On a normal day, three teenagers go to visit their teacher at Shinjuku Medical Centre- completely unaware of the events that will befall them. A cataclysmic event known as ‘The Conception’ transforms Tokyo into a Vortex World filled with demons and illuminated by the cold light of Kagutsuchi. Only a handful of humans survive to see this new and horrific world, including one of the three teenagers, who is granted the demonic powers he will need to survive and find his friends.

The Vortex World

SMT Nocturne sees you take on the role of the nameless hero (I chose to call him Ryuki Takeshi, and will refer to him as such from hereon in) who is given demonic powers and cast adrift to survive in a radically transformed version of Tokyo. From this point onwards, the game can be considered a somewhat dark and twisted version of Pokemon- you fight demons, recruit them to your side, and employ them in battles as you traverse this new world to find your friends.

Of course, this is no easy task, and as you wander expanses of the Vortex World, you will have to develop a liking for long, maze-like dungeons, many involving puzzle elements. You’ll be dropping through holes in the floor, getting teleported back and forth and generally finding yourself fed up with more than a few areas as you try to navigate them. Add in darkened areas and floors that can damage you (although both effects can be countered), and you will come to understand that even before you factor in battles, this game involves no small amount of commitment. Don’t get me wrong- for hardcore RPGs it’s par for the course and all good fun, but it’s definitely a game that requires no small level of patience and commitment.

The life of a demi-fiend

Battle is the flesh and blood of SMT: Nocturne, which uses an earlier implementation of the Press Turn system that also appeared in the Digital Devil Saga series. The basic idea is exactly the same: you get one turn icon per party member, with most actions consuming one icon, misses and voided attacks consuming two and criticals or passes consuming a mere half icon. The difference here is that characters take turns in order of their agility, rather than formation order- a subtle alteration that can have quite a big effect on tactics.

Of course, you aren’t going to want to fight alone (well, most people won’t, anyway), so the first order of business for any new player is to build up their party of loyal servant demons. At the beginning, a Fairy will join you, but for those looking for something more substantial, the good news is that any and every demon in the game is up for grabs. Normal demons can usually be recruited with a mix of bribes and canny negotiating skills, whilst everything up to and including bosses can be fused using the facilities of the Cathedral of Shadows. At the Cathedral, two monsters can be combined to create a new, third being, with many rules governing the process- for example, at full Kagutsuchi, a sacrifice can be offered to power up the resulting demon even more, whilst special demon types known as Elements and Mitama can be used to increase a demon’s rank or stats respectively. The possibilities are almost endless, and they must be used to their fullest to outfit a killer team.

Having a crack team of bloodthirsty demons does come with its drawbacks, however. Only Ryuki is able to replace demonic party members, use items and equip custom skills (more on this in a moment), making him the linchpin around which the whole operation must function. Given that it’s also game over if Ryuki dies, you can imagine that there’s more than one situation where you’re relying on Ryuki as healer, demon summoner and main attacker whilst everyone else has to just twiddle their thumbs. Luckily, this unequal balance was addressed in the DDS games, and by playing this one, you can see exactly why things needed to be changed.

When it comes to skills, demons have a pre-set pattern of learning particular skills as they level up, as well as a random chance of asking to change an existing skill- a risky gamble if you accept, since a useful skill could become something completely pointless. If you want to introduce new skills to your demons, you’ll have to experiment with fusion, although again there is an element of chance to this.

On the other hand, you can control exactly which skills Ryuki learns, but don’t expect that to make matters easier. Our hero learns skills by ingesting Magatama; not only does each one impart a unique stat bonus, but as he levels up, he can learn its innate skills, effectively giving him the entire range of magical, physical and support skills to choose from. Great, I hear you say, except of course that there’s a catch- you can only retain eight skills at any one time. If you choose to keep one ability at the expense of another, the discarded skill is lost forever- regardless of how much you might want, need or desire it later in the game.

Back in the field, the world you find yourself in is now controlled by the phases of Kagutsuchi- the mysterious light that appeared in the sky when the Vortex World was created. Kagutsuchi has eight phases from ‘New’ to ‘Full’, and it goes back and forth between them as you wander the world. The phase of Kagutsuchi is important to various puzzles in the game, whilst it also affects demon negotiations and fusion, especially at ‘Full’ status.

On top of all the puzzle solving you’ll have to do just to get around Nocturne’s many and vast dungeons, the game also comes with an infamous optional puzzle that involves manipulating blocks- an interesting diversion at first, but one that becomes increasingly frustrating as you struggle through its twenty consecutive levels. After dedicating the better part of a day to solving level 1-19 without help and then being forced to resort to looking up the answer to level 20 before I had to go out, it is no wonder that this is a particularly painful aspect of the game that still continues to haunt me.

An even more intense but far more rewarding optional aspect to the game is the Labyrinth of Amala, a complex five level dungeon that is progressively unlocked by fighting Fiend bosses and obtaining their Candelabra. Filled with puzzles and tough monsters, the Labyrinth is a great place for levelling up and offers plenty of rewards, including the chance to recruit Devil May Cry’s Dante as a party member. Completing the Labyrinth also alters the ending of the game, forcing you to fight a ‘final final’ boss after the regular final boss, and showing you a unique scene that isn’t really worth all the effort put into obtaining it. Still, completionists won’t be able to stop themselves from exploring the full extent of the Labyrinth.

If all that still isn’t enough for you, however, then you’ll be pleased to learn that there’s more to do. If fighting the game’s many bosses just once wasn’t enough, you can also revisit the ‘memory’ of battling them, complete with the challenge of trying to defeat them within a certain number of Press Turns. Luckily, this feature can be completely ignored, but it’s there for the more dedicated player.

Story

As one would expect from the Shin Megami Tensei series, Nocturne offers a dark, apocalyptic tale filled with demons and references to mythology- it certainly isn’t as complex as the worlds of Persona and Digital Devil Saga, but it’s solid enough to make for a decent game. Even discounting the special ending gained by completing the Labyrinth of Amala, the game has multiple conclusions depending on which ‘Reason’ (effectively a philosophy for the new world) your character supports, although they aren’t the kind of endings that drive you to complete the game multiple times just to see them.

Audiovisual

With its functional cel-shaded graphics, Nocturne creates the right look for a dark, monster-filled world, but unfortunately it is beginning to show its age somewhat. The human characters in particular look rather generic and simplistic, although there are some attractive monster designs to make up for it. The background music has the appropriate rock/cyberpunk edge to it and makes for solid listening overall.

Final Thoughts

Although tortuous at times, and certainly a bit rough around the edges compared to the later SMT games, Nocturne’s solid core gameplay ensures that it still a worthy and enjoyable title in its own right. It’s not one for the casual gamer, but the hardcore RPG fan will certainly want to play it and exhaust all the possibilities this game has to offer.

At the prestigious Al-Revis Academy, the best and brightest pursue the study of alchemy, spending their high school years honing this mystical art for the purposes of combat, defence and support. Leaving the forest where he lived alone with his feline best friend Sulpher, Vayne Aurelius enrols at Al-Revis at the behest of one of its teachers; but even as he settles down to school life, a greater power begins to awaken within him.

With the Atelier Iris series having come to a close, Gust’s alchemy games forged ahead by switching to the world of Mana Khemia, in which budding young alchemists spend their high school years learning their trade at Al-Revis Academy. With the trademark alchemy and battle systems carried over from Atelier Iris 3, Mana Khemia also adds its own spin that ensures that the game is more addictive than ever.

Al-Revis Academy

The game begins when Vayne is practically coerced into joining Al-Revis by teacher Zeppel; from thereon out, it’s your duty to attend classes and gain enough credits to pass each term and eventually graduate as a full fledged alchemist. Each school year is divided into four chapters- one for each term and one for the summer holidays, leading to a substantial game length of twelve chapters.

The entirety of the game takes place within the bounds of Al-Revis Academy; campus is a largely safe zone where you can buy items, perform alchemy and so forth, whilst the surrounding areas are monster-filled realms where the risk is high but the rewards are great. The centre of your adventure will be your workshop- the place where you and your allies gather to interact and perform alchemy- but by the time the game has finished, you will have explored every nook and cranny of the academy.

Each chapter is subdivided into separate weeks, consisting of story events, classes, free time, and- if you are unlucky enough- detention. The chapter will begin with a short compulsory event, then it’s off to Student Affairs to sign up for your classes. Over the course of your school life, you’ll have compulsory core courses and a selection of optional modules to take, but if you want to evade detention, you’ll have to get a decent grade in all of them.

As you would expect, classes cover a variety of different alchemy-related subjects, from synthesis to combat and even gathering items. At the beginning of each class, the teacher will set your objective, and then it’s up to you to fulfil it- either by going back to your workshop and synthesising a required item, or heading out into the field to gather items and defeat monsters. Depending on how well you manage to achieve your goal, you’ll get a grade from A-F, with only passing grades counting towards your required credits.

Unfortunately, if you can’t get enough passing grades, your precious free time will be taken up by detention. Since I was fortunate enough to pass all my classes, I never actually had to do any detention, but from what I’ve read it consists of menial tasks.

Once all your classroom duties are over, you will finally get the chance to indulge in some free time, although unless you plan to just go straight to the dorms and sleep, you’ll be busy doing optional missions. When free time is in effect, the quest system from Atelier Iris 3 makes a return, with various requests appearing on the Student Affairs notice board. Predictably, all the requests are either for items to be synthesised and gathered or for particular monsters to be defeated, with the rewards being entirely monetary. Although it might sound a little tedious, for those who have already been won over by the addictiveness of the Atelier series, it will be no great chore- and if you don’t feel like doing some extra questing, it’s entirely up to you.

The best part of free time, however, is that it lets you interact with your party members- pick someone in the workshop and choose to find out more about them, and you’ll find yourself drawn into a quest related to that character. From training with swordsmaster Anna to defending justice with upperclassman Flay, each event will flesh out one particular character whilst also building your relationship with them, with those relationship scores affecting the ending of the game.

With all your classes complete and free time whiled away, the chapter will end with a story event. Lather, rinse and repeat, and that’s basically the pattern of the entire game.

On campus

Whilst you’re juggling classes, events and free time, there will also be plenty of opportunities to wander around the Al-Revis campus. As well as a variety of shops where you can purchase alchemy recipes and ingredients, there are a number of other services available Of course, alchemy is the most important of these, and although the basic system is carried over from Atelier Iris 3, some tweaks and additions have been made.

