Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis

"Why can't real school be this much fun?"

Introduction
While most genres are pioneering forward into the next generation of the Wii, PS3, and 360, the niche genre of JRPGs still has its home on the PS2. The latest arrival from GUST via NIS America is Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis. This latest game from the makers of Atelier Iris and Ar Tonelico sends you to alchemy school to make friends, explore dungeons, battle monsters, ace (or flunk) classes, and of course, study alchemy.

Story
The story begins as the main character, Vayne Arelius, is recruited to the prestigious Al-Revis academy to study alchemy. Upon arrival he is recruited by Flay, an upperclassman, into his workshop, where he meets fellow freshmen Jess and Nikki. The story follows the career of Vayne's workshop (aka the "Flay Cave") through their three years at Al-Revis. The story is a little bland at first with little more than school life going on. However, it picks up as the game goes on, especially in the later chapters, and ultimately becomes a pretty interesting story. Unfortunately, I can't say much more without spoiling, and what I have said sounds uninteresting. Just take my word for it that if you stick through it, you will be glad you did.

Gameplay
The gameplay is the most important part of any game, and Mana Khemia has so many gameplay aspects that this section is almost a review in its own right. The game revolves around alchemy, the process of combining different items to create new ones. As you play through the game you will receive recipes, which will allow you to make new items. There are actually two alchemy systems in the game: the cauldron, where you make usable items and advanced ingredients, and the Athanor, where you make equipment. When using the cauldron, you have to time the addition of your ingredients to a sort of roulette wheel called the alchemy circle. Your timing affects the item's Ether Level, which in turn determines what properties an item has; for example, Red Soup can be either sweet or flaming spicy depending on the Ether Level. Some events require you to make an item with certain properties, so manipulating the Ether Level is important. Item properties become even more important in the Athanor. There is no alchemy circle or Ether Level when using the Athanor, once you select the ingredients, the item is created. However, the properties of all the ingredients are pooled together, and from those properties, you can add three to that particular piece of equipment, which will boost a character that equips that item. Therefore, it is important to manipulate the Ether Levels of ingredients to get desirable properties for your equipment. Also, when using both systems, you often have a choice of many ingredients to use. Sometimes when you select a certain first ingredient, Vayne will come up with a new recipe on the spot. Other times you will get a new recipe when you synthesize a specific item. It sounds very complicated but when you get used to it, which doesn't take long, it will become second nature. One flaw with the system is the separation of equipment and item syntheses. Many of the game's later items require both equipment and ingredient items to synthesize, which will often cause you to go running back and forth from the cauldron to the Athanor and back again to make the necessary ingredients. This problem also arises from the fact that if you don't have an ingredient but can synthesize it, you are not given the option to make it on the spot like Ar Tonelico. It doesn't kill the system, but it does make things a little more tedious and inefficient than they should be.

Synthesizing every recipe you get is essential in Mana Khemia, because character growth is dependant on how many items you synthesize. Whenever you synthesize an item for the first time, it is recorded in a chart called the “Grow Book”. Whenever you synthesize an item for the first time, it is recorded in the Grow Book. Each item has up to three growths attached to it, which can be stat increases, new special skills, or general improvements. You can then spend the experience points obtained from battles to purchase these growths. However, there is a twist. The grow book plays out like a hierarchy. If you have not synthesized every item before it in the hierarchy, you will not be able to purchase that item's growths until you synthesize those items as well. Therefore, it is essential that you not only keep up with your new recipes , but also look for derivations of old recipes to synthesize so you can keep your grow book up to par. The Grow Book also prevents you from overleveling. Fortunately, the programmers took your expected progress in the grow book into account when designing boss battles, so as long as you keep up with your syntheses you should be able to get through any boss with only moderate difficulty.

In order to get the ingredients needed for those all-important syntheses, you need to go exploring. The game sends you to various dungeons on gathering quests. Most common ingredients can be found in abundance by breaking field objects or by making use of “gather points” in these dungeons. Of course, its not quite as easy as it sounds. Like any good RPG, you have to battle monsters. Fortunately, this game does not use the “random battle every 5 steps” method. Instead, you can see enemy sprites moving around on the map. Coming into contact with an enemy initiates a battle, if you don't want to fight, simply avoid the enemy. On the other hand, if you do want to pick a fight, you can strike the enemy on the field to gain an initial advantage in the battle. Perhaps the best part of this system is that if you strike an enemy that is significantly weaker than you, you will kill it instantly without a battle and may even get an item drop. As you explore the dungeon, time will pass from Afternoon to Evening to Night to Morning then back to Afternoon. The twist comes at night: monsters are a lot stronger at night and also move around much more rapidly, making them harder to avoid. Later in the game Nighttime becomes annoying since you will have no choice but to either deal with stronger monsters or sit and wait for a few minutes until Morning.

