Atelier may sound familiar amongst some gamers, and rightly so. The series is a long-running JRPG that has been released in Japan on most major consoles dating back to the PlayStation – Game Boy and all. Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana is the sixth title in the Atelier series and, much like those, it focuses pretty heavily on the gamer’s ability to use alchemy skills. As far as the story goes, Atelier Iris is as clichéd as RPG games can come. You have an unlikely hero, a ruthless villain whose goal is to summon some evil monster to take over the world, a twisted romance and all sorts of interesting characters.
Klein, our unlikely hero, begins his adventure in becoming the greatest alchemist in the world by heading to a tower in the distance that is rumoured to contain treasure and all sorts of alchemy secrets. What happens next was never expected, and soon enough Klein is swept up in a struggle that sees him using his alchemy skills in a bid to save the world. Whilst the story is pretty much predictable from the get-go, the characters and humour throughout the story are enough to ensure the adventure remains a little bit more interesting, one that warrants a play-through to see how everything pans out.
Our unlikely hero, Klein, scans the town for any danger.
Probably the most significant issues with the game’s story is how it’s progressed. Early on you do a lot of running around, back and forth, doing pretty much nothing for the first few hours. The story doesn’t begin to pick up until you get to about the fifth hour, and by then you’ve done enough backtracking to place-to-place and running silly errand missions that you’d just hoped this story was finally going somewhere. And thankfully it does, but there’s still a lot of running to one side of the map, talking to one person, and then running all the way back to the other side. While there is a loose teleport system, a lot of the running around seems pointless.
By now you’re probably asking yourself “where’s this innovation? All we’ve heard about is clichés”. Well, whilst this is a game that has the usual RPG boxes well and truly ticked, it's also a title that boasts some considerable gameplay innovation, the major one being the game’s mana system. Typically by controlling an alchemist, you’re able to put together a number of items to construct more powerful items such as simple food items, bombs or creating the more complex items such as healing and mana pots to aid you during battles. There are a lot of items to discover and make via this unique system, meaning you’ll be spending a lot of time in the shop trying to put together one nasty potion.
As Klein is an alchemist in training, you don’t have access to a lot of skills early on. However, while progressing through the game, you’ll come across mana chests that unlock new skills that you can make via the synthesis feature. There are also "world manas" that decide to join Klein on his adventure and aid him in learning new skills and making existing ones more powerful. These world manas also unlock certain out-of-battle abilities that aid Klein and his group in progressing further. For example, the rock mana can be summoned during play to act as a stepping-stone to reach higher areas, whilst the fire mana allows Klein to burn objects that stand in his way. These all work well in game, and with the additional jump function, there’s a lot of puzzles and platforming that require gamers to use their manas successfully.
The old-school battle system will be enough of an attraction for some.
Atelier Iris offers a bit of an old-school style combat system, with battles depicted in 2D and carried out using a turn-based system. Much like Final Fantasy X, only three characters can be in battle at once, though you can switch any of your characters during battle to help your situation – and a lot of switching will be required. Some character’s abilities only work on certain enemies, while others are more powerful. There’s not a lot to learn in the battle system, since it’s a typical use your weapon or special skills in turn of draining mana points from your mana pool. Needless to say, the combat, for the most part, is pretty enjoyable and some battles do require a bit of rearranging and thought if you're to successfully defeat certain enemies.
The presentation of Atelier Iris is pretty dated by today’s standards, but it does fit the atmosphere and style of the game extremely well. The cartoonish/anime look is done quite well and shows the expressions and detail on characters exceptionally well. However, the minor drawback to this style is that there are quite a few slowdowns during play. These are witnessed during battles, entering new areas and etc. While some can overlook this inconvenience, it can slow down the flow of the game quite significantly.
The sound in Atelier Iris is pretty strong in most areas. The soundtrack is extremely well done and suits the style of the game perfectly, with each tune fitting each and every situation you come across. The voice acting is extremely well done, but there are often times when it has a tendency to cut out mid-sentence.
Get ready to spend hours upon hours in the shop making all sorts of items.
There’s a lot to love and hate about Atelier Iris. For one, a lot of gamers will be less forgiving than me and become easily frustrated by the linearity and backtracking in the game, not to mention the other minor drawbacks. However, there’s also quite a bit to enjoy from this experience. The alchemy system is extremely well thought out and will be mostly enjoyed by those who’d rather explore the depths of the game rather than rush to the finish. Equally, the inviting humour and charm of the characters and soundtrack does a superb job of keeping boredom at bay.
Would I recommend this game to all though? No. There’s a lot of drawbacks that could easily test the tolerance of many gamers. But if you can look pass the linearity, backtracking and the slow-burning story, open your eyes to some of the more enjoyable aspects, and enjoy the in-depth alchemy system, then you’ve probably found the most charming RPG to hit home consoles for some time. If not, then this is one game you could probably live without.
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