The most annoying new feature is the fact that synthesising weapons, armour and accessories now takes place at the ‘Athanor’, leaving only mana items, key items and ingredient synthesis in your workshop. Even though the two places are only next door, it is extremely irritating to have to run back and forth because you need to synthesise a mana item before you can make a particular weapon, for example.

Fortunately, Gust have at least attempted to justify their decision by making the two types of alchemy a little different. When you synthesise in your workshop, you set (and later increase) the quality of your items by using a modicum of reflexes and timing to stop a spinning ring when it matches the element of each ingredient being used. Your allies can also help out in the synthesis, with their assistance also affecting the quality, slowing up the ring or switching all the slots to a particular element. Most of the time, you will want to maximise the quality of your item, as this will carry over to any other items you synthesise with it (and in the case of weapons, armour and accessories, give them more abilities), but certain quests in the game can only be completed by making a really poor quality item.

Fortunately, if you’ve synthesised an item whose quality you’re happy with, you don’t have to go through this process every time- you can just synthesise it straight from the ingredients without having to worry about elements and spinning rings. And of course, like previous games, you can try substituting one ingredient for another in order to see if you discover a recipe for something new- in fact, sometimes your allies will even suggest a new combination for you to try.

In contrast, synthesis at the Athanor doesn’t require such effort- all you need to do is pick your ingredients, confirm the synthesis and then decide what inherent abilities you want the item to have. These abilities are carried over from the ingredients, and depending on what you have on offer, you can assign one attack and two support abilities to an item.

Another new feature in this game is the ability to spread rumours about yourself- as you complete various achievements in the course of the game, you will be able to spread related rumours and gain a stat boost. Unfortunately, only one rumour can be in circulation at any time, and overall any effects they provide are negligible overall.

For those of you who find gathering and synthesising all the items you need a rather daunting and tiresome task, you’ll be pleased to know that your allies can assist you in this regard. In your workshop, you can assign them individual tasks such as gaining AP, gathering items or synthesising, and depending on their affinity for a particular task, they will return in a week or two of game time with the fruits of their labour. Since their synthesis doesn’t use up your ingredients, it’s a good way of building up a stock of items- although be warned that they cannot make any item you haven’t created at least once, even if you have the recipe for it.

Fight or flight: heading out into the field

Once you’ve exhausted the possibilities on campus, the next step is to venture out into the wilds. As with Atelier Iris 3, Mana Khemia has a set level of areas that you must visit multiple times, but this time the variety is such that it doesn’t get boring- and better yet, dungeons are no longer timed. In their place, however, time passes whilst you are in the field- and if you happen to get caught out at night, you will find that monsters are much tougher and more aggressive than their diurnal counterparts.

Like Atelier Iris 3, monsters wander around the field in the form of blobs that will pursue you and initiate battle if you get too close- again blue blobs are weaklings that can be destroyed with a slash during the day, whilst red ones must be fought (or at least escaped from, although again at night it seems to be impossible to escape). Fortunately, if you get defeated in anything other than a story battle, you will be teleported back to campus; you can also transport back any time by using the “Wings of Icarus” key item.

Even the battle system itself is straight out of Atelier Iris 3- the Active Cost Card Battle system is back, albeit with a couple of tweaks. In the old days, when a character died, they got a turn as soon as they were revived, but this time around, a dead character’s greyed out turn card remains in the bar, so even if they are revived, they won’t get a turn until their card comes back to the front.

Small as it may seem, this is just the first in a number of revisions to the system that force a change in strategy. Those who relied on the Burst Gauge in AI3 may be pleased to learn that it is back- but this time around it takes a lot more effort to fill the gauge, reducing its status as the easy option for finishing tough battles. That being said, later in the game you’ll get an extra finisher gauge tacked onto the Burst Gauge; provided you fulfil a certain condition whilst in Burst (such as attacking with a particular element, using knockback attacks, buffing your allies and so forth), this gauge will fill- and once it is at it maximum, you can select one of your characters to perform a deadly finishing move.

Those who recall that Atelier Iris 3 only had three playable characters will be pleased to learn that Mana Khemia has a more rounded eight possibilities, which means that the ability to switch characters in and out of battle is back. This time around, you can have three characters in your active party and three on standby, with the option to switch them. Unlike earlier AI games, however, when you start a battle or switch party members, the person who was switched out must wait a short while before being able to rejoin the fray- a feature that isn’t very forgiving of mistakes or short-sightedness with regard to party setup.

The other notable change is the return of MP- gone is the Skill Gauge of AI2-3 in favour of a more traditional system. Characters also have special ‘List Skills’ which require items rather than MP to enact.

After battle, however, you might notice another major shift from RPG norms- your characters will be gaining AP, but EXP is nowhere in sight. Unexpected as this may seem, this is because Mana Khemia simply doesn’t have conventional levelling up- instead, characters advance via the ‘Grow Book’, the latest take on the Sphere Grid type system. With the Grow Book, nodes are activated when you synthesise a particular item, and then the abilities or stat increases associated with that node can be obtained by spending AP. It’s a system that takes a bit of getting used to, but whilst it isn’t something you’d want to see in every game, it is worthy through sheer novelty value alone.

Playable characters

• Vayne: Like most main characters, Vayne is a balanced character with an emphasis on physical attacks. His weapon is his cat, Sulpher, who transforms into a bladed gauntlet, making him perfect for multiple hit attacks. Vayne is also the only one with the Analyse skill- unlike Atelier Iris 3, monster HP is not automatically displayed until you use this on a particular monster type. Fortunately, Analyse also does damage, so it doesn’t feel like a waste of a turn.
• Jess: the healer of the group, Jess’ basic attacks do magical damage, whilst she can also do ‘On the Spot Synthesis’- a two-turn attack that lets her synthesis and use Mana items on the field. Her deadly handbag also has the ability to transform enemies into candy.
• Nikki: A good backup character, it’s no surprise that Nikki’s massive spiked ball does some decent physical damage, but while her special skills are solid, there’s nothing particularly overwhelming about them. As a catgirl, however, Nikki’s kinship with beasts enables her to convert monsters into special hearts that she can use to re-summon them in battle.
• Flay: Once you get Flay, Nikki will probably be relegated to the back row, as he supersedes her in the physical department. With a giant mechsword that must have been borrowed from AI3’s Edge, Flay can do huge damage with multi-hit and drilling attacks. He can also imbue his attacks with Lightning element- his one concession to the existence of magical abilities.
• Pamela: A ghost with a killer teddy bear, Pamela is a weak attacker whose few healing abilities aren’t worth the pain of putting up with her weak specials. Still, it’s nice to see series staple Pamela finally being playable, even if I hardly ever used her.
• Anna: A master of swordsmanship, Anna is an amazingly swift samurai whose piercing blade ensures that she should almost always be on the front lines. The speed of her attacks more than makes up for lagging behind the like of Flay in terms of sheer strength, with her multi-hit repertoire often carving through the enemy.
• Roxis: the anti-hero of the piece, Roxis uses trading cards for magical and time-based attacks- he may not do much damage with a basic attack, but over time his specials will do a lot of cumulative damage. He can also clear the time bar of enemy spells, which remains a vastly useful skill.
• Muppy: A mysterious alien, Muppy is a rather incongruous addition to the game who arrives too late for players to care about him that much. He has a lot of fire based abilities, but overall he’s surplus to requirements.

Story

Although the overall story of Mana Khemia is pretty standard as RPGs go, the game recaptures the feel of the original Atelier Iris when it comes to feeling that you are actually part of a properly interacting world. All the main characters are well developed, and although side stories such as Flay’s quest for justice are rather annoying, overall the character exploration remains interesting.

Audiovisual

When it comes to visuals, sound and music, Mana Khemia is pretty much on a par with previous games in the series, with cute sprites, well drawn but not overly sophisticated backgrounds and a solid blend of background themes. This time around, however, the character designs have a different style- they are still attractive, but they are more angular than those of the Atelier Iris series.

Final Thoughts

Although it may seem a little simplistic and repetitive in places, Mana Khemia is a worthy successor to the Atelier title, and remains a highly enjoyable experience from start to finish. I’m looking forward to the English release of Mana Khemia 2.

Just as the four .hack games must be effectively considered as one, so too is DDS2 basically an extension of the first game- albeit a very worthy one that shouldn’t be overlooked. With that in mind, most of the game play details are of course the same as the first game, so what I will be looking at here are the differences, tweaks and improvements that the second game brings to the series.

Emerging from the Junkyard

Having survived the destruction of the Junkyard at the end of the first game, your heroes emerge into the real world- a place filled with just as many dangers as the one you just left. Once again, you will move between a relatively limited number of areas, each of which takes a while to properly complete, ensuring that the playing experience is at least as long as it was in the first game, depending on how much levelling up you want to do.

Compared to the last game, however, there is a lot more interaction with the areas you visit- gone are the unlockable coloured walls for optional areas, but in their place getting through even regular dungeons is a bit more of a challenge. As well as the old staple of disappearing walls and working out which teleport will take you forward rather than the beginning, there are also areas of darkness and damaging electrical areas that will deplete your HP. In order to combat these, you will need to purchase Light Balls to banish the darkness and Core Shields to protect you from external damage. And for those of you who welcome more action orientated pursuits, there’s a rather stressful section in the game where you will have to escape from prison by running from the jailer on the field map.

The other changes are mainly cosmetic- for example, Solar Noise is now called Solar Data, macca and cells have been replaced with dollars and flowers (valuable in this post-apocalyptic reality), whilst the menu now also contains a ‘Recovery’ option that automatically selects characters with the appropriate skills to heal the party- a faster option than scrolling through the skills menu yourself.

There is one major addition to consider, however, in the form of a new type of equippable item called a Karma Ring. Each Karma ring offers either a boost to stats or an advantage in battle (anything from Void Phys at the start of battle to providing the party with an extra Press Turn each round), and can be further customised by filling its empty slots with stat enhancing gems. Each character can equip one Karma Ring, which in turn usually has 2-4 gem slots- but be warned, if you want to remove gems and put other ones in, the ones you remove will be destroyed forever.

For those who imported data from the first game, there are also some extra treats- if you made the right decisions in that game, you’ll be able to learn some unique special abilities in the final dungeon, as well as having the chance of recruiting a ‘secret’ character (whose identity must be the worst kept secret in gaming history).

Field hunting also makes a return and operates in much the same way as DDS1, although it is only available when Serph is in the party, making it unavailable for huge stretches of the game.

