Though the title is a departure from the form, this isn’t an original game or the start of a completely new franchise. Rather, it’s the latest in a long-running series, those RPGs from Gust with the word “Atelier” in the title. There’s Atelier Marie, Atelier Elie, a few Atelier Irises, and now this game, which changes some names and faces, but retains the same essential character.

Mana Khemia is about alchemy, cooking lots of different things together to make lots of other things. Lead into gold is only the beginning. Or maybe it’s not, since that’s definitely 400-level material. Novice students of the art have to learn some less interesting transmutations to start with.

The previous Ateliers usually started when their heroines were fresh out of school. Mana Khemia steps back to chronicle the education of a few beginning alchemists, which inspires a fresh new way of laying out the scenario. No previous experience with other Gust games is required, but veterans of the series should enjoy the new twist on what they’re already familiar with.

Enrollment and Orientation

The game is laid out like a series of school terms – besides the fact that they both take place at school. Its pacing and organization recall Persona 3, in that fixed events break up non-linear stretches of doing what you like. In between adventures and scenes that are key to the story, you can pick and choose from several courses of study (quests, essentially) that provide credits for completing them. Rack up enough credits and you progress to the next key event.

Some of the grading requirements are a little arbitrary, making the difference between an A and a C a matter of luck as much as skill. Doing more quests isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, because that means collecting more items that usually wind up being useful somewhere down the road.

The synthesis system is simple enough, but it’s also very flexible. A basic recipe usually has lots of different optional ingredients – a potion, for instance, might call for one of four different kinds of mushroom. Varying the synthesizing process with different ingredients (and a touch of random chance) gives the resulting item different extra effects, which it can pass on to another item in a future synthesis experiment.

Physical Education

Collecting these items involves wandering in the areas outside the school, of which there are many, and dealing with the monsters that live there. Combat in Mana Khemia runs according to a simple turn-based scheme, and it has the cardinal virtue of going fast, fast, fast. Turn-based though it is, you can fight in this game almost as fast as you can think. That’s not to say a bit of strategy isn’t useful, though. The combat GUI has a handy display that lays out the order of initiative – who gets to attack when – and clever players can use that to target their most immediately dangerous opponents.

In any case, battles are easy to avoid on the field map. You rarely have to fight when you don’t want to, or when a quest doesn’t require it. Advancement in Mana Khemia isn’t driven by grinding through battle after battle. It’s more about exploring and collecting new stuff, and there’s a ridiculous amount of stuff to collect which in turn becomes more new stuff in your alchemist’s cauldron. Death holds little fear, too – usually it just means the party’s kicked back to campus, which isn’t too much of a penalty.

Besides regular classes in combat and synthesis, there are odd quests to pick up from the Student Affairs office. In another echo from the Persona series (Persona 2 in this case), you can use the campus gossip-monger to start and then fulfill rumors about the heroes. This last system is a neat mix of gameplay and comic relief – if you pay a certain character to start a rumor, and then do whatever it takes to make that rumor come true, you’ll gain some sort of useful bonus for future adventures, and also see bits of NPC dialogue change to reflect your developing reputation.

Arts and Sciences

Mana Khemia’s visual style won’t surprise anyone who’s familiar with the series. The characters are colorful Japanese cartoon sprites, and they wander around 3D backgrounds that come close to the level of detail in actual hand-drawn 2D graphics. Some of the filters employed mean the characters look a little “superimposed” in certain areas, but that’s not a particularly annoying flaw. Combat is all 2D, and the sprites there are super-sized to add more detail to their animation. Some of the monster designs reach an almost inspired level of weirdness – one of the first foes you’ll encounter is an angry koala bear that swings from vines and tries to bean the party with chunks of fruit.

Those cute monster graphics do double-duty elsewhere. The screen you’ll see the most of is the main campus map, where you pick and choose places to go and things to do. To keep it from getting too dull, Gust’s artists jazz it up with cameo appearances from lots of different monsters and other bits of sprite animation – they quickly pop in the corners of the screen, do something silly, and fade away to make room for the next gag. It seems like a small thing, but those extra touches of personality go a long way toward making the game fun to look at. They also help compensate for a soundtrack that’s a little less creative.

NIS America picked a nice, light RPG to bring out in Mana Khemia, and its localizations are steadily improving. The English text is typo-free and pleasantly readable, while the options menu offers both Japanese and English dialogue to listen to. While the next generation consoles get around to filling out their RPG lineups, this is a fine way to pass the time.

Rating	Description
out of10
4.5	Graphics These graphics really remind me of the old final fantasy games and I don't like that in a 21st century game!
4.5	Sound This is really really making me mad!
7.0	Gameplay Goods: It has great cute artwork, freedom to choose quests, and simple, fast moving combat. Bads: The characters graphics are fuzzy, you need arbitrary quest requirements, and generic background music.
8.2	Last Thoughts Buy or Don't Buy The game is great made me feel good after failng a test the story line needed a little work but it was fine and your a fan of the mushroom kingdom then buy the new installment of the Mario franchise.
8.4 Great	OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)