I liked Sophie's, and it really wasn't perfect, but it's too early to tell.

As for that time limit and open world nature of Firis, I can see this going very wrong, very fast. I like doing everything possible in the game, and this seems even worse than Rorona's time limit, where already there was no possibility to explore alchemy fully in that time frame.
I have to make a hard decision how I'll go about it, play like I want and possibly fail, or rush through it and be unhappy about it lol
I still can't make up my mind, send help!
Click to expand...

As far as i know, the time limit is rather lenient, and it will also be gone entirely once you finish your objective you've been given that time limit for :) At least that's what i've gathered from reading people's impressions of japanese version.
I've decided to focus on crafting stuff myself, rather than collecting excessive numbers of materials or battling monsters, like i did in Sophie - i'm also using that DLC costume that decreases time you spend while crafting and exploring. I believe one of the characters also said in the beginning of the game something along the lines of "after you are done with your urgent objective, you'll be free to do whatever you want", which also indicates to me that time limit is not going to stay for the whole duration of the game :p
 
A

Arthea

Member
PaulSane said:
As far as i know, the time limit is rather lenient, and it will also be gone entirely once you finish your objective you've been given that time limit for :) At least that's what i've gathered from reading people's impressions of japanese version.
I've decided to focus on crafting stuff myself, rather than collecting excessive numbers of materials or battling monsters, like i did in Sophie - i'm also using that DLC costume that decreases time you spend while crafting and exploring. I believe one of the characters also said in the beginning of the game something along the lines of "after you are done with your urgent objective, you'll be free to do whatever you want", which also indicates to me that time limit is not going to stay for the whole duration of the game :p
Click to expand...
somebody told me, back when Firis was released in Japan, that sidequests have time limits too, so that's not really true that you can do them after the game ends.
Not sure it's related to all sidequests or only some of them, probably not all.
But I think I will concentrate on story quests after all, really don't want to fail when I think about it.


edited: btw, if you reached outside, do you perhaps have some texture glitch related to daylight there, brightest part of the day I mean
 
C

chrominance

Member
Arthea said:
I think I'll like Firis alchemy more than I liked Sophie's, and it really wasn't perfect, but it's too early to tell.

As for that time limit and open world nature of Firis, I can see this going very wrong, very fast. I like doing everything possible in the game, and this seems even worse than Rorona's time limit, where already there was no possibility to explore alchemy fully in that time frame.
I have to make a hard decision how I'll go about it, play like I want and possibly fail, or rush through it and be unhappy about it lol
I still can't make up my mind, send help!
Click to expand...

My suggestion, assuming this is really how the game goes (I didn't realize Firis brought back time management!), is to do a NG+ playthrough after your first one. This is what I've done in every Atelier game I've platinumed except Sophie. Your first playthrough is the "do whatever you want" playthrough, and NG+ is for getting all the stuff you missed the first time around with better items/accessories/gear. NG+ playthroughs tend to be much shorter because you're skipping most of the story, doing less collecting, not grinding dungeons nearly as much, and in general know what you need to do the second time around.
 
A

Ascheroth

Member
Arthea said:
somebody told me, back when Firis was released in Japan, that sidequests have time limits too, so that's not really true that you can do them after the game ends.
Not sure it's related to all sidequests or only some of them, probably not all.
But I think I will concentrate on story quests after all, really don't want to fail when I think about it.


edited: btw, if you reached outside, do you perhaps have some texture glitch related to daylight there, brightest part of the day I mean
Click to expand...
I've read that once you finish what you're supposed to do in the timelimit it goes away and you can go back to do everything you didn't do.
 
P

PaulSane

Member
Arthea said:
edited: btw, if you reached outside, do you perhaps have some texture glitch related to daylight there, brightest part of the day I mean
Click to expand...

I have some glitches with shadows, those are all over the place - some shadows appear\disappear based on where your camera is positioned, while others just look rather strange. I've also established that the game sometimes stutters when performing time-consuming actions, which result in sun position changing, and therefore shadows also change - i believe those damn shadows are the cause of all my problems with this game :p
Other than that, it runs pretty well, and by that i mean stable ~40fps, due to my ancient hardware - but it's still perfectly playable and enjoyable, since that fps is indeed quite stable, albeit low.
 
P

Parsnip

Member
I haven't seen texture glitches so far, for whatever that's worth. The shadow issue seems like the same as it was in Sophie.
 
A

Arthea

Member
I had no shadow issues in Sophie, at least I don't remember any.

And I'm not actually sure what that glitch is that I'm seeing, as it happens only at brightest part of the day and it looks kinda like moire for lack of a better word. My settings can cause it, as I messed with that quite a bit to get good fps and I'm not sure I ever seen something like this in a game before and it seems nobody has this problem either.
But it's definitely light related
 
P

Parsnip

Member
You probably just didn't notice the shadow stuff in Sophie, I have to imagine it occurred on every system.



