Yeah, I'm sure the game is fine but the lolicon style makes me uncomfortable so I'm giving it a pass. I don't really mind or judge others for playing it though.
Honestly, it's why I eventually stopped playing the Atelier games. The first one I played was Atelier Annie, where the titular Annie looked like
this. Her predecessor, also in the game, was
Liese. Then you just basically watch as the skirts get shorter and shorter, the tops get lower and lower, and the stars look younger and younger (in some cases a bit more literally than others, for those who played the Arland trilogy), and you start to wonder about the line between lolicon and pedo-baiting, which is not typically a line I want to even have in sight from either side. Alright, so setting aside the age question entirely, the sexualization of the characters is not a new trend considering the very first star of the game wore
this outfit, but it was new to me at the time, as before this point I had largely only known the series by its very strong reputation based on gameplay, characters, and plot. Atelier Meruru was the last one I played, more or less for that reason. The gameplay was loads of fun and the characters themselves were interesting, but the aesthetic just bugged me. I mean, I might go back and start playing them again someday, but I'm just going to continue to take a break for a while.