Yearly Archives: 2018

Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings Review

by Andrew Skelton (Outfoxed)

We here in the United States might remember Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana as the game that started the Atelier series, but did you know it was the sixth Atelier game?  That’s right, the series spans all the way back to 1997 in Japan on the original PlayStation. What better way to celebrate a series’ 20th anniversary than with a brand new installment?  Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is the 19th game in the franchise, and is the final game of the Mysterious trilogy, first started in Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Book, and continued by Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey.  How does it stand up, though? Hopefully I can help you answer that question.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle Screenshot

Better in Pairs

When you start a new game, you’re immediately thrust into the roles of Lydie and Suelle Malen, twin sisters who are out gathering ingredients for their alchemy project.  You’re given a quick rundown on the field controls, detailing how you gather from the various nodes you’ll come across. It further expands on these lessons by detailing objects that take multiple hits to gather, such as breaking rocks or knocking down fruit from trees.

Given their novice stature at the beginning, their synthesis doesn’t exactly turn out well.  Mischief ensues as it often does, and the pair end up inside a painting of all things. The quality of the materials they find inside is much greater than what they gathered in the forest, but suddenly monsters attack!  This serves as the game’s combat tutorial. Overall, I found it a decent introduction to the game, though if you’ve never played an Atelier game before, note all of these actions are the crux of the game, if not the entirety of the series.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle Screenshot

The Building Blocks of Society

Let’s get this out of the way quickly.  You will be gathering a lot of items in Atelier L&S (name shortened for brevity’s sake!).  You will be gathering a LOT of items.  Gathering is one of the cornerstones of the entire Atelier series, so why should this one be any different?  On every field and dungeon you visit, you’ll find countless gathering points, ranging from rocks and plants to monster nests and giant crystals.  Every area in the game has its own forageable items, and the monsters in each area also have their own drops to take into account. As the game progresses, you’ll gain access to specialized gathering tools such as bug nets and fishing poles that further expand on your gathering potential.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle Screenshot

Each item you gather is associated with a variety of features.  All items have a rarity, which determines its grade. Its grade, in turn, factors heavily on what components the item has — components are a key feature of crafting; I’ll discuss that soon.  Finally, items can have attributes associated with them, also used in crafting. I’ve seen anywhere from zero to three per item. At the beginning of the game, however, you won’t be able to gather many items at a time before returning to dump your hauls in the atelier storage, which means you need to choose carefully what you want to gather versus completing any tasks you have in the area.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle Screenshot

Alchemy Costs an Arm and a Leg

Crafting makes up the bulwark of Atelier L&S, so much so that new players to the series might get turned away almost immediately.  Crafting is how you progress in the game. Crafting is how you make your party members more powerful. Crafting is how you heal. Crafting, in short, is life in this game.  Lydie and Suelle start the game with a very rudimentary knowledge of how to perform alchemy, as evidenced by the simple items you can create at the beginning. Through the story, the twins earn the tutelage of Illmeria, a gifted alchemist who guides their growth.  It’s around this time you gain access to the recipe book, which lets you learn new recipes through crafting older ones. Some recipes require a bit more work, however, requiring you to defeat specific enemies or gather particular items.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle Screenshot

As expected, the further in the game you advance, the more complicated crafting becomes.  The first addition comes in the form of catalysts.These items are there to add benefits beyond standard crafting.  For example, some may help raise the maximum level of attributes (allowing an item that could only do medium damage to now be able to do a large amount), or adding additional effects to said item.  This is done using the previously mentioned components. Each item has at least one color it can add to a recipe, and you arrange these colors — which have various patterns such as single pips to a 3×3 square — on the grid to raise the attributes of the item.  If you raise a particular color past a threshold, that attribute becomes stronger. It’s honestly not an easy thing to describe; seeing it makes more sense.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle Screenshot

Even further into the game you’ll gain access to activators, which can have additional effects beyond catalysts.  You can change the color of all tiles on the board randomly, or adjacent tiles a particular color, for instance. To say the crafting system in a game so focused on crafting is in-depth is a wild understatement.  Did I mention you craft everything? That’s right, upgrades to your weapons and armor are also crafted. I played through maybe 33% of the game and still had the default weapons equipped, but boosted thanks to weapon crystals you can synthesize to boost whatever you need (less MP consumption was my personal favorite).  Like I mentioned in the gathering section, you’re also responsible for making your own gathering implements, too. You need these items, since a lot of the items you craft require special materials those items provide.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle Screenshot

Even the Monsters Have Items!

