Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist Of Twilight Land Review

Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist Of Twilight Land (officially localized as the Alchemist Of Dusk, but I refuse to call it that because it’s a stupid name) is the latest in the Atelier RPG series developed by Gust, it's worth noting that this game isn't connected to the previous 3 games at all, so if you want to jump in, you can do it here.

Atelier Ayesha tells the story of one of the best named protagonists in video game history, Ayesha Altugle, who runs a small alchemy workshop where she makes medicine, along with her pet…uh…cow…moose…yak…thing, the main gist of the plot is that her sister vanished one day while gathering herbs, but Ayesha spots an apparition of her one day after going under the assumption that she was dead, this motivates her to discover the secret behind her sister’s disappearance  so yeah, it’s pretty much Totori, but the main draw of the past 3 games has never been plot, it’s gameplay.

Ayesha brings a plethora of changes, not only to gameplay, but to the overall tone of the game as well, the happy go lucky fluffy worlds with no conflict are gone, replaced with a darker color palate, overall tone, and shift of focus, even the very art of alchemy is given a surprisingly dark background, something that completely came out of left field. The Arland games centered almost entirely on the main character, while Ayesha slightly shifts the focus away from the main character exclusively to building an actual story that unfolds very well, all of this is a very welcome change from the previous games, however the vast majority of the characters, in complete contrast to the environment or story, are completely happy and cheerful, and this makes the whole experience a bit jarring.

Among the changes Ayesha brings is a complete overhaul to the already deep alchemy system, instead of choosing items, throwing them together, and choosing traits, you get a much more daunting alchemy screen, with a stock yard where multiple traits are thrown into, you need to strategically input your items in order to get the traits you want, also there are cost points and various other small things that make the alchemy system more detailed, but at the same time, making it almost sarcastically complicated. The battle system also received some small tweaks, with an emphasis on enemy distance and the ability to move behind enemies and to the sides of them adds a little bit of strategy and solves the long standing problem of you constantly being a sitting duck.

The past 3 atelier games have had game specific gimmicks, Rorona had assignments, Totori had adventure licenses/points, and Meruru had town building, the gimmick in Ayesha is something called memory points, you can get these memory points by doing tons of activities, talking to certain NPCs, exploring environments, gathering items, battling…walking around, seriously they give these points out like candy, there’s no reason whatsoever that you should be struggling to obtain these, these points are used in conjunction with Ayesha’s memory diary. Certain events in the game are written down in this journal, along with special bonuses (for example, viewing a certain event that ends up in the journal might grant you an attack boost, or increase the amount of exp that you get from synthesis) you can then use memory points to unlock further bonuses  like a further attack boost or even more exp. my main complaint with thus system is that it lacks direction and feels somewhat like a hassle, Rorona’s assignment system ties into the main narrative, as does the adventure point system in Totori and the town building in Meruru, but this just feels like a glorified side quest with no tie in to the main story, sure you also get a nice little summary of the event, but that doesn't really mean anything at all, the system might be somewhat useful, little things like additional attack and more exp certainly don’t hurt, but the whole system feels like an afterthought and it doesn't really feel like it helps much at all.

Weapon upgrades have gotten a complete makeover as well. There is no forging, at all, instead you you synthesize certain items (alchemy stones for items and dyes for armor) and you can take whatever traits you put onto those items and transfer them over to your armor, you can do this as many times as you want, however stats can only be increased a certain number of times, that number increased based on the quality of the actual piece of weaponry or armor (which you can only get from the game’s first shop, or by beating enemies in certain areas) overall this is a nice change from the previous system, and also mostly eliminates the need to have money in order to upgrade, hopefully this system is the one that remains for previous games.

And of course, the time management system makes it’s unfortunate return, however it’s much more forgiving, what took multiple days in any of the Arland games will only take you one, losing a battle will only cost you one day, and the vast majority of synthesis is done in multiples of 3 and will only cost you around a day, so while I’m still not a huge fan of the time management system, it’s much more forgiving, so I suppose I don’t have as much of a problem with it this time around.

Overall Ayesha is a pretty fantastic game, the major shift in tone may be a bit confusing and off putting at first, but it’s executed very well, the rich cast of characters is always refreshing, and the tweaks that have been done to the various gameplay elements only serve to deepen the experience, for everything Ayesha does wrong, which isn't much, it does another 10 things right. 8/10

Atelier Totori: The Adventurer Of Arland Review

And here we go, the second part in the popular Atelier franchise, will this exceed it's predecessor? Let's find out! This is a sequel, so if you want to understand most of the references made, as well as get some backstory on some of the returning characters, you'll have to play Rorona.

