Even for the most educated and weathered of JRPG fans, the Atelier series is a rather intimidating prospect, as its reputation as a complex and impenetrable franchise precedes it.
This is perhaps due toretro games at the beginning of the serieseffectively playing like alchemy simulators rather than accessible, story-driven JRPGs.
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However, there has been a real change of impetus within the series of late. The series embraced the ever-growing hunger among gamers for open-world content, and as a result, Ryza, the Atelier series' most recent trilogy, was a huge success.
However, as admitted by Junzo Hosoi of Gust himself, Ryza was a game that was the best it could be at that moment, and as a result, they see Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Envisioned Land as the game Ryza was meant to be in the first place.
It’s a gorgeous, sprawling, open-world adventure that boasts mountains of content, colorful characters, and a devilishly addictive gameplay loop. So, in Paris, where many budding ateliers hone their craft, I got a chance to dive into the action and chip away at that excess of content.
A Fresh Start
For anyone who is still a little apprehensive about hopping into this series, I can tell you from the offset that Yumiarepresents the best opportunity to date to hop into this series.
The game drops you right into this vibrant world without missing a beat, introducing Yumia, your customary strong female lead that the series is known for. Then, the story and world unfold from there.
From what I played of the story, I can report that it was well-paced and immediately sinks its hooks into the player, leading to that ‘One more quest’ loop that keeps you playing for hours on end.
You’re introduced to your companions, who are apprehensive due to your link to Alchemy, which is considered a taboo and banned entity in this world, but you have a special dispensation to use it to complete your various quests.
Each character represents a typical archetype, and the story feels like a typical underdog saves the world narrative native to the JRPG genre.
But, everything is presented with style and grace, endearing you to the characters on screen and offering a slightly darker and more serious tone to previous games in the series, which represented a more easy-breezy coming-of-age narrative.
The only criticism when it comes to the game’s core narrative is that, once again, in the Atelier series, the game omits the option to dub the experience in your native language. So, it’s either Japanese with subtitles, or nothing.
This is mostly fine, but there are a lot of instancesas you are exploring the worldwhen you’ll miss out on conversations between companions, among other small details. It’s not a dealbreaker, but you do feel like you’re getting short-changed at times.
A Shock To The System
Another reason why Yumia represents the perfect jumping-in point for new players is the overhaul of a number of core gameplay systems and mechanics. Both in a bid to scale back in terms of complexity, and to add value to others that were lacking.
The biggest change, and one that makes this game far and away Ryza’s superior, is the changes to the movement mechanics. Ryza was a very open game, but due to the stiff and cumbersome movement, coupled with the excess of invisible walls blocking natural movement, that series never made the most of this format.
The same cannot be said of Yumia, which allows players to climb faster, double jump to scale mountains, use ziplines to cover large distances, and you even get a badass motorcycle later in the game.
These additions and tweaks make exploring and engaging with this beautiful world a joy, and considering the game is made up of four huge bespoke regions, Ligneus, Sivash, Auruma, and Lacuna, this was a necessary improvement. Otherwise, this would have felt like a slog.
Alchemy At Its Core
Alongside the upscaled traversal mechanics, there has been quite a sizable haul to the Alchemical process, a staple of the series since way back in 1997.
I would be the first to tell you that previous games were perhaps a little unclear and convoluted when it came to synthesizing materials. Which is a problem when that’s at the heart of the game’s core loop.
However, Atelier Yumia manages to keep the depth of systems in place while also making this process more accessible, and this is done in two ways. The game onboards the player much more successfully this time around. Plus, the game segregates a lot of the systems, allowing you to focus on one thing at a time.
We don’t want to get too galaxy brain and explain all the complex systems now, as returning fans will already know them inside out. But, to give an example, the game strips the traits crystals from the core alchemical process, allowing you to engage with each part of alchemical refinement in a vacuum.
It’s a change that allows you to deal with each segment in bite-size chunks and often leads to a much better final product when you finalize your creation.
But, this focus on clarity and simplification doesn’t mean that the Alchemy process is without huge improvements, as players will now, for the first time, be able to build and customize their own Atelier shop, which is as deep or as simple as you like.
The build process is akin to something you would see in a survival crafting game like Valheim, where you’re able to place structures that snap into place, making for a satisfying and intuitive build process.
But equally, if you just want a serviceable shop and don’t want to agonize over the details, there’s a set of pre-fabs you’re able to make use of. Allowing you to keep grinding and gathering ingredients without the game slowing down to a crawl.
It’s this dedication to customization and emergent gameplay that makes Yumia so fun to explore, and while we only got the chance to build one home base, you can bet that we will be diving in to build another.
