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| Title screen is random everytime. |
Developer/publisher: Gust/Koei.
Platform: PS4/5, PC, Switch.
Official Site: https://www.koeitecmoamerica.com/marie/
Release date: 13-07-2023.
I usually only like play 1 atelier a year but decided to make an exception
since this is a remake of the very first atelier game. There are no plot spoilers
in this post but I do share a few screenshots and CG's.
Pro's
- A remake of the original that isn't anymore or less than it used to be.
- Cute graphical style that give it a charming vibe.
- Interesting characters, made me want to replay atleast once to see their events!
Con's
- Game is overall too easy and i'd go as far as saying there is too much time.
- Annoying minigames for no reason... thankfully most are one and done.
Story is rather simple, Marie is a basically a failure and gets the worst scores
in the entire alchemy academy but she gets an extra chance since she still somehow
has some potential and its up to you if she even passes her exam!
More rambles after the jump...
There are a lot of characters, its up to the player if you want them to accompany you!
I will admit I think there were more male characters than female ones
but not all can join you at once only 2. A bad part is the reused seiyuus/voice actors
but most of them are veterans who have a range so they actually sounded differently.
Personally I liked Schwalbe, a kuudere bandit and Schea who is Marie's best friend.
At first I didn't like Kreiss but he kind of gets better in his events! the only plus point is that
Kreiss and Schea won't charge you so if you don't have enough money they can be an option...
but it may take a while for Kreiss since he can act all like why should I accompany you
till you increase you knowledge/reputation but by that point I was lvl 10+ and he lvl 2
because I hired Ruven the adventurer and Kugel instead till I got Schwalbe so I was like, lmao
why should I bother with you? so it wasn't untill my 2nd play I recruited Kreiss.😂
I only hired Hallesch once early on and it wasn't untill later on during my 1st play
I gave him another chance which I am glad I did! Enderk is a knight but he barely even
acknowledges Marie so I was like oh screw you during my 1st play. Due to that
and having really weird recruitment conditions Enderk was harder to like than Sterk.
However I will add to this that Enderk is actually worth the trouble so there's that.
For likability of the chara's, yes for some it may take a while and they have to be in your party
to raise friendship which is needed for the character events.
Still glad this game actually doesn't have event overload like newer atelier games so
when you do get chara events you can just go backto whatever it was you were doing.
Like actually focus on synthing, gathering or making the fairies do the work.
Yea you can uh buy some slaves and have them gather, synth and Marie can sleep all day!
or uhm actually get some work done herself.
Surprisingly Schwalbe did not end up being my best boi! but instead it was Hallesch!
idk this guy is just a legend, no contest! he's adorable and badass at the same time.
Kugel I liked his backstory and Schwalbe is just a dumbass a cute one at that.
Honestly most characters did not have that much to them... but the little stories
they had were still worth raising their friendship levels for. Some were really easy
like Kugel or Natalie, I managed to do everyones but Kirie's...
so I will not rank her amongst my favorites which are:
Hallesch > Schwalbe > Enderk > Schea > Mu > Kugel > Ruven > Kreiss > Natalie.
You may wonder why Natalie is last but honestly, while I think she can be funny
I just found her the least interesting and there's not much point doing her events...
as for Kreiss being almost dead last, its his personality really. Like he can be nice
but he has this terrible way of showing it that makes me just want to scream I hate you!
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| >:( |
Visually its decent, it may not be a remake where the models look like Ryza or Sophie's
but I think the chibi style was adorable and kept the charm of old!
Music was good but nothing to write home about, it adds to the vibes.
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| He's not doing this for fun huh? |
Gameplay: If you've ever played Atelier Rorona it is a lot like it but much simpler and lenient!
Sure it has a time limit but for the first two assignments are really easy and if you fail those
then idk what to say about that. Personally I expected a little more but I guess they wanted
to give the player all the time to explore, gather/fight and do requests in the beginning
and there's actually plot point of why the assignments were so easy... so there's that.
There is a normal mode with a time limit which plays exactly like the original
and an unlimited mode with no time limit, however that mode has an extremely
misleading message saying something about some things can be missed
but please note any ending and event can be done on unlimited
so this mode may be perfect after an initial playthrough on normal
to clean up any other ending/trophy so you don't have to play it 6 times.
I played on normal mode and managed to do most things with one or two years to spare
and a lot of ''assignments'' tended to auto complete due to how easy they were...
Synthesizing is very simple, there is no alchemy level but you get knowledge instead
from gathering synthing, hearing rumors and buying recipe books. Marie also
lvl's up from synthesizing so she is actually the easiest to level.
Marie also has to buy extra utensils for synthesizing, it all may sound like a lot
but you can basically buy them all by the time of the second assignment.
That is if you've been doing the requests you can do... cuz that is how you earn money.
I like how simple it is since later atelier games tend to make everything so convoluted
for no reason, the only exception to that is the arland series of course
but I always thought that trilog-quadrology was a back to basic kind of series.
Thing is the only real stressful things are the requests from the tavern but as long
as you don't take on more than you can handle there is no real issue.
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| I never really could bring myself to take the shells... it felt wrong. |
The game wasn't that long nor was there much story and events... its all quite
to the point really and isn't any longer than needed. Combat was simple
and there's not much to say about it, looking at the original I don't think it was all
that different... unless I'm wrong on that.
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| I didn't really take much screenshots of gameplay... but have another selfie with the boi's. |
At times there are some rather random minigames like if you obtain a golden salmon
then you have to hide from bears and try to get it back in some random chest.... wtf?!
or if you synth cheese then you have to get it back from a mouse till you buy a mousetrap.
There are others but idk these are some mid 2000's era BS minigames and while it
can be a fun distraction more often then not i was like ugh... I gotta do this?! really gust?
If you do the minigames from the main menu you can get some medals and achievements for it...
so I guess there's that??? weird flex but ok.
Final thoughts?
and there's enough time to get things done, the only stressfull thing might
be request but as long as you don't bite off more than you can chew it will be okay!
especially if you mostly focus on the story and a few request here and there to earn money.
The game marks were items are gotten from too which was really helpful.
Assignments were a little too easy but it makes sense why... Ingrid is a softy!
My only real disappointment was that there is no ending selection so like
you could trigger multiple conditions but it will default to just one
and you have no idea which! so the only way to work around that is to make multiple saves
and go from there. I got Local Hero on my first play which like completely overwrites
the normal ending. It makes sense since its a far better outcome.
My favourite ending was perhaps the two legends one, the cg is funny too
if you had Enderk help you out grinding the gals to level 50.😂
This game isn't that long and knows where to end, it also kind of makes me nostalgic
for Atelier Rorona. Replaying for another ending shouldn't take long at all considering
how easy the game is, however the only ending I didn't get at time of writing was the
researcher one and quite frankly its the one I don't care about the least. I got every
other ending in the game and am content with putting atelier marie to rest!
I don't want to hate this game so that is why my adventures in salburg end here
for now atleast untill maybe they remake Ellie or Lilly.
7.5/10
I think the price is right and I am glad they didn't sell this for 70 or 80$
50$ is about right! maybe 20-30$ on a sale. Honestly I do think this game
can be the perfect introduction to the atelier series since everything is so simple
compared to some of the later titles that tend to convolute the alchemy system in general.
So yea this game wasn't bad, basic yes but it stays true to what it was years ago.
If I ever finish my 3rd playthrough I will update this post with the final character ranking.
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