#ユーディーのアトリエ | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

boukenboy · 3 years

Text

#18: ユーディーのアトリエ / Atelier Judie

I've always been curious about the Atelier series - created by developer Gust, there are over 20+ games as of 2021, and judging from what I've read online, it's very popular both here and in Japan. Later entries in the series are localized nowadays, but the first few games have yet to see any kind of English release, so I decided, pretty much at random, to start with Atelier Judie. I considered starting from the beginning with Atelier Marie, but I screwed up my PS1 emulator settings somehow, and the thought of redoing everything made my spirit hurt.

True to its title, you play as a young alchemist named Judie, who lives in the outskirts of Life village. She makes a living doing odd jobs for the townspeople and the occasional adventurer. One day, a stranger asks Judie to create a magical McGuffin that can temporarily stop time. This task turns out to be a tad beyond her alchemical skills, and our unfortunate protagonist is sent 200 years into the past.

She takes it well-enough, despite losing literally everything and everyone she cared about - and takes up residence in the town Verun, where she once again begins to work as a freelance alchemist in order to pay her benefactor, the loan shark Vitoss, and to find a way back to get back home. Along the way, you'll explore the land of Gramnad, meet all sorts of charming characters, and craft. Lots and lots of craft. Ing.

In order to actually make anything, you'll need to go foraging for ingredients - each town has its own wild area to explore, and what you'll find is naturally different in each one. Judie is a bit weak at the beginning, however, so you'll be relying on hirable adventurers to do the majority of the combat. Their help doesn't come free, but I rarely had any issues with keeping a party for the majority of the game.

The combat itself is standard JRPG fare, albeit with a few twists. Instead of the usual MP and HP stats, there's an additional LP (Life Point) stat that is used for combat techniques, not magic. Interestingly, whenever any of these stats hit 0, that character will be unable to battle. This also applies to monsters. Certain enemies, usually the undead, will use attacks that drain LP and / or MP, so they present a unique threat to your more tankier party members, as they usually have dangerously low MP values.

Furthermore, only alchemists are able to use items in battle. This can make battles a bit tense, as you have to solely rely on Judie for healing. There is another alchemist you can recruit, but in my experience, this made for a unbalanced party, unless you craft an absolutely insane amount of bombs in order to make up for the lack of melee prowess. Each character has their own special skills and abilities, with very little overlap - from what I’ve seen, only Christa and Vitoss share a technique. This makes each character feel special, even if most only get, at most, 3 or 4 at higher levels. I would have liked a few more, but this is an open-world game from 2002. Yeah.

The real meat of the game, of course, is in the crafting. You'll find recipes for items through books bought from stores, and occasionally through events. Once you find the required ingredients, you'll select your desired item from a menu, and then hope for the best. Each item has its own difficulty rating, and your rate of success will rise as your alchemy level increases through repeated crafting. Be aware that crafting takes LP and in-game time, so if you're at risk of missing deadlines, you'd do well to finish any previous commitments before going on a spree.

Depending on the quality of the ingredients used, you can increase, for example, the amount of HP a healing item restores, or even change what the item does entirely. There's an item you'll be making early on that, in theory, decreases the amount of enemy encounters on the world map once its equipped. However, if you tweak the recipe a bit, you can make a different version that actually increases it, or even influence what kind of monsters you encounter. Discovering these alternate effects is a lot of fun, and I spent an enormous amount of time unconcerned with the plot just playing around and experimenting.

You also have to be mindful of the self-life of ingredients. As time passes, many items will decrease in quality, though this is mainly an issue for organic products. I was quite surprised the first time I went on a real dungeon dive - I had prepared a few bowls of cream soup, an HP healing item, just in case I needed them. Unfortunately, they spoiled halfway through the trip, so I was shook when I accidentally poisoned my entire party instead of healing them! Thankfully, should your entire party get knocked out, you're sent back home with the only penalty being a loss of time.

Speaking of home, one of my favorite aspects of Atelier Judie is the ability to move your base of operations to one of several locations - each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, in one town, you'll have easy access to fruits and vegetables, eventually being able to plant them yourself. In another, you'll have access to a freezer, allowing you to preserve delicate ingredients. My favorite town and current base is in Prostark. Here, you're only a few steps away from a smelting furnace and a mine - many of the mid-game items require ingots, so it's a great fit. The downside to Prostark is that I'm quite a bit away from nature. When I need vegetables or herbs, I have to run the risk of them rotting before I even get home. This risk is further exacerbated due to Atelier Judie’s random event system. These can be harmful or beneficial, but most of the time, they'll either improve or decrease ingredient quality. It's a surprising element of realism that I found fresh. Pun intended.

In fact, there is a lot of randomness present in Judie. Plot-advancing events seem to happen seemingly at random: I'd spend days feeling like I wasn't getting anywhere, only to be suddenly blindsided with access to new areas or characters to meet. I was often left feeling lost, as I could not discover any kind of pattern as to what unlocks what, but in general, it's best to change up your party members and move bases every now and then. The game also features random vignettes that allow you to get a better sense of who your party members are as people. These are usually comedic, and are always accompanied with beautiful artwork.

I love the warmth present in Atelier Judie. As a whole, it's simply a delight to play. The encounter rate can grate a little, and tracking down ingredients can get a bit tedious - especially so with items with low spawn rates - but overall, it feels like a lot like a fairytale. The art-style is bright and charming, even the monsters are adorable (my favorite being the Ghost family) and the land of Gramnad feels alive and bursting with character. There's an astonishing attention to detail. I enjoyed how every town's bartender, merchant, etc, had their own unique voice actor and personality. Subjectively speaking, the game just feels like it was made with love. And that's incredible.

Highly recommended!

#gaymer #atelier #atelier series #atelier judie #jrpg #gust #psp #ps2 #game review #retro gaming #retro game

12 notes · View notes