After the events of the last game Rorona traveled all across Arland, spreading knowledge about Alchemy around in an attempt to improve the land. In this installment you take control of a young alchemist in training by the name of Totori, attempting to find her lost mother, who went missing a while ago while exploring a remote area of the land, However Totori isn't the Alchemy prodigy that Rorona was, add that to the fact that she's a very timid and sheltered girl, and her skills need a lot of sharpening if she's ever going to find her mother.

There are 3 main parts to this game, alchemy, adventuring, and time. Adventuring is pretty self explanatory,  you go around defeating monsters and leveling up just like in any other rpg, you have 3 different bars to maintain, HP, which are your hit points, MP, which are your magic points and manage what special skills you can use, and LP, which determines if your characters can defend an alchemist from an attack or not (I'll get into that a bit later), however something that's different is the way items are handled, unlike most rpgs where every character can use them, only alchemists (Rorona and Totori) are capable of using them, this makes them invaluable and is all the incentive you need to keep them safe during battle. If an alchemist is the target of a monster attack, a defend prompt appears giving you the option of taking the blow and saving your alchemist from harm providing you have enough LP.

Alchemy is the next major part, you can gather items in the field and synthesize them into new items in her workshop, these items have a ton of uses from battle weapons such as bombs to healing items to items for quests, (which will be your main source of money), the more you successfully synthesize, the higher your alchemy level gets, allowing you to make more high level items, the higher level an item is in contrast to your alchemy level, the higher chance you have of failure, failing a synthesis wastes the items you were using. The Alchemy system is very deep and intricate, with hundreds of different item possibilities.

The final major part and arguably the most important aspect is time, everything you do except for roaming around town takes a certain amount of time, and what you manage to accomplish before the end of your time will determine which ending you get, the purpose of this is essentially getting you to travel more efficiently, and adding a new layer of strategy to the game, however it comes across as very frustrating and constricting. This feature was present in Rorona as well, but Totori takes it a step further by dividing up the days into segments, in the previous game you could collect as many items as you want in a certain place without consequence, but in this game collecting items takes up roughly 3-5/10 of a day, this pushes the time management aspect but the idea of taking 3/10 of a day to collect a single herb is a little absurd.

 The story and various side events are presented through cutscenes...a lot of cutscenes...I cannot stress enough how many cutscenes there are...you will eventually be driven mad by the sheer number of cutscenes in this game, at first they serve as a nice distraction from the gameplay, but as the game goes on they become more of a negative than a positive, nothing is worse than being the victim of a long cutscene and forgetting what you were planning to do, there really is no reason for this, as the gameplay alone is enough to keep you engaged, the frequent events only serve to disturb your flow.

In terms of graphics, it's pure moe anime style, so if you're not a fan of the cutesy designs that come with the territory, odds are this isn't the game for you, everything is pretty to look at, but there's no reprieve from the art style and it's constantly thrown in your face, if anything it's the presentation that puts this game into a niche that will only appeal to a certain section of the gaming fanbase.

Overall thoughts: Atelier Totori is the type of game that appears like another throwaway game on the surface, but if you can stand the cutesy presentation and character models, it provides a very deep and strategic challenge. Don't come into this expecting an epic rpg experience that'll follow you around for years, but the multiple endings are enough to keep you coming back for more. Instead of straying away from it's predecessor, Totori manages to improve on it in very interesting ways. 7/10

Rune Factory: Tides Of Destiny Review

 

Rune Factory: Tides Of Destiny is the 5th installment in Natsume's Rune Factory series, and the first Rune Factory game to ever be released on a non nintendo console, the PS3. Rune Factory is a spinoff of Natsume's famous Harvest Moon series, and has been described as "harvest moon with swords" which is a fair summary of it. There's no continuity between the titles other than the occasional character cameo, so feel free to jump in anywhere.

In this game, you control a young boy by the name of Aden (you can actually choose whatever name you want, but Aden is the official name, so I'll be using that) who, along with his childhood friend Sonja (same deal here, you can choose whatever name) who land on the tropical Fenith Island with no recollection of how they got there, not only that, but they're also stuck in the same body (Aden's) They are found and greeted by the local cook Odette, who gives them a home and introduces them to the townspeople. As you're adventuring around to the different islands, you discover a dark sinister force is at work, and you must stop this plot to destroy the world while getting Sonja her body back. But the main point of Rune Factory isn't just completing the main storyline, it's building up your relationships with townspeople, and immersing yourself in the expansive world they provide to you, this worls very well on a console, as there's more room for larger environments. As this game is for the Wii as well as the PS3, it's not expansive as it could be due to the underwhelming power of thee Wii, but it's still a pretty and fluid game nonetheless. Also as a small side note you will hate water by the end of this game, seriously, there's a LOT of water travel, think of Hoenn times 3

