The primary alchemist of the evergreen Atelier collection shouldn’t be the perfect scholar. So as to really go her research, Marlone — nicknamed Marie — has been given a particular task. Her process is to run a store and produce a formidable merchandise from her alchemy abilities inside 5 years. Whereas there appears to be subsequent to no shopkeeping, there’s nonetheless loads of work to be finished. What I’ve performed within the early hours of Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg, has me each delighted and annoyed.
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Because it’s a principally devoted remake of the very first entry of the Atelier collection, the synthesizing on this sport is at its most elementary stage. There aren’t any grids, charts and even traits to be discovered. Moreover, the ever-present time strain and fatigue mechanics are current on this early franchise entry, bearing in your crafting functionality. The extra you synthesize the extra you’ll get drained, and the much less profitable you’ll be, that means that some days are higher off spent in mattress.
The first money-making technique is to do quests discovered on the tavern, these require you to craft or collect gadgets, lots of which you’ll do not know the place to search out. Different occasions will be discovered by paying for rumors or speaking to townsfolk, which let me discover a hideout of bandits and ultimately clear that space. It’s vital to earn a living, as it’s a must to rent your social gathering members with a day by day wage (although you might be solely charged when really deployed on the world map) and it’s essential to buy gadgets that scale back the time it takes to craft. Whereas I didn’t thoughts the passage of time in some video games like Atelier Ayesha, which additionally took days to craft and journey, it appears a bit harder to handle time-sensitive quests on this entry.
The social gathering members generally would snub me for recruiting at random, apparently having their very own lives and being “busy”, however by time adventuring, you may befriend them and get particular occasions. An merchandise I wanted for a buddy’s request was really acquired by a not-so-fun 2D platforming minigame whereas out on the earth. I can solely hope there aren’t too lots of these.
Fight in Atelier Marie appears to be a reasonably commonplace turn-based honest, the place the usage of particular talents will delay one’s place in a flip order. Each little factor you do passes time, whether or not it’s returning dwelling, battling, or crafting; even gathering a single spot will take a whole day. I discover that not having the ability to journey between gathering areas, with out going proper again to the atelier, to be somewhat restrictive, though at the least it means I’m not stopped by fight encounters alongside the best way again. The gathering areas usually had about three screens, and I used to be nearly shocked going between them didn’t take up time. I discovered some quests to be overly tight given how lengthy it takes to succeed in an space, and that I’ve to return again, so after I solely discovered three out of 4 of the stone I wanted, the entire enterprise ended up being a wash.
One of many nicer issues about this remake is the flexibility to take away the time restrict, however that’s just for the ending necessities and appears to have little different impact. Whereas I didn’t play the unique sport, there actually are variations because the areas can now be freely walked in and you may select what gadgets to collect, which appears fairly a essential change.
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Atelier Marie is totally cute, with the chibi 3D fashions adapting the unique sport’s artwork model very nicely. It’s all fairly filled with element within the numerous character fashions, and whereas sure parts of the environments are less complicated, there’s charming lighting paired with it. Atelier Marie Remake is gorgeous to take a look at, even all the way down to the visible novel-style cutscenes with gorgeously illustrated barely shifting sprites. Most of the monster designs I got here throughout had been fairly totally different from what I see in current Atelier video games (apart from the Punis after all).
Atelier Marie Remake is shaping as much as be a stunning deal with to discover the origins of the Atelier collection. Whereas fight and alchemy aren’t terribly difficult, managing your finances and time will likely be. The sport is about to launch as a digital-only title on July 13 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Swap, and PC (Steam).