15 posts tagged “atelier series”
GUST has started posting Atelier Rorona screenshots and art to their supporters' club site. They don't seem to want people to just mass-repost them, so here are a few selections of images I found interesting.
Heisei Democracy doesn’t appear to be resuming posts any time soon, so I’m dusting off this review and posting it here. I finished Mana-Khemia in May, and the English version has been out for a while now. If you haven’t played it, you may find it to be a good way to enjoy some solid Gust gaming while you await the delayed English release of Ar tonelico 2 in January.
Ar tonelico 2 is a tough act to follow, or to precede. Mana-Khemia did both: I played through half of it, then Ar tonelico 2 came out and I played that for six months, then I picked Mana Khemia back up. As of this writing, Mana-Khemia 2 has just come out. Gust makes games rather faster than I can play them.
Mana-Khemia is the ninth game of Gust’s venerable Atelier series. The series encompasses several arcs, each with its own setting and atmosphere, but every game’s premise begins with being an alchemist, crafting items in a workshop. This installment begins the fourth arc, and it follows the previous game, Grand Fantasm, in eschewing most of the epic RPG trappings that the series briefly entertained in the Atelier Iris arc. Instead, it returns to the alchemy, local exploration, and character interaction focuses of the original Ateliers. On top of that framework is a fantastical school setting: quests are really homework, and failure in battle merely results in a trip to the nurse’s office.
What does this mean for button trancers like you and me? As in my Ar tonelico 2 column, I’ll examine Mana-Khemia in terms of infatuation, completionism, and immersion.
Infatuation
The game has a cast of likeable, sparklingly energetic characters. The several portraits for each character (by Yoshizumi Kazuyuki) are superb, and I may get strung up for writing this, but I think they even rival the original Atelier Marie masterpieces by Ohse Kohime. The voices are all-star and spot-on throughout the game, and there’s even a little bonus blurb from each voice actor in the Extras section when you finish the game. It’d be hard not to fall for these characters, and I certainly did. Even Mrs. Jetfuel found herself taking a liking to Gunnar, the beguilingly gruff super-senior, and Vayne, the quiet-but-warm-hearted protagonist. Nike even convinced me to reverse my usual anti–spunky-catgirl stance, thanks to a brilliant voice-acting job by Sawashiro Miyuki (who in Ar tonelico 2 portrayed the unrecognizably different, but equally impressive, role of the haughty aristocrat Chroche).
The school setting is a smorgasbord of convenient infatuation hooks: everyone wears cute uniforms (each somehow in their own distinct style, even for characters in the same class); the school nurse Melhis is a fetishized temptress; there are summer vacations and culture festivals and graduation ceremonies and all sorts of other nostalgic, idealized school-world set pieces.
But, Atelier is not really about deep involvement with characters. You get some morsels of story for each character, and you can steer the exposition a bit to see more of the characters you’re interested in. But nothing happens that’s serious enough to leave you with a lasting, pining connection to anyone. That’s just the way the game is: sugary, positive, humorous, and all-around a fun romp through a colorful world. I like Philo well enough, and the PVC figure of her that came with the limited edition box of the game is a pretty addition to my desk. But she won’t be joining my pantheon with Ar tonelico’s Shurelia and Sakura Taisen’s Kouran as a dear companion on unforgettable adventures.
Completionism
This is where much of Mana-Khemia’s value is. The missions – the homework assignments – are somehow more fun than similar quests in Grand Fantasm, possibly because of the atmosphere so pleasant that it seems like a reaction to that game’s off-putting nature. The various systems are so well interwoven that I didn’t get tired of playing with them. This is unlike Ar tonelico 2, where the game let me neglect most of the sub-systems and get way out of sync with how far along I was expected to be in each one, thus requiring me to grind through lots of crafting, baths, Diver’s Therapy, and conversation events. Not that they weren’t still fun, but the fantasy was harmed.
Here’s how it works: on homework assignments, you explore dungeons around the school, collecting alchemy components and fighting cute monsters. As you fight, you gain AP. You may also come across recipes. With your new recipes and components, you can visit the atelier and the athanor to craft new items. Each character has his own Grow Book, a Final Fantasy X–like field of nodes which become unlocked as you craft certain items. When you unlock a node, you can use AP to fill it in with gems, thus improving the character’s statistics. Once you’ve equipped your new items, filled in all of your Grow Book nodes, and handed in your homework, you move on to the next week. This process keeps iterating, opening more opportunities for more complex items and abilities, until in the last chapter I was happily running around for half an hour running various errands in order to create a single item.
