Atelier Sophie 2 is the latest installment in Tecmo Koei’s Atelier series. The game marks a return to its roots with an emphasis on crafting and item synthesis, but also includes gameplay improvements such as more combat options and higher difficulty levels that take into account player feedback from last year’s release of Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings.
Atelier Sophie 2 is a puzzle role-playing video game developed by Gust and published by Koei Tecmo. The latest livestream revealed even more gameplay details, but it looks like there’s also a collaboration coming up with the upcoming Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings.
This article contains affiliate links, which means we may receive a profit if you buy anything via them at no additional cost to you. We may earn money as an Amazon Associate by making eligible purchases. Find out more.
On its most recent planned livestream, Koei Tecmo revealed many more facts about the next newest installment in Gust’s Atelier series, Atelier Sophie 2. We now get a clearer look at the game’s primary gameplay features, rather than merely teasing bits of the plot and character sets.
The Prelude to the Prelude is a prelude to the prelude (Announcement Recap)
2
While the game’s existence has been known for some time, the first significant and official revelation for Atelier Sophie 2 took place during Koei Tecmo’s TGS 2021 dedicated presentation program. The reveal was timed to coincide with another Gust development announcement, this time for the game Blue Reflection Tie.
Apart from the sequel’s core idea, little much was divulged, as anticipated. The game takes place after the events of Atelier Sophie 1, but before the events of Atelier Firis. Even simply viewing the teaser trailer reveals a lot about this: (present) Plachta is still in her doll body (thus pointing to a time after the first game, but before the events of Atelier Lydie & Suelle).
The apparition of a much younger (and bubblier) Plachta and Sophie’s previous babysitter Ramizel provides the viewer with another more tempting hint to the game’s setting. It’s hardly the time travel setup you’re looking for, however. Because it is situated in a fresh new artificial planet called Erde Wiege, as shown by the arrival of new characters including Alette, Diebold, and, most notably, Elvira.
The utilization of a dual-panel layout is teased in the short introduction of the new alchemy choices. By having an AI “suggest” much of the fundamental items, this feature makes it much simpler to optimize the choice of materials for synthesis. High-end goods, on the other hand, may still need manual synthesizing for the first time in order to access them in the late game.
And, of course, compared to the original Mysterious (Fushigi) trilogy, the small graphical upgrade makes it much closer to Atelier Ryza in terms of graphics.
Alternate skins, product bundles, and other items are revealed in the remainder of the advertising material, which will be presented even during yesterday’s current video.
Information Updates on the Livestream (Summary)
The first half of the broadcast was devoted to a summary of most of the previous month’s announcements. This largely consists of character biographies as well as an explanation of the world’s core idea. The majority of the material was gradually uploaded to the official website of the game.
The audience was treated to these quick system and adjustments introductions as far as fresh information was concerned:
- Item farming has been redesigned to produce more items every try. Different sorts of new minigames were created to spice up the action and to reward committed players, since you may more or less pick the categories of things you wish to harvest by playing successfully.
- Other people’s lives were made easier by the ingredient farming activity. A synthesis hint indication appears as the items are received, providing instant information on the relevance of a given component for a specific sort of synthesis.
- Sophie and (young) Plachta are revealed to have diverse synthesis techniques, which might appear as various item effects (a la old Atelier) or whole separate products.
- Change the environment by manipulating the weather using unique consumables (used on certain terminals) (for extra paths, field bonuses, etc.). These “weather” consumables, like other created goods, may be synthesized.
- The aura system has been added to opponent encounters, providing break conditions to spice up conventional battle and allowing players to get an additional turn if they successfully shatter an aura.
There were also a few Quality of Life upgrades for Atelier Sophie 2 that were influenced by the later Mysterious trilogy games and Atelier Ryza 1 & 2, such as:
- A minimap of an area’s full territory is now accessible.
- The progression indication, which is shown immediately on the minimap, advises you what to do next (as a blue arrow).
- Right from the start, there’s a fast forward function for both sceneries and combat (no need to clear the game first).
- The story’s summary section neatly displays unlocked scenes as well as those that have yet to be triggered.
The last segment of the broadcast focused on the game’s aesthetic aspects. More precisely, concept art with further explanations for character, enemy, and environment design, among other things.
For those who don’t have time to listen to all of the new information specifics, a condensed version in the form of a fresh new trailer is accessible here (also includes other details already revealed before).
Additional Information about the Collaboration
A very brief announcement of a partnership between Atelier Sophie 2 and Bandai Namco’s Tales or Arise was made towards the conclusion of the broadcast. There were no specifics given, but it’s probable that this will come in the form of further DLC for Tales of Arise, which is currently the sole game of the two that is officially accessible.
The collaboration was approved solely because both businesses are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. When Atelier Sophie 2 is eventually published, will it get its end of the Tales collab? It ought to be.
Atelier Sophie 2: Fushigi-na Yume no Renkinjutsushi (Atelier Sophie 2: Fushigi-na Yume no Renkinjutsushi) (Atelier Sophie 2: Fushigi-n The film will be released on February 24, 2022. Official Atelier franchise website: https://www.gamecity.ne.jp/atelier/sophie2/ Genre: Alchemy Simulation RPG Official Atelier franchise website: https://www.gamecity.ne.jp/atelier/sophie2/ Official YT (Japanese): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyF1q25e j9MytZR4sGLiDA Twitter (Japanese): https://twitter.com/GustAtelierPR/ Official YT (Japanese): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyF1q25e j9MytZR4sGLiDA Format of distribution: whole game (Paid title) Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC are all supported (Steam) Gust, Koei Tecmo, Koei Tecmo, Koei Tecmo, Koei Tecmo
