Kyoto Xanadu The Blooming Phantom - Review

The irregular at xanadu highschool.

 Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Falcom.
Platform: PS5,Switch,PC.
Official Site: https://www.falcom.co.jp/kyoxana/

Release date: 16-07-2026

 

Kyoto Xanadu is set in the same world as Tokyo Xanadu

but I found it rather entry level and its able to stand on its own.

The story is very self-contained, nothing this game covers requires prior knowledge. 

 

Disclaimer: This is purely my own opinion and it could be different from yours

this is not meant to be some kind of all-truth, just an opinion that came from playing this.

If you don't like what you're reading then close the tab, move on and just idk play it yourself.

 

Pro's

- Proactive and Witty protagonist.

- Great cast of characters.

- Interesting mix of 2D/3D gameplay.

 

Grey Area 

- Day to Day stuff can get a bit stale.

- Halfdubbed.

- The game ending feels like a teaser and it kinda just ends. 

 

Con's

 - Requests were bland&boring.

- Bond events have no final episode.

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 Rei the protagonist gets transferred into a new school after a heist of sorts.
Storywise it sure has some interesting hooks like, its decent for what it tried.

I was more interested in what Rei was even doing in the beginning  which wasn't

cleared up till much later. Rei can be a bit of a smartass but more often than not

ends up being treated like some clown by his new schoolmates.

Not that he lets that get to him but he was very much a teenager. 

I wish the localization a very good luck and I can't help but I worry Rei will be nerved

in english. The crap Rei says sometimes makes me go my dude, you for real. 

 Linon isn't really much of a focus early on but there's a time and place for her.

Not sure if I should be happy or sad I called some stuff but even if you

don't the story will click midway chapter 4 all the pieces fit.

--- 

Story progress felt rather slow and a lot of it felt like build up while getting

to know new faces and gaining... better notoriety or worsen it. You know how Rei is... 

The first chapter was slow and mostly a tutorial, the xanadu sections were

bite-sized so it took a while to get going, this is fair but tbh it never really got crazy.

--- 

There are many side characters and it will vary who catches your eye, most didn't really

 stand out to me except Leah. The VP guy who seemed supportive and nice... compared to the

president himself who was very get on my level ''hmph!'' I'd rather hang with Ren at the arcade.😔

I was kinda interested in Shu too... but I don't think we should worry about him

yea he's that guy you shouldn't worry about.
There's also this Crow look-a-like Kyouya but... he just comes and goes.
Much like Crow in CS1 I suppose.💀 He's chill but he can go hard.

None of the story really wowed me till chapter 3 where things move into a more

interesting direction but other than that I just had no idea where any of it would go.

 

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Gameplay; The mix of 2d and 3d was well done and I generally liked

the sidescrolling dungeon parts of the game. It was a smooth experience.😌

Bosses were in 3d but they were about as good as in the Ys games.

I didn't really understand why there was a need to switch? but okay I guess.

I'll admit that it was hard to lock onto the smaller enemies which was annoying. 

 The school stuff was okay, its just that the day to day stuff got stale quickly.

Like just going through the motions.

It was kinda annoying how the phantom flask could break since this would

more often than not force you out of the dungeon for that day but okay

rome wasn't build in a day! what was worse than that was trying to remember

which teleporter goes to which. This got especially bad in the 3rd layer.💀

Everything else was relatively smooth, i'll admit the gates and statues got repetitive. 

 ---

 I liked the VN-style story-telling! and it wasn't bad at all.

its smart because the characters don't move a lot anyway

while conveying the story and emotions of the characters.

I can understand this game's presentation can feel kinda cheap due to this. 

It can seem like a downgrade to Tokyo Xanadu which was like Coldsteel 3/4. 

    Its pretty clear to me that they were on a budget but none of this was done poorly.

Its also clear to me all the budget went into the sky remakes and this game is just what it is. 

Graphics were fine and the music was pretty great, I have no complaints in those areas.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

  The game was fairly straight-forward. While it follows a calendar system

like trails or persona there weren't really any deadlines nor are there

any sidequests instead there's 3 specific people that can give requests.

