I can control the Elements of the universe!! No, really!
During the car ride home from my favourite retailer, I decided to open Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana since the 20 minute car ride couldn'tpossibly get any worse. I was astonished to find myself sitting in awe, gob smacked and in total disbelief. It was worse than 30 angry truck drivers blaring their horns down the A20 in an attempt to speed up the road works. The only thing worse was knowing that i would have to wait another 30 minutes to play what seemed to be a very traditional RPG.
The game begins with the main character and an alchemist in training Klein Kiesling running from a Large bird through the Lapis Forest when a young girl runs out into the wood to make a daring rescue. Klein is an alchemist in training, researching the mana and elements scattered through out the kingdom known as Esviore. Whilst travelling through the adventure, Klein will discover "Mana Items" through out his adventure which will enable him to synthesize these items to use in battle along with various skills and abilities. Battles are easily dealt with by combining elements to make attack items such as the Icy bomb or by healing your party using the "Heal Jar”. By discovering more Mana creatures, the character will be able to use the action wheel and button to use your manas abilities and jumping to add a certain platforming element to this RPG marvel.
Gameplay 9/10
The beautiful graphics are shown with very expressive tones and dark shaded caverns and sewers to compliment the bright trees and growloons deep within the forest. Cel-shading and 3d effects do not exist in the Gust Studio. Gust tries to remake the sprite effects given off by classic rpgs such as Grandia. The
bright magical effects illuminate the houses down the streets.
Graphics 10/10
The controls are very easy to use since they can easily be remembered without the fear of destroying a rock which you were about to extract. The battle commands are easily executed through a scrolling command wheel.
Controls 9/10
The English voice acting is very well done with few mistakes made. The battle music is very suitable as is the changing environmental music from different scenes. Although the character stops talking before the sentence is finished, many simply use the voice as an extra.
8/10
A very fun, enjoyable and addictive game, packed with many extras. This game definetly delivers all the aspects of a good traditional RPG. At any time the character may simply return to any area to access a mana item, that was previously inaccessible before to fully complete the games replay ability. With over 300 items to synthesize and giving 10-20 hours of gameplay, it certainly shows that alchemy isn’t the worst thing in the world, although London traffic is!
Overall 10/10 Date:08/11/06