The Atelier franchise is one of the oldest franchises from the popular game studio GUST. It is arguably one of the company’s biggest franchises and its claim to fame. Since its release in the 1990s, Atelier has gone on to garner a large number of awards and has seen its 25th entry with Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories and the Envisioned Land.
One thing that fans have been concerned about when it comes to this game is the feel of it. On several occasions, GUST has mentioned that they wanted to take the franchise in a different direction that encouraged more players to dive into their worlds. In an age where a single game can completely change a franchise, this isn’t something that a lot of fans like to hear.
When playing the game, it does feel like the same franchise that so many of us fans have loved since the beginning. However, it seems that GUST has taken a lot of what fans of the series have said over the years and took it to heart. Yumia feels like a complete overhaul of the typical Atelier protagonist, and the storyline proves just how different she is from the previous ones.
A More Mature Protagonist
Set in a world where even the idea of using alchemy is looked down on, Yumia wants more than what she has been given, especially after learning that she comes from a long line of Alchemists herself.
The Aladissian Empire, once revered the alchemists, but now they are feared and shunned. As someone wanting answers to this strange hatred of the Alchemists and who wants answers for herself in regards to who she is, Yumia sets out to change the stakes.
One major things fans have expressed concerns about in the past are the storylines and protagonists of the games. In the last two sets of games, Ryza and Sophie have both been amazing protagonists, but their storylines were lacking. The two previous protagonists were significantly younger than Yumia is, making their games seem a tad bit younger in comparison,
Yumia is a 21-year-old who is looking for her purpose in life, and players get to walk alongside her as she matures and realizes her potential, something that previous titles never gave players.
With Yumia, even her character design sets her apart from previous protagonists, just showing how this game has matured and marks a shift in storyline. For the first time in the series, fans will be shocked at how dark her story gets, marking an important change in the way these games are written and received. One thing that makes Yumia really cool is that she has her own motorcycle, which really added to the shift in protagonist for me.
Yumia is a 21-year-old who is looking for her purpose in life, and players get to walk alongside her as she matures and realizes her potential, something that previous titles never gave players. We get to watch as the protagonist reaches the pivotal moment where they have to decide who they are going to be and why.
As someone who grew up with the franchise, seeing a shift in the age and storyline of these protagonists has made me feel like the franchise is growing up alongside me.
A Brand New Concept With Roots In The Past
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories and the Envisioned Land does exactly what GUST set out to do when they said they were going to rework the systems to appeal to a broader audience.
As someone who has played previous games in the series, I loved the overhaul of the various systems. They all felt like they could belong in the franchise while also feeling unique and fresh, something that is hard to do nowadays. Plus, this game still has one of the best crafting systems I have seen in a JRPG, which is on par with others in the franchise.
With this entry into the game, it feels like there is so much more emphasis on an action-heavy combat system, allowing players to flirt with various builds and create their perfect character and team. One drawback to this is that I found myself dodging a lot, and a lot of players will probably need to spend a fair bit of time refamiliarizing themselves with combat.
Some fans of the series may feel the need to crank up the difficulty for more engaging combat, but I felt that playing on the default would be good for most, especially if you’re someone wanting to get into the franchise for the first time.
There aren’t any game-breaking decisions that could happen if you find yourself having difficulty with battle, so feel free to experiment with different settings.
Another change with this game is the overhaul of the Synthesis System, especially in connection to battles. While the previous games in the franchise made me feel like I was grinding to use this system, Yumia’s world takes an entirely different approach.
Previously, you would need to manage the items you synthesized and wanted to use in battle. This took a long time to get right and sometimes meant life or death within battle.
Thankfully, these items can now be equipped (players can have up to 4 items equipped at a time). This allows you to increase the number of actions you can do within battle and allows you to easily switch between these consumables, making it so much easier than before when you needed to manage everything all at once.
Yumia’s Vast Open World
One of the most exciting new features of the game is the open-world concept. While the last game in the franchise dipped into the idea of giving players a more freeing world, this entry dives headfirst into it. You are given free rein to explore the world and take your party wherever you want. There are so many places to explore, items to collect, and adventures to get into.
Unfortunately, this also leads to one of the game’s only downfalls: while the open-world is amazing, you can find yourself traversing it forever. One thing that really threw me off is the random encounter quests that you will come across along your journey.
When I first stumbled upon one, I was excited to see what I was getting into, but, these “quests” were one of the things that I felt took me out of Yumia’s world. You can find them just about anywhere you go, and all they do is pop up saying there’s a random encounter quest, and then you spend a couple of minutes killing monsters nearby before finishing the quest.
These moments don’t add anything to the game itself and seemed forced, which really threw me off-kilter.
An Ambitious Step In The Right Direction
Overall, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories and the Envisioned Land does have a few quirks, but that is to be expected, especially when a game is taking such a massive step forward and reworking a lot of its systems.
There wasn’t a time that I felt like any of the minor mechanical issues I experienced got in the way of me experiencing the game the way it was intended to be experienced. In fact, the only moment I had any issues was when a lot was happening at once, and the volume got a little choppy when playing on my Steam Deck instead of the PC.
On that note, moving back and forth between the PC and Steam Deck was seamless, without having to make any revisions to graphics settings.
In regards to the various changes that have been made in the game, I felt that GUST did an amazing job at handling the game and working to create a brand-new world that felt like it belonged in the franchise. I could see a few minor changes being something that fans would have to get used to (such as how items are used in battle, etc.), but there isn’t anything that really throws off the average returning player.
The main things that caught my attention were those randomly encountered quests that made me question what their purpose was and the occasional moment I found myself needing to look back over the instructions of certain systems just to see the smaller changes with them.
Additionally, I do wish that there was an English voice cast for the game. I love the subtitles and would’ve played the game the way that I did anyway, but I think that having an English dubbing of the game could have helped in way of those who needed it from an accessibility standpoint.
This game is very ambitious in terms of what has been done to the franchise up until now, and I think it is definitely going in the right direction. This is exactly what the game needed in terms of a fresh new look, and the open-world aspect of the game truly created an experience for me that I wish I would’ve had with all the games in the franchise coming up to this one. This game is certainly one that will please returning players and will entice new players to take a step into the amazing world of Atelier.
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land
Reviewed on PC and Steam Deck
- Released
- March 21, 2025
- ESRB
- Teen // Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Suggestive Themes, Mild Language
- Reworked to feature a mature protagonist that has a more mature storyline.
- A massive open world that seems to always be offering players something new.
- An overhaul of older systems that give the game an incredible rework.
- Side quests appear randomly and seem to be put in the game as forced content.
- A lack of any dubbing for those needing accessibilities in that regard.
- Some systems are difficult for fans of previous titles to grasp the changes of.
