Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2)

Hello, boys and girls. Yes I am reviewing this game on time. It's a miracle, I know. So let's begin, shall we?

Story: You control Edge and Iris, a pair of young raiders. To be a raider means that they will hire themselves out to do various quests for the people of their town. Such quests often bring them to places known as Alterworlds, which are different planes of existence. During one quest, they come upon a glowing orb and light, which is sucked into Iris's special book she holds. They come to believe this is the Escalario, a fabled book said to grant any wish of whoever possesses it. Along the path of collecting all the pieces necessary to complete the Escalario, they meet variety of interesting people, including Nell, who later joins you as a raider. It's not the greatest plot, and some might say it's generic (not me, but some), but I find it's enough to keep me interested. 3/5

Audio: The characters have voice actors for important dialogues which suit their roles well. None of them seem overdone. The music itself isn't the greatest, but again, it's not bad. it's just there in a light hearted and cute sort of way. 3/5

Graphics: The graphics aren't terribly impressive. They are relatively simple, but the artwork is beautiful. If it's not completely stunning with gorgeous art, it is keeping with the light hearted attitude the Atelier games seem to strive for. 3/5

Gameplay: This is the area that will completely turn a person on or off the game. It is not told in the typical RPG fashion where you go from Point A to Point B to Point C until you've found the great evil about to destroy the world. Instead you center the game around your hometown and the alterworlds that connect to it. Everythin in the game is done through quests. Each time you rank up as a raider, a mission will appear, requiring that you complete it before you can continue with quests. The mission is an important story point. Doing quests for people will earn you alchemy recipes (did I forget to mention Iris is an alchemist who makes things from the items you find in the worlds?), money, guild points, items, and the affection of the different peopel you are assisting. By helping out others you will gain insight into their backgrounds and their personalities. Along the way you will run into the Elementals. Iris can make a pact with them and summon them in battle, while Edge and Nell can bond with them to make themselves a different style of fighter. With new fighting moves, Nell and Edge seem like completely different characters when bonded. Battles are turn based. The game calls it "active cost card battle", but really this just means you can see the order of who attacks at the top of the screen. Abilities in battle are based off a bar at the top that can fill up to 9. It fills by the characters attacking regularly or by the characters being hit. Needless to say, the strongest of the abilities cost more. Also there is a burst gauge that is filled by the number of hits the enemy takes, while being reduced by the number of hits the enemy gives. When the bar is full you go into burst mode, which allows skills to do much more damage, count combos, and instantly fills the skill bar to 9. When in the alterworlds you have a time limit to being there. You can find items in the field that will extend this time, and if you beat an enemy in about 2 rounds (everyone going twice) battles are considered fast and don't count against your time limit. I think that's all the key points. many people have issues with the quest style set up and the time limit in the alterworlds. As to the quests, that's one of the things I loved most about the game, as well as the class changes Edge and Nell can do with elementals. I'll play so much longer than intended because I just want to complete one more quest. As for the tiem limit, I've never really had an issue where it ran out too soon. The worlds aren't too difficult to navigate, the maps are autodrawn once you've explored a room, as it were, and you lose nothing by running out of time other than you have to start at the beginning again. Monsters that are too weak to you, you can slash outside of battle to get rid of them. Monsters that aren't, it's fairly easy to avoid if you want. As said, the gameplay will turn you on or off. For me, it was a winner. 4/5

Replay: There isn't a real reason to replay. 2/5

Overall: I think it's an incredibly endearing and entertaining game. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who likes NIS games. At the same time, if you're someone who likes constant action and fighting the great evil and getting to the end as fast as you can, this probably isn't for you. Atelier Iris 3 is a game designed for enjoyment, for looking around and exploring, and for stopping to smell the roses (which you can grow in certain alterworlds). 4/5