Whereas the Atelier collection has been steadily evolving and tweaking its profitable JRPG/craft-’em-up system throughout 30 years and 20-plus video games, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Reminiscences & the Envisioned Land maybe represents probably the most radical shift but. However that does not imply current followers needs to be frightened: for all the adjustments, Yumia continues to be an Atelier sport at coronary heart, solely greater, extra action-focused, and slightly darker than earlier than.
Atelier Yumia takes place in a land ravaged by a previous cataclysm. The world was practically ended a few years in the past by the powers of alchemy, and so now the apply is deemed taboo, reviled by many, and outright outlawed in some locations. Yumia is a candy younger alchemist sporting killer — actually — excessive heels and wielding a magical workers that doubles up as a rifle. She realized alchemy from her late mom, and lives in seclusion atop a hill with solely her floating, speaking lamp Flammi for firm.
When she’s approached by a analysis crew to assist examine the ruins of the Aladissian Empire she sees a chance to be taught extra about why the empire fell, whether or not alchemy was actually answerable for the calamity way back, and to maybe rehabilitate the picture of her craft. Initially, she’s met with scepticism by a few of her new comrades and the folks she meets, however over time hearts are warmed, classes are realized, and the ability of friendship trumps prejudice.
It is a darker story, and has increased stakes than is typical for an Atelier sport. However you should not go into this anticipating one thing like Metaphor: ReFantazio. There’s slightly little bit of title calling and side-eyeing in direction of Yumia and her craft, nevertheless it does not get a lot nastier than that. The tone of the sport is usually charming and optimistic, with the darker parts of the story performing as seasoning for the narrative quite than the dominating flavour of it.
All through the journey you may discover an expansive open world. There are 4 massive areas within the sport which might be unlocked by following the primary questline, however every locale is filled with a plethora of facet quests, treasures to seek out, monsters to slay, and gadgets to gather. Aspect quests are largely throwaway fare: go over there, kill a factor, come again, and so forth. However the open world is enjoyable to discover, with secrets and techniques lurking in each nook and cranny of the map.
We ceaselessly took day off between story beats to peruse the map, heading to every query mark in flip simply to see what was there and largely felt rewarded by what we discovered. It helps that Yumia is an agile protagonist with the power to triple bounce up partitions making getting over obstacles simpler than it has any proper to be. Later she will get a sleek motorbike to additional pace up the proceedings. There’s additionally an array of ziplines strewn all through the world that after discovered and repaired could make getting throughout the map a breeze.
Whereas traversing the world of Atelier Yumia you may run afoul of all method of nasty beasties to do battle with. Fight is extra action-focused than in earlier Atelier titles, and whereas it is maybe slightly on the straightforward facet, some good design selections cease it from turning into tedious throughout the 40 or 50 hours it will take to complete the primary storyline of the sport.
Throughout battle you management one character — Yumia by default — and her assaults are mapped to the 4 face buttons. Every assault has a set variety of makes use of and a cooldown hooked up to it and so the thought is to make use of a ability after which as soon as it is recharging use totally different ones. You can too freely strafe Yumia from right-to-left throughout fight, and when an enemy telegraphs an upcoming assault you may regulate your place to remain out of the highlighted space on the bottom to keep away from injury.
Tapping down on the d-pad strikes Yumia away from her opponent, and as soon as at vary all of her assaults change to lengthy distance magical abilities. Enemies are weak to both magical or bodily assaults, and so it’s good to transfer between the entrance and the again rows to use that weak point, stun your foe, after which unleash huge injury. As you progress by means of the sport you may unlock dodges, tag-team assaults with a squad-mate, and the extremely highly effective Mana Surge talents that may flip the tide of battle instantly.
On regular issue fight towards the rank and file enemies is usually simple and battles are sometimes over in a heartbeat with just some faucets of a face button so it by no means turns into irritating battling monsters both for expertise or when farming for assets. Boss encounters are the place the fight shines, with extra difficult assault patterns out of your enemies, and a few mid-battle cut-scenes so as to add to the drama. Plus, one of many bosses is voiced by Takaya Kuroda, well-known for voicing the best man that ever lived Kiryu Kazuma from the Yakuza collection. In order that’s good.
You may farm as a lot expertise as you want in fight however that’ll solely get you to this point. Even in case you’ve hit the extent cap of 100 you may shortly end up outmatched by decrease stage foes in case your tools is lower than snuff and that is the place alchemy is available in. At Yumia’s workshop you may unlock the recipes you have discovered in your adventures so long as you have acquired the requisite gadgets to take action, and then you definitely’ll synthesize a recipe utilizing collected assets in your backpack.
Higher high quality assets within the pot yield higher rewards, usually, however when you get the dangle of the method you may alter the recipe to provide gadgets that is likely to be of upper high quality, or ones that include extra results. So you can make a sword that is acquired increased base stats, or one which specialises in elevating one stat specifically, or one which does extra injury towards a particular kind of enemy. It is slightly daunting at first however pretty straight ahead as soon as you have accomplished it just a few instances, and you may all the time automate the entire course of if recipe micromanagement is simply not your factor.
You can too create constructing supplies similar to partitions, rooves, flooring, and decorations. When you’re exploring the world of Atelier Yumia yow will discover constructing websites to arrange secondary bases of operations and design them the way you see match. It is a pretty rudimentary set of constructing choices, however welcome nonetheless. A few tents and a sleeping bag simply will not minimize the mustard when you may knock up a small cottage with cherry blossom bushes within the backyard for a pit-stop between missions.
Conclusion
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Reminiscences & the Envisioned Land is a splendidly charming addition to the long-running JRPG collection. It is a implausible leaping in level to the franchise for brand spanking new gamers, and has sufficient tweaks to the established system to supply a breath of contemporary air for current followers. The story is slightly slight, however the interesting characters, streamlined but strong crafting system, and rewarding exploration make this a recipe for a very good time.
