Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is the newest entry in the long-running Atelier series. It establishes a brand-new universe while providing a snappier, more seamless experience. With a notable tonal shift and a dynamic action-oriented flow, the game is fantastic and fresh while retaining the series’ alchemy-driven core.
In this world, alchemy is taboo, and distrust of alchemists is widespread. However, Yumia has been nonetheless recruited as a member of the Research Team due to her unique abilities. She must prove herself to her fellow team members as they counteract natural imbalances, investigate an alchemic disaster, and confront mysterious figures with an insidious agenda. These factors all create an immediately impactful narrative.
Atelier Yumia continually provides a sense of intrigue. Areas juxtapose historical artifacts with present-day overgrown and dilapidated structures. Yumia’s mechanical helper, Flammi, feels anachronistic in a perplexing yet believable way. Cutscenes and relics depict broken glimpses into the past that the cast must piece together. Furthermore, alchemy is a promising yet dangerous force. Yumia encounters alchemy-driven consequences, and her doubts and willingness to face uncertain circumstances are relatable.Â
Gust’s stylized art direction has always been compelling, but Atelier Yumia‘s presentation is wondrous. The environments showcase majestic views, plenty of foliage, and awe-inspiring skies. The sheer variety is impressive and exciting, and I always look forward to seeing the next biome. Landmarks are often dreamlike, and every location feels like a photo opportunity. The game showcases vibrant effects, antagonists with wild designs, expressive characters, and bolstered cinematography.
The worlds consistently reward exploration and evokes danger. Atelier Yumia truly embraces open world design with four enormous biomes consisting of seamlessly connected areas. Yumia is more agile than previous Atelier protagonists as she can quickly run and climb walls, which is empowering. Discovering treasure regularly unlocks resources to bolster Yumia’s skills. At the same time, traversing the miasmic Manabound areas slowly saps energy reserves, creating a sense of danger that can catch the party off guard at inopportune moments.Â
Central to Atelier Yumia’s appeal is its snappiness. Fast traveling to different biomes only takes a few seconds on PlayStation 5, and the transition from overworld traversal to battles is instantaneous. The real-time action-based battles are snappy as each face button activates a skill or item. These battles involve an engrossing rhythm of juggling cooldowns between close attacks, far attacks, and items. One trigger is tied to dodging, blocking, and healing items, which makes intuitive sense after some practice. Everybody shares the same healing items, which lessens players’ mental load.
Alchemy forms the series’ core, and Atelier Yumia’s synthesis process is satisfying, with a bit of a learning curve. Yumia slots items into cores to affect different aspects of the final item. Each ingredient creates a visual circular field that interacts with nodes and mana. Finding the right ingredients to boost synthesis effects ultimately impacts the party’s power. The process is also a visual spectacle as it consists of camera cuts and even a bit of acrobatics.Â
Atelier Yumia provides a continual feeling of progression. Yumia and the rest of the Research Team seem pioneers as they build bases in new areas. Since battle items regenerate, Yumia does not have to return to a base to craft replacements, unlike many prior Atelier games. Each locale is packed with new types of whimsical and surprising ingredients, and these discoveries often lead to new recipes. Another much welcomed change is being able to save and load anywhere. The brand new Simple Synthesis allows Yumia to craft helpful items rapidly at any time, so the party can stay on the field and more efficiently explore their surroundings.
Yumia’s gun-staff is another key difference from previous games. Her ability to fire a gun may seem tonally strange, but it fits the game’s overall flow. The environments’ considerable verticality encourages Yumia to scan her surroundings, and the gun-staff can gather ingredients or activate switches from afar. Naturally, firing at enemies leads to battle advantages, and her skills utilize gunfire in a visually poignant way.Â
Much of the characters’ banter is endearing and enjoyable. Yumia’s mechanical helper Flammi is pragmatic and tone deaf, which leads to amusing bickering. Party members reflect upon their surroundings and remark upon specific situations such as crafting new weapons. Their mid battle communication further fosters a sense of camaraderie. The characters transcend their archetypes as they are relatable, exhibit insecurities, and mature over the course of the game.Â
The music’s dichotomous nature marks a drastic departure from previous Atelier games. As Yumia navigates the overworld, the music is ambient with moments of silence. These overworld tracks accentuate the games’ wistful atmosphere. However, battles are full of upbeat jams that Atelier fans expect and love, and boss battle songs are sweeping, catchy, and enthralling.
Despite the game’s wonderfully executed ideas, a few quirks may potentially detract from players’ enjoyment. The resource spots are numerous and clustered densely together, which can feel excessive even if the actual gathering process is brisk. Some environments’ density can also interfere with visibility, and it can occasionally be hard to see where to go. The bosses can also be surprising as they can quickly wreak havoc upon the party, so the game incentivizes digging into skill unlocks, experimenting with the alchemy system, and regularly updating item loadouts.Â
While Yumia’s abilities lead to engaging traversal and battles, they necessitate an unavoidable suspension of disbelief. Yumia’s athleticism, quick problem solving, rapid field crafting, and gun proficiency defy her supposed lack of alchemy experience. One mode of transportation is also initially a bit jarring and modern for an Atelier game. The puzzle design involving blocks, switches, and tile-turning is also too generic. Despite the game’s numerous species, individual villagers are repeated too much, slightly undermining the towns’ charm. Furthermore, the supporting NPCs are less memorable or impactful than the playable cast.
With its snappy playability, brisk movement, intriguing universe, beautifully crafted environments, and sense of adventure, Atelier Yumia is by and far the most universally recommendable Atelier title to date. Although specific motifs, such as the relatively serious narrative and the gun-staff, might perplex diehard Atelier enthusiasts, the series’ core ideas are nonetheless present in full force. Players can expect to spend approximately forty hours, but this can quickly change due to the number of optional sub-quests and map landmarks to discover. For those who may have never experienced the series, Atelier Yumia is a fantastic point to jump in and experience an alchemy-fueled and mana-filled adventure.
