HomeVideo GamesAtelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky

Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky

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It has been just shy of ten years since the Atelier series first hit the international market, with Nippon Ichi Software America localizing and publishing Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana on the PlayStation 2. All three titles in the “Iris” trilogy came across as solid RPG’s, which a unique twist that the protagonist(s) could use alchemy to synthesize items rather than purchasing them via in-game stores.

Once the series made the jump to the PlayStation 3 platform, they ended up being games focused more around synthesis than battles. Over the years development studio GUST have attempted to better harmonize the two aspects with mixed success in my opinion, although vast improvements upon what was originally presented in Atelier Rorona.

Going into Atelier Escha & Logy ~Alchemists of the Dusk Sky~ I was left impressed in comparison to other titles, not only for the better harmonization of alchemy / RPG elements, but also for an overhaul of several key gameplay systems that after so many years were overdue for more than just fine-tuning. But are these changes noteworthy enough for an increase from the B grade given to Atelier Ayesha in its March 2013 review? Read on to find out more!

Storyline

Atelier Escha & Logy is a chronological sequel to last years release of Atelier Ayesha, taking place approximately four years after the events of the first. In a far off section of the region lies the small town of Corseit, a relatively unremarkable locale if it were not for the mysterious “Unexplored Ruin” that floats in the sky nearby it. As its name implies, nobody has managed to venture anywhere close to the heavily protected ruins, and what lies within them has garnered interest from various parties. This leads to a Development Project in the area, with a Research and Development (R&D) division headed up by familiar face Marion Quinn. While initially poorly staffed both local-girl Escha Malier and Logix “Logy” Fiscario from “Central City” join the team on the very same day, both of whom are alchemists.

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Very similar to the route Namco Bandai took with Tales of Xillia, GUST decided to feature both a male and female protagonist, with the player only able to choose between one or the other to play from the perspective of during a single playthrough. While ultimately you will be left missing out on some plot events and a handful of endings should you only play through once, you shouldn’t miss out of too much of the main plot as its progression is relatively static. It wasn’t a necessary implementation but both protagonists offered something different to the experience, and it was quite nice playing as a male character in the Atelier series for the first time since Atelier Iris 3. Double for the fact that recent Atelier games seem to be dominated by female characters.

While it is made clear from the beginning that you will ultimately be exploring the “Unexplored Ruins”, it takes a surprisingly long time to get to that point. For a considerable chunk of the game you will instead be performing tasks relative to developing and exploring the land surrounding Corseit while occasionally being reminded of the goal through a particular task. Personally it may have been better going for a more consistent storyline-oriented route rather than the mediocre task route taken, but this shortfall was made up to some degree by the character development.

Aside from Escha and Logy, there are a total of five main playable characters, three DLC characters and a wealth of side-scharacters whom each receive some degree of character development throughout the game. Development quality does tend to vary between characters with some contributing to an overarching storyline better than others. Fortunately given you can maintain all characters in your party at the same time and everyone resides in Corseit, you won’t generally be left having to waste in-game time circumnavigating the world to interact with them.

Out of all the characters in Atelier Escha & Logy, only five (Linca, Marion, Wilbell, Nio and Harry) make a re-appearance from Atelier Ayesha while others such as Ayesha and Keithgriff are only mentioned in passing.

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Unlike Atelier Totori where it was easy to run out of in-game time and Atelier Ayesha where one could have far too much time on their hands after completing the main campaign, this instalment adopted a similar Assignment system to the one present in Atelier Rorona. Every four months the R&D division will be given a series of tasks to complete (One main, eight secondary and several more minor ones) which encompasses main storyline events and other required / optional activities. While giving some leeway with falling behind, it stops one from rushing ahead with a whole year dedicated at the end of the game to achieve the final goal. While some may find this limiting, I quite liked that it didn’t make you feel stressed about the in-game time limits.

While I personally think GUST failed to fully embrace they journey to the relatively obvious target destination (and what happens after), the structure of Atelier Escha & Logy allowed much better pacing than previous games in the series and gave more of an opportunity to delve into some of the less important aspects to the gaming experience such as doing smaller battles and gathering materials without worry.

Design / Music / Voice Acting

Similar to the jump between Atelier Totori and Meruru, the visual style and approach to character / environment designs is relatively similar to that of Atelier Ayesha. The character designs of the main and secondary characters are all of a high quality, with each character standing out for their own reasons and none going down the path of looking overly generic. Given the shift in setting, all of the environment designs have been designed unique to this game and help capture the more naturalistic locales surrounding Corseit and the developing town itself. Environments range from typical ruins and forests to more distinct areas to tie in with the storyline. While more personality could have been put into the smaller investigatable areas of the world, evident attention has been put into more key areas.

Atelier Escha & Logy starts off on the right note with a strong opening theme “Milk Iro no Touge” by Chirinuruwowaka. As usual, this instalment in the Atelier series offers a solid complication of songs for use in all occasions from battles, cutscenes and the rather intense boss battles. However, while my reviews do not generally take into account any DLC content – I would recommend checking out the music DLC released for the title once they are released. While you are given access to a small compilation of tracks from previous PS3 games, for a few bucks it will unlock a wealth of tracks from many GUST games and other RPG projects they have been involved in.

