Okay, now that I got some of my frustrations aired out in my last post, I can talk about some of the good things going on in Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana.
The item variety is simply staggering. Few games have come close to the amount of different goodies that you can make or find here (not accounting for things like procedurally-created stuff i.e. Borderlands or Diablo). There were some missteps, but Gust wanted to make a 'traditional' RPG with their signature crafting and material hunting, and it works out pretty damned well. Even the 'trash' items actually have value for things like mass-production and mana extraction (Iris 2 really could've used that last part). The in-game economy is not nice, but it gives you an incentive to actually farm and craft and recycle your inventory.
And to top it all off, all these things wind up having some point in the end. Somebody at Gust was feeling mean when they worked out the combat system, then they compensated by adding in all sorts of curatives and useful offensive items. Then they upped the ante by giving you both direct creation of items via magical elements, and a second system that's much more in line with Atelier's "shop of wonders" tradition. I can see why the hardcore Atelier fans prefer this to 2. I don't completely agree with their opinion, but it's quite understandable.
Another nice touch is the Mana Love/Energy system. Simply put, you find and recruit elemental spirits (much like say, the World of Mana series) and using their powers drains from a finite pool, which is improved and replenish by giving them items. There's all sorts of variables, but it's fairly simple to find an item that a particular Mana really likes (though not always easy to hand over in quantity) so that you can get the most distance from your loot pile.
There's more to tell, but I'm actually a bit too spazzed to keep writing. Hopefully I'll get to expound and elucidate further soon. The Harvest Never Rests!
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