Whereas the Atelier sequence has been steadily evolving and tweaking its profitable JRPG/craft-’em-up method throughout 30 years and 20-plus video games, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Recollections & the Envisioned Land maybe represents probably the most radical shift but. However that does not imply current followers needs to be frightened: for the entire modifications, Yumia remains to be an Atelier recreation at coronary heart, solely larger, extra action-focused, and a little bit 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 discovered 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 workforce to assist examine the ruins of the Aladissian Empire she sees a possibility to be taught extra about why the empire fell, whether or not alchemy was really chargeable 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 individuals she meets, however over time hearts are warmed, classes are discovered, and the facility of friendship trumps prejudice.
It is a darker story, and has larger stakes than is typical for an Atelier recreation. However you should not go into this anticipating one thing like Metaphor: ReFantazio. There’s a little bit little bit of title calling and side-eyeing in the direction of Yumia and her craft, but it surely would not get a lot nastier than that. The tone of the sport is usually charming and optimistic, with the darker components of the story performing as seasoning for the narrative reasonably than the dominating flavour of it.
All through the journey you may discover an expansive open world. There are 4 massive areas within the recreation which are unlocked by following the primary questline, however every locale is full of a plethora of facet quests, treasures to seek out, monsters to slay, and objects to gather. Aspect quests are largely throwaway fare: go over there, kill a factor, come again, and so on. However the open world is enjoyable to discover, with secrets and techniques lurking in each nook and cranny of the map.
We regularly took day off between story beats to peruse the map, heading to every query mark in flip simply to see what was there and principally felt rewarded by what we discovered. It helps that Yumia is an agile protagonist with the flexibility to triple soar up partitions making getting over obstacles simpler than it has any proper to be. Later she will get a graceful bike 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 a little bit on the straightforward facet, some good design choices cease it from turning into tedious throughout the 40 or 50 hours it’s going to 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 connected to it and so the concept is to make use of a talent after which as soon as it is recharging use completely different ones. It’s also possible to freely strafe Yumia from right-to-left throughout fight, and when an enemy telegraphs an upcoming assault you’ll be able to modify 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 you might want to transfer between the entrance and the again rows to use that weak spot, stun your foe, after which unleash massive 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 immediately.
On regular issue fight in opposition to the rank and file enemies is mostly straightforward and battles are sometimes over in a heartbeat with only a few faucets of a face button so it by no means turns into irritating battling monsters both for expertise or when farming for sources. 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 sequence. In order that’s good.
You possibly can farm as a lot expertise as you want in fight however that’ll solely get you to this point. Even in the event you’ve hit the extent cap of 100 you’ll be able to rapidly end up outmatched by decrease stage foes in case your tools is less than snuff and that is the place alchemy is available in. At Yumia’s workshop you’ll be able to unlock the recipes you’ve got discovered in your adventures so long as you’ve got bought the requisite objects to take action, and then you definitely’ll synthesize a recipe utilizing collected sources in your backpack.
Higher high quality sources within the pot yield higher rewards, typically, however when you get the grasp of the method you’ll be able to alter the recipe to provide objects that is likely to be of upper high quality, or ones that include extra results. So you may make a sword that is bought larger base stats, or one which specialises in elevating one stat particularly, or one which does extra injury in opposition to a particular sort of enemy. It is a little bit daunting at first however pretty straight ahead as soon as you’ve got carried out it just a few instances, and you may all the time automate the entire course of if recipe micromanagement is simply not your factor.
It’s also possible to create constructing supplies equivalent 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 lower the mustard when you’ll be able to knock up a small cottage with cherry blossom bushes within the backyard for a pit-stop between missions.
Conclusion
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Recollections & the Envisioned Land is a splendidly charming addition to the long-running JRPG sequence. It is a implausible leaping in level to the franchise for brand new gamers, and has sufficient tweaks to the established method to offer a breath of contemporary air for current followers. The story is a little bit slight, however the interesting characters, streamlined but strong crafting system, and rewarding exploration make this a recipe for a superb time.