Fun little detail I noticed in Firis, and this may have been in Sophie and the other past games too, but in the alchemy screen you can stir the pot with right analog stick.
 
P

Parsnip

Member
^
The colors are pretty different too based on those.
Almost seems like someone forgot to flip all the post processing on.
 
R

rickyson1

Member
so how does this compare to Sophie?

personally my biggest issue with Sophie was it just felt a bit TOO aimless at times,especially early on

how does this compare in that respect?
 
C

chrominance

Member
Grabbed Reshade and man do I totally not know what I'm doing. At least adding ambient occlusion is easy, but I'd like to do something about the blown-out highlights. Some people's faces
Plachta!
are basically sheets of white. Gonna have to read up on what all these shaders do.
 
L

Lee Chaolan

Member
So how's the new Trilogy shaping up so far compared to Arland and Dusk?

I bought Sophie long ago but still haven't played it. I would have bought Firis at launch but they decided not to do a L.E. so they don't get my money until it's cheaper.
 
Z

Zephyx

Member
Pellegri Testament said:
Do you like slideshows?
Click to expand...

LOL. Shame I really wanted to play it but if it plays like a slideshow, might as well skip this.

I'll get this on a PS4 someday when it goes on a sale. $60 is too much for me right now and it'll probably take me a day or two to download most of it anyway.

Thanks.
 
S

Strings

Member
I'm really curious if they'd consider putting these on PS4/Switch now. Rorona had a 3DS release, but have any other Gust titles?

EDIT: Should have checked wikipedia first. Apparently a couple of GBA + DS entries in the franchise too. So maybe?
 
C

chrominance

Member
Shizuka said:
What, Firis brought back time limits? Fuck.
Click to expand...

Funnily enough, this is what makes me cautiously optimistic about Firis. Sophie did a pretty good job of removing the time limit but I miss having deadlines.

Strings said:
I'm really curious if they'd consider putting these on PS4/Switch now. Rorona had a 3DS release, but have any other Gust titles?

EDIT: Should have checked wikipedia first. Apparently a couple of GBA + DS entries in the franchise too. So maybe?
Click to expand...

Honestly, it would make a lot of sense if they want to keep doing split releases. It'll depend a lot on how third-party sales on Switch go, but it's pretty clear the Vita won't be viable for too much longer even in Japan.

Anyways: spent a few hours in the PC version, and image quality/resolution issues aside, it's fine so far performance-wise. Started tinkering in Reshade and came up with this, it looks a lot closer to the PS4 Pro screenshots I saw earlier and it's not super contrast-y like Reshade presets tend to be (seriously, WHY). Still not completely happy with the colour balance and faces still look washed out, though. If I can figure that out and maybe get some downsampling or a better AA solution, though, and still maintain a decent framerate, it'll be pretty great.

As for the game itself, the first half-hour or so worried me a little (the translation seems clunkier than usual and Firis's voice takes some getting used to), but by the time you're ready to leave home, it basically feels like any other Atelier game. So far, so good.

P.S. I know others were asking about this, so: Steam now has the free DLC for the Atelier series BGM, in case that was holding you back for whatever reason.
 
E

Elaugaufein

Member
Strings said:
I'm really curious if they'd consider putting these on PS4/Switch now. Rorona had a 3DS release, but have any other Gust titles?

EDIT: Should have checked wikipedia first. Apparently a couple of GBA + DS entries in the franchise too. So maybe?
Click to expand...

Only one of the DS games made it over here for various reasons , Liese's first release was gamebreakingly buggy, they did issue a rerelease but the PR damage was done and sales were terrible, Annie came out here and it was decent but uses a weird mix of real time for gathering areas, Lina was after the DS was much of a commercial concern and didn't come over (Atlus didn't even localise Nora which was their take on the formula).

The GBA entries were remakes / ports IIRC and Gust seems to not want to release those first few games in the West for some reason.
 
A

Aarglefarg

Member
The early story isn't believable.
We are a town where no outsiders have ever entered and then two magical people with a bomb come along, blowing up the door and setting up a home and everyone is fine with it rather than considering them invaders
.
 
S

SarusGray

Member
Aarglefarg said:
The early story isn't believable.
We are a town where no outsiders have ever entered and then two magical people with a bomb come along, blowing up the door and setting up a home and everyone is fine with it rather than considering them invaders
.
Click to expand...

The series in a nut shell.
 
S

SarusGray

Member
Strings said:
While you're not wrong, they tend to do a way better job than this imo :p
Click to expand...

I want to hope the next series really shakes it up but I don't know. Gust seems to be preoccupied already with new IP's.... I wonder if the Atelier series are still going to continue with sales getting lower and lower.
 
C

chrominance

Member
Aarglefarg said:
The early story isn't believable.
We are a town where no outsiders have ever entered and then two magical people with a bomb come along, blowing up the door and setting up a home and everyone is fine with it rather than considering them invaders
.
Click to expand...

