Been spending most of today playing Atelier Lulua, and I'm a big fan. As I mentioned briefly the other day, the game has something of a feel of Atelier Iris about it, and that feeling is only getting stronger the further I go and the more the game opens up.
Specifically, I'm getting the feeling I got from the first Atelier Iris where there was a main plot that I should probably go and do at some point, but a lot of the appeal came from dropping in on my favourite shopkeepers and seeing what was going on with them, or doing some sidequests that were ultimately of little importance to the main narrative, but which still had some nice interactions between the characters to enjoy as a reward.
Thus far I've been enjoying seeing Lulua getting to know Totori and Mimi, and Totori having grown very gracefully into full adulthood. There's none of the sense of "exhaustion" she has in Atelier Meruru, and she manages to radiate a sense of responsibility and trustworthiness without sacrificing her natural gentleness — and indeed it seems that over the years her confidence in showing her playful side has grown somewhat, too. This is especially apparent any time we see her interacting with Mimi, who is, as always, a delight.
An interesting aspect of Atelier Lulua is that a significant proportion of it involves figuring things out for yourself from clues rather than being told explicitly what to do next. I really like this, as it fits well with the way the narrative has been going so far, and adds something of a "puzzle" feeling to the game as a whole. There are also lots of optional objectives with very worthwhile rewards, so the game has been keeping me busy and very happy for the 12 hours or so I've been playing so far.
Looking forward to writing about it, but there's a little while to go before that happens yet!
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