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

In my opinion, while I’m not an expert on the Atelier game series, I’ve played a significant number of them and have gained enough understanding to appreciate its development over time. My introduction to this franchise was through the Arland trilogy, which was characterized by its time-limit mechanics that added difficulty but could also create stress, particularly for new players or those who prefer a more leisurely pace or to complete everything meticulously. Over the course of several years, the series transitioned away from such restrictions as demonstrated by the Atelier Ryza series, which discarded time limits completely. By its third installment, Atelier Ryza was paving the way for an open-world gaming experience. Atelier Firis dabbled in open-world design previously, but that attempt didn’t fully succeed due to some problematic design decisions. In contrast, Atelier Yumia adopts a fully open-world approach and is evidently inspired by popular games of this genre.

Following the tutorial’s end, you find yourself immersed in a vast open world, invited to discover it according to your own rhythm. The main character, Yumia, is an alchemist who has been delegated by a research group to examine the ruins on Aladiss continent. She initially works alongside the Duerer siblings, though other team members join later. In Yumia’s universe, alchemy is viewed with suspicion and shunned. Nevertheless, her alchemical skills become indispensable to the research team as they can’t access certain areas without an alchemist’s powers. Yumia embarks on this journey not only to aid the research group but also to dig up information about her mother’s fascination with alchemy and why she chose this field, despite its negative connotations.

In Atelier Yumia, the narrative predominantly unfolds through everyday moments, leading towards dramatic occurrences at the conclusion of each region’s tale. As you advance in the game, more members join Yumia on her adventure, and other party members become visible on the map, enabling you to complete their personal quests. Although these quests don’t provide material rewards, they offer a greater understanding of the characters. I find most of the Atelier Yumia cast appealing, but Nina, one of the main party members, is less likable to me. Despite her significant role in the storyline later on, I didn’t form as strong a bond with her as I did with other team members. A potential improvement could be given to the villains, who are either simplistic or underdeveloped due to limited screen time. With Atelier Yumia exploring a more somber and intense environment, it’s somewhat disappointing that we don’t get to engage more with this game’s antagonists. They possess intriguing backgrounds, but the lack of interaction feels like a missed chance to flesh out these characters further.

In Atelier Yumia’s expansive and interconnected world, you’ll traverse an endless expanse of field dotted with collectible items and memorable landmarks. Unlike earlier installments, Yumia can utilize her staff as a gun to snag ingredients affixed to walls or activate distinct locations. She may not climb walls like protagonists in other open-world games, but she can perform a triple jump close to a wall, enabling her to surmount greater heights. Certain regions feature mana fields that demand energy for exploration. Energy is vital for fundamental synthesis and serves as a protective shield, safeguarding against falls and various perils. As you advance, your energy levels augment Yumia’s bike. Although this mechanic may seem restrictive, the game offers ample energy to prevent it from becoming problematic—except in the third region, where mana-rich zones abound, making progress challenging due to the complexity of clearing them. Each area is densely populated, though the final area is more akin to a traditional final dungeon.

The art of Alchemy continues to be essential in the Atelier series, and Yumia introduces novel methods for synthesis. During gameplay, you can perform basic alchemical processes to manufacture bullets for Yumia’s staff, healing bandages, and other exploration aids. At her workshop, she delves into a more intricate Alchemy system for concocting recipes. Despite being refined compared to previous Atelier games, it still offers rich depth. As usual, materials collected have varying qualities and characteristics, but the new Resonance system takes center stage. Specific materials broaden a resonance field, boosting synthesis. When a particular score is achieved, additional materials can be incorporated to enhance quality. Meeting certain criteria will also create an item slot, enabling players to customize items even further using Trait Crystals.

As an avid player, I’m always on the hunt for new items scattered across the game world to unlock exciting recipes and gather the necessary materials to boost those recipes. I follow trails of light to uncover elusive memory particles. Enhancing recipes from the get-go gives them stronger passive effects, which empowers me to craft more potent items without any limitations. Although the alchemy system may seem less complex than previous games, there’s a wealth of information that can feel overwhelming at times. Fortunately, an auto-synthesize feature helps simplify the process by automating the recipe enhancement based on my preferred settings.

In Atelier Yumia, a significant new feature is the base-building system, similar to Genshin Impact’s Serenitea Pot. This allows players to construct and customize their personal spaces at specific points in the vast open world. Resources gathered from exploration can be used to build structures, place furniture, and even modify the geography. There are various preset options for simpler customization, as well as different types of bases such as houses and personal ateliers. Smaller crafting areas like a campsite are also available for more limited customization. Being less creative in customization, I’ll opt for the pre-set choices provided.

In most Atelier games, the battle system remains consistent until a new spinoff series is launched. When Atelier Yumia was initially unveiled, its combat seemed confusing and complex. However, upon playing, it turns out to be less complicated than it seems. Each character possesses skills on the face buttons that are cooldown-based, offering different abilities for close and long-range attacks. The cooldown periods are brief, giving the combat a fast-paced feel. Players can move freely during battles to dodge attacks, and the “defend” button functions as both a block and an evasion tool for precise dodges.

Although Atelier Yumia’s mechanics show great potential, I discovered that its combat was one of its less effective areas. Frequent battles tend to devolve into button pressing since enemies are easily dominated without the need for much strategic thought. Moreover, the game’s perfect dodge system is overly generous as enemy attacks are always clearly signaled with area-of-effect markers or visual cues before they strike.

The combat system truly shines during boss battles, where careful manipulation of mechanics is essential. Bosses attack persistently, compelling you to precisely time your evasions and break their defenses to stun them. Yet, these confrontations also reveal the combat system’s weaknesses. One significant problem is that experience points accumulate too rapidly, making most fights rather trivial. By the end of the first region, I had reached level 40. Moreover, crafted items tend to feel unimpressive unless a significant amount of time is invested in alchemy. In most skirmishes, you’ll find your basic attacks are far more potent than using items. There’s also a feature called Friend Action, where you synchronize a duo item, which looks great, but unless the item is excessively powerful, it doesn’t make much of a difference in combat. Although the battle system shows promise, it requires better equilibrium to reach its full potential. Unfortunately, there are too few boss fights, leaving the overall combat experience lacking in genuine engagement.

In terms of visual appeal, this Atelier game is the most attractive one released so far. When played on a PC and streamed to an OLED device, it looks fantastic, particularly in the first two regions. The performance was consistent on my mid-range computer, although lengthy gaming sessions seemed to trigger loading screen problems. Using an AMD graphics card (RX 7800 XT), the game occasionally crashed when encountering a loading screen after prolonged play. However, the autosave feature kicks in each time you teleport, which lessened the impact of these crashes for me. Mikhail delves deeper into the PC version’s details here.

The gadget I transmitted content to was the Retroid Pocket 5. With a good internet connection at home, you can transmit content to portable devices using apps like Artemis without encountering significant lag. In my experience, it ran smoothly. I’ve configured my PC to adjust settings to 1080p, as that’s the maximum resolution of this device. There are also upscaling features available, such as Intel XeSS, if you find your device straining to keep up with the game’s demands. However, streaming with low latency felt similar to playing directly on my device. It evokes the experience I had when first playing the series on the PS Vita through the Arland games.

Essentially, Atelier Yumia is an excellent game overall, but its combat mechanics could use improvement. The exploration aspect shines brightly and bears resemblance to contemporary open-world games, although seasoned players of open-world games might not encounter much novelty. Nevertheless, for newcomers to the Atelier series, Atelier Yumia serves as a superb introduction.

8

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2025-03-14 16:26