Devouring the enemy

Aside from a few changes to the interface, at first glance the battle system looks much the same as the first game- Press Turns are back, along with all the familiar spells and enemy types- but alongside it, a few new twists have been introduced. The first and most obvious of these is the new Berserk Mode- when Solar Data is at or close to its maximum, your ability to transform becomes unstable, causing you to sometimes enter battle in Berserk Mode, a fusion of your human and demon forms. In Berserk Mode, your strength and chance of scoring a critical hit are greatly increased, but it comes at a price- magic is unusable, defence is lowered and it’s also very likely that your attack will miss.

Once again mastering skills for battle is dependent on the Mantra Grid, but this too has been given an overhaul for the new era. Instead of consisting of several linear tracks for each ability type, the new Mantra Grid is now a hexagonal grid that allows more freedom for switching between ‘tracks’- provided you’ve mastered an adjacent mantra, you can always jump across to learning one from a completely different element or skill type, even if you haven’t yet learned lower level spells from that element. This is certainly useful later in the game, since you can skip learning the basic spells that aren’t really useful anymore.

The new Mantra Grid also has another twist in the form several secret mantra which can only be unlocked when all the mantra around them have been mastered (not necessarily by the same character, just the party as a whole). Some of these mantras boost the party’s stats, but others are of an ‘Esoteric’ type that enable the mastery of extra skills of varying usefulness. Also present are powerful Hidden Mantra that only appear when a character reaches the end of a particular track, alongside a couple of special mantra that only appear on the grid when special optional bosses are defeated.

Combos have also been expanded and retooled somewhat- as well as having more combos to discover in the first place, they have been made somewhat more flexible. For example, in the first game elemental combos needed both elemental spells to be at the same level (so as you levelled up your single target spells you’d lose your lower level all target combos), but this no longer happens- so Teradyne and Bufudyne don’t just allow you to cast Mabufudyne, they also let you cast the lower level Mabufula and Mabufu.

In terms of overall difficulty, Digital Devil Saga 2 is much like its predecessor in that you can’t brute force it- you have to take your enemies’ strengths and weaknesses into account if you want to get anywhere. The game also has a Hard Mode for those who have cleared the first game or started a New Game+, but certainly the basic game is challenging enough, with significant grinding and learning of mantras required in order to best some of the later bosses.

Veterans of the first game will recall occasionally running into Omoikanes, tricky enemies that yielded great rewards for those able to defeat them. They’re back in Digital Devil Saga 2, but this time around it’s easier to get the better of them- instead of being weak to gun attacks, they come in groups of five and are vulnerable to random elements, ensuring that you should be able to kill at least a few of them over the course of the game and reap in massive rewards.

When you’re not out encountering Omoikanes, there’s a chance you might run into Jack Frost, a quizmaster who has 100 questions for aspiring adventurers. Each question is multiple choice; getting them right will net you an item, but getting them wrong will see the battle end immediately. Once you eventually get all 100 questions right, a secret area will open up.

Playable characters (spoilers!)

Serph (Varna): Despite being nominally still the main character, Serph spends large portions of the game being unplayable (more on that further down). Nonetheless, when you have him in your team he remains a solid all-rounder whose stat growth you can customise as you like (as before, I recommend focusing on STR, MAG and VIT), making for a solid attacker with a good command of magic. His natural element is ice, with a weakness to fire.

Gale (Vayu): This time around, Gale is playable from the start of the game, and although he’s an all-rounder with a wind specialist, he tends to fill in as the fire-user too. Whenever Argilla and Cielo are available, Gale tends to take more of back seat, but he is useful to fall back on in situations where they can’t contribute.

Argilla (Prithivi): Once again, Argilla is the weakest of the team physically, instead specialising in magic with an affinity for Earth spells. For me, Argilla was usually the healer of the team, although when the occasion called for it she could let loose with powerful elemental magic and combos.

Roland (Indra): New for DDS, Roland is inexplicably the team’s second Thunder specialist, although unlike Cielo he isn’t weak against ailments (instead, Earth is his weakness). He’s an average character who proves useful early on, but he later leaves the party and only becomes playable in the final dungeon if you don’t fulfil the conditions to get Heat back. Personally, I would have preferred Roland to be a fire user (since otherwise you don’t have a fire specialist until the end), with mine proving to be a stolid backup for ice, healing and thunder attacks.

Cielo (Dyaus): A vital component of my team, Cielo may be a weaker character who likes to pump his stat bonuses into random places, but even so for me he became invaluable, mastering not only his native thunder but Death and Expel magic as well. With various stat boosting spells on his side as well, there was never nothing for Cielo to do in battle.

Sera (Varnani): Serph’s replacement for a section of the game, Sera is basically the female incarnation of Varna, and as such absorbs all of the skills that Serph has learned up to the point she replaces him. Just like Serph, she is a solid all-rounder, although as far as design goes I prefer the original Varna.

Heat (Agni): Unless you make the right choices at two points in the first game and then two further points in this game, you will only get to use the overpowered ‘True Agni’ in one battle; however, for those who go the extra mile, Heat can be used in place of Roland in the final dungeon (he absorbs all the skills that Roland learned earlier in the game). As before, Heat is skewed towards being a powerful physical attacker (although never stronger than Serph/Seraph) rather than a mage, but as he is the only playable fire specialist, it’s good to have him along for that as well as the nostalgia factor.

Seraph (Ardha): Disappointingly, when Serph and Seraph fuse to become Seraph, the demon thus created is an ugly bug-eyed creature with a hideous design. Ardha, is, however, a strong all-rounder with no particular weaknesses, which makes him/her a staple of the front line. Certainly I rarely switched him/her out of the party once s/he joined.

Story

Following straight on from the original game, DDS2 unravels the mysteries behind the world of the Junkyard and the nature of both the Embryon and the Karma Society. It all gets a bit convoluted and confusing at times, but the game remains none the less enjoyable for it.

Audiovisual

Unsurprisingly, the game is identical to its predecessor when it comes to visuals and effects, with only slight changes to the look of the interface marking it out from the original. The background music has been updated and remixed for this instalment, but is still in keeping with the first game.

Final Thoughts

Between them, the two Digital Devil Saga games have proven that the RPG genre isn’t as stale and tired as one might begin to fear- there is still room for innovative battle systems that force you to do more than just select ‘Attack’ all the time. Here’s to much more of the same from the team at Atlus.

In the world of the Junkyard, six tribes are embroiled in a war where the victor can claim the right to escape the turmoil and enter the promised land of Nirvana. The conflict has been locked in a stalemate as long as anyone can remember, but all that changes the day a mysterious light appears in the sky. Changed by the light, the people of the Junkyard now have the ability to transform into demons and literally devour their enemies- a powerful new ability that should decide the course of the war one way or another. And for Serph, the young leader of the Embryon tribe, it is the start of a journey to save a mysterious young woman who appeared in the Junkyard at the moment when this all began.

An offshoot of the ever popular Shin Megami Tensei franchise of games, Digital Devil Saga’s initially rather cryptic title (trust me, it will make sense by the end) hides what turns out to be one of the more compelling RPGs out there. With a battle system that demands skill and strategy rather than brute force, and a game play style so addictive that you simply cannot tear yourself away once you start playing, DDS is a hidden gem even for those who thought they knew the RPG scene.

The Junkyard

During your adventures in the Junkyard, you take on the role of Serph, the quiet leader of the Embryon whose goal it is to defeat all the other tribes and reach Nirvana. What this basically means is that you and your team are embroiled in a battle royale situation, and unlike certain other series, that means there’s no beating about the bush- you’re out to put a permanent end to your rivals.

What this boils down to, of course, is visiting different areas and taking on the other tribes. There aren’t actually all that many locations in the game to visit, but each dungeon takes a while to complete, so all in all you get a decent playtime for the game. Not only will each area have several levels (luckily you can refer to a map to see everywhere you’ve been), but you’ll be solving puzzles along the way- everything from simple gate and switch setups to a few more complex situations such as having a limited time to swim through underground water pipes.

Fortunately, save points (or Karma terminals, as they are known), are relatively plentiful in the game, although game play is so addictive that your intention to just play to the next save point usually becomes ‘play for the next three hours’. Karma terminal come in two types- large Karma terminals will let you restore your party (for a price), whilst small ones lack this facility but do allow you to teleport to the nearest large terminal (a good way to avoid backtracking once you’ve completed a dungeon). Also scattered about the world are vendors, life terminals and rejuvenation points; the latter two have the same function of healing you, but with the difference that life terminals cost money.

Whilst playing the game, you’ll also notice a gauge in the top left corner measuring ‘Solar Noise’. The manual will very vaguely tell you that ‘Solar Noise affects your characters in different ways’, but don’t worry if you don’t have much of a clue what it does; it only affects the selling price of certain items, the damage done by a handful of abilities and the aforementioned water pipe mini-game.

Also available in certain areas is the ability to go ‘Field Hunting’; a more action-orientated game play mode, Field Hunting lets Serph slash minor demons (basically balls of light)- get enough within the time limit, and you’ll battle against a special enemy, the Mitama. Mitama are strong against all but a particular elemental magic, but they are also prone to run away, so killing them isn’t easy (although of course, if you manage it, there’ll be a big reward). Equally tricky to pin down are Omoikanes, random monsters who are only weak against your characters’ human forms, but who flee at the drop of a hat- again, defeating them will net you a nice bonus.

Naturally, the game also comes with optional bosses and areas for the truly dedicated to explore, most of them hidden behind coloured walls that you need a key to pass through. It is in fact possible to complete the entire game without ever unlocking these walls, but if you want to do everything in the game, you’ll need to track down the appropriate keys.

Hunting: we eat to live, and live to eat

Battle is the flesh and blood of DDS (often quite literally) and whilst the random encounter rate is higher than most of us would have liked, the game is refreshing in that you can’t get anywhere just by spamming the attack button as you can with most games. Instead, strategy is key to almost every battle, and those who ignore it probably won’t be able to make it past the first dungeon.

Before getting into battle, it’s important to make sure that you have the right selection of skills set up; as well as basic attacks, each character has room for 4, 6 or 8 skills depending on their level, and although that might seem quite generous, you’ll have to carefully pick and choose what works best for you. Skills come in four types- physical abilities which deplete HP, magic attacks which deplete MP, auto skills which provide resistances or trigger automatically under the right circumstances and shield skills which let you void, repel or drain certain types of attack. There’s a wide variety on offer, and you’re going to have become familiar with pretty much all of them in order to survive.

