When you love something a lot, it can be hard to see it change. The Atelier series has held onto a pretty strict and consistent style and vibe for over a decade of yearly entries. Yet, in the opening hours of Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land so much of that has changed. The style is sharper, the vibe is a bit more serious, and the titular alchemist doesn’t even own a giant cauldron! I was shook by these changes at first, since they betrayed that cozy, slice-of-life, Kiki’s Delivery Service-adjacent tone that made me fall in love with the series. Dozens of hours, hundreds of battles, and thousands of alchemy sessions later, I can confidently say that this is an incredible step forward into the exciting unknown for the Atelier franchise.
While the last three entries in the series were a tightly interconnected trilogy focused on alchemist Ryza, the Atelier franchise has more traditionally dropped new protagonists into shared settings and arcs to create its series. Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is perhaps the freshest start the franchise has ever seen. It feels a lot more comparable to the changes you see in-between each main Final Fantasy release. Some minor concepts and iconic creatures remain, but our protagonist Yumia is an entirely different kind of alchemist in an entirely different kind of world. For one, she’s the only known alchemist alive as the art of alchemy previously spiralled out of control, tore the region apart, and the society that rebuilt itself banned alchemy entirely. Official texts on alchemy have been lost or destroyed, and generations have grown up with no knowledge of the art, leading to either suspicion or fear when the subject is brought up.
Atelier games almost always focus on a quirky outcast, but the context behind Yumia’s disconnect from society is so much more dour. It makes it all the more inspiring and endearing when she keeps a bright smile and a goofy sense of humour throughout it all, and seeing her slowly win over and recruit her crew of companions feels so much more impactful because of how distant she is from them at first. Scheming villains, ancient underground constructs, and magic MacGuffins do eventually come up in the story, but at it’s core the game is about researching and rediscovering the ruins of a lost civilization, and helping bring the current community together in the process. That theme of understanding the past to connect with the present is really profound, and even if the game has lost a lot of the silly, slice-of-life charm from prior entries, it still ends up being just as heartfelt and touching.
Now, here’s a secret that nobody is strong enough to admit: the Atelier Ryza trilogy perfected the blend of action combat and turn-based battles. When I first played the debut Ryza game, I quipped that it had the fast-paced turn-based combat that Yakuza: Like A Dragon deserved. Atelier Yumia proves that this wasn’t a lucky fluke, and that the team at Gust are truly ahead of the game when it comes to developing truly inventive and unique battle systems that blend fluid and fast action with traditional turn-based charm.
In this game, battles take place in a sort of circular setup where your foes are in the middle while you & your party stand in a ring surrounding them. You’ve got different attacks mapped to your four face buttons, along with the ability to either move around the ring or swiftly dodge across it to avoid enemy attacks. You can even step into an outer-ring at any time that changes all of your skills to ranged versions with different properties. At first, it’s all a bit button-mashy, with your only clear goal being to properly dodge enemy attacks and AOE indicators. Eventually the sub-systems at play start to click together – you realise how you can match an attack property to an enemy weakness to stun them, how to swap in party members for dodge assists, and how you can use alchemy items to turn the tide of an otherwise insurmountable battle. Combat is fun and fast, and a refreshing pace-enhancer in-between quiet moments of alchemy and exploration.
Exploration and alchemy in Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land have also seen a significant shift compared to prior entries. This is easily the broadest open-world entry in the franchise to date – regions are massive and sprawling, with sharp cliffs to explore and dense tunnels to investigate. Villages and encampments are spread out across the world map, giving you lots of reasons to explore every corner. With zip lines, triple-jumps, and even an alchemy-powered motorcycle, Yumia has a bunch of tools at her disposal that make the pure act of exploring and traveling satisfying like no other entry in the series. You’ll be gathering items as you explore that can naturally be used in alchemy, a system that has had a major visual revamp.
Yumia alchemizes by swaying her body and combining crystals full of memory and essence, something that turns into a really lavish visual representation of an otherwise familiar item-combination system. Some elements of alchemy, like the stat bonuses you’d traditionally get on an item via certain material qualities, have been moved into dedicated tools like the Trait Blender, making alchemy itself a touch simpler without sacrificing the depth of it.
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is a fresh step forward with just as much charm and joy as the rest of the series. It’s a major shift in tone and style, which a lot of day-one fans of the franchise may not be able to acclimate to. Despite all that, though, the charm of the franchise and the heart of it all is still present alongside incredible new combat, endlessly enjoyable exploration, and an iconic cast of characters I never wanted to say goodbye to.