Risk and Reward
One thing veteran Atelier fans may be aware of, is that the series has regularly offered time parameters, asking players to hit deadlines in their bid to become an Atelier to the stars. Which, as you might expect, hasn’t always been received so well by fans.
However, it seems that Yumia has found a fitting middle ground, one that forces players to return to base, refuel, and synthesize.
Players will encounter a series of areas that have an excess of mana build-up around the world, and simply existing in their radius will drain the player’s energy until it reaches zero.
This effectively puts a timer on the player to get in, find the source of the mana blockage, and open the flow of mana to allow safe and free exploration. But, as you might expect, you’ll often have to make a few repeat trips to make this a reality.
This means you’ll need to head to the Atelier, refuel, restock, and then head back into the fray, which is a pretty nice loop in practice.
The only negative I can highlight is the inclusion of fall damage that can knock off huge chunks of your energy, and really, I think the whole process of exploration would be much more enjoyable without this burdensome mechanic. But this is a small gripe against what is otherwise a fun and fluid loop.
Mindful Button Mashing
How can we speak about a famous JRPG series without digging into the combat systems? Simple answer: we can’t.
Atelier is a game that marries the staples of turn-based and real-time combat, leading to a rather engaging hybrid, and Yumia is a continuation of that.
Players can engage in battles by attacking mobs in the open world, and from there, the battle takes place on a circular grid.
Players effectively have the freedom to rotate around the circumference of the enemy in focus and can adopt a close-range or long-range position to deal base attacks.
Players also have the option to evade with well-timed dodges, defend while standing in place, and can also change to different party members to avoid being left with nothing to do during cooldown periods. But equally, one missed dodge or poorly executed attack can be your downfall.
It’s a combat system that I would label endearingly as mindful button mashing, as a lot of the time, you will be mindlessly pressing whatever attack isn’t on a cooldown rather than trying to meticulously plan your next attack as you would in a turn-based title.
This real-time, high-octane focus doesn’t allow for a lot of strategy, as every battle feels more reactionary, but this leads to a frantic and fluid feel to the action that is very satisfying.
Plus, if you do your due diligence by attending your Atelier shop regularly and crafting new additions to your setup, you’ll always have an option that can get you out of a bind.
Based on what I’ve seen, I would assume that the battle system doesn’t grow and evolve all that much as the game goes on. If you don’t like the battle system in the first instance, I doubt you’ll grow to love it with time.
As someone who has followed the slow and steady rise of the Atelier series in recent years, I feel that Yumia is the game that stands the best chance of breaking the glass ceiling and launching the series into the mainstream zeitgeist.
However, I found it a rather enjoyable experience, and battles tend to be over in the blink of an eye, so even if it’s not your favorite thing, it definitely plays second fiddle to exploration and crafting.
A Little Help From Our Friends
Creative lead Junzo Hosoi, said himself that the game is a collection of influences rather than one particular game serving as Yumia’s muse, which is clear with the presence of Dragon Quest adjacent blue smile enemies and Valheim-esque crafting.
However, from my personal experience, it’s very hard to overlook the Genshin Impact similarities.
From the art-style, to the map design, to the feeling of the quest progression and even down to minute little details like the design on the chests found in the Treasure Troves, this game feels a stone’s throw away from Hoyoverse’s flagship game.
But, despite this, I need to be very clear. I don’t see that as a bad thing at all.
Genshin Impact itself was effectively a riff on Nintendo’s Breath of the Wild, albeit with an online twist. So, by extension, Yumia feels like a Genshin alternative with a packaged JRPG feel.
So, you get the tailored and nuanced narrative of a JRPG, the level-based progression system, the slick Persona-esque menu, and the ability to set up your party as you would like.
But equally, you still have fun open-world mini-games and puzzles that break up your travels from A to B, like the laser puzzles that feel akin to using the Trespasser in Ratchet and Clank.
It’s effectively like jumping into Genshin today, with a slew of nations open and ready to be explored, but with a more contained and non-time-gated story, no Gacha mechanics in sight, and a wealth of much deeper systems.
Synthesizing A Smash-Hit
Everything we have witnessed so far feels like a natural evolution of what was great about Ryza, while stripping back or omitting anything that didn’t serve the series.
This new adventure is showing a lot of promise based on the early hours of gameplay, and with this one launching so close to Xenoblade Chronicles X, I know this may be a rather bold statement.
But Nintendo may need to watch their back, as Atelier could be the sleeper hit that takes the JRPG world by storm in 2025.
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