For 25 years, the Atelier series has brought things like item crafting and alchemy into the forefront of RPG mechanics despite so many entries in the series not getting an official English release. The first entry was on the PS1 and until the deluxe edition of this 3D remake, it wasn’t available even today outside of its Japanese release. As a game rooted in a bygone era, but given a modern re-release, Atelier Marie Remake finds itself in an interesting position. There are a lot of games in the series available now, but none of them have the same overall feel as this remake thanks to its redone art style and revamped gameplay.
Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburgoffers up an incredible experience for fans of turn-based RPGs and those who want something with a newer pace to it as well. The original turn-based battle is intact, but players have many quality-of-life options when it comes to combat and overall game feel. The original release (and normal mode here) includes a long five year in-game time limit to replicate Marie’s time in school and time spent mastering alchemy, but the player can opt to change that into having no time limits, with minor story changes. Marie as a character is interesting for a JRPG because she isn’t an all-knowing expert right away.
As a character, she feels very much like an anime character at the start of her journey – only with more world-weariness because success hasn’t come easily for her at all and when compared to others in the academy, she’s at the bottom of the totem pole. She has the core mechanics down, but struggles to put all the pieces together until she gains a renewed confidence. For Marie, that comes from a mix of more experience in the field and gaining new friends and allies to help her along the journey.
The traditional JRPG party is in place here with a blend of characters you can hire from the bar or Marie’s friends and classmates from the academy. Each has pros and cons and the blend of magic and physical-focused attacks and defense keeps combat interesting. For a turn-based game, the pace is also quick by default and can be made faster with fast-forward options to get through dungeons quicker. The dungeons themselves have a fair amount of variety and the in-game map system works well. You can have either a mini-map in a corner or have the middle of the screen taken up with a translucent map to get a better idea of where you haven’t been, where enemies are at, and where you need to go.
The enemy placement markers are a huge help because the game does have an action component in the form of hitting a foe first to get the jump on them or getting attacked on the overworld and taking more damage. By having the marker, an enemy can be obscured by scenery and still be hit – enabling for taking less damage in a single battle while also ensuring you have the ability to avoid needless damage across the whole dungeon. Having several battles go by without taking any damage at all is nice and it’s even better if you are short on time and just want to auto-battle your way through smaller enemies and then save up the strategy for major foes. Beyond turn-based combat, there are also mini-games available, with one slime-hammering mini-games available that leads to big money bonuses on the world map and offer nice variety while feeling a bit like a Donkey Kong game in the process. Another offers up a treasure hunt in a Pac-Man format.
Between the core RPG mechanics, building up your supply of crafting materials in dungeons, friendship-building quests and mini-games, there’s a ton of variety offered up. The Atelier series got its start here and the remake offers up more content than the original game while still keeping what made that game work fully intact. Every part of the combat system feels natural and flows easily while the town exploration and ally-building stuff is a breeze thanks to the pause menu letting you know who you’re with while an on-screen guide keeps you on-task for greater goals like going into battle with more allies over time.
Visually, the remake is one of the finest-looking JRPGs on the market. The art style looks very much like a living diorama and is reminiscent of Fantasian – the Apple Arcade JRPG from Hironobu Sakaguchi that uses a similar format, only the remake has a much higher-fidelity art style. It’s stunning to see in still shots and holds up even better in motion due to how elaborate the animation is. It’s a pleasant surprise to see how robust the animation is because the original’s animation was more limited and here everything is lushly animated with a high amount of detail in the world, environments and character movements. Going between the PS4 and PS5 versions, the PS5 version has better-looking ground textures, but there isn’t a massive divide between them. Both are beautiful to look at, with higher-fidelity textures offering a good reason to play it on the PS5 instead of the PS4 if you have the option to do so.
The soundtrack in the remake comes in two flavors – the original PS1 instrumentation or a new remixed option with more varied sound design. you may choose to listen to either OST in the game and switch at will when you get to a save point and they’re both outstanding. I did prefer the increase in instrumentation on the new OST, but both were outstanding. Voice acting-wise, you have a Japanese audio track with English subtitles and the audio feels natural in that format. An English dub would have been interesting given Marie’s growth over time, but it looks like that just wasn’t meant to be. Given how fully-revamped literally every other part of the game is, it could have just come down to having to sacrifice a dub for such a large-scale game and the experience isn’t hurt by it.
Closing Comments:
Atelier Marie Remakeis an outstanding re-imagining that takes everything that worked about the original game while modernizing and creating a better-flowing experience. Combat is a lot snappier by default and gains even more of an advantage with auto-battle and fast-forward being added in. The adventure’s usage of allies and friendship-building alongside quest lines helps flesh out character relationships and add drama to things while the redone graphics and art style are a big win. The original title looked fantastic for a tactical RPG on the PS1, but the remake looks outstanding for any genre on PS4 and PS5. The lushly-detailed character models and environments shine brightly and do look best on higher-end hardware, but still look impressive on older technology as well. The original and revamped soundtracks are impressive and other than the lack of English voice over, there isn’t much to complain about with the audio. The whole presentation is top-notch and it’s a fantastic gateway game for anyone new to the Atelier games or who just wants a new JRPG experience with a fast pace to the combat.
