4 posts tagged “mana-khemia”
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...
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.
