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Real Word or Made-up Word?
The word ‘atelier’ wasn’t in my vocabulary until very recently. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t aware it was even a real word, assuming it was just made-up for video gaming purposes. But it means workshop in English, being a French word. I mean, just look at it, of course it is a French word.
However, it just so happens that I recently went to Paris, France to play the upcoming title, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Envisioned Land, the latest title in the Atelier series. Will I find love in the city so famous for it? Have a read on to find out.
Now, there may be those of you out there wondering just what even is Atelier Yumia, and you’d arguably be right for thinking so. This game marks the JRPG series debut on Xbox, but has been around since 1997 with Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg. Since then, 24 titles have released in the series, and Atelier Yumia is set to be the 26th in the series.
Looking Forward to the Future
The series is known for its’ central mechanic of synthesisation, alongside exploration and combat. For Atelier Yumia, a fourth pillar is added in the form of building.
Atelier Yumia is a brand-new story set in an entirely new world, so you don’t need any prior experience of the series to jump straight in. Trust me, as a complete newcomer myself I have to say the onboarding experience got me up to speed in no time.
This time around, you play as Yumia, an alchemist in a world where alchemy has been outlawed. But, along with her party, they have been tasked with finding out the truth of this world, and why a once strong empire fell.
Our preview build has us playing from the very start of the game. It began with a section that was clearly a long way into the story, before rolling back to the very beginning of the tale. We are introduced to Yumia and the world, and are pretty much free to explore as you so desire from these opening moments.
A Frowned Upon But Necessary Role
Along the way you will need to gather thousands of resources to aid in your alchemy. Considering this is the main focus of the game, I was initially sceptical about having to press the gather button each time an item was found on the floor. However, I quickly realised this was far more engaging than simply walking over an item and gathering it that way. I preferred the haptic-like feedback from gathering this way.
Synthesising these items comes in a couple of ways for Atelier Yumia. Simple synthesis allows you to quickly craft items that you can store in your bag, Resident Evil style, where each item has a set number of blocks and fitting them together like a jigsaw piece is half the fun.
Regular synthesising is far more hands-on, with the grading of individual items playing a crucial role. You first need to select a core, before adding your ingredients around said core. The better the quality of an ingredient, the larger its resonance area is, which will be useful to collect the mana circulating around the cores. If that sounds complicated, it really isn’t; after a couple of attempts I had it down and was experimenting with different quality ingredients for far too long to gather all the mana. If you are still struggling with it though, there are options to allow you to quickly synthesis items based on several different criteria.
Much like everything else in Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Envisioned Land, there are streamlined ways of doing things that make it accessible for all players.
Lots to See and Do
When out exploring, you will see plenty of enemies that need taking down a peg or two. Combat in Atelier Yumia is no longer turn-based like the earlier games, but much-more action focussed. Now, it could just be that I have spent far too long playing Final Fantasy XIV recently, but it did remind me of that combat a lot. Many enemies have area-of-effect attacks that are indicated on the ground where they are hitting. As Yumia, or her playable party members, you can choose to fight at close quarters or ranged, and I found myself swapping between these frequently depending on the incoming AoE attack.
You don’t have complete freedom when in combat, as you can only really strafe around the enemy/enemies, but there is still plenty of fluidity to be had.
The new building mechanic is also designed to take into account those that want to spend hours designing beautiful structures, and those that simply want to get out and explore more. Alongside the individual walls, roofs and more were pre-fabricated buildings that could be placed down. You can’t build anywhere you like however, and during the preview build we only unlocked one area to build on. But it’s one of those where you can already see the creative types building some absolute masterpieces and I look forward to seeing some of the creations when the game is fully out. Me? I’ll just stick to the pre-fabs.
Finally, KOEI TECMO and the Gust team provided access to a save about 30-hours into the game and the second main area. Yumia suddenly had access to a Procella bike and we could zip across the world on it. A mount was very much appreciated; there is fast travel in this world, but it is still absolutely massive.
A Game to Radar Up
And what JRPG would be complete without a fishing minigame? Well, I am happy to report that there is one in Atelier Yumia as well.
Our preview barely scratched the surface of what is in Atelier Yumia, and I haven’t even mentioned a lot of it. Manabound areas are dangerous areas that deplete your Mana Energy over time, there are so many secrets and mysteries to find, puzzles to solve, bigger enemies to take down, friends to get to know and form bonds with, meals to cook, ziplines, collectibles and so much more.
For fans of JRPGs, Genshin Impact, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or just a game to get lost in for hours at a time, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Envisioned Land is a game you need on your radar. It’s taken a while to come to Xbox but from what I have played so far, the wait has been worth it. And that wait is almost over.
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & The Envisioned Land releases come March 21st 2025, landing on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S (here’s the Xbox Store page if interested), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC.
We’ll fully up this piece with a full review nearer the time.
Huge thanks go out to ICO Partners, KOEI TECMO and Gust for the invite to their preview event as well as access to the game.