There are other elements of Rune Factory as well, cooking, mixing medicine, growing crops, taking requests from the townspeople, participating in festivals, and forging all make for lots of fun. You have tons of stats that range from walking, to sleeping, to battling with a certain weapon, however there's no need for grinding as just playing through the game normally will allow these stats to take care of themselves. Another big part of Rune Factory is marriage, there are a total of 9 bachlorettes for you to choose from, from the clumsy Lily to the thickheaded Elena, as is the standard in the series up to this point, the cast of characters are all very colorful and unique. This game handles relationships a bit differently than previous games, in the previous games you would continue raising your friendship level with a certain girl (or all of them and splitting your game up into multiple saves if you wanted to go that route) you'd go on a date or two, and eventually give her an engagement ring and get married. In this game however, you can't pursue romantic relationships until after beating the main storyline and getting Sonja's body back, the main reason for thie being that you can choose to play as Sonja as well, there are a total of 4 bachelors for Sonja to choose from, giving any girls or weird guys some alternate options.

Overall thoughts: Overall Tides Of Destiny doesn't do much to distinguish itself from past games in the series, but that's not really a bad thing since every game in the series has been very strong. Great peaceful soundtrack, addictive gameplay, and a huge world that allows you to fully immerse yourself in it all makes for a strong video game experience that should be experienced by any fans of the JRPG genre. 9/10. And also here's a wonderful song from the soundtrack.

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist Of Arland Review

Such a pretty logo.

BETCHA DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING! ...Okay the select people that I've been gushing to about this game might've known...BUT NOT ANYONE ELSE!

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist Of Arland is the first installment of the Arland series, but is actually the 11th installment of the Atelier series, a very set of popular games in japan, most of which have sadly not seen a North American release, with releases starting all the way back on the PS1, however this is Atelier's first outing on the PS3, with this game being released in fall 2010. It's also worth mentioning that all of the games aren't connected to each other, only games with the same title, so for example Atelier Marie, Atelier Elie, and Atelier Lilie all take place in Salburg, and are therefore connected in some way, however the next game, Atelier Judie, takes place in a totally different land, with no connection to the previous 3 titles. As I mentioned earlier, Rorona is the first installment of the Arland series, meaning that if you have no previous experience with the series, you can still jump right in.

In this game you control a young alchemist in training by the name of Rorolina Frixell, she is currently studying alchemy under her current master, Astrid Zexis. Astrid is a brilliant but generally lazy alchemist, Rorona began studying under Astrid after she saved Rorona's parents from an illness through the power of Alchemy but was unable to pay afterwards, she's currently working to pay off her debt. Due to Astrid's general laziness, and also her slightly unpleasant attitude towards most people, the workshop has a pretty bad reputation amongst the townspeople, which is the setup for our plot. One day a knight from the kingdom by the name of Sterk informs Rorona that the workshop will be shut down unless she can prove it's worth by completing various assignments, and reporting each one over a period of 3 months, if she is unable to do this, then the workshop will be closed and Astrid will be exiled from the kingdom. Upon hearing this, Astrid informs Rorona that she'll be forced to come with her as she doesn't intend to forget Rorona's debt so easily, gives the workshop to Rorona, tells her to do it, and goes to take a nap, yes Astrid is my favorite character ever. Rorona must now journey all over the land, fighting monsters, performing alchemy, and doing quests for the townspeople, to save the workshop.

Now for my first problem with the game, the time system is FAR too constricting, there's no time to really enjoy the game to it's fullest because you'll find yourself scraping up trust points, which are given out in miniscule amounts, and completing assignments, leaving little time for exploration, also battling enemies isn't as important of a mechanic as it could be, I've beaten this game with Rorona being at level 25, there's no way the game should be beaten that way

Mahou Shoujo Rorona-chan!

But in all honesty that's my only complaint about this game, everything else, from the colorful cast of the characters, to the cute graphics, to the wonderful alchemy system, was all done very well. There are multiple endings that you can get depending on your party members and your actions through the game, which will keep you busy for a long time if you're a perfectionist, however there's no aftergame/infinite play mode, you must start over after beating the game with only your monster encyclopedia remaining, and to be honest the endings aren't worth another playthrough to get.

Overall Thoughts: This game is great for people who are into Rune Factory style RPGs like myself, great characters, graphics, and fun gameplay makes this a good game, but it's held back from being as good as it could be by it's restrictive assignment element, also no after game hurts it a lot as well, it gives you an engaging world but it doesn't let you explore it completely, that's generally the opposite of what these types of games should strive to do. 6/10