You get a trophy for doing it 10 times each... which is an achievment alright.💀 

These requests are really simple; find this missing person, kill enemies or find those items.

I got tired of them by the 3rd time I had got those requests. They had no flavor and were bland.

There's not much to do when not exploring Xanadu so any progression comes natural.

There was more than enough time to explore xanadu or chat with friends. 

You simply go to school do some card game for points to unlock stuff on the skill tree

and hang out with friends maybe but those events felt barebones. 

I sometimes found myself locked from progressing Xanadu like for example in chapter 3

you get to explore the 3rd layer and while you can enter the 4th its impossible

to get anywhere due to missing something that made further progress impossible.

There's some parts in earlier layers that can't be accessed till later too like a part of

layer 1that can only be accessed via a yellow teleporter. 

--- 

I played on easy, which was second out of four difficulties sorry I don't remember the

difficulty names. Maybe I should've played on normal but for some reason I picked the 2nd.

If you want more balance or challenge I recommend the 3rd or 4th difficulties.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Overall.

I'd say it is a fine game! but I wasn't that hyped to get through it.

It took me 35 hours to finish Kyoto Xanadu.

 I liked the sidescrolling dungeon parts more than the school stuff.

    and the characters were far more interesting than the overall plot.💀

The day to day stuff felt very standard and I found it sad that its half dubbed but its

falcom so its pretty much a standard for them; to hear a full voiced line and then crickets.

(Or for the MC to be silent and the other guy to speak instead. Oh well you get used to it!)

That aside there were plenty of CG's, including a groupshot I found the selection

of CG images to be more varied than Utaware P&P rediscovered.

The characters were mostly great. The cast overall was varied from characters

with darker skintones to being not as skinny or having a handicap.

Not all chara's were as story relevant but they made the town feel alive

like if you were free after school you could hang with them.😌

It didn't feel like I absolutely had to hang out with them so my focus was on

the party members as well as that shy glasses guy, Kyoya and Ren. There were times

where I had to pick some rando to use FP on since no one else was available.

By the time of ch4 I started to question the whole bond system since most

already naturally form during the story. So it felt like its just busywork.😓

There also aren't any final events, imagine you maxing out the final rank and it just ends

yea that was a little disappointing there wasn't even anything else. 

I found it to be overall a slowpaced game. It picks itself up starting from chapter 3

but even then it was still the irregular at xanadu highschool till midway ch4

and it returns to being like that once more in chapter 5. 

I did want to get to know the characters better so I kept playing.

Nothing was too deep it felt like I was scratching the surface of something.

This game was basically a trails game in disguise. 😅💀

I also kept wondering if there was going to be a Rion or Goro but no one else joined

outside of the initial crew. I'd love to have Leah,Kyoya or Shu join. As well as Ren...

however unless there is some sort of Ex+ version, that isn't happening in this game.

The sad part about Kyoto Xanadu is that it left me with an is that really it feeling?

Sure its able to tell the story of Rei and Otoha which was good but hmm...

I think this is what happens when you bake a cake but the other half isn't ready

so they cut it off.  You get a cake alright, its just not the whole thing.

8/10

If I was harsh i'd probably rate it a little lower but the characters were great

which leads to me giving it an 8/10 instead of a 6.5 or 7/10. 

===

 

TL;DR I recommend it mostly for the sidescrolling style gameplay and the characters

but the narrative is a bit of a slowburn. I didn't find the story to be outstanding or

atleast not right away. It peaked for me in chapter 4 and thought some of it was well done

but the fact remains that Kyoto Xanadu ends when it feels like it only just began.

 

More rambles after the jump, I've decided to keep charactter rambles there

because my rambles include spoilers, not all but there's some.

So if you don't want any then just stop reading here. 

Utawarerumono Past and Present Rediscovered - Review

Well... atleast Shunya got her closure.

Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Aquaplus
Platform: PS5,Switch,PC.
Official Site: https://aquaplus.jp/uta/shiro/

Release date: 28-05-2026

 

Okay I won't lie but I kinda forgot about this game but I decided

to play it since I love the utaware series! not like I had anything else

I wanted to play so this game seemed kinda nice either way. 

