Review
Release Date: 06.28.2005
Platform:
PlayStation 2Developer:
Gust Co., Ltd.Publisher:
NIS America, Inc.Reviewed by
Jeremy Barnes on 8.17.2005
| Review Rating: 7/10 | User Rating: 8.38/10 |
Nippon Ichi Software has managed to create its own subgenre of RPG. You can probably catch people referring to lighthearted, anime style, campy RPG and Tactical RPGs as “Nippon Ichi-ish”. Since the release of
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness they have enjoyed a lot of success with their funny and quirky romps though unique worlds; so much success that they created their own publishing branch in North America. The latest release from NIS America wasn’t developed in-house, but by a little known developer,
Gust. Gust has been cranking out games in the
Atelier series since 1997. None of the games in the series have previously made it to North America.
However, thanks to NIS America, fans outside of Japan now get to experience
Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana and old schoolers can rejoice in some “SNES era RPG” style action. The harkening back to time of yore and the numerous RPG clichés that have developed over the years actually ends up being one of the game’s best attributes. Instead of trying to run away from them, it embraces the clichés and turns them into some laugh out loud hilarity, but not quite to the extreme that movies like Naked Gun or Scary Movie spoof their genres. The anime inspired characters and artwork also help recreate a feel of yesteryear.
Atelier Iris is a gem because of its lighthearted simple nature. It is far from the simple game it first appears to be, though. The alchemy/synthesis system that has been refined throughout the series takes a slight backseat in this incarnation, but it’s still quite complex. It could take 20-30 hours to collect all the items in the game alone. Once you have those items, you’ll then have to synthesize them to create more items and then use those items to make even more. It’s a grand quest that is more challenging than completing the story portion of the game.
Atelier Iris is only about a 20 hour long game if you don’t attempt to collect items, grow various shops' popularity, or attempt any side quests. The story is the usual save the world routine. Young Alchemist Klein Kissling, raised by his alchemist grandmother, comes to the town of Kavoc as a disheveled traveler looking for new alchemy recipes. Klein notices a city in the distance that is rumored to hold great treasure and have been home to powerful alchemists. Klein sets off to gain access to the city and as with most young adventurers just can’t avoid getting caught up in a quest to stop a mad villain hell bent on destroying the world.
Of course, saving the world alone is for action games or those who still bust out the original
Dragon Warrior. So, it stands that Klein needs a little help from his friends. Along his journey, he’ll meet a colorful group of characters, from the winged love-interest, Lita, to dashing playboy, Delsus. Unfortunately, the limited scope of the story means many of the characters including Klein don’t receive a great deal of background. Cutesy cat-girl, Norn, has virtually nothing more than discovering she was transformed from a mountain cat by a friendly witch to round out her character. Although, after the 50th voice over of “meow” before and after everything she says, it’s hard to care about her at all anyway.
The villains are similarly shallow and uninteresting. The main villain, alchemist gone bad, Mull doesn’t have much revealed about why he wants to destroy the world. No one touched him when he was young, no dragons ate his favorite pacifier, but he still wants to re-create the world in his image. The annoying, bumbling baddie who you’ll have to face multiple times throughout the game isn’t all that interesting either.
Eternal Mana doesn’t really suffer from its weak presentation of characters and story. The translation and writing is one of the best I’ve seen which is surprising considering the amount of jokes and sarcastic wit in the dialogue. Despite having seen almost everything in the game before, it’s still fun to go through it all again. It’s not one or two clichés that sneak their way in, but a horde of them that are present everywhere. The melding of them is what gives
Eternal Mana its unique feel.
It helps that the game is only a typical traditional style RPG when you look at it skin deep. Almost every system in the game slowly expands on itself to make the game become more complex. The characters don’t just gain stats when they level up, but they have skill points to distribute. As the game progresses you will be able to equip the Manas who join you to your characters to increase points in a skill. It becomes extremely important to manage your equipped Manas to maximize the skill points your party is gaining.
The Manas themselves can evolve with the help of a certain item and gain new abilities. The evolution changes their affinity to elements greatly affecting how you synthesize alchemy items. Some of the rarer elements may not be able to be used (or will be used less efficiently) depending on which Manas you have equipped to your characters. Evolution also affects the skills that the equipped Manas will raise on your characters.
Evolution could mean that a Mana that required 4 of an element to create an item can now synthesize an item using as little as 1 of that element. That can certainly help out the synthesis process, which requires elements to make items. Elements come from Klein’s Elemental Extract skill when he defeats an enemy or uses it on a suitable object on the map. Some elements such as power, life, or time are rare and more difficult to obtain than the elements like wood, fire, or water. That means which Mana is evolved at which time also needs to be considered for synthesis as well as skills since only a maximum of two Manas can be evolved at one time.
The game is riddled with sneaky complexity like that. When you finish up with synthesizing items in the stores, using mana gems to improve weapons, searching out new alchemy recipes, and unlocking bonus features through finding items for a kooky collector you will probably have to start thinking about retirement…to an asylum. Attempting to complete every little side quest and mastering every system leads to a lot of repetition. The tedium comes through hard when backtracking through most of the game on side quests or digging up items you need.
You’re often forced into revisiting old areas filled with weak monsters because an ability you needed to reach a chest or item isn’t obtained until much later. The Manas once again come into play by granting you abilities to use on the map. These skills range from a fireball used to destroy obstacles or a stepping stone which will be required to complete the game to abilities such as increasing/decreasing monster encounters or avoiding damage from ground obstacles like lava.
Some of the abilities not required to finish the story end up making the game rather easy. If you use the ability to decrease enemy encounters, you will only have a handful of fights in a dungeon. This when combined with the relative ease of fighting enemies makes the game a bit too simple to finish. Bosses while getting a major ramp up in difficulty over normal enemies aren’t too much of a challenge until the very last boss.
Klein’s alchemy and his skills manage to make him a formidable force on the battlefield. He can heal, increase stats, and do damage on the same level or better than any other character. He’s far and away the best healer with his alchemy items. His power combined with the ability to switch out characters immediately in battle even if they’re dead mean you will rarely have to deal with defeat.
While the characters that don’t finish the battle in the active party only get half of the experience, it is still enough to keep a never used character powerful enough to fight. The characters are all fairly equal if varied in ability as well with the exception of Klein. Lita gets extra turns and can deal a good amount of damage, but Marietta can heal. None of the supporting cast manages to outshine the others in combat.
Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana may not blow anyone away, but it will provide a fun, enjoyable experience. The light nature and clichés that are rammed down your throat may turn some people off, but many fans will appreciate the quirky humor that arises from it. Those of us who sometimes yearn for days gone by might just find some of the old magic of the 16-bit era RPGs as well.
Eternal Mana might be a bit much for the budget at its launch price, but fans of Nippon Ichi’s games or those suffering from nostalgia should pick it up immediately.
