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The Atelier sequence has expanded at a formidable price over the previous couple of a long time. The newest recreation — Atelier Ryza 3 — is the twenty fourth mainline entry in a sequence that has had a brand new launch virtually yearly since 1997. Nevertheless, as a result of franchise’s extra area of interest attraction, not each entry has made it out of Japan on account of localization prices.
Atelier Marie, the primary entry within the sequence, was one such recreation that remained Japan-exclusive till now, with the discharge of Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg lastly bringing it to the West for the primary time. Although it’s clear that this remake has been constructed on the inspiration of a easy recreation launched for the unique PlayStation, Gust has nonetheless achieved a stellar job in modernizing its extra antiquated elements whereas enhancing its strongest options. Atelier Marie might not have set a brand new high-water mark for the sequence with this return, however it’s an impressively satisfying RPG journey that no fan of the sequence will need to miss out on
In line with sequence custom, Atelier Marie follows a low-stakes, slice-of-life form of narrative that’s largely targeted on the titular character’s private plight. Marie is an aspiring alchemist at present enrolled in a college program providing her a complete training on this arcane artwork, however… effectively, she’s not very good at it. The truth is, Marie is so unhealthy at practising alchemy that she’s ranked on the very backside of her class and faces expulsion from this system if her efficiency doesn’t flip round quickly. The headmaster offers Marie one final likelihood and units her up along with her personal atelier and tells her that she has 5 years to supply one thing actually wonderful. If she fails, she’ll be expelled and her goals will likely be crushed.
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It’s not a very thrilling premise, however what it lacks in depth it greater than makes up for in attraction. Marie’s bemused and anxious demeanor performs effectively with the characters she interacts with, and whereas there isn’t a lot to dive into relating to plot or character growth, this remake did add in a handful of occasions scattered all through the five-year time period that assist to higher construct out the relationships between Marie and the varied potential get together members. These of you who play RPGs for the plot will seemingly discover Atelier Marie to be slightly skinny, particularly when evaluating it to the extra in-depth entries that got here later within the sequence, however the general environment it creates is nonetheless fairly welcoming.
The gameplay loop in Atelier Marie is saved extraordinarily open-ended, which might really feel a bit overwhelming at first. Day after day, there’s nothing particular that you simply have to do, leaving it as much as the participant to find out what their objective ought to be. Sometimes, a day is greatest begun by taking a visit all the way down to the tavern to select up a couple of randomly generated requests for sure objects you possibly can craft, and fulfilling these earlier than their deadline passes will web you a bump to your popularity and a few further money. In any other case, you possibly can wile away your days gathering supplies and battling monsters in locales exterior city and utilizing your spoils from these adventures to craft new objects and mixtures.
There aren’t actually any ‘improper’ solutions about what you must do every day, and for this remake, Gust has helpfully added some methods to offer you some route. The primary approach it does that is by way of the occasional introduction of assignments out of your headmaster, which duties you with goals like visiting a sure variety of locales or crafting explicit objects. These solely come round each few months, however they supply a good gauge of the place you need to be at factors all year long. Between these, you’ve gotten entry to an inventory of broader, extra time-consuming goals that grant you everlasting stat boosts for hitting sure thresholds in exploration, fight, and crafting, which helps make it somewhat simpler to make choices on what to do when your quests run dry.
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One thing that’s central to all of the interlocking gameplay methods in Atelier Marie is the idea of time administration. That five-year deadline isn’t only a plot system for the story, it permeates virtually every part you possibly can probably do. All actions have a time value to them, which might vary wherever from a single day to greater than per week. For instance, if you wish to head to a close-by forest to gather supplies, not solely will it take you a couple of days simply to stroll there, however it’ll value you a day actually each time you collect from a group spot or battle an enemy. Then once you get again, it’ll value one other few days once you synthesize the supplies in a brand new combination.
Weeks and months thus soften away in simply minutes if not seconds of real-time, which is usually a little bit of an adjustment when deadlines which can be ‘solely’ a month or two away are imminently looming over you very quickly in any respect. At the beginning, we discovered ourselves failing a couple of quests as a result of their expiration dates sneaked up so shortly. After some time, we began to develop a way of how lengthy it’ll take to finish numerous duties, and it obtained simpler to plan out an agenda and higher optimize time. Those that don’t like feeling the time stress can play in a vast mode that removes the five-year deadline in the event that they so select, however you’re nonetheless all the time going to be scrambling to fulfill deadlines for quests that you simply settle for.