 

Disclaimer: This is purely my own opinion and it could be different from yours

this is not meant to be some kind of all-truth, just an opinion that came from playing this.

If you don't like what you're reading then close the tab, move on and just idk play it yourself. 

 

Pro's

- Wraps up Oshtor and Shunya's journey.

- Enjoyable turn based combat system.

 

Grey Area

- First half feels rather bland compared to the last 80% of the game.

- The OP doesn't play upon starting the game. 

Con's

- Game in general lacks polish; such as models/movement speed.

- Sidequests were uninspiring and mostly filler. 

 

 

This game is a sequel to Monochrome Mobius which takes place

after the first utawarerumono game and before mask of deception.

I always thought Mono-mobius didn't really wrap up all there was to tell

especially regarding Shunya which this game actually gets to do!

 The beginning of the game does start with a brief recap and slowly

gets things going but it did feel a bit off since everyone was at lvl99.

combat certainly was no issue during the first two hours or so but I did

wonder when/if there would be a stat squish and there was.

If you never played an utaware game before this game is a terrible place to start

 so you're better off either playing monochrome first or start from prelude of the fallen.

(I'm not one to gatekeep or anything so I like to give atleast two starter points.)

Speaking from my own experience it may be better to play Shunya's duology last. 

---

 

Combat is the same as MM tho what I really like is that after defeating

a special mob in an area you gain the ability to 1shot anything there.

 So long you attack them first, enemies also see you as a threat at that point.

 This was actually really satisfying, Halu true MVP.

This is great because it removes a lot of monotony from having to fight all enemies 

you come across to level up again, Since 1hitting them gives exp and loot.

It gets even better on the overworld since you can just bump and KO enemies on your mount!

The stat squish already felt kinda harsh but the grind being eased was a relieve

since it wasn't hard to level up at all.   Difficulty does ramp up around level 30

 and fights can get difficult the higher you get. If you use your BP wisely

and don't forget to invest some into defense or HP it'll be fine.

The whole battle system relies on buffing yourself and debuffing your enemies or else

get wrecked LMAO. Shunya's the character who got ko'd the most but what else is new?

Munechika exists to patch people up and provide some buffs or extra DPS if possible.

Oshtor's the most balanced unit and Mika's purpose is to hit things. 

We also don't have to unlock HP/MP recovery at savepoints anymore. 

However I will admit that by the end of the game the area lord loop was a tad repetitive. 

----

 

 Side quests were kinda just there though... they were nothing unusual.

I felt like I had to do them since when I got thrust into a battle after meeting

Soyankekur I got my ass beat!😅💀 well there wasn't any dungeons before it

but when I reloaded I noticed new quests that had appeared. After I did

those I was able to handle the fight much better. So levels do matter!

The best side quest would have to be the one that unlocks Halu's final mode...

it also had me going why is this listed as a side quest?!

it was voiced & the story was strangely good.

The rest of the sidequests felt like unnecessary busywork which is such a shame!

I didn't even do a bunch in the lvl 70 range at the end of the game cuz I was burnt out of them. 

---

 

Graphics; well the environments look fine and I am not one to complain but I did

notice the models can look like they miss a coat of paint however certain scenes

still looked good depending on the lightning in them so it wasn't too bad really. 

The animations can be kinda stiff too but there were moments, especially comedic or

fighting were it was really well done so... I honestly don't see a reason to complain much.

Suppose after three years you expect more but aquaplus has never been one

to have graphics that were amazing. Except maybe the zan games although those

were by tamsoft and the graphics were on par to the neptune action games.

I find the graphics are decent but the environments were far better than the modeling

which reminded me of tears to tiara kakan no dachi. Okay enough rambling about this. 

Music; was generally good and soothing to the ears, like I know from the series

it fit the mood and tone of the scenes well enough. Both OP and ED were great

however during my play for some reason the OP didn't play when booting up the game. 

 ----

 

I rather liked this town, even if its nothing unusual it reminds me of some edo era scene.

 The running speed also bothered me a little because if you tilt the left stick

to the max too fast you'll just zoom across the map at max speed. WeeU!

You can in fact walk and run slower but you really need to tilt carefully.

The areas are big so I didn't mind it being a turbo run that much

but the lack of polish was rather obvious here.