Immersion
The game doesn’t offer a whole lot in the way of traditional rhythmic button-tapping immersion, such that you let everything around the TV fade away and just drift through the game. The closest thing is probably when you’ve got a good chain of item-crafting and leveling up going on, as mentioned above. One nice thing, though, is that the game enables and encourages you to pursue side stories with members of your party: during free periods, you can approach one of the characters in your atelier and start an event focused on them. These vary from helping someone study to pretending to be someone’s boyfriend so that her geeky fan club will leave her alone. I mostly followed Philo’s path, and in the end I was presented with a sentimental little scene and an ichimai e, the type of CG drawing you get as a reward in visual novels.
Conclusion
Mana-Khemia is like a nice pancake brunch: sweet, delicious, and a fine meal to fill me up until dinnertime, but rather homogenous and not all that wholesome. It’s enjoyable, but it’s more of a game to tide me over until the next Ar tonelico than it is a game to revere for itself. It certainly ranks with Atelier Iris 2 as a memorable Atelier game, and it was absolutely worth playing through to the end.
Dear GUST, please hold off on the video games for a while. I still haven't finished the last four games you released. Really, just cut it out for a sec.
- I love the character art. It's more detaily than the cel-shaded style of Grand Fantasm, and there's a strong downward trend in the number of exposed midriffs. With Grand Fantasm, Iris joined Shion Uzuki in the club of heroines who went from reserved to lurid; Mana-Khemia's heroine Philo is much more tastefully cute.
- The characters are way more likable, in the Atelier tradition. Philo is endearingly clumsy, Gunnar is outrageously manly, Vain (unlike Edge) actually shows human emotions, and so on. I even like Nike, contrary to my normal anti-cat-ears stance.
- Missions feel more fun because they are presented as field assignments at the alchemy school. There are also part-time jobs that work like the quest board in GF. Now, instead of the frustrating time-limit mist, if you stay out too long it just becomes night-time and monsters get tougher.
- Between the assignment episodes, you have free time to pursue quests of your own choosing or play character-based side-quests. The character quests feel a little bit like Ar tonelico, in that you can spend more quality time with the party members you like best.
- The alchemy-based level-up system is cool. On a big FFX sphere-grid-like field, locations open up as you synthesize new items. You can use AP gained in battles to unlock the power-ups at each location; there are no traditional levels or automatic stat advancement. Tying advancement to the alchemy system makes for a fun positive-feedback loop: the more you synthesize, the stronger you get, and the more ambitious you can be in dungeons, so the more recipes and ingredients you earn, so the more you synthesize...
Gods, I'm spoiled these days. First the limited edition Sing "Yesterday" comic, now this limited edition of the newest Atelier game, Mana-Khemia. From the screenshots, it looks Ar-tonelicoesquely fun. I have put the figure on my Mac Pro at work, but I had to do some serious arrangement and experimentation with my Haru-at-the-bar figure and the little included briefcase to make sure she's not showing too much to passersby...
I found another good, tangible example of The Difference today: No matter what happens in this crazy universe, not Sakura Taisen, nor Ar tonelico, nor Atelier Iris will ever be promoted by the exhibition of a freshly decapitated goat. Do I have any reason left to like Sony? My mental list of the awful things they've done has gotten out of control.
If there's something that can get me to post, it's GUST news. Snackbar Games seems to have scooped the story that Atelier Iris: Grand Fantasm is coming to the USA. I must admit that I never made it to the end of that game; I kind of missed the high adventure and sentiment of The Azoth of Destiny. Maybe I'll go back and give it another chance. It's certainly not a bad game by any means; the battle system in particular is great fun. Maybe if Ana had had more speaking lines...
GUST has announced the ninth Atelier game, though this seems to be the first one without the word "Atelier" in its title. Meanwhile, Atelier Lise has been delayed until April. This makes three non-Ar-tonelico games since Ar tonelico! Where could our sequel be?
