Atelier Iris 2: Azoth of Destiny | An Underrated Follow-Up

Just one year after Atelier Iris 1 (not even a full year outside of Japan), Iris 2 was released to the world and improved upon pretty much every aspect of the previous entry. In a series that's already pretty overlooked, Atelier Iris 2 seems to be particularly forgotten, but I'd say it's one of the better PS2 entries for the franchise, so let's take a look as to why. All comments about the story being an isekai will be immediately deleted with extreme prejudice.
Iris 1: • Atelier Iris: Eternal ...
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[@HoodlieRPG]

What’s an RPG sequel you think improved so much upon the previous game?

[@missyuu9348]

Can you do mana khemia next? Also do Atelier Iris 3, i love your review everything is detail and spot on. I concidentally finished this game today and found your review

[@HoodlieRPG]

@@missyuu9348 We'll get to the Mana Khemia titles someday. Those mean a lot to me, so I'd like to take my time with them.

[@cruelcumber5317]

Etrian Odyssey 3. The first two EO games are a pair of really good first person dungeon crawlers, but other than the mapping and FOEs, they aren't super groundbreaking, especially since they have a decent amount of jank (something which fans of the genre are accustomed to, but can be off putting to the uninitiated). Etrian Odyssey 3 is where the series started being the incredibly hard to dispute best first person dungeon crawlers, with class, boss, and dungeon design all taking a large step forward and a decent amount of polish that the first 2 lacked, resulting in a pretty noticeable effect on the genre as a whole.

[@SpeedStar1642]

8:33 Certainly my go to front liner in battle and I love that he takes that curse in stride. Like, he's basically cursed with awesome and cuz everyone knows the story, he doesn't face prejudice which is an awesome subversion. And Gray's voiced by the late Bob Papenbrook and I love it. He is definitely one of the more static characters, but this is one that I actually love.

[@HoodlieRPG]

He’s awesome. Guy kills so many dragons, becomes a dragon, just keeps going on like “hey, thanks, now I can breath fire.”

[@SpeedStar1642]

@@HoodlieRPG He's my favorite for those good reasons and dragon party members are always fun to have. And in terms of gameplay, he may have the slowest turn haste, but his attack power definitely makes up for it.

[@5Geass]

Atelier Iris 2 is my absolute FAVORITE 'older' game. I go back and play it often. ;u; Thank you for talking about it! Really wish more people knew about it. c':

[@KindaDrake]

Even though I have no background in this series, I'm in here for the long haul. I've been watching since the Eternal Diva review and it's been a pleasure seeing every one of your videos come in my feed.

[@HoodlieRPG]

Thank ya kindly for the support, it means a lot.

[@sevenheavens4117]

I am not sure if we'll ever see pc ports for these hidden gems, since it was made by Gust. Either way, these games defined my early jrpg days. Mana Khemia and Ar tonelico too. Such good soundtrack, underrated and just forgotten.

[@Mclearmountain]

I’m invested in this Atelier journey. I’m looking forward to your sequential Atelier breakdown/deep-dive videos from here on out. I don’t see myself going back to play any of the old games. Your Atelier videos give me a taste of what each past entry was like. I plan on starting Atelier one day with a shiny new title. I would like for the developers at Gust to stick with Atelier. I can see that it’s something special. As for you Hoodlie, keep it up!

[@SpeedStar1642]

11:04 It’s Nurse Joy/Officer Jenny syndrome. Don’t worry about it.

[@auralyss]

thank you for the atelier content!!

[@HoodlieRPG]

No problem. I’ll try to have more out soon.

[@magicomethkuon]

13:29 ...Vayne from Mana Khemia... What? I'd never let that one pass!

[@GoldenGateNum9]

Missed this one, such a beautiful and fun looking game , just bought it physical while the prices are still sane, very excited, I chose it out of 1 - 3 cause I heard 2 is the best one?, gaming 4eva 🕹🎮 ♥️

[@KirbyIsCute]

I love the atelier series but I've never really got my hands on the Iris series (expect the first one many years ago when blockbuster still existed. I saw it was an RPG that I didn't know about and rented it but didn't really got into it). It's good to learn more about them. I wonder if you do reviews of the other atelier games too? Doesn't need to be all of them - there are a lot - but I'd like to see your thoughts on one of them.

[@HoodlieRPG]

I mean... I said in the Eternal Mana video I'd be reviewing every entry released in English.

[@KirbyIsCute]

@@HoodlieRPG Oh shoot, I must have missed that. Anyway, it gives me something to look forward to. Having someone review every Atelier game is something I wanted someone do on youtube for a long time now.

[@fluxcap4630]

How can you not like a squeaky voiced cat girl

[@missyuu9348]

Oh yeah i think Odin Sphere the first one is also good and the remake has improved so much (leifthrasir)

[@DorisDevan-cn7li]

Pure nostalgia

[@magicomethkuon]

8:41 No wonder she ended up my favorite character LOL

[@synicalico4956]

10:07 To be fair, Poe doesn't gain stats every level (on average, only 2 out of 5 of his levels actually change his stats), and he has good stat growths to compensate for that. Despite that, he only gets better stats-wise at about Level 40, when you'll most likely finish the game well before that. I believe the party member you get after Poe is weaker. Their skills are either gimmicky or outclassed by items, and they aren't good with basic attacks either as they don't learn any offensive passives outside of Offense (which all party members can learn) and Magic UP (which I don't know if it works or not). The only thing they have going for is a good Speed stat.

[@HoodlieRPG]

Yeah, but the final party member has the best supportive and healing skills, and isn’t a total knobhead.

[@synicalico4956]

I suppose if you don't go deep into synthesis and settle on raw stats, then you could justify using them for healing, even though 3 bars for a party heal is too expensive for my taste. (I can't imagine myself running _Refuel_ as a party heal.) Their support skills are genuinely good now that I think about it, I just always find a reason not to use them, and a different one to boot. It also helps if you actually like the party members you're using.

[@juliuspalacios7182]

Great game i miss them ❤❤❤

[@airtioteclint]

I just started this series. Iris 1 was good. Iris 2 was really good. And iris 3 is just bad. I didn't even finish it. Might start on the ps3 ateliers next but I'm a little skeptical. Most modern games don't do it for me.

[@GoldenGateNum9]

Same

[@OtakuMan05]

Blandy McStickwhacker... lol