Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg
A remake of Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg
It’s not about saving the world. In this "leisure adventure RPG," failing student Marie pursues alchemy, adventures, and quests while aiming to graduate in five years. "Atelier Marie," the origin of the Atelier series, has been remade with new elements! The remake changes include: Character designs and event illustrations have been revamped, 2D animations have added and there are now 3D models of characters and stages. The tutorial and navigation of the game’s features have been expanded and improved. The methods of moving around the city and collecting items in the field has been modified to meet modern-day demands, making it more comfortable and easier to play. The new Unlimited Mode, which allows you to play at a more relaxed pace by removing the five year deadline, and the addition of new events that enable interactions with new characters.
Also in series
Released on
Genres
Reviews View More
Unlike the story driven experience of Ryza, Marie is much more like a life sim. The core loop of the game is picking up requests from the nearby tavern, which either asks for materials you can harvest in the world, or crafted items you have to create. This is still in Ryza of course.
The key difference is that you have a time limit for the end of the game, and ~every~ action ticks down the clock. Want to harvest a material? That costs a day. Want to craft an item? Could take 5 days, or even more. The reason this is such a huge departure from Ryza is because you no longer have time for experimentation, and every action you take has to be strategically considered. Time spent crafting consumables that help survive expeditions to dangerous areas is time that could be spent tackling requests to earn money and reputation. Time holed up in the atelier crafting items is time that could be used for harvesting valuable ingredients, and finding rumors around town that provide valuable information.
The strictness of the design means the game's progression has to be equally tight... but I dont think it is. It took me a few restarts to even understand how the game wanted me to play it, and even then the randomness involved in many aspects of the game can leave you in a rut you just have to wait out. And the costly nature of crafting makes me feel like I need to have a calculator on hand to determine how much time a request is going to take, calculations that could be meaningless if the game's rng ends up working against you.
I can see the potential of the experience the game wants to craft, and I do really want it to work, but its implementation is too messy for me to fully enjoy.