Atelier Shallie

And another cute Atelier game!

As Escha&Logy, this game has 2 protagonists to choose from with very different personality. I choose Shallotte and I had a lot of fun, the other Shallie seems more of the "innocent" kind, I didn't try it for enough time.

It has been a long time since the last time I played an Atelier game and I noticed that alchemy has really evolved a lot, there are a lot of variables to play with that makes the item creation very entertaining.

I started playing this game because they removed the time limit factor, now I can choose when to advance into the next chapter giving infinite time to explore everything I want to. Of course some players may prefer the time limit setting and I think it should have stayed that way because we already have lots of games without time limit ;)

The combat system is turn-based with an use of turns similar to FFX and Lost Oddyssey where the order depends on the skill used and can also be pushed/canceled with the right skills. Also the game has an original way to use the party members on the reserve that makes the battles very dynamic and fun. A game with this battle system, the right budget and thematic, would be a masterpiece (I mean, an Atelier game is not very commercial).

Graphically looks okay and has a few technical issues but nothing unplayable. The music is very good, a few songs have entered into my favorites list ;), the voices are okay too.

The story is good enough though the chapters pacing is a bit weird, some chapters are very long and others extremelly short or irrelevant.

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate "light" jrpgs

I rate my experience with a 7 out of 10.

Bloodborne

Bloodborne is a new game made by From Software based on "Dark Souls gameplay", with a few tweaks. Here is my review whining.

The combat is faster and more hectic, forcing you to be more agressive and dodging instead of blocking. I always played the Souls games with a medium shield but it didn't take me much to get used to dodge, it feels pretty natural. I had more problems with being agressive and taking the iniciative, but It stopped when I learned my weapon's swings and how the "stuns" worked.

The weapons now transform and it's pretty cool but it is not much different from the switching from 1 hand to 2 hand in Dark Souls. Also there aren't many weapons, so the progression isn't made like the usual rpgs where you find a more powerful weapon every few hours, instead they offer really different play styles and it's up to the player to become accustomed to one and stick with it.

The difficulty, I've come to the conclusion that it isn't very balanced, because:

- On my first playthrough, I played at my normal pace and I found that the game was a bit easy. Only blood-starved beast gave problems, I killed the rest of bosses on first try. Then I started NG+ which I beaten quickly and without problems. Now I'm on NG++ and don't have many problems either. I'm sure it was not due the AI bug because I kept moving the PS4 from one room to another, shutting the power in the process.

- Then I've started a new game from scratch, I played at a higher pace and I had a lot of trouble beating any boss, they kept one-shotting me all the time and I wasn't really that underleveled plus I went straight to find and upgrade my favorite weapon and leveling the correct stats and my insight was always low. I couldn't believe that I was having a harder time than playing NG+ and NG++... maybe it's a bug.

The levels are visually stunning buta bit confusing, it took me 2 playthroughs to get used to some levels. I find it hard to orientate when parts/decoration of the level look very similar, I had the same problem with Lords of the Fallen.

And my last complain is that the game is a bit short, my first play took 17 hours where I only left one boss to kill, my second playthrough took me 12 hours, where I killed everything and got the Platinum Trophy. For comparison's sake: DeS took me 24h+15h, DaS 34h+29h, DaS2 36h+42h (first play without the dlc, second play with all the dlc)

I complain a lot but the game still is very fun to play, I prefer Bloodborne over any other modern game.

Did I like it? Yes, but in some aspects less than other Souls games
I think you will like it if you:
- Like challenges

I rate my experience with an 8 out of 10