Recent reviews by suikoder

Too much to do, too little time.
Even more to do, even less time.

I wish the main game was focused on bonus games, not other way around. Other than that, it is a nice game, plenty of types of solitaires amongst bonus games, looks nice, and main game is good.

Sometimes looks are deceiving, but sometimes they are not. This game is as bad as it looks, and those troll achievements don't make it any better. The game has 20 levels where you break 10 pipes at most, but it has achievement for 500 broken pipes? seriously? and that is only one example.

much better than the first game, can recommend this one.

As good as people keep telling you it is.

a clever little game that's fun too,
oh, and thanks for bananas, vested interest

I would leave it a neutral review, but as steam doesn't allow it, I'll have to leave a negative one.

The problem with Fata Morgana is that it is not a bad VN as such but it is a very boring one, like I'd say unbearably so, considering its length, and as it isn't really bad, you might think that you just need to man up and finish it, but... it never really gets interesting and here is why:
1. Repetition, the worst crime a writer can commit, repetition is not good and it should be minimized, if it's required (different perspective from different characters), it should be done in such a different way as not to look like repetition.
2. Screaming, moaning, and other random sounds doesn't transition well to the written form, instead of doing AAAAAAAAAAAs, author is way better of telling what a certain character feels, that's what literature is for.
3. Characters are so one dimensional and shallow that they look like dolls with horrible stories for the most part. I don't need my literature to be realistic, no, but some depth to characters would have been nice. To be fair, it is a tad rectified at the end, but that's too little too late.
4. Interminable fussing over every little detail, on and on and on.
5. There is not enough going on for it being as long as it is.
6. Some nitpicking: art is odd, static characters look nice, but sometimes when they change position or show emotion they look nothing like themselves. Backgrounds leave much to be desired.
7. Final word, assuming that it is a mystery VN, it makes you wait for some suspense, and it is simply not there.

sweet and short RPG, no filler, fair share of secrets, wide choice of characters, interesting combat system with a lot of depth and customizable for any playstyle

Amazingly enough it's one of the best dungeon crawl games! or it could be but only if before playing it you've spent ~150 hours on previous games and there is no way around it, reading summaries won't cut it in this case.
It also has: nice cozy dungeons with plenty of healing spots, teleporting and a home base full of books.
Like other Trails games, it has superb mouse controls.
Will mouse paradise end with this game? That is the question.

How Atelier Firis could turn to be the last Atelier game I play.

In my long history with Atelier games I never was disappointed by any of them until Firis, and they never were so ambitious as Firis is, but not this, or lack of polish, or not the best port are reasons for my disappointment.

So what's good about Firis:
1.it's the open world in nature, for the first time in the Atelier game
2. Complexity of alchemy is a notch down from Sophie, but in general alchemy feels better in Firis.
3. Character endings are back
4. The world is nice and monster design is great.
5. It's a huge game
6. learning alchemy and taking an actual exam of it is an interesting idea.
7. Many interesting characters with their stories.
8. Chain quests

what's not so good:
1. Localization is poor
2. Quest descriptions for many quests are wrong past the first step
3. A game is way too demanding on hardware and runs poorly
4. There are some glitches.

the ugly:
1. No real fast travel for 30-40 hours, depends on how fast you get there.
2. Even when you get fast travel, it is limited, as there are parts of the world that allow no fast travel, and these aren't small locations, also filled with dangerous monsters (that can wipe out even strong party) without ability to save your game, of course.
3. Sophie had an interesting system of unlocking alchemy recipes, which Firis ditched in favour of guessing what you should do and how many times to unlock what, yes guessing.
4. Alchemy results in Firis are strongly dependent on quality, yet you can't register a single item in this game (just let it sink in). What means creating the same items ad nauseam over and over again, what takes extra hours upon hours of playtime for no reason.
5. ridiculously small initial storage space available to you (you easily get it filled in first three-four locations) and you have no ability to sell anything for a long time after that. It never becomes sufficient too.
6. Many character events are pure guesswork too, and not something that is obvious, or even logical or easy to guess because of lack of options, nothing of the sort.
7. the game that can't be fully finished without of use of a guide (and that's not a few things but a whole lot of them), is not a well designed game in my book.

so those seven reasons are that make me think that Firis can be my last atelier game. I can't tolerate even one of those, all of them? overkill.
This is an end of era. I still have a hope that Gust will get some feedback and won't repeat all numerous mistakes they made with Firis.

I only recommend this game because it has redeeming qualities, but if you wanna a real good Atelier game, you should play Atelier Sophie instead.