Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey DX

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Note: This game is included in the Atelier Mysterious Trilogy Deluxe Pack bundle along with Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Book DX, and Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists & The Mysterious Paintings DX

For those unfamiliar with the Atelier franchise, an atelier (it’s a French word that’s normally pronounced “uh-tell-ee-yay”, but the characters in these games pronounce the word “at-lee-ur”) is a workshop or studio used by a craftsman or artisan… or in these games, by an alchemist. The Atelier games are a franchise of JRPGs that focuses on young, almost exclusively female adventurers who seek ingredients they can combine and use to enhance their items, with these crafting mechanics forming a central part of the game.

These games have each been released in a subset series that ties them together with a few of the other games in the franchise both in terms of mechanics, but also in terms of the storyline. I know that for many, the Atelier series can seem somewhat intimidating, but BarrelWisdom.com thankfully has a helpful guide to introduce players to the series. However, for the purposes of this review I’ll try to address where this game fits both into the Atelier franchise as a whole, as well as within its individual sub-series.

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Atelier Primer: Mysterious Series

Atelier Firis, originally released on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in 2017, is the second game of the Mysterious series, the seventh series of games in the Atelier franchise, which also contains Atelier Sophie, released on PlayStation 3 in Japan only and later brought to the West on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in 2016, and Atelier Lydie & Suelle on PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch in 2018, with all of these games getting improved remakes on the PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch in 2021, with all additional content originally released as DLC, as well as new content, with all platforms getting a Mysterious Trilogy Deluxe Pack compilation containing all three games. It also bears mention that there is one more game in the Mysterious series due for release long after the other three – Atelier Sophie 2, due for release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch in 2022.

The mysterious series is generally fairly light on the overarching time limits the Atelier games are known for, with both Atelier Sophie and Atelier Lydie & Suelle not having any overall limit, and Atelier Firis having a fairly relaxed overarching time limit. I can’t say yet how Sophie 2 compares to these games in this regard – as of this writing, it has not yet been released.

Having said that, there are a few other elements that tie together the Mysterious trilogy. Each of these games adds a Puzzle game-style element to the alchemy creation process, effectively having the player slot Tetris-like pieces into a grid, with each of the games doing this slightly differently. The Mysterious games also change the way you acquire new recipes – instead of getting them in recipe books, you get them when “inspired” through the completion of tasks.

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A Firis Time for Everything

I hope you guys wanted more puns, because you’re getting more puns…

Atelier Firis is a game I am extremely conflicted on. This game does some truly great things with the Atelier franchise, but it also has a few particularly nasty problems. As a result, this is one of the most uneven games in the entire franchise.

Let’s start with the good – the major change here is that Atelier Firis is the Atelier series’ first bold venture into massive, relatively open-ended areas, and it generally handles this element very well. After the game’s first few hours (oh, I’ll get to talking about that… ), players are given free reign to explore a massive map. This map is still segmented into individual sections, and is not so thoroughly interconnected that you can opt to choose your path to the area you want to travel to, so it doesn’t quite qualify as an “Open-World” game, but the areas you explore are so large that you could easily be fooled into thinking otherwise.

Perhaps to keep players focused on their goals, Atelier Firis brings back the series’ notorious in-game deadlines that were largely missing from the last few installments of the series, and in fact they’re expanded on this time, with time passing whenever you walk a short distance. This is really worrisome when you’re not quite sure the next place you should go, but thankfully the game gives players five different locations to acquire the three necessary quest items they need before the one-year in-game deadline, and clearly points them to the location these three items must be delivered to. And after accomplishing this task, there’s a sizable “post-game” where players are free to explore as they please without any such time limits.

Other elements of the gameplay are about on par with Atelier Sophie, which is to say they’re all mostly pretty good here. Atelier Firis has a different take on the Tetris-esque Puzzle game elements that Atelier Sophie added to the alchemy system, which works about as well here, if not a bit better. On the other hand, doesn’t seem to have evolved much at all here, with the game’s combo system being the only noteworthy feature here. It’s not horrible, but it’s not at all noteworthy.

