I found Atelier's writing to be far superior to the atrociousness that is Star Ocean: The Last Hope.
Rorona reminds me so much of some valley girl, which is funny because the friend I watched play it is so a valley girl.
And the way she fumbled with the messenger/knight. I expected her to start blurting out, "Oh, um, 'kay, message... I.. oh my god ur so hott!" XD
And the twist that is in the beginning of the game is that, by order of the king, the alchemy shop is supposed to be shut down UNLESS they run some errands for the kingdom. The consequences of failure are banishment from the kingdom...
When Rorona's boss gets the news, well, you wanna know what she does? The responsible thing to do would be to knuckle down and have Rorona run some tasks for her, training her in the ways of alchemy and saving the kingdom from some dark, unforseen force...
But no. Astrid says, "I'm going on a 'journey.' Shop's yours. If you need anything read the alchemy books but don't try to contact me." And she splits. I had to explain to my friend playing that basically Astrid has just shirked all responsibility and consequences and set YOU up to take the fall if things don't go over.
And Rorona's parents. Pretty pathetic. Do they confront Astrid on the matter? Despite having the opportunity to do so they pretty much have the wool pulled over their eyes, too. And now you see where Rorona gets it.
The only character I could really sympathize with was the daughter of the local mafia and Rorona's best friend. She seemed to be the only one who was on the same level as me and figured what was going on. But no matter what, she couldn't convince anyone around her of how much of a horrid manipulative woman Astrid was.
Blargh! Rage!