"A little too generic for its own good"

Although the Atelier series is big in Japan, Western gamers have only started to get this series localized last year, with the release of Atelier Iris; Eternal Mana. It proved to be a fun, addictive, and deep RPG that ended up being a perfect summer release. The Atelier games are practically designed for summer, the slow season for video games. With very frequent save points and relative ease of difficulty, with lots of content yet a reasonably short main quest, and with deep yet simple gameplay, these RPG's work perfectly as summer RPG's. They're fun, but they aren't time consuming, they don't get in the way of other stuff that goes on during the summer, and they're lightweight and don't require much hard work from the gamer. This fact was true for Atelier Iris; Eternal Mana, and it's true now for its sequel, Atelier Iris 2; The Azoth of Destiny. Azoth has been made much more fun than Eternal Mana, with a much faster-paced combat system, a more solid story, and the addition of anime FMV's. Yet.....unfortunately, while the gameplay systems in this sequel excel, the rest of the game ends up being ultimately a step back from its predecessor, which offered a unique experience, while this sequel takes the same formula and puts it instead into the form of a generic RPG.

I'm not going to divide this review into categories, but simply discuss the good first and then the bad. The good thing about this game is, as mentioned, the improved gameplay, particularly the battle system. Ditching the boring and tedious combat system from the first game, Atelier Iris 2 instead introduces something that's kind of like a watered down Grandia battle system. There's a meter at the top of the screen, and the characters' icons move across it. Once they reach the right of the meter, they get a turn. Same with enemies. However, you can use a Break move to set their icon back left across this meter, delaying their turn. Set it back far enough, and the enemy will be stunned temporarily, while your attacks against it do significantly more damage. This time around, magic that revives characters from KO are made available much earlier in the game than last time, and KO'ed characters are revived again after battle anyway, so unlike the 1st game, it's not a cause for alarm when someone is knocked out in combat.

Like Eternal Mana, Azoth makes use of a character-switching system, where you switch characters into and out of battle on the fly. Unlike Eternal Mana, though, characters not participating in battle DO get all the EXP, whereas they only got a small percentage in the previous game. This encourages you to alternate between characters often, which is good, since Azoth relies heavily on some characters' skills, which means you may need to make use of several of the characters during the course of the game.

Magic plays a much heavier role in the battle system in Azoth than it did Eternal Mana; the purchasable items from the first game are basically ditched this time around, and Felt, the main character and magic user/sword fighter, can carry tons and tons of any given mana item, whereas Klein in the last game could only carry up to 9 of a mana item. These improvements all make for a much more fun and fast-paced battle system than the one used in Eternal Mana, and what's even better is that the developers did something innovative this time around; the Random Battle Gauge. Yes, there are still random battles, but now you have a gauge that drains each time you get in a battle, and if the gauge drains all the way, you then have no more battles to fight in that area. You can walk around freely without worrying about random battles. So what about when you need to level up? Don't worry; using a save point or leaving the dungeon will restore the Random Battle Gauge back to full. So if you need to level up near a save point, it ends up working perfectly well.

Also unlike the last game, Mana Synthesis (creating new magic items using elements,) is no longer done in shops, but is now done by another character, Viese. In this game, Felt, the main character, leaves the Mana World of Eden to go on the adventure, while Viese, the female protagonist, remains in their house in the town of Noir on Eden. You can switch to her at any save point, where you can use her Mana Synthesizing workshop. She can also venture around Eden, making pacts with various Mana creatures. Doing this allows her to synthesize even more mana to create better items for Felt.

The Mana Synthesis system, very important in both games, is a bit more streamlined here. You no longer have to care for the health of the mana, there are much less "hidden items" to create and "hidden recipes" to find, and you can no longer extract elements from items. And obviously, you no longer have those well-developed shop keepers from the first game. Yet...it's fine. It's not the end of the world, and while this system was toned down, it was basically for the better.

The only major issue of the gameplay, (aside from the repetition, which I'll discuss later) is a glitch that can occur and ruin your game if you are not careful. Early the game, you are told of a Flay Hammer, which you can use to extract items from rocks. You are told you can create it, but are never required to. After a certain point, you ARE required to use this item, but if you hadn't created it beforehand, you have no way to create it, and therefore can not progress through the game any further. If you don't create the Flay Hammer before you reach a certain chapter, you will be completely screwed. To avoid spoilers, I won't tell you which chapter you need it before, but I'd recommend having it synthesized AT LEAST by chapter 15. Just a word of advice, because something like this happening, obviously, isn't fun.

