Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk
Reviewed By Stephen Pastic
As soon as I received a copy of Atelier Ayesha, I was immediately struck by two things. One, that this title is the latest in a JRPG franchise that I had never even heard of before, and two, that trying to say the title out loud to someone else has the tendency to make one sound more than a little silly.
So then, is there a (possibly quality related) reason I hadn't heard of these games before, or has Atelier Ayesha puzzled me even further as to how it managed to maintain such a low profile? Like most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Atelier Ayesha is a JRPG centering around the titular protagonist Ayesha Altugle and the search for her missing sister, Nio. Ayesha opens the game eking out a living as an alchemist in a semi rural shack, and is pretty quickly drawn to some nearby ruins where she comes upon information suggesting that her sister's fate might not have been as final as she had assumed. From this point, Ayesha sets out across the world following what little clues she finds regarding Nio. Along the way, Ayesha will be joined by a cast of supporting characters to round out the party, each with their own personality quirks and unique abilities.
Whilst the cast of characters are okay throughout, they do tend to be a little on the overly saccharine side. Vocal overacting is pretty common, and the characters dialogue and inflections do give Atelier Ayesha a pretty heavy handed somewhat 'kiddy' tone. The most unique thing about anything plot related is that endings in Atelier Ayesha are contingent upon how quickly the player can progress with respect to the in game timer. Travelling and completing certain tasks allocates a particular time cost, so the age old JRPG staple of endlessly grinding to assist progression will have the effect of locking players out of the 'best' ending.
Graphically, Atelier Ayesha is not bad. The game has a somewhat cartoony almost "cel shaded" look to it, and the character animation as they move around the world is something of a visual highpoint. Whilst this does help to give the game its own visual identity, a lot of the duller environments in particular reminded me more of PS2 era games. In terms of sound, Atelier Ayesha is perfectly serviceable but nothing amazing, assuming you can handle the very childish anime vocal deliveries without having a stroke at certain points. If anything, aside from the aformentioned character animation, much of the audiovisual elements on show give the impression that this title had a somewhat limited budget devoted to it. Final Fantasy XIII this is not, for better or worse.
As far as gameplay goes, many of the traditional JRPG tropes are here; turn based combat, aquisition and equipping of progressively better gear, transition to a battle screen upon making contact with an enemy in the game world, levelling up....you know the drill. During battles, players also have the ability to move around the area in order to gain a more advantageous position relative to the enemy - by attacking an opponent from behnd, players will often deal more damage than they ordinarily would being face to face. A secondary 'ability meter' is also at play here, where players can elect to utilise particular attacks and techniques when said meter fills up; covering fellow party members from an incoming attack when the opportunity presents itself, for example.
One of Atelier Ayesha's most noticeable features is its "synthesis" system. As players progress, they will collect many varying ingredients which can be combined to make things such as healing items and attack potions. Whilst this system is quite robust and offers an awful lot as far as what players can craft, it basically works like so: each "recipe" requires a number of certain ingredient types, and by combining particular ingredients from the required subcategories, Ayesha can synthesise more and more powerful or effective variants of said recipe. The more dedicated kind of player will no doubt spend countless hours analysing all the variables here, as this system quickly reveals a decent amount of depth to it....even synthesis itself is subjected to its own levelling up dynamics.
Additional resources and cash can also be gained from assisting various NPC's along the way - although much like the overarching story itself, many of these subquests are tied to the in game timer, so it is not as though one can complete all of these at their own leisure, which brings me to my next point.
Whilst I can definitely see the appeal of the in game timer mechanic, over time the game as a whole definitely begins to feel like an excercise in micromanagement. From the synthesis system, to sidequests, to main quest progression, it is likely for the players biggest enemy to be time. Given that the game calendar is so prevalent, it often leads players feeling like they are juggling many balls at once the further they get. For a certain kind of player, this will prove to be a plus, but I can see many getting frustrated with this basic structure. Despite this, moment to moment gameplay still has all the negative hallmarks of JRPG-esque grinding; battling the same kind of enemy over and over quickly becomes tedious....perhaps more a sticking point for the genre, rather than this specific game, but it is definitely there.
Overall, Atelier Ayesha is a decent JRPG. Despite my frustrations with the genre staples as a whole, I did occasionally find myself becoming a little more engrossed with the game. Fans of the genre who both enjoy deconstructing the minutia of in game systems and can handle the somewhat childish presentation can certainly find some value here. However, given the multitude of other titles with similar base mechanics and a more engaging narrative thrust, Atelier Ayesha doesn't really do enough to distinguish itself from its contemporaries for most players.
Game: Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk
System: PS3
Developer/Co-Developer: Gust
Publisher: Tecmo Koei
