Six years after her first appearance and after letting Ryza pull the rug out from under her for a sequel, Sophie returns stronger than ever to celebrate 25 years of the Atelier series in a sequel soberly named Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream. With a few weeks to go until it’s released on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam, we were able to get our hands on the game to give you this little preview.

If the Atelier series has long remained unknown to the general public, Atelier Sophie was the first to really try to reach a wider audience, whether by making its game system less complex – if only in its management of time -, or by becoming the first episode to be ported to PC, which did not fail to bring a small dose of additional notoriety to the series, strongly helped by the very positive feedback on Steam for the various episodes. Therefore, nothing more normal than to see Sophie return as an ambassador to celebrate the 25 years of existence of this license, which has been busy with nearly one title per year.

The story begins shortly after the first episode ends and Sophie leaves her hometown to become a seasoned alchemist. Accompanied by her partner Plachta, still looking for a way to find her body, the young alchemist travels the world until she encounters a gigantic tree in front of which a strange event takes place. As the duo approaches, a portal appears and tries to absorb Plachta, but Sophie intervenes and it is the duo who are taken to another world: the world of dreams. Separated from Plachta, Sophie must count on new companions to find her friend in a world that is unknown to her.

It’s hard to say more without being slapped on the wrist, but know that as a self-respecting Atelier, Atelier Sophie 2 perpetuates the good-natured and positive atmosphere characteristic of the series. And this is not the only part of the game that is conservative, since the novelties are generally quite rare.

After a quick introduction, you quickly find your cauldron in order to get down to making objects of all kinds and if the Ryza duology had proposed a very different system and not necessarily very fun, Atelier Sophie 2 returns to a more accessible and directly inherited from the first opus. Thus, we find the trays with boxes that must be filled with the different ingredients. Each of them has one to four specific forms reminiscent of those of the Tetris game and each of them is linked to one of the five elements among the classics water, lightning, wind, fire and light. By correctly placing the different shapes on the board to obtain lines, you can grant bonuses to the objects created as well as increase their quality. It’s intuitive, easy to pick up and quickly addictive if you like puzzles.

To practice alchemy, you will need ingredients and for that you will have to collect in the different areas of the game. Again, no big surprises on the horizon. The areas are closed, certainly larger than in the first Sophie, but we remain in compartmentalized environments dotted with various collection points. We would have liked the studio Gust shows a little more ambition, however difficult to blame them after a more mixed success Atelier Firis despite its attempt at a semi open world. And of course, these areas will also be meeting places with different warlike creatures that you will have to slay with your companions.

If the fights remain overall very similar to previous episodes, some small changes are still appearing. First of all, starting a fight no longer causes loading, it is played directly where you encounter the enemy, which improves the fluidity of the adventure and avoids breaking immersion by taking up dated mechanics and more linked to technical restrictions, which no longer have to exist today. Then, the combat interface gained a bar of TP

Acronyme du mot anglais "TelePort", que l'on peut traduire par le néologisme "téléportation". Un TP désigne un "portail" permettant d'atteindre une autre zone ou un lieu géographiquement éloigné.

">TP for Technical Points, which fills up over the course of the fight and which offers the possibility of using two different skills: Support Guard, which allows you to protect a member of the group by taking a hit in his place while enjoying a defense bonus , and Twin Actions, which allows two characters to use one of their skills at the same time. Finally, another bar appears and this one, when filled, allows two characters to execute a very powerful special attack called Dual Trigger.

Finally, Atelier Sophie 2 benefits from a small graphic update, especially visible on the side of the characters, finer and more detailed than ever. Their designs are always so successful, even if we will not avoid the character with frankly limited outfit to highlight his generous plastic. What is certain is that with the return of Sophie, we can at least say goodbye to the exaggerated body physics that characterized the character of Ryza. As for the decorations, the evolution is slow and the graphics engine always shows its limits, but in 4K on PC, we can’t say that it’s ugly either, far from it and some decorations are even very pretty if we ignore poorly detailed textures. As for the music, there again no surprise, it remains one of the strong points of the license.

What to say about this first experience on Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream ? If this anniversary episode does not seem to want to shake up habits, it does not come empty-handed either and the start promises great things both in terms of the script and the Gameplay

Terme anglais difficilement traduisible désignant à la fois l'ensemble des règles gouvernant le jeu et le plaisir de jeu. Un MMOG au gameplay novateur offrira une expérience de jeu inédite au joueur. De même, un jeu revendiquant un "bon gameplay" sera amusant et attractif.

">gameplay, which could well make it an episode worthy of the top of the basket for the license. And what could be better than going through this new adventure alongside one of the series’ most popular heroines? Come on, see you on February 25 on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch or PC to have the end of the story.

Important clarification: the game is not translated into French and contains only English texts. As for dubbing, the choice is allowed between English and Japanese voices.