Review + Thoughts on Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
Review + Thoughts on Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland
Atelier Lulua is my first game of the Atelier series and it will stay as one of my favorites till the end of time— perhaps until I get my hands on Atelier Ryza 2. I cannot express how sad I am to part with this game upon its ending. I’ve taken months to complete this game (not constantly gaming) and I felt like a part of me just left with it.
Atelier Lulua is the 4th installment of the Arland story and talks about a budding alchemist, Emerulia Frixell also known as Lulua, and her journey to surpass her mother, Rorona (yes, Rorona is all grown up!) in the craft of alchemy. Along the journey, she teams up with new friends to complete quests, battle monsters, and craft items. One day, she happened upon a book, the Alchemyriddle that only she can read. She decides to decipher the book and it’s contents to help people and see where the book will lead her.
I bought this game after a long research because it is my first game into the world of Atelier. The art mesmerized me so much where I had to try it out— to my surprise this game is exactly the type of genre I love! Collecting materials, battling monsters and doing small routine quests.
I hope this review doesn’t turn out biased, but I love this game to dust therefore you’ll mostly only see positive reviews for every aspect of the game.
Atelier Lulua brings you on an adventure around Arland with a mysterious book, the Alchemyriddle.
Game
This game focuses on Lulua which you will control and play. Most times, you’ll have missions or quests to fulfill to increase friendship levels with other NPCs or to move along the plot. You’ll be required to synthesize items as an alchemist to create magical items, weapons, food, etc. The only thing I struggled with was, synthesizing. Reaching 999 quality items depend on a lot of factor. While collecting materials is fairly easy, you’ll be needed to find rare materials as the story progresses to synthesize advanced quality crafts.
Storytelling
On all notes, this game is just extremely chill. The story of Lulua progresses as she meets new people who requests for her help and the Alchemyriddle helping her solve the puzzles and quests. No heavy plot or lore (unless you have played the previous Arland series, you might have a few questions answered). I didn’t think much of the storyline or plot flow of this game, it was simple and seems to just scratch an itch I have for a good JRPG game with gorgeous art. The story is simple, as I’ve written above. There’s no deep lore to understand or things to pick out— nothing puzzling. So it was just a very relaxing game to enjoy when you don’t wish to think too much.
Battle
The battle system is turn-based and you’ll have to equip your best frontliners with the best weapon and accessories. This is when you’ll have to study the characters a little more to see what works with their stats and what they can utilize. Having two alchemists as your support is my hack throughout the game.
While the supporters cannot actively attack, alchemists have a specialty which is to equip them with one weapon/healing item where they can use at any point of the battle, it’s called the interrupt system. Also, various characters can be paired up to invoke special attacks or battle effects.
Tips:
1. Rorona and Lulua are weak attackers but great supporters with their ability to interrupt and land light magic/physical attack on a range of enemies.
2. Upgrade Piana's weapon + armor and have her as your frontliner. She can use items which is extremely useful for immediate healing/attacking. Her physical attacks are great too as long as you upgrade her weapon.
3. Aurel + Sterk ups the physical damages and prevents knockback, giving you additional attacks if equipped with speed up items.
Characters
When characters are simple to understand and adorable, you just have no way to dislike them. This applies to all characters in Atelier Lulua. The characters are adorable in their own way, each has their own quirk and brought to life by the voice acting. Lulua’s love for curry is so prominent throughout the series and Aurel’s motivation to fight is one of his character’s driving forces. Although the characters could be more elaborated, I personally think that it’s enough for the game flow. What you need to know about the character is given to you, nothing more and nothing less.
Also, there are recurring characters from the previous Atelier series of Arland. You’ll see the famous trio of Arland— Meruru, Totori and Rorona all grown up. Piana as well. It’s so wonderful to come across Lulua’s predecessor and see them interact together.
Also, there are recurring characters from the previous Atelier series of Arland. You’ll see the famous trio of Arland— Meruru, Totori and Rorona all grown up. Piana as well. It’s so wonderful to come across Lulua’s predecessor and see them interact together.
Voice acting
Oh, imagine Kamado Tanjiro in Atelier Lulua? You can see him as Aurel in this game as a lovable, stern cutie. The voice acting is extremely fitting and definitely brings each character to life. The only complaint I have about the voice acting is that the woman, yes not girls, sounds a bit too squeaky and high-pitched for their age? Rorona and Piana has this very cutesy voice which doesn’t seem to fit their age— and it does hurt my ear a little.
Art style
If they released an artbook of Atelier Lulua, along with landscape, character, material, craft items and monster artworks, I would buy it in a heartbeat. Illustrated by Kishida Mel, the artwork has a unique flavor to it. The art style is gorgeous even when translated to animation. The colors blend and tones are especially beautiful and comfortable to look at. It’s gorgeous.
Difficulty
Atelier Lulua is not a difficult game, younger kids can enjoy this game as much as older adults. You basically breeze along the game on easy difficulty (which is my default difficulty setting). I tend to set my games to the easiest difficulty as I want to relax while playing my game, not to cuss over the screen when I mess up something.
Multiple endings
Atelier Lulua has multiple endings, I believe 10 different endings? There is an ending for each important character of the story as well as 3 game endings. It's simple to trigger each ending, as long as you save at the right chapter! Best to follow guides and walkthroughs. Each ending by itself is cute and fulfilling.
Music
The one thing I want to point out is that the music in every Atelier game is so good, I enjoy listening to it even at work. Most times, some in-game music would be a turn off but Atelier Lulua has a lovely blend of music taste. It feels almost magical as if you’re in the game. The music really sticks to you, on days when I play before sleep, it keeps playing in my head refusing to let me rest.
