Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana

"Tries some neat ideas, but ends up just a normal light-hearted RPG."

Not everything has to be spectacular. Indeed, it's impossible. If everything was spectacular, then spectacular would be average. Sometimes, you just want to play a game, and it doesn't have to be great. It just has to be good. Atelier Iris is such a game. It's good. It's fun if you like RPGs. But it's not great. If you're cool with that, then you'll have a good time.

The name totally makes sense by the end, trust me

The name is certainly daunting. It's quite nonsensical, but it will tie into our plot eventually. That plot follows the story of Klein, an aspiring Alchemist. The game wastes little time on exposition and will drop you into your role as Klein with no backstory or great build up. The world of Atelier Iris is explored by talking to people and through the events of the game, and this is a good start. Very shortly after you start the game, you'll have assembled a small cast to work your way through the game, and your full cast will be basically complete early on. Those worried about playing through another game where everyone is depressed and moody can rest easy. Atelier Iris is anything but. While, of course, there is some drama involved, it's taken in stride and takes very little time of the plot. Many lines are devoted to comedy, and this is appreciated. Outside of the relative cheeriness, however, you shouldn't expect much out of the norm for an RPG plot. It's entertaining, and the light-hearted mood makes it easy to tear right through, but this isn't something that gonna hit you with vast new experiences. I found it to be quite humorous and entertaining enough for me, your mileage may vary.

Gameplay is a decent mix of old and new ideas that will feel quite familiar, but still different enough to assure you you're playing Atelier Iris and not a random other game. Combat consists of three party members duking it out against few or many enemies. Characters can be switched out for reserve members of your party at any time without penalty. In fact, Atelier Iris takes this one step farther by even allowing you to pull our your KOed members. Ever thought it was stupid that the back-ups didn't just take the place instead of letting you get a game over? Well, you need not think that here. This also applies to the main character, so you have a wealth of options in battle in this aspect. Characters are unique and fairly static. They learn what they learn, and there's nothing you can do to change that. You can, however, assign skill points to power up the skills you've learned. This allows for a little bit of flexibility, but not a whole lot, as there are definite better skills than others, and no matter how many points you assign to a certain skill, it's not going to change that characters role. This makes the character switching aspect of combat not only nifty, but quite functional and necessary in certain instances.

While your main character isn't required to stay in battle, don't think that the developers have moved away from main character worship. Rather, nearly the opposite has happened. Every character in Atelier Iris can attack, use items, and use one of their learned skills. Klein, however, has too much more valuable options, the ability to create and use Mana Items. Throughout the game, by finding and opening special boxes, Klein can learn to make various different Mana Items. The effects of these items vary greatly. Some attack the enemy, other cure statuses, others enhance your characters, and still others heal and revive. This wide variety of skills makes Klein by and far the most valuable member of your party. Really, he's by and far the best healer in the game, and so in some ways Klein is sort of like a WoW Priest. His primary role in major battles will fall to healing, but he's more than capable of handling himself. Actually, his damage potential is probably the highest of all the characters as well. This makes things kind of frustrating, as he's saddling the biggest load.What makes these Mana items even more attractive is that they're incredibly cheap to produce. As you wander throughout the world of Atelier Iris, Klein can convert almost everything he finds on the roadside into base elements. It's these elements that are used to make the Mana items, and with only a few exceptions, the materials and plentiful and the cost cheap.

But breaking things down into their base elements isn't the only thing Klein can do. As he gets more Mana (which are fairy type creatures, as well as the name of the energy source, which gets quite confusing), Klein will add new skills to his arsenal of field abilities. Getting from point A to point B in Atelier Iris isn't a simple “press the over button” procedure. There are numerous things blocking your way that must be leaped over, destroyed, or otherwise worked around in order to progress. New Mana will open up new areas or simply make your life more enjoyable as you travel. Two of the Mana are able to alter the random encounter rate, one increases it, and the other shuts them all down for the length of the screen/map. The random encounter rate is already pretty lenient, so both of these skills became some of my most used (because sometimes I just didn't feel like doing it). I always appreciate the more interactive field screens, as they add some meaning to what otherwise just makes me question why I'm going down this hall for the twelfth time. There's absolutely none of the that in Atelier Iris, as not only are the fields interactive, but they're also quite short. While there are obstacles in the way, nothing is going to take you hours (or even an hour, most likely) to walk through.

Not….so….Eternal

Though this brings me to my first complaint, length. Throughout the game, there are a few little sidequests, and there's a big intertwining Shop Sidequest that's almost essential (as least partway) to getting anything useful for normal items. Even though I did all that (see complain below), my game was still topped out at about thiry hours. Now, there is a bonus dungeon after the credits role, but I can't tell you how long that'll take because my game…wouldn't…play….the credits. It just froze after I defeated the final boss. Which is another gripe, as apparently my disc isn't the only one that did it.

The Shop Sidequest, while it provided some very entertaining dialogue, became very frustrating late in the game when my shopkeepers wouldn't ever offer up new recipes to create. Even after recreating and perfecting numerous things, I got nothing. It doesn't help that several of the items are intertwined, so when one shopkeeper (curse you Norman!) wouldn't cooperate, it put a screeching halt to my whole trade route. What really made this hurt is that without nearly completing it, I couldn't get the only item in the game that can revive characters (that isn't a mana item). This segue ways nicely into my chief complain, Klein has to do everything. As mentioned previously, Klein is a jack of all trades. Sadly, however, he has a monopoly on most of those trades. Healing, primarily. One other character has a healing spell, and she doesn't join until near the end of the game. While it's merely annoying that Klein can't attack because he always has to heal, it can become infuriating when something kills Klein. And don't think they won't. He's not exactly built to take many hits (though he IS more durable than the catgirl). Once he falls, you're stuck with mostly crappy healing items and no way to revive (unless, as mentioned earlier, you're near the end of the game and have almost done everything in the shopkeeper sidequests). This became particularly irritating when it seemed like enemies were picking on Klein moreso than the rest of the party.

Summary

Pros
+++ Solid Gameplay
++ Funny and engaging plotline
++ Dungeons never become a chore

Cons
-- Way too much reliance on the main character
-- Pretty short for an RPG
- Some technical issues

Overall, Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana was a charming and amusing game. If you're looking for a good RPG, then you can jump into Atelier Iris confident that you'll have a good time. But it's not perfect. You're not going to get your next grand, epic, RPG fix here. If you can hang up your serious side for a while though, you're going to have a lot of fun.

7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/08/08

Game Release: Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana (US, 06/28/05)