Atelier Ayesha (PS3): I wish I knew how to quit these.

A little over a year ago, I got the wild hair up my ass to try to step back into the Atelier universe. Having  not played one since the PS2 era, part of me was curious to see if it had changed at all. After playing Atelier Totori, I found it to be a decidedly average item creation JRPG with no lastability or originality to it, and figured it would quickly fade from my memory. The game however had another idea. 

I don't know how the hell it happened, but it became one of those games I'd kill whole days off on. I became  attached to the characters, got sucked into the universe and the lore. Next thing I know, I own the trilogy of games in Ateliers Rorona, Totori, and Meruru. I was completely dialed in to this universe of excessively frilly outfits, alchemy, and girly anime stereotypes (Yes, my pretty frock fits quite nicely now, thank you). After the wrapping up of this timeline of story, I figured I can finally put this series down. Unfortunately for my masculine pride, they have made a 14th installment of this series.

ATELIER AYESHA:(PS3)

Ayesha Altugle is a young apothecary who resides by herself in a workshop outside of Vizenburg. After the passing of her grandfather and the mysterious disappearance of her younger sister Nio, she makes ends meet by making medicine and selling it to orders taken by her friend and travelling merchant Ernie. She seems content, but is nagged by the uncertainty of what happened to her younger sister. 

While visiting nearby ruins to collect ingredients for her medicine, she visits a makeshift grave for her sister and begins to catch her up on how she has been. As Ayesha goes to leave the flowers in the surrounding area begin to glow and a spectral version of Nio appears and calls out to Ayesha before quickly vanishing.

A wandering alchemist by the name of Keithgriff witnesses this scene and tells Ayesha that alchemy can unlock the secret to this phenomenon and if she wants to save her sister, she must learn and understand alchemy. With nothing more to go on than that, Ayesha packs up her things on her cow Pana, and sets off for the big city to learn how she can save her sister.

Alright then, so right out of the gate I have to give Atelier Ayesha points for better storytelling than the previous three games. In those three, the goal was basically "hey become a better alchemist because alchemy!" One was to save your shop, one was to be an adventurer, one was to make your kingdom thrive. All fair but from a story line perspective they are kinda weak since the goal was the do it just because. This one at least gives me a clear goal: Your sister vanished and you need this to save her. Much more clear cut and tangible.

This is another marked improvement in the area of story telling because this series has finally gotten away from the annoying still frame reaction poses that has plagued so many NIS America games before it. Now they use the actual character models and give them animations for reactions. Its not the most incredibly advanced move but I thank eff'n Christ its not those awful stills anymore. Those things are like a pass for excessively wordy text. The game at times can get a little cutscene heavy but for the most part all of it can be skipped if you don't care. 

I did have to say I was a bit caught off guard and maybe a bit heartbroken that this game didn't take place in Arland. I got really attached to that universe and those characters, and it was nice to see canonical games where I can watch the characters grow older and mature over time. Now I'm in a whole new area having to learn about all new people. Which isn't bad or anything, I just kinda wanted to see what was happening with the old gang.

The new cast is a bit weaker to be sure. Ayesha is a pretty good protagonist in her constant nativity she almost never seems to come into being the confident hero until right up till the end. Her party doesn't fair much better. You get a 14 year old witch who is work ducking, high energy goofball who is only in your party long enough to get someone else. You get the tomboyish pretty girl who plays the best friend angle, you have two tank characters who are stoic and bland in their personality. Finally you have the grumpy old man who plays reluctant father figure to Ayesha. None are awful and they have their moments, but they don't seem as dynamic as the previous cast.

Wilbell can be annoying, but with the right gear? Teaming her with Linca and
Ayesha can produce probably the best balanced team in the game very early.

Like the previous Atelier games, you have a pretty arbitrary time limit to complete as much as the game as you can, and how you do affects the ending you receive for it. I don't much mind it this way because it means you can play through the game quickly, and still be interested enough to keep playing it and seeing the other endings. I have never completed all of them but it gives me a reason to keep coming back. Also, if you've played a few of this series before you know exactly what to do to proceed quickly.

Although perhaps not totally, as they made a number of subtle changes throughout most of the games execution. You still need to try to create every alchemy recipe you need to get your hands on, but instead of going to some central location and taking in all the missions you can handle, instead you just wander towns and people give you requests to fill out for memory points. You don't seem to NEED to fulfill them, but it does give you points to use in your journal which gets you stat increases, so just try to keep a little of everything when you make it. 

Alchemy is a little more complex this time around. Its intimidating to learn but
when you get the hang of it, you can make some pretty powerful stuff. 

I also found objectives very unclear as well, you have tasks and goals. Wish I could tell you what makes it any different. It took me almost the whole length of the game to realize certain ones were marked to progress the the story, all though some of them aren't exactly clear either. Generally if you just make sure you clear all the monsters on your first pass, and pick each search point when you go through, it'll grossly cut down on the goals list.

