Join me on an adventure to save the world with the greatest Alchemist, Developed and Published by KOEI TECMO EUROPE. Now, let’s dive in and explore the vast world of wonders!

Join me on a tale of an Alchemist who endeavours to use her powers to uncover the empire’s secrets and bring the dark memories of the past to light. Joining a small team, it is up to you and your newfound companions to delve into the mysteries surrounding the forbidden Alchemist’s path.

Beginning the game, you dive right into the tutorial, which shows you how to use attack moves and combo attacks while also teaching you the fundamentals of the game. Once the tutorial is finished, you’re left to your own devices and shown the reason for your journey. As the main character, you are an Alchemist whose race was highly criticised for trying to end the world. Wanting to change that view, you set out to help a group of researchers, accompanied by two, for security reasons.

As you progress, you learn more lore and new skills, craft recipes to aid your adventure, and show people that you are not an enemy. While you explore, you can come across many monsters like slimes and what appears to be a prehistoric dinosaur chasing you down to fight. There is also a skill tree that allows you to unlock extra damage or to help progress your Alchemy, not to mention a full base-building system with furniture and item crafting. They also can synthesise items using Alchemy cores, making new powerful items to wield.

Fighting mechanics are complex. With monsters roaming around, you can shoot your gun at them to break down their stun bar. Once the bar is depleted, you can initiate an attack, which pulls you into a fight scene, providing you with many ways of attacking. The first is close combat, which gives you a set number of attacks, from one to four attacks per ability, before it goes on cooldown. Then, you have ranged attacks that allow you to step away from the front lines and let your teammates take the initial brunt of attacks.

If that wasn’t enough, you can also use items that let you use mana attacks like lightning, ice, fire, wind, and a whole bunch more that you slowly unlock through levelling up and finding artifacts or vast sources of mana spewing from the ground to access more crafting memories. Each party member has unique abilities, allowing you to switch between characters and use them to your full advantage.

The controls felt very smooth. Each button on the controller was used, with the main movement going to the standard button layout. It does take a little bit to get used to, but once you know, you’re a master.

The graphics in this game put most to shame, with unique attack abilities, even the amount of detail put into the monsters and the surrounding area, with an amazing view distance to see the vast map through your eyes, even with a decent parkour aspect bouncing up mountains.

The view is spectacular, with everything seeming alive: the moving waterfalls, the wind turbines and a fog that layers the map, slowly dissipating or getting thicker. Even the passing of daytime with the beautiful orange evening light shining down in the valley.

From the sweet sound of the background music with a piano acoustically playing, providing a very subtle yet powerful gaming experience, to the intense fight scenes, music completely takes a turn with ambitious, upbeat music filling the air. Each monster has its custom sounds, like a

slime moving around with globlike sounds or a wolf howling, each being very impactful to the game’s overall feel. Each ability also has its distinct sound, making no two fights the same. Although the voice acting is in Japanese, it makes sense for the genre and type of game while also supplying coherent overlaid subtitles.

Overall, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land has shown great promise with the massive open world to explore and with many side and main quests, not to mention the number of locations to explore. Even the fighting mechanics are fluid and unique. It’s not hard to see the amount of effort put into this game. I see a lot of anime fans getting involved with this game, as it’s a work of art and should receive the praise it deserves. I can’t wait to dive back in and finish the game!

Written by: TypicalCambieAU