Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land Review – Is This JRPG Worth Your Time?
Our team at Atarita spent hours exploring every corner of Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land to bring you a comprehensive and unbiased review. We delve into the details so you can decide if this game is right for you. Want to know how we review games? Check out our review policy.
*Koei Tecmo provided Atarita with a PC review copy of Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land.*
Welcome to our review of Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land! Yes, that’s the name, and yes, it’s quite a mouthful. This Japanese RPG is a journey in itself, and it certainly left me with a mix of emotions. If you’re new to this genre, be prepared for a potentially challenging experience. So, let’s dive in and explore what this game has to offer.
# A Journey to a Land Where Alchemy is Forbidden: Atelier Yumia Explored
You might be wondering, “Why are the names of games in this series so long?” Honestly, I have no idea! But enough about names, let’s delve into the intriguing story.
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land takes us to a land where alchemy is forbidden. Our protagonist, Yumia, and her companions arrive in Aladiss to discover a world vastly different from their own. Once a flourishing land powered by alchemy, a mysterious event led to its decline, resulting in the ban of alchemy, now considered evil. Yumia and her friends must uncover the truth behind this collapse and find a way to save the land.
That’s the gist of the story without giving away any major spoilers. I should mention that I’m relatively new to the Atelier series. I haven’t closely followed the games or related content before, which initially made me hesitant. However, The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land feels like a good entry point for newcomers. Even after 10 hours of gameplay, you’ll still encounter helpful pop-up tutorials. This effectively keeps you engaged while simultaneously drawing you deeper into the series.
While these pop-ups that constantly remind you of what to do can become tedious, it’s hard to grasp the game’s density and sheer volume of content without experiencing it firsthand. It’s easy to forget how to perform an action or even why you’re doing it if you don’t repeat it within a few hours. As annoying as the pop-ups can be, they’re ultimately a welcome resource.
# So Much to Do, Where Do I Start?
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land embodies the JRPG spirit. You control yourself and your teammates, grant them new abilities, craft syntheses (more on that later), and traverse a vast open world, completing quests. Along the way, you’ll meet diverse characters, become entangled in new storylines, and immerse yourself in Japanese culture. Let me give you a quick overview of the game’s world.
The land we explore is shrouded in mystery and begging to be discovered. Each corner is filled with enemies to battle, resources to collect, shrines to uncover, and breathtaking vistas. However, I’m starting to feel burdened by open-world games. The thought of collecting resources fills me with dread! I felt those same feelings playing Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land. Although the game is packed with content that I believe will satisfy open-world enthusiasts, it ultimately wore me down.
Gathering resources is crucial to the game. You can collect them while exploring and use them to craft syntheses. These syntheses provide various benefits in combat and exploration, most notably in combat sequences. You can create weapons, armor, and combat mechanics through synthesis. This is where the game’s world, collectable resources, and synthesis come together. The further you progress, the more resources you unlock, allowing you to craft new syntheses and gain new abilities.
Let’s briefly discuss the characters and side quests you encounter in the open world. You have a large map to explore with plenty of places to discover, so there needs to be something to fill it. That’s where various characters and mini-side quests come into play. You can talk to almost every character and learn new information, but it becomes repetitive. Eventually, everything you learn or will learn feels the same, so you’ll prefer to quickly pass by them.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find the side quests particularly engaging. Most of them involve exploring locations, collecting items, or defeating a few enemies. As a result, I focused on the main quest and finding new resources. Although the game’s world is vast, I don’t believe the side and mini-quests are consistently exciting.
# Diving into Combat Mechanics
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land combines turn-based combat with real-time tactics. While I didn’t find the turn-based combat, which shifts into a real-time style, particularly appealing, I can’t say it’s terrible. Our character has different combat ranges, both melee and ranged. This tests your reflex for making split-second decisions and fending off enemy attacks.
For example, if the enemy is slow and ineffective with ranged attacks, you can develop a ranged strategy. You can also create unique combat sequences by using your syntheses. Of course, enemies have resistances too. You can also test how the enemy reacts or takes damage by switching between melee and ranged combat. These elements add excitement and variety to the gameplay. However, as I mentioned earlier, I couldn’t get fully invested.
# Optimization Issues Persist
As we near the end of the review, I want to discuss the game’s technical problems. Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land (yes, I am still writing the full title) struggles with optimization. Although the draw distance is adequate, I can’t say the same for the models. The difference in image quality between low and medium settings is significant. Low settings look muddy, while medium settings clear it up and look almost like high settings. There’s barely a noticeable difference between medium and high settings.
Even if your system meets the recommended specifications, playing on low or medium settings won’t improve your frame rate. Despite my system being nearly identical to the recommended requirements, playing on low settings was frustrating. I struggled to maintain 30 FPS and frequently encountered stuttering, frame drops, and freezes in the open world. These issues will likely be addressed with a day-one patch, but I was not expecting these kinds of optimization problems.
# Final Verdict
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land serves as a good introductory game for new players in the series. Its player-friendly design and informational pop-ups are helpful for those unfamiliar with the series. It also has a diverse and tactical combat system. Although it didn’t fully captivate me, I’m confident it will resonate with many players. Despite a large open world and things to discover, you might find it repetitive after a while. Also, the optimization could be better. Still, it offers a pleasant experience for a time.
Keywords: Atelier Yumia, The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, review, JRPG, PC, Koei Tecmo, gameplay, combat, open world, synthesis, alchemy, optimization, graphics, performance, game review.