Thankfully, combat in Atelier L&S is much less complicated than its gathering and crafting systems.  Combat is turn based, with the order being determined by an action bar you’ll see on the right side of the combat screen.  Each character has a standard attack command, and various skills useful in combat. Early on, skills are powerful, but their MP costs are rather prohibitive.  That’s where the item command really shines. See, Suelle’s a passable combatant (she even dual wields guns because she thinks it’s cool — yes that’s canon), but Lydie isn’t what you’d call a combative powerhouse.  Most of her skills are focused on support. However, thanks to the power of alchemy, you can craft tons of attack and support items. Most of your damage throughout a lot of the game is going to come through these consumable items.  Keep in mind there is a limit to how many battle items you can take with you, so it’s good to prepare yourself with backups and healing items aplenty.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle Screenshot

You’ll eventually be able to control three active party members in battle, though there are six total playable characters in the game.  Active characters are your main three, responsible for most of the damage you’ll be inflicting. Characters not in the active slot are support characters, and they can be called into battle if you need a different one for strategic purposes.  More importantly, these support characters offer what are called link skills, which trigger based on meeting specific conditions in a fight. Using Suelle as an example, if the character she’s supporting uses a skill, she will follow up with her own attack, linking the two together to inflict even greater damage.  This is incredibly important when you realize how much health enemies have in the game, versus the amount of damage you can deal.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle Screenshot

We Snuck Crafting in Your Main Story, Too

Without spoiling too much, the goal in Atelier L&S is straightforward: become the greatest Atelier in the kingdom.  Simple enough, right? To do this, the kingdom has put in a ranking system, which budding young heroines like our twins can join to further their prestige.  In fact, to raise your rank, you need to perform a variety of tasks related to making Lydie and Suelle better alchemists. These tasks include running random quests for people, crafting as much as possible, or beating up certain hapless monsters to prove your superiority.  As you increase your rank, your monthly stipend of col (the game’s currency) grows, too. Along the way, various shops will open up to ease some of the crafting you’ll be doing throughout.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle Screenshot

This also opens up the main focus of the story: the Mysterious Paintings ominously described in the game’s own title.  As a reward, raising a rank allows the girls to enter a new painting each time, and as we’ve hopefully learned by now, new area means new items to collect for even newer crafts!  It does serve as a pretty good measure as to how far you’ve gone in the game, as there are nine total ranks: unranked, then G to S. Yes, unranked somehow counts as a rank in this world.  That means if you’ve achieved rank F, you’re likely around a third of the way through the game.

There are also a variety of random story snippets throughout the game.  Most happen when you’ve crafted enough items in the atelier, but you can also see where additional ones occur using the map in game to hunt down the green exclamation points.  These events offer various things from sidequests to character development, to the opening of new shops. While optional in the long run, these scenes are also very useful to get access to items before you’d be able to gather them in the wild.  It also breathes a lot of life into the world, as many of the scenes involve characters from previous Atelier games.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle Screenshot

Final Verdict:  Good (3/5)

Atelier Lydie & Suelle was an enjoyable game for me, but there are some definite problems I found with the game.  For most people, combat in an RPG revolves around attacking and skills, with occasional item usage. Atelier is more item usage foremost, followed distantly by skill usage and attacking.  To wit, the first painting you gain access to feels like a huge difficulty spike because enemies have three times the health as your previous encounters (not to mention the addition of one being immune to physical attacks).  Combat aside, the pacing of the game also feels very odd, with cutscenes happening while you’re trying to prepare for your next adventure, to not having any sort of idea of how far you’ve gotten other than the ranking. Finally, the recipe book is nowhere as clear as it could be.  One of the first items you’ll have access to learn can’t actually be learned until you gain access to the second painting, even if you have the items it requires from the first one. There’s also the vastly polarizing decision to release the game with no English dubbing whatsoever.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle Screenshot

