Atelier Shallie Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is the third and final game in the Dusk trilogy of the Atelier series. The Plus version was first released for the PlayStation Vita, which is an expanded port of the PS3 version. It has all the DLC characters included and additional story events. The DLCs also include all the costumes that you can change from the get go as well as a bonus dungeon.
The series was never a graphical powerhouse but the graphics here are pretty decent, especially for a handheld. While the environments and other structures can have flat textures, the character models are much more detailed. Each character has various costumes that you can change at the hub. However, the text seems a bit small at first on the Vita’s screen, takes a while hours to get used to.
The game has significantly toned down the difficulty. Each game since Atelier Ayesha has made things bit easier than the last. For one thing, the game got rid of the calendar system. You now have unlimited time to do all the things that you want and character events are not missable anymore, nor are there onerous requirements. Rather, they will always be there until you trigger them. Replacing the calendar system is the motivation system, where if you spend too long grinding, it will start to lower your character’s movement speed as a subtle hint and nudge to continue the story. It’s not actually that intrusive though.
Alchemy also feels it has less of a focus. While the alchemy system is an iteration of Escha and Logy’s already robust system, the required items to progress through the story just lacks the sort of challenge in the Arland trilogy. Even though it is still a core part of the gameplay, it feels more like an optional side experience compared to the previous games. Despite that, it can still get very addictive and you could easily spend hours alchemizing items. On the whole, this ends up being a very relaxing game that’s more similar to other JRPGs. Tinkering with the alchemy and transferring properties via a combination of your skills in just the right chain is extremely satisfying once you get it.
There are also other quality of life improvements, such as for the first time, you can use the right stick to swivel the camera around. Camera angles are no longer fixed. Each small separated area is filled with gathering points to obtain items for alchemy and enemies that you can battle to gain experience points to level up. Exploration in these new areas is a large part of the game, even though it doesn’t take long to go through an area. What helps are the snappy load times and the fast travel system, it doesn’t take long to go from location to location.
The gameplay follows are familiar structure through each chapter. You’ll play through all the story events, and then once done, you enter free time with its own set of objectives. You’re welcome to complete as many or as little of the optional ones, with a few select ones that will end free time and advance into the next chapter. The optional objectives are unlocked by you doing random things like talking to people a number of times, defeating certain types of enemies, gathering and using items. These will unlock helpful abilities such as automatically defeating enemies without going into battle if they are weaker than you, or provide a significant amount of experience points, to further streamline the game.
The game uses a turn based combat system. While you only start off with a small number of playable characters, you end up with way too many by the time the halfway point comes. Since it included all the DLC characters, this makes it harder and more tedious to keep up with equipment requirements, not that the game is that hard either way. The party is comprised of three members but you have three more in the back row that you can swap in to do assist attacks or defend. Only the alchemists can use items while all others have access to skills instead which uses MP. It’s a standardized turn based battle system but throws a few twists with area skills, ultimate moves and a burst bar. The burst bar fills as you hit enemies and once full, all your characters get a massive buff in offense and defense for a few turns.
Following on from the previous game, there are two protagonists with their own story events, Shallistera and Shallotte, both with the nickname Shallie. You pick one after the prologue. Stera’s story focuses on how she went to the city in order to obtain help for her village. Like a lot of other small villages, the water source has been running low and eventually will dry up. Sadly, the town has its own problems so Stera ends up helping the town first. While Lotte is more personally as she journeys to becoming an alchemist, with more focus on her family.
There are different perspectives between the two protagonists. The first half has more differences while the second half converges. You’ll still see different scenes, although a lot of the optional ones are the same. It is different enough that it is not a complete waste to do the two routes, plus, you can only get the true ending in your second playthrough. It takes around 25 hours to complete your first playthrough, with around 10 more hours to complete a second playthrough including the true ending.
There are plenty of returning characters, with their own story scenes. The story is also much lighter than previous Dusk games. You’ll sweep past the first few chapters, and even free time, in a blur. You unlock numerous new areas at once and requests for alchemy items, which is uncommon already, will rarely be for something difficult like an item with a specific trait.
Being the last in the Dusk trilogy, surprisingly, it actually resolves a lot of the questions that previous games had raised about the world. We finally discover the cause of the Dusk, we learn about the backgrounds of several characters that were mysterious, and it references previous games’ events as well. Also continuing the trend is the melancholy tone of the plot and the meaningful message that it tries to convey. The music is really good. It is slow and relaxing. It’s not as melancholic as Atelier Ayesha but hits the right notes in reflecting the dying world. There are a few strong tracks, mixed with others that you don’t notice until you jump to another location and realize you miss it.
Overall, Atelier Shallie Plus: The Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is a fun and relaxing game. However, the removal of the time limit, as well as a lessor focus on alchemizing for story purposes, can make it a bit too tame and generic with less points of difference compared to other JRPGs. The character designs and personalities are charming so it is a shame that despite being the last in the trilogy, it doesn’t quite wrap up everything about the dusk as nicely as it could.
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