They took away weapon and armor creation in this game (or at least it seemed to me). This kinda sucked because in New Game+ mode you get to keep your money and equipped items. It basically allowed you to fly through the early stages of the game when you replay so you can quickly get back to where you finished the last game and further expand on it. Now most of your equipment is dropped in rather abundance, but most of the changes always seem negligible.

When you finish a story point, you unlock a memory.
When you put it in your journal, you get a major stat increase.

The way to really beef the gear you find up is to create stones or dyes to move stats onto your weapons. I was never really good at this, but there is a tutorial out there that gives you the steps to many any weapon some divine weapon of vengeance that basically allows your team to rip enemies asunder. Once I did this bosses I couldn't beat became almost laughably easy.

I'm always a fan of the music in these games. Its usually just a fairly generic blend of classical/folk styles of music with the occasional bit of rock sprinkled in for the battles, but in every game there is always a handful of songs that are super memorable to me. I find myself humming it hours after I have complete the game. And while this one didn't have the bad ass Guilty Gear style metal Atelier Meruru had, there are some pretty reasonable exchanges. 

One of the later boss fights (I believe the final, actually) has this very slow paced kinda sad melody you hear through most of the game, only this time with vocal accompaniment. Since you hear the song through most of the adventure it's pretty fresh in your head when the fight starts, and it just overlays this feeling of sadness that adds this wonderful weight to the story telling. The fight still manages to be tense while at the same time brings a powerful poignancy to the overall situation. It was exceptionally done and is a shining example of proper ambiance to story telling.  If you don't mind a bit of a sappier sounding song, give it a listen.

For the most part, the combat hasn't drastically changed but there are a couple of key difference. You still have a part of three and your characters still only learn like 3 or 4 abilities. You can still use your team to jump in front of you and take a hit, or follow up an attack. But the two major changes I noticed were one: when the hero goes down, the fight doesn't end. That was always very annoying in Totori and I'm glad to see you get a fighting chance.

The other big change to battle is now you have the option to move around the battle field a bit. You can do this on your turn or with follow up attacks. It allows you to get back attacks for additional damage, and by scattering you can avoid big area of effect attacks. Naturally there, the trade off is you can't really block damage for another character. It adds an extra level of strategy to the game and I enjoyed it, but this is still dying for an auto-fight button for more tedious fights. Its pretty standard as turn based combat is concerned, but it just rings of that classic old school JRPG format I love.

Its usually around here I have some kind of comment about how the game is somewhat average and it will find a niche audience, or that you should pick it up if you are already a fan. But as I look at game central in my room, I have Hitman: Absolution, Tomb Raider, and God of War: Ascension all sitting on my TV stand, and yet even getting two endings I plan on playing more Atelier Ayesha.

If I had to complain about something, I would say that there is never really a clear villain or antagonist in these games. There is always some massive monster you have to fight at some point, but its usually pulled  right out of the story's ass with virtually no build up going into it. I'm happy to have boss fights and many of them are pretty cool looking. It just would have been nice to have some of the hero's tale leading up to it. Learn what happened to her sister, learn about monster holding her, and how to approach it. That would make sense to me. Basically all you know is that its alchemic relic from a time before, and then its right into the fight.

Really, the biggest complaint (to most people) is that its a pretty standard JRPG. To me? that isn't a fault. But knowing this dovakin shouting, 90 minute countryside walking around, first person borefest western RPG generation we've become? That is exactly the reason why people hate these games. Hell, one online magazine gave it a review without even playing it. Battles are turn based and come and go, it gets a bit repetitive since its item creation. Much of the locations to explore are fairly linear. I know these are things people bitch about but it doesn't bother me in this.

I guess (?) you could say Keithgriff is the antagonist because hes a bit of a dick.
But he is definitely not a villain.

I seriously have no idea this overly girly, simple, kind of repetitive, and incredibly short series of RPGS managed to work its way into my brain, especially when I didn't even like it at first. But goddamn it, there is something this formula that makes it work. It has that same addictive quality just like the previous 3 have that just prevent me from putting it down. That is a quality a lot of triple-A games just don't have these days. As mentioned before, I got a stack of em sitting their waiting to be played and I keep going back to this. 

Whatever it is, this game has me tightly wrapped by the heart strings. Atelier Ayesha is a fun addition to this already lengthy series of games and they seem to have the formula down to make introverted shmucks like me jump at the drop of a hat to buy it. If in another 6-8 months from now another country in the Atelier universe needs alchemy? I will gladly done my prettiest alchemy attire, grab my basket, and will eagerly get weed picking with a new alchemist for their adventure.

My parents must be so disappointed in me... :(