 ---

It took me around 50 hours to complete the game which includes most side quests

except a few endgame ones because I kinda burnt out on them and I just smacked

enemies in the final dungeon for some extra EXP. I don't think you need to be

higher than level 80 to beat the game. However I did almost forget we could

level the blacksmith but due to that I had enough materials and was able to get

some of the best weapons/armor upgrades with ease. No boss in this game really

forced me to dig into the weapon upgrade system, the weapons and armor you

can buy or find was more than enough to make it through. I thought it was overall

breezier than Monochrome Mobius which was a little tougher in my memory anyways.

Halu was around rank 70 which matches the level range I cleared with; 77-80. 

---
 

 Overall its nice they did follow up on Oshtor and Shunya's adventure!

because I remember being a little disappointed Shunya's case was unresolved

and a lot of the stuff on arva-shulan was not fully explored which this game does.

It had a strong start it did slow down and while it was nice to

have the crew back together I did get a feeling of is this really it?!

There were plenty of interesting bits it all just felt very low key and looking back

the first half of the game just felt rather bland to me and not much stood out.

I thought the majority of the game would take place in Arva-Shulan but... it didn't.

So I was kind of let down in the first half when we had to go activate a bunch of towers.

I personally was more interested in the villains and SUS twins but most of that was

reserved for the last 35% of the game and rather fast too. The villain group didn't have

that much build up that when it was time of their re-appearance I forgot about them.😅 

Most things weren't explained very well till right at the end. It wasn't all bad though

I still think exploring the regions around Yamato is a real treat, I didn't even mind

going through the areas that much, even if the story was uninspiring at this point.

Mostly because the gameplay was excellent and if they nailed anything its that.

TL;DR

At the end of the day I think the story is OK but the first half could be better.

When the story got to the heart of the matter it was pretty good but that was 80% into it.

As for the romance... I couldn't enjoy it as much as with Rias and Slade, Shunya and Oshtor

didn't even get that many moments that they weren't on my shipping radar till someone started

talking about feelings.  I suppose they had no time/budget since there weren't a lot

of light-hearted CG's either. Having played the trilogy I could never fully get into it

since Shunya is never referenced. The way the story played out... it made sense though!

I do like the ending for the both of them, it was a rather bittersweet. 

7/10  

I did get the idea that they rushed to get this game out due to it being a little rough

around the edges but other than that if you want to continue Oshtor/Shunya's adventure

and love the utaware series I see no reason why not to get this at some point.

 If you liked the OG trilogy but disliked MM or old school rpg's then it could be a skip.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Some senile grandma rambles after the jump! I try to avoid major plot spoilers

but if you don't want anything at all then just stop reading here. 

Atelier Resleriana The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian - Review

The most romantic atelier game.

 Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Koei Tecmo/Gust.

Platform: PS5/Switch etc.
Official Site: https://atelier.games/resleriana_rw/us/

Release date: 26-09-2025

 

Okay since there wasn't anything else I wanted to play and it was rotting away

in my backlog I decided to get started on it. I didn't really have many expectations.

This is also like my first atelier game with... spinoff elements. 

 

Disclaimer: This is purely my own opinion and it could be different from yours

this is not meant to be some kind of all-truth, just an opinion that came from playing this.

If you don't like what you're reading then close the tab, move on and just idk play it yourself. 

 

 Resle: Red Alchemist & White Guardian is another half of what originally was gacha game.

 I never got the play the gacha game cuz they pulledthe plug in eng, however

it is still active in japan, at time of writing this review anyway.

Either way my opinion on this game varied a lot depending on my progression.

I wasn't too impressed early on but it does come into its own and I actually liked

the relationship between the leads by chapter 5 which is what I enjoyed the most. 

 

Pro's

- Great chemistry between leads.

- Combat is really well done. 

- Character events are fun.

- Story can seem weak or convenient but I still found part of it well crafted. 

Grey Area

- Alchemy is rather simple but left/right colour system makes it cumbersome.

 - Difficulty spikes; starts out cozy but is significantly more difficult by chapter 6.

Con's

- Some cameo's like Mu or Judie just feel like they barely meet an appearance quota

also don't expect wanderers to get any major development or anything.

