Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Envisioned Land

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Ever since the glory days of construction paper and glue, I’ve been absolutely hopeless at crafting. Sorry, world, but you’re not going to get any fantastic handiwork out of me. Can’t do it. I’ll stick to the consumer lifestyle, buying low-quality products at high prices like everyone else who can’t do anything with their hands. At least there’s still high-quality products out there to purchase here and there, like Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Envisioned Land, the latest in the never-ending series of crafting RPGs from Koei Tecmo.

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In a world where alchemy is considered witchcraft at best, young alchemist Yumia follows in the footsteps of her mother as she explores mysterious ruins. She’ll come to make new friends despite the questionable reputation of her line of work, and in the process she just might discover the answers behind the mysteries of the past. Also, she’s got a gun-staff. Why don’t we have gun-staves?

The most significant change in this entry is, of course, the move to an open-world setting. In truth this isn’t as groundbreaking a change as you might expect, since the areas in prior Atelier games were already pretty massive to begin with. It’s nice that Yumia’s a lot more athletic than previous protagonists, making it a lot easier to get around and explore areas, but in the end a lot of what you’re doing is still pretty standard Atelier stuff: find goodies, battle monsters and craft, craft, craft. Later, you’ll have to think a bit more about a regenerating energy bar that’s used for on-the-spot crafting and entering dangerous areas, adding another layer of complication as you progress further.

Combat in Yumia has a lot in common with recent entries like Atelier Ryza, playing out as a sort of hybrid between real-time and turn-based battle. You’re able to manually dodge attacks while launching your own assaults, each of which are on cooldowns to encourage you to interact with enemies rather than just mashing buttons. Meanwhile, you’re also able to activate re-usable magic items, team up with allies and more. It’s a stylish system that looks fantastic in practice, though there’s not a lot of challenge to be found here. If you keep up with Atelier Yumia’s crafting system you’ll rarely have much trouble progressing through the game, but players who rush might find themselves outclassed and forced to do some grinding.

As in prior installments of the Atelier series, Yumia has a huge focus on crafting your own items and gear. There’s something special about winning a battle thanks to weapons and consumables that you put together yourself, after all, and in Atelier Yumia you’re putting in the work from scratch. As you explore the open world and defeat baddies, you’ll collect loads and loads of materials that you’ll later use for synthesis. High-quality materials can result in increased resonance as you’re working on an item, leading to more powerful results.

This is probably most easily explained via example. Let’s say you want to throw together a new sword. That’s going to take wood, metal and maybe some extra bits here and there – the metal will have to be crafted into ingots, which in turn might require water as part of the quenching process and so on and so forth. This isn’t a particularly difficult ask on its own, but just throwing things together willy-nilly isn’t going to get you the best possible sword. If you want the finest blade, you’ll want high-quality wood, not to mention you’ll need to craft high-quality ingots, which in turn means primo metal and water, and, well, you can start to see how this spirals into insanity if you care enough to really get into it. Apply this to nearly every weapon, armor, accessory and consumable item you’ll use and it’s clear that Atelier Yumia offers plenty to keep you busy.

You probably aren’t surprised to hear that this open-world reimagining of a long-running franchise leans heavily on aesthetics to sell itself, and, well, that’s the case here as it tends to be. Atelier Yumia looks and plays really well, especially on PC. Roaming the land of Aladiss is just as pleasant as it is rewarding, and there’s plenty of secrets and goodies to find. Even newcomers to the series might find themselves drawn in.

Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Envisioned Land is yet another great entry in the crafting-adventure franchise and a must-play for RPG fans. If you’ve loved these games for a while, don’t worry about the slightly new direction this one’s taking, as the heart and soul of the Atelier franchise remain present. New players, meanwhile, have a fantastic place to take their first steps into synthesis. Either way, you’re in for a bewitching good time.