Related:
how does the town inn stay in business?

SarusGray said:
I want to hope the next series really shakes it up but I don't know. Gust seems to be preoccupied already with new IP's.... I wonder if the Atelier series are still going to continue with sales getting lower and lower.
Click to expand...

Gust's recent attempts at new franchises have mostly left me cold. Nights of Azure was poorly received, and Blue Reflection seemed neat until it became less Sailor Moon homage and more high-school-girl panties simulator. Atelier's the most successful franchise Gust has going at the moment and I don't see that changing in the near future.
 
E

Elaugaufein

Member
chrominance said:
Related:
how does the town inn stay in business?



Gust's recent attempts at new franchises have mostly left me cold. Nights of Azure was poorly received, and Blue Reflection seemed neat until it became less Sailor Moon homage and more high-school-girl panties simulator. Atelier's the most successful franchise Gust has going at the moment and I don't see that changing in the near future.
Click to expand...

I can see why they tried an ARPG since they have Dynasty Warriors tech at their disposal but it was definitely a weird choice both in terms of their capabilities and audience.
 
BONKERS

BONKERS

Member
Looks like TK blundered this port too.

Missing lighting effects from PS4Pro version, uses PSVita UI assets, shadow bias bugs like Sophie that aren't in console version that cause Shadow Acne and flickering.

Getting pretty sick of them treating PC like a second class citizen with the prices they ask. They are taking decent to great games and just not giving a shit about the quality of the results at all on PC. Not that their efforts are perfect on consoles (or have perfectly stable framerates), but they aren't being artificially gimped on purpose to lower quality than another version.
 
S

Strings

Member
Okay, this is going to sound dumb but... how do I progress past the area I got my first letter of recommendation in? I must have spent at least ~40ish ingame days looking for a way out now.

EDIT: Nvm, I'm extremely dumb.
 
E

ezodagrom

Member
From youtube videos, Vita, PC and PS4 (in that order):

JHUcPKv.jpg
Click to expand...

At least it's not just an high res vita version I guess (unlike what some claim in the steam community).
PC version seems to be a gimped PS4 version, KT gonna KT...
 
A

Arthea

Member
I'm sure it's not a Vita version, also those comparisons are annoying, you can change GPU settings on PC in a way that a game can look from bad to great.
My Firis looks better than any comparison screenshots I've seen and I'm not even playing on max settings, sacrificed those for getting 60 fps.
 
D

Dream_Journey

Member
ezodagrom said:
From youtube videos, Vita, PC and PS4 (in that order):



At least it's not just an high res vita version I guess (unlike what some claim in the steam community).
PC version seems to be a gimped PS4 version, KT gonna KT...
Click to expand...

Vita-PS4 mixture, like they created PS3 version for PC again, they found a way to do that, they always find... Lol.
 
A

Alanae

Member
How are people getting downscaling/forced-on AA to work?
gedosato and the nvidia control panel just seem to crash it for me.
 
P

Parsnip

Member
If they fixed the gimped post processing and the shadows, I would be relatively fine with the port. And while I'm not personally bothered with it, the performance is poor in relation to what is shown on the screen so that would be nice too.
The poor hud assets is unfortunate but not on the level of the messed up shadows at all.

Not expecting them to do anything though.


Alanae said:
How are people getting downscaling/forced-on AA to work?
gedosato and the nvidia control panel just seem to crash it for me.
Click to expand...

DSR seems to work for me.
 
O

OrionX

Member
Not too far into it, but I'm enjoying it a lot more than Sophie so far.

The journey aspect is giving me Totori vibes, which was my favorite in the series. I think I prefer it when the story doesn't revolve around a single town, since Ayesha was one of my favorites as well.
 
K

Kresnik258

Member
Pellegri Testament said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OlNNjHQsDw

Meant to link it in my above post, but ya.... It is abysmal. I think it's safe to say they should probably drop Vita from now on if this is the quality we're getting from them.
Click to expand...

Makes me wonder how Nights of Azure 2 is gonna be. Blue Reflection appears to be alright based on the early footage they released.

Sadly... I'm still gonna play Firis on Vita. There's a pleasure of playing these games on handheld that I just can't replicate on console. I'll probably buy both versions though, at some point :p
 
T

TRI Mike

Member
Can anyone tell me about how the performance is on Vita¿ Tell me for Sophie as well as I'm playing on buying both "mystery" games on the system to support the series and be able to play them at work.

I'm playing Shallie Plus right now and while I love the game, the framerate takes such a heavy hit that I'm scared Sophie and Firis might be even worse and make them unplayable.
 
A

Alanae

Member
Sophie runs suprizingly well, better than shallie plus even.
The video footage released for firis has done a good job of keeping me away from the vita version of that game, however.
 
T

TRI Mike

Member
That's probably because Firis is "open world" as far as I know... still I'm worried about Firis's Vita performance. Can anyone who is playing it tell me more¿
 
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