When it comes to actually learning these skills, you’ll be relying on the Mantra Grid; the game’s equivalent of Final Fantasy X’s Sphere Grid. Mantra are laid out in rows according to type, with nodes adjacent to mastered Mantra available for download at save points. Downloading a mantra costs money, but you then have to accumulate AP from battle to master that Mantra and use its corresponding skills. What you end up with, therefore, is great freedom of choice in customising your characters- which can be both a blessing and a curse depending on how decisive you are.

With all that in mind, the time has finally come to discuss battle itself, and it is here where the need for strategy will become apparent. Digital Devil Saga uses what it calls the “Press Turn” system, in which your party receives one full turn per living party member (you can have one to three members at any time). The party will act in the order you set in the menu, and generally the same conditions apply to the enemy- although certain bosses do get extra turns.

In the normal run of things, every action you take will consume one turn, but- and here’s where skill really kicks in- there are some important exceptions. If your attack corresponds to an enemy’s weakness, then you’ll only consume half a turn, whilst if your attack fails or is something the enemy is strong against, you’ll consume two turns (you can also pass to only use up half a turn). If you have a spare half turn left over (represented by a flashing hexagon in the top right rather than a solid one), then the next character to go will use this as if it were a complete turn rather than a half. That last specific may not make much sense until you actually come to play, but suffice to say that targeting enemy weaknesses will result in more turns and higher damage done before the enemy gets a chance to counterattack.

Of course, attacks and skills aren’t the only options you have in battle; as well as the obvious choice of using an item, you can also switch party members in and out of battle, revert to human form (more on this in a moment) or perform a combo ability involving two or three party members. Combos are unlocked by the right combination of individual skills between characters, and whilst they take up multiple turns, they can also be useful for dealing more damage than the component skills would be able to do on their own.

When it comes to reverting to human form, you might naturally wonder why you would want to do such a thing- after all, a puny gun-wielding human is far less impressive than a demon with special skills. It’s important to be aware of the ability to transform and revert, however, for not only does it help when you get ambushed and have to begin the battle in human form, but there are also attacks that humans are immune to, enemies that are weak against guns and combos that need at least one human character in order to perform. All in all, it isn’t something you’ll be using all the time, but it’s a useful option to have.

Another aspect of the game you’ll want to be aware of is the ability to hunt your enemy- since the mastery of Mantra is depending on collecting AP, you’ll want to enhance the amount you get at the end of each battle by literally consuming your enemy. In order to achieve this, you’ll first need to frighten the enemy by attacking their weaknesses or successfully nullifying the attacks, before finishing them off with a Hunt skill that will see your characters devour an enemy demon. The reward for pulling this off is a nice big chunk of AP, but beware- the greedier you are, the more likely you’ll end up with the stomach ache status effect, which prevents you from earning any AP at all!

Quick tip: If your HP/MP are low and there’s no restore point or item vendor in sight, save your ‘Noise’ items for this situation- not only do they permanently increase your stats, but they also completely heal you. It’s also worth noting that there’s a chance of healing HP, MP or both when a character levels up.

Playable characters

Serph (Varna): As Varna, Serph is an ice element demon with a natural weakness to fire, and with the unique feature that you can customise his stat growth (as any RPG player will know, strength, vitality and magic should be prioritised over agility and luck). Serph tends to become a worthy physical attacker and mage quite naturally over the course of the game; my focus was on enhancing his natural ice abilities with earth and healing as backups, alongside boosting abilities.

Heat (Agni): A strong physical attacker at the expense of magic, in Agni form Heat is a fire element demon who is weak against ice (like you can’t guess from the name). Unfortunately, whilst he is useful early in the game, the increasing importance of magic later on forces him to take a backseat, as both Gale and Argilla are capable of becoming better with fire element magic than he is. By the end of the game, I mainly used Heat for abilities I wanted but no one else had room for, but if you wish to develop his physical and ailment inducing skills, then that would probably be the best path for him.

Argilla (Prithivi): A natural mage and earth element demon (her weakness is force, the game’s equivalent of wind), Argilla is able to become skilled in both healing and elemental magic, which is exactly what I used her for. Her physical strength may be low, but with her outstanding magic ability, she’s just what you need later in the game.

Gale (Vayu): A force element demon with a weakness to electricity, Gale doesn’t join up until partway through the game, but he does come prepared with some handy force element magic that will probably be stronger than anything you’ve taught your party up to that point. I like to use him as a backup mage with a focus on force and fire element, as well as a revival ability for when Argilla is knocked out. His stat growth tends to be reasonably balanced.

Cielo (Dyaus): The final Embryon member to join the party, Cielo is an electrical element demon with an annoying weakness against ailments (i.e. negative status effects). Although he likes to boost his luck and agility to the detriment of other stats, Cielo’s electrical attacks are second to none, and once you level him up enough to withstand enemy attacks (for a while his relatively low HP makes him a risk in high stakes battles), he can make a good secondary healer as well.

Story

Since Digital Devil Saga and its sequel are two halves of the same whole, don’t expect the story to be completed in this game- instead, it will leave you on a frustrating cliff-hanger that can only be resolved by getting to the second game as soon as possible. As far as we actually see in this game is concerned, on the largest of scales it’s another battle royale, but there’s a lot more going on in the details- just don’t expect it to make any sense just yet.

Audiovisual

As a world filled with warring tribes and hideous demons, the Junkyard isn’t really the most attractive of places- you won’t find any brightly coloured girls and so forth here. Even so, the character and location designs are well thought out, technically accomplished and brought to life through cel-shaded models. The in-game music opts for an industrial theme overall, but is surprisingly worthy as a stand-alone soundtrack, with the battle theme “Hunting” proving immensely catchy.

Final Thoughts

An unexpectedly enjoyable and addictive game, Digital Devil Saga proves that RPGs don’t have to be all about level grinding and spamming the attack button- there’s still room to create a title where skill is necessary but the learning curve isn’t too steep. Just be warned- once you start playing, you won’t ever want to stop.

To be continued…in the Digital Devil Saga 2 review

Four hundred years after Claude and Rena saved the universe in Star Ocean 2, the time has come for a new bunch of heroes to rise and protect reality as we know it. As far as college student Fayt Leingod is concerned, however, all he’s up for is a holiday with his family- complete with plenty of time spent in the battle simulator. When their holiday is interrupted by an attack from the alien Vendeeni, however, it catapults Fayt into an adventure that will see him visit new planets and meet new allies on a quest to protect the galaxy he calls home.

Even though I started Star Ocean 3 several years ago, it wasn’t until I played and completed SO2 that I felt compelled to go back to it, in the hopes that my enhanced knowledge of the real time battle system would help me master the game. Unfortunately, even with these new skills, the game was to be a bit of a slog, for whilst it undoubtedly had glimmers of greatness, even this Director’s Cut edition just wasn’t as slick, focused and enjoyable as it could have been.

In an advanced, futuristic universe…you get stuck on a primitive planet

On the back cover of the game, Star Ocean 3 promises that you will get to explore an advanced futuristic universe- what it doesn’t tell is that you will actually spend a good portion of the game stuck on the backwater planet of Elicoor II. As we shall see, however, disappointments like this crop up throughout the game, all detracting a little from the usual enjoyable Star Ocean experience.

Taking a step backwards from its predecessor, Star Ocean 3 does away with the world map, instead presenting an adventure where you have to run across the world with little options regarding teleportation even late in the game (for example, when I realised that I was lacking in items for the final boss, I had to make my way back through several dungeons just to find a shop and a place to heal). As you might imagine, then, backtracking is often the order of the day as you force Fayt and his companions to trek across the world- a situation made even worse if you can’t remember exactly how to get to a particular town or city because it’s been so long since your last visit.

As if to add insult to injury, the game also attempts to make you care about map completion by offering up a prize every time you explore 100% of a particular area. What this means is that you have to explore every little nook and cranny, no matter how monster-infested and seemingly inaccessible, just for the satisfaction of seeing a map properly completed. Worse yet, for some maps you’ll have to wait until you have a Hammer or Ring of Disintegration to enable you to blast away any rocks or stones that block your way. Here again, however, there is a caveat, for if the rocks hit you as they blow apart (or indeed if any kind of rolling rock hits you), you’ll be sent back to the beginning of the map. And just to add extra fun to the proceedings, there’s also a part where you have to run around some sand dunes without running out of water.

As well as all the usual out of battle options such as shops, inns, cut scenes and the like, Star Ocean 3 also offers its own take on item synthesis, in the form of workshops scattered across the world. Instead of having special abilities such as Music and Cooking in the menu as one did in SO2, the characters must now visit a workshop, pay to have it upgraded and then get to work on creating an item. In order to do this, you’ll have to select a particular type of invention (Writing, Smithery, Cooking and so forth) and then spend copious amounts of money trying to come up with a good invention. The more skilled your characters are in a particular department, the more quickly they’ll succeed at creating a higher quality item, but it’s up to you to recognise when they’ve stumbled on something and hit the X button before they spend more fruitless hours working. And don’t worry too much if none of your playable characters seemed particularly gifted in an area- you can also recruit NPC inventors across the world with money and items, at which point they will work on product development for you.

In a strange mirroring of real life, once a product has been created, you can actually file a patent for it, which actually just involves estimating its quality and the amount to put on sale. No matter what the outcome or who invented it, the product will go on sale in due course, although once it runs out of stock you’ll have to wait for it to be invented again; hardly a problem when the item is a “Useless Lump”, but slightly more irritating when it’s a valuable Resurrection Elixir.

On top of all this, there is also a synthesis option to be exploited, where instead of trying to make something from scratch, you improve upon an existing item. With this ability, you can add bonuses and elemental attacks to weapons, for example, boosting your abilities in preparation for some of the tougher bosses ahead.

Making a return appearance are the infamous Private Actions of the Star Ocean series- although this time they are not explicitly labelled as such, they follow the same principle of having your party split up when you enter a town so that Fayt can interact with them and build up a relationship with the other playable characters. As always, this affects the scenes you see in the ending; build up your relationships enough, and various characters will have a scene with Fayt- otherwise he just gets left alone.

Battle: Cutting Edge of Notion, aka “We must run away like cowards”

In case you’re wondering, “Cutting Edge of Notion” is the name of the track played in normal battles, to which I have fitted the lyrics “We must run away like cowards”, for reasons which I will expand upon later.

