From Preview to Playthrough: Atelier Yumia’s Expanded Experience
In our recent preview of Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, we left very impressed with the size and scope of the game.
Now, with our hands on the full game, we’ve been able to experience the peaks and troughs for a much longer period. Whilst the full game can’t quite match up to the opening hours from the preview, Atelier Yumia is still a great JRPG that marks the first entry for the long-running series on Xbox.
In a world where alchemy and alchemists have been outlawed, you naturally play as one. As Yumia, the daughter of an atelier who taught her all she knows, you have been drafted in to an expedition team to uncover the many secrets across the Aladissian Empire.
An open-world worthy of your time
This open-world of Aladiss is simply begging to be explored. After a short introduction that is actually from way further on in the game, the map opens up to you in four distinct regions. Much of these areas are covered with a thick fog and are called Manabound Areas, and clearing this fog is one of the major goals for exploration.
Yumia has a constant supply of Mana Energy for nearly every activity she performs, but it depletes in these Manabound Areas. It is easy to get sidetracked when aiming for the source of the Mana – like any good open-world should feel – but sticking to the main path for the most part to be able to clear it meant that I rarely felt my Mana was going to run out completely. Should this happen though, a debuff will be applied to combat.
The main narrative follows a simple quested structure, with plenty of side quests to undertake too. Whether these are randomly generated or not is unknown as they devolve into mainly fetch quests. And in a game where you are highly encouraged to collect as much as possible, many of these can be turned in almost instantly due to the sheer volume of resources you need to be collecting. They are worth it though, granting plenty of skill points to upgrade in the skill tree.
The exploration aspect will definitely appeal to those that played Breath of the Wild or Genshin Impact. Open-worlds may not be entirely new to the Atelier series, but this is one of the more enjoyable worlds we’ve explored in a long while.
Exploration and combat are two of the main pillars of Atelier Yumia, along with synthesising and new for the series, building.
A more approachable combat system
Combat has evolved from the turn-based mechanics of earlier Atelier games into a more action-oriented system, but one that doesn’t disregard turn-based altogether.
When you get into a fight, you can choose to fight in close quarters, or at ranged with magical abilities. Typically, this will depend on what your enemy is weakest to, as doing enough attacks correlating to their weakness can stun them. At this point, an enemy’s elemental weakness can be utilised, making the most of an item that Yumia has created and equipped.
As you level up, you unlock more uses for your attacks, as well as new ones, meaning you will spend less time waiting for cooldowns to finish. Fights can be quite intense with a lot going on on-screen at any one time, but on Normal difficulty I rarely ran into any issues, even during the boss battles.
These themselves are perhaps something that long-term Atelier fans will not be used to; a proper antagonist. They aren’t quite as frequent with their appearances as other JRPG antagonists, but they do help push the story along more than just simply through exploration.
Enemies can be seen on the world map, so initiating a fight is easily done. However, what type of fight you get into isn’t telegraphed, and this can be frustrating. A regular encounter is where you just fight the enemy you have run into. These can either be Rumble Encounters or Split Encounters. Rumble Encounters increase the number of enemies to defeat at once, pooling their life together and stun defences. These are fine and are at least explained to you in a tutorial.
Split Encounters on the other hand separate your team of three into individuals fighting against one monster each. Aside from a notification in the top of the screen, these aren’t ever properly explained to you, nor is why they occur. There is no story reasoning for why your party splits up for these battles either, and considering they take a considerable amount of time more than a standard battle, this just doesn’t sit right.
Your party expands over time, and each member brings with them their own baggage, much like any JRPG party. Yumia starts with siblings Isla and Viktor, who’s reasons for joining the expedition are laid out quite early. Isla is far more welcoming to Yumia’s alchemical abilities than her brother, but it is enjoyable to see their relationship evolve over time, even if it is a well-worn path at this point.
Rutger and Nina join some time after, and aren’t just here to make up numbers. They can both handle a fight but also bring distinct enough personalities that makes the journey together more personal. Finally, there is Lenja, a non-human, but also part of the expedition team and again, unique enough to keep things interesting.
Super-Sized Synthesise
The third pillar of Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is the main pillar for the entire series; that of synthesising and making things. At first, hearing that Yumia was an alchemist, I was expecting lotions and potions of all kinds, but her skills are much more than just concocting defensive and offensive brews. Weapons, armour, crafting items, plot specific items and at one point a crucial component for what was essentially a motorbike, Yumia can lend her hand to anything.
Simple synthesis can be used to keep your bag topped up with healing items, lures for fishing and other simple items, and is new for the series as well. The core synthesis though is still here for those that want to get into the crux of the Atelier games.
To explain what is needed here for regular synthesis would take too long. Basically, it involves cores, mana extraction, quality components and resonance areas; creating one item can take a while if you intend to maximise its potential. The reality though is that it is very easy to follow once you have done it a couple of times. Which is just as well, because it is something you will be doing often enough. You can get by only doing it for core plot devices, but you will be missing out on maximising battle proficiencies at the very least.
It is interesting to see how individual components can affect your cores when synthesising, and if you wanted to get into the minutiae of it, you most definitely can. For those who just want to crack on, you can auto-add ingredients and stipulate whether you want high quality, bare minimum or something in between.
Between this, the simple synthesis and the updated combat, the Atelier series is clearly setting its stall out to be more appealing to a wider audience. And as a member of that wider audience, it’s all pretty positive stuff.
A New Pillar For The Series
This approachability is even apparent in the new building mechanics. As you clear up Manabound Areas, you will uncover little areas where you can build upon to help the expedition team cross the map more easily. Your starting buildable items will be very basic, but there are a ton of additional items to craft with recipes found all over the world.
And you can get quite creative with it, albeit in a fairly restricted space for each location. But if that isn’t your thing, you can randomly generate buildings based on certain criteria that picks from the pool you have unlocked. Sadly, this random generation doesn’t do any interior design so whatever you generate looks like an ugly outer husk until you then spend the time decorating it. Again, you don’t have to though, but this will be detrimental to your Pioneering Effort.
That’s in capitals because it’s another mechanic, and one I will admit to spending a bit too long on, just to see the numbers tick up if nothing more. But there are also some valuable rewards to be had also. Each region has certain criteria that as you complete it, unlocks new blueprints or crafting items. Once again, you get out of it what you put in and doesn’t necessarily need to be done for you to just progress the story.
A Stellar Xbox Debut for the Atelier Series
As a first foray onto Xbox consoles, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Envisioned Land does a stellar job. It looks stunning, and the strong mix of exploration, alchemy and combat all complement each other extremely well. At times it does feel the story beats are a bit too spaced out, and the world map is daunting to look at, but no two play sessions are the same.
This is an open-world that can quickly capture your attention, and then present you with numerous distractions; before you know it two hours have passed. It isn’t so much the story or the crafting elements that will keep you playing Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, but simply uncovering every corner of this beautifully realised world.
Important Links
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Envisioned Land – The JRPG You’ve Been Waiting For? – https://www.thexboxhub.com/atelier-yumia-the-alchemist-of-memories-the-envisioned-land-the-jrpg-youve-been-waiting-for/
Buy Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/atelier-yumia-the-alchemist-of-memories-the-envisioned-land/9MZZJJ7KGL7Q/0017
Grab the Deluxe Edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/atelier-yumia-the-alchemist-of-memories-the-envisioned-land-digital-deluxe-edition/9NNFSNV4J7BX/0017
Or go Ultimate – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/atelier-yumia-the-alchemist-of-memories-the-envisioned-land-ultimate-edition/9MTB3K9DL3WK/0017
