Atelier Iris Eternal Mana

It begins simply enough – Klein is standing in the garden when Lita approaches and asks him if he remembers the day they met.

“Of course I do,” Klein replies.

“I’ve been thinking of that day a lot lately,” Lita replies.

And then it is a trip to the past … 

The Chief of Water intones ominously to the Chief of Fire that “mana is waning.” A Mysterious Man is trying to cast a spell, but cannot without enough mana, so he considers using the power of the Ruby Prism. A young boy flees up a forest path, out of breath and asks his company if they lost the one following them.

All these seemingly abstract scenes lay the undertone for the adventure of Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, an NIS/Gust PlayStation2 release that plays off the anime adventure genre, sports lush graphical elements (that tend to the cartoonish), and familiar gameplay.

The game takes place in a land of chaos, known as Regallzine. Part of the lore of the land concerns the city in the sky, Avenberry. It was built by a legendary race that communicated with mana, but disappeared suddenly. No one knows what happened to it, but the city remains a source of high adventure. The city of Kavoc is the base city for those wishing to search out and unlock the secrets of Avenberry. 

When Klein first meets Lita he is being pursued by a falcon hawk (yes, that is the name of the creature). With Lita’s help, he is able to drive it off, temporarily. After Lita insults his fighting abilities, and Klein tries to explain that he couldn’t do much without elements, the two part ways. Popo, a mana-based guide and Klein’s companion, then explains how to go about extracting elements from environmental objects, which can then be fused to synthesize new items to be used in battle.

This serves as the game’s intro and from there the action escalates in a very guided way. Eternal Mana is very much a linear game, with dialogue that is controller driven (as in you must use the controller to advance the dialogue along, but you get no choices on what is said – you are a distaff observer here). The game follows the pattern of other titles in the genre: you wander down a path and monsters pop up, which leads to a new side-scrolling, turn-based combat setting. Each member of the team has the opportunity to choose an action from a radial menu, and the monsters get a chance to attack as well.

In Atelier Iris, mana refers to the spirits that are in the world, and the world of Regallzine is the dwelling place of the Great Spirit, known as Mana. As Klein grows in abilities, with the help of the Mana spirits he will be able to create new spells and items, and the game is quite rich in that regard with more than 300 creatable items available.

Of course, as Klein and his part fight, they will gain experience points that can be allocated to certain attributes. But, as mentioned, this is very much a directed adventure experience. Klein will become a Galgazit alchemist (primarily concerned with ridding the world of Growloons, for which he achieves rank and coins). And the story grows from there.  

The game’s interface is simple and easy to use, and the sound is merely average for the genre. The music can be repetitious and annoying after a bit, and the voice-overs are decent, but not compelling enough have gamers hanging on every uttered word. Back to the interface for a moment – it’s clearly time to drop the dialogue that is progressed with the X button – especially when the ‘uttered’ phrase is “…..” Enough already!

Graphically, this game alternates between a three-dimensional adventure look and the side-scrolling 2D battle scenes. The colors are bright and the environments are lush and bright, and a treat to look at. The special effects are fine for the game, and keep that cartoon-like feel.

Atelier Iris Eternal Mana is a game that tries to be more complex than it really is. The game tries to confuse the gameplay elements with overly complication notions, but when you discard what is being said in the game and merely look at what is offered, it quickly becomes apparent that these are elements gamers have seen before, just repackaged with new terms accompanying them. This title is, by no means, innovative, but it is a nice, relaxing adventure that does offer some challenges, but gives players the opportunity to think through them without having the pressure of ‘twitch’ game mechanics rushing them along.

Gameplay: 7.8
There are some minor load times, and the game is very directed, but not a bad adventure with decent puzzles. 

Graphics: 7.8
The graphics are lush and very nice for what this game is. The animation is not that strong, but the brightness of the game

Sound: 6.8
The music is repetitive and can become annoying, and the voice action is decent. The sound effects are merely average.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium

Concept: 6.8
This game is much more complex sounding than it needed to be.

Overall: 7.8
While this is very much a linear experience, the pacing is relaxed and gamers could enjoy the puzzles and the diversity of the crafting experience. The difficulty ramps up as you progress. Atelier Iris Eternal Mana plays off a complex story, but is a relaxing and entertaining game, nonetheless.