Atelier Ayesha Plus: The Alchemist of Dusk

Video Game Review

Ayesha

Following their “Plus” releases of all three games in the “Alchemists of Arland” trilogy between 2013 and 2014, Gust and Koei Tecmo Games have shifted their attention to developing and localizing the PlayStation Vita exclusive “Plus” editions for the game’s which make up the “Gust” trilogy. Starting off at the very beginning, they recently published Atelier Ayesha Plus: The Alchemist of Dusk – serving as an enhanced port to the original 2012/2013 JRPG.

As with previous “Plus” instalments, this edition doesn’t completely rewrite the storyline or hinder the original experience in any way. Instead, it introduces a range of new features including costume support, new areas / enemies (Including bosses sourced from Atelier Escha & Logy) to find, all DLC characters available to unlock during gameplay and a couple of other features to be discussed in this review. But is Atelier Ayesha Plus worth your time returning to or playing for the first time? Read on to find out!

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Storyline

Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk follows the story of Ayesha Altugle, a girl who has been living alone in a secluded workshop ever since her grandfather died and her younger sister went missing a few years ago. She supports herself by making and selling medicine. As the story begins, she finds out that her younger sister IS alive somewhere in the world, and promises to rescue her. Now, she must devote herself to finding her younger sister, with the key to finding her purportedly lying in the mystical art of alchemy.

Atelier Ayesha begins quite differently from games set in the world of Arland. Arland is portrayed as a growing kingdom, and your characters usually have some role in ensuring its prosperous development. It is completely the opposite in this game, where before you are even introduced to the main character, you are informed that this land is slowly in decay. Despite this, people make by and on the outskirts of the towns that sparsely litter the region. In one corner of the world lives Ayesha, an apothecary who makes a living from making medicines using herbs and other items she finds in the areas nearby. Living by herself since the mysterious disappearance of her sister Nio, she makes ends meet by working as an apothecary. Things change one day when she visits the grave of her missing sister and comes across the ghost of Nio. With the advice of wandering alchemist Keithgriff she comes to realize that her sister has not simply passed away and that the key to saving her lies in the power of alchemy. Packing up shop, she goes on a journey to find a means of restoring Nio to her human form.

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While other titles in the Atelier series have been more directed (both the Arland series and Escha & Logy), Atelier Ayesha makes it pretty clear from the start that you have three years (Until Year 4 Month 4 to be precise) to rescue Nio and from there you are pretty much free to do anything you want with only mild direction if you choose to follow it. Although you are not left with no direction, I found myself aimlessly wandering around at times trying to figure out where I needed to go to next. Even when taking that into account however, the shorter year allocation from previous titles did not hinder the experience. In fact, it is perfectly possible to complete the game in under two years game-time. The game’s overall storyline is adequate, although in comparison to other Atelier titles and aided by a shorter playtime fell just short of its predecessors in terms of quality.

Events are delivered through visiting locations in towns or occuring when reaching certain spots on the world map. Similar to my qualms about other Gust games such as Ar Nosurge, if you do have a backlog of scenes to watch (They do build up at times), you can expect to be listening to nothing but random story events for five to ten minutes at a time before you can do what you entered a town to originally achieve. However with no goals such as meeting deadlines to keep a workshop (Rorona), developing a whole kingdom (Meruru) or achieving seasonal goals (Escha & Logy); there was more freedom given to focus on the core storyline and events rather than traditional deadlines. That being said, there is nothing much in the Plus edition which expands upon the original storyline, so if you were to skip Atelier Ayesha Plus, you wouldn’t miss out on too much in terms of the core storyline.

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Atelier Ayesha features a playable character cast size of around that of Atelier Rorona, although with a slightly heavier emphasis on female characters rather than males (5 Female vs 2 Male) – with an additional two (Marion and Odealia) now unlockable after previously being included as DLC characters. Some of the characters are more interesting than others, and all except for those who were limited as DLC characters do receive ample character development across the three years. As with other Atelier games, to unlock each characters individual development arcs, you will need to improve your relationship with each character by using them in battle and regularly interacting with them. In addition to the playable characters, there are a set of additional characters such as merchants, wandering travellers and even a “cowgirl” who have storyline events, CG artwork and trophies associated with them.

While there are some storyline events required to be completed before the main game, it is no longer the end once the main story is over and you can continue to continue down character paths of explore more of the world upon rescuing Nio until the games only time deadline. I still think there is much more that could have been done with Atelier Ayesha’s storyline, and this “Plus” port does very little to rectify my original concerns. That being said, the character development paths were interesting and the overarching plot still turned out to be satisfying albeit quickly forgettable.

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Design / Music / Voice Acting

Especially aided by the transition to the PlayStation Vita as with other Plus ports, Atelier Ayesha Plus is a visually pleasing game which looks fantastic on the smaller OLED screen. Character designs for the game’s rather sizable character cast are all individualized and well designed, from the more sophisticated and mature attire/appearance of Keithgriff to the laid-back yet elaborate attire / appearance of the trainee witch Wilbell. The environment designs are also varied and creative. Perhaps the most defining feature in Atelier Ayesha Plus however is its effective use of colour. Atelier Ayesha Plus stands out aesthetically due to its use of colours that suit a more natural world rather than the developing and expanding world of Arland. While it does take some time to get used to, in the end I think the visuals suited the game environment quite well – and was a good choice on the behalf of Gust.

