Atelier Ryza: "Ever Summer Queen & the Secret Island"

I liked: + The forgettable yet very pleasant music I disliked: - The length - it was a much shorter DLC than I was hoping for If I could give this a "Meh" rating, I would, but since this DLC is kinda lazy, it gets a thumbs down.

A really short story, set somwhere after the events in the port. You have to play it from the episodes part of the main menu, not included in the main game. After finishing it, it unlocks a new, mid game gathering area for the main game. Only buy this on sale.

7/10 game Pro - Loved the characters, love the way they give each other (particularly Ryza) a bit of banter. Kinda cute and charming - Combat is fun, big and flashy and not too hard - Not too grindy, but to be honest the gear synthesis grind was at the end of my patience. Luckily the game is forgiving enough that you don't have to sacrifice your life to make the BEST GEAR EVAH. I went some way, 999 quality all round but never went beyond mid level gear and I finished the game pretty easily. This is good planning on their part. - Synthesis is very deep and absorbing - Music is 7/10 but high quality - Boobs Con - Shonky animation outside combat. Just jump and you see what I mean - Minimal explanation of synthesis tricks, expect to spend a lot of time Googling. I also found it a bit hard to find quality guides that weren't video (shudder) - Ridiculours boobs

In this episode, you are on a new island and you don't have your progress from your main save. You have your whole party to choose from and they all start with a pretty weak set of equipment and items. The island has a lot of available materials to gather but not all of them. You also have access to many recipes but not all of them. You basically have to beat a boss monster and you're barely strong enough. The monsters don't give much experience so you don't really level up. So to complete this side story, you need to gather materials, figure out which recipes you can do, gear up your team and kill the boss. At the end you get a nice scene and the island becomes accessible in your main save. It is short, takes about an hour, but it is a fun dlc.