Genre: RPG.
Sivash did look better at night, not sure if this was intended but it seems they forgot something. 
Like holy shit did they even QA this game?! Anyways I did like the characters and the story itself
Characters:
Lenja: The shy and clumsy girl but you probably don't want to make her angry...
Combat was a bit too active for my tastes there's too many inputs for this and that
Developer/publisher: Gust/Koei.
Platform: PS4,switch.
Official Site: N/A.
Official Site: N/A.
Release date: 21-3-2025
Honestly I was kinda excited for this one because it had a new heroine and world.
I tried the demo just to tip my toes in it while suffering through Tsukihime and I kinda liked it
however i'll say that this series is starting to feel more RPG-like with every new entry.
I like the OP but near the end of the game I started skipping it...
Pro's
- Interesting and decent story.
- Great cast of characters & fun interactions.
- Exploring is fun, its always nice finding chests.
- Character models are gorgeous, prettier than the environments even.
Grey area
- Due to the amount of content it is easy to get overwhelmed and as an
atelier game this might've been the one where I spend synthesizing the least.
Con's
- Combat is too easy as long as you make good gear and items.
- Graphics are decent but... it can feel like it lacks a layer of polish.
- Ingame lightning either works in the games favor or against it.
- Shrines of prayers are too repetitive.
- Some bugs.
I liked Yumia as a character, she definitely has her wits about her but is also a little timid
and can come across as indecisive, the key theme is trying to do the right thing
but that isn't always easy. Describing her as a character isn't easy either.
Also seems she is well aware that alchemy isn't accepted so I couldn't help but noticed
she was anxious around folks but she'd be more open with people she knew. In terms of design
she kind of reminds me of Sophie or atleast in the artwork, sadly I didn't really like the design
since Yumia looks like a classy office lady with a jacket of someone
who's gonna do some outdoor camping or that's the impression I got. 😅
Other main characters were all GREAT and I LOVED their interactions with each other!
Story was pretty decent, I have no complaints, I absolutely loved how we slowly
got to learn more about everyone and whatever happened in the past.
I did think the ending fell a bit flat and it felt more like a beginning to something
Once I knew more about Yumia's past I liked her a lot more than right at the beginning.
Some villains are threatening, one of them is even like a dragon just not as fleshed out.
Garurumon was a weird character, was he friend or foe? he is shown to be a villainfrom the get go, unfortunately like Vesper they lack depth but its done in such a way
like what else was there to tell? Lili was the more fleshed out of the bunch.
Final boss sure had build up but I thought he was just an asshole.
Due to the story being decent and the main characters having such great chemistry
I wanted to keep playing I could care less about the clunky combat
because it was fun to explore the lands of aladiss. Sadly there were still caveats.
 |
| He's like a dragon, unfortunately he wasn't as well developed. |
In terms of graphics is erm... the models look great but while Ligneus region
looked fine to me, the Sivash region is where it started to look all washed up and soapy...
 | |
| Graphics literally go from good to... |
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| I see what you're trying to do but did you miss a layer of polish? |
The Auruma region looked okay I guess you get used to it.
It honestly baffles me how the models look great and are animated well
but the environments looks like they missed a layer of polish.
Music was honestly fine, I don't really have any complaints, it had a good battle theme
and the atelier/synth music makes me forget the time so yea music's good.
 |
| The character models look so good they look out of place with the rest. |
In short; I liked atelier Yumia BUT I think this game needed a bit more time in the oven
because the straw that broke the camel's back for me was the Licht quest at the end of the game.
It literally tells you where to go next but for some reason the quest doesn't progress into the next
and at that point the only other things to do is the main story of which not much is left
or plain completionism which for some may not be their cup of tea. Its just poor design
and that wasn't the worst of it, I also had the bug where a side quest NPC will disappear
if you talk to it twice before killing the monsters making it unable to be completed.
This is also one of the few games that I ended up falling through the floor......
it usually ends up other people showing off their out of bound skills. This time it was me.💀
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| ''...'' |
was decent, for the first time ever I completely understood the alchemy system while
in dusk/mysterious I'd barely get it. Sadly I don't think this game was that cozy because
all the ''?'' marks and completion percentages did everything in its power to make it not cozy.
Its hard to recommend Yumia, maybe if you like easy games with lovable characters & lots to do?
7/10
''It was still enjoyable in terms of story/chara's but... its simply half-baked.
For all it did right, it did some wrongs. Its not perfect it just lacks polish.''
More rambles after the jump, I probably rambled on too much so you can stop reading here.