Instead of random encounters, this time around enemies appear on the map- get too close and they will make a beeline for you. If the enemy attacks you from behind, you’ll find yourself at a disadvantage, but naturally the opposite hold true if you sneak up on your foes.

As is customary for the Star Ocean series, the game throws menu and turn-based combat out of the window for a faster-paced and more engaging real time combat system. In battle you’ll have one player controlled character (switch who you control with L1 and R1) and two AI-controlled allies set out in a formation that can be changed in the menu (there are different formations to facilitate all out attack, rapid escapes, etc), with the object obviously being to run around the battlefield taking the enemy forces down. It’s a system that worked well in Star Ocean 2, but in typical “third game syndrome”, there have been a lot of tweaks and additions that both enhance and complicate game play.

In the old days, it was good enough to spam the buttons for your favourite attacks, but a new governing force in the world of SO3 now makes that impossible- the Fury bar. Fury is the game’s equivalent of stamina, depleting every time you take an action and refilling if you stand still for a second or two. If your Fury is at 0%, you can’t do anything except run around; conversely, if it is at 100%, you are completely protected from weak attacks by a barrier (a strong attack will break it, however). This barrier is known as the “Anti Attack Aura”, and although you’ll start with a standard one that just knocks back the enemy when they strike you, over the course of the game you can learn different AAAs that will protect you from attacks in various directions. Be warned, though- the Fury and AAA system applies to enemies as well, although in all except the hardest difficulty mode you can see the enemy’s fury and tailor your attacks accordingly. Additionally, later in the game your characters will learn the Berserk ability, which decreases Fury at the expense of a character’s defence.

In the old days, characters each had a basic attack and up to two special skills that could be triggered with the shoulder buttons, but again SO3 has chosen to mix things up by introducing the concept of range. Each playable character now has weak and strong attacks for long and short range, as well as the ability to set a special skill for each possibility. Skills are triggered by holding down Circle or X at short or long range, and if you enter the command for one skill whilst performing another, you can activate the “Cancel Bonus” effect, which progressively increases the damage done up to 300% of the norm when you chain attacks together in this way.

In order to use said skills in battle, you’ll not only have to level up enough to learn them, but you’ll also have to set them in the menu (along with up to two support skills that take effect automatically), but here again a caveat comes into play. Each skill costs a certain number of Capacity Points to set, and with a maximum of 15 CP available, it is impossible to just kit out a character with all of their deadliest skills- you must either choose a wide range of weaker skills, or one or two real killers. Bear in mind that unlike most special skills, these abilities won’t just drain your MP in battle- HP and of course Fury can also be expended.

Whilst in the menu, you’ll also notice that as well as setting up skills and Anti Attack Auras, you have the option to spend skill points accumulated from levelling up on enhancing your HP, MP, Attack and Defence. It’s important not to neglect this function, as the bonuses it offers are far greater than the minuscule increases gained at level up. Using this system, I was able to grant Cliff, a physical fighter, with a high amount of MP, whilst Sohpia’s lack of HP was entirely remedied- in fact, she ended up with HP in 10,000s (as per usual, the level limit is 255 and the usual 9999/999 HP/MP limits do not apply).

Naturally, it isn’t all about attacking, however- the usual options of magic and items are also on offer here. This time around, magic is known as Symbology, and whilst some characters can learn it automatically as they level up, others need to equip support skills that let them use it. Conveniently enough, you can also switch Symbology skills on and off in the menu, which should prevent AI-controlled characters from wasting all their MP on useless abilities in the heat of battle. Be warned, however, when it comes to actually casting Symbology, it takes time for both ally and enemy to charge their skill, which means that it can be cancelled with a well-placed attack- useful for stopping an enemy unleashing a killer move, but hardly welcome when they interrupt your much-needed healing spell.

When it comes to using items, again you will have to plan things a little more carefully than usual; for whilst items do take effect immediately, you can’t use another item straightaway. This restriction can be annoying when healing your party via items, although given that you can only carry up to 20 of each item, perhaps it’s just as well that you can’t use them up too fast.

Also available in battle are “tactical skills” such as the ability to activate and deactivate Berserk or scan the enemy’s HP, although, like items you have to wait between uses. It is also possible to change the tactics used by AI-controlled characters both in and out of battle, although often enough the AI seems content to have both characters run off to the far side of the field, leaving you to fight alone against the enemy.

As if all this wasn’t enough to take in, there’s one more important thing to not about SO3, and that is that unlike most games, reaching 0 MP means that your character gets KO’ed (don’t worry, you’ll never be allowed to cast a spell that takes either your HP or MP down to zero). This is undoubtedly something that will cause annoyance at first- not only because it limits tendencies to spam the enemy with magic whilst also allowing them to MP kill you, but because of its sheer unfamiliarity. Much as it can be a pain, however, if you learn to employ it correctly, MP killing can be a tool as useful to you as to the enemy- if they have massive HP, try using an MP draining ability to kill them that much faster.

With all this to keep track of, it’s no wonder that the SO3 battle system takes a bit more getting used to than that of SO2- and this time you probably won’t be able to clear the game just by spamming the attack and special skill buttons. This would all be fair enough, but the game will also punish you for not taking advantage of the item creation and synthesis systems properly- if you can’t be bothered to undertake the trouble of making uber-weapons and accessories for your team, even simple battles quickly become too tough to be enjoyable. With an absence of heal points and long dungeons to travel through, battle quickly becomes a lengthy chore, to the point where it is just easier to run away all the time and just focus on boss battles with the occasional bout of levelling up where needed.

At this point, you may be wondering if there’s any sort of reward for putting yourself through all this, and as it turns out, there is. On all but the easiest difficulty level, the game offers you the option to collect Battle Trophies, awards given out for everything from the simplicity of running away a certain number of times to the fiendishly difficult task of defeating practically every boss in the game under one minute and without your controlled character taking damage. The rewards for collecting Battle Trophies include unlocking harder difficulty levels (of dubious merit), alternate skins for playable characters and even a special versus battle mode.

Playable characters

Of the ten playable characters available in the Director’s Cut edition of the game, you can recruit eight in any one play through. Fayt, Sophia, Cliff, Maria, Adray and Mirage will all join automatically during the course of the game, but whilst they are all playable at various points in the story, only two of Roger, Peppita, Nel and Albel can become full-time members of your party.

• Fayt Leingod: as the main character, you’ll be seeing a lot of Fayt, and in typical fashion he’s a swordsman and good all-rounder. Easy to play as, Fayt has many useful multi-hit skills such as Side Kick, Dimension Door, Air Raid and Blade of Fury (the latter of which is strong but hard to chain with anything), as well as the MP-reducing Aerial. He can also imbue his blade with various elemental and MP-damaging properties, which, if used wisely, can bring down enemies even more rapidly.
• Sophia Esteed: although she appears right at the start, Sophia does not become properly playable again until Disc 2, whereupon you discover that she is a measly Level One. Nonetheless, it is worth taking the time to level her up, since she is a solid mage and powerful healer.
• Cliff Fittir: A powerhouse attacker, Cliff is a solid physical fighter who will come in handy right from the moment he joins the party. With his powerful fist skills, he can quickly dispatch the enemy, although he does have to get up close to do it.
• Nel Zelpher: Although swifter and weaker than Fayt, Nel makes another good all-rounder for the team, skilled in both fast attack skills and various different types of magic. I relied on her throughout disc one, but thanks to accidentally recruiting Peppita, I couldn’t bring her back on board in disc two.
• Maria Traydor: Although she seemed weak and pointless when she first join, I’ve actually grown to greatly like using Maria, not only because she’s well represented in both short and long range attacks, but because there’s a unique satisfaction in sniping the enemy from afar by chaining Scatter Beam and Aiming Device. If, like me, you managed to mess up getting Nel, then you’ll probably be relying a lot on Maria.
• Albel Nox: The typical HARD GAY anti-hero, Albel is the swift swordsman that everyone wants on their party- until they realise that he’s a weaker choice than Fayt, Cliff or Nel. I do quite like to have him on my party, but when the going gets tough, he tends to get KO’ed.
• Roger S Huxley: The typical juvenile pervert, Roger can be used in disc one even if you choose not to permanently recruit him, but he’s always miles behind the other characters and hardly worth spending time on.
• Adray Lasbard: A warrior who can also use magic, Adray can be temporarily used in disc one but returns permanently in disc two, by which point you’re loathe to bother levelling him up when you’ve already got a decent party.
• Mirage Koas: I have to admit that I’ve never actually used Mirage; she’s a fist fighter like Cliff, but by the time she joined in disc two, it hardly seemed worth bringing her out.
• Peppita Rossetti: I hate Peppita, and it’s not just because of her irritating personality- it’s because my accidental recruiting of her meant that I couldn’t get Nel back in disc two. She also joins the party at Level One, making her perfectly suited for sitting on the bench and never being asked to take part in battle.

Story

Star Ocean 3’s story is one that has sparked no small amount of controversy, laden as it is with a revelation that affects not only this game and its characters, but the entire Star Ocean series. Needless to say, the twist did not sit easy with me either, and indeed, although the creator seemed to consider it the ultimate expression of the Star Ocean universe, overall the story just seems a bit lacking.

Although the universe and its characters certainly seem like an interesting place, the trouble with the story is that never seems to see anything through. What starts as fleeing from the Vendeeni (a largely pointless and undeveloped enemy, it must be said) turns into an extended episode about the conflict on the planet Elicoor II, before going back to space for more Vendeeni woes before they get put aside in favour of the ‘twist’ part of the storyline. Admittedly it’s not as rushed and unfinished as its predecessor, but there’s still the feeling of the writers being unable to settle on one storyline and thus trying to include three.

Audiovisual

Although 3D games are always doomed to be overshadowed by the latest and greatest titles, Star Ocean 3 is at least solid enough when it comes to characters and backgrounds, although it could have done with some kind of world map or at least easier navigation across maps and dungeons. The original character designs range from the attractive to the generic, with Fayt, Sophia, Nel and Maria standing out above the rest.

As far as music goes, SO3 offers a solid selection of themes that complement the game well without ever being the kind of thing that most people would want to listen to its own- as usual, the battle and boss themes are catchy, but the rest is largely forgettable. As far as voice-acting goes, the English dub is a bit cringe-worthy, but as there’s no Japanese alternative, it has to be endured.

