Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land Review (PS5)

Whereas the Atelier sequence has been steadily evolving and tweaking its profitable JRPG/craft-’em-up system throughout 30 years and 20-plus video games, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Reminiscences & the Envisioned Land maybe represents essentially the most radical shift but. However that does not imply present followers needs to be frightened: for the entire adjustments, Yumia continues to be an Atelier sport at coronary heart, solely larger, extra action-focused, and just a little 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 observe 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 employees 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 group to assist examine the ruins of the Aladissian Empire she sees a possibility to study extra about why the empire fell, whether or not alchemy was really liable 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 folks she meets, however over time hearts are warmed, classes are discovered, and the ability of friendship trumps prejudice.

It is a darker story, and has larger stakes than is typical for an Atelier sport. However you should not go into this anticipating one thing like Metaphor: ReFantazio. There’s just a little little bit of identify calling and side-eyeing in direction of Yumia and her craft, but it surely does not get a lot nastier than that. The tone of the sport is usually charming and optimistic, with the darker components of the story appearing as seasoning for the narrative fairly than the dominating flavour of it.

All through the journey you may discover an expansive open world. There are 4 massive areas within the sport which can be unlocked by following the principle questline, however every locale is filled with a plethora of aspect quests, treasures to search out, monsters to slay, and objects to gather. Facet quests are largely throwaway fare: go over there, kill a factor, come again, and many others. However the open world is enjoyable to discover, with secrets and techniques lurking in each nook and cranny of the map.

We incessantly took break day between story beats to peruse the map, heading to every query mark in flip simply to see what was there and largely felt rewarded by what we discovered. It helps that Yumia is an agile protagonist with the power to triple leap up partitions making getting over obstacles simpler than it has any proper to be. Later she will get a graceful bike to additional velocity 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 just a little on the simple aspect, some good design selections cease it from changing into tedious throughout the 40 or 50 hours it’s going to take to complete the principle 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 totally different ones. You can too freely strafe Yumia from right-to-left throughout fight, and when an enemy telegraphs an upcoming assault you may regulate your place to remain out of the highlighted space on the bottom to keep away from harm.

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 it is advisable to transfer between the entrance and the again rows to use that weak point, stun your foe, after which unleash huge harm. As you progress via 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 right away.

On regular problem fight in opposition to the rank and file enemies is mostly simple 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 sophisticated 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 may farm as a lot expertise as you want in fight however that’ll solely get you thus far. Even when you’ve hit the extent cap of 100 you may rapidly end up outmatched by decrease degree foes in case your gear is less than snuff and that is the place alchemy is available in. At Yumia’s workshop you may unlock the recipes you have came upon in your adventures so long as you have received 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 hold of the method you may alter the recipe to supply objects that is perhaps of upper high quality, or ones that include further results. So you possibly can make a sword that is received larger base stats, or one which specialises in elevating one stat specifically, or one which does extra harm in opposition to a particular kind of enemy. It is just a little daunting at first however pretty straight ahead as soon as you have executed it a couple of occasions, and you’ll all the time automate the entire course of if recipe micromanagement is simply not your factor.

You can too create constructing supplies reminiscent of partitions, rooves, flooring, and decorations. Whilst you’re exploring the world of Atelier Yumia you’ll find 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 reduce the mustard when you may knock up a small cottage with cherry blossom bushes within the backyard for a pit-stop between missions.

Conclusion

Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Reminiscences & the Envisioned Land is a splendidly charming addition to the long-running JRPG sequence. It is a improbable leaping in level to the franchise for brand spanking new gamers, and has sufficient tweaks to the established system to supply a breath of recent air for present followers. The story is just a little slight, however the interesting characters, streamlined but sturdy crafting system, and rewarding exploration make this a recipe for an excellent time.