VGRC

Same Ol' Situation

I'll admit this right now: I have yet to play an entry in the Atelier series of RPGs. However, after falling in love with last winter's Ar tonelico, which was done by the same developer as the Atelier series, I figured I should check this series out. Upon hearing that the recently-released Atelier Iris 3 had no story connections to the previous games in the series, I knew it would be the best time to finally give the series a look.

Oh boy.

The whole basic idea around Atelier Iris 3, it seems, is a more traditional take on the gameplay from Ar tonelico. The thing is, it just doesn't really work because all that is left behind is just a cookie-cutter JRPG mess that fails to compel you to keep going. Gone are all the things that made AT stand out. What do we have left? A perfect formula for your run-of-the-mill mediocre RPG.

The story itself represents the rest of the game perfectly well: A teenager named Edge and his female childhood friend Iris work as raiders for the Guild, an organization that gets quests from various clientèle and passes them on for the raiders to fulfill. So, you and Iris work on completing these quests to raise your status in the Guild. Interspersed through these quests is the main story, which involves Edge and Iris seeking out gems that'll unlock a book that grants wishes or some boring shit we've already heard told in countless games before. To add further insult to the player, the guild quests have no real point in terms of the story: simple retrieval, monster hunting or item synthesizing (more on that later) quests that do nothing, but take up extra time and spread out the already thin story as far as it can. The sad thing is, you can't skip all the quests, because you'll need to rank up within the Guild to gain access to new areas... and the only way to rank up is by completing quests. By the time the story becomes somewhat-interesting, you're really too sick of the game to care.

One of the few things keeping the game interesting is the dialogue, which ranges from goofy to... goofy. Much like AT, AI3 doesn't present itself too seriously. Though the gratuitous use of sexual innuendos is much toned down from AT, that didn't stop the script from still being upbeat and comical. Though Edge is often down-to-earth, serious and oftentimes rude, Iris, as well as many of the supporting characters, keep things interesting for awhile; especially the clashing personalities of the down-to-business Edge and the cheerful Iris. The dialogue is often accompanied by portraits of the characters, which are actually decently drawn, with facial expressions and body reactions actually matching what the characters are saying.

The thing is, the script is really the only thing that keeps the game partially interesting, and it really doesn't hold up the rest of the mediocre presentation. The graphical style is almost identical to Ar tonelico, with poorly animated sprites on top of colorful backgrounds. It wasn't particularly great then, but it had some charm to it at least. Seeing the exact same thing again with literally no improvements (in fact, the sprites look slightly worse this time around) just makes me sigh as to how little effort was put into this game. It's almost as if Gust had just taken the Ar tonelico engine and slapped this inside it while making some gameplay changes. On the localization side of things, the voice acting is pretty mediocre as well, with it being sometimes decent to just plain painful. Seriously, whoever voiced Edge must have just finished a triathlon or something, as he constantly sounds out of breath. It's ridiculous. Even the music fails to live up to AT.

The game itself takes place in a main city, with a bunch of dungeon areas attached to it. As you rank up in the Guild, you'll earn access to more of these outside areas, known as part of the "Alterworld". While some of the quests can be completed entirely within the confines of the city, you will frequently find yourself venturing into the Alterworld, which is where all the enemies and whatnot roam. The gimmick here is every time you enter the Alterworld, there is a timer as to how long you may spend in it, with you being returned to the city when the time is up. It does add a sense of urgency to the game, and forces you to keep moving, but really doesn't do a whole lot to add to the gameplay. The timer is usually long enough that you may complete your quest well before the time is up, allowing you extra time to check out some rooms you may have missed and get some hidden items. I do use hidden loosely, however, as many times they are in plain sight, and there are tons of them to be found. Running out of time doesn't even hinder exploration, really, as all you have to do is walk back in. It's an annoyance factor that feels more of an afterthought than anything. There are also some bonus 'objectives' you may complete in the Alterworld that are set by the Guild, such as gathering crystals or defeating a certain amount of enemies, but the rewards you get for doing them are unfulfilling, and completing these 'objectives' really only serves as a way to tack a few more hours of gameplay time on.

One of my complaints about exploration from Ar tonelico was fixed, however, and that is the ditching of random battles. I hate random battles, and I was happy to see they are not present at all in AI3. Enemies are represented by colored blobs in the overworld, with the different colors and sizes representing the difficulty of the enemy. It's a nice way to avoid some super-powerful enemies while you level up on the weaker ones. Or if you're low on health and want to just avoid battles for awhile. Though your health does restore when you leave the Alterworld, which adds to the 'leave and rejoin' gripe I mentioned earlier, and makes everything easier than it should be.

The battle system itself is on the fence between "fun" and "boring." On the fun side of things, the turn-based battles play out similar to Ar tonelico, with a line of cards in the top-left corner that shift towards the right, with used cards moving back to the end of the line. However, AI3 perfects this system by adding a static amount of 16 cards: Rather than just a card for each combatant like in AT, there is a bunch of empty cards to round out the total to 16 cards. May not seem like much, but it makes it easier to gauge how far you can knock back enemies on the line, giving the battles a greater focus on keeping your enemy from attacking... much like in Grandia II. On the boring side of things, it's just entirely unoriginal fare. With the whole Reyvateil system out the window, you just have your fighters who have regular attacks, and then special skills. Some enemies have weaknesses you can exploit with certain skills and items, but it's really nothing too special. As the fight progresses, you'll earn skill points, which you can use to perform skills, which adds a tinge of strategy, but not really. Some skills can knock back an enemy position in the row of cards, delaying them from attacking, and other skills unleash multiple attacks, with the subsequent special attacks getting their own cards to deal extra damage down the line. There is also a "Burst" gauge, which fills as you do damage and decreases as you take damage. (Sort of like the Harmonics gauge from Ar tonelico) When the gauge fills, you're given a ton of skill points and your attacks do extra damage until the Burst gauge depletes. It's a solid system, but in the end just feels bland and a bit bare.

Early in this review, I made a brief mention about item synthesizing. In Atelier Iris 3, it's called Alchemy, which Iris strives to improve her skills in. In fact, it pretty much consumes her soul, as she has no life outside learning Alchemy and going on quests with Edge. (Which actually makes her more interesting than Edge, who prefers pretty much just quests to fill his time.) There isn't a whole lot to say about Alchemy; the process is a lot like the Grathmelding system from Ar tonelico. You can fuse items with other items to make new items, and you have plenty of opportunities learn new recipes throughout the game. Many of the quests you get from the Guild revolve around you synthesizing items together, so it's something you better get used to.

However, in the end, Atelier Iris 3 comes across as disjointed, bland and shallow. The story is an absolute bore, some elements just feel bolted on as an afterthought, and the characters aren't very interesting, despite some good dialogue. Though there are a few redeeming gameplay factors, but in the end I can't help but feel it's just a stripped down version of Ar tonelico. I can't even recommend renting this. The only suggestion I can make if you are considering getting this game is look for the far superior Ar tonelico if you haven't played it already. Even though AT has some of its own flaws, it's a lot more entertaining than this pile.