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Regardless of time administration being a crucial a part of the expertise, we have been impressed by how laidback Atelier Marie feels to play. Even once you’re taking part in with the five-year deadline, it seems like the sport is extraordinarily forgiving in how strictly it expects the participant to stick to a schedule; this isn’t like Persona or Stardew Valley the place there’s a continuing, extra intense stress to get every part achieved. Lacking a quest will solely dock you a couple of popularity factors that you could simply acquire again, and the extra vital tasks like your headmaster assignments are revealed to you effectively prematurely of their deadlines. You’re all the time aware of the passage of time, however not in such a approach that it induces anxiousness or takes away from the enjoyable of the gameplay.
Fight has acquired some noticeable polish for this remake, and whereas it’s clearly not supposed to be the centerpiece of the gameplay loop, we nonetheless appreciated what it brings to the desk. Marie is all the time your lead, and you may have as much as two further get together members that you simply rent from city, with their wages being dictated by the space it’s a must to journey to a location. Once you’re out exploring gathering areas, enemies will likely be lazily roaming round and may be prevented or confronted. Battles play out in a turn-based model paying homage to the Conditional Flip-Based mostly Battle system in Ultimate Fantasy X; characters and enemy turns are staggered on a timeline in accordance with their velocity stat. Get together positioning performs an vital position as you possibly can have characters on the entrance, center, or again strains, with every place giving boosts and cuts to sure stats.
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Except for a couple of boss encounters, most fights are over in a matter of seconds and require little or no strategic planning; they do exactly sufficient to meaningfully break up the crafting grind with out diverting your consideration strongly. That can assist you blow via them somewhat sooner, Gust has added an auto-battle possibility and you’ve got the power to triple the battle velocity. With these options each turned on, battles are successfully over earlier than they even begin, however it’s good for these occasions once you’re grinding low-level Punis and simply need to get some drops.
On condition that that is the primary recreation within the franchise, the crafting system right here is fairly easy, however that’s to not say that it isn’t participating. Parts like merchandise high quality and traits don’t characteristic right here and also you don’t have one thing like that Tetris-like puzzle for putting substances from the Mysterious video games—making a brand new craft is so simple as having the substances and urgent the button to make it. There’s nonetheless a slight little bit of danger to it as you’re all the time spending nevertheless many days it takes to make every part and there’s a small likelihood you may fail if Marie is just too fatigued. Later video games actually expanded the crafting system for the higher, however what’s right here in Atelier Marie continues to be strong, if a bit unspectacular.
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One other key characteristic of this remake is the introduction of some new mini-games to combine up the gameplay a bit. The necessities for each are fairly uncommon, however these mini-games show to be a easy and pleasant shock once they pop up. Every one is timed and scores you ultimately, with the end result doubtlessly netting you some useful rewards when you carry out effectively. We encountered one occasion the place we crafted a wheel of cheese within the atelier, just for it to be stolen away by a mouse. This pulled us right into a Bomberman-style maze the place we had three minutes to catch the mouse, with higher rewards being supplied for pulling off a fast seize. These mini-games are pretty fleeting, and so they don’t have a ton of depth to them, however they nonetheless present attention-grabbing distractions from the principle gameplay loop.
Later video games doubled down on the complexity and size frequent to JRPGs, Atelier Marie is available in at a really lean ten hours for a full playthrough, possibly fifteen when you’re actually taking your time with it. You possibly can all the time replay it to see if you may get an alternate ending, however in some methods, Atelier Marie feels extra like an appetizer than it does a major course. Whether or not this can be a constructive or a unfavorable in the end relies upon upon your tastes, however we appreciated the chance to have interaction in a concise and targeted RPG expertise. At any price, simply keep in mind that this one seemingly gained’t occupy you for very lengthy.
Concerning visuals, Atelier Marie’s presentation appears to have taken inspiration from the artwork kinds of video games corresponding to Bravely Default II and the Hyperlink’s Awakening remake. All of the characters and enemies have a squat, chibi design with a kind of plasticky look to them, paired with trendy lighting and depth-of-field results that give environments an additional diploma of realism. That is coupled with some impressively sharp, hand-drawn character artwork for dialogue sequences that give every character somewhat extra element than their chibi mannequin permits for. It’s not essentially the most visually gorgeous recreation on the Swap, however that diorama-like method seems to be nice in movement and feels becoming for the general tone.
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For the soundtrack, you possibly can decide between the unique music or a remastered soundtrack made for this remake, and each are nice choices. The remastered music adheres fairly carefully to the supply materials, however it has a barely extra playful aesthetic that matches effectively with the toylike look of the visuals. In the meantime, the unique music has been cleaned up a bit and provides every part a barely extra retro really feel. Both approach, it’s a chipper and bouncy assortment of tunes that do an ideal job of feeding into that pleasant environment.