Introduction

Welcome! Trouble's brewing again in Dream Land, and it's up to Kirby to… no, wait, wrong franchise and wrong dream world, THAT Dream Land isn't even an isekai! Instead, let's talk about That Time I Woke Up In Dream World: Let's Play Atelier Sophie 2!

The girl in the front looks awfully familiar. Don't tell me…

That is, in fact, Sophie Neuenmuller, starring once more in Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream (PS4/Switch/PC)! This, the 23rd entry in the long-running Atelier series, got a worldwide release in February 2022—the first ever for an Atelier game! This series has made it! :toot:

In fall 2021, multiple years after the Mysterious trilogy concluded with Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings, I certainly wasn't expecting Gust to revisit the Mysterious setting, much less that Sophie would star in another game like Ryza did. Where Atelier Ryza 2 was released right after Ryza's first game as a direct sequel set four years after the events therein, Atelier Sophie 2 is set shortly before the events of Atelier Firis and longer yet before the events of Atelier Lydie & Suelle.

Where most Atelier games have multiple endings, Sophie's first game has just the one wherein she leaves her hometown with her good friend and mentor Plachta, setting out to follow her late grandmother's footsteps by taking the Alchemist Certification Exam in a distant burg. Sophie 2 happens when the duo get isekai'd somewhere along the way and arrive in Erde Wiege, a dream world where no one ages and everyone has indefinite time to pursue their dreams and ambitions before they return to the real world, whatever locale and era they hail from.

What twists does Sophie 2 take with the Atelier formula? How are you going to cover the game?

Like with most Atelier titles from Shallie onward, Sophie 2 has no time limit to speak of. Having come out after the first two Ryza games, the game's exploring and gathering will look very familiar to anyone who played either. At the same time, it makes a (welcome, imo) return to the series' traditional turn-based combat, with a frontline and a rear guard like several of the other pre-Ryza titles. For crafting and combat, the game starts off with a returning Atelier protagonist with all the combat prowess and alchemic skill she had at the end of her home game, and that has implications for the combat and alchemy in a second game starring her. Still, when it comes to how the game does alchemy, there's a curveball waiting in the wings and we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

The game's story is short and sweet, but it has a very deep and addictive crafting system that gets the player to spend an inordinate amount of time optimizing bombs and weapons and you are going to love it and want to do it. I'll be sure to cover the ins and outs of what makes this game's crafting special, as well as the obligatory character arcs start to finish. Luckily for me, Sophie 2 has a very small and focused cast of named characters, especially compared to your baseline Atelier game. Hell, Ryza 3 in early 2023 has more party members alone than Sophie 2 has named characters! I suppose that comes with the territory of having a much more star-studded VO cast than your baseline Atelier game too.

So this game is set between Sophie 1 and Firis/L&S? How will you handle spoilers?

The Mysterious trilogy concluded in 2018, so we're talking about three games that have been out for 4+ years and an eternity in COVID time by now. Talking about what happens in the OG Mysterious trilogy without spoiler tags is fair game in this thread. There's absolutely nothing, not a single thing in Firis or Lydie & Suelle that so much as hints at the existence of a dream world isekai in the Mysterious trilogy's setting, let alone anything that would seriously spoil plot beats or character arcs for this game. That having been said, Sophie 2 touches on the cast of Sophie 1 and some major plot beats in Sophie 1 within the first 30 minutes or so of playtime, so if you haven't played Sophie 1 but are interested in it and really don't want to be spoiled on anything pertaining to that game, I'd advise you against following this LP.

As for this game, its place in the Mysterious timeline means there's only one possible way it can end: after some time and somehow, Sophie and Plachta leave the isekai and return to their travels in the real world. They then go to an isolated mining town where Sophie meets Firis and takes her in as her apprentice, Sophie passes the certification exam like her grandmother before her, and some years after that, they arrive in the city where Lydie and Suelle live, and it's there that Sophie and Plachta's storyline finally comes to a conclusion. (I'd know a thing or two about that.)

Now, as for that somehow and what elapses during that some time? I think it's produced the best Atelier game in a generation, and that's what I'd like for you to keep mum about or talk about in spoiler tags if you really need to talk about it. Well, with one exception: that lady behind Sophie who looks a hell of a lot like her? Anyone with a pulse can put two and two together and figure out that they're related, and I won't begrudge anyone talking about who she is or what her relation to Sophie is before her actual introduction.

Other Atelier Mysterious trilogy SSLPs
A19: Atelier Lydie & Suelle

Other Atelier/Gust game SSLPs you may enjoy
A6: Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana by Overrated Sage
A7: Atelier Iris 2 by Feinne
A9: Mana Khemia by Feinne
A11, A12 and A13: Atelier Arland Trilogy by Sylphid
A14: Atelier Ayesha by Sylphid
A15: Atelier Escha & Logy by Sylphid
A16: Atelier Shallie by Sylphid and Atelier Shallie DX by yours truly
A20: Atelier Lulua by Sylphid

Ar Tonelico by Feinne
Ar Tonelico 2 by Feinne
Ar Tonelico Qoga by Feinne

Endgame: Guide to Twilight Prism-ing

Because I’m a crazy person, I decided to try another strategy for beating up the final boss on a higher difficulty. The strategy is adapted from this guide for Very Hard, and I can confirm it holds up perfectly fine on Charismatic difficulty. As for Legendary, well… I had to play it by ear and be a lot more aggressive than what the guide writer suggested (read: have Sophie use the Flame of the End with Aura Damage XL for its default 10 Aura damage), but the basic equipment and specs outlined in this guide will still work on that difficulty.

