Atelier Iris: The Azoth of Destiny
The premise in the sequel is basically the same as the original. The concepts of alchemy and magical creatures known as Mana combine with a humorous band of characters who are trying to save the world. The first Atelier Iris felt fresh, yet familiar with tried and true concepts plus a slew of RPG clichés. The game's charm helped drown out miniscule complaints about the gameplay and in the end it proved to be a fun but flawed adventure. The sequel ports over the same ideals though the game has been oversimplified and the characters aren't as fun.
This time around you play as a pair of heroes and can ping-pong between the two at save points. In one world (Eden) you have a terribly cliché goodie-two-shoes girl who is an adept alchemist and all-around bookworm. In the other (Belkhyde) you have a silver headed brash young man who wields a talking sword with a penchant for sarcasm. For those of you that played the first game you should know that this tale takes place before the events found there.
At any rate something bad happens and both worlds are catapulted into chaos. You know the drill. Bad guys come, hero guy with sword assembles band of rebels, heroes save the day. The story is presented with a bit of pizzazz but it does little to save the overbearing mediocrity of the story. Love the personality and characters but ignore the story if you really want to enjoy this adventure.
Gameplay:
When I played the first Atelier Iris game I fell in love with the item synthesizing system and was ecstatic when I saw that it returned for the sequel. This time around the premise has changed a little bit and it seems somehow simpler (re: dummied down). In this adventure the synthesizing is handled on two tiers. On one hand you have Viese (the chick in Eden) who cooks up the recipes in a pot and sends them to Felt (her compatriot in Belkhyde). You need to have the appropriate ingredients in order to accomplish the production of said item and in reference to that the game becomes something of a scavenger hunt. It can get kind of annoying at times as you are forced to track down a particular object but I digress.
Once Felt has found the recipe for the object in question and Viese makes it in her pot of magical brew it becomes available for synthesizing as long as you have the appropriate amount of elements. As Felt you can then create items on the fly in battle or through the in game menu. It's a whole lot simpler all around, though I can't help but feel that adjusting this has cheapened the experience in someway. It almost feels more pedestrian rather than something inventive and fun to toy around with. Though at least this time around we don't have to worry about the upkeep of our Mana.
In the first Atelier Iris the Mana were very needy creatures who you had to give gifts to in order to keep their mood up. This affected the quality of items or the ability to create them in general. Sometimes you'd get an extra one out of the deal or other times you'd get a dud. I have to admit that I never particularly loved the system and now that it is gone the does feel more accessible.
The battle system is just as fun as it ever was but it feels much faster and more streamlined. There is a bar at the top of the screen representing which character's (or enemy's) turn it is and it determines who gets to act first. Attacks are broken down into two categories; physical and special. The special attack side of things involves the accumulation of SP and learning of new skills as well as in game Mana Synthesis. The physical side of things include two different styles of attacks: Charge and Break.
A Charge attack is a simple strike but the Break attack adds an element of strategy to things. You could just do a normal assault with Charge, but if you find that your opponent is close to the danger zone (a different colored portion near the bottom of the bar) a Break attack may be more appropriate. When you Break you knock that foe's active time back a bit if they hit near the end of the bar then they become stunned. Attacks to critical damage and it's one of the best ways to make a battle end as quickly as possible. You do have to be careful though since Break attacks set your characters back on the active meter further than a normal Charge attack would.
Exploration of the towns and dungeons is basically the same as the first game was. You run and jump around the environment looking for items to collect and elements to harvest. It's simplistic enough and things only get simpler when you see that the overworld map itself is straight forward "go from point A to point B" directing. This leads to an incredibly linear feel and even though there are side quests to be found it really puts a damper on things.
For fans of the first Atelier Iris the sequel offers up a decent amount of gameplay tweaks to be worthwhile. The combat and item synthesizing are much simpler and more accessible though one could argue the counterpoint of that not being such a good thing. The adventure is a solid thirty hours or so but I do have to admit that there were several points along the way that I found myself bored with the ease of the game. Even so fans will want to take notice but everybody else could probably stand with a rental to see if the atmosphere fits their particular flavor.
Graphics:
If this were ten years ago then Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny would have been ahead of its time. Unfortunately as it stands this is 2006 and the game looks very dated. The 2D characters are beautifully designed and rendered but featured limited animations and don't look much between than the ones found in the original Atelier Iris. Effects are generally the same and so are the often bland environments (both in battle and not). There are some nice animated cut scenes abound but even those are on par with what we saw in the Lunar series back in the 90s. To put it bluntly the visuals are charming and effective for what they strive to accomplish but definitely won't win awards of any kind.
Audio:
A mixed bag of audio awaits you as you enter the game. I found the soundtrack to be exemplary with an appropriate amount of emoting from the tunes and a certain happy-go-lucky atmosphere. Some spotty voice acting and familiar sound effects bring the experience down a peg despite some great performances. Most of what is presented here captures the charm and endearing nature of the first Atelier Iris and will incite laughter out of the most rigid gamer.
Conclusion:
Ok, here's the bottom line. I had a lot of fun playing Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny, I really did. Did I enjoy it as much as I did the original game? Probably not. There are a lot of nice streamlined concepts here from the item synthesizing to lack of Mana upkeep. The overworld exploring can be kind of a drag after a while and the simplified overworld doesn't help shake the linear feel. This is a charming and solid thirty hour adventure that will endear itself to fans of the series and may win some new ones over. If you're on the fence though you'll probably want to rent it to see how you do with the concepts that are at work in the game.