Final Thoughts

Despite being given more time and attention in the development phase than Star Ocean 2, SO3 loses a lot of the fun that made its predecessor so memorable; whilst it certainly is a solid game, a lot of the time basic battle becomes so tedious that you just want to get yourself through it as quickly as possible. Those looking for a battle system that’s more complex than the norm will no doubt lap it up, but when it comes to the addictive pick-up and play factor, this instalment in the series is sadly lacking.

Somewhere out there, if you look hard enough, you can find a game for everything. For example, on the Wii rip-off console Vii, you can indulge in what must be a fascinating and absorbing little number named “Fry Egg”. If your taste runs more to fireworks, however, you can indulge yourself more officially with early Playstation2 game Fantavision- a sure way to beat any withdrawal you might feel after Letterbomb Fireworks night and New Year celebrations.

In the world of Fantavision, it is your responsibility to put on a fireworks display by matching up three or more fireworks of the same colour (red, green or blue) and then detonating them before they disappear off screen. If you’re lucky, the detonations will set off other fireworks, resulting in massive chains that will let you rack up huge scores. As with most games of this type, there also bonuses to be earned- using special multicoloured fireworks you can link together advanced ‘daisy’ chains of fireworks of more than one colour, whilst doing particularly well will send you into a special StarMine mode- a sort of bonus round for massively inflating your score. Fail to capture and detonate too many fireworks, however, and your health bar will empty, resulting in game over.

All that being said, it is actually quite possible to play Fantavision for a while without really having a clue what you’re doing- button bashing and basic puzzle gaming instinct will get you quite far through the game. Once you get the hang of it, the game becomes even easier, and it is only then that you realise how little content Fantavision actually has to offer. For single players, there are nine consecutive levels to play at either easy or hard difficulty- not only is this quite a limited number of levels compared to the endlessness of most puzzle games, but the pattern of fireworks is always exactly the same each game, so once you’ve completed it once, there’s little incentive to go around again. A two player split-screen versus mode attempts to inject a little more longevity into the game but after the novelty of trying it out wears off, it seems unlikely that your friends will care much about being challenged to a great Fantavision showdown.

Visually, Fantavision is somewhat uninspiring- the fireworks look quite nice, but since they only come in three colours, the displays don’t have as much visual impact as you might hope. Similarly, whilst the city and spaceship exteriors used as settings in the game are worthy renderings for the early PS2 days, the number of locations on offer is extremely limited- a deficit made worse by the fact that the last few levels take place in featureless hyperspace. Background music consists of the kind of inoffensive electronic synth piece that are mildly catchy whilst playing, but easily forgotten afterwards. Should you so desire it, however, you can save replay data for a level and watch your fireworks display from different camera angles- in all honesty, however, you’d probably have a more exciting time looking up real fireworks displays on YouTube or generating them with an animation program (I’m hardly skilled at the latter, but I did manage to produce some fireworks in RPG Maker).

Final Thoughts
Fantavision is much like a firework itself- a quick burst of enjoyment and then it rapidly fades away. It’s the kind of thing you get out of the back of a cupboard for a laugh on a rainy day, but in the general run of things there are better puzzle games out there- many of which can be played for free online.

A hundred years ago, the demon Orochi was vanquished through the efforts of the legendary hero Nagi and the white wolf Shiranui, but after a century of peace, Orochi has been released again. With the land of Nippon now cursed by evil, the only hope for salvation lies with the goddess of Amaterasu, who must once again reincarnate herself into the form of a white wolf. But Amaterasu’s powers are much lessened from what they once were, and only with the help of the diminutive artist Issun will she be able to travel the world and regain the abilities of her Celestial Brush.

Before I go any further, there is just one thing I have to say- I adore Okami. The beautiful visual style draws you into a world packed with solid gameplay and an innovative Celestial Brush system that sets this title apart from other action-adventure games. I’ll go into all these aspects in more detail over the course of this review, but suffice to say that in the space of a few weeks, this has quickly become one of my favourite games.

Saving the world from the forces of evil
As Amaterasu, your job is to combat the evil that has spread over the land of Nippon, which in plainer terms means exploring new areas, solving puzzles, assisting NPCs and of course fighting monsters. Along the way, Issun hitches a ride, communicating with other characters in your place and offering generally rather obvious hints to puzzles (the clues as to what you need to do are always highlighted in a bold red font, although sometimes figuring out how to do what it says requires more thought).

On top of the basic gameplay, however, there is the aforementioned Celestial Brush, a concept which apparently was not even originally intended to be in the game. By holding down R1, the world turns to a canvas upon which Amaterasu can draw with her ink and brush, enabling her to effect changes to it- she can change night into day (and vice versa), fix objects that are missing or broken, make flowers bloom, slow down time and even control the elements themselves. Of course, these abilities aren’t all available from the start, but as you find and unlock them over the course of the game, they will become valuable additions to your arsenal- necessary for defeating monsters, solving puzzles and even just exploring the game to its fullest extent. Be careful, however- get too generous with the ink supply and you’ll become naked and vulnerable until it refills (which it will do with time).

As well as using your powers to further exploration, they’ll also come in handy when helping people- be it either as a part of the story or in aid of an optional quest. From the ubiquitous fishing game to simply finding an item that a particular character wants, there is a wealth of tasks that need accomplishing, and whilst some are as simple as going to the nearest shop and investing your hard-earned cash, others can be a bit more involved. For example, due to the lack of a ferry in the capital city, you have to escort people around the town’s canals on a lily-pad- simple enough to do once or twice, but somewhat draining when you realise more and more people are lining up for your services. Another task designed to annoy is the ‘digging game’, in which you must traverse through different layers of rock, guiding an NPC to the bottom whilst ensuring that they do not come to harm and that time does not run out.

At this point, you might be wondering why you would even want to bother appeasing all these people, especially upon learning that it’s not just humans who need your assistance- you’ll also meet animals along the way who expect feeding at your expense. If ‘a good deed is its own reward’ doesn’t cut it for you, fear not, because making everyone and everything happy is also beneficial to you- when things go right, people will offer up Praise, which Amaterasu can use to enhance her health, ink, extra lives and money-carrying capacity.

In the course of your running around, you will inevitably run into battle, at which point both weapons and Celestial Brush techniques become essential for quickly dispatching the enemy. Enemies can be encountered either by touching a floating demon scroll, passing through a demon gate (killing all the enemies within purifies the surrounding land) or just in the course of story, and once battle begins, you will be sealed in by a barrier, limiting your range of movement and forcing you to confront your foes. For non-compulsory battles, it is possible to escape by breaking the barrier, but if you stay you can gain a nice injection of cash into your coffers- and the more quickly and efficiently you dispatch them, the larger your monetary reward at the end.

When it comes to weapons, the selection is typical- you have the good all-rounder in the form of the Reflector, the fast but weak longer-ranged Beads and the strong but slow shorter-ranged Glaives, as well as slots for up to three accessories that can enhance your abilities both on and off the battlefield. Some of these weapon types have special powers, and all can be equipped as either a main weapon to employ their basic attack, or as a sub weapon to enact a secondary attack (as sub weapons, the different bead weapons let you shoot ranged bullets, the reflectors act as a shield, and the glaives let you do a plunge attack). There’s also nothing to stop you using your Celestial Brush against enemies- in fact, this is the only way to defeat some opponents. It’s left up to you to determine exactly how to defeat each enemy type, with the exact method only given to you in the bestiary after you’ve worked it out for yourself.

If the basic techniques aren’t enough for you, however, fear not, because at Onigiri-sensei’s dojo, Amaterasu can also train and learn new techniques- for a price. Whilst most of these techniques fall into standard types such as learning to double-jump or adding another hit to a basic combo, there is also a rather unique and expensive pair of abilities that enable you to ‘do your business’ over the enemy, so to speak. This may seem rather incongruous for a god, but these abilities actually have a useful side effect- when the offending material hits the enemy, their anger crystallises into Demon Fangs, which certain traders will accept in exchange for rare items.

Fortunately, obtaining Demon Fangs isn’t just the province of defecating on your opponent- you will also get one if you manage to pull off a Floral Finisher. In order to do so, you must use a particular Celestial Brush technique just before their lifeless corpse falls to the ground- but determining which technique works is a matter of trial and error.

All these considerations aside, battle isn’t actually all that difficult- some bosses will be drawn out, but provided you have an adequate stock of healing Holy Bones, game over will never be an issue. In fact, since you only ever lose one health unit from falling off ledges, drowning and such, it is very difficult to ever lose a life in the game (although if you do, a filled Astral Pouch will revive you). In some ways, it is refreshing for a game of this genre to be so easy, although there are still some frustrating ledge jumping sections designed to put you through your paces.

Naturally, no game of this type would be complete without sidequests and extras to collect, and Okami is certainly well-endowed in this department. From collecting well-hidden stray beads and digging up clovers (the logo of creators Clover Studio) to slaying wanted monsters that only come out at night, there is plenty to do to extend your time in the game’s world. And when you decide you’re done and want to get it all over with by facing the final boss, there’s the option to go back to the beginning with a New Game+, in which everything except ultimate weapons and Celestial Brush techniques are carried over. And if you scored particularly well by the time you reach endgame, you’ll unlock various extras such as art and sound galleries, and even ‘karmic transformers’ that change the way Amaterasu looks.

Story
On the surface of it, Okami is yet another struggle between the forces of good and the powerful, ugly servants of the Dark Lord (creatively named Yami), but happily, there is more to it than that. In keeping with the tone and feel of the game, Okami is packed with references to Japanese mythology, brought to life through a collection of eccentric and memorable characters.

Audiovisual
As I mentioned at the very start, Okami’s visuals are one of its main draws, for never before has a game looked this good. After abandoning impractical photorealism, the creators of the game went for a look based entirely on traditional Japanese woodcut and brush painting, creating a beautiful world that I a joy to play in. Leaves fall and plants grow as Amaterasu runs and jumps around, trees and flowers bloom in a rush that purifies the land from evil- all in all it is beautiful land whose very appearance makes you want to keep playing.

Sound effects and background music are also in keeping with the tone and atmosphere of the game, using period-themed pieces that tranquil for exploration and more energetic when battle is called for. The only complaint that could be levelled at the audio side of the game is the character ‘voices’, which are computer-generated Bill and Ben style buzzing- personally, I don’t mind them when I’m in control, but they can be irritating when you’re listening to someone else playing the game.

