• Price: $49.99 USD
• Developer: Gust
• Publisher: KOEI TECMO America
• Release Date: July 13, 2023

A review code was kindly provided by ONE PR Studio on behalf of KOEI TECMO America and Gust. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

My first Atelier game was Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island (Nintendo DS, 2009). Its little chibi characters were absolutely adorable – including enemies such as the classic Puni slimes. I had such fun gathering ingredients and crafting with alchemy. Fast forward more than a decade, and the Atelier series seems stronger than ever, with 3 entries in the recent Ryza series and 2 for Sophie. Now, they’ve released a remake of the very first Atelier game: Atelier Marie, which came out in 1997!

Atelier Marie takes place in Salburg, which has a renowned alchemy academy. Students at the school are generally considered to be extremely talented. Alas, Marlone – also known as Marie – seems to be an exception. She supposedly holds the record for the worst scores ever at the academy, and was at risk of flunking out.

Fortunately for her, she’s been given another chance: if she can create an exceptional tool using alchemy within (a very generous) five years, she will be allowed to graduate. The school lends her an atelier and provides her with some startup funds. But will that be enough? 🤔

Atelier Marie Remake gives you two gameplay options: Normal Mode is apparently how it’s meant to be played, with a five year time limit to produce something impressive enough for Marie to finally graduate. Unlimited Mode, as the name would imply, lets you play beyond Normal Mode’s five year timeframe.

Choose wisely, because you can’t change which mode you’re playing after that. I was happy that they let you know that Unlimited Mode does not include some unspecified events, because that was what led me to choose Normal Mode instead.

The introduction to Marie and her situation is pretty short, and you don’t really get proper introductions to the other characters. In order for Marie to succeed, she’ll have to travel to nearby locations and gather ingredients for her alchemical creations. Due to the monsters and bandits roaming around, you need to recruit two people to come with you.

When I went up to the potential teammates, I’d usually just get their name and very basic information, and that was it. It felt more transactional than friendly; before you hire them, you get to see how much their wages are (plus their friendship levels, which increase as they explore and fight with you). Higher friendship levels mean you get to pay your companions less. I do think that more recent Atelier games have better character interactions and development.

As you leave Salburg, you’ll have to choose which location you want to go to and gather ingredients. The game displays the recommended level for that area, its enemies and ingredients, and how long it takes to get there. Some ingredients are only available during certain seasons. It’s important to consider how long it takes to do something because of the five year time limit.

In the area you select, enemies wander around on the map, and if you bump into them it will start a turn-based encounter. As long as you choose your destinations wisely, battles should be pretty easy. Then you can start gathering ingredients. Both battles and picking up ingredients take some time. Occasionally, a random (timed) mini game gets triggered, which has you attempt to get a stolen ingredient back or earn some additional money.

Returning to town, you’re automatically taken to your atelier first. There you can synthesize a variety of items to help Marie gradually improve her alchemy skills. However, you’ll need recipes to make anything. The Academy sells equipment and alchemy books, and once your knowledge stat is high enough you can access the library to learn more recipes.

There’s also a shop in town that sells weapons and armor. For a price, the tavern offers to sell you rumors that unlock new areas and ingredients, and they also have requests that pay you for alchemy ingredients and products. Another store in the town square sells furniture for your atelier, and changing the furniture styles gets you perks such as increasing enemy drops, quest earnings, or your items’ sale prices.

Crafting is much simpler in Atelier Marie when compared to more recent games in the Atelier series. There seem to be less recipes in this game – for one thing, you can’t synthesize weapons or armor yourself. Also, you do not have to consider ingredient/item quality. I actually kind of like both the simple and the complex ways of crafting; they each have their own appeal. It was kind of nice not to worry about gathering better quality ingredients this time.

That being said, at times Marie can be a bit too simple. Throughout the game, Marie’s teacher will send her some optional tasks to help her improve. But every time I received a new assignment, I would already have it completed and not have to do anything else except wait for the next one. I don’t usually complain about a game being too easy, but I got Marie to graduate without any issues in my Normal playthrough.

I also felt that this needed more complexity in the story and characters. I did like that the plot involved a student needing a little extra time and help to succeed, because not every student learns the same way or at the same pace. However, I don’t think there are enough story scenes about Marie’s growth.

They also don’t give us much information about Salburg itself; some minor NPCs mention a war but don’t go into any detail. There’s no real conflict at all in the story. And due to the lack of difficulty, I never really felt any sense of urgency.

You do get to see some scenes with your party members once you’ve met the requirements (friendship level, combat level, date, etc.). It’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. These events are all pretty basic, and I wish there were at least more of them. I did really like how they clearly listed the unlock requirements for the events, though.

They also did a good job of explaining the game mechanics with a fairly lengthy “Help” section, and they included the digital version of the manual. The quick travel menu was convenient, and loading always felt smooth.

Both content-wise and technically, the Atelier Marie Remake is easy to get through. Each playthrough should take you about 10-15 hours, I’d say. Once you’ve beaten the game, you may want to try the mode you haven’t played yet. Finishing the game for the first time unlocks the ability to choose “Very Hard” combat plus the Extras section on the main menu. The Extras include an art gallery, music, voice acting clips, the mini games, and a Theater section.

If you decide to replay the game, your clear data carries over guide completion, the event list, benefits from titles, equipment, and more. Sadly, your levels don’t carry over, which I usually prefer. With a lower difficulty level, it’s not as much of a problem in this game, but I still would have liked the option.

I played a little bit of Unlimited Mode after clearing Normal Mode once. Checking the events list, it appears that the only events that don’t occur in Unlimited Mode are related to the graduation deadline you’d see in Normal Mode, such as “One Month to Destiny.” Unlimited Mode will feel more relaxed, and you can focus more on viewing the events you may have missed in Normal Mode due to focusing on Marie’s tasks to graduate more.

Atelier Marie Remake does lack the deep narrative and characters I prefer to see, and I wish it was slightly more challenging, but it was still amazing to see come to Switch. It definitely has its strong points for me. The gameplay is straightforward, and I appreciated the ability to choose between 2 modes. And I adored the chibi character models, the character portraits, and the event CGs. As usual, even the enemies were cute and colorful.

I think that the game’s overall simplicity will actually be a plus for many since not everyone has the time for lengthier, more complicated games. If you’re okay with less storyline and character development, it makes for a nice introduction to the Atelier series, or a great way to see how the series has progressed over time for those familiar with recent entries.

8/10