At the start of each year I always look ahead to what exciting games will be coming our way in the next twelve months. Every year there are dozens of games that get me giddy, and this year one of the first that grabbed my attention was Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land. The Atelier series has been a personal favourite of mine for years, thanks to its unique gameplay loop that involves a whole lot of alchemy and exploration. With an all new protagonist for the first time in five years I was certain that Atelier Yumia would pull out all the stops, and based on the lengthy hands-on preview I was lucky enough to take part in I was bang on the money.
With a bigger world than ever, a delightful cast of charming characters and the ability to create your own personal workshop, Atelier Yumia seems to be a landmark entry in this beloved series. After playing the game for a few hours I was able to interview the long-time series producer (including Atelier Yumia), and Head of Gust Studio, Junzo Hosoi, to discuss the importance of bringing the series to Xbox for the first time, the new fast paced combat, and what makes Yumia herself stand out from previous protagonists.
It feels like the biggest addition to Atelier Yumia is the Atelier building. What made the team decide to add this element to the gameplay loop of the series?
JH: Right now in the world, there is a type of crafting survival game that’s quite popular. So that is why I wanted to implement this into the Atelier series. There were also some comments from the Atelier community saying “we want some building system in the Atelier series”. That’s why it’s in the new game this time, but then it’s not really the main focus.
The main focus is still exploration, synthesis, and battle, so you don’t really need to focus on building. It is just an additional fun side activity for you to enjoy. So for people who don’t like building stuff, they can keep their focus on exploring and battling. They can also use a catalogue that automatically sets up an Atelier for you. For those who love customizing their own bases, they can create a lot of original buildings which we hope they enjoy.
The more action based combat is new and very exciting for the series, what made you decide to take the combat in that direction?
JH: So, originally, it was more turn based like the past entries in the series. But these days in the game industry, more action based games and action RPGs are more popular. So that is why we implemented more action based combat in Ryza 3 to get feedback from the users on whether the real time battle is what they want. I was a bit worried about whether it would be accepted by the community, but it was really well received from the community.
In Atelier Yumia we have still implemented this action based combat, but have made some improvements to it. Like how in Yumia the battling takes place in both close range and long range and that you can move around freely. We hope that the people who have played the past entries in the series will think this feels familiar, but that newcomers to the Atelier series will also have fun.
It’s exciting to have a different protagonist in the series after spending time with Ryza and Sophie in recent years. What makes Yumia different from the previous main characters?
JH: In the previous Sophie and Ryza games the main protagonists hadn’t really discovered who they were, and they had mentors in order to find their own path. They also had a hope that alchemy would help them along the way.
In this title however, alchemy is actually forbidden in the world. Yumia still uses it despite this though, because her mother was an alchemist in the past and she truly believes that alchemy is not a bad thing. This also means it’s her own beliefs that propel her on her journey, as opposed to following the instruction of others.
There is more of a focus towards her personality and identity and her decision making, so the concept of the main protagonist is quite different. Because of this the main focus is more about the story of how she develops herself as an alchemist.
The world of Atelier Yumia feels so much bigger than previous games. Why did you decide to create such a large environment?
JH: Really why the world map is so much bigger this time is that there have recently been a lot of RPGs with vast open worlds to explore, which are really popular. So we felt the series should challenge those other IPs. And in order to make sure that people had more fun in these open fields, we added some gimmicks too like zip lines and the motorbike.
We also thought it was important to improve the synthesis system. So in previous games how synthesis worked is that you had to combine the effect and the trait of an item you’re creating at the same time. Now it’s different and these aspects are separate, meaning you can add the trait after. It’s much easier to create a new item, so we’re really happy we decided to create this new system for this new entry.
Atelier Yumia is gonna bring lots of new exciting features to the series. What’s the one you’re most excited to see the fans’ reaction to?
JH: So the main two would be the battle system and also synthesis. The reason I’m interested to see what fans think of the battle system is because it’s now entirely in real time, and I’m a bit worried about what the long term fans will think. But I hope we’ll get good feedback.
For the synthesis since it’s a whole new system to the previous game we hope fans enjoy it being a little simpler, while also still having the depth that still makes it a thoughtful activity. I also hope fans enjoy crafting their own buildings too, as we’re really satisfied with how that turned out.
Atelier Yumia is the first game in the series to be coming to the Xbox. Is the team excited to reach out to a new audience?
JH: As I’m an Xbox user myself, I’m really happy that Xbox is now one of the platforms that Atelier Yumia will launch on. I’ve always wanted the series to come to the Xbox.
Alongside Xbox, Atelier Yumia will also be coming to Steam at launch. Are there any plans for the game to be playable on Steam Deck?
JH: The game can be played on Steam Deck if people want to, but it’s not where we recommend you play it.
We recently got to see Sophie return in Atelier Sophie 2. Do you think that you’ll bring back any other protagonists for another game in the future?
JH: There is definitely a possibility that other protagonists might return in the future if our fans ask for this. We actually only decided to make Atelier Sophie 2 because of all the love the Atelier fan community had for her as a character, so the more love people show towards other protagonists the more likely we are to consider new games for them. We also decided to remake Atelier Marie because of fan feedback too.
Lastly, we’re always interested in what games people in the industry are excited to play in the future. What new games are you looking forward to playing soon?
JH: I want a new Halo game. I love the Halo series.
Thanks to Junzo Hosoi for his time. This interview was based on a press trip for Atelier Yumia. Koei Tecmo paid travel and accommodation. Read our hands-on impressions preview here.