Yumia: I liked her but it took a while before she fully grew on me...
this is due to the nature the story is told but I don't think she was a bad heroine.
I don't really like her design, it clashes with her move set, I can see her skirt ripping in my mind
with all the moves she makes during combat. Might be the worst outfit in atelier history...
I could never really get a hold of her personality either, she's brave but a indecisive?
the whole game feels like this is only the first chapter for her as well as some other characters.
Isla: Sigh... she was like the mom of the group and a moodmaker but the one thing
I didn't like was that she projected her dead friend onto Yumia. The revelation of this
sort of came at random and I was like you wut m8?! Still Isla knew she was wrong
to do so and she and Yumia's friendship started anew... perhaps with stronger footing.
Rutger: Honestly I love him and his snarkiness, he is also the problem child of the group
and ends up butting heads with Isla a lot which let to amusing scenes. Rutger has a difficult past
and in the end not so different from Yumia.Rutger is definitely my bestest boi of the game!
Victor: Isla's brother and the knight of this installment, I liked him and he seems pretty thoughtful
sadly his events ended early for me like Rutger but if they went on any longer i'm sure
they would turn into love interests.... Victor's last event was particularly insufferable.
Nina: Big boobie lady, at first I didn't think much of her but there's actually a lot of plot to her
and her entire character is very well tied into the main story. I'm honestly impressed
it even makes sense why she could have such huge tits. Good work Gust!
I think Nina was perhaps the best developed character in the game and you may think
I am joking but compared to a lot of characters hers was most complete.
I say this because her special move was quite something else. I honestly loved the lore
behind her race as well, the welleks are like viera and hrothgar combined.
You could call them cat-like too but the big ears make me think of viera.
I'd say Lenja is definitely my best girl, I like how she tries very hard to accomplish her goal.
Flammi........... while I liked them her/him or it? Flammi just felt severly underdeveloped.
Something happened during the ending that I was like uh okay? I didn't feel particularly sad
we know Yumia's mom made them but that's about it, at times their commentary
during the field ranged from amusing & other times I was like stop talking.
Honestly I felt more sad that the game was over and everyone would part ways...
I think it may have helped if Flammi had their own character events because more often
than not they were a commentary mode or like Paimon just less loud/annoying.
Licht: Honestly I liked him but he turned out to be a sub character...
he and Wilma also have their own story arc. They both didn't seem that relevant
but they made it seem there really was an exploration effort which helped
a lot with the general feel/flow of the game. The way his quest ends
is massive sequel bait too. In the end I cannot decide whether I like him
because I feel like we never truly got to him before he skedaddles off.
 |
| Right... |
Like I already said above most of the villains were underdeveloped with the exception
of Lili Borea because she's the only one with an actual backstory.
Weregarurumon was just a jerk and mister final boss was an asshole.
 |
| Weregarurumon. |
I pretty much had all of the characters in my party at some point which is rare because
I usually have a hard oneitis right off the bat which did end up happening.
In the 3rd area I decided settle for permanent members which meant switching out
Lenja for Victor, Rutger did keep his spot ever since Sivash.
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Alchemy stuff now:
Making items this times seems rather simple, there might be more deeper mechanics
but it seems Yumia's key points is that while she can make more complicated items
in her atelier she can also whip up something simple on the fly.
Overall the actual alchemy system might be more complicated than Marie or some
of the earlier games but it isn't as engaging as some other entries. To me its just right.
The only thing that annoyed me when making items was the 5 second cutscene
when starting, atleast you can skip the one at the end but it seems they
forgot that the one in the beginning isn't able to be skipped.
However this has since been patched so I guess they listened to complaints.
There's a skill tree as well and its better than in the Ryza games and it makes exploring
worthwhile since you can unlock extra healing item slots for in combat
or just other QoL improvements that make things easier.
Adding traits this time is a bit more convoluted, you unlock the slots through
alchemy and then you have to go add them via crystals from the main menus.
They don't actually teach you this but it would have been nice...
Leveling recipies is also a bit weird as you need particles which are gotten
from mana geysers on the map. There's a good spot in the first zone
and the rest were all just found by luck/passing by, needless to say I didn't like that.
and it just had too much action for me but that wasn't the real issue here.
The UI is also kind of cluttered, this is likely a me problem but screens are simplygetting too big and I can't pay attention to everything on the screen.
My priotity is always AoE, health bar and action. I had trouble looking at all of those.
Moving on; I played on normal, most enemies were easy, good cuz I don't want trash
battles to drag on, the leveling pace is way too fast, like every other battle I level up.
