The cute and comfortable item creation RPG series Atelier has released 20+ games in 28 years, with another still lined up after the upcoming release of Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Envisioned Land. This means that Atelier Yumia, set to release March 21, is part of a prolific Japanese RPG franchise that has high expectations.
True to franchise form, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Envisioned Land follows its titular protagonist, Yumia Liessfeldt, as she learns the ins and outs of alchemy: the heart and soul of the Atelier franchise. Alchemy provides the detailed and versatile item creation mechanics that feed into everything else in the game, including the narrative, combat, and exploration. For all the ways Atelier Yumia ventures away from the series formula, this core trait is emphasized all the more.
And it does venture away, feeling more like a revolution for the franchise than the typical iterative steps taken to keep up with its high release cadence. Atelier Yumia is truly a new moment in the storied and accomplished franchise, taking the slow direction the series had been going in a massive leap. Setting out to find Yumia’s new atelier—a workshop alchemists use as their home base—feels like the moment the player leaves the Great Plateau in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It’s in the spirit of what came before, but the immersion and scale feel beyond anything the franchise has ever achieved.
Atelier Yumia is a True Evolution of the Series
Atelier Yumia fully adopts open-world design, for example, rather than the fields previous games have used. It also introduces a basebuilding mechanic, which was only lightly touched on by its predecessor: the Atelier Ryza trilogy. The scale of these improvements adds to the feeling of walking through the ruins of a fallen empire, making Atelier Yumia feel more immersive than prior franchise releases. It’s ultimately so easy to get lost in Atelier Yumia’s open world, especially with its stunning visuals. Before even reaching the titular atelier, there are plenty of activities to engage in, and the environment invites a sense of curiosity from the player. Movement is fluid, and the simple parkour enabled by Yumia’s alchemical heels feels satisfying, even if “parkour” and “heels” really don’t belong in the same sentence.
The openness and creativity that Atelier Yumia's basebuilding feature provides is also second to none. Instead of choosing unlocked features to put in predetermined spots like in Ryza, however, Yumia has a full build menu with freedom to place things, construct buildings, paint features, and even place gathering nodes like wells or mushroom colonies in the yard of the various build sites players are granted.
Similarly, Atelier Yumia does away with some trappings that have been franchise staples across the decades. While not the first time in the series that alchemy can be done in the field or without a cauldron, for instance, these deviations from the formula are very noticeable. It’s worth mentioning that the other noteworthy time these elements were cast aside was the Atelier Iris era, itself an experimental attempt to appeal to players outside the franchise’s dedicated fanbase. On that front, Atelier Yumia's focus and themes blend with the gameplay better than Atelier Iris did, so it still maintains the feel of an Atelier title, albeit an unusual one.
Atelier Yumia's Narrative Takes a Dark Direction Than Fans May Expect
From the jump, fans see Yumia Liessfeldt isn’t a traditional alchemist. She may have the staff the franchise associates with alchemists–a crucial tool for the synthesis process in most of the series–but hers also functions as a rifle. Yumia is agile, a sniper, an adventurer, and shown as eminently capable right out of the gate. Atelier Yumia doesn't just treat alchemy as a suspicious, ancient, or foreign art, but as something outright hated. This is because alchemy is related to both the ancient disaster the expedition Yumia is part of is researching, but also a more recent disaster that touches the lives of Yumia and her companions in her Research Team.
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