Atelier Arland Series Deluxe Pack – Review
Follow Genre: RPG
Developer: Gust
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platforms: PS4, Switch, PC
Tested on: Switch, PC

Atelier Arland Series Deluxe Pack – Review

Site Score
7.5
Good: Fun stories, colorful graphics, everything combined
Bad: Voices are so high
User Score
8.7
(6 votes)
Click to vote
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Rating: 8.7/10 (6 votes cast)

The Atelier games have been going strong for years and with the newest consoles, new opportunities arise. Koei Tecmo decided it was time to revive the Alchemists from the Arland region and with this they created the ‘Atelier Arland Series Deluxe Pack’. In this bundle you’ll find the three games and the available DLC combined, what else do you need?

Story

In Atelier Arland Series Deluxe Pack You’ll find the Arland trilogy, so you’ll be able to dive into the stories of Atelier Rorona, Atelier Totori and Atelier Meruru. The stories themselves are linked by history and sometimes you might meet up with characters from the previous installment, so keep in mind that it might be best to tackle it chronologically.

Rorona is the first one to take you to the empire Arland. This young and cheerful girl is the apprentice of a famous alchemist, and also the only one in town. When the king wants to close down the shop, it’s up to Rorona to fulfill several assignments to keep the workshop up and running. She has some help from her friends, so she can battle monsters and gather the ingredients she needs. Five years later, the story of Atelier Totori starts. This young girl is living together with her father and sister as her mother didn’t return home from her last adventure. One day, this family finds a collapsed Rorona. In return the now full-fledged alchemist Rorona shows Totori how to perform alchemy. Arland has evolved to a location where everyone can become adventurers, as long as they are able to get their reputation up in time. Even though danger awaits, Totori wants to go into the vast world to find her mother. Last but not least, there is Atelier Meruru. Here, you will be venturing in the small kingdom of Arls. Princess Meruru wants to become an Alchemist but is not allowed to. Eventually, she gets a nice proposition. As Arls and Arland are going to merge, it’s the task of Meruru to improve the state of the kingdom by performing alchemy with the tutoring of Totori.

As expected of Atelier games, the story is enchanting. Truth be told, the start of the games are a bit slow and it might take a while before you are actually feeling immersed. As the main characters are girls, it might get a bit childish at times.

Graphics

If you like cute girls and colorful backdrops, then you’re in for a treat. Each and every game in the series is a little gem, even though they have the same drawing style. Big eyes and special clothing make the protagonists stand out in comparison with the environment and the other characters. Everything has this comical, manga style and the colors will burst from every nook and cranny. There are several types of graphics combined, namely a 3D and a 2D style. The 3D environment fit well with the 2D conversation screens. Of course, the games are already a bit older and although it is a port to the Switch, the quality of the graphics are not amazing, but they will be able to take you by surprise. Detail wise, it would have been nice if some of the environments were a bit more lively as they are often very empty. Luckily this is just a minor setback in the grand scheme of these three re-releases.

Sound

The music is just as expected: fitting for the setting. You’ll be able to witness several tracks, all rather cute and fluffy but it helps to get into the story. The same can be said for the sound effects. There are quite a few effects implemented in the games, some more fun than the others (do listen to the effect that pops up when you kill a monster), and they all are so fitting. One of the trickier points might be the voice acting. The voices are really high-pitched and it might get on your nerves rather sooner than later.

Gameplay

Atelier Arland series is a pack of the three Ateliers, which are RPGs where you have to fulfill quests to continue in the storyline. As you’re training to be an alchemist, you have to both improve these skills as gain levels to fight off monsters. Most of the elements are similar between the games, so we’re going to go through these below.

First of all to increase your alchemy skills, you have to perform several synthesizes to increase your level. This means you are able to learn new items to make which become increasingly more difficult. Fusing ingredients together is not that hard. You need to have the right items and that’s practically all the game requires. When you have successfully created your new utensil, you have to choose which extra traits you want. Some are more expensive than others and not all of them are useful for that specific item. Synthesizing means using MP and if you run out, the chances are higher your alchemy will fail. You can restore these points again by resting, but this takes some of your precious time.

Of course, before you can actually make new items, you have to collect the materials. Some of them can be found in town or bought from the various shops, but a lot of them have to be found in the wild. This means that the road you’ll have to take is not one without dangers. Travelling to locations takes time, which also has its influence on the assignments you have to fulfill. Same goes for fighting monsters. You will see them running around the field and they will start to chase you whenever they spot you. If you can hit them with your weapon before they reach you, you get the chance to start with preemptive strike. The latter is quite common in modern RPG games, and it feels proper to have it in these classic titles as well.

Battling is mostly the same for the three games. Everyone gets a turn and depending on the speed, the type of attack you performed, you are on a different spot in the list. The alchemists are able to use conjured items, while the party members can’t do this. On the other hand, they can perform skills and protect the protagonist if needed, and of course when and if possible. After you’ve successfully slain the enemies, you get some loot. This is added to the basket, which only has a limited amount of spots so keep this in mind before you go into the next area and you need to ditch some of the items.

You can assign people to your team and some of the games have the possibility to increase friendships too. This gives you some new materials, money and reputation. Of course, you can also give several other weapons and armor pieces to your crew, so they can withstand the force of the enemies. Next to the main quest-line, you can also accept several side-missions where you need to kill monsters or make/collect items. You decide if you want to accept these or not, as failing to accomplish them within the time limit means bad reputation, so keep this in mind. With this deluxe pack comes all the DLC sets as well, which means you have everything that has ever been released for these three titles into one convenient package.

Conclusion

While we weren’t immediately expecting a port, or even a collection, of the Arland alchemy titles, we are quite glad this port has made its way to Nintendo’s latest platform (and the PS4 and PC too). If you want to dive into this trilogy from the Atelier series, it might be a good idea to check this set, as it combines all the available content of the three original games into one edition. This means you’ll have all the DLC available, and the grand story in one go, if you play chronologically, that is. The graphics are so colorful and the music is nice as well. If you like to work against time, to run around and gather items for synthesizing your own items while bashing some enemies, this game is for you.

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Rating: 8.7/10 (6 votes cast)
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Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)
Atelier Arland Series Deluxe Pack - Review, 8.7 out of 10 based on 6 ratings
AnneMieke


Faster than lightning

1 Comment

  1. […] KOEI TECMO Europe has released a first gameplay trailer to celebrate the upcoming release of Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland. The game is targeted for release on May 24, 2019. If you’re not familiar with the Atelier series you have some serious catching up to do as the series contains over two dozen games by now. In short, the game revolves around Lulua who is the daughter of a powerful alchemist and her journey to become alchemist herself. The game is a turn based party role-playing game which can be compared to Final Fantasy. If you want to get a better idea of the game you can find our review of some of the previous titles in the series right here. […]

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