Final Thoughts
Trite as it may sound to say this, getting into Okami is not just about playing a game- it is more akin to immersing yourself in a beautiful and atmospheric alternate world. If you have yet to be won over by its spell, then be sure to add it to your purchase list- you won’t regret it.

After completing the original Atelier Iris, the obvious next step was to learn Japanese and play the earlier Atelier games pick up the sequel (although technically it’s a prequel, taking place many generations before the original Atelier Iris) and see how it measured up. Fortunately, many lessons had been learned from the original game and used to tighten up game play for Atelier Iris 2, but at the same time, it was hard not to miss Klein, Lita and friends when presented with a whole new set of characters to get used to.

The world of Atelier Iris 2
Despite its flaws, the original Atelier Iris had a unique draw that made it stand out from other RPGs- it gave the player a real feel of being a part of the game world. Unfortunately, this aspect has not been carried over to Atelier Iris 2, which, despite trying to spice things up by letting you switch between the two main characters, feels a lot more like a conventional “start at a place with level one monsters and linearly unlock new, progressively harder locations” game.

For the majority of the time, you’ll be playing as Felt, making your way through the world of Belkhyde, picking up allies and encountering towns and dungeons as so many RPG heroes have before. At save points, however, you have the option to switch to Viese, who remains behind in Eden until the last few chapters of the game. As there are no monsters in Eden, Viese won’t encounter battle until she comes to Belkhyde later on; instead, her job is to handle the alchemy side of things.

As a fully qualified alchemist, Viese’s job is to travel around Eden, making pacts with Mana of different elements so that they can lend their skills to the party. Even though there are more Mana for Viese to recruit than Klein had access to, their role has been much reduced- although they are now vital in all types of synthesis, they have no other role to play- in fact, you don’t even need to keep them happy with gifts anymore.

As for synthesis itself, even this has been overhauled for Atelier Iris 2. Synthesising mana items still requires recipes, but actually getting those items made requires a different method. First, Viese must cook up the mana item at home using a particular Mana and set of items; this initialises the item so that it now can be made by both Felt and Viese in battle or at the menu screen using that mana and a particular set of elements (the item method can also be used if elements are rare). The amount of element needed is now always fixed since you can’t mix and match Mana the way you could in the first game; the only thing that remains the same is how you obtain those elements- either in battle or through elemental extraction of objects in the field (it is, however, no longer possible to extract elements from items in your inventory).

In the old days, item synthesis was a separate process handled by shopkeepers, but now Viese has control of that as well, taking some of the fun out of it, but also ensuring that the largely useless items of previous games are gone. Instead, Viese and her Mana can create accessories and alchemy items- unsurprisingly, accessories can be equipped to increase stats, whilst alchemy items can either be used to synthesise more complex items or equipped to teach a character support skills (more on this later). As in the original game, the raw materials can sometimes be substituted to make a slightly different item, with clear messages saying “a different item will be made if you use this” replacing the hit and miss guesswork of the old days. Better yet, you can now have up to 99 of any type of item, a nice expansion from the rather limited nine allowed in the previous game.

Viese may be the expert at alchemy and synthesis, but out in the field Felt himself has a few tricks of his own. As well as being able to make any mana item that Viese has initialised for him, Felt also learns weapon synthesis early in the game, and happily it is far more useful than its incarnation in the previous game. Since new weapons cannot be bought, weapon synthesis (using items and Mana) is the only way to upgrade weapons, but of course it isn’t as simple as just making the strongest weapon possible- not only do you have to upgrade in a particular order, but you’ll need to keep that weapon equipped for a while if you want to learn its inherent attack skill (think Final Fantasy 9).

There have been a few other changes from the first game, one of which is most welcome- instead of the once tortuous maze of winding paths, the world map has been replaced with an easy-to-navigate over-map that lets you simply use the arrow keys to go from one location straight to the next. No mess, no fuss and most importantly- no encounters along the way.

Other omissions include the Growloons (who had dubious purpose anyway) and the Action Dial- instead of gaining actions to use in the field, Felt and Viese gain different Mana items which can be used in specific situations. For example, near a plant you might be able to use an item that makes it grow, whilst certain cliffs can be scaled with a Grappling Hook. The new system does add a degree of separation with the field map, but this is only what you’d expect from an RPG anyway.

Battle
With all these changes, it should come as little surprise that the battle system has been overhauled as well. Encounters remain random with a higher than comfortable rate, but now most screens have an encounter gauge which not only tell you how close you are to danger, but also empty out with each battle, so that even if you end up lost and wandering around forever, you won’t be plagued with battles forever (the gauge refills if you use a save point or exit to the world map).

Once you actually get into battle, the old turn-based ways have been replaced with the ‘Active Cost Time Battle’ system, which, in plain terms, means that everyone moves along a time bar and gets their turn when they reach the end. When your turn comes around, the usual options of attacking, using special skills and items or running away are all on offer, but with yet more changes from the original game. The basic attack has now been split into two commands- Charge Attack, which fills the skill gauge (more on that below) and Break Attack, which knocks an enemy further back on the time bar and may even put them into Break status. When an enemy is in Break, they remain stunned for a time, during which you can rack up huge chains of damage whilst remaining safe from counterattack.

The time bar also allows for a new style of delay attacks; as well as the usual type of attack that takes a turn to charge, it is possible to use various skills that move along the time bar independently for five turns and take effect each time they reach the end. Each side can have one of these delay attacks in effect at any one time (casting new one cancels the old one), and since there is no way to remove them once they appear, you just have to endure them until they run out.

Getting back to the skill gauge, this is the game’s replacement for mana or MP; you have one gauge to serve the entire party, which starts at 1 and can be filled by using charge attacks or taking damage. The gauge is then depleted by one, two or three units when a special skill is used- it can be a limiting system compared to more conventional MP, but it can also be useful to build up the gauge with one character and then bring in another character to use it for their special.

Veterans of the original game will remember the importance of switching characters in and out of battle, and happily this feature remains intact, although there is no longer the option to leave a dead character in battle- they must be replaced by a living character in reserve if one is available (I imagine the reserve characters to be sitting in deck chairs a few metres behind the front lines). In contrast, party formation has been simplified- instead of each character having the choice of front, middle and back row, you have to have one character in each row.

Another notable and welcome change is alchemy’s contribution to battle- Felt and Viese may be the only ones able to synthesis mana items in the heat of conflict, but anyone can use a mana item from stock. Compared to the days when your non-alchemists had no access to useful items, this is a welcome change, especially when combined with the fact that most characters also have some sort of healing skill as well.

Unfortunately, skills in other areas are not so generous, with an odd imbalance cropping up in elemental abilities. For some reason, there are numerous options when it comes to fire-based abilities, but the ice and thunder elements are very poorly represented in comparison, and the effects of those skills are often so weak that you might as well have just used a basic attack in the first place. That being said, aside from a few tricky combinations of generic enemies, the game is largely rather easy- throughout the entire game, I only glimpsed the game over screen twice (once because I strayed into an optional area that was too high-level for me at the time, the second time because I missed a couple of healing Mana items I should have had), and the final boss was easily beaten on the first attempt. Personally, I’m not too bothered about the difficulty since it isn’t Rhapsody-level of pathetically easy, but hardcore players might yearn for something a bit more frustrating challenging.

After battle, alongside the usual EXP that gets dealt out, each character gets SP, which are used for learning attack skills from the equipped weapon and support skills from equipped alchemy items.

Playable Characters

• Felt: the typical all-rounder main character, Felt is both an alchemist and an accomplished swordsman (although all his attacks count as magical rather than physical). Although he has standard-style specials to hit one enemy or all enemies, his best skills are Strike Edge and Phantom Edge, which clobber the enemy with giant copies of his Azoth.
• Noin: Through lack of choice, you have to use Noin early on, and whilst she is useful then thanks to her healing skills, she is too weak to be of much long-term use. I tend to keep her in reserve once there are enough party members to do so.
• Gray: Many people dislike Gray because he is so slow, but I actually didn’t find him too painful in that department- in fact, my Poe was slower. Not only is he a strong physical attacker, but he has killer attacks in the form of Twin Dragon and Shredding Dragon, as well as some elemental breath attacks. The only drawback is that he is geared toward fire element attacks- not useful against fire-type monsters.
• Fee: Although her strength is probably the lowest of all six characters, Fee is incredibly swift and able to target multiple enemies with her basic attack- important factors that put her ahead of Noin. Better yet, her Ein Zecksclaw attack is a killer move that only takes up a single unit of the skill gauge- and just when that stops becoming useful, she should have learned the more powerful Ein Zeckslash. Her only drawback is that she has absolutely no magical attacks, rendering her useless against enemies that are immune to physical moves.
• Poe: A gun-wielding fairy, Poe is one of those characters that serves no real purpose other than to enter the fray when your good characters have been wiped out. Although his basic attack does magical damage and he is imbued with some healing abilities, his below average stats mean there’s hardly ever a reason to bring him out.
• Viese: Only playable from episode twenty of the game (don’t worry, equip the right accessories and her stats will rival those of her fellows), Viese is much more of a traditional alchemist- she has the same mana-item enhancing skills as Klein, plus some healing skills, plus a staff that deals average magical damage. Fortunately, her alchemy skills make her indispensable- two alchemists are better than one, after all.

Story
Unsurprisingly, Atelier Iris 2 follows the usual pattern of a misguided human antagonist, an evil force trying to destroy the world for no real reason and a fantasy world with hidden sci-fi elements- none of it particularly designed to inspire. Even the characters, whilst likeable enough, aren’t as well developed as those in the original Atelier Iris, although the game does regain some ground by being a prequel about the origin of the famous Iris.

Audiovisual
Both graphically and musically, Atelier Iris 2 is on a par with the first game; the visuals may not be the most advanced, but they have their own charm, and the original character designs are attractive. Since the game comes with a bonus soundtrack CD, the music can easily be sampled outside of the context of the game, giving me a new appreciation for the music of both this and the original game- again, they are nothing special, but the mix of styles makes for comforting background music.

Final Thoughts
By polishing up the gameplay from the first game, Atelier Iris 2 makes for another worthy entry in the series- there are a few flaws in terms of balance and difficulty, but largely these can be overlooked. Whether or not you’ve played the first game, this is an RPG worth looking into.

Klein Kiesling is an alchemist- one of an increasingly rare breed of people who make a pact with magical spirits known as Mana in order to manipulate the very elements of nature. Together with his childhood friend and Mana Popo, Klein is on a journey to seek out items related to alchemy, but a chance encounter with a bounty hunter named Lita sees him caught up in a series of events that could determine the fate of the world.

