Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana - First Play

Sometimes, it’s nice to get back to your roots - back to something comfortable and familiar. Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana has been the gaming equivalent of comfort food for me, a nostalgic look back at RPGs. From the “old school” graphics and sound to the plot that is reminiscent of a number of older tried-and-true favorites, Atelier Iris instantly feels very familiar. But far from being a rote and boring game, I’ve found it to be a wonderfully produced, well-put together, addicting RPG. Atelier Iris may not be earth shattering in terms of giving gamers radical changes to the standard RPG formula, but it feels like a breath of fresh air to me.

Atelier Iris revolves around the travels of a young alchemist named Klein and his growing group of companions you gather throughout the course of the game. Shortly after starting the game, you are introduced to a few of your future companions: Lita, the feisty and attractive fighter who uses claws quite effectively; Delsus, the smooth-talking alcoholic who’s a whiz with his crossbow; and Arlin, the pale, long-haired and slightly girly swordsman who is stunningly powerful. You also meet some of the bad guys, who will prove to be a thorn in your side throughout the game, and get introduced to most of the important NPCs. All these characters are fairly well-drawn, but each has a mysterious back story that is very slowly revealed. The only one who appears to not have much of a story, at least not yet, is Klein. Alchemists are a rare breed in the part of the world that Klein and his Mana companion Popo (we’ll get to him in a minute) have arrived in and Klein is on a quest to improve his mastery of alchemy, but that’s about all we know, and there doesn’t seem to be much more.

While Klein is busily improving his skill in the alchemical arts, you have to quickly improve yours; the alchemy system is by far the most complicated part of Atelier Iris, and I have yet to truly master it. I’ve found aspects of the system to be very similar to the draw system from Final Fantasy VIII. Instead of “casting spells,” Klein synthesizes alchemical items using the powers of magical beings called Mana and various component elements that comprise the “recipe” for each item. You gain more items to synthesize by finding special chests which are scattered throughout the Atelier Iris world. But it’s not that simple! Each item requires a certain type and amount of elements (for example, fire or stone), which you can get by breaking items with Klein’s staff while wandering around the world, and each type of element can only be utilized by certain Mana, who you find throughout the course of the game. You start off with one Mana, Popo, the Mana of Wood, who is only able to synthesize a few types of elements into useful items. As you go on, you’ll gather more Mana and thus have access to a wider variety of items. Klein is the ONLY member of your party who is able to utilize synthesis, which can make tough battles quite exciting in the healing department if he dies. Luckily, Klein can stock up on mana items and many of his special skills that are available in battle help boost the power or efficacy of those items. In addition to their synthesizing duties, the Mana also have special abilities that assist your party in getting through the game. For instance, Diemia, the Mana of Stone, transforms into a step stool that you can use to reach higher places. Each special ability is explained in a quick tutorial when you acquire the Mana (the in-game tutorials are actually very handy, and you can go back and access them later in the game if you get confused), and you’ll soon find that more areas open up as you gain new Mana and new abilities.

The battle system is a pretty standard turn-based system. Three characters can participate at a given time, and you get your usual options of regular attack, special skills, items, and so forth. The special twist I’ve noticed is that Atelier Iris allows you to switch characters in and out, regardless of whether they are KO’d or alive, assuming you have more than three characters in your party. Only Klein has an option for mana items - aka magic - so stocking up on those healing items is a necessity. But how do you get serious non-mana healing items, since monsters aren’t usually dropping anything that will do you a great deal of good?

The answer lies in one of my favorite aspects of Atelier Iris, the synthesis system for non-magic items. Introduced early on, it is soon discovered that Klein can go to restaurants or other types of shops to have items of various kinds whipped up, from sashimi to soju to clothing. While each item you are initially presented with has a “recipe” of items, many combinations allow you to substitute other things in your posession, which often generate new and unique items that you don’t have a recipe for. More item recipes seem to pop up at random, or after apparently randomly triggered side quests and events. I have to say, I’ve spent a lot of time playing around with it! Probably because it’s entirely optional, I’m happy to spend half and hour or more at a stretch playing around with different recipes to see what new items I can come up with. Some of the more creative items do play into what appear to be - at this point - fairly lengthy sidequests, but it’s fun to mess with just to see what else different combinations of items can produce. Creating these various items also plays into another side-quest, that of Lector the item collector, who asks you to gather various items for her. When you bring Lector new items, she gives you money, and when you complete certain sets of items, little bonus features that you access from the main menu are opened up.

There are a lot of aspects of Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana that seem like an homage to older RPGs, but the most striking aspect is the music and the graphics. For the most part, the graphics are more akin to Final Fantasy IV than Final Fantasy X. But the vintage throwback is obviously intentional, and while it looks, well, old, it’s not in a bad way. It’s charming and different. The same thing goes for the music: it’s like a spectacularly produced early RPG. After all the emphasis on fantastic graphics and music in today’s games, it’s almost refreshing to see a game that’s paying tribute to many of the great RPGs - “bad” graphics and music by today’s standards and all - that we look back on so fondly. The in-game art that pops up when the characters are speaking is very well-drawn and anime-esque, so not everything is reminiscent of 8-bit pixilated type games. The only problem I’ve found is that in some environments, the graphics that seem very flat on screen have tripped me up while wandering around. I’ve had a hard time seeing ledges and the like in some areas, but I’m not entirely sure if that’s the game or my depth perception. It’s certainly a minor note at most, and I’ve enjoyed tromping around on a vintage map more than enough to make up for any problems.

I don’t have many complaints about this game. If I’ve found anything that’s been a little “iffy,” it’s the character development. Oddly enough, the plot has been barreling along despite what I’d consider pretty poor development of the main characters. However, being only 15 hours in or so, I’m not willing to make a judgment one way or another - since the plot seems to be strong, it’s entirely possible the game designers just wanted to pull out the character development to build suspense or for other reasons of their own. Even while I’ve been left wondering who the characters really are, the dialogue has been fantastic and I’ve gotten a good feel for the “personality” of each character, even if I’m still fuzzy on their history. Plenty of moments have made me laugh, and it’s obvious that the words coming out of the characters’ mouths weren’t just an afterthought.

Overall, I’ve found Atelier Iris: Eternal Iris to be a charming, really fun, really well produced RPG. In today’s world of eye-popping, realistic FMVs and music that has progressed far beyond the midi, it seems odd to call a game that has more in common with pre-PS1 RPGs “well produced.” However, a few hours spent with Atelier will prove that it’s entirely possible to be a beautifully produced, modern game without really fancy graphics and music. This was not a slap-dash production, and everything was obviously carefully thought out and just as carefully assembled into the final product. It’s familiar and new all at once, and I think this is a game that I will be coming back to again and again, just like my favorite comfort food.