Atelier Iris 3's subtitle is ostensibly "Grand Phantasm," but we're pretty sure that's either a misprint or secret code for "The Same Half-Baked JRPG You've Played Eight Hundred Times Before." Atelier Iris 3 features little other than a moderately fun item creation mechanic that doesn't particularly matter to gameplay, repetitive dungeons with a novel beat-the-clock mechanic, and a charmingly old-fashioned art style. That doesn't make up for the hours you'll spend wasted in the hub city, the sub-par quality of the art, and the real fact that at this point in the PS2 lifecycle, there's no reason to buy an "okay" RPG... let alone a below-average one.

Turning A Few Hours Into Garbage

If you've never played another JRPG before, you're actually probably going to initially enjoy Atelier Iris 3. When you start up, walking a few generically styled and named characters (Edge? Really? Edge?) around a generic hero guild/quest source isn't going to seem like the same thing you've done in dozens of games. But even a complete newcomer won't take long to realize that time spent in the hub city is time wasted, running from screen to screen to talk to yet another generic fantasy inhabitant of the city. Like an MMO trying to drag out your time spent online, Iris makes you go from NPC to NPC and back over and over again, rather than laying out your quests in a cleaner, less time-wasting fashion. And while the load times aren't murderous, you will start cringing every time you have to enter a building or change areas.

Hello, I am generic cheesecake.

In the hub city, your magic-using character (let's call her "generic navel-baring anime magic-user girl") can perform alchemy. Go to your home base (yet more traveling and load screens), add the various elements you've collected, and you've got another item of some sort. This is the game's most satisfactory element; working the prices of raw supplies to alchemically create more expensive items for resale is a blast, and the crafting trees in the game are well-done. It is satisfying to create and find just the right ingredients to make a truly monstrous weapon.