The cosy gaming genre has become quite popular of late and now we have Atelier Marie Remake The Alchemist of Salburg. And it’s not difficult to see why. In a world full of daily pressures, it’s great to switch off and unwind with games that don’t put too much pressure on you. Whether that’s to log in for daily bonuses, pull off S rank combat or just win matches, it’s nice to get away from some of the more intense activities and just let yourself relax.
Cosy games may not be able to compete with the big boys in the industry in production values, but there’s no denying that their place has been earned with their slice-of-life gameplay and stories that only ask you to be a success in that protagonist’s life. Saving the world is someone else’s job.
Now we’re taking a trip down memory lane with a series of RPGs that has become synonymous with carefree gaming: the Atelier series, or, more specifically, the one that began the Atelier series. We’re looking at the remake of Atelier Marie The Alchemist of Salburg, aptly titled, Atelier Marie Remake The Alchemist of Salburg.
Atelier Marie Remake The Alchemist of Salburg drops you into the shoes of alchemical student Marlone, or Marie as everyone calls her. Sadly, for Marie, her grades make her the worst student in the Academy and her teachers, in a bid to actually get her to graduate, have given her five years to prove her worth as an alchemist. They’ve done this by giving Marie her own Atelier and dropped her into the real world to learn by doing. If she can increase her reputation and synthesize an item of fantastic quality, then she’ll have earned her stripes. If not. . . Well, the clock is ticking. . .
Forget saving a city, continent or world, your job is to help Marie graduate and become a fully-fledged, successful alchemist. The game’s core goal is simple but, thankfully, there’s a lot more to it narratively than that. Atelier Marie Remake The Alchemist of Salburg delves deeply into slice-of-life storytelling, making the story as much about making and helping out friends as it does about proving you’re not a failure. If anything, it’s this aspect of the game’s storytelling that is its biggest strength as it provides a relatable emotional core to the proceedings.
Whether you’re helping out a hired knight resolve a broken bond with his brother or teaching that perfect student how to be approachable to other people,Atelier Marie Remake The Alchemist of Salburg makes its small, and easy, side quests worth doing.
The game’s gameplay is rather simple by today’s standards, with a repeating, but pleasant gameplay loop that is a breeze. As in typical RPGs, you’ll put together a party to explore, fight monsters in turn-based combat, gather items in locations, craft recipes and do side quests. There’s nothing you haven’t done here before elsewhere but Atelier Marie Remake The Alchemist of Salburg strips the gameplay down to its basics. Now while that may be a holdover from the original game, it actually goes a long way towards making the experience all the more pleasant and relaxing.
You’ll spend most of your time talking to people to get knowledge and rumours to open up new areas. Then you’ll explore those areas to fight monsters and harvest ingredients before going back to town and using said ingredients to create items. This is the core gameplay loop throughout the entire game. Where Atelier Marie Remake The Alchemist of Salburg does add some challenge to this loop is by making everything time-based.
For each action you do, whether leaving town or picking up herbs, it takes one day to complete. Add on to that, that each quest you undertake to improve your reputation with the townsfolk and make some cash is also time-based. Suddenly the game becomes as much about good time management as it is about forging connections.
Initially, it may seem harsh but the overall easiness and laid-back demeanour of the game reduces the headache you could possibly get over this mechanic very quickly. Before long you’ll be planning your trips and crafting like a pro, pulling cash and increasing your reputation with ease.
Atelier Marie Remake The Alchemist of Salburg story moves forward as you complete specific milestones such as befriending a certain person, reaching a certain level or making a specific concoction. Here you’ll move your relationship stories forward along with your overall goal as time passes and the seasons change.
To help you figure out what you should be paying attention to, the developers have included a checklist that you can look up to see what those milestones may be. It’s one of the many quality-of-life additions they’ve made to the remake along with speeding up combat actions, crafting and movement on the world map.
Making things even easier, when you start the game you can choose to play in Normal mode or Unlimited Mode. Normal mode is the full Atelier experience with the game ending in five in-game years, regardless of your progress. Unlimited mode lifts this restriction, letting you continue to play after Marie needs to graduate and essentially ending the game when you choose to. Certain story events, however, do not occur in Unlimited Mode.
And if my experience with my first run has shown me, not everything will be viewable in one run. At least I didn’t get to see all the story sequences myself. But with the game being such a joy to play, jumping back in to level up the friendships I didn’t and therefore missed out on story sequences, won’t be a problem.
Atelier Marie Remake The Alchemist of Salburg not only gets these quality-of-life improvements but also a graphical facelift to bring the game into the modern age. The game looks wonderful with its stylised SDF character designs and cute take on monsters. The explorable areas look wonderful as well, even though they’re rather small by today’s standards. There are some nice reflection effects in certain of the town areas and Marie’s Atelier can be customised with different textures that provide stat boosts. The game also runs incredibly well on the Switch.
A special shout-out must be given to the game’s soundtrack, which lets you choose between the game’s original soundtrack and the new tunes. Whichever you choose, the music is wonderful and fits the game’s visuals and atmosphere nicely.
Atelier Marie Remake The Alchemist of Salburg may still be a rather simple game, but what it lacks in complexity and length it more than makes up for with its laid-back and charming atmosphere and fun, engaging side stories. Fans of the series should definitely pick this up while newcomers will get a great taste of what the Atelier series is all about.
Atelier Marie Remake The Alchemist of Salburg Trailer
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