Resleriana Who?
As a long time Atelier fan, the recent resurgence of the series thanks to Ryza has been wonderful to see. Better yet, while the latest title starring Yumia has some notable flaws, it was very clear that they have a focused vision of where the series is headed and I am certainly happy to be along for the ride. However, not all has been great for the series as the global release of their mobile game “Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator” ended its service just over a year after its release (the JPN version still exists).
As someone that doesn’t have much of an interest in mobile games, I skipped it entirely so I can’t speak on its quality personally, but based on what I’ve read, it seems to have been a bit of a mixed bag, making the quick path to EoS not entirely surprising. Having said that, when a new title under the “Atelier Resleriana” was announced, I was curious just what kind of game it would be and decided to check it out, despite my lack of knowledge on its predecessor.
Despite being the titular heroine, Resna is actually not playable at all which I found surprising.
MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: PC, NSW, PS
Length: 40~ hours
Once a prosperous town, Hallfein was the site of a mysterious disaster where a red fog covered the land as most of its citizens disappeared overnight. After many years, the restrictions to travel to Hallfein have been lifted. Slade and Rias, two strangers who both called this town their home, arrive back determined to get to the bottom of the mysterious disappearance of the town folk and rebuild Hallfein to its former glory.
While the story presented is not terrible, it did not stick out to me as particularly compelling. Slade and Rias are both likeable enough, but I found their chemistry a bit lacking and their inevitable romantic plot felt a bit unearned. Also, given I have zero knowledge of any characters from the mobile game, cameos from the characters from that game nor their limited involvement with the story did not leave any lasting impressions at all. Having said that, as I’ve been playing these games since the PS2 generation, it was quite nice to see some familiar faces I haven’t seen in decades.
The inclusion of Raze as a playable character from Mana Khemia 2 was especially welcome as I was almost certain that Gust themselves may have forgotten about the Mana Khemia games, which remain to this date as some of my favorites in the entire series. As these cameos characters were introduced as travelers from another world without having to really make sense of things, I wish they had more of them playable in the story.
My boy Vayne from MK1! Please Gust, make a new Mana Khemia game~
As for the various gameplay elements, this to me felt like a clear case of where the combination of individual parts became greater as a whole. Setting up a store to sell items, rebuilding the town by turning in various resources and bringing in more customers were all pretty simple by themselves but when combined, it was addicting to see this ruined town revitalized to its former glory with every milestone. As new vendors and travelers became available as the town was restored, it behooved me to stock my shelves with items that will increase the reputation of the town through exploration and alchemy.
As for the combat, it’s a relatively standard turn-based variation with some twists here and there to keep things fresh. The ability to save up TP to unleash a series of consecutive attacks with characters not in the front line was always a great way to dish out some serious damage while swapping characters at the same time. I could also use the same resources to interrupt the turn order and use various different types of items immediately which was handy for healing up before a big attack. There are various levels of assists that automatically trigger based on the “Unite Level” and at the max level of 5 UL, I could unleash a devastating series of attacks with my entire front line with enhanced damage multipliers, ending with a unique special for devastating effect. Overall, I found the system to be quite flexible and fun, making for a good time against some of the tougher bosses.
As for the areas open for exploration, there were some areas that connect to each other to explore but there was also the push for the randomly generated areas called “Dimensional Paths” where the highest level ingredients could be found. As is often the case with randomly generated dungeons, I found them to be uninteresting to explore as they all had pretty uninspired layouts without meaningful activities to do in them, feeling like a left over element from the mobile game that aims to generate infinite content at the cost of quality.
The combat is fast paced and rewards proper use of resources, especially on the harder difficulties.
Another essential aspect of Atelier titles lies with its alchemy system as the equipment that are crafted and worn are vastly more important than simple levels and unfortunately, the alchemy system presented here is a bit cumbersome to use. Choosing ingredients to combine into an item works as any other Atelier game but there’s the caveat of link colors that must match in order for traits to be added to an item. Each and every item in the game is designated link colors and they must chain together, matching the color of the previous item in order for traits from those ingredients to be added to the final product. Given many ingredients are generated with specific color-links, trying to use them in recipes can feel very obtuse and frankly, obnoxious. There are items that can change the color links of items but they are random drops from enemies until the very end game, where they become purchasable. So during the vast majority of the game, I was at the mercy of RNG to see if I would get the color crystals I needed for a specific craft I had in mind which never felt good. Add to that the way recipe morphing requires a full color chain before the morph item is used, this made things even more annoying to deal with.
I’m all for having to plan ahead to make the best of the best items with the proper traits but at a certain point, I just got frustrated dealing with the color system that I just started throwing whatever into the recipe and hoping for the best. Given alchemy is such an important part of an Atelier game, my distaste for this system had me not wanting to engage with the system as much as I have in the past which is a shame.
Please do not bring back this system in the future or change it in a meaningful way to be more flexible.
As for the general presentation, I found the visuals pleasant, fitting in well for the most part to the vastly different types of character designs found in the game. The VA and music were also handled well but I would struggle to find my favorite performance or song from the game as it did not leave a lasting impression.
In terms of the PC port, it is yet another barebones port lacking in fine tuning visuals and accessibility options. At the very least it does support FSR (no DLSS or UW though) and the game only crashed once during my full playthrough so it seems to be relatively stable. I keep hoping that they will get serious with getting a proper PC port with all the modern bells and whistles at some point but I’ve been wishing for that so long that I fear it may never come to pass.
For a game that encourages hoarding as much as it does, it sure doesn’t give enough room in the storage!
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & The White Guardian features a fun combat engine and many fanservice cameos that long term fans of the series will surely appreciate. However, as a direct sequel to a now defunct mobile game, it can’t quite shake the feeling like it was created just to try and salvage some money from the failed predecessor by reusing models, music and boring randomly generated dungeons. For those die-hard fans of the series like myself, there is definitely fun to be had here but for everyone else, perhaps I could recommend another title in the series instead.
Fun Tidbit: Speaking of Mana Khemia, I’m always happy to share a track from its incredible OST. Some of Gust’s best work!
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
