Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land REVIEW
You may not be familiar with the Atelier series, which has been in development since 1997, and that’s okay – jRPGs with a signature alchemy system are popular only in narrow circles. The authors have long ignored trends and followed their own path, but with Atelier Yumia succumbed to temptation and presented a game accessible to a much wider audience. We got acquainted with this series for the first time and are in a hurry to share our impressions with you.
In the prologue, we meet the alchemist girl Yumiya, who, while exploring ancient ruins with her allies, encounters a powerful opponent. The latter literally knocks the heroine out, and we “fly” back to the past and get acquainted with the beginning of this story.
We learn about the tragic fate of the Aradis Empire, the dawn of which was interrupted by a mysterious cataclysm due to the fault of alchemists. Centuries later, alchemy became a forbidden art, and its followers are considered traitors and outcasts.
Yumiya Liesfeldt lost her mother three years ago and learned that she was an alchemist. For a long time, the girl hid her gift, but later the truth was revealed and she was called to help with an expedition to explore ancient ruins.
The global story is not particularly interesting. Much more important is the heroine’s personal drama, which is revealed in various little things – the girl often remembers her mother, asks questions about what is happening and catches sidelong glances from those around her and even her allies. Seriously, almost every NPC in the game strives to drop a caustic phrase in the direction of alchemists, and you begin to take it personally.
The allies in Atelier Yumia are the driving force behind the story. It’s interesting to watch their relationships: at first they treat Yumia with distrust, and later they open up and share their personal problems. For example, the brother and sister who are supposed to look after the girl want to take revenge on a certain winged creature that behaves very suspiciously.
There are many such skirmishes in the game, and it’s interesting to watch them. Yes, the partners can be called templates, but this certainly does not prevent you from following the evolution of the relationship and helping them with personal problems.
This part features an open world – previously, players were content to explore open locations. And this mechanic cannot be called new: the map is dotted with question marks, there are more than enough resources, and each area has a research percentage that increases with the completion of quests and the clearing of points of interest.
Each region has a level of development, which increases due to battles with monsters, the creation of items and the completion of quests. Sometimes the developers do not let us go further in the story until we reach a certain level of development – but this goal can be completed in literally 5-10 minutes, so there is no talk of grinding.
The fundamental mechanic for the series – alchemy – can be a burden for those who first get acquainted with it. In essence, this is magic that allows you to create items: from healing bandages to entire houses. That is why alchemists were very valuable and at the same time dangerous.
In The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, the mechanics have been simplified – now some items can be created “on the fly” without going to a special altar. We are talking about various consumables such as cartridges, first aid kits, repair kits for fixing mechanisms. However, most items can only be synthesized on the altar.
The synthesis process is represented by deep mechanics: you need to open the mana core, select components for the item from the found resources, determine the properties… At first, this looks tedious, but it is worth devoting time to this, and you will begin to understand the essence of the game. Moreover, as a result of synthesis, you can create not only first aid kits, but also combat items.
The heroine also creates walls, doors, roofs, furniture, workbenches, altars and all sorts of decorative items with a wave of her hand. In Atelier Yumia, the mechanics of base construction are based on alchemy, which you could also see in many places.
And this will appeal to those who like to furnish their home and make it more comfortable: especially since the level of comfort affects various bonuses. In addition to the main base, you will have to do construction in each region to develop it: fortunately, there is a set of ready-made buildings.
Finally, we got to the battles, which can be called “almost real time”. When exploring the world, you can stumble upon different monsters, if you come close to them, the game will go into “combat mode”.
In battle, there is a small and a large circle: moving between them, the heroine switches between close and long-range attacks, respectively. You can control allies – if one dies, the rest will be able to finish the battle.
Each character has rechargeable attacks: in this case, battles resemble turn-based ones. But during recharge moments, you can dodge, block and run freely, which adds dynamics to the battles.
And thanks to the animation of attacks and dodges, Atelier Yumia turns into a kind of “dance” – the battles turned out to be very beautiful. Joint attacks look especially impressive.
Visually, The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land can hardly surprise anyone: the picture, although picturesque, is dsukzlbn outdated. Textures are blurry, and the image is sometimes too bright. The game has a mechanic of changing the time of day, and at night the title looks much more attractive than during the day.
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is what we would call a “cozy” RPG – we’ve already seen most of the mechanics, but here they feel more simplified. Alchemy has been simplified a lot, which will appeal to those who are just getting to know the series, the battles are unusual and dynamic, and the open world is something you want to explore. And even with the mechanics of building bases, all this plays out harmoniously.
At the same time, there is an understanding that not everyone will like the game: the graphics are weak, fans will not understand the simplification of the mechanics, there are problems with optimization (according to reviews), and the combat system will seem chaotic and unfair at first.