- No CG's featuring wanderers. 

 

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well I honestly wasn't sure how to approach this game? it had main entry energy

but it also tried to be a spinoff which honestly is a weird mix to me. 

 Needless to say there still are characters unique to this universe and I did

enjoy getting to know characters like Randolf or Camilla.

 Rias is definitely a fun protagonist, Slade seems to have his reasons

for being around and without their paths crossing the story wouldn't exist.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ART/MUSIC. 

 The graphics were okay and the world like in the screenshot above can look beautiful

however most of the time we spend our time in the dimensional paths.

The areas were also smaller in scale which I liked, honestly maybe its because I am tired

of the open world so gust did well with this game in that sense. 

 The battle theme was good but other than that the music was on a just fine level.

I did love the OP and ED's. 

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

COMBAT 

My only combat screenshot is of a poor ghost about to get nuked.

 Combat is turn-based again like older atelier games, thank god because

I didn't quite like Ryza or Yumia's battle systems. I think it was fairly simple

and it doesn't get too deep till you get all the members which is when

it reaches the full potential of managing the front and backrows.

I really did like the combat this time and it works so much better than whatever

Ryza had going on where you couldn't even use items unless haha. 

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 SYSTEM ramblings.

There's a skill tree and you can use SP to get stat boosts among other things

the SP mostly seems to come from quests and combat. The pool is shared so

you gotta remember to do it evenly, I did sometimes invest more into one member.

Early on I thought this was some sort of cheat to get statboosts due how casual the early

hours were  but this game does not forget that you have to craft your own gear and items too.

By the end of the game everyone was actually maxed out their original tree. 

You can manage a shop which in turn helps develop the town, this system wasn't bad

since it can get rid of junk materials. I got nervous when I saw the auto-add try

to get rid of rarer stuff so I ended up just doing it manually.

Its mandatory to raise the town level and it will roadblock the story, thankfully

it was not too grindy, you can hit the caps and then you have to invest to unlock

the next levels by turning in special items which are usually recipe morphed ones.

Its actually kinda nice to see how it goes from a ruined village to an actual town.

There was a moment where the town rank can seem like some gacha game mechanic which is 

out of place in a console game but other than that as long as you explore you will have

all the mats and optional recipies so none of it was particularly difficult just a bit of busy work. 

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A rare CG that isn't Rias x Slade with a character that comes and goes.

 Early on the alchemy part felt kinda optional, I can count on one hand what I actually made

in eight hours of play and the majority was spend on story,gathering and fighting.

However around chapter 4-5 your really should remake your starting gear

since this is when the game gets more serious and less casual.

By the time of chapter 6 you should absolutely have your things in order

as this is where the difficulty spiked up to the point it wasn't casual anymore.

I didn't have that much trouble with the ch6 fight but if I hadn't made that healing bell

with revive I would have been in trouble. I also was able to trigger burst here for the first time

but I was not able to ult since the enemies died before that could happen. 💀💀💀

 The alchemy system itself was kinda simple? but the recipe system was convoluted

constantly had to press L2 to see the recipe tree was annoying. I'd say its a little more

advanced than say Marie. I didn't really like the random color thing either but I thought

it was easier to understand than some of the other recent atelier games. 

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 PLOT/SETTING ramblings. 

Storywise it definitely had some interesting hooks but it wasn't deeper than it had to be.

I wasn't sure what this game was trying to be, or atleast I thought this way 5ish hours in.

If anything surprised me at all, is the chemistry between the leads.

 It could seem Slade was bland and generic but he was surprisingly thoughtful!

who wouldn't want a man like him? ISTG.

 I didn't expect it to be romantic but there was more than enough shipping fuel.

There was a found family theme between Rias and Slade and I LOVED THAT. 

Although one moment did remind me she can be a bit of a slave driver.💀 

Rias was an OK protag, a bit of an airhead, Slade complimented her

and he compensates for her. They're like the perfect duo. 

I was not sure why there was even an option to choose between them

but I guess its a callback to Eschatology or Mana khemia.

I'll remind everyone here that Rias has a whip.

