Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy is taking a little longer than anticipated! I was hoping I might be able to have the whole thing polished off by tomorrow, but I've still got a bit of a way to go in Raze's route, then the "Extra" route at the end for the "true" ending. Rather than doing something silly like staying up super-late several nights in a row, though, I'm going to take my time over it and when it's done, it's done. It's not like I'm on a deadline or anything, and I have something worthwhile to write about it tomorrow anyway, even if it's not the analysis of Raze's complete narrative I was hoping to do.
It seems I was somewhat mistaken in my initial assessment of Atelier games being "generally quite short" (i.e. about 20 hours, which is short for an RPG). I'm now pushing 60 hours in Mana Khemia 2; the first Mana Khemia was about 45 hours, and Atelier Iris 3 was 50 hours or so. At least I know the Arland games, which are coming up after Mana Khemia 2 is done and dusted, actually are fairly short because they're intended to be replayed a few times!
I am absolutely loving my time with the series, though, and I'm glad I set off on this bizarre journey to cover all of them — well, all the Western-released ones, anyway. It's fascinating to see the series evolve over time as Gust experiments with various mechanics and structures. They're an iterative developer; they build on things that work, and cast aside stuff that didn't work. But, importantly, they have the confidence to try things, which is pretty damned impressive when they're pushing these games out on an annual basis.
It will be interesting to see how Atelier Lulua fits into all this. I'll be covering that as part of the Arland games rather than in release order; for those unfamiliar with the series, Lulua was a fourth part to the Arland "trilogy" that was released considerably later than the other three parts. I'm anticipating that there will be some substantial mechanical differences, but it will be good to experience the story while the previous three Arland games are fresh in my mind.
Anyway, that's all stuff to worry about soon! Tomorrow I'll be writing about Mana Khemia 2's excellent New Game Plus mode, then banging out the last few chapters and the Extra mode next week. I've got videos to record over the weekend, and a barbecue to consume, too. Busy busy busy!
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