After 14 hours of alchemic deeds, I'm done with Atelier Rorona Plus.
Although I managed to clear all assignments with three-star rankings—bar the
last one, which reaped only two stars—the fact that I totally neglected to
build up my popularity during my playthrough meant that I could only pretend to
the Normal Ending and its rather uneventful outcome. I have to admit that for
the time being, I really can't fathom how I could have cranked up my popularity
to the sky-high levels required for the better endings. I mean, I hardly had
enough time to fulfill the assignments, let alone run errands for the
townspeople! I guess this is manageable with more experience, and I'm pretty
sure seasoned Atelier players can get all the endings with their hands
tied behind their backs. What I'm also pretty sure of is that I won't ever
become one of them.
At some point in the game, Rorona's mercurial master Astrid asks her if she
loves alchemy, and I couldn't help but take that question personally. Do I love
alchemy? Well, not quite. I obviously like it to some extent, given that
I cleared the whole game without having to force myself too much; but my
feelings for virtual alchemy are pitifully tepid when compared to my burning
love for all things grinding, roaming and crawling. To put it simply, there are
at least half a dozen RPG subgenres that I love more than alchemic RPGs à la Atelier.
I certainly didn't expect that; as I mentioned in my last post
about Rorona,
I expected to adore the series and enjoy it deeply. Alas, a blast this was not.
Although I finally managed to relax and get used to the gameplay, I was never
really enthralled by the game. I plodded through the whole thing, doing only
what was strictly necessary to progress and never feeling compelled to
accomplish more. Not that I could really have, anyway; I don't have the knack
for multi-tasking, neither in real-life nor in videogames—and the game didn't
really accommodate me with its somewhat unclear interface and messy gameplay.
(For instance, the fact that recipes sometimes require a specific trait rather
than a specific ingredient was too complicated for my taste; I would have
preferred to deal solely with clear-cut base ingredients.)
All in all, my biggest issue with Rorona's gameplay lies in the
degree of freedom alloted by the game, which I would describe as too large to
be reassuring yet too narrow to be exhilarating. Rorona offers neither
the compelling and fulfilling freedom of dungeon-crawlers—a favourite gaming
subgenre of mine—nor the stimulating and challenging constriction of puzzle and
adventure games—another favourite subgenre of mine. The former allow a
seemingly limitless number of ways to play while the latter tolerate only a
single one; they are standing at opposite ends of the freedom spectrum and are
riveting because of their extreme nature. Rorona, on the other end,
lounges somewhere in the middle of the spectrum—with the lack of intensity to
match. This is a game that requires the player to do their best in a given time
and with a limited amount of resources; in practice, this means that there is
neither a single suitable way nor thousands of them to play your way out of an
assignment, but rather a general course of action allowing a limited number of
variations. Deviate too much from that stringent course of action and you'll
get a Game Over as a punishment for your wayward ways. The same kind of limited
freedom can be found in Fates, and I'm starting to think that this is
actually the essence of strategy as a gaming genre. "Do your best with
what you're given, and try again if you're not happy with the result"
could be the motto of such strategy-flavoured games. While I'm adamant that I
can never come to love these games as much as I adore dungeon crawlers and
puzzle/adventure games, I'm pretty sure that I can learn to genuinely like and
enjoy them on the long run.
When all is said and done, I'm definitely not swearing off Atelier games.
Although my playthrough of Rorona was not the most enrapturing run of my
gaming life, it was still pleasant enough to make me want to play the other Atelier
games I own. I will just play them my way, accepting my limitations and
focusing on what I feel capable of accomplishing without fretting over what I'm
missing out. On the other hand, I don't think I will invest in any more Atelier
games from now on, and I highly doubt I will ever replay Rorona in
particular. My only hope now is that the other Atelier games I own will
somehow prove more interesting and gripping than Rorona. Hope springs
eternal in the heart of the gamer who wants to recoup their investment, indeed!
Thanks for reading, and be my
guest anytime!
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