Potential game-ruining glitch aside, gameplay-wise, Atelier Iris 2 makes huge improvements over its predecessor.

Music is about on-par with the original game. Although only 2 of the 3 composers from Eternal Mana returned for the sequel, the music here's just as catchy as the music in the predecessor. The Atelier Iris series seems to have its own musical style; mystical and catchy, and it does this very well. Sometimes the musical score even had some moments that reminded me of Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu's tracks, and even some tunes that reminded me of the Shenmue soundtracks! The lack of one of the composers means that the soundtrack overall contains maybe a little less variety than the first game's, (as well as a completely horrible J-pop song, which was disappointing, since the J-pop song in Eternal Mana was actually decent…for an RPG J-pop song,) but the quality is basically the same. These composers, whoever they are, (I don't even know their names. As with Eternal Mana, the music composers and the voice actors are not credited in the instruction booklet,) really need a promotion. They make great RPG music.
Gameplay-wise, Atelier Iris 2 makes huge improvements over its predecessor, while musically, this series still manages to surprise with very catchy tunes and some really interesting, creative stuff. It's just unfortunate that the other stuff ends up being a big step down from its predecessor.

One thing that's immediately noticeable is that the graphics are horrible. Completely washed out and blurry backgrounds and scenery, a dark and boring color palate, and characters who don't even open doors, but walk right through them, are instantly noticeable. Obviously, Nippon Ichi makes use of these 2-D sprite-based visuals. I know that. That's not what I have a problem with. The first game, with its great details, its bright and colorful visuals, and overall great atmosphere, really impressed me visually. I really liked the graphics of the first game. I actually thought the game was one of the better-looking RPG's I had played in a while. This game, though, is a huge step down. You may or may not realize it when you start it, but if, while playing it, you decide to take out your copy of the first game and just start playing it for fun, (looking around at different locations, etc) you can't help but notice; Atelier Iris 2 not only looks worse; it looks A LOT worse. Nippon Ichi Software insists on using these outdated 2-D visuals for all their games; if they are doing that, they have to realize that their games are already at a disadvantage graphically. It does NOT HELP if there is a noticeable drop in graphics quality from game to game! Objects in the background often look flat, areas that are supposed to be cool-looking end up just looking boring, the character sprites no longer open doors (they walk right through them…and yes, this is during CUTSCENES!). While the sound effects that attempt to immerse you in the world, (birds chirping, etc.) are as great as they were in the last game, this time, it doesn't work. I was not immersed in the world. I was not impressed by the visuals. The storybook-like visuals of the first game have been completely turned into an ugly, blurry, outdated-looking mess this time around. It's really unfortunate, because the unique visuals were one of the most appealing features about the original game, I thought. The camera was also placed slightly further away this time around, resulting in smaller-scale, less detailed areas than the first game's. Atelier Iris 2 does make use of anime cutscenes, (something that was noticeably missing from the predecessor,) but they're so short, they're very few, and they're cheap. During one FMV, the main characters are at a party, and nobody in the background is moving. They're frozen. It doesn't really matter much, though; very few of these cutscenes are any longer than 30 seconds. The text in Atelier Iris 2 is sometimes very hard to read. Luckily it isn't an issue during the dialogue boxes, but during tutorials and on the item descriptions, for whatever reason, the font is small, and can be kind of hard to read.

The voice acting; Like in Eternal Mana, the voice acting is decent, (although at times the acting didn't seem to fit the situations AT ALL, but luckily, this didn't happen too much) but what sucks is how it seems much more low-budget it was than the first game. Voice acting in the first game was fairly frequent. Most big events were voiced, as well as many smaller events featuring the characters. Atelier Iris 2 instead only features voice acting in the important events, leaving many character-development scenes text only. This is an unfortunate habit many RPG developers are getting into, and it's one that really needs to end. No cutscenes should be more important than others, and all should be voiced. Also, presumably to cut down on the amount of spending in the acting department, almost no NPC's are voice acted. Aside from the important characters and main villains, NPC's aren't voiced at all. So if there's ever an unimportant character in a scene, the scene doesn't get voiced. The mana themselves aren't even voiced this time around! Obviously the voice acting budget received a bit cut, but where did the money go to? It definitely wasn't the graphics department, that's for sure…

