Atelier Totori ~The Adventurer of Arland~ DX

This has to be the roughest Atelier available on Steam. It's easy to notice the lack of QoL compared to what Rorona had, because that one was remade and this one wasn't. It may feel like you are playing an older game if you are going in order.
It is not possible to sort through traits. This makes the process of crafting equipment and items a bit more annoying, but I'd say that it is still at least easier to get the best traits on stuff than it was in Rorona? That's how it felt in my experience. The cost points are determined by the level of the items you are transferring, I think.
You need a guide if you want to get the true ending. It really isn't possible to get everything done on your own without one. There are a lot of missable things that can mess up your playthrough, like needing to come home with a full basket with a certain character in your party or else you'll miss every other event they have later, or needing to keep your basket full when you talk to the shopkeeper in Arland to unlock more space. I could only carry 60 items per trip for the entire game, and accidentally found the "secret" way to increase the storage limit to 100 on my second playthrough.
These are the only things I didn't like, really. There is also Melvia's entire existence, but we aren't talking about that. I'd now like to comment about the things I enjoyed.
Totori is my favorite Atelier protagonist. There is just something really nice about her that I like more than the rest of the main characters I've seen so far. Maybe it's her English voice actor, because her performance was amazing! The perfect pick for Totori.
I like the story of how she is looking for her mother, and aspiring to be both a great alchemist and adventurer at the same time. If others tell her it is impossible, she won't listen to them. She does it all anyway, and that is something great.
The returning cast in a sequel is always something to look forward to. Some of the characters have changed quite a lot, like Sterk and Rorona. It's interesting to see what happened to them. And I'm glad we also get to see Cordelia! The sister that Esty mentioned is actually in this game too. The rest of the new characters are for you to see.
As for gameplay, I think the wide map was nice, with all of the different islands and gathering locations. Even though having to travel many days for some of them was annoying, that eventually isn't a problem anymore once you unlock the Warp Gate.
There is nothing to complain about with the alchemy, other than the sorting issue. It's a lot like how it was in Rorona, and I'm sure it will be the same in Meruru as well. I like it that way!
Collecting points for your adventurers license was something I found fun. It was always nice to see those ranks go up whenever you complete any objective. That being simply crafting 30 items or slashing through 50 slime creatures, or something even bigger. There is a lot to do. Especially if you want to get to the max rank, which is completely unnecessary by the way. The highest you need to get for a lot of the endings, is Cobalt rank. Galaxy is the most you can get, and that requires you to do almost everything in the book, or maybe even everything. It's only if you're that much of a completionist.
The character portraits are great as always. Honorable mention here! I had to bring them up at some point.
And there we have it! Atelier Totori was a tough, but fun game. I had more fun on my second playthrough, because I mostly knew what I was doing for that one. After spending a while reading through all of the ending requirements, I was able to drop the guide near the end and finish the rest on my own. I went from thinking it wasn't possible to get 100% achievements, to actually having a good amount of months to spare by the time I met the criteria for everything. It is possible! I think what you really need for this game is patience. And a guide to get an understanding of what you need to complete at what timeline, but not a guide that tells you what to do throughout the entire adventure. I'd say journey, but this is about being an "Adventurer of Arland."
That is all for now. Next up is Meruru!

This was my first Atelier game on the PS Vita so it was great to revisit Totori's journey after all these years. It was hard for me back then but now after playing many other Atelier games, it was a lot of fun and not too hard.
The OSTs in this one are by far my favorite due to nostalgia.
Totori is so cute and funny!!

Steam Deck: FMVs don't work, so no opening or credits, and shop keepers crash the game ONLY if you talk them DIRECTLY after a cutscene inside their shop where you're still inside the shop afterwards (this includes Ceci in the bar). Everything else runs well.
I usually do not like these coming of age stories, but Totori's is just so cute. The music is absolutely wonderful, and I really love the dynamic of the cast. There are some very poorly aged scenes and lines, but overall, it is a fairly wholesome game that I would feel pretty comfortable giving to a kid to play through.
Combat is more involved than Rorona, and alchemy is missing a lot of quality of life additions the other two got.
My game time is a little inflated; I got all of the important endings. If I had not missed one small mechanic I would have been able to 100% my first playthrough, but I hit every pitfall I possibly could have while trying to get them. I'd hazard a guess that the game takes around 18-20 hours for a casual playthrough.

So, as annoyed as I was with the lack of QoL, this is basically the oldest Atelier game on steam from what I understand, as its prequel got updated. So, I can't really fault the game for that, as the newer games improve from this. Also, this game has crashed on me once, pretty sure this has been the only Atelier game to do that to me, otherwise no issues.

There are a lot of things I dislike, but overall, I still enjoyed playing this game, though you will likely need a guide or a wiki at times. The friendship missions for example only trigger in certain places, which wouldn't be a problem if I wasn't always on a timer, though to be fair, I still had about a year left. However, too much wondering could cost you with some of that travel time. IDk I feel like I’d rather be playing Firis or Lulua for an adventure. I think with a little more guidance for the player, this game could have been better.

My very first Atelier and because modernization wise, this was the most primitive of the updated Atelier of the PS3 Ateliers to play and later I would come to know that Atelier Totori would be considered the hardest of the Arland bunch just because of achieving true ending is hard stacked on tight scheduling fit for salary man job and it's unforgiving primitive features even with the DX update. It takes several playthroughs of grinded equipment and money to achieve goal ending.
Superboss Dungeon, Orthogalaxen, is hard as balls, need to stack the best equipment and items to finish this. Blood Element is no slouch, it took me several days and nights to come up a strategy dealing with the Dungeon itself, conserving items to each required boss defeated and not to mentions with the large ass hallway structure the dungeon is constructed whereas the player would have to walk and spend lot of time running around just to get to each boss instead of later games they would either make the map more smaller or even better skip warp to the room when entering the dungeon. Cobalt Skull and Blood Element are the hardest boss you can play against.
The game, although a very hard Atelier game, is fun because of the characters and it's setting. Totori would become the only Alchemist who would travel far and wide compared to other Alchemists in Arland, sans Astrid Zexis of course.
10/10 would bully young Totori again.
PS
she is the only Atelier to shout Barrel when talking to a Barrel

This game probably has the most compelling story and protagonist of the Arland trilogy. Its gameplay has significantly improved over Rorona, though it isn't quite as refined as Meruru. It's a very enjoyable experience for anyone interested in the Atelier franchise.

I never reviewed this...
Well... it is good. Cute game. Sequel to Atelier Rorona, comes before Atelier Meruru.
Atelier Rorona DX is a bit better gameplay / content wise, probably due to being remastered AFTER this one and Meruru DX.
But the whole trilogy plays nice together. This one probably has the most interesting story of the three.

Anyway... I won't drag this out. I'm just trying to find the games I've completed and never reviewed...