Over the past twenty-eight years, the Atelier franchise has reinvented itself with each new series. While the core themes and elements of the franchise remain intact, characters, combat, synthesis, and mechanics are often wildly different from one series to the next. Mechanically, the Arland series (Rorona, Totori, Meruru, Lulua) shares little in common with the Mysterious series (Sophie, Firis, Lydie & Suelle, Sophie 2), yet the themes of being a fledgling alchemist hoping to do good in the world are in full force. In most series, there is no need to save the world from villains, nor is there a lingering threat of destruction. Yet in Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land—the first entry in the new Envisioned series—these themes are at the forefront as an alchemist and her friends face off against enemies who seek to rebuild their empire at any cost.
Atelier Yumia is the first truly open-world Atelier game. While previous games such as Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key and Atelier Firis had massive maps, they were still considered open-zone due to the split areas. With Atelier Yumia, players can walk from one side of the map to the other with no loading screens or zone changes. At first, one might wonder just what benefit there is to having a massive open world in a series focused on character interactions and personal drama. Given the Atelier series’ three pillars of Synthesis, Combat, and Exploration, expanding the explorable world fits perfectly within the overall franchise while keeping with the game’s themes.
The story in Atelier Yumia is a bit of a departure from previous entries. While we’ve had stories about an ancient civilization of alchemists bringing the world to the brink of destruction, the inhabitants of Atelier Yumia still carry the pain and scars from the sins of alchemists past. Titular character Yumia is a kind-hearted alchemist who seeks to carry on her mother’s legacy while attempting to learn more about her path as an alchemist. Within minutes of starting the game, Yumia is met with glares and scowls from both NPCs and soon-to-be party members. As an alchemist, she’s tasked with helping an expedition into the ruined land of Aladiss, yet every step of the way she’s met with snide comments and roadblocks.
Most Atelier games have a young woman stumbling through alchemy while chasing her ideals, and the world around her is often supportive or curious about her craft. With Yumia, the friction flies immediately as NPCs call her a witch, threaten to report her, or tell her to keep her mouth shut and know her place. While she’d be right to fight back and tell the populace they’re wrong about her and her mother, she simply bears it all and smiles through the pain. Yet Yumia remains firm in her resolve, seeking to prove people wrong by helping them as best she can while chasing her ideals. As this entry has active antagonists with their own beliefs, a clash of wills takes the stage and sets Atelier Yumia up as one of the most dramatic entries in the franchise.
Each new series brings a new synthesis (alchemy) system that starts simple within the first entry yet features a general theme and thesis that builds over time. In the previous series—Secret (Ryza 1-3)—the core concept was rebuilding and duplication. While some players had issues with the number of steps involved in creating a single item, Atelier Yumia’s system breaks down each synthesis step into Alchemy Cores. Effects, traits, and quality are the main Cores players focus on. Leveling the Effect an item has is the most crucial part, for that is the primary influence on the damage it does, the health it restores, the stats it gives, or the buffs, debuffs, and statuses it may apply.
Initially, the new synthesis system is confusing. However, there is a highly customizable system to automatically add ingredients and focus on certain aspects such as raising effects, quality, how many items to use, what range to go up to, etc. While the automatic system is perfect for players getting their bearings, manual experimentation and experience can quickly lead to mastery of this new, wildly in-depth synthesis system. Once players wrap their heads around the new system, it quickly becomes rewarding and offers far more control than ever before.
In Atelier, synthesis effects and traits define an item. Prior games had traits tied to material gathering or item creation, leading to RNG trying to find an item with a perfect trait that would carry over to the finished equipment or tool. In Atelier Yumia, traits are tied to crystals, which can be discovered throughout the world (and later blended). These trait crystals may increase stats, deal more damage, grant regenerative effects, or cure ailments. Players can freely add or remove these crystals anytime, leading to more experimentation and customization while promoting variety in builds. Mercifully, Gust has added a loadout system, so players spend less time manually swapping gear around.
As exploration is the third pillar of Atelier, the shift to an open world leads to highly rewarding wanderlust. Points of interest, materials, items (such as those aforementioned trait crystals), and enemies litter the map, offering notable incentives to step off the beaten path and explore. I found myself looking around and taking notes about places I wanted to visit, and the more I looked at the map, the more that curiosity bug bit. As I explored, I couldn’t help but feel like the devs took inspiration from notable open world games such as Elden Ring, Genshin Impact, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Every little corner has something to discover, such as new materials, skill points, puzzles, random quests, trait crystals, particles for unlocking and improving recipes, treasure chests, and more.