My thoughts
Atelier Lulua is by far, one of my favorite games I’ve owned until today and I cannot wait to get my hands on more Atelier games— Atelier Ryza 1 & 2 being the next one I will be getting. A silly wish that I have is that I want to be part of the game, to embark on a journey and live in their lands. It’s so magical and beautiful. I could imagine myself as a character in the game. Well, if only we get to live in games, I would no doubt select the Atelier series.
Rating: 4 / 5
Till then,
Melody
Review + Thoughts: First impression on Genshin Impact
Friday, November 6, 2020
Review + Thoughts: First impression on Genshin Impact
*Update 1: You cannot pet or interact with the CUTE FLUFFY DOGGOS around Mondstat!
*Update 2: Genshin Impact is now sitting on my backlog, I lost interest after having difficulties maneuvering with my keyboard.
Imagine yourself thrown into a massive, beautiful world of endless curiosities, endless magic and endless possibilities. Genshin Impact does all that paired with gorgeous artstyle, satisfying combat and a solid story. Playing this game feels like I’m living in an anime. Isekai, maybe?
Boots crunching on wildflowers as you walk, the vast blue sky looms above you, lushes of greens sparkling with dew drops greet you beyond the yonder. The world of Genshin Impact is gorgeously magical. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from its enchanting beauty for my reality is dull and grey. I want to live in the game.
Genshin Impact is undoubtedly the largest open-world game I have ever experienced. The thought of being able to explore the edge of the world is terrifying yet so exhilarating. But like a moth drawn to flame, I couldn’t stop wanting more of it.
In this review, I will be sharing my first impressions on the game, although I’m still far from wherever others stop (I’m never a PC gamer so playing this is extremely tedious). But this game is too beautiful and thrilling to not talk about. I want to talk about it everyday, indulge myself in the world of Teyvat.
First Impression on Genshin Impact
Game
From my little understanding of this game, since I have much left to explore, you, a mysterious traveler, were attacked by God where your twin was captured. You awake by a beach with a quest set in mind— to save your twin. Before you start the game, you get to select as a female/male player, basically selecting which twin you are. Along the game, you will be introduced to more characters which you can switch to using them as you like. This means you’re not only controlling one character until the end, but you may switch to any of your party members and walk them around.
Storytelling
While this story is still under development, only 2 world areas are revealed. There is still so much left in the story but so far, along the story, you were to meet friends, skill up, assemble your party and explore the world freely. As the plot goes on, more and more characters will be introduced along with finding out the truth behind the attack and your stolen twin. So far, the story is threading on a light surface where not much is revealed yet. The enjoyment of the game comes from the ability to define your own story at this point.
Battle
Hack & slash. My favorite combat mechanic is just to hack away the enemies. When your player is granted an element, you’ll be able to use it during battle as well. Conjuring gale to blow your enemies off or combine various elements for a combo attack (fire + wind to create a massive burning whirlwind). There are so many things you can do with the battle system.
Characters/Voice acting
You know how much I love properly animated and voiced characters. Additional points for having famous voice actors/seiyuu to bring the character to life. I squealed when I found out Kohsuke Toriumi was voicing one of the characters in the game. As game characters define how much you can relate and invest in the game, Genshin Impact did a wonderful job at casting the right seiyuus for the right characters which actually helps a lot with getting accustomed to the game.
Art style
I love myself some anime-esque art style in games. This is a fair reason why I enjoy visual novels so much. I love seeing 2D characters animated to look like I am watching an anime instead of a blurry mess of a pixel. The character designs of Genshin Impact was what drew me to the game initially and now I’m extremely hooked on the beautiful artwork. The character design, monsters, items and landscape is so much like living in an anime world. Gorgeously fictional.
Micro-transactions
Gacha games are very addicting, like in many mobile otome games, we pay a lot of cash to try our luck at getting impressive loots. Genshin Impact uses a gacha system to lure its players with lucrative loots, special weapons and unlockable characters. This gacha system hounds on those who are vulnerable to wanting better characters and in-game materials like weapons, closet, consumables, etc. As a F2P game, you can still complete the game (from what I've read) but it will take a lot of hours grinding and hoping for luck.
Co-op playing
Run the world, explore the map, defeat monsters together with your friends. Unlocking only at Adventure Rank Lvl.16, you can pair up with your real team/friends to play Genshin Impact together! Only up to 4 players or a minimum of 2 players, this game became so much more fun. I can decide if I want to play leisurely with my friends over a party on Discord or a more serious gameplay where we have to discuss how to pair our elemental skills together. Read more here.
My thoughts
Genshin Impact is a free-to-play (aside from the gacha) game that everyone has to experience even if it is not your cup of tea. Immerse yourself in the world of Teyvat where endless possibilities and adventure guides you on a journey to finding your twin. Enjoy all the goods that Mihoyo (developer) has to offer in this beautiful, picturesque game.
While I’d love to comment so much more about his game, I am in no place to be making reviews as I’m still an Adventurer Level 8! That’s really early in-game. Once again, this post is a first impression review. I may enjoy the game now, but moving forward, my thoughts may/may not change.
Till then,
Melody
While I’d love to comment so much more about his game, I am in no place to be making reviews as I’m still an Adventurer Level 8! That’s really early in-game. Once again, this post is a first impression review. I may enjoy the game now, but moving forward, my thoughts may/may not change.
Till then,
Melody
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