With the amount of cameos you could have fooled me on who was really playable or not.

Most of the story could seem straight-forward, I'll give them credit since by chapter 10

I did think they did cook a bit with this one.  There was a bit of convenient writing

going on with a decent attempt at worldbuilding. 

Why other atelier characters got isekai'd into this world as wanderers

wasn't really important, its totally a normal occurance in this world.

Overall storywise, not particularly strong but it served, I wondered what if they didn't rely

on characters from other entries. Since the chara's unique to this game were pretty good.

 I kinda wanted Brad to join up but he was gone before I knew it, a waste.😞

Thanks for letting me meet him I guess?

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The character interactions were great atleast which was nice

but they never really did anything that surprised me, or would drop

their entire character lore. I never played Mana Khemia 2 btw so Raze was just

a nice capable guy with a cool sword who looks a little like Anaxagoras.😅

At best they might hint at stuff from their own games but nothing deep

almost as if they want you to play their game or expect you to know. 

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Overall Resleriana the red alchemist and the white guardian can be nice

if you want a more traditional atelier game with familiar faces. I don't see why

you'd have to play the Resle gacha game but you can get by just fine without it.

I never played it either, it did make me interested. 

There's some callbacks but the plot of this game is very selfcontained.

It took me around 45ish hours to finish the game, the early hours were rough

for me due to it being very slow paced but 20 hours in I got the hang of it. 

Due to that I wondered if should have skipped this game but the chemistry

between the leads was adorable, I have no regrets!!!

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TL;DR

There were no group shot CG stills so this is as good as it gets.

 Well  I didn't expect much but it gets a lot of bonus points from me

for the chemistry between the leads, other  than that I found it decent at best. 

 Early on I was not very gung-ho about playing it despite that I am glad I stuck with it

so I got to enjoy all the Rias and Slade moments! The story was OK but it was rather

self-contained to whatever else goes on in this world. Some parts were well written

like the legend tying past to present so they did cook but... that's about it.

The game is mostly light-hearted but it can have some serious undertones.

All that really sticks to my mind were a bunch of sappy moments.💀 

I was too busy shipping Rias and Slade as well as Randolf and Camilla.😂

That was also the fire that fueled my progress through this game.

Gust, if you want to make another otome game then go for it! or get otomate to port Elkrone to switch.

I'd recommend it if you're looking for a mostly laidback RPG or if you want

another atelier game with cameos and don't mind romance between the leads.

I'll add to this that its not afraid to actually have you make better gear so

I wouldn't call it a cozy game cuz if you cozy it up Lara will step on you.💀

Compared to Yumia both games have their weaknesses but I personally

liked Resleriana Red Alchemist more! not just because of the romance

I genuinely liked the combat system more as well and the exploration didn't

overwhelm me either, it was just a nice cozy game that can get a lil difficult

but if you try then I don't think there's anything too difficult in this game.

8.5/10

 -

Some more rambles after the jump, its just character stuff and my final thoughts.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Honkai Star Rail - Review

I love the PS5 splash art.

 Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Hoyoverse.

Platform: PS4,PC,mobile
Official Site: N/A.

Release date: 11-10-2023

 

I decided to give star rail a try, because I keep hearing its pretty much structured

like any RPG (but still gacha) and inspired by trails, so here goes nothing.

 

Pro's

- Solid prologue & story on Jarilo VI.

- Great main cast of characters and fun interactions between MC,March & Dang Heng.

- Being able to replay old events.

- Automode for battles with material rewards, which removes tedium.

Grey area

- Xianzhou's story was a little messy.

 

Con's

- Combat can feel basic and a bit repetitive.

- Certain substories can be accessed too early creating inconsistencies.

(Like it acts like we've been to Peanutbutter but I actually haven't YET.

 

 Setting is a space fantasty/sci-fi, honestly it reminds me more of star ocean

rather than trails but in terms of combat its the latter that's similar.

I'll say it was off to a fantastic start and the story and characters easily hooked me.

There's an actual main party in star rail: March and Dang Heng whom I actually want

to have in my party but for Genshin impact which I also played I wanted to replace

the initials as fast as I could, Amber yea you're nice as a torch lighter.💀

I don't remember being very attached to Amber or Lisa except maybe Kaeya

but he was useful with his icebridges... untill Wriothesley put him out of a job.