Atelier Yumia’s combat system feels like a strange blend of Atelier Ryza 3 and Blue Reflection: Second Light with additional mechanics. Battles are real-time and centered around the concept of rings. Enemies are focused in the center of an inner and outer ring, with melee skills performed from the inner ring and ranged from the outer. Items are usable from either ring, yet they have different effects based on range, such as reducing resistances when used at the inner ring or adding status effects on the outer ring. Players can freely move left and right on each ring, which allows them to orbit the enemy and evade attacks. With a more action-oriented real-time combat system, skills have uses and cooldowns to prevent spamming the same move over and over. Naturally, as each skill has effects such as reducing the enemy’s defense, increasing one’s stats, or dealing more stun damage, blindly mashing buttons is the least efficient way to deal with a threat.
Unfortunately, button mashing is feasible for much of the early game, as Atelier Yumia’s normal difficulty is pathetically easy. For the longest time, Gust has struggled with difficulty balance in their games. In prior entries, players could ignore entire mechanics due to how overpowered they became. In Blue Reflection: Second Light, players often couldn’t use the limit break-esque super attacks because bosses died far before the gauge was even full. Atelier Sophie 2 addressed this by having a near-perfect balance for normal difficulty with a boss that was a full-on wall that required a moderate understanding of the synthesis system and the battle mechanics to progress. Atelier Yumia steps back from this, possibly due to the new audience the series appeals to alongside series veterans. Thankfully, Gust seems to have learned their lesson with locking harder difficulties behind game clears and now offers up to Very Hard on the first playthrough. I encourage Atelier veterans to turn the difficulty up, since finishing battles before being able to use new abilities and crafted items can be sorely disappointing.
Whether exploring the vast world and taking in the gorgeous vistas or in the heat of battle with explosions and particles littering the screen, Atelier Yumia is a stunningly beautiful game on all fronts. The world has many breathtaking locales that shine brightly once clearing the manabound (heavily covered in mist-like mana) areas while the haunting ruins that dot the landscape still retain a sense of beauty despite being dilapidated shadows of their former selves. The character designs and models are a clear evolution of Atelier Ryza and Blue Reflection’s tech, leading to expressive characters that wear depression, anxiety, fear, hope, and determination upon their faces with a clarity that stirs emotion. While playing Atelier Yumia on a PS5 Pro on a 4K OLED, the game was an incredible visual treat. However, I also gave it a spin on a base PS5 on an older 1080p plasma and the game was still quite the looker, albeit a bit darker with moderately worse performance.
As usual, Gust’s sound team delivers a beautiful aural experience that perfectly fits the mood and tone of every scene and zone. Each step through a manabound area is paired with a haunting yet peppy piano track that accurately evokes the feeling of cautious optimism, while every kick, slash, and blast is backed by an energetic and exciting set of battle themes. The overwhelming quality and quantity of musical tracks in Atelier Yumia is greatly appreciated, and the composers at Gust have once again proven themselves. My only complaint with the soundtrack is the lack of Hayato Asano, as his songs are often the most standout tracks in recent Atelier games. I can only hope he’s currently occupied with the next installment in the Blue Reflection series.
Atelier Yumia is an exciting start to a new series, but it’s not without its blemishes. Long-time Atelier fans are used to the transition from a fully realized final entry in a trilogy to the start of a new series, but players who dipped their toe into Atelier with the Secret (Ryza) series may experience some confusion. The new synthesis system is a bit difficult to understand at first, but the weak difficulty on normal doesn’t encourage players to head back to the atelier to figure out their gear and builds. I wish the game was a bit more punishing, especially in the boss battles. Additionally, the building mechanics feel superfluous, as they’re initially interesting but quickly forgotten until a side quest asks Yumia to place some beds. Finally, while combat is exciting, modern Atelier battles tend to feature only one enemy type at a time, and targeting foes in split encounters leaves much to be desired.
With a successful transition to a fully realized open world, Atelier Yumia is a strong start to a new series while serving as a fantastic follow-up to the Atelier Ryza games. The world is large and rewarding with something around every corner, and the cast is unique and lovable while having a whole lot of heart. Battles are active and intense, ensuring the player is always engaged. While the synthesis system may initially seem unintuitive, the payoff for learning the system’s intricacies far outweighs the few hours of confusion. A stellar soundtrack and gorgeous visuals complete the package, ensuring Atelier Yumia punches far above its weight while competing with contemporaries whose budgets are multiple times its size.
