The Atelier franchise has modified fairly a bit over the previous couple of many years. Beginning as brief, slice-of-life tales, fashionable entries now function lengthier adventures and extra open worlds. Atelier Yumia brings these adjustments to their pure conclusion, that includes the most important areas seen within the collection thus far whereas additionally simplifying lots of the mechanics to make them extra interesting to a brand new viewers.
Sadly, whereas not being significantly horrible, this results in a closing product that fails to excel in any space. Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Recollections & the Envisioned Land loses the little depth that was left within the Atelier Ryza trilogy, all for a stale open world and underbaked narrative.
A World The place Alchemy is Taboo
Atelier Yumia sees the titular alchemist touring throughout numerous areas of Aladiss, a spot as soon as dwelling to a fantastic empire earlier than it fell to spoil. Becoming a member of the Aladiss Analysis Workforce, she makes use of alchemy — one thing thought-about taboo because of its perceived risks — to pioneer this long-unexplored continent.
Alchemy’s position within the Atelier collection is one which’s all the time modified, so having or not it’s one thing that’s thought-about “evil” in Atelier Yumia doesn’t really feel too misplaced. There was undoubtedly some potential for battle with the primary forged and the those that Yumia encounters throughout her journey throughout Aladiss.
In observe, this doesn’t truly result in a lot. A couple of celebration members are barely cautious early on, with the unfavorable historical past of alchemy having its moments through the story. And but, there’s probably not any depth to the dialog round alchemy at any level. Yumia ruminates over it a number of occasions, however it all boils to right down to “what if alchemy is sweet… AND unhealthy.”
Yumia herself is ok as a personality. Even when the final dialogue round whether or not alchemy is absolutely evil isn’t dealt with in an fascinating approach, Yumia’s journey to search out her place within the analysis staff is usually endearing. Different characters aren’t fairly as fortunate.
For probably the most half, Atelier Yumia fails to provide characters fascinating moments outdoors of the primary narrative. There are solely a small handful of occasions per celebration member, with most providing little or no in the best way of characterization or simply rehashing what we already learn about them because of the story.
Issues are worse whenever you look outdoors of the primary celebration. Aside from the 6 core celebration members, there are surprisingly few characters that truly have any significance. That is very true of the villains, who barely make an look for a lot of the sport and have the depth of a puddle.
The Open World Nonetheless Lacks Goal
In some ways, the Aladiss continent itself is meant to be the primary star of the present. For the primary time within the collection, Atelier Yumia accommodates a completely linked map with no loading screens — effectively, it’s extra like 4 distinct areas linked by brief corridors, however the level nonetheless stands.
You’re free to discover every area as you attain them, roaming round for supplies, chests, and collectibles. Exterior of some areas requiring particular gadgets and later areas being locked behind story, you’ve gotten a whole lot of freedom in the place to go.
After being left to my very own units, it was initially thrilling having a much less linear expertise to look ahead too. The Atelier franchise has tried open worlds in their very own methods a number of occasions, however even Atelier Ryza 3 didn’t make use of areas this massive.
Nonetheless, it didn’t take lengthy for me to understand that there simply isn’t that a lot to truly uncover in every space. Positive, opening the map reveals a lot of “?” markers, however the world itself is devoid of precise distinctive landmarks or secrets and techniques.
Throughout a area, you’ll discover the identical units of supplies, the identical enemies (or barely resized/recolored ones), and chests with principally ineffective gadgets. You’re by no means rewarded for going off the crushed path, as all you’ll discover are supplies you’ve gotten an abundance of already.
Including to this repetition are the Prayer Shrines scattered throughout every area. Each single one works the identical approach: work together with them, go to the factors marked on the map, and full fundamental tile puzzles. I used to be already bored of doing these after the primary few occasions, and there are over 50 in whole.
Ultimately, the world simply appears like a guidelines, one thing to fill in and transfer on moderately than correctly have interaction with. Some respectable sidequests might have given goal to extra of the map, however most simply require you handy over supplies or create a selected merchandise.
Transferring to a correct open world additionally comes with the query of the way you’ll stability fight, since gamers might probably encounter robust enemies early on in the event that they’re not cautious. Atelier Yumia tackles this by eradicating the problem from battles fully.
Atelier Yumia’s Fight is a Bland Mess
The Atelier Ryza trilogy began to shift battles to a extra actiony type, with Atelier Yumia switching issues over to full real-time fight. You’ll be able to actively dodge assaults, or transfer out of the best way of AOE markers. You don’t have full management nonetheless, with motion constrained to inside and outer rings you’ll be able to swap between freely.
Every character has entry to 4 abilities whereas standing in every ring, which cost up over time. Some abilities can be utilized repeatedly as a combo, whereas others require recharging after a single use. Objects additionally operate this fashion, although finite consumables haven’t been a factor in Atelier fight for some time now anyway.
