This is my personal review of Atelier Meruru: The apprentice of Arland. As a fan of the Atelier Arland series, I knew I had to get the game in order to finish the trilogy. After extensively playing through the game, I would like to give my overall opinion on it.
(and there's a few spelling mistake in the text near the end of the video)
Atelier Meruru is a rpg that has both a traditonal turn based combat system and a time system which l means you have to complete certain objectives before certain dates. Doing certain actions such as synthesizing, material gathering, fighting, traveling, etc. will cost time. Lengthwise, it took me about 29 hours to complete the game. But there is replay value with the different kind of endings you can unlock.(that and the overall gameplay style of the game enables you to play differently each time)
Platform: Playstation 3
Developer: Gust
Publisher: Nis of America
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Pros:
Fantastic alchemy system
Fun combat system
Open structure(even though Atelier Totori is more open ended)
Returning characters interactions are great
Art style will appeal greatly to fans of the series
Cons:
New characters not as good as other in the trilogy
Time management might scare off players
Art style might not be appealing to new comers
Summary:
Atelier Meruru is a great way to end the trilogy. It got a light hearted story that I enjoyed, the combat system is improved and actually fun to me, the alchemy system is fantastic as the previous games, and developing areas around arls is very rewarding. There are a few stuff that it does better than Atelier Totori, such as combat system being more engaging in Atelier Meruru, but there are also a few stuff that it does that is inferior to Atelier Totori, such as Atelier Meruru being less open than Atelier Totori but I still have to say that Atelier Meruru is on par with Atelier Totori. But overall, I still have to say that Atelier Meruru is still a fantastic way to end the trilogy. It improved on various gameplay mechanics such as the combat system and gave us one last chance to play the numerous characters that we meet through the trilogy as the Atelier Arland games come to an end.
