"Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny" (Review)

[Arctic_Slicer]

North America title: Atelier Iris: The Azoth of Destiny

Japanese title: Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana 2

Developer: Gust

Publisher: NIS America

Platform: Playstation 2

North American release: 25th of April, 2006

Reviewer: Arctic_Slicer

About a week or so ago I bought several used games; one of them was Atelier Iris: The Azoth of Destiny. Being a niche title and not a series I have followed I really didn't know much about it but it was only $25 used so I decided to pick it up and give it a go. Anyway, much like I did with Kingdom Hearts 2 a while back I am going to do my best to give a review of the game and keep it as spoiler free as possible.

Graphics:

If you are one of those people who want photo realistic 3-D graphics I suggest you stop reading here as this game offers nothing of the sort. What it does have are beautifully drawn 2-D sprites and backgrounds, a style I feel is greatly unapreciated. It also has a few Japanimation cutscenes for some of the more important parts of the story; which are very much appreciated as they are well done and help bring more life to the characters.

Overall the graphics are very pleasing even if they are "outdated".

Story:

Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny follows the story two young alchemists, Felt and Viese. Felt and Viese live in the alchemic city of Noir located in Eden. Early on in the story a disaster strikes Eden and the legendary sword, the Azure Azoth, chooses Felt to be it's master so that he can use it's power to save Eden. To save Eden he must travel to world of Belkhyde in search of Gardo. With the power of the Azoth, Felt is able open the Belkhyde gate and embark on his quest to save Eden.

As you progress through the game you learn about the history of Eden, Belkhyde, and the Azoth. The story may not be the most original out there but it was definatly entertaining enough to keep me interested through out the game. I also understand that the story is supposed to be some sort of prequell to this games predecessor Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana

Characters:

Felt:

An orphan who lives in the alchemic city of Noir with his childhood friend Viese. Felt is the main character of the story and as mentioned before he leaves his home to in order to save it. Although he is often impatience at times he is very kind and dear and would do anything for his friends. He is a somewhat typical main character but still very likeable.

Viese:

Also an orphan, she is Felt's childhood friend who at times acts like a sister to him and other times like a mother. She is a full-fledged alchemist who is able to create pacts with the mana spirits necceasary to use to alchemy. When Felt leaves Eden on his quest in Belkhyde, Viese stays behind to do research and help Felt anyway she can from afar. With the power of the share ring she is able to communicate with felt and send him items created with alchemy. Much like felt she is very kind and gentle but unlike Felt she is much more patience and better and planning and being prepared.

Noin:

Noin is a young woman who helps felt out early on. She is part of a rebel group known as Simsilt; who's purpose is to over throw the empire which currently controls the land. After meeting with Felt she joins him on his quest to save Eden. She likes to cook although apparantly she isn't very good at it. While she may seem aggresive and hot-tempered at times she also has a gentle side that she tries to keep hidden.

Gray:

A large dragon man. After hearing Felt's story he joins Felt's quest to save Eden. Wise and expirenced he often acts like an older brother to Felt and company. He is mysterious and generally doesn't talk to much about himself or his past.

Fee:

Also an Orphan, Fee was raised in the Altena Church of Belkhyde. After clearing up a misunderstanding Fee joins Felt on his quest. As she journeys with Felt she learns much about her self and her heritage. She is strong willed and also determined to do what she feels is right.

Poe:

A lecherous fairy who lives in Eden. He becomes helplessly infatuated with Viese after seeing her for the first time. Although he tends to flirt with just about any girl he meets he shows more sincere feelings for Viese and treats her with more respect even though his feelings for her are never reciprocated. Due to some odd sequence of events he ends up becoming a part of Felt's motley crew to save Eden.

While they might not be the most original in design the characters in this game are very likeable. Due to good presenation and humor the characters are less forgetable than they would be in other games.

Gameplay

The most important part of any game is gameplay and unfortunatly this is the area where the game falls short it.

First and foremost is the battle system. In Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny they use what they call the active cost time battle system. All characters, allies and enemies, have an icon on a bar at the top of the screen. A character's speed determines how fast their icon moves accross the bar and when it gets to the end of they get to act. Character's can use attacks that knockback their enemies and if a character is knocked back far enough they will be stunned makign it far more easier to land critcal attacks. The other feature of the battle system is the charge gauge in the top right of the screen. At start of every battle this gauge carries one charge. As character take damage or use charge attacks they fill this gauge up and can have as many as nine charges. Rather than have "mana" special skills require charge points to use. All skills require anywhere from 1 to 3 charges to use.

The battle system itself wasn't bad what the big problem was it the enemy difficulty. Granted most crpgs arent' that difficult when to begin with but they one is easier than most. Even though your characters have powerfull skills that can do massive ammounts of damage you will rarely use them as they are entirely unnecesary as it is usually quicker just to simply spam attack the enemies. Healing items and techinques are seldom used outside of boss battles. It does get better in the last couple of dungeons and the dragon trials but still disapointing considering that the combat system was actually fairly well designed.

The other major system this game employs is the alchemy system. While it is a cute idea that had a lot of potential it wasn't very well executed. Basically you find recipes and materials throughout the game to make various mana items and accesories. You also need to have made a pact with the appropriate mana spirit to perform the synthesis. However many of alchemy items are required throughout the game to advance the plot and because many of the materials required for them are rare it can become very tedious at times. In addition to that you can synthesize mana items with use of elements. After you have initialized a mana item you can create it at any time so long as you have the required number of the appropriate elements. Having the appropriate elements really isn't much of a challenge as they are all overly abundant that you can have just about 99 of all of the mana items pretty quickly. It was a neat idea but do to poor execution it took fun away from the game more than it added to it.

Music:

Probabally the best part about this game is the music. The music of this game is mostly electronic but every piece fits the enviroment. No track in the game is overused with most zone musics being restricted to 1 or 2 locations only. In addition to that the normal random battle music changes 3 times through out the game. Yes, that means there are 4 normal battle themes in the game. How cool is that? In most CRPGs you would be lucky if you ever have 2 battle themes let alone 4. It gets even better; after you clear the game you get to unlock the bonus feature which lets play any and every track throughout the game; amoung other things. The soundtrack to this game is composed by Ken Nakagawa and Daisuke Achiwa. While not very "big" names the soundtrack they created for this game can easily rival the works of Uematsu, Mistuda, and Sakimoto. This is a soundtrack that I hope to add to my collection in the near future.

Overall:

This game may have a few bugs and some techincal errors but overall it was an enjoyable expirence that I will probabally play through again sometime. I liked it so much I even ordered it's predecessor, Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana. If your not turned off by 2-D graphics and can tolerate a few techinal shortcomings you will probabally thouroughly enjoy this title. If you consider yourself a fan of the "old school" then I definatly recommend you buy this title.

[Mikis]

Add some screenshots to make it a more interesting read

[Pirotess]

Nice review Arctic_Slicer. Wonder if this is a feature folks would like to see more of.

Originally Posted by Mikis

Add some screenshots to make it a more interesting read

Kind of difficult to get a screenshot of a PS2 game that looks good.

[Arctic_Slicer]

Originally Posted by Mikis

Add some screenshots to make it a more interesting read

If I had the means to take screenshots of playstation 2 games and post them I would. They do have some nice screenshots over at Gamespot, however.

[Mikis]

Thanks

Looks... old, I'm getting too used to the new 360 games and the Vanguard screenshots :P

[Nil]

Originally Posted by Mikis

Looks... old,

It's actually not a bad game, but I don't know about you, but I was shocked to learn that the main character was an orphan.

I never want to father a main character.