Ability can have sure results (Yumia can buff her assault or debuff the enemy), however in observe, all you actually do is mash your fundamental combo after which use one of many different abilities whereas it recharges. There’s no depth, no thought you need to put in. What you see within the first few hours is actually what you’ll be doing through the endgame.
A couple of programs have been applied in a useless try to provide fight some form of fascinating hook. Utilizing bodily or magic assaults on an enemy sufficient occasions will stun them, letting you observe up with stronger merchandise assaults. However that is by no means truly wanted since your common assaults are all the time greater than sufficient to tackle each enemy.
It’s annoying that, regardless of the swap to motion fight, every little thing is extra restrictive. You’ll be able to’t swap targets — a whole lot of enemies are even grouped along with a single well being bar — and also you hardly ever have a motive to modify between characters.
Alchemy Misplaced Its Depth
One other a part of why fight is really easy comes right down to alchemy. Alchemy has all the time allowed gamers to change into tremendous highly effective in the event that they made use of its programs, synthesizing damaged gear or gadgets as quickly as attainable.
Atelier Yumia’s challenge is that alchemy has been simplified to a stage the place making overpowered gear requires little or no effort. Up to now, you’d need to suppose extra concerning the forms of supplies used, taking traits from them and transferring them over to the completed product.
Now, most bonuses are decided by abilities you choose earlier than synthesis, or by way of Trait Crystals you’ll be able to equip after. Alchemy simply boils right down to throwing in your highest-quality gadgets and making use of the constructing system to duplicate them totally free (extra on this in a minute).
By the second area, I used to be already making gear that simply destroyed something I encountered — even the few bosses Atelier Yumia has went down in a minute. Once more, this isn’t one thing utterly new to Atelier. However the course of of creating gear has simply been dumbed down utterly, that means that even tackling more durable difficulties takes a lot much less preparation.
Constructing Had Potential However is Underutilized
One weird side of Atelier Yumia is constructing. Some areas of the map are designated as areas the place you’ll be able to construct constructions. This technique is surprisingly sturdy, letting you create multistory homes to fill with decorations and crafting stations. There are presets if you wish to rapidly create a base, and even the choice to make random ones.
I name this weird as a result of there’s primarily no motive to truly make a correct base. You get the identical profit from constructing a completely furnished base as you’ll from making a shack with 50 chairs stacked into one another. An odd alternative, when an excellent chunk of chest rewards within the open world are extra constructing gadgets you’ll now doubtless by no means use.
It has a lot potential — think about in case you might construct rooms for celebration members to unlock new occasions or create new cities for NPCs. As an alternative, you’re restricted to small squares of land which might be unfold far aside.
More often than not, you’re higher off utilizing land for greenhouses or manufacturing vegetation. These allow you to duplicate uncooked supplies and crafted gadgets respectively, solely taking time to take action. Greenhouses unlock extremely early, lowering the necessity for gathering supplies. It’s handy, however it additionally doesn’t mesh with an open world that principally simply exists for gathering supplies within the first place.
I can solely hope that that is expanded upon in Atelier Yumia 2 (or a possible spin-off), as freeform constructing actually feels prefer it could possibly be an fascinating course for the collection to take.
Some Visible Enhancements, Although PC Port Would possibly Have Points
Fashionable Atelier has by no means been on the forefront of graphic constancy, although Atelier Yumia does attempt to enhance in some elements. For one, characters are much more expressive. Early 3D Atelier titles typically had character fashions that might look lifeless, counting on nice 2D character portraits to hold issues as an alternative.
For Atelier Yumia, it looks like a whole lot of work has been finished to repair this. From refined eye actions to cocky grins, the primary forged are much more full of life now. Granted, the precise fashions nonetheless have a number of points (specifically, low-resolution textures at occasions), although it is a welcome enchancment.
Environments, then again, aren’t an enormous enchancment, although a few of this will doubtless be chalked as much as the concentrate on larger areas in comparison with earlier video games. Some areas undergo from poor draw distances and pop-in, too, although this is not overly frequent.
One space that I am not 100% offered on is efficiency. Whereas I’ve affirmation {that a} day 1 patch is meant to repair this, I bumped into plenty of points with efficiency. This was nearly completely tied to travelling between areas or making use of quick journey, inflicting my framerate to drop considerably till reloading my save.
Exterior of this, every little thing usually ran at a stable 120fps on an RTX 3060 TI, barring a few areas with heavier visible results. Once more, that is one thing that should not be current at launch, although it is price holding in thoughts when trying again at different Atelier ports on PC pre-Ryza 3.
Atelier Yumia Evaluate | Last Ideas
Atelier Yumia has no components which might be inherently terrible, however the adjustments it makes to the collection don’t work general. Future video games have to rethink a number of the simplifications to synthesis whereas additionally determining a option to make open worlds which might be truly price exploring.
Atelier Yumia was reviewed on PC utilizing a replica offered by Koei Tecmo over the course of 45 hours of gameplay.
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