Now its good that leveling is a non-issue but the pacing it happened at was bad.
Basically it feels like they didn't balance anything so if. the player even remotely tried
to make good gear with alchemy or items... combat is not a problem.
But what i do have a problem with is that there's a healing item called
Revival bouquet and it does not revive, its just a healing item.
Apparently Bitter Syrup does... which just makes me draw question marks.
 |
| I liked the menu... but it feels a bit persona-like. |
The first boss forced me to remake my starting weapon and make a better armor, you have
to level up the recipe as well which ultimately makes the item better than if you tried to
make it right after unlocking it. The second boss had too much going on so while it wasn't hard
I only won by spamming healing items and revive someone that died because the AI can't
dodge at all in this game so I was once again put in the babysitting position!
Pretty sure had I tried making even better gear I could just spam attacks and win...
but if you don't then yea you will have issues, healing items carried me in the 2nd boss.
The 3rd boss I had no real issues with... it was more or less same experience as boss 2.
 |
| Kiryu-chan. |
People say the game is too easy then they likely made the best possible equipment
because real talk, no Yumia isn't that easy you never have to upgrade your gear.
The final boss was okay for the gear I had, I did have to use healing items
but he was a bit spongey for my tastes and it took a while for him to break
cuz despite my granshine being great it didn't do much damage at first.
Using items doesn't seem to be locked behind a core item system anymore which was GREAT.
but there are cooldowns much like regular skills. I'll take that over whatever Ryza had though.
it seems like some ancient form of alchemy but it is already obvious that doing so
is actually really bad. All those areas you're clearing out are likely the result
of of it going wrong which lead to alchemy being forbidden in the first place.
This concept wasn't too hard to crack for me when proceeding with the story.
Though I do wish there was a better way to learn recipies, cuz you have to find items
before you can recall them. Meanwhile the random memory vials lying around
seem to be just there for lore&collection. I miss the days where we got them via books.
I actually missed a shit tone of lore because I never pressed option button as I scanned vials......
It wasn't untill late game I actually got invested in making a good item/bomb and wpn/armor.
Synthing can get fun but for that to happen you need to level up recipies which needs particles
who come from mana geysers all over the map and sometimes are a pain to find.
Finally better particles are locked behind a skill on the skill tree. Its only natural
it will take a long time before you can actually get synthing the good stuff.
 |
| Nice.. |
Exploration was also good but it felt like they took a lot of inspiration from genshin impact.
The only thing that got repetitive was the shrines of prayer but it was always nice
finding treasure chests or exploring some ruins so IMO they did it right.
Miles better than whatever FF7 Rebirth had going on which lead to an overall pleasant experience.
For the most part side content was natural come across, if they had me do a puzzle to fix something
it was never something I got stuck on but still I couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed at times.
Yumia also gets a bike aka the procella but I found it to be largely useless
as there's only a handful of moments where I thought of using it
besides its very clunky and you can't wall jump well with it.
Its good to get somewhere quickly but most zones are too cramped so it just isn't able
to ever reach its full potential. I was mostly double/triple jumping my way to most ''?'' marks.
Also most ''?'' marks started becoming less in later zones, the first is filled to the brim
as is the second but the 3rd felt... like there was a lot less to find which is good
cuz I was getting tired of random small/prayer shrines or fixing ziplines in the second zone.
Random quests are repeatable but they're not meaningful, in the last area it might be a solid
way for SP income, especially in the last region where you get between 60-100SP for them.
Most side quests were boring too the only one that I thought was funny was pet finder 1-3.
You can build a crafting station of sorts all over the place, usually wherever you cleared up
the mana. This build feature is like a housing system but its very basic, I relied heavily on
existing builds, its nice placing around a few items but the game is simple not designed well enough
to make a good house and I sure as hell wasn't going to give myself a headache trying to do so.
To max out comfort level pioneer goals I usually just spammed flower pots.........
 |
| It may not look it but this is what peak comfort looks like! |
Also I did end up making a really nice house in north Aurumu
but you have to place a mana converter which... can only be placed
if you nuke the place, which was kinda sad.
The one time I attempt housing and the game wanted me to tear it down for the sake of a quest...
weren't we supposed to build a relaxation spot ourself!? all for the sake of an onsen I guess!
 |
| Awww yea onsen CG 👀 and not one but two... though I'll only share one. |
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On another rather negative note about camping...
There's campsites all over but they're actually just warp points and building areas in disguise.
You can literally camp anywhere as long as its in an open space with no enemies. Okay...
