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

Despite being nigh on 30 years old, the Atelier franchise still feels like a niche series of games. I myself am only a casual fan and am not even close to having played the numerous mainline and spin-off titles, but I have had the chance to get my hands on developer’s Gust and KOEI TECMO’s latest entry: Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land. Created with the idea of a “next generation of Atelier games” in mind, this title includes new and refined gameplay systems, will long-time fans appreciate these changes, or will it be too far removed from what they know and love?

Atelier Yumia takes place in Aladiss, a once-thriving continent that dominated other lands thanks to their advanced use of alchemy. However, the powerful Aladissian Empire now lies in ruins thanks to a mysterious cataclysm, with the neighbouring regions having outlawed the use of alchemy due to the Empire’s destruction.

After losing her mother three years prior to the start of the game, new heroine Yumia Liessfeldt discovers that she is a descendant of a long line of alchemists. Unfortunately for our protagonist, she lives in a world where alchemy is seen as an evil and dangerous art due to the past events that caused the downfall of Aladiss. After joining up with the Aladiss Research Team (an organisation set on uncovering the mysteries surrounding the ruined land) Yumia hopes to learn more about what it means to be an alchemist. Accompanied by siblings Isla and Viktor, as well as her “survey-assistance device” Flammi (that, to me, just looks like a floating bong), Yumia begins her journey to uncover Aladiss’ lost history. In addition to these, they will eventually be joined by three other characters: seasoned adventurer Rutger, the effortlessly cool Nina, and the timid Lenja. All six playable characters have their own quirks (both in battle and personality-wise) and are a genuinely likeable bunch, if not a bit clichéd.

Whilst the story wasn’t truly captivating, regularly relying heavily on genre tropes, it does get more interesting as the game progresses. It never takes itself too seriously and can quite often fall into the “cosy” category of games (which, after just finishing a 140-hour playthrough of Persona 5 Royal, is certainly not a bad thing), making Atelier Yumia feel like a refreshing take on a modern RPG. As this is an original storyline set in a new world with a debuting cast of characters, anyone who has yet to play an Atelier game will be fine jumping straight in with this one.

As with most — if not all — of the entries in the franchise, Atelier Yumia is a charming, vibrant title awash with colour and a gorgeous anime-esque look. Sure, it doesn’t have its own distinct flair, but the detailed character designs, flashy effects and animations during combat, coupled with the series’ biggest environments to date still manages to impress.

As a whole, this is a rather pretty game, but it just feels like it’s lacking that extra bit of something to make it truly stand out. The image quality is clearer, and it runs smoothly at all times, but there wasn’t anything wholly unique about the aesthetics.

Although I was initially a little disappointed with the lack of English voice acting, it’s hard to deny that the Japanese cast put on some great performances. This is a huge positive, as so much of the game is voiced, although not having subtitles for the random battle quotes or other, smaller one-liners did irk me slightly. In fact, the audio design as a whole is very impressive, with some great musical numbers playing that really capture the tone of whatever is happening on-screen.

The main three gameplay mechanics that the franchise is known for are all present in Atelier Yumia: exploration, combat, and, of course, alchemy. Exploration and resource gathering both feel much less tedious now, and I felt I spent a lot less time aimlessly wandering around hunting enemies or collecting items. Thanks to things such as Yumia being able to use her gun to shoot and collect resources from a distance and a bike that’s unlocked early on in the story that lets players zip around the map in style, exploring these large, open zones is the best it’s ever been in the series.

The variety of places to explore across Aladiss all contain secrets just waiting to be found, such as Treasure Troves, Ruins, and the rather dangerous Manabound Areas. These locations, shrouded in an eerie blue fog, will slowly sap your Mana whilst traversing through them, and clearing these areas of this fog not only brings life back to them but also unlocks new quests for Yumia and company to undertake.

Combat feels like it’s received the biggest upgrade. It’s fast and exciting, with much more depth to it than what we’ve seen in previous titles. Encounters are in real-time, with the controlled character able to freely move around the battlefield at either close or long range. You’ll change what distance you attack from by activating what's known as a Range Shift, which is performed with a simple press of a button! Your currently equipped skills will change depending on which position your character is in, giving you double the amount of offensive manoeuvres. Close combat sees you dealing physical attacks, whilst attacking from a distance switches the four face buttons used to activate your skills to magical abilities.

You can also guard and dodge, as well as quickly swap to a different party member, and it all feels very fluid once you really get into the swing of things. It’s a great system, and exploiting enemy weaknesses by using either physical or magical attacks before stunning them and unleashing a Friend Action to have you and a teammate beat up on some poor monster was always a visual treat! Whilst the combat may seem fairly standard at first, with fights lasting mere seconds in the beginning portions, it quickly opens up and allows for a great amount of player customisation and fine-tuning.

Said combat customisation mainly comes in the form of the Synthesis system, a surprisingly deep mechanic that uses Mana and ingredients found throughout the world. You can easily spend hours experimenting in order to upgrade the party or use the new Simple Synthesis option to quickly buff your team up or replenish ammo or other items. Should you want to dabble more into alchemy (and you really should), you’ll be able to create powerful new items that do things like charge your attacks with elemental properties, which can then be quickly equipped mid-battle to take advantage of an enemy weakness.

It was a confusing system at first, and I couldn’t quite get my head around it, but the basics of it are that each item you can synthesise has three Cores that determine the item’s parameters. By providing the Cores with Mana from ingredients, you can then add more to the Core to create a more powerful version of the item. Plus, you can also upgrade your recipes to unlock improved effects, so it’s definitely worth investing time into to get some incredibly powerful items.

Something new for the series, though, is a base-building mechanic that allows you to construct and customise various settlements. Though you’re limited to where you can place items (with various sizes depending on the location), being able to create your own atelier and design it how you want is a great addition to the franchise. Thankfully, it isn’t cumbersome to use, and the helpful snapping tool allows you to easily align walls and other items up! As usual, whenever I play a game with these sorts of mechanics, I spent a large amount of time just crafting my base, trying to build a functional yet eye-pleasing one, in turn granting the team stat bonuses and allowing merchants to come and open up shops.

Overall, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is an incredibly competent RPG and quite possibly my favourite in the Atelier franchise, though, as mentioned earlier, I’ve not played every game! Its relatively cliché story does expand, and the characters get a good amount of development, but it’s the gameplay that truly impressed me. Slick, engaging combat that you can tailor to your liking, a genuinely enjoyable (if a little confusing initially) alchemy system, and a much more streamlined and enjoyable approach to exploration, Atelier Yumia is an easy recommend to not only fans of the series but to RPG lovers in general.