Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land - Review

It is time again for another entry into the Atelier series, this time with a brand-new protagonist and story in Atelier Yumia. A young alchemist trapped in a world that sees her as nothing but a problem, can you help stem the tide of mana destruction, whilst showing people that Alchemy isn’t all that bad?

Atelier Yumia brings us back once again to the alchemy riddled worlds that exist within the Atelier series. For those who may not be familiar, the Atelier series are an iconic JRPG series starting all the way back in 1997, Atelier Yumia being the 26th mainline entry, and the first in the Envisioned series, marking a brand-new continent and story completely. Less of a rigid turn-based and hardline JRPG as it once was, Atelier Yumia keeps the charm of the series, whilst doing somethings in a brand-new way with a modern touch.

Atelier Yumia has an interesting gameplay loop. It will either tick all the boxes or it will frustrate you almost from the word go. With the rise of crafting and environmental item collection, Atelier Yumia takes a quick look at that, scoffs and goes all in on the big blind. From almost the word go, you’re going to be absolutely bombarded with icons all over the world for collection points for the plethora of alchemy materials. The game doesn’t slam you with information windows about this mechanic, it simply lets you experience it. You can rapidly pick things up as you run through the environment, meaning you never really have to stop as you run from point to point gathering and doing side quests. The absolute bulk of the game will likely be spent running around collecting materials for your alchemy, and for some people this will be incredibly soothing. For those like me, however? It’s a little frustrating when compounded with every other aspect of the game.

Atelier Yumia seems to have gone the way of the Tales series, focusing on a semi turn based semi action combat system. Rather than having an explicit weapon attack, as you progress and level up, you’ll unlock more abilities to use in combat, allowing you to chain together your different attacks to fight enemies. This simplifies combat down, and means you’ll be resource managing more than actually strategizing for the majority of battles. Boss fights demand the slightest bit more focused play, but for the most part, combat is simple. Incredibly simple. Dumbfoundingly simple one might say. There’s nuance in playing it effectively, but for the most part you’ll simply be pressing a rotation of face buttons to chain your attacks together, occasionally jumping from close range to long range to avoid big red circles of danger.

You can swap between characters rapidly during battle, and with abilities you unlock you’ll get benefits for doing this at the right time. Be it from getting a perfect counterattack or changing to a character that can actively damage the enemy’s weakness type to get them into a stagger state. For the most part I found I didn’t really ever find a reason to change between characters except for when I was attempting to complete specific tasks for the pioneering effort. The characters themselves do all play differently, so there is some variety in the way you can approach each combat encounter, but due to the simplification of combat, it never feels hugely necessary. It is unfortunate to see the Atelier games going down this route, especially with how enjoyable the combat was in the PS2 era of the series.

Speaking of Pioneering Tasks are going to be one of the big world exploration aspects of the game. Alongside the seemingly endless world locations to explore, Pioneering tasks aim to get you to engage in the game in ways that you may not naturally, to reward you with somewhat useful upgrades and item rewards to help you out with your alchemy efforts. In some ways, I often found myself feeling like I was playing an offline non-Gacha version of Genshin Impact, with fewer characters to play as. A majority of my gameplay was spent simply trying to get all the pioneering effort tasks completed, as well as find the treasures in the overworld, complete the mini dungeons and engaging in the rare encounters and monster nests across the world. For those who love getting lost in the open world, this is the perfect game for you. For those expecting a strong story driven experience with a heavy focus on the alchemy aspect, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

Alongside this, there is a plethora of side quests that you’ll experience. At first these seem to add a little bit more to the directionless open world exploration. It didn’t take me long to become incredibly bothered by how the side quests actually work. They are repetitive and nonsensical tasks. Very few side quests are actually unique. After handing in the same flower to the same NPC for the fifth time in a row or killing the same enemy in the same location at the same time in the day night cycle, I realised that the side quests are little more than game fluff. The repeating nature of the tasks is frustrating, because there is no actual reason for them to occur over and over. Each side quest being unique would’ve made the MMO-esque quests feel a little more relevant to the game.

Somehow the alchemy aspect of the series seems to get less and less interesting with each successive entry. Atelier Yumia seems to have the most simplified system yet, very rarely actually demanding you go and engage in it for anything but a side quest item, or a pioneering task. For a game that makes alchemy such a focus of the story, its bizarre that the actual gameplay element is so lacking. Considering how many materials you’ll be collecting as you run around, it would be nice for the alchemy mechanic to be a little more involved. It feels clunky to engage in, and I never really found a point where I really actually understand how it properly worked.

Whilst the story may be light when compared to the constantly exploring of the world, it may actually be the best part of Atelier Yumia. Pivoting the usual positive light placed upon Alchemists, Atelier Yumia involves you in a world that has a deep hatred of Alchemists, treating alchemy as a forbidden art that brings only problems. Working toward undoing the prejudice against alchemists, you also are tasked with exploring and understanding the now long-lost society that was filled with Alchemists. Journeying across the lost world, you’ll bring together more and more people in preparation for enemies that have long been hidden away and seemingly thought to be lost to time. The story is engaging enough, and the game would have benefitted from a greater focus upon it, compared to the heavy focus on the fluffier parts of the gameplay loop.

Atelier Yumia may be the strongest entry for some players, but for long time enjoyers of the series, it may be the tipping point in jumping off from the series. A lack of focus on the alchemy, an over-simplified combat system and a boring and obnoxiously repetitive side quest system does little to assist in the long-term engagement for the game. The wild number of environmental materials to collect is fun at first but quickly becomes a chore more than something that feels engaging. The world exploration is for the most part actually pretty fun but does fall off after doing the same thing over and over for each new area. A strong story hidden behind a plethora of middling and repetitive systems. Atelier Yumia does some things good, but nothing particularly great.

The Score

6.0

Review code provided by Koei Tecmo

The Pros

Genuinely interesting story

Interesting and diverse cast of characters

World exploration can actually be pretty engaging

The Cons

Repetitive and boring side quests

Overly simplified combat makes it feel like a chore

Alchemy aspect has fallen by the wayside far too much