The graphics and voice acting may have been a disappointment, but they do not ruin a game, and they definitely don't ruin Atelier Iris 2. The game could have redeemed itself with a great plot and great gameplay, but unfortunately, it doesn't. The storyline in the first game was horrible, and this sequel doesn't do much to improve it. To be fair, this time, they set up an actual scenario, and this time, they do have a somewhat well-developed villain. And they introduce a cool 2-world concept, (Eden, the world of mana, and Belkhyde, the normal world.) But unfortunately, they don't really do anything with it! They set up a “visit each workshop to try to save one of the worlds” plot, which, frankly, is stale and boring. I had really thought Japanese RPG's were moving away from this type of repetitive plot, but this game and Grandia III seem to be saying otherwise. RPG scenario writers; PLEASE, think of some new ideas. And while the plot does present some cool ideas towards the end of the game, it ends up being way too late to save the repetitive plot. With a plot that involves going from one workshop to another and doing the same thing over and over again, as well as the stale and repetitive “town-dungeon-town-dungeon-town-dungeon” format, Atelier Iris 2 ends up being just another generic RPG. The first game's “main town=home base” idea may not have been very epic, but it ended up being something a little bit different from what's seen in most RPG's. And the character development was great, basically making up for the lack of a solid storyline. Unfortunately, Atelier Iris 2 fails to even create likable characters, let alone develop them. And frankly, with towns only slightly bigger than they were in the last game, and environments basically the same size, this “town-dungeon” format works here even less than it does in other RPG's. It's not even a big deal when you reach a town, since it can almost always be completely explored in less than 60 seconds. You would think the developers would take advantage of the many opportunities a “Mana World” could offer, (a world over-running with magic and Mana creatures,) but it ends up being nothing but a collection of small dungeons that you simply walk through (again and again) to get each Mana during Viese's tedious and boring sections of the game. With the Mana themselves even less developed than in the last game, it just doesn't seem worth the trouble. Felt's adventure isn't much more compelling, loaded with tons of fetch quests and many side trips that have very little, if anything, to do with the main story. The gameplay itself can be fun at first, but due to these flaws, it ends up getting old fast.

It's sad when you come across an enjoyable game like the first Atelier Iris, only to play a generic, CLEARLY rushed and lower-budget sequel a year later. There are times when this game really comes to life. Like the fist game, the atmosphere is great, and when walking through areas like the Grand Highway, for example, there's a sense of life in the environment that's just kind of hard to explain. Riesevelt was a cool city, as well, and the few areas you were able to explore were cool-looking. (And the music is awesome!) Some areas of this game do contain the energy and liveliness of the first game's, and the battle system they created here, as well as the random encounter gauge feature, are very welcome and create a fun battle system. Unfortunately, the game fails in everything else. The graphics are horrible, the plot is repetitive and boring, the gameplay is repetitive and boring, the characters are boring, and overall, there's nothing really compelling about this game. The great battle system and atmosphere, as well as the music and some fun gameplay twists save the game from being completely mediocre, but it's still a big disappointment. I can't really recommend it to anyone except die-hard fans of the first game. I was hoping that Nippon Ichi would take a little more time to develop the next Atelier Iris game, but my hopes were crushed; apparently Atelier Iris 3 will be released in Japan next month. (June, 2006.) Great…..just great.

I'd like to end the review with something I'm personally wondering about; Nippon Ichi software apparently loves the 2-D, sprite-based visuals, since they use it in all their games. But I'm wondering how much longer it can stay fresh. I'll admit that I haven't played any of their other 2-D games, but in this series, they're definitely getting old. They may have been a novelty in the first game, yet by the second game, they're old, and I'm waiting for the next improvement. But the 2-D graphics seem kind of limiting. I can't help but picture what could be done with a world like Eden if an experienced developer would take it and turn it into a 3-D, (maybe cel shaded?) world brimming with magic rather than what it ended up being in Atelier Iris 2, which was just a bunch of small, side-scrolling areas with only slightly nicer backgrounds than what was seen on Belkhyde. I'm sorry, Nippon Ichi (and Gust) fans, but in this reviewer's opinion, it's about time they consider leaving the sprite graphics behind. What was fun and unique the first time seems to be getting old, and it's really holding the games back. It seems like Japan can't get enough of these games; sure enough, Atelier Iris 3 will be the 8th Atelier game. Personally, though, I think I've seen enough already.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/25/06