Well, That Was Unexpected

It's something of a surprise, to be sure.

After a whirlwind of IRL events, I managed to get enough quiet time to tackle the final assignment of Atelier Rorona.  I didn't pull the evaluation grade I would like, but thanks to getting mostly perfect tens, I could pass and beat the game.

It's a funny thing; an important part of the game's mechanics revolves around turning in items for the big assignments, then using the rest of the in-game time as you see fit.  It's fairly simple in practice:  Do what it takes to get a passing grade (noted as "Complete" on the screen), preferably with a full ten out of ten stars, then use the remaining time to undertake jobs for the local folk and delve into dungeons (to trigger and fuel more jobs), plus do special jobs for party members and shopkeepers.  I'm not quite sure yet, but the final assignment seems to trigger much more lenient and doable collection of jobs for the NPCs.  This worked out well into my favor, since part of the ending requirements are tied to your in-game reputation, which is raised by completing the jobs at the palace counter.  It came as a pleasant shock, to be sure; going into the final assignment, I was barely at 51%, and managed to ramp it up to 94% without much trouble.

It's still funny, how this game is pretty much one big fetch quest.  It's even funnier that it can be loads of fun.  I can't think of many games where I enjoyed tearing about town, handing out goodies, and playing delivery service for the kingdom and suchlike.  Usually RPGs treat this stuff as a necessary evil, but Atelier games turn this into your bread and butter, and actually make it enjoyable in and of itself.

For anybody curious, part of the endings involves which NPC you wind up making your best friend/beau, and despite getting a perfect 100 value for Cloud Sigfried Sterk, I wound up having poor innocent Rorona paired up with Gio.  The guy is more than old enough to be her father, and happens to be the damn king to boot, but A) values were different for that sort of thing back then and B) he's awesomesauce anyway, so I really just had a good laugh and moved on.  And C) the pairing is no more than implied anyway.

Gio, AKA Ludwig Giovanni Arland XIII, is one of the better ideas I've seen in a while.  He's a JRPG character, with all the quirks and tolerance for weirdness that entails, that wants to be an Elder Scrolls protagonist really badly.  His whole shtick to to sneak out and leave Minister Bad Touch in charge so he can tear about the countryside and unleash the Harvest upon the wild and wicked.  This, plus the fact that he does all this in a swank outfit and a damn sword-cane, qualifies him for Rorona's contribution to the "awesomesauce RPG characters that reside in my hall of honor" list and a place with such luminaries as Jade Curtiss and Bacchus D-79 (AKA Space Elf Robocop).

In any case, my final verdict for Atelier Rorona vanilla (I didn't grab any DLC, and there is a remake, named Atelier Rorona Plus), is Recommended, especially for fellow RPG buffs that are looking for something a bit different.  It's far from perfect (I miss Iris' two dimensional backgrounds a lot), but what this game offers is actually pretty well put together, and the emphasis on time-management and multiple playthroughs helps play to its strengths.  You actually are encouraged to do a bit more planning than 'grind for a while, then conquer the unworthy, grind some more' that a lot RPGs expect, and it encourages a bit of mental agility.  It'll take a while, and even veteran gamers will have some missteps, but the learning curve it pretty forgiving, and once you get the rhythm of things going, this game is quite rewarding.

Stay tuned.  I have no idea what the next campaign will be yet, but rest assured that the Harvest will continue!