The original Atelier games formed one of those obscure series that never made it out of Japan, but with the adoption of more traditional RPG features in Atelier Iris, English-speaking gamers could finally get a taste of Gust’s alchemic adventures. A mix of the addictive and the frustrating, Atelier Iris is generally an enjoyable game, but one that could use a little fine tuning in certain areas.

The world of Atelier Iris
On the surface of it, Atelier Iris is just another entry in a long line of similar RPGs- your party wanders the field and world map, triggering cut scenes to advance the story and getting into a few too many random battles along the way. Fortunately, there is more to it than that, thanks in no small part to the game’s alchemy system.

As an alchemist, Klein can make pacts with the different elemental Mana he meets in the course of the story, enabling him to use their power in various ways. The first and most obvious use is in the synthesis of Mana items, where Klein gets different Mana spirits to combine different elements to create offensive and defensive items in battle. The raw elements are obtained via elemental extraction- objects in the field, enemies and inventory items can all be deconstructed into their component elements and stored for later use. The cost of turning these elements into items depends on both the item being created and the Mana used- different Mana handle different elements, so it’s in your best interest to find and recruit them all. Fortunately, almost all Mana are either required for the story or not too far off the beaten track, so it shouldn’t be too much of a struggle to locate them. And once you find the rare Aroma Material later in the game, you will even be able to transform some of your Mana into more powerful forms.

As well as lending their power on the synthesis front, Mana can come in handy elsewhere too. After a certain point in the game, it becomes possible for each playable character to equip one Mana- a feature that enables them to boost their stats in fairly predictable ways (Rock enhances defence, Wind boosts speed, etc). Meanwhile, out on the field, most Mana also contribute an ability to the Action Dial- a feature of the game that gives it something of an action and platforming element.

Klein can already put one over on most RPG heroes by being able to jump in the field, but with the Action Dial, he can also tap into a hell of a lot more. As well as the basic yet useful functions of accessing the help menu and checking the current mission, the Action Dial offers Klein the ability to do everything from performing healing and elemental extraction in the field to flying and even transforming into a small rabbit. Unsurprisingly, most of these abilities must be unlocked as the game progresses (usually they are granted by a Mana), and the complete set ranges from minor novelties to actions that are utterly essential if you wish to clear the game. Unfortunately, the flip side of this is that it can make some makes near nightmarish as you try to figure out if you are actually at a dead end, or if you’re supposed to use some clever combination of actions to get yourself to the next map.

Where most RPGs cast your characters as itinerant travellers who pass through town after town of insipid NPCs, Atelier Iris actually does a good job of drawing you into its world. Klein and his allies don’t just stay in the nearest inn- they rent their own house, complete with all saving, healing and synthesis facilities that they need. Better still, the NPCs are more than just two-line characters- certain named characters have their own side stories which slowly unfold every time you meet them, whilst even random generics can adapt and change. For example, when I synthesised an ‘extremely hard’ pie at the bakery in Arcose (more on item synthesis later), all the NPCs complained about how extremely hard it was, but once something new had been synthesised, they switched to talking about that instead. They’re small touches, perhaps, but there’s something nice about walking into a shop and being greeted by a cut scene instead of the standard message box time after time.

That being said, there are times when being caught up in the world to such a degree can feel like a chore. Little more than a twisted tangle of long and winding paths, the world map will ultimately test even the most patient soul by requiring you to practically memorise it, not to mention backtrack to and from various locations over and over again (and often the place you want to go to is several screens into the location, forcing you to experience the high encounter rate of the field maps along the way). Even the teleport system set up mid-game is of limited use as it only lets you travel to a handful of locations, whilst unspecific clues such as “find a cauldron with the right type of soot” given later in the game will really test whether or not the player has been paying attention.

As if that wasn’t enough, Atelier Iris manages to pack in a few more features to keep you occupied- and if you’re feeling a little too daunted to start the game at this point, I must step in with some words of reassurance. In an attempt to avoid information overload, the game does at least space out the introduction of these features- and each time a new system is introduced, the characters take time out to narrate an amusing tutorial that covers the basics nicely. Nonetheless, it is possible to complete the game without really delving into any of the following- although doing so can be quite enjoyable.

If Mana synthesis just doesn’t provide enough item creation fun for you, then your next port of call should be the weapon and item synthesis facilities. Where weapon synthesis is quite a limited function that lets you enhance your weapons at your home base, item synthesis is actually a lot of fun- you bring ingredients to shopkeepers around the world, and they combine them together using a variety of recipes. Triggering certain events will unlock new recipes, whilst substituting an ingredient with a similar item may cause something completely different to be created. The key is to stock up on items from all around the world and experiment to your heart’s content- and once an item has been synthesised, you can also buy it ready made from the shop. The only limitations are that you can only carry a pitiful nine of each item (this goes for Mana items as well), and shops have a strictly limited inventory that mean they may not always have what you need.

One of the most bizarre inclusions in the game, however, must be that of the Growloon- strange round beasts that apparently summon evil spirits if left alone. Weak enough to be defeated with elemental extraction, Growloons appear all over the world, and by destroying them you can own some tidy bonuses. One must still wonder at the point of them, however.

Finally, for obsessive completionists and game addicts, Atelier Iris also has its own stab at item completion- at one location there is a woman who can show your inventory to, and as it gradually fills up, she will unlock art, character info and music for the main menu ‘bonus’ section. How’s that for artificially extending game play time?

Battle
By now, you’re probably reeling with information overload whilst wondering if the game ever actually gets past all these systems and lets you participate in battle. Thankfully, the answer is yes- in fact, world map aside, the encounter rate is a little higher than most will find comfortable.

The basic battle system is pretty standard- characters stand in either the front, middle or back rows and take turns depending on their relative speed stats. Each turn you can attack, use skills and items, defend, switch characters (even dead characters can switch in and out) or run away. The only exception is Klein, who can bring his alchemy onto the field- he can either synthesis an item for use there and then (elements allowing), or use one from stock. You might wonder why you’d ever bother to waste a Mana item in stock when you can make a brand new one on the spot, but there is actually a point to having both commands- ready made Mana items can be used in conjunction with skills to enhance their power and range.

With all the extra healing and attack Mana items available to him, Klein is easily in command of the most useful range of abilities, but because his stats are generally average, he either spends all of his time healing or he gets killed- a death knell for some battles since he is the only one who can heal and revive with skills until Marietta joins later on (there are healing items, but they seem to be generally weak).

As far as difficulty goes, the first half of the game is surprisingly easy- you may only scrape through some boss battles, but keep a cool head and the dreaded game over screen can be completely avoided for at least the first half of the game.

It’s not all plain sailing, however, and at a certain point in the game, the difficulty suddenly and unexpectedly ramps up to make things a bit more challenging. Regular enemies become more aggressive and prone to special attacks, whilst bosses start to pose a real problem. The likes of Prism and Elder Virum are particularly hideous, and by the time you’ve claimed victory against them, even the final boss won’t seem quite so hard in comparison.

Playable Characters

• Klein: As the main character and only alchemist of the group, Klein is nigh essential to the successful completion of the game. As his stats are generally average, I like to keep him out of battle until his alchemy is needed for healing (or offence, on the odd occasions that he gets the chance to attack). Nonetheless, the fact that his basic attack is magical rather than physical (it also extracts elements when the enemy dies) can come in handy against enemies with high physical defence, whilst in the early stages of the game you can use his Mace Attack for a physical attack.
• Lita: Although she starts off as one of those swift and weak characters that usually get abandoned later on, Lita can actually be made into a strong character who belongs on the front line at all times. Her sweeping claw attack can target multiple enemies at once, whilst her Jump Kick is a powerful blow against single enemies. Whilst they are costly in mana, Stone Blast is a good way to get Lita safely offscreen (she can also use an automatic Dodge move once she learns it, but it activates randomly and sometimes even reacts to attempts to heal her!), whilst Force Blast is a powerful magic attack that makes a change from her physical repertoire.

Unfortunately, for much of the game Lita suffers from a condition where her total mana decreases steadily until she enters a mode where she grows wings. The advantage of this mode is that attack and defence increase, but in exchange her maximum HP is curtailed.

• Delsus: A crossbow user, Delsus starts out as a powerful attacker who can target an entire column with either physical or magical attacks, but sadly he soon drops behind in terms of effectiveness. His inconsistent strength against different types of enemies, coupled with specials that don’t seem to do much more damage than a basic attack would, means that Delsus tends to stay in reserve once other party members join.
• Norn: Like most magic users, Norn is low on HP and defence and lacking in physical attacks, but when it comes to magic, she can really do the damage. With high speed and a basic magic attack that rips through the defence of most enemies, Norn is a good ally to have on your side.
• Arlin: A powerful swordsman, Arlin also has a Mana Strike that does massive magical damage, a Berserker move to increase his already formidable attack stat and a Double attack that counter intuitively hits three times. Unfortunately, much as I love having him on the front lines, he leaves the party before the end of the game and never returns. Damn you, Arlin!
• Marietta: Arlin’s replacement, she wields an impressive whip-sword which does both physical and magical damage on basic attacks, not to mention strike entire rows and columns. She is also the only character other than Klein to have a healing skill.

Story
Although Atelier Iris’ story is a little too bogged down in the standard “magic is leaving the world”, “technology was better in the past” and “lone madman is trying to destroy the world” RPG elements, the story still has nice touches. As mentioned before, both NPCs and player characters get a nice level of development, and whilst the story won’t blow anyone away with originality, it works well enough in moving the game along at a decent pace.

Audiovisual
Visually, Atelier Iris goes with the 2D sprites on isometric maps layout that has worked for so many games before- the graphics aren’t particularly advanced, but they suit the tone of the game well. The basic character designs are attractive, and there is a worthy anime sequence before the title screen.

Background music generally sets the atmosphere without being too intrusive, but whilst the battle and boss themes are catchy, as a whole the music doesn’t lend itself to being listened outside the context of the game. As always, the English voice acting can be a bit grating, but for some reason I thrive on the cheesiness of game dubs despite my dislike of them for anime.

Final Thoughts
Thanks to its inventive alchemy system, Atelier Iris manages to distinguish itself from the masses, resulting in a fun and addictive game overall. Yes, there are a few points where you will get lost or frustrated, but if you can overlook these moments you’ll find the game a generally enjoyable experience.