Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Envisioned Land is brimming with ideas. Many of these ideas lead to fantastic results. Some can be frustrating. At times, these two things intersect. The result of these ideas is a very good game that has the potential to be a first-rate title but falls slightly short.
The Atelier series’ first post-Ryza era heroine has got it where it counts. Yumia is delightful. She’s steadfast in the face of remarkable adversity; in this world, alchemists are shunned. They are feared, they are dreaded, and the organization our protagonist joins prior to the story’s beginning is almost universally against her participation. Yumia does her darndest to earn everyone’s trust as she grapples between a fundamental belief in the inherent good of alchemy and the persecution of her kind.
That hook is only occasionally let down by storyline stumbles. Certain central twists can be seen coming from miles away, and that does rob a couple of key moments of their potential power, but by and large, this narrative works. It’s bolstered by a colorful and delightful supporting cast, each of whom gets their time to shine. I’m especially fond of Rutger, whose devil-may-care, lone-wolf, personality immediately had me hoping there would be more than meets the eye. That’s the kind of layered characterization which makes such archetypes click, and happily, he has one heck of a secret. It contextualizes him, and it prompted me to keep him in my active party from there on out.
Not that party member decision-making is a huge deal on Atelier Yumia’s default difficulty setting. To be blunt here, you’ll probably want to crank things up to Hard, if not Very Hard. You aren’t boxed-in by a permanent decision, so there’s no harm in trying. Atelier Yumia sports a fairly fun battle system filled with AOEs to dodge, cooldowns to consider, close- and long-range options for every character, and most importantly, a decent tempo to it all.
I’m simply unsure that I would have noticed any of these strengths on Normal, where button-mashing frequently rules the roost. Paired with overly generous EXP growth that had me comically overleveled at all times, I was so glad to leave Normal behind forever. If it weren’t for those higher difficulties, this would all amount to a bigger shame than first meets the eye, too, because it would trivialize the impact of what has always been the Atelier series’ key hook: its crafting system.
A wide range of items can be crafted through a process known as Synthesis, which can be spectacularly complex with deep and engaging sub-systems galore. From gear, to spells, to ingredients necessary for further Synthesis, it’s a dizzying spread. Even as an Atelier fan, I found it overwhelming for the first few hours, as so many moving parts are involved: cores, resonances, traits, trait bonuses, quality, and so on.
Much of this is par for the course in Atelier, but it’s taken to the next level here. Largely for the better, yet coming to grips with it all is its own brand of challenge, as many aspects are poorly conveyed to the player. In any case, the idea is to create, create, and create some more, and to power up your party with the results. It’s splendid, but sometimes, it’s also scary. Thank goodness for the Auto-Synthesis function.
There’s also the building system. As you clear out Manabound Areas, you will acquire a vast number of locations in which to build bases. Important crafting stations such as the workbench and recipe station should always be built here, but hundreds of other options exist, and if you want to raise each world region’s comfort level, you’ll be popping out tables, chairs, beds, fences, shrubbery, paintings, and more. There are greenhouses, warehouses, the whole shebang.
What isn’t fun is Atelier Yumia’s utterly undercooked random quests. NPCs will pop up, their dialogue almost uniformly uninspired, and they’ll ask you to build a thing. Or to fight a thing. Or to give them a thing. The same quests, with the same dialogue and objectives, will periodically show up a second time, too. I laugh through my tears.
Good news: You can avoid most of these like the plague. You’re better off hitting the important stuff, which includes Shrines of Prayer with puzzles to solve, Treasure Troves with keys to find, and quick side quests for the cast which, while simplistic, feature some hilarious exchanges. And you’ll be gathering ingredients – oh, so many ingredients – which in some franchises might feel like busywork, but in an Atelier game, is core to the broader experience.
Atelier Yumia is lush. It’s vibrant. It’s a feast for the eyes. I expect that some will compare it to Xenoblade Chronicles’ own spectacular designs, and while I’m not quite sure I would go that far, I ultimately came away far more impressed than I had anticipated by the diverse biomes on display. Suffice it to say, this makes everything in the previous paragraph that much more engaging.
There’s real bloat in Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Enchanted Land, but the worst examples of it are easily avoided. If you dropped Final Fantasy VII Rebirth like a hot potato because the phrase “Regional Intel” haunted your dreams, you might need to give this game a skip, but for everybody else out there, expect a bit of a bumpy ride that is ultimately well worth the turbulence.
Reviewed on PlayStation 5
- Released
-
March 21, 2025
- Developer(s)
-
Gust
- ESRB
-
Teen // Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Suggestive Themes, Mild Language
- Delightful protagonist and supporting cast
- Synthesis is better than ever
- An audiovisual feast
- Battling’s a bit of a mixed bag
- Certain systems could stand to be better-explained