Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea Review (PS3)
Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is finally here, the last installment of the Dusk trilogy! As a huge fan of the series, I looked forward to getting my synthesis on and wrapping up my personal favourite Atelier story.
I couldn’t help but notice that the time limit has been removed and how much more relaxed I was playing through it. No more worrying about gathering materials, fighting enemies, travelling taking up time because now it’s completely and utterly gone. I realise that the time limit is a staple to the series but I hope they keep it like Shallie for future titles because I found it much more enjoyable without the time limit – I could synthesise ’til my heart’s content!
As is standard with Atelier, you begin your journey as a newbie alchemist who wishes to become better at her field of work, prompting her to go on an adventure. You can pick from Shallotte, the green-haired Shallie, or Shallistera, the brunette Shallie; I personally went with Shallotte due to her perky attitude, although little will change whoever you choose. Both Shallie’s work together to find out the secret behind the Dusk, and to try and bring water back to their towns which have been hit by severe droughts. Some characters from Dusk and Escha & Logy make an appearance and sometimes help you in battle but the story mainly focuses on the two Shallie’s harnessing their alchemist powers to help their respective homes; it’s nice to see the older characters take a backseat and think about how similar they were to the two Shallie’s in the past, and that their own adventures were worth it.
Not much has changed in gameplay when compared to its predecessor but the lack of a time limit makes everything much more relaxing and exciting. Gameplay is split between battles, gathering materials and synthesis, all of which compliment each other as you work to fulfill the main and side requests. Battles will see you use three party members with another three as reserves, and they can be switched out per turn or called in for assist moves; it’s quick and easy, allowing you to string together powerful combos with up to four people. It’s standard turn-based affair which I love, with you characters being able to use normal attacks, items, skills and ultimate attacks, but Atelier Shallie introduces a new buff system where if you fill your burst meter enough, you can perform stronger attacks and your party members can imbue your team with better offence, defence, HP boosts and more.
Other than fighting fiends you’ll be collecting items to fulfill requests and for synthesis, so you’ll be creating items varying from healing products, equipment, explosives and various things requested of you. The areas holding your needed materials will be marked on your map, so you can just go there and interact with the environment as you find your materials but of course, you’ll need to battle enemies for drop items, too. There are plenty of side-quests to go around which also including cleaning the surrounding area, finding lost items, defeating specific enemies and clearing out new areas. the new Life Tasks system lets you know what Shallie personally wants to do, and what your main tasks are, and granting her wishes will boost her stats in various ways as well as keep her happy.
Synthesis is simple with you selecting what item you wish to make and then throwing the items necessary to create it together – you’ll need to keep an eye on the quality of each item and if they have any specific traits as these will enhance the item you’re creating; this is especially important when making equipment for your team members. Your basket isn’t limitless but your container is, so throw any non-important items in there so they don’t prevent you from collecting more materials on your journey.
As you can see above, the artwork is absolutely beautiful. Every piece of artwork is bursting with warmth, there’s impressive attention to detail and it’s clear that the artist loves giving life to their work. Whenever a Dusk trilogy artbook is produced, I know I’ll be itching to buy one. Whilst the in-game graphics aren’t quite as sharp, the art style is carried over and remains just as stunning but regardless, this may be the most gorgeous Atelier title to date with its soft colour pallettes, creative character design, varied environments spanning forests, deserts and icy lands, and its fantastical and explosive skills in battle. The opening animation is a sight to behold too, and I’ve always liked the intros to Atelier games as they’re a complete feast for the eyes with catchy music to top it off.
Atelier has always had really great OST’s but Atelier Shallie’s stood out to me immediately, and I’d love to own it someday. With a focus on water, it seems like the composer aimed to create melodic, calming piano tunes to fit the games bright and relaxed world, despite the turmoil its facing. These tunes are accompanied by rocky battle themes, sweeping orchestral tracks and Dusk’s trademark upbeat tracks to match the series’ quirkiness. You can play with either English or Japanese voice-overs, and I really enjoyed what the English voice-actors and actresses had to offer in both new and returning talent – they make their respective characters their own and are up to the task of portraying several emotions as Atelier Shallie does have some heartwrenching moments.
The pacing of the game could sometimes be a little slow but otherwise I felt that it flowed quite smoothly, more so with the removal of the intrusive time limit system. One fault I did find with it, which I’m sure will be patched eventually, is that the Growth System which allows you to improve some of your characters stats was in Japanese and would cause my game to completely freeze, forcing me to hard reset my PS3. I managed fine without it as I could grind until my hearts content but it’s something I’m unable to go into detail about as I couldn’t experience it, and even if it didn’t freeze, I still can’t speak Japanese.
I’ve only had experience with the Atelier series on PS3, happily owning both the trilogies available, and I can confidently say that it gets better with each installment. I didn’t feel the pressure of the time limit with Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea and it helped me enjoy it much more, allowing me to progress the story at my own pace, battle as much as I like and to synthesis anything I wanted; it’s easy to sink a couple dozen hours in on your first playthrough so this was much appreciated. I understand that a lot of people felt that the time limit helped the Atelier series to stand out but I hope that Gust don’t bring it back, as this makes the series both easily accessible and compliments the games mechanics better, letting you experience them to their fullest. This is quite possibly the last Atelier title we’ll see on PS3 and the Dusk trilogy couldn’t have ended on a better note.
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