Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land

Before somebody tries to l*nch me, I want to say that I had fun playing this game. I would not have played it for 33 hours and counting if I didn't. But I do have problems with it. My first major issue is that despite using a brand new computer (I literally bought this thing last month from the date of posting this review) I still cannot play on the highest graphical settings. This games vram usage is complete garbage, and even on normal settings I still find the framerate dropping from time to time, sometimes in the middle of combat. Secondly, if you came here expecting an alchemy system like the other Atelier games, you will be disappointed. This games system is a little less intuitive and far more visuals oriented than raw numbers focused. This makes the crafting system slightly harder to use than in previous titles. Thirdly, this game puts a great deal of emphasis on open world exploration. So much emphasis in fact that it forces you to complete certain arbitrary requirements to get your hands on exploration tools. "Now GG that's not fair," I hear you say, "All games lock exploration tools behind quest objectives. Have you ever played a JRPG before? Quit being such a mincing pansy!!!" But quests even if they are well hidden side quests aren't what I would call arbitrary requirements. And exploration tools locked behind a wall in this way would actually make me feel good about acquiring them, even if the quest was a down right pain to complete. The arbitrary requirements I'm talking a bout in this case are working with the new systems like the base building system, using a character's ability a certain number of times, crafting certain pieces of furniture that you or may not be able to find (I still haven't found a stupid chic couch even after combing the entire Sivash Region's treasure troves). I understand why they (the developers) did it. But I believe it could have been implemented better, as I don't like being forced to interact with systems I don't really plan on using. But overall the game is fun. The story and character themes fit nicely into the Atelier series usual style, the combat is fast paced and enjoyable (assuming your able to turn off the setting that makes the saturation and lighting go insaneo-style), and while I gripe about the exploration mechanics, the environments are stunning and beautiful and worth seeing and experiencing the first time around. All the changes make it feel like its not an Atelier game, but all the themes and heart of the game say otherwise. So pick it up if you like, but I can't in good conscience recommend it to the superfans of this franchise or to someone picking this series up for the first time.

Atelier Yumia, a break from tradition and thats not neccesarily a good thing. Review mildly edited for 90 plus hours and 100 percenting all achievements. The Exploration: Map looks really good and exploration is really easy most of the time. However it gets repetitive quickly, shoot a random thing here, explore ruins there, do some puzzles over there. Unlocking rounds for gun staff to truly explore a region require a list of chores to do which can also be a pain. Doing pioneering requests in Lacuna region are especially tedious and require certains quests to complete. Yumias gun staff was a very cool new feature and being able to shoot items that were out of reach or use it to stun enemies prior to battle is a nice addition to enhance the gameplay. Procella which is a motorcycle you unlock also feels incredibly gimmicky and its use is purely situational. I find myself avoiding using it outside of Lacuna region due to starting fights I didnt want to start which happens quite often. Perfomance/graphics: I managed a solid 100 to 120fps at 1440p resolution on a 4070 super, 5700g processor and 32gb of ddr4 3200mhz ram. Yumia never crashed even once on me in my 96 hours of play time which is a miracle for a 2025 game. Massive frame drops were occasional in some areas but not enough to break the game. The Alchemy/Crafting: This is big time where Yumia really misses the point on what an Atelier game is supposed to be. Gone are the days of trait loops, crafting minigames and taking consideration into traits. Now you just send it on "prioritize quality" on autocraft for neutralizers and "prioritize effects" for everything else. For Armor just auto craft for effect and tweak it with cloths, For weapons just auto craft for effect and tweak with ingots. Everything else just tweak with the level 10 neutralizers you made. You can also farm mana particles in the first area super easily which can result in you getting your gear to level 10 pretty quickly, this means you can make your party overpowered by the time you unlock Sivash region if not sooner depending on how aggressive you are with your farming. Base building is also a frustrating process that is poorly explained, it adds little the the experience overall and youll just finding yourself using the catalog to build you what you need. The duplication feature requires a whole base building area and you dont unlock it until you are well into the Aruma region which is late game. this is unfortunate. Sound: Yumias soundtrack feels incredibly subued and "is just there" compared to other installations in the Atelier series which took the loud and proud approach. The music at the start of the game and the background music in Lacuna region are the only two tracks I really found memorable which is a shame. The characters: The characters arent really that remarkable compared to other installations. You get a brother sister pair, a tsundere bad boy, a blonde gyaru and a furry for companions. Yumia is cute at least. The villans you forget they are even there most of the time and arent interesting either. Vesper shares the same VA as Kiryu from the Yakuza series which is interesting. The combat: Combat is laughably trivially easy even on very hard and turning it up to charismatic gets you over 60 times more xp than very hard netting you 100k plus xp per fight so you reach the level 150 cap way too quickly. Unlike other Atelier games where you had to use items strategically, In Yumia you can spam them with reckless abandon. Fights including boss fights end in seconds if you manage to upgrade you items to S tier and set your entire party to "prioritize items" in combat. Getting your weapons and gear to 999 quality is easy to do and you are basically invicible in fights. The story: Overall the story for the most part isn't that interesting even many hours into the game. It picked up somewhat around discovering the final region but then everything went completely flat again post game. Most of the story is summed up as "alchemists bad". Overall: Yumia wasnt entirely bad a game but it wasn't great either and it compares poorly overall compared to other entires in the Atlier series which easily overshadow it.

