Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey Review

<p>The <em>Atelier <&sol;em>series is one of the more complex JRPG series that I’ve played over the years&period; The mixture of puzzling Alchemy&comma; familiar JRPG combat&comma; and interpersonal relationships between characters is a blend that I’ve seen very few franchises attempt&period; <em>Atelier Firis&colon; The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey<&sol;em> is the second title in the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Mysterious” saga of Atelier games&period; <em>Atelier Firis<&sol;em> also brings a new sort of perspective and gameplay to the series&comma; providing a more nomadic tale rather than one tied to a singular setting and location&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Atelier Firis<&sol;em> puts players in the role of Firis Mistlud&comma; a young girl from a secluded town who yearns to see the outside world&period; After a life of isolation&comma; Firis learns of the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Alchemy Exam” and decides to journey on her own to the outside world&period; The journey takes you and Firis across a massive world that has environments&comma; towns&comma; and locations that are larger than any <em>Atelier<&sol;em> game to date&period; Sadly&comma; you are given a time limit of 360 in-game days to reach the proper skill level and pass the alchemy exam&period; I’m not normally a fan of time limits&comma; so I wish they had left that out and continued on with the freedom you were given in <em>Atelier Shallie<&sol;em> &lpar;or even <em>Atelier Sophie<&sol;em>&period;&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Alchemy in <em>Atelier Firis<&sol;em> also has evolved from what was presented in <em>Atelier Sophie<&sol;em>&period; The most notable change is that Firis can do alchemy anywhere and this all thanks to the Alchemy Tent that allows her to set up her atelier wherever she pleases &lpar;more specifically anywhere there is a campfire or town&period;&rpar; The puzzle based Alchemy from <em>Atelier Sophie<&sol;em> has also been improved becoming much easier to understand how bonuses work&comma; and how to get the effects you desire&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120577" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120577" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-120577" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;06182649&sol;AtelierFiris&lowbar;Screenshot07&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Atelier Firis&colon; The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey&comma; Koei Tecmo&rpar;" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120577" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Atelier Firis&colon; The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey&comma; Koei Tecmo&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Recipes are acquired exactly the same way they were acquired in <em>Atelier Sophie&period; <&sol;em>By performing various tasks and fulfilling conditions&comma; you can unlock new recipes&period; By making the same recipe &lpar;or recipes from similar items&rpar; you can level up your skill in crafting those items&comma; allowing you to make better quality versions of them&period; You also gain something called Idea Points through completing objectives&period; Idea points can be used to unlock recipes without fulfilling their requirements&comma; as a way to bypass something you find too difficult&period; Idea points take a while to accumulate though&comma; so it is wise to save them up until you need them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The grid based system of Alchemy in <em>Atelier Sophie<&sol;em> has changed to allow simplified Alchemy&period; Instead of bonuses appearing more frequently as you place ingredients&comma; bonuses are now tied to Bonus Lines which provide a myriad of effects if filled&period; Bonus lines change shape&comma; color&comma; and effect with the use of catalysts&comma; materials&comma; and items that change the way bonus lines work on your alchemy board&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Additionally&comma; instead of the doll-make feature from <em>Atelier Sophie<&sol;em>&comma; Firis can utilize the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Atelier Making” feature&comma; which allows her to decorate the inside of her atelier&comma; personalizing it with items that can help her on her quest&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120579" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120579" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-120579" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;06185231&sol;AtelierFiris&lowbar;Screenshot11&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Atelier Firis&colon; The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey&comma; Koei Tecmo&rpar;" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120579" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Atelier Firis&colon; The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey&comma; Koei Tecmo&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Most of <em>Atelier Firis<&sol;em> is done through the completion of quests&period; Quests are goals that Firis has&comma; that shift and change depending on the choices you make&period; <em>Atelier Firis<&sol;em> is one of the first <em>Atelier<&sol;em> titles to provide choice as a mechanic&period; Depending on how you approach different tasks you may find the environment&comma; enemies&comma; or even the overall storyline changing&period; As you explore&comma; quests may pop up either from talking to people&comma; completing certain objectives&comma; or merely just from exploring&period; Certain &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Chain Quests” will provide new quests as you complete them&period; The subsequent quests may change depending on how you complete the previous quest in the chain&comma; which provides a unique possibility for a variety of quests depending on how you play&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As you fight&comma; explore&comma; and gather items Firis loses LP&period; Much like