Atelier Rorona: Alchemists of Arland Preview
- July 16, 2010 14:34 PM PT
I have no idea what Atelier Rorona is, but at least I know what an alchemist is. Many role-playing games feature alchemy as a side project or integrate it as the default crafting system -- very few actually make it the main point of the game.
What we're talking about: Atelier Rorona: Alchemists of Arland, a turn-based Japanese role-playing game for the PlayStation 3.
Where we saw it: Developer Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) had three demo stations set up at their annual preview showcase event in San Francisco.
What you need to know:
- "Waste not time; for time is the stuff that life is made of." No, seriously -- everything in this game costs time in a factor of days. It takes X amount of days to get to a dungeon, X amount of days to fight your way through the dungeon, X amount of days to go back to your workshop, X amount of days to rest and restore the hit point gauge, and X amount of days to create stuff in your workshop for sale.
- Run out of time and you die. Kind of. The main character runs an alchemy shop in a town. Each year, her shop gets a performance review -- if she hasn't completed enough assignments within that year to keep her shop ranking, the authorities close down her shop, which presumably is game over.
- Most of the game looks 3D, but don't be fooled. The primary cutscenes are still anime cartoons with mouths that don't move and text bubbles instead of voice overs. When moving through the game world or occasionally an open town area, you control a pretty-looking 3D version of the main character in what amounts to a 2.5D visual environment.
- Your main job is being an alchemist, but you still wind up fighting stuff, too. The main character can have up to two party members that she has to hire to help her fight through areas and collect alchemy ingredients. Combat entails the standard JRPG turn-based menu -- attack, skill, defend, item, flee.
- Alchemy is harder than it looks. To complete assignments, the main character needs the right ingredients and a full HP gauge because each time she tries to create something, it costs HP as well as time. Return from a dungeon too beat up to do alchemy and it could kill you to create anything -- so you have to sacrifice more of your precious time to rest.
Point in development cycle: Seems early. The magic attacks didn't work without crashing the game and most of the menus weren't localized yet. The game is set to come out in the U.S. this September.
My take: The time cost concept is cool, but I'm a little disappointed with the anime cartoons. I know that other JRPGs still use them for cutscenes (e.g. Tales of Vesperia), but at least they also have really good-looking in-game character models with mouths that move. Atelier Rorona has the potential to be that beautiful, but it just doesn't seem to be there yet.