As with Ryza 3, I think open world doesn't suit the series. Not bad, just not my thing anymore. Maybe I'll finish it one day but I wasn't exactly hooked.

If you’ve done any amount of research into this one, you likely already know it is divisive amongst long-time Atelier games, and for good reason. The bad: The open world is sometimes too graphically challenging for its own good, with minor clipping glitches, models having difficulty tracking terrain height, and general muddiness. Note: I am playing this game on the Steam Deck and it seems it has been updated from the state it was released in, as I can play the game comfortably on “normal” settings instead of “low.” But that means to take any graphics complaints with a grain of salt. The visual bugs themselves tend to be rare but noticeable when they occur. The worst: the alchemy. This is the main complaint others share with me. It does not require much thought to understand alchemy, and everything from traits to gathering ingredients to synthesis is vastly reduced in complexity. No part of alchemy feels like a puzzle. None of the story-mandatory alchemy has any difficulty to it whatsoever. This feels like another game’s crafting menu repurposed for Atelier. The okay: the base-building is fine. The good: I like how this game is willing to experiment with new things for the franchise. Some things worked and some things didn’t. I don’t think the real-time combat worked especially well, as it oscillated between too easy and so busy that it was difficult to tell what was going on. You are also put at a deep disadvantage if your environment disallows long-ranged combat, but have no way of telling where the battle will load in the environment to prevent yourself from losing this out. However, I think the way the open world was implemented is an improvement to past games in the franchise. Exploring felt rewarding. I do think these games lend themselves to solving the main issue with open worlds (the emptiness/lack of incentive to explore) by having so many ingredients. Ingredients are always valuable, so it is always worth exploring. Sometimes the world gets a bit samey, and it could use some more visual landmarks, but not every game can be Xenoblade Chronicles X, you know? The best: I still love this game, and am continuing to love it. I don’t think my opinion will change as I play it further. Despite everything, it is deeply charming to me. Yumia as a character is excellent—she is formed by the way the world has treated her, and this plays logically into the plot and her character development. Her actions make sense through the lens of her background. She is a deeply sympathetic character who is still presented with insecurities and flaws that prevent her from becoming a self-insert or wish fulfillment. I think my favorite thing about her is her tendency toward perceptiveness. When things happen around her, she internally reacts to them in ways that are insightful and interesting. Oftentimes I would find myself watching a cutscene, drawing a conclusion about the world/plot, hear Yumia come up with something entirely different, and both of us would be correct. The bar for story content in video games is so broad (imagine, like, Disco Elysium vs. YIIK in terms of constructing an interesting narrative with important things to say), so I think the fact that this story is being extremely competent this far in is a good sign for the rest of the game. I will say I find the other party characters besides Yumia far less compelling than Yumia herself. The bestest: the music is really good <3

Aside from the name it`s not really an Atelier game. As a game it`s self it is ok. Oddly enough this game reminds me of Genshin impact.

50時間のぷれいのセーブデータがフリーズ後、自動で消去されていた。

キャラの魅力は100点 システムは60点 ストーリーは70点 主人公の顔、外見、性格、声はシリーズで一番好き。戦闘システムの方向性はいいと思う。アトリエらしいかといえば違うとは思うけど、これはこれでありだと思う。別に今までを踏襲しなくたって、ユミアシリーズはこういう方向でいいじゃん。 でも、色々荒削りだし謎解きはつまらないし、戦闘も適当にポチポチしていれば勝ててしまう。強いアイテムを作れば簡単に無双してしまうので、そこは改善が必要だと思う。

Thighs. Update after getting all achievements: Thighs.