Anyway, Plachta’s signature bomb, the Twilight Prism, scales off of her massive MP stat. When you hit its maximum Light threshold, you get Wild Rainbow, which in addition to its massive base magic damage, uses up all her MP and increases her damage output by 1% for each point of MP expended. So if you min-max Plachta's MP, you can up the Twilight Prism's damage output to the point it can even OHKO bosses, which is rather preferred given she may very well be left without any MP to fire it off again afterward! And because the final boss is very resistant to debuffs even on Hard difficulty, Ennui Mirrors and Pure White Corrosion are no longer reliable for getting rid of her Aura. This requires a change in tactics to lay the groundwork for her to use the Twilight Prism.

Since Plachta’s the centerpiece of this strategy, she gets all the special gear.

What’s most important for effect levels on her armor is the last Light threshold, 14 for Item Boost +15%. I kept Evolve the Body and swapped out Develop the Body and All-Stat Power for Awakened Spirit (MP+100, Awakening x Sage’s Wisdom) and Dragon God Soul (MP+100 and restores 15MP per turn, Dragon God Blessing x Sage’s Wisdom).

I didn’t have many adjustments to make with the Divine Punisher; I just swapped out Persistent Attack for Dragon God Wrath, which in addition to its very good secondary effect, raises Plachta’s MP by another 30 by dint of its boosting all stats by 30. Speaking of said secondary effect, it's only going to be the weapon that has Dragon God Wrath this time around. The Twilight Prism does three separate hits, so Dragon God Wrath will boost the first, second and third hits by 25%, 50% and 75% respectively.

(as an aside: the key threshold to hit here is 19 Ice for Item Boost +15%. Given the components of the ingredients involved, it really shouldn't be hard to hit that threshold and then some as well as hitting 10 Light and 10 Lightning links to add in another Philosopher's Stones and Ōkeagyrn to juice up the stats even further.)

Now, I have to revisit the Gunfighter Talisman in earnest. For this build, I want to boost Plachta's item power by as much as possible, so its Item Boost +15% at the 15 Ice threshold beats out the Synergy Talisman giving +10% to both skill and item power. In addition, Plachta's new talisman and accessory will serve as additional vectors for +MP traits.

In addition to Dragon God Soul and Awakened Spirit, I added Awakened Endurance (HPMP Supercharge x Awakening, HP/MP+80). For reference, HPMP Supercharge itself is the merger of Life Force and Sage’s Wisdom.

Here’s her accessory. The key threshold here is 13 Ice for Empathetic Heart, which boosts Twin Action damage by 30%. The 15 Lightning threshold for Trembling Yarn doesn’t hurt either–that increases TP gain by 30%, even if this strategy requires that Plachta not take part in any Twin Actions and staying put in the rear guard until the boss' aura goes down.

Now, that was a lot of crafting to min-max Plachta's MP. Time for the Twilight Prism, which I'll want to stack item power-increasing traits on.

Evil Cores have the trait Devil’s Brand by default. Like Awakening, Transcendent Mastery, and Dragon God Blessing, it combines with other traits to upgrade them; its gimmick is that it massively increases power in exchange for adding a negative side effect. Two of the final product’s traits will have something involving it.

It really helps that literally all the Twilight Prism’s ingredients are intermediary, which affords me ample opportunity to merge Devil’s Brand and Dragon God’s Blessing with their respective target traits. And here’s the loadout:

You can see on the screenshot what Dragon God Roar does and where it comes from; with the other traits on the output, its secondary effect will scale up the bomb’s damage by a lot. The other two are Demon Flare (doubles item’s power in exchange for consuming 20% of max HP, Extremely Devastating x Devil’s Brand) and Demon Throw (increases item’s power by 80% but extends wait time after use by 150%, Strong Throw x Devil’s Brand). For reference, Demon Flare is actually stronger than the Awakened version of Extremely Devastating.

Item power also scales off of quality, so I appreciate the Super Synthesis proc very nearly maxing out the Twilight Prism’s quality.

Next up is the means for everyone else to deplete the boss’ aura. It’ll also double as a way to increase the rest of the party's HP and survivability, since this strategy hinges on everyone not named Plachta hitting the Block and Support Guard buttons to tank the boss’ hits. That’s where the Destructive Talisman comes in.

For once when synthesizing talismans, the top level effect threshold actually matters. 20 Wind yields Destructive Crest XL, which increases guard damage reduction by 25%, and when someone successfully blocks an attack, does an additional 3 Aura damage and applies aura inhibition (well, depending on the boss' resistance to status effects). You can see from Part 19 that this shaves off between 3 to 7 Aura each time the boss hits someone who's guarding, and so if the boss hits the entire front line and they've all hit the block/support guard button, her Aura goes down by 9. Needless to say, everyone not named Plachta has to be able to survive enough of those hits for this strategy to work.

So the Destructive Talisman is accordingly the vector for +HP traits: Awakened Vitality (HP+200, Life Force x Awakening) and Dragon God Spirit (HP+175 and restores 30HP per turn; Life Force x Dragon God Blessing, but I also found this trait innately on Dragon Bloodstones).

No changes to everyone else’s weapons and armors and accessories were needed. As you can see, building around this strategy mostly involved changing traits, and the traits on everyone else’s weapons and armors sufficed to increase durability and survive just long enough on Legendary difficulty.

And this is Plachta, min-maxed for her MP just for this, her signature bomb. As for how much damage that signature bomb does when the boss' aura goes down? As seen in the last fight of Part 19…something to the order of multiple hundreds of thousands. Even more if you get lucky with your debuff procs and slap the boss with Curse stacks.

The Let's Play Archive

Atelier Sophie 2

by Jerry Manderbilt

Introduction

Table of Contents