Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land

“With a successful transition to a fully realized open world, Atelier Yumia is a strong start to a new series while serving as a fantastic follow-up to the Atelier Ryza games. The world is large and rewarding with something around every corner, and the cast is unique and lovable while having a whole lot of heart.”

“Despite the dumb downed Alchemy and some technical issues, Atelier Yumia marks a great first step towards a new future for this long running series with its fun and rewarding exploration and enjoyable fast paced combat.”

“Atelier Yumia represents an evolution for the series, which makes some pretty big changes — literally and figuratively — to its world design and combat. The game doubles down further on the open world introduced by Atelier Ryza 3 while also moving the pendulum further toward action for its combat. Not everyone will be happy with the changes. Folks who want to see something different and fresh with the longtime JRPG series, however, just might find Atelier Yumia to be the ideal alchemical romance.”

“Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land takes the series in a direction that will appeal to fans of open world JRPGs, but may leave fans of previous Atelier games scratching their head. It also has numerous technical issues on the Switch. It’s still a fun adventure, it just leaves room to improve in its inevitable sequels.”

“Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is a fresh step forward with just as much charm and joy as the rest of the series. It's an incredible starting point for newcomers and an exciting change of pace for long-time fans.”

“After years of small-time games, the franchise finally reached more people than its dedicated niche following. Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land capitalizes on successes from the Ryza trilogy and blazes its own trail with changes of its own.”

“Open world Atelier could still work, but Atelier Yumia does a bad job at realising this idea. A generic story, dumbed down alchemy, and lacking open world all lead to a middling RPG.”

“Sometimes too over-simplified, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land charts a new path for the series as they try to draw in new players that might have found the mandatory crafting and time limits of earlier Atelier titles too daunting.”

“All in all, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is a fun adventure in crafting and exploration. Its chill atmosphere mixes quite well with the slightly heavier themes. And the crafting is excellent.”

“Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is a wonderfully charming addition to the long-running JRPG series. It's a fantastic jumping in point to the franchise for new players, and has enough tweaks to the established formula to provide a breath of fresh air for existing fans. The story is a little slight, but the appealing characters, streamlined yet robust crafting system, and rewarding exploration make this a recipe for a good time.”

“In most respects, Atelier Yumia is an impressively ambitious and strong new entry for the long-running series, blazing a trail to parts unknown much like its titular protagonist. Things like the darker story, action-heavy combat, and increased focus on exploration gameplay all work well in its favor. The only major complaint is that this was clearly designed with much stronger hardware than the Switch in mind, and while its performance here is just about acceptable, it's very far from ideal. At any rate, we'd give this one a recommendation not only to long-time Atelier veterans, but also to fans of other vast JRPG adventures such as the Xenoblade series. Atelier Yumia is a bold step forward for this franchise, and it stands as a strong indication that the Atelier series has a lot of life left in it yet.”

“Just like its impressively long and unwieldy title, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is a messy game. But it’s a messy game with lofty ambitions and a lot to like, even if which pieces you end up liking are not the pieces you expected or wanted to like, especially if you’re a returning Atelier fan.”

“Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories and the Imaginary Land isn't the definitive installment in the series, but its ideas and new approaches establish it as a perfect entry to attract new fans looking to enjoy a JRPG formula that's unusual in the genre.”