Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana User Reviews (PS2)

Laura J
from Miami, FL, USA

Aug 11, 2007

Alchemy gets top billing in Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana. Its protagonist relies on his ability to synthesize offensive and defensive items using elemental energy extracted from a destructible environment and the help of recruited Mana spirits. Shopkeepers can combine your finds into new items and various Mana stones are crystallized to produce stat boosts or skills, then fused and stored in select equipment to supply some degree of party customization.

However, this culminates to an experience with little difference from the expected. Klein is, in essence, a versatile mage who grows through exploration more so than leveling, but because individual dungeons and the game as a whole are fairly linear, the distinction is negligible. While equipping pimped-out weapons or the right Mana spirits can alter character’s immediate proficiency, you still have little choice in how to use your party. And as the game is liberal in its supply of items and energy, collecting grass and ice to heal your Mana pals and fuse in shops shall be remembered as a footnote rather than a shift in the focus of gameplay.

Sadly, there is almost no strategy involved in making it through Eternal Mana. The game rolls out plenty of bells and whistles that require well over a dozen lectures from wood fairy Popo--such as the ability to transform into a blue rabbit outside of battle or baths that restore Lita’s steadily falling MP--but they do not alter the fundamentals. Exploration is spiced up a tad, but battle requires you to press the X button a lot, and little else. The myriad pointless additions may not improve the quality of the gameplay, but they do notably increase the quantity; even if none of it is particularly rewarding or innovative, there is a lot to be done.

The trite save-the-world-from-a-stock-character adventure you accept when you pay for an RPG feels especially stale in Atelier Iris’s cavalier presentation. Little attention is actually given to the story arc, which halfheartedly meets the inevitable in as few words as possible. In all honesty, it’s a pleasant escape from the routinely fumbled, over-reaching melodrama that plagues the video game plot, but since the puppeteers appear cognizant of RPG clichés, they could have opted for something novel rather than just skipping over it. The subplot involving Veola, an antisocial shopkeeper who will gradually warm to your hero and heroine should you visit her frequently, is a seemingly misplaced exception. If relatively insignificant, these fragments of genuine narrative are poignant and original.

For the most part, the core cast remains easily summarized in uninspired bite-sized nuggets, from “comedic philanderer” to “token furry,” but the stellar English dialogue goes a long way toward righting this wrong. The writing feels refreshingly natural and while the voice actors may chew a little scenery here and there, they manage to imbue the game with a sense of humor and humanity. When Klein delivers the lines of a well-meaning dullard so earnestly, the audience doesn’t feel he was half-assed just to spite them, but is really just a (magical) Average Joe.

Despite the general impression that Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana was largely phoned in, it feels like the first in a series which could blossom into a distinctive experience after its kinks are ironed out. But considering it’s been in Japan since 1997, I’m less inclined to forgive its lack of imagination. In the end, Atelier Iris offers a menu that is only unique in title.

Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana

User Reviews

Series

Atelier Series