I literally tried to camp at a literal camp site but it didn't work, christ.
Also sometimes it is hard to tell what is a suitable camping spot, this actually
stressed me out trying to keep up a food buff to hunt for treasure keys.
If you cook while camping you can get buff's that can make finding
chests easier which helps opening troves so it is not completely useless.
I think this problem would solve itself if camping sites were only
used to camp and as fast travel points. There's no need to build stuff there.
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Final Thoughts
I like it but its true, atelier is more and more becoming an RPG with the alchemy system
as just a minigame to be able to proceed or make gear and yea sure the key theme of
this game is still alchemy but the atelier stuff felt like a minigame.
TBH atelier can be about anything from getting a license to finding your sister.
With Yumia it seems they created a story with alchemy being an important topic
but I wasn't spending my time in the atelier as much as I did in older games.
No that time was spend exploring and doing the main quest while doing occasionally some
side quests if I was in the mood. There were only a handful of times I made gear, I didn't bother
with accessories this time because the game was just that easy on normal, I just duped
my 1 decent armor and made a good weapon for my main team. Maybe if the final boss
had wiped me i'd work on my acccesories but alas that was not necessary.
I ended up clearing the game at around 65ish hours.
 |
| Why bother decking yourself out in full when the game's not balanced for it? |
chemistry with each other but some are not fully developed.
Aspects of some characters remain unexplored, maybe there was no time for it
maybe its sequel bait like Licht screams as much but its the usual atelier experience.
As in most of them are great but there's nothing too deep but they did try fleshing some of
them out with their backgrounds. Combat wise it felt like they combined
Blue Reflection second light with Ryza while trying to make it like FFXIV with cooldowns
and avoid AoE. I liked you could use items freely but... it felt very spammy then again
back in Rorona I remember using Sterk's AoE a lot so not much has changed since then huh?
You can build ateliers all over to suit your crafting needs so you don't have to go back
to Ligneus all the time but more often than not I just drop a recall station,container
maybe something else and a alchemy altar and call it a day.
Exploring is great and I like how its rewarding but it can feel overwhelming
with all the ''?'' marks. Thankfully it slowly seemed to become less and less
which I am grateful for because if I see one more shrine of prayer.
It wasn't till near the end of the game I found myself synthing for longer periods
just to create a good item and weapon/armor even then 70% of the time I spend
playing this game was either following the story or exploring the regions.
If you don't level up recipies you basically can only synth the item(s) in its most basic form
but at max or almost max level you unlock more ingredient slots.
I'm going to admit here that trying to do everything in Yumia did feel stressful
it may even have affected me negatively cuz it had a grip on me... i'm just glad
nothing was too hard or annoying like ff7 rebirth but after I stopped playing for the day
I found myself significantly more tired than when I'd play other games.
You know I don't think open world is a bad thing but I miss older games with smaller
but more meaningful areas. It makes the story impact better as well. Sure a few bigger areas
are fine but I think atelier rarely did open world right. Firis was maybe the only one I liked.
A lot of the open world stuff in Yumia just felt like busywork. It ends up being okay if you just
focus on one thing at a time but yea more often than not I am doing anything
but atelier stuff which felt like but after thought. Then again older atelier games tended
to stack all of their events at the atelier so in old games you could want to synth only to
be met with a string of events, thankfully this game doesn't have that problem as character
events are rarely in a random building area, so you can Synth in peace if you want to.
TL;DR overall I am a bit mixed about Yumia, it feels very entry level which may be good
to those who've never played an atelier game before but if you love challenge and making
the best possible items to overcome it then it might leave you wanting.
I loved the characters and their interactions and the plot was pretty decent but it just
doesn't really feel like an atelier game to me, it felt more like a game with a story about
alchemy or in other words like an RPG with atelier elements. I can't describe it otherwise.
7/10
There's plenty I like here... and I think it is a good RPG but keeping all things in mind it just
feels half-assed and its very easy to tell that gust cut a lot of corners but they usually do.
Still this game was miles better than the previous trainwreck I sat through
as Yumia had an actual likeable protagonist and cast of characters.
Next? I think I am going to take a break and just play something very slowly.
I did always want to play Lunar 2 so I'd like to get the collection and eventually play it.
Over Requiemz does look interesting setting wise but the price... praying it has a bit more
volume than Fuyuzono but I also am not really up for very long games or reads.
Now I will leave you with some cursed images just show
how rough around the edges atelier yumia was.
I'm sorry but gust should know better than to release games like this.
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| I shouldn't have turned the camera... |
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| No shit sherlock... |
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