Those who have read The Otaku’s Study past this one review should know that I often play with English dubs when possible. As noted in my review of Atelier Ayesha, only a small portion of the game is dubbed while most of the dialogue is text only. While the English dub is of a solid quality and hats off to Tecmo Koei for that… I would strongly recommend going with the Japanese dub which has been included in this release for the very first time. Why? Because so much more of the game has been dubbed in Japanese than English. At the very bare minimum all main story events should have been dubbed, and this wasn’t the case.

I don’t necessarily blame Tecmo Koei for this decision considering the cost of producing a dub and a smaller market for Atelier Escha & Logy than the other titles… but I was expecting more dubbing than what was provided.

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Gameplay

As with all other PlayStation 3 instalments in GUST’s Atelier franchise, gameplay comes down to three different categories: Exploration, Alchemy and Battles. While the first two have dominated in the past four games, with that balance to some degree being better maintained in Altelier Ayesha, Atelier Escha & Logy has better harmonized the three to provide an experience where you aren’t necessarily stuck in an altelier for months synthesizing items to appease locals and to survive a boss fight.

One of the more frustrating elements of past games, especially considering the time limit, is that the player was only ever allowed to have two additional members in your party. Therefore for example if you wanted to switch out Regina Curtis for Keithgriff Hazeldine in Alt. Ayesha, you would potentially have to travel half way across the world map to do so.

This time around, once a character joins the team they remain in the party. Because of this decision, battles now take place with a total of six characters – three at the front and three as sub characters. While only the front three characters directly take part in the battle, they can be switched out without penalty whenever the situation demands it. The support system present in earlier instalments also makes a reappearance, and can be traded in to allow front or back characters the opportunity to attack an enemy or defend another character. These can also be used to allow Escha and Logy to perform a “Double Down” move with two different items at one time. When coupled with the alchemy, the battle system offers quite a lot of depth.

Unfortunately until you reach the latter stages of the game you won’t have many opportunities that you need to take advantage of these systems asides from boss battles due to a lack in initial difficulty.

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The synthesis system makes better use of item elements and synthesis skills

One of the issues with earlier Atelier games was the need to constantly be producing attack or healing items for your compulsory on-field alchemist to use during battles. While you are still required to initially synthesize them, your stock of equipped items will be replenished automatically upon arriving back at the atelier. The trade off to this being both Escha and Logy are limited to the number of items they can initially carry, with more being unlocked as they rank up through assignments and requests.

The fact that the two protagonists are different types of alchemists is nothing more than a storyline twist that is forgotten after the first couple of assignments. However there are a few new features in the alchemy / synthesis system that provide a greater degree of depth and control than ever before. The biggest addition is the association of each item to four element types (Fire, Water, Wind and Earth), a system that has been present for a while now but underutilized. When synthesizing using any item, these contribute to points which can be traded off for alchemy skills and build towards adding new locked-in effects for the item. Some skills available using element points range from improving the effect of the final product to duplicating an item for re-use in the same synthesis. Properties from each of the used items can still be added to the synthesized item for a total of three.

There is more to this system I will let you check out for yourself, but overall it provided more in-depth control over the abilities of an item while at the same time becoming more accessible for those who like myself, prefer to battle mobs of enemies more than going through a series of menus synthesizing items.

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There are several additional features that make their first appearance in Atelier Escha & Logy or otherwise make a reappearance with a unique twist. As mentioned earlier, every four months in-game Escha and Logy are provided with an Assignment Board containing one major assignment, eight secondary assignments and sixteen minor assignments that help motivate the player to avoid rushing and check out the other sections of the game. Therefore doing these should provide you with a satisfactory supply of items, funds and other goodies without too much of a need to grind.

The request system also makes an appearance and is used not just for monetary gain but also sweets and points which can be traded in for Homunculus replications and researched enhancements (From synthesis perks to EXP increases). In terms of other time saving benefits, the world map is considerably smaller with each area broken down into sub-areas that don’t require time spent to travel between. One last enhancement that deserves a mention is the inclusion of a gauge that fills when interacting with the environment, and when filled to 100% can provide a number of benefits from providing boosts and rare items to summoning a swarm of high level monsters to battle with. While there is not one feature in this game that I would call a “game changer”, it is all these smaller features that make it more approachable and less generic considering the “annual release” pattern that the Atelier series has been following over the past several years.

Final Words on Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky

With annual releases in the Atelier series since 2010, there has been a distinct need for GUST to provide a distinct gaming experience with each of their titles. The improvements to the battle and synthesis systems were welcome, and considering they will most probably be sticking with the timed system for the near future, it was good to see that after five games they have finally achieved a suitable balance – not too long, not too short. While the storyline was a bit weaker than I had hoped, it leads to a promising next title should they continue the “Dusk” series.

Earlier Atelier Series Reviews

Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk

Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland

Atelier Totori Plus: The Adventurer of Arland

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland

– Atelier: Artworks of Arland ~ Rorona & Totori & Meruru ~

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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