Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream Review

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Fast Facts

Beginning with a Story

Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream is a narrative-driven turn-based RPG that details Sophie’s story after she is teleported into a mystical world designed for people to live out their dreams. I was particularly interested in playing this game since I had played and enjoyed Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg earlier this year. Was the game as magical as the title suggests? Find out in this Rapid Review. 

As I began my journey, I was introduced to various characters who interacted with me throughout the experience. Though these characters had clear-cut models for their personalities and activities, I enjoyed learning more about them and working with them throughout the storyline. It was strange, however, that despite living and functioning in a massive town, only around ten characters had significant relevance. I enjoyed that this allowed me to focus on certain characters, but I would have preferred interacting with a wider cast. I found this particularly challenging because I was introduced to all the relevant characters soon after beginning my journey. Due to the static personalities of the characters, a lot of the storyline relating to character development was not as exciting as it could have been.

This lack of dynamic writing is also brought out in the narrative. There are a few arcs, but largely, the plot follows Sophie as she explores anomalies in the strange world she gets sent to. The concept works here, and I appreciated the emphasis on following dreams, as that is something I care about in my own life too. However, the writing explains narrative theming and character sentiment explicitly, which slows the pacing, prevents imaginative interpretation and is generally verbose. The writing was by no means bad, but it did not impress me.

Staffed Labor

To supplement this story, Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream features gameplay with wildly varying formats. Largely, this boils down to three different concepts. I played as an alchemist and therefore created things which I could use on my journey. To successfully create these items, I explored a handful of areas within the game to gather materials. Finally, using the items I crafted, I could engage in combat. These three concepts worked well in tandem with one another, as they provided variety in my minute-to-minute actions throughout my playthrough. While I enjoyed having the variety, none of these different segments were perfect. 

For starters, I thought crafting things was a tedious experience which did not add to my enjoyment. To craft something, I combined components of elements alongside others on a grid. Adding enough of a certain type of component in a way that connects with other components led to more optimal results. This premise is fine, especially for important items such as weapons or armour, where I care a lot about their quality and augments. However, a large portion of my time crafting was spent forging random items to enhance my alchemy level. In crafting these items, I had to spend time either assigning these components manually or watching the system do it for me. This manual process was incredibly tedious. Additionally, this component system prevented me from creating items in bulk. While this is not a major issue, as I could duplicate items directly, the alchemy system did not impress.

Gathering and Hunting

To collect the various items needed for alchemy, I explored the surrounding areas. Collecting these materials was often as simple as walking up to them and pressing a button, so execution was not particularly engaging. Despite this, material collection comes with two major downsides. First, distinct tools are needed to collect specific items at certain item spawns. While creating such tools is somewhat simple, the game did not explicitly mention what augments were needed on the tools to gather enhanced materials, and that was frustrating. The same thing applied to certain recipes. Some recipes required for progression were placed in chests around the map or sold at random shops. Without finding these, it was impossible to progress. Though the game does mention that shops will hold important items, it was frustrating that certain main story quests required exploration without guidance to look for these item recipes.

The last major component of gameplay involves fighting enemies. This not only encompassed the core of the gameplay, but it was the primary form of progression in the game. The basics of combat are what I expect from a turn-based RPG. My characters could block, do a generic attack, use items, and fight using magical skills. The standard nature worked well to place me on familiar ground. These combat encounters featured more distinctive mechanics, too. For example, I had a party of six members, but I could only have three of them on the field at once. To involve additional members, I could perform combination attacks or have members jump in as human shields before an enemy attack lands. The use of these was fuelled by a couple of gauges which grew over time and by various actions. This added complexity helped keep me interested throughout. 

Justifying the Price

To complete the package, Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream is fully voice-acted and features a solid soundtrack. These elements added to my enjoyment a decent amount, and I often had different music tracks stuck in my head after a play session. The music was nothing overly special, but it was thematically appropriate and certainly catchy. I liked it. The voice acting was also nice, but it was only in Japanese. It worked to give these characters more personality, but it did not do much for me outside of that. 

Additionally, the visual style helped Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream. I thought the visuals worked well to showcase the surrounding world. Though things looked nice, many enemy sprites were recycled throughout the gameplay, which made areas which look nothing like one another feel very similar in gameplay. Even many boss fights are reimagined versions of previous bosses. I enjoyed the visual design, but additional variety in enemy designs would have gone a long way.

As a whole, Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream is a good game. The story is cute and tells a nice tale of exploring through dreams alongside friends. The gameplay, while bogged down by some nuisances, is largely neat, and I enjoyed mastering the turn-based combat. I did not resonate with the alchemy much, and I thought as a whole many parts of the game were sluggish, but I did enjoy my time and can recommend it if what I mentioned above sounds interesting. 

You can purchase Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream on the PlayStation Store here.