Atelier Marie/Elie GB (マリーのアトリエGB), launched 1/8/2000, developed by Tose, revealed by Imagineer
Initially I used to be not going to play this recreation as a result of I used to be beneath the impression it was only a port of the unique PS recreation. But it surely really is a brand new recreation that takes place after the unique. Each the Elie and Marie variations had been launched at one time; they’re separate video games however the gameplay and even among the occasions and endings are an identical. So I gained’t be enjoying them each; this overview principally covers Elie as properly. In actual fact, it’s clear that this twin launch was one more product influenced by the success of Pokemon — you’ll be able to commerce objects between the video games and you may’t full the merchandise e book in both recreation with out doing this (or placing in passwords in lieu of transferring).
The story right here is the elder of the forest fairies brings a fairy (who you’ll be able to identify) to Marie, in order that she will be able to educate him to be an alchemist. This units up principally the identical state of affairs as the unique recreation, the place you will have 4 years to craft a stage 4 merchandise for the conventional ending and there are a number of good endings relying on different components.
First off I’ve to say that I’m impressed by how readable the font is provided that it is a Recreation Boy Coloration recreation. I’ve seen worse fonts on significantly better consoles than this.
The gameplay is similar to the Marie collection. You’re taking jobs on the bar, exit to collect assets, stage up your Adventurer and Alchemy stage, make objects, purchase books to be taught new stuff, and activate occasions primarily based on varied components. You too can rent a lot of the similar individuals from Marie. So far as the “story” goes, there are some new characters, and the characters from Marie have completely different occasions. There are additionally occasions associated to the fairies. So it’s not only a full repeat of the Ps recreation.
There may be one new function known as the “getting older system” the place you’ll be able to put an merchandise in a particular barrel after which watch for it to age. I didn’t use this technique a lot as a result of I solely acquired it earlier than I ended enjoying, however it sounds just like the precursor of the pure getting older system from the Gramnad video games, the place objects will go dangerous over time (or in some circumstances like wine and cheese, can get higher).
Every space now has 4 subscreens you can stroll round in and discuss to individuals. Along with all of the locations from the unique recreation, there’s a bell tower, a spot with an enormous tree, a pond, an inn, and extra.
One giant change is that there is no such thing as a precise battle system. As a substitute, Marie stays again on the town whereas the fairy goes out (with any companions you employed). You select the way you need the tour to go — you’ll be able to choose between three ranges of aggressiveness in combating enemies, and whether or not you need to keep till you fill your basket or come again earlier. You then get a report of how issues went, exhibiting you what number of battles you gained and the way a lot XP was gained — or generally you’ll be defeated in battle and are available again crying.
This, to me, was an unlucky change. The unique recreation is already so simplistic that it will get a bit uninteresting after some time since you’re simply going by means of the identical loop — by eradicating the battle system it makes the loop even easier and duller. Additionally they eliminated the alternate “wealthy individuals” quests within the tavern, which means that it takes loads longer to search out jobs you’ll be able to really do. Going round to see what occasions is perhaps out there additionally includes extra work than the unique recreation as a result of it’s important to stroll round to all of the completely different screens and buildings.
Ultimately I used to be in a position to make sufficient cash to get all of the alchemy books and I acquired the fairy’s alchemy stage up sufficient to make a stage 4 merchandise, incomes me the Regular ending. I thought of enjoying extra to see if I might get one of many good endings, however I made a decision to not for 2 causes. First, I used to be becoming bored with the gameplay, as I stated above. Second, though I might discover a listing of endings on-line, I couldn’t discover any particulars on how you can get the mandatory occasions to set off (though the names of the occasions had some clues). If the sport had been extra enjoyable I might need tried to play extra simply to see what ending I might get, however I feel this recreation is type of a relic of its time. Like quite a lot of Recreation Boy video games from this period, once you take away the benefit of with the ability to play the sport on the go, there’s simply not a lot purpose to play it instead of the unique recreation until you actually like Marie and Elie’s gameplay.
I do suppose that the designers put extra effort into the sport than they could have, although. They put in some inset graphic scenes (that are saved in an “omake” library together with the endings). There are a couple of little voice clips (together with the enduring “taru!” (barrel) quote). They did add some new areas and characters, in addition to the getting older system. So whereas it’s not essentially the most enjoyable Atelier recreation you may get, no less than it’s not a completely lazy slop port.
