- Developer: Gust Co. Ltd
- Publisher: Gust
- Genre: JRPG
- Release Date:24th May 2019
- Platforms: PS4, Switch
- Reviewed on: Switch
- Game Supplied by: Publisher
Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland Review
The story follows Elmerulia (known to her friends as Lulua), who is the daughter of the famous alchemist Rorona and the apprentice of the alchemist Piana. The biggest dream of Elmerulia is to surpass her mother. They live in Arklys, a town located in one of the frontiers of the Arland Republic.
One day, Elmerulia comes across a book that only she can read, and discovers that she has a certain power. She then decides that she has to decipher all of the book; a decision that will lead her to discover the truth about the whole of Arland
Graphics
From the moment you fire up the game, you will notice how pretty the artwork looks. The world you play in is very colourful and beautiful because they have spent a lot of time making every environment look different and fun. On one of the early levels, you are in a gorgeous, deep blue cave, to then be running around a bright, yellow, sunlit countryside.
The character design is very cute, especially the design of ‘Lulua’, the main character that you play as. They use lots of pastel colours to make it more kawaii, and it’s very pleasing to the eye.
Although the artwork is very good, the detail in the graphics isn’t the best. There hasn’t been much care or attention put into the textures. However, this fits perfectly into an anime-style game. The animation is a little stiff, however, the details in the menu systems are excellent. The combat graphics aren’t the most exciting, and the characters look a little pixelated.
Audio
The opening sequence music is very entertaining but the in-game music isn’t anything special. Every piece of background music sounded light-hearted and very childish.
The voice acting was quite good, but the combat noises were average, as they also weren’t very exciting. When you mix a potion, however, the audio is very magical and sparkly.
Gameplay
This is a 3rd person JRPG, where you control a character to wander around different areas to find and locate items to make potions, engage in combat and progress the story.
The combat is turn-based and was reasonably easy to understand, however, the game didn’t explain some things very well during combat. For example, it didn’t explain with clarity what it means when a box called ‘Primal Arts’ appears, and what it meant for combat. Although you can look at the in-game guide, it was still a little hard to understand. This was an issue because since I didn’t know what it meant, I didn’t know if I could be more effective in combat. The rest of the combat was enjoyable. You have a party of various sizes, but you always have 3 attackers and the rest are supporters. The supporter’s job is to assist the attackers when they use a ‘skill’. You can switch characters out mid-battle, so support can become an attacker, and vice versa. You can use items to heal, but if you think a fight is too hard, you can flee (unless it’s an opponent you must defeat).
One thing I disliked about the alchemy was that in the book there is a game called the ‘Alchemyriddle’. You have to solve riddles to progress the story, but the clues can be very unclear and awful sometimes! I have to be honest, I wouldn’t have been able to complete some of them without a YouTube guide. If I knew what I was doing, I might have enjoyed the ‘Alchemyriddles’ more.
Collecting things is a big part of the game, as you need to create items by obtaining materials found by searching different locations or defeating certain types of enemies to be able to progress the story. The collecting was very enjoyable and fun, and most of the combat was too!
Summary
In conclusion, this game is best for its artwork and gameplay. I haven’t played any of the other games in the series, so I can’t compare it to them to know if this is better or worse, but overall, I really enjoyed this game!