Mana-Khemia looks like it could be good, too, though. It puts the Atelier template of alchemy, battles, and quests into a school setting. I hope it ties into the storyline of the other games; so far the only clue that it might is that Pamela makes an appearance. Grand Fantasm could have tied itself in really well, especially considering that Iris was a main character, but for some reason it seemed to nearly ignore the other AI games.
So I've got a lot of products on my mind these days, and I just got my bonus today. What should I buy? Who deserves my attention when I'm in the mood to be entertained?
In the order I think of them:
Utawarerumono: A 4-year old Leaf PC game cleaned up, fitted with a new tactics system by Flight-Plan, and ported to PS2. It looks like it could be good, but how many tactical RPGs do I need? And how many medieval fantasy worlds do I want to task myself with keeping track of?
Summon Night: I bought Swordcraft Story, the first English-localized title in this venerable series from Flight-Plan, on a whim. I just thought it was dang cool to find such stuff on the shelf in my home country. I still haven't even put it in the DS yet. Again, how many tactical RPGs do I need?
Atelier Series: I'm looking forward to Atelier Lise on the DS, but I have pretty much stalled out on finishing Grand Fantasm. I still love GUST.
Ar tonelico: I think I'd rather just play this again than try most games on my to-play list. I'm quite ready for GUST to announce part 2.
Fire Emblem: Serious, high-grade tactical RPGs from Intelligent Systems, the guys who invented the genre. I found Path of Radiance this weekend for $20 brand new, and I couldn't resist. Should I even bother with the quirky, stylish ones from Nippon1 and Flight-Plan?
Yggdra Union: More quirky and stylish tactical RPGs, this time from Sting. Do I need them? Who knows?
Riviera: While I'm considering Yggdra Union, why not its predecessor, too.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: This visual novel is intriguing and it has become quite a phenomenon. I'd like to get through it, but it seems hard enough to decipher for native speakers of the language, let alone me.
12 Kingdoms: Not a game, but the novels. I'm reading them now, but do I need to? Should I get into another medieval fantasy world that's barely distinguishable from all the others?
Melty Blood: A PS2 port of a NAOMI arcade port of a tuned revision of a PC doujin fighting game based on a PC doujin visual novel. It looks fantastic, and I'm ready for a new 2D fighting game, but I'm afraid I'd be a bit late to the whole Tsukihime party after all this time, and I am not sure I could convince Jon B to play it seriously with me.
Okay, there's my psyche-dump for Japanese pop-culture products. I guess I'll just stick to my "buy them all, try them all, and stick with them as long as you are honestly interested" method. It's all just keeping me entertained between major milestone playing experiences like Sakura Taisen or Xenogears.
Two authentic Japanese futons arrived in the (express) mail this morning. These were a (surprising and inexplicable) gift, and probably cost more to mail than they did to buy. I won't complain, though; they are nice, comfortable, and reminiscent of days in Japan. :D
The repair of my car door will cost $65 (if I just want the bent metal molding replaced), or $710 (if I also want the tiny little dent removed). I was quite happy to just ask for the molding. That's a small price to pay for the knowledge that I'm better off parking in the street from now on.
My new Sega Surf Wave wireless PS2 controller exhibits none of the insane behavior of the previous one. Now I can truly say that it's the best controller of any kind that I've ever used.
Five new books arrived from Amazon, including the new Dawkins. It's taking a lot of resolution to avoid reading them all at once.
I was going to sit down and cancel my order for Amie Grand's Goth-Loli Rei garage kit, which has been on back-order at HLJ for months, when I got an e-mail that it had shipped! This is the same day that I worked on my Dokusho Suru Rei kit for the first time in over a month. Her shoes cleaned up quite nicely with fine sandpaper, and now they have a fresh coat of paint. Next up is airbrushing the skin; it'll be a challenge.
Atelier Iris: Grand Fantasm is fun and rewarding. But I'm worried about the characters. The Azoth of Destiny had such warmth and positivity, while so many people in this game are mean, insecure, cruel, dishonest, or chauvinistic. Iris and Ana are the only purely nice characters who come to mind. Even the main character Edge is kind of a jerk, especially to Iris herself. I kind of miss Felt and Viese. :\