That being said, it is an absolutely adorable game.  The antics of the twins caused me many a chuckle, especially when it involved their interaction with their father.  The art style is colorful and bright, and the music is cheerful and warm, too. Once you’ve figured out the crafting system in full, battles actually become enjoyable.  It also caters to veterans and newcomers alike in terms of story — vets will instantly recognize characters, and how much they’ve changed since their previous appearances.  All in all, if you enjoy an RPG where crafting is the main focus, you’re likely to love Atelier Lydie & Suelle. Traditional RPG enthusiasts might need to be wary.

Oh, and because it needs to be said:  barrel.

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings Screenshots

Warhorse Studios Releases Kingdom Come Patch & Free PC DLC

A new patch for Kingdom Come: Deliverance will be available for PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One, featuring new customizable hair and beards, new unarmed mercy kills, and a free HD Texture Pack/Sound DLC for PC. This will boost the overall graphics of Kingdom Come: Deliverance and should create a more lifelike visual of  Bohemia in the Year of OUr Lord 1403. As an Easter Holiday surprise, Warhorse also included literal Easter eggs, and an Easter-themed traditional Czech “Weapon” called Pomlázka”. Players can go on the hunt for real Easter eggs, one of which is golden. This event is for a limited time, so players should act with haste to explore and find them. In addition, over 200 quest bugs have been fixed, making a lot of adventures go smoother.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game ‘Opus V’ Card Set Hits Stores

FF TCG - Opus V

The hit Final Fantasy Card Game (FFTCG) has released its fifth expansion, “Opus V”, and three new starter sets themed around Final Fantasy XII, XIII, and XIV to coincide with this.  Opus V includes 166 new cards from an assortment of Final Fantasy titles and features FFTCG brand-new exclusive illustrations from Akira Oguro (Final Fantasy IV) and Ryoma Ito (Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift). Further information for the Opus V card set can be found at this link.

Over 140 million cards have been shipped worldwide and distributed to widespread acclaim in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Japan. The next wave, “Opus VI” is scheduled to release on July 13th, 2018 to continue the growth of this card game.

Nintendo Switch News – 3/26/18 – 3/30/18

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Atelier Lydie & Suelle - Launch Trailer - YouTube

Good morning Internet! It’s been one hell of a week, but we finally made it to the end! It’s almost time to relax, kick my feet up, and play some video games. Maybe even ones I want to play. But this week we have a few Nintendo Switch games that dropped, some in my personal opinion, are more important than others. But Nintendo is still very firmly on-board the “port every good game from the last three years onto the Switch” and I like this idea. There are quite a few titles that the Nintendo audience missed out on, and simply some games that were on the Wii-U, and I don’t want to beat a dead horse. . . but the Wii-U was an absolute unmitigated disaster. However, the Nintendo Switch has had a terrific year so far. Kirby Star Allies I feel could be one of the biggest titles this quarter, but it deserves online co-op. That to me is the biggest mistake, but from all accounts it was incredible. We’ve also learned that Dragon Quest XI will be on the Switch, but “later”. Ugh. Guess I’m getting it on PS4, then probably again on the Switch. Damnit. But less looking at the past, and more looking at the present! What’s new on the Nintendo Switch?

