Developer: Gust, Koei Tecmo
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch
Tested on: PC, PS5
Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg – Review
It’s only been a few months since we took a closer look at the preview build of Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg, and we quite enjoyed what we were then able to experience. The game is a remake of a 25-year-old title, albeit pretty much a 1:1 remake, which means that you’re basically playing a modernized version of that exact same game. Now, this remake recently saw its full release, and we were more than eager to pick up where we left off to see if we could help Marie become an amazing alchemist.
Story
The story in Atelier Marie Remake is very simple, as it all revolves around Marie, an aspiring Alchemist who keeps failing her classes in the academy. To prove that she is capable of becoming a great Alchemist, Marie has to run her own atelier for five years in order to improve her skills. If she manages to impress the school at the end of this five-year period, she will become a licensed Alchemist.
Overall, the narrative is extremely simple, and the story often feels a bit like an afterthought. The game also has a few dialogues sprinkled in-between events, and some side characters also have their own short stories to tell.
Graphics
Atelier Marie Remake is a cute and colorful game that fits right into the modern Atelier series, albeit as a bite-sized adventure. Instead of detailed 3D models of anime-esque girls, you’ll have to do with Chibi-like characters. The character models are nicely made, and the current style is more in sync with the original PSX game. Enemy models also receive the same Chibi treatment, which does work well for this title. This game is fairly limited and this is clear because of the very small areas you can visit. These areas are still very colorful, but they look a bit simple and sometimes lack a few extra details to spice things up. Don’t get us wrong, however, as this remake is clearly made with a lot of love and care for the original. We did very much enjoy the art during dialogues.
Sound
The game’s upbeat soundtrack puts you in the mood to start exploring the small world of Atelier Marie. While some of the songs loop rather quickly, they never get annoying. The sound effects are decent, and they give satisfying feedback for the onscreen actions. The game also has a bit of voice acting during key dialogues, but sadly most dialogues in the game are without voice acting. We felt this would have added a lot more charm if the developers opted for fully voiced dialogues in the entire game.
Gameplay
Atelier Marie Remake is an old-school RPG game in which you’ll level up Marie’s abilities by going out to battle monsters and of course by crafting items. As alchemy is still basically what the Atelier series is all about, you’ll have to make sure to craft a lot of items in order to actually progress through the story as well. In this case, you’ll have to go out and collect materials, either by battling monsters but also by harvesting materials as well. When doing so, you’ll also need to purchase (or find) new recipes in order to achieve your goal of becoming a good Alchemist.
Battles are fought in a turn-based format, and these are very straightforward. You simply select the desired action for your character’s turn, and that’s about it. You have the option to perform basic attacks, special attacks, use items, defend or flee. There’s nothing really complex about the battle system, and most characters only have one special move to choose from as well. Each of your available party members has a different attack, which makes it interesting to swap from time to time. Keep in mind, your party members need to be paid, so it’s sometimes best to start out with cheaper ‘mercenaries’ instead of immediately hiring stronger characters.
As you’ll have to prove your worth within five in-game years, everything you do consumes time. Even things like picking some mushrooms will cost you a day of in-game time. This means that you’ll have to plan carefully when venturing outside, as some trips may cause you to lose a month of precious time. You’ll also have to take into account events that take place in the city, which you are able to miss if you’re out fighting monsters.
As stated in our original preview, we find some design choices in the game to be somewhat dated. Not only are the menus extremely clunky and annoying to work with, but certain gameplay elements feel very dated as well. When venturing out, if you have not given your characters items before leaving town, you will not have access to your consumables, even if you have a hefty stock lying around. When swapping party members, you’ll have to do this all over again, which becomes a fairly tedious affair.
Conclusion
Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg is a fun remake of a classic title that is best played in between bigger titles. Even though the game may have some replay value to experience some other story events or simply to get a different ending, its somewhat dated design will probably not motivate many players to keep on playing the game after beating it once. Even so, we enjoyed playing this blast from the past, and we can only commend the developers for creating such a beautiful remake of a beloved classic. This, however, does not take away that we also believe that the current asking price may be a bit too steep. That being said, if you love the series and want to see where it basically all began, this one is very much worth checking out.
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