Haven't got totally through the game yet. I'm at 10 hours or about 40% into it. Not enough to write a real review, but I have an opinion, and may not follow through on finishing it.

It's a very pleasant game, with nice characters. So far, it's pretty light-hearted, and has a sense of humour. The art style is reminicent of the Fire Emblem games, with static manga-type characterizations during dialogue. The core graphics are very PS1 feeling, but they're hand-drawn and everything is very clean and crisp looking. Alot of the games like this (La Pucielle Tactics, Makai Kingdom, Disgaea) tend to suffer from a "blurry" look. The font in the menus and such seems a little too small for me. really my only graphical complaint.

The music in this game is a real highlight to me. Although it's all MIDI, it's suprisingly good. Again, I'd have to call the music "clean" sounding from a production standpoint. Almost like the weather channel :)

Each individual area has a different theme, so the music doesn't get repetitive either. The voice acting is right on par with the other Nippon-Ichi games like Disgaea. It's pretty good, but kind of inconsistant. Definately not annoying though. There's also been a few fully animated cut-scenes so far, that are quite well drawn and animated. All in all, for a game that's 2D and not technically superior in any way, it really does have good production values, and comes off as an attractive package.

So far sounds pretty good on paper. The actual gameplay is where Atelier Iris 2 starts to fall apart. You play as 2 characters in this game. One warrior type, and his sister, the Alchemist. The characters are actually in sperate "worlds", but can share items and communicate with each other through a magic ring. Wonder Twin powers activate!!!

If you're under 25 I'll forgive you for not getting that reference.

Anyways, here's a typical scenario. Felt (Warrior) and his party are  battling their way through an area, and gets to a door he can't open without a certain item. Said item is always in the "other world" occupied by Viese (Alchemist), who then has to go and find yet another item or 2 in order to make the item Felt needed in the first place. Rinse and repeat.

Basically the game is an item fetch quest. I've even nicknamed the game "Item Quest" when I tell my wife what I'll be playing. This aspect really comes off as shallow. The game's battles are extemely easy as well, and shouldn't pose a problem at all. The battle system is basically turn-based, and very simple to both pick up and master. Unfortunately, this one got really boring really fast for me. As stated earlier however, Atelier Iris 2 is a pleasant, light-hearted experience with a decent enough story and plenty of charm. I don't imagine it taking memore than 20-25 hours to finish the game outright, so it's hard to recommend as a purchase, especially considering the $50 price tag. I was lucky, and scored this one for free through a contest. Pick it up as a rental if you're a fan of NIS' other titles.

...jeez, that was kinda long. guess I'll paste it as a review too :P