Atelier & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings (3/27): I’m not super familiar with the Atelier franchise, but I do know that it’s absolutely adorable. This is the final game in the Atelier& Suelle trilogy, and it features some new mechanics and fun stuff. Synthesize items together for Battle Mix/Extra Mix, playas the adorable Lydie and Suelle as they are on their way to becoming the best alchemists in all of the land. The combat system with the Mixing seems like they will offer lots of tactical wizardry and nonsense. Older familiar characters return for this brand new adventure, as they explore the world beyond these paintings, filled with rare materials for alchemy. What awaits beyond? We covered the news of this release with a trailer here. (59.99)

Outlast 2 (3/27): Outlast 2 is another one I don’t really play, but not because I didn’t have exposure to it (Atelier) but more out of a sincere lack of interest. Red Barrels first-person survival horror does look incredible, and will no doubt continue to have that same grisly visual on the Switch, I’m just not interested in horror games. They don’t scare me, so there’s not a lot of point to it. Outlast, much like its predecessors, is a horror game set in Northern Arizona, and continues that same style of “found footage” camerawork that the others (Outlast, Outlast: Whistleblower) featured and made them so entertaining to watch. It just goes to show that Nintendo isn’t messing around with the Switch, and they’re releasing quite a wide variety of games on their newest console. It’s definitely not for everyone, but fans of this style of game I think will get their money’s worth. (29.99)

Alteric (3/30): I try to include an eshop/indie-style game every week if I possibly can, and what better one than Alteric? Alteric is a 2D platformer and features bright, but interestingly minimalist graphics. The quote for it is, “You are alone. Are you lonely? You ‘re lost. Or stuck? Somewhere…but where? And most importantly, who are you?” You’re dead, but your soul is still somewhere, trapped between two parallel worlds. It’s a hardcore game with interesting physics, gravity, and logic. I love the visuals for this game. The platforms/land masses are black, the background/sky is generally a fun, contrast color, and there are mountains of annoying, probably instant-death-causing lasers. This one looks like it would be fun for a platformer fan to stream. (4.49)

FeArea

FeArea is a science fiction themed team battler taking the best of the MOBA genre and leaving the fat behind. Choose a class, customize your mechanical creation, and fight other players on a fast-paced action packed battlefield of the future. Available for Windows.

Features:

Jan-Ken: Play it long range as a tank, get up close and personal as a death machine, or choose the middle ground between both as a combat robot.

Don’t Wait There’s More!: Forget siting idly by in a lobby, get into matches as soon as you can with teams mixed with A.I. teammates or opponents.

Doing What it Takes: Kill everything that moves in deathmatch, work tactically with allies in team deathmatch, or attack/defend an objective in capture the flag.

Wings and Claws

Wings and Claws is a free-to-play 2D fantasy MMORPG developed by 101XP for PC, Mac, and Linux. In Wings and Claws the people of Santum are being terrorized by dragons bent on taking over the entire world. They have broken free from the Holy City and will stop at nothing to complete their plans. Someone must stop them, and that’s where you come in! Realize your potential as one of the last Dragon Warriors, train your own dragon, and stop the evil dragons in their tracks.

Features:

A Story to Follow: Nobody said saving the world was going to be easy. Embark on an epic journey to become a Dragon Warrior and use your newfound might to save the world.

Turn-based Combat: Take turns attacking and using skills. Try to plan your skill rotation and predict what your enemy might do to ensure a victory.

Faction PvP: When you’re not off saving the world you can side with a faction and take part in PvP battles. Complete different faction quests for some great rewards!

Tactera Review

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor)

When you think about Virtual Reality games, most games that come to mind are shooters (or variations on a shooter). Racing games are also very popular with VR, but a ton of other genres are left in the dark. One of these genres is real time strategy, which is very unfortunate because it might actually be the best possible genre for the current technology of VR. Tactera is a VR real time strategy game where you will look down on a virtual tabletop where you will lead and watch your units succeed on the battlefield.

Tactera Screenshot

Virtual Reality has been a ground breaking piece of technology that has changed the gaming industry, hopefully for the better. Ever since VR took off, we have seen a lot of games spicing things up and showing an alternative look at how fun a specific game can be when played physically. Shooters and racing games both come to mind, and instead of just slowly wasting away our life in a chair, we are now physically moving in the world. We’re close to doing an actual workout. But despite VR currently still being a bit of a gimmick, we have seen a lot of interesting games having their go at making a successful VR game. While a virtual chat box with anime characters is probably still the most active and popular VR game, there are a ton of others by independent developers left in the dark, hoping to see a spark of life from this small group of gamers.

