Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm

"Not as Grand as the other Atelier Iris games, but still Phantas-tic"

People invariably give me, a grown American man in his thirties, the oddest of looks when I tell them that some of my very favorite JRPGs of the last few years have been from the Atelier Iris series. I can't say as I blame them; the AI games are chock full of that uber Japanese cuteness that so many western gamers associate with Hello Kitty, Sailor Moon, and other goofy anime-inspired hoohah. And I won't lie: the games are a bit cutesy and fruity. But if you can get past the light exterior, these titles have simply awesome gameplay, and even though Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm is the least powerful of the 3 AI games released in the west thus far, it's still head and shoulders above most of the JRPG flotsam out there. Let's take a look.

Yes, the graphics are 2D, extremely colorful and devoid of any grit or darkness whatsoever. So if looks are all you care about, go and try out some of the beautiful PS3 garbage that's out there right now. For those of us old-schoolers remaining, the graphics will suffice very nicely, thank you. The character sprites may lack the amount of frames of animation that would have taken this game graphically from a B to an A, but everything still pops off the screen delightfully, from the magic-slinging main characters to the knights and bears and demons that congregate in the land in which you'll be questing.

And quest you shall. Atelier Iris 3 eschews traditional "town-quest-dungeon-next town" JRPG gameplay and opts for a guild style. You'll be taking quests from various citizens around the one (and only) town in the game, varying from low level jobs like preparing medicine or delivering food, all the way up to venturing into the "Alterworlds" to tackle nefarious demonic outlaws for fun and profit. And what's an Alterworld, you say? Good that you asked; they're central to the game. Instead of multiple dungeons peppered around an overworld map like most RPGs, AI3 has only a handful of "Alterworlds", which is a fancy way of saying, um, RPG dungeons. They start off relatively small early on, but as the game opens up, so do the Alterworlds, sometimes doubling or tripling in size towards the game's end. Though it seems like this may get repetitive later on- and it actually kinda will in some cases- the ever-changing size of the dungeons, coupled with the crazy quests you'll being going on (anything from making someone a wedding dress to helping stop a fairy people-bear people war... seriously) will give the proceedings a constantly fresh veneer all game long.

The battle system is not that much different from the other Atelier Iris games, which is a mixed bag depending on to whom you speak. I personally enjoy the Dragon Quest-meets-Grandia old school turn based approach, with a communal magic point system that allows for easy and constant access for magic and special skills for all party members at all time. Then again, some might find the familiarity of fight/defend/item/escape a little too 20th century, but if you're buying an Atelier Iris game you're not buying it for ground breaking innovation. You buy Atelier Iris games for the alchemy system, pure and simple...

Oh how I love the Alchemy system. 99% of ALL of the items you'll use in the game- from basic medicines that heal HP in battle, to high-tech swords & intricate pieces of armor- have to be created by you, the gamer. This may sound daunting at first, but later on you'll wonder how you ever gamed without it. Want a new weapon? Find a recipe and create it. Want to adjust its special parameters? Create it all over again with different ingredients, granting it new powers. The sky is the limit, with dozens upon dozens of things to make out of thin air and use to fight against evil. And in case you were wondering, yes you can create a sword in the shape of a fish and an edible snack castle.

You'll probably hear it a thousand-and-one times (including from me, right now), but the Atelier Iris series is a love it or hate it affair. Everything from the cutesy graphics to the old school battle system to the J-pop-tastic musical score (by far my favorite score of the entire AI series, they really outdid themselves with this one), you're either gonna go otaku and love it or you'll just run away and not look back. But I really can't implore you enough to try it out. It's unlike any other RPG out there, with whimsical, wonderful gameplay left and right-- and how can you go wrong by purchasing a video game where your main characters can invent weapons made out of cookies and wear a bread dough bikini into battle?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/07