Atelier Ayesha boasts an extensive soundtrack, with a wealth of songs for use in all occasions from battles to cutscenes and most are of the quality you would expect from the Atelier series. While this music is enjoyable, with a particular highlight being the subtle and beautiful opening theme, there is one issue which may or may not be an issue to some. Unfortunately Gust have decided not to give away the original music DLC for Atelier Ayesha Plus, opting to sell it for a few dollars via the PlayStation Store. Although this does offer a range of tracks which are sourced from almost every previous Atelier game and other titles – it comes in at a whopping 3,841MB. Therefore, even if you don’t mind paying for it, it could take up the bulk of your memory card to potentially just change your battle theme. This size is compared to the game itself which is <3GB.

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Possibly one of the deal-sellers with Atelier Ayesha Plus is that the game comes with both the English dub and the original Japanese dub, whereas the original English release only included the former. The Japanese voice-overs in my opinion are far superior to the English ones, with a greater percentage of the game dubbed. Aside from the number of scenes which have voice-overs however, the voice cast is pretty solid irrespective of which language you choose to listen to.

Gameplay

Unlike the series’ Playstation 2 predecessors, alchemy and exploration are considered the core aspects of the PS3 Atelier PS3 games, with the battle system to some extent taking a back seat. Atelier Ayesha Plus features a more refined alchemy system compared to the Arland games, which in my mind has made it less complex and more accessible to a wider audience. The system hasn’t received a significant overhaul since its original PS3 release, although it still offers a lot in allowing you to generate a good variety of items with unique skills to suit any situation.

Atelier Ayesha removes the middle man when it comes to the quest system. Rather than go up to a counter and accept requests, Ayesha has to visit one of the games three towns and accept requests directly from the townspeople herself. The time limits are pretty lax when it comes to these quests (Quite often you are given several hundred days), and are less about being an integral part of your success in the game and more about making money and items from your synthesized goods. The Plus edition also features an exclusive “Album Missions” system which is separate from traditional quests. Available through your main menu, the Albums are images consisting of nine (initially) empty panels – each with a requirement associated with them. Completing the requirements not only treat you to some beautiful artwork, but also grant additional features such as a “Free Battle Mode”, the ability to change party members at any time and lots of different costumes.

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Atelier Ayesha once again features the traditional “Atelier” three party member Turn Based Battle System, although those who have only played Arland titles will identify a number of significant changes made to it. Characters are no longer required to stand in nice straight lines, and can essentially be moved 360 degrees around enemies – placing them either infront, behind or on the side of the enemies they are up against. Depending on what location they are in there are pros and cons. If they are positioned behind an enemy they can score some critical hits, but as many support items/skills are area-based, they are left vulnerable to not being targeted by an ally’s supportive AOE spells/items should their position be away from other party members.

The AC support system is no longer limited to defending one party member against attacks – with each character having their own set of special AC skills. You can also pursuit/back attack enemies, restore MP to the character in question or even give a party member some decent stat boosts. In addition, apart from regular attacks, party members other than Ayesha are able to build up special move gauges which allows them to perform powerful attacks against an enemy on the screen – almost a must for boss battles. In return for not having a special move, Ayesha is the only character who can use items in battle – and there are a great number of attack and support items to incorporate into your battle strategy.

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An interesting feature to add to the game is a memory journal, where during the course of the game you can spend points on writing notes in her journal thus unlocking new items and stat boosts for her. As these stat boosts only affect Ayesha, it is possible to make her one of the stronger party members in the game by pooling your points into the right memories – with her HP in particular potentially being double or even triple that of her friends.

Fortunately as you are not restricted to time as much as previous titles, you are given the freedom even from your first playthrough to (Provided you don’t slack off for the first year or two) enjoy some of the other features the game has to offer. Every month in the town of Vierzeberg they hold a bazaar where you can purchase and build up the store levels of Ayesha’s friends and twice a year you can go up against other characters in a contest of fine items where people compete for the highest value. In addition to this, for the first time the world map has freely roaming characters whom you can come across and purchase more unique alchemic goods and items from.

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As mentioned earlier, until the set end-date of Year 4 Month 4, you are free to continue the game even past the main storyline. While you do have to actively seek out these post-game goodies, the game does not leave you with nothing to do with many character events, boss battles and endings to achieve. Although this Plus edition contributes little to the storyline, it does add a number of high level bosses to battle with. Upon completion of one playthrough, as usual you are able to begin a New Game+ with a couple of things carrying over from the previous playthrough (Money, Weapons etc).

Final Words on Atelier Ayesha Plus

Aside from being transitioned to a portable console and given a few nifty and aesthetic features such as the Album Missions and additional costumes, there isn’t too much which separates Atelier Ayesha Plus from its original PlayStation 3 edition. Therefore, unless you desperately want to play the game in Japanese, there may not be enough here to justify paying $59.95 AUD to play it a second time around. If you have never played Atelier Ayesha however and are looking at getting into the “Dusk” series, then this PlayStation Vita port is the way to go – with most DLC content available out-of-the-box and a handful of other features available as additional perks. The game itself however is pretty good, with a solid battle system which is second only to Atelier Escha & Logy, an easy-to-use alchemy system with room to be creative and both strong visuals and music. The porting is also flawless from my experience, with no notable issues.

Acknowledgement

A review copy of Atelier Ayesha Plus was provided by Australian publisher, Mindscape, for the purpose of this review.

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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