Of course, what would a good RPG be without battling monsters? Although Mana Khemia emphasizes alchemy, its battle system is anything but an afterthought. Mana Khemia uses a turn-based battle engine. At the top of the screen is a row of “timecards” which displays the order in which combatants will take action and also when certain timed effects will happen. When a character's turn comes up, your choices are pretty simple; you can launch a basic attack, consume Skill Points to use a Special Skill, use an item, guard, or run away. In addition to dealing damage, each successful hit on the enemy fills a portion of the burst gauge, which, when filled, activates Burst Mode, which makes your characters stronger. Normal attacks fill only a tiny sliver of the gauge, while attacks which take advantage of an enemy's weakness fill a big chunk of the gauge. This is the basics of the battle system, but it gets more complicated as the game progresses. Your active party, known as the Vanguard, can contain only three party members, remaining party members are placed in either Support or Wait. Characters in Support recover Skill Points as the battle progresses, and can enter the battle either by simply using the switch command or by performing a Support Action, which either adds an extra attack or reduces damage, depending on when the action is triggered. That character is then in the Vanguard while the other character goes into Support, who can then switch in once a certain period of time has passed. In addition, if multiple Support characters are ready to re-enter battle, you can chain there Support Attacks, and once a certain point has been reached in the story, and Vayne is the last in the chain, you will perform a powerful Variable Strike. Also, each character has a powerful super move called a Finishing Burst. When Burst Mode is activated, a second gauge appears which fills when a certain condition is met. When the gauge is full (and you're still in Burst Mode) you can activate a character's Finishing Burst, which deals very heavy damage. Managing your Vanguard and Support, manipulating timecards, and filling the Burst and Finishing Burst gauges add a great deal of strategy to an otherwise simple and overall fun battle system.

All of this happens during a schedule of events. The game progresses through twelve chapters, which are sub-divided into a number of weeks. The first week is a short story event. After the event, you go through a number of Class weeks. During Class weeks, you will choose a class to take, then complete the objective of the class. Depending on your performance, you will be given a grade and a certain number of "Units". An A gives you a large number of units, while an F gives you none. Each chapter you will have to acquire a certain number of units by the end of the final class week. If you manage to obtain the required units before classes end, the remaining class weeks will become Free Weeks. On the other hand, if you don't get enough units, you will have to spend your Free time taking extra classes to make up the difference. During Free weeks, you can complete optional jobs for lots of cash and new recipes and take part in Character Events. Character Events reveal more about one of Vayne's workshopmates and develops his relationship with that character. Character events are also important because they will determine which of the game's multiple endings you will get, so you will want to Ace your classes to get as much Free time as possible. At the end of the chapter is another story event, which involves a special objective and, often, a boss battle. When you complete the event, you will move on to the next chapter and the cycle resumes.

Difficulty
Assuming you keep up with your syntheses, the game should be moderately challenging throughout. There will always be enemies that can wipe out your party, but save for maybe a KOed party member during a tough battle, the game should never be overwhelming... unless you fight at night. The classes are, for the most part, fairly easy to ace, though some will hit you with an unexpected F, especially when the teacher doesn't tell you exactly what you need to do.

Graphics
The Graphics in Mana Khemia may not be spectacular, but they are more than enough to get the job done. All of the characters appear as 2D sprites. It may sound very last-gen, but it is anything but. The sprites look very good and move pretty smoothly. Everything beyond the characters uses 3D graphics. The environments look kinda PS1, but much better than, say, Disgaea. Many spell lighting effects are also in 3D. Perhaps the most impressive thing about the graphics is the combination of 2D and 3D. The sprites by no means look out of place in a 3D world, in fact they look right at home. The character portraits are a little gritty, but still good to look at. To top it all off, we get a gorgeous anime opening sequence!

Sound
The music is, overall, pretty good. I especially love some of the battle and boss themes, but I really don't care much for the school music. Battle music changes as the game progresses, so you don't get too tired of the same song over and over. There are a few vocal tracks in the game, one being the opening song. These vocal tracks are by far my favorites. Of course, they are sung in Japanese, so if you don't care for J-Pop these songs may turn you off.
The English dub isn't the best, but it gets the job done. Most of the main characters sound really generic, Vayne's is especially dull. Of course, in a world where alchemy is an everyday reality, students at an alchemy school are generic, so its not that big of an issue once you get used to it. On the other hand, Flay's voice is very overdone, and it caught me off guard the first time I heard it. I don't particularly think the English dub is bad, but if you simply can't stand Flay's voice, you have the option to switch to Japanese audio if you like.

Length/Replay Value
There is only one way to say it: there is a LOT to do in this game. My first playthrough took about 40 hours, and I still haven't synthesized every recipe. In addition, this game has no less than seven endings, which means at least seven playthroughs to see them all.

Extras
This game comes with a healthy supply of extras, both in game and in the box. The box set comes with (half) of the original soundtrack and a mini-poster, while in-game extras include a character art gallery and the FULL soundtrack. These extras are nothing truly special, but they definitely sweeten the deal.

Final Word
Despite some minor flaws, Mana Khemia is a very fun game that is well worth $40 (especially if you get the box set). It hooked me from the beginning and kept me very entertained throughout. If you enjoyed any of GUST's other works like Atelier Iris or Ar Tonelico then Mana Khemia is a no-brainer. Even if you haven't even heard of GUST before but are into Anime and/or RPGs this game is worth a try.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/11/08

Game Release: Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis (US, 04/01/08)