Tactera Screenshot

Tactera does well at implementing Real Time Strategy mechanics into VR, yet keeping it simple so everyone can enjoy this super fun genre. Imagine standing over these old Roman war boards that generals used to have in their tents so they could strategically think of the best possible way to advance into a battle. Instead of playing with plastic soldiers, Tactera takes the science fiction route with helicopters, planes, tanks, and buggies. While the game has a simplistic form so everyone gets the basics right away, in practice Tactera proves to be very difficult but enjoyable.

Tactera Screenshot

Since the game is still very new, and the RTS genre itself is never super popular, the chances of actually playing against someone online is very slim. Because of this I mainly had my go with the Campaign and Skirmish modes, but the game is pretty straight forward no matter what game mode you pick. The Campaign is a fun yet simple game mode that could keep you playing for hours. The game is divided in a number of grids, split between you and the AI controlled player. On each grid you can have a number of units present, and each round you will have to move forward one grid slot to slowly advance forward with your new units. To attack a grid, you will have to move over units from the grid slots next to it, and through this you can slowly advance forward into your enemy’s territory. Since your opponent is doing the exact same, the board isn’t simply just cleared in a few turns.

Tactera Screenshot

It is a constant cat and mouse game trying to slowly advance forward and out-think your opponent. While this is a very fun and straight forward campaign, it doesn’t have a whole lot of depth. When you attack an enemy grid and decide to actually lead the battle, the amount of units moved over to the grid determines the amount of bases available at the start of the game. You can select up to three specific units to take into battle with you, each unit with its own specialty in ground or air attacks, so you will really have to play around with the options you have. And when using an unit in battle, it will also lock this unit in for a few rounds, and cannot be used in other fights for the duration of it.

Tactera Screenshot

The game starts with multiple bases on the tabletop, ranging from just a handful of bases to up to about ten. Depending on the units moved into the grid, you will get a base per unit send into battle, and depending on the actual units you also take into battle, you will get bases for these to slowly advance forward. Since you can also take turrets with you into battle, these bases can also be just cannons shooting from afar, or providing you air support. The goal is simply to defeat the enemy’s bases and you’ll win the fight over the grid slot. Each base has a set amount of health, and a cool down timer that goes active every time the building is used. Be it either for spawning in new units, or firing air support somewhere on the map, the building will be put on cool down and cannot be used again until its over.

Tactera Screenshot

Once the game gets going you will simply start with a small wave of units, and depending on the type of units you are sending you also have to think about your approach. Since it first starts as a race to get as many ‘neutral’ bases won over to your side, you also have to keep in mind what the enemy is doing and how the fights give you an advantage. When the game picks up in pace, the fights will become bigger, and depending on the number of units it usually is decided in one final battle.The game will quickly snowball into the favor of the one who won the bigger fight, making this a very strong and viable tactic on a smaller board when you start out with more units than your opponent.

Tactera Screenshot

Conclusion: Good (3/5)

Tactera is a very simple game which is a lot of fun but makes you lust for more. The Real Time Strategy genre proves to be an extremely fun combo combined with Virtual Reality, but unfortunately there have been few games so far that have done it well. While Tactera is a fun game, the game itself does miss a lot of depth and after only a few hours of playing you start to see why the game isn’t as popular as it could be. The foundation is definitely there and enjoyable, and everyone can just hop right in, it does make you wonder if the game is actually worth the price tag. For some people $15 can be a lot of money, and while it is definitely fun for a few hours, once you’ve cleared one campaign game, you’ll be asking for more. Tactera in its current form cannot offer you that.

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.

Glide into Mistvane Shrine in Dark and Light

The latest update for Dark and Light releases today, unveiling the Mistvane Shrine. A prison built by the gods to contain the most fearsome of creatures, it lies hidden beneath the clouds under the eye of Qinaryss Gustclaw, a powerful harpy responsible for the shrine’s magic. Players will need to take to the skies, and then fight their way through the temple and defeat Qinaryss Gustclaw and her guards. Successful adventurers will be well rewarded with new weapons and the Empyrean armor set which will allow players to soar through the air themselves.