However, at this point, I have to talk about the game’s first few hours, because for a surprisingly long portion of this game, you might find yourself wondering if this game even has combat. Atelier Firis’ opening few hours is, in a word, abysmal. You spend the entire time in a dreary cave being held by the hand through tutorial quests. There’s not much freedom in this part of the game, not much variety, and everything is tedious, frustrating, and boring. And I haven’t even gotten to the worst part.

Atelier Firis has what may be the most poorly-written story with the worst-voiced characters in the entire series. The premise of this game’s story at least has potential – Firis is a resident of an underground mining town so terrified of monsters that most of their citizens are forbidden from venturing out from underground. Firis herself has only seen the sky through a small opening in the cave, and is desperate to escape the cave and go out to explore the world. She finds herself getting that opportunity one day when Sophie (from the previous game) literally explodes into her cave, opening her eyes to her own potential as an alchemist, which promises to be her key to venture out into the world.

While it’s a solid premise for a story, that potential is completely lost with horrible, stale, unnatural writing, and voice acting that’s either wooden or, in the case of Firis herself, is so ear-piercingly high-pitched that it had me reaching for the mute button on my TV remote. Perhaps it is because of this that as of this writing, Atelier Firis marks the last time this franchise was voiced in English. So… good job breaking it, guys.

The soundtrack, like much of the rest of the game, is a mix of good and bad. On the one hand, you have some nice instrumental and vocal themes, like Flora, Traveling Atelier, Wind Chaser, Tale Spinning Journey ~ Danger Zone and Green Roost ~ Night, to name a few. On the other hand, these themes are intermixed with some truly annoying songs. Thankfully, you’re given some ability to select songs you want to hear in common locations like your Atelier, because on the whole this is a generally good soundtrack, those exceptions notwithstanding.

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All Firis-ed Up?

Then we come to the visuals. Now, you might think that this being an open-world game and the first game created for PlayStation 4-level hardware would make this a chance for this series to spread its wings and really give people something impressive to look at. Unfortunately, that simply isn’t the case here – the cel-shaded characters of course still look excellent, and the environments are nicely-designed (unlike the excessively bland Atelier Sophie), but they are relatively sparse, and what’s more, this game has some really nasty issues with pop-in. Overall, it’s not horrible, but it’s extremely underwhelming.

Oh, and since I’ve been continuously commenting about the camera controls in this series, this is the first time I think an Atelier game has managed to get its camera working right, with a good amount of control afforded to the player, without too much need for babysitting.

And once again, it’s time for me to mention the lack of Nintendo Switch features like gyroscopic motion controls or the touchscreen. By this point, I don’t think anyone is surprised.

To sum it all up, Atelier Firis starts off on the wrong foot right off the bat with the worst opening hours of any game in the series, compounded by terrible writing, horrible voice acting, and surprisingly bad pop-in. However, players patient enough to push through these issues will find that this game brings some of the biggest and most positive changes the series has seen yet. If you’re new to the Atelier franchise, Atelier Firis is a bit of an odd entry to start with, being such an uneven experience. However, series fans will definitely want to consider giving this game a try, as its good qualities far outweigh its bad ones… well, at least after you get past those first few hours.

tl;dr – Atelier Firis is the second game in the seventh series of Atelier games (the Mysterious series), a franchise of Turn-Based JRPGs with a focus on crafting. Firis is a game of extremes, with really high highs, and really low lows. The opening few hours of the game are particularly bad, the writing and voice acting are both some of the worst in the series, and the game has some pretty terrible pop-in. However, the introduction of massive, open-ended areas is a huge addition to this franchise, and the gameplay is overall quite good here. If you’re a fan of this franchise who has the patience to push through this game’s frustrations, you’ll find it worth your while to give this game a try.

Grade: B

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