in <em>Atelier Sophie<&sol;em>&comma; LP is a commodity that lowers your stats the farther down it goes&period; LP is essentially the measure of how tired Firis is&period; While I like that it is only tied to Firis &lpar;instead of <em>Atelier Sophie<&sol;em> where each character had their own LP&rpar; I am a little annoyed that LP now affects gathering as well as battle effectiveness&period; LP is either gained by synthesizing things in your atelier&comma; or through resting on the bed in your Atelier&period; The problem with this is that since you do not heal up fully upon entering the Atelier you waste time healing up and resting&comma; which could be used attempting to succeed in your goals&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Also like in <em>Atelier Sophie&comma; Atelier Firis<&sol;em> has a day&comma; night&comma; and weather cycle&period; The time of day affects the type of enemies that spawn&comma; as well as the type of items you can find out in the field&period; The weather can affect all sorts of things&comma; from gathering to enemies&period; In the case of fog&comma; it actually prevents you from seeing the entire mini-map properly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120580" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120580" style&equals;"width&colon; 1440px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-120580" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;06185311&sol;AtelierFiris&lowbar;Screenshot03&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Atelier Firis&colon; The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey&comma; Koei Tecmo&rpar;" width&equals;"1440" height&equals;"810" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120580" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Atelier Firis&colon; The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey&comma; Koei Tecmo&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Combat in <em>Atelier Firis<&sol;em> is familiar and yet different as well&period; Unlike <em>Atelier Sophie<&sol;em>&comma; all characters can utilize items equipped&comma; however you can only equip a limited number of items at a time&period; Support Guard also only protects Firis and so it cannot be used to protect other characters in the party&period; Other elements of the Atelier series have returned&comma; such as the chain burst and chain attacks&period; Uniquely&comma; combat skills are now tied to your weapon&comma; making it important to choose your weaponry wisely so you have the skills you need to face your foes&period; I like the changes they’ve made to items but I am not a fan of the change to making Firis the only one to be protected&period; I especially detest this when you get into rough fights where you may need one of your heavy hitters to survive instead&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Exploration is also a little different&period; In <em>Atelier Firis<&sol;em> takes on a more open-world approach instead of a world map style like in previous games&period; You may find landmarks&comma; quests&comma; and caves scattered across the open world&period; Caves function uniquely as if you do not have a suitable light source then you won&&num;8217&semi;t have access to your mini-map&period; This can lead to you easily being lost inside a cave&period; With the 360-day time limit imposed on Firis&comma; I think it is possible that if you aren’t careful&comma; you may find yourself running out of time JUST from wandering&comma; fulfilling quest objectives and gathering items&period; I’m not certain if that is possible&comma; but if you are someone who wants to explore and do everything in a game&comma; it may be helpful for you to use your time wisely&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s rather frustrating because it discourages you from playing how you want to play&&num;8211&semi;or from suffering from the fear of not experiencing everything&period; It reminds you it&&num;8217&semi;s a game with this time limit imposed on you and in this case&comma; that&&num;8217&semi;s not a good thing&period; This prevents you from being able to explore as much also leads to a constant break in immersion because of how aware you need to be of this gameplay mechanic&period; The end result of your journey &lpar;as well as your choices&rpar; most likely factor into multiple endings&comma; providing replay value and incentive to keep trying to get a better outcome&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>My feelings about <em>Atelier Firis<&sol;em> are somewhat scattered&period; Overall I love it but as a fan of the series&comma; I feel like there is a weird sort of disconnect&period; The open-world concept for <em>Atelier Firis<&sol;em> is fantastic and certainly a concept I greatly enjoy&comma; however with an imposed time limit of 360 days&comma; the open world brings a sense of dread for people who want to experience everything the game has to offer&period; Without the world map being structured like in previous games&comma; you have no real concept of how long it takes to explore an area&comma; making budgeting your time somewhat difficult&period; Atelier Firis’ alchemy is fun&comma; but it takes a while to figure out the nuances of it so that you can master it properly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The time limit takes away from the experience for me&comma; but overall I enjoyed <em>Atelier Firis<&sol;em> and its gameplay&period; Any fan of the series will no doubt enjoy it&comma; but it is very much a blend of old concepts &lpar;the time limit being the main one&rpar; and new concepts&period; The new way of working with Alchemy and its materials is new&comma; interesting&comma; and fun while the time limit certainly is not&period; <em>Atelier Firis&colon; The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey<&sol;em> is a fantastic experience that is one hundred percent worth your time in spite of a few flaws&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A Playstation 4 Review Copy of Atelier Firis&colon; The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey was provided by Koei Tecmo for the purpose of this review&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;