The chemistry between MC,March and Dan Heng was just that great.

Other characters range from great to they're just kind of there doing their own thing like Asta.

Combat is like a turnbased RPG but its very basic and repetitive.

It bothered me you can't use items in battle unlike genshin?! and there's

no MP management, just normal attack, skill and a special move. It really seems

like a simplified version of trails. its servicable but I am not really here for it.

I only rank up my world level in star rail when I am really ready because

I am traumatized from genshin in which you could level up too fast and struggle.

Unfortunately there is a powercreep and newer characters will always be better

but that didn't really affect my early journey of progressing through the story.

The characters yo get from the game are perfectly viable.

There's an autobattle but that doesn't work on every fight, so for the story you still gotta work.

I think it is nice in that it can remove the tedium of having to grind for mats to level up

a character or light cone which is like their armor. There's traces too which is like a skill tree.

So when there's so many this or that it can get tiresome if you had to do it manually

so I can still appreciate the automode. However I do realize these type of games

make me miss regular rpg's since there's too much this or that here and in a regular rpg

there may just be skills gained by lvl up or something like a sphere grid like ffx/xiii

while you just buy gear in shops and in star rail there's no gear except lightcones

and without gacha they only come as rewards and they're quite rare.

I have rambled on too much about it but... its not the worst combat/gamplay system I have seen.

 Its also not open world like genshin so I wasn't able to get lost, it was still nice

to find random chests here or there but its rare to find lightcones from chests.

Its basically just a bit of credit, exp materials and the currency to roll on banners.

 

Music was pretty good I have no complaints and I thought the graphics were better than genshin?

the character models also have more shine to them. Just feels like it had more polish.

 

Storywise it varies; The prologue and space station were great.

The first world Jarilo VI was good but with the Xianzhou Luofu... despite having great

characters it had too much lore dumps and I wasn't able to remember it all, only the

important bits which was a shame. It was also here that I felt the need to already take a break.

Going from Jarilo VI to Xianzhou Luofu do be like this...

Overall its off to a great start but then sort of dips but never too low it loses momentum

and well if you think you need a break from the story then I suggest you do so.

Its also good to remember the story comes in parts so one will eventually catch up.

  ====================================================================

 

More like honorable fart...

The dialogue was a lot of fun as well and its not as bloatey as genshin was

which is notorious for having a lot of fluff, even I who can ramble a lot thinks its a lot.

At times when explaining lore it does get long but what can you do about that?

sometimes it is necessary. I actually don't really go back to read quest descriptions

but this one time as seen below I actually chuckled. It seemed the translator was like

someone has to read this right? may as well make it funny!

or they just had their funny pants on that day. Or always...

 

Despite this being a gacha game, much like genshin it doesn't throw you the banners in your face

and its easy to ignore any character you don't want to roll for and save up for someone you do want. Personally I plan to only roll on banners if I really like the character.

 

 When I started playing I could choose 1 standard character for free

and also choose between Ruan Mei or Luocha, I chose the latter.

For standard I chose Gepard but I am still using March 7th...😅

though eventually I think I will replace her with him.

I don't really feel too hot or cold towards Luocha, he's nice to have on your team

and even after the second world has an air of mystery around him.

On the other side I feel conflicted about Ruan Mei after her story quest, like

she's not that bad but she sure is something alright.

 

 

TL;DR overall I can recommend this gacha game if you like RPG's in general

even if genshin didn't work out for you, it mostly fixed most of my gripes I had with that

though I can't gaurantee one will like it as well, it never hurts to try.

More rambles after the jump but i've mostly said what there's to say.

There's no real plot spoilers but I do talk about some companion quest so light spoilers maybe?

 

Atelier Yumia the Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land - Review

Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Gust/Koei.

Platform: PS4,switch.
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 villain

from 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...

 

I see what you're trying to do but did you miss a layer of polish?

Sivash did look better at night, not sure if this was intended but it seems they forgot something.

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.💀

''...''

Like holy